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Itâs been weeks and I still canât get over how shitty the Girls finale was. Iâm usually not as critical about the show as everyone else is, but the last episode almost ruined an otherwise fantastic season for me. When I read the episode description (âIn order to avoid being sued by her publisher, Hannah must write her book in a single dayâ), I was hopeful for hijinksânot half an hour of her whining and eating Cool Whip. Charlie and Marnie getting back together is just lazy writing, where the hell did Jessa go, and when did this uncomfortably-realistic show become a fairy tale rom-com where everyone gets a happy ending, complete with a grandiose soundtrack to back it? I expected more from you, Lena Dunham!
– Boy vs. âGirlsâ
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Iâm so sick of hearing people use the term âstarving student.â Yeah, post-secondary is expensive and some folks are forced to rely on services like the food bank or have to forgo in the whole eating-regular-meals-on-a-regular-basis, but the majority of people I know who use the term arenât actually starving. They mean that they canât afford to drink at a concert because they spent $60 on the ticket, or they have to drink Cariboo instead of Blue Buck. Just because you donât have the money to party like every night is a screenshot from a rap music video doesnât mean youâre âstarvingââit just means youâre poor like the rest of us.
– Starved for attention
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If there were a support group for punctuation abuse (âHi, my name is Cheryl, and Iâm an ellipsis addict.â), I would have to admit to the excessive use of exclamation points. While my excess of exclamations is probably a headache to all those I text, message, and email, I think lazy punctuation is a much worse offence. Missing commas, periods, and question marks, or an overuse of dot dot dots really annoy me (I excuse my own addiction to exclamation points, but I canât excuse the vague and frankly lazy abuse of ellipsesâfinish your thought, or donât start it). I understand that texting on the bus or rushing through a message between classes isnât conducive to perfect punctuation; when I receive lazy punctuation on a regular basis, though, I get the impression that person thinks Iâm not worth the effort of editing. Give me periods, or give me nothing.
– Polite punctuation
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I canât stand marketersâ attempts to make people buy things by emphasizing some sort of superficial empowerment. âLifeâs short, buy the shoesâ? âYOLO: get some frozen yogurtâ? As if that sort of manipulation makes me more likely to nod and say, âYeah, life is short! And you know what I donât have enough of in my life? Shoes. Thatâs what I need.â Inspiration as a means of grubbing money is nothing new: one of the classic examples is the Virginia Slims advertising campaign of the â60s: attempting to cash in on the feminist movement, their tagline became, âYouâve come a long way, baby.â This is an old tool in the belt of marketersâempower the people into giving away their moneyâbut itâs ludicrous that Iâm supposed to be inspired by these slogans. My empowerment doesnât actually mean anything to marketers apart from the fact that studies have probably shown that people who feel inspired are more likely to give away their money.
– YOLO, gimme your money
