Curse of the comma and more

While editing, I found I've been playing fast and loose with commas, constantly inserting them when not needed. Guess you could say I never met a comma I didn't like. Of course the comma is a necessary tool, it gives the reader a moment to pause, breathe, then continue. But too many, inappropriately placed, say pause, pause, pause, interrupting the hopefully fine flow of prose.
 
There are several helpful websites about comma usage. I may be one of few, but I prefer the Oxford [serial] comma. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/commas.htm

As for the other horrors: I waste too much time reading. But reading is never a waste of time. No, because reading is learning. But I'm on learning overload. Not from novels or research texts, but from reading of the on-line sort. Call me a blog junkie--I read writers' blogs, literary agents' blogs, political ranters' blogs, people-living-on-the-other-side-of-the-world-learning-English blogs. Then there are writers' websites, writers' forums, all packed with information......whew! I have barely time left to do what I want to do, which is write.

So as of today I'm putting a stop to my internet wanderings and will GET DOWN TO BUSINESS.

So why am I wasting more time on this blog? Well, I feel somehow connected. Maybe someone living on the other side of the world learning English is reading this. What a concept!

Neat poem by Shel Silverstein:

FROZEN DREAM
I'll take the dream I had last night
And put it in my freezer,
So someday long and far away
When I'm an old grey geezer,
I'll take it out and thaw it out,
This lovely dream I've frozen,
And boil it up and sit me down
And dip my old cold toes in.


– Cat