“Quote”

There have been so many times in our marriage that I’ve become irritated by my husband’s questions and musings; usually because it’s regarding something I already know about and I’ve made an assumption that he does too. So I’ve spent some time thinking about my own musings.

How does a computer know to face the quotation marks forwards or backwards? There are two separate keys for parenthese on my keyboard – one forward and one backwards. Not so for quotation marks.  There is only one key. So how does the word processing program know which one I mean? And if it can tell for two little marks hanging down parallel to each other, why can’t it tell for the parentheses? They are just a slight bit larger, and a single line - not double. It’s totally illogical.

Apostrophes are programmed exactly the same as quotation marks; plus, with an apostrophe if you just use one (as in possessive form) the computer program always has it facing the correct way.

Life is too much like a computer. Some of it is straight forward, while much of it confusing. How can billions of gigabites exist in such close proximity without fusing together? Look at wire hangers. We all know what they do in the depths of a dark closet. And heaven forbid you give me a roll of plastic wrap. I can have it twisted into a knot before you can say “Gotcha”. (There! It’s those pesky quotation marks – Oh! and a correctly placed apostrophe!)

And what’s up with the spelling? How did a teacher know that the word I used is misspelled? If the teacher recognizes the word to tell me that I need to check the spelling, then I’ve already communicated the word to him or her. What is the point of going back to respell something? The whole reason for written language is to communicate. If I’ve communicated my thoughts to them, then why did I have to rewrite it? Granted, I was taught to sight read in school and thus am not a very good speller. Thank the good Lord for SpellCheck!

Not long ago I ran across this on facebook:

"i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. in the phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!"

Many Aspies spend their waking hours pondering troubling thoughts about subjects we NT’s take for granted. Many Apies struggle with dyslexia - written words are just a scrambled mess to them. My hubby has many challenges that I am just now coming to understand. I think that through the process of learning as much as I can about those with Aspergers Syndrome, I'm learning patience and coming to better understandings about why my dear hubby does what he does.

But I still want to know how the quotation marks turn out properly...

Or turn 'in' if you wish to be exact!