To my delight.

I am not a fan of the exclamation mark.

Or, to be more accurate, I am not a fan of its overuse.

I use it sparingly, and only when there really is great feeling involved, or if I’m being particularly sarcastic. I hate the way people tack them onto the ends of every sentence, in great numbers, as if the little lines and dots really do justice to their supposed excitement or elation.

I suppose I can handle it if it is a rare occurrence, but it seems that I see it everywhere, especially on all things related to social networking sites.

Alas, grammar quality in general seems to be on a descending scale.

Hyperbolic punctuation.

—–

While waiting for my 4 p.m. film class, I inevitably run into a few characters.

Today, a man who was clearly drunk sat next to me and started asking me questions. The typical conversation starters of “What’s your name?”

“Where are you from?”
“How long have you been going to State?”
“What’s your major?”

I could smell the beer on him, but I humored him for a while anyway, full well knowing he wouldn’t remember my name, hometown, or year in school anyway. I was hoping he would eventually tell me why he came over to talk to me in the first place; it isn’t like I’m the most attractive girl sitting by the pub. Unfortunately, he kept asking me questions about myself, and I soon realized that this interview could very well last all afternoon if I didn’t cut it short.

I let him know that I had a paper to work on, and to my delight, he politely excused himself. Perhaps the most polite drunkard I’ve met yet.

This is a problem I seem to run into every time I decide to kill time by sitting in the student center.

A few weeks ago, I procured a table near the burrito bar, and a guy asked me if he could sit across from me. Of course, I said “yes,” but gah, he started laughing and muttering to himself. I don’t even think he was chatting with anyone on some sort of instant messenger; after listening to him a bit, I was under the impression that he was simply reading articles or looking at cartoons. He did that for two hours. What was initially a tad unsettling quickly became remarkably irritating.

This will teach me to never schedule such a long break between class. The hermit in me will forbid it from here on out.