Subject: [FFML] Re: [C&C][TM] Parting a Cloudy Future
From: Bjorn Christianson
Date: 2/21/2002, 1:22 PM
To: ffml@anifics.com

} Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 22:56:17 -0800
} From: Adrian Tymes <wingcat@pacbell.net>

} > This C&C is made up wholesale by me.  You can use it for
} > whatever you want, as long as you recognize that it is a)
} > free, b) by direct implication, valueless, and c) any rude
} > things you say about the C&C might make me cry.
} 
} Umm, no offense, but A does not actually imply B.  

True enough.  But then, the poor logic and reasoning serves
to convey the essence of the message, to wit:  you should
take everything I say with a grain of salt. ;)

} > } While the day was only partly cloudy for the Galaxy Police officers,
} > } Ryoko was already in the shadow of a dark downpour.  Despite the fact
} > } that it was noon, little enough sunlight broke through the clouds that
} > } the street lights' photo sensors had tripped, turning them on and
} > } illuminating cones of water droplets just as they finished their
} > } kamikaze plunges to the streets and sidewalks.  It was a metaphor Ryoko
} > } found entirely too appropriate to the scene at hand.  
} > 
} > I'd suggest playing up the metaphor a bit more.  As it is,
} > it's a bit subtle, which makes it jarring when Ryoko
} > suddenly references it.
} 
} Perhaps, but dragging the metaphor on without getting to the business at
} hand would just drag the scene into a sleeper, no?

I'm sorry.  What I meant was not to spend more time on the
metaphor, but to use it to a greater degree.  For example,
something like "illuminating cones of kamikaze water
droplets as they exploded against the streets and
sidewalks."  Or whatever; the idea being to describe the
water as kamikaze pilots, rather than labelling them as
such.
 
} > Oh, and technically they're photo-detectors, not sensors,
} > but that's a nitpick of immense proportions. ;)
} 
} Err, aren't photo-detectors one specific type of sensor?  They sense
} light, after all...

Well, yeah.  But the sensors on streetlights are detectors.  

I *did* say it was an awful nitpick. ;)
 
} > } Ayeka concentrated, her discomfort with what she had to say, and her
} > } efforts to find a way to sugar coat it, readily obvious to Kiyone.
} > 
} > I'm not sure you need the commas in "say, and her" and "coat
} > it, readily".
} 
} Perhaps if I replaced them with hyphens?  They're intended to bracket
} that phrase, to indicate that both the bracketed bit and the bit before
} it were obvious to Kiyone.

That would work better, I think.
 
} > } Ayeka gestured to the pad in Mihoshi's hands.  "That's got a complete
} > } list of the specific events and problems, but it boils down to
} > } corruption and abuses.  In fact, he specifically mentions you as an
} > } example of what the typical Galaxy Police officer is *not*, and as such
} > } offers you and a few other ex-officers, including Mihoshi, citizenship
} > } in our empire as a means of sanctuary from, and I quote, 'the many
} > } enemies that such a model of what police should be, has undoubtedly
} > } acquired during her service in that organization'."
} > 
} > No comma after "should be".
} 
} Actually, that one was deliberate: the Emperor emphasizing his praise of
} Kiyone, and thus putting a bit more sting into his slap at the GP.

I'm fairly confident that it's not grammatical, as you're
using it to split a single clause.

Bjorn 

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