Thank you to W.G. on the subject of contractions. I have never wondered about people in foreign countries thinking of me as a non-native person. Pass along my sentiments about them sounding native is a very sticky slope. Do they want to sound like a US person, an Irish person? a Welshman? a pick your part of the British area? an Australian? They would like to speak without an accent? Which one? They can always say they are from New Mexico and let the person listening figure it out. Provided they even know where New Mexico is.
If you loan someone money, I am talking about a personal loan not a loan with paperwork attached, if you loan someone money you should give it as a gift, and any return of it to be a nice gift in return. Meaning do not expect getting it back. Gifts are something of the same. When you give something to someone you need to give up all attachments to whatever you have given them. In either case, give the item up and wave goodbye to it.
How about letters? Are they a gift? Something you have freely given and have no expectation of a return? Are they like loans, something you have given to someone and you should not expect a return, or if you get one in return Yay! you can feel good about it. Which is a letter like, or more like, a gift or a loan?
I recently got caught in this dilemma. I sent a letter. OK, it was an email but it was a long one with many questions. Then I sent another. Still no response. And again and again. No responses.
Haiya! Wait, are you aware of Uncle Roger and his videos on YouTube? If not, well you have a lot of laughing ahead of you. Especially with people cooking (or not) the simple Chinese dish of fried rice. Especially the professional cooks. Haiya!
So back to my expectations and letters. I got caught in my expectation of receiving a reply. There is, however, a silver lining to this bit. I suggested to my nephew that we trade emails like we were preparing for NaNoWriMo, Writing at least 1,667 words. I did that. And again and again and so far all of my letters to him have contained more than 1,667 words. One of them over 2,000 words. Yes, I have the stamina (?) of writing that much. I can do it. Well, as much as I can prepare for it now. There is no preparation for the mid-month slump. I am working on an outline so I have something to write about. That helps.
NaNoWriMo coming. Any of you doing it? Or perhaps a mini-NaNolWiriMo of 25,000 or just making sure you write something every day.
— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm
PS as you may recall I do not announce my Monthly Challenges. This is a divergence.