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Talent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human life.
- Goethe

Jump in with both feet!
- Me, indulging my inner eight-year-old

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"Are you a mad-hatter that just types what he wishes, or have you actually any physics training?"
Occam's Ghost to Grant Hutchison.

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. Human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.

must be the key board .....???...!!!!

¡¡¡¿¿¿Try it in Spanish???!!!

"Everyone has the right to be stupid---some just abuse the priviledge."
- local graffiti

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It's starting to seem to me as though there is no punctuation mark that cannot be misused. There's the proliferation problem, as mentioned, and the fact that it seems no one knows how to use the comma or the ellipsis. However, we also see a fair number of people who don't bother with periods. (Full stops, to you British types.) It's extremely frustrating.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Geez, it's about balance.

Let's look at character frequency in that post:

As you can see, the punctuation characters get used way less than most letters. This leads to imbalance, and keyboards have been known to fracture and damage fingers.

(Little known fact: "x" was originally a punctuation character [used as a "period" when a rune-carver lost the point] but its modern use as a letter has been slow to catch on.)

Note that the space is by far the most-used character, that's the exact reason why the space-bar is so much bigger than the other keys - to spread the load.

In fact, this is also why emoticons (real ones, like ":-)", ":-(", "$%@" and "@*~") were invented. They provided balance by allowing non-letter characters to be used instead of letters, on ocassion.

(Just think how many times use of "$%@" has saved your "g", "l", "o" (twice) and "p" keys from wear and tear!!!!)

Certain posters who use so many exclamation marks and such are only doing so to protect their own safety.

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More average than moderate.

Maybe there's a nut loose on the keyboard?????????

s.t.o.p. Comma , Comma, Fullstop.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Great minds discuss ideas,average minds discuss events,small minds discuss people.Admiral Hyman Rickover.USN.

"Make the most of every day like it could be your last, enjoy each others companyas this will make good memories for when we pass". chrissy

Terry Pratchett, of course, has plenty to say about multiple exclamation marks.

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I offer a complete and utter retraction. The imputation was totally without basis in fact, was in no way fair comment and was motivated purely by malice. I deeply regret any distress that my comments may have caused you or your family, and I hereby undertake not to repeat any such slander at any time in the future.

I have read (somewhere, possibly it was on the Internet) that use of five
exclamation points is a certain indicator of insanity!!!!!! So I am careful
never to use five exclamation points!!!!!!

-- Jeff, in cognito

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http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/

"I find astronomy very interesting, but I wouldn't if I thought we
were just going to sit here and look." -- "Van Rijn"

"The other planets? Well, they just happen to be there, but the
point of rockets is to explore them!" -- Kai Yeves

I must be totally insane too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Great minds discuss ideas,average minds discuss events,small minds discuss people.Admiral Hyman Rickover.USN.

"Make the most of every day like it could be your last, enjoy each others companyas this will make good memories for when we pass". chrissy

Two minutes!!!!!! If I had waited two minutes to post I would have learned
that Terry Pratchett was the source!!!!!!

And I also learn that he had a character named "Seldom"!!!!!! I created a
character named "Very Seldom" for a role-playing game 25 years ago!!!!!!
(Think "Foundation".)

-- Jeff, in spiration

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http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/

"I find astronomy very interesting, but I wouldn't if I thought we
were just going to sit here and look." -- "Van Rijn"

"The other planets? Well, they just happen to be there, but the
point of rockets is to explore them!" -- Kai Yeves

Perhaps Very Seldom was Seldom's father. Just as Marsh Mallow was Hober Mallow's father.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

Heeck, yoouu caan miisuuse vooweels iif yoouu waant!!!

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As above, so below