MM #1: 'Tis me

So I'm apparently Meticulous Mullen.  My brother, GP, thought it was an appropriate title.  He's not wrong.  I do like to be detailed in what I say/write.  What's the point in writing something if the reader ends up with a misunderstanding of what you meant?  Maybe it equals a few extra paragraphs to achieve clarity, but isn't that worth it in the end? 


If you're having an argument or discussion with someone, shouldn't it be of the utmost importance to understand exactly where you and the other party stand at the beginning?  How many times have you gotten through an argument and heard some variation of the line, "Oh, see, I thought you meant...?"  It's exhausting, people.  Get it together and focus before opening your mouth.

Now, I'm not saying that misunderstandings are always avoidable.  It's gonna happen, but what triggers my pet peeve alarm bells is people's lack of effort.  And that goes both ways - to the writer and the reader.  It comes down to respect.  If you're not making an effort to help the reader clearly understand, then you're disrespecting him/her and are likely gonna be wasting his/her time.  Likewise, if you're reading something and don't put forth the effort to properly comprehend the author's message (assuming it was coherent), you've largely defeated the purpose of reading it to begin with.  You'll also be well on your way to misrepresenting him/her in any future discussion.  That's, perhaps, my largest pet peeve - being misrepresented... and even more so, being misrepresented due to a lack of effort at reading comprehension.  People who do this deserve a swift punch to the throat.

All this isn't to say that I'm perfect and won't ever be confusing or will never fail to glean exactly what someone else meant.  I'm definitely prone to temporary bouts of idiocy (at a seemingly increasing rate as of late).  It is to say, however, that it won't be from a lack of effort on my part... and I don't think that's ever too much to ask from anyone else.

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So, GP isn't wrong about Meticulous Mullen being an appropriate title, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.  I'm not really comfortable with that being the very first thing anyone assumes about me when visiting this blog.  Why?  Think about it.  What do you think of when you hear someone is primarily characterized as being meticulous?  I know my first reaction would be negative in nature.  "Oh great.  So you mean he's basically a boring stick in the mud where everything has to be perfect."  I don't think that's an appropriate characterization of me at all.

"But MM, wouldn't you be doing exactly what you railed against by misrepresenting what GP meant by the title?" you say.

No comment.