I said it first, I said it last, and I said it right.
Have you ever said something witty, only to have the dolt next to you say “I was just about to say that”? It happens to me all the time. You didn’t say it, you didn’t think of it, and you wouldn’t have known it was funny unless everyone else laughed.
Even if you did think of it, no one cares because you didn’t say it-more importantly, I did.
As if that wasn’t enough, other kinds of ‘I was about to’ have been sprouting up like weeds in the garden of creativity. Here’s a list of them, along with my interpretation of them.
“As I blogged/was about to blog about, blank person who is more important than me said blank, and people cared.” Yes, we realize that you sometimes have similar ideas to people much more important than you in a similar timeframe. Because the world is so unfair, however, we are forced to listen to people who actually matter.
“I was just about to think that!” The phrase that led to this post. You were about to THINK that? If you currently knew what you were about to think, wouldn’t you be thinking it currently? This has all the problems I outlined about “I was about to say that”, plus the fact that it ignores the entire concept of time.
(While playing Halo or basically any vs. game)
“I was about to do that!” No you weren’t because I won first. I hear this most often when it would have been impossible for them to do it even if I hadn’t killed them. For example, say Jack is walking around and Joe snipes him with a headshot, killing him. If Jack says “I was about to do that!” it is irrational, considering the fact that he didn’t even see Joe. Yet this is exactly what I hear when playing, and winning, games. Good job, not only did I kill you, you knew exactly what I was going to do and I still did it. That’s making you look even worse. The entire point of racing, shooting, and fighting games is to make sure you hit first, and that your first hit is the last one. Second is only the first loser, and “I was about to” is a sure fire way to tell oneSaying you were about to _____ is stupid in any situation. You didn’t, and you failed. There is no in between, you didn’t do it, and no one cares if you claim you were about to.
