Of Names, Nugs, and Years
This is my first blog entry of the New Year. It's kind of late, as the New Year goes, but it has come on the day I said it would come. Isn't that all nifty and such? Perhaps education or writing is not my calling. I need to drop molten iron into a pot a-la Nostrodamus, or read tea-leaves like some kind of wizened Asian woman. Oooh, I predict that my readers, or what's left of them, will eventually get bored of this nonsense and scroll down to see what I have written.
My future as a future-gazer may be in question, and my clairvoyant skills may be less than accurate (after all, I can't figure out what I'm doing tomorrow, nevertheless months or years down the road) and my first entry hasn't garnered the appropriate cheers and choruses of Hallelujah, but I still feel the need to begin a new year with some new changes to the blog.
Actually, there's only one change, but it's significant enough that it bears mentioning. As you know, I've been using initials to designate a person's name. The initials were good for awhile and served to throw a shawl of anonymousness over the person of whom I was writing. As the blog progressed and more people were introduced, I found myself repeating certain initials and changing others to prevent confusion. After the thirtieth M. was used, I decided that change was necessary. I'm not even sure why I used initials in the first place. I guess other Blogs were using them so I felt that it was a good idea. I don't think those other blog-writers are as social as I am, though, and do not have the need to use multiple instances of initials. One blog, whose writer I respect (that's an odd choice of words, considering the writer), uses nicknames rather than initials. The nicknames designate a unique (like a snowflake) individual. Tucker Max's nicknames seem to be rather arbitrary, except in some cases, but mine won't be. I'll be pegging the nicknames to each individual's personality, or how I perceive their personality.
The second change implemented is an attempt to reduce the amount of cursing in my blog. Anyone who talks to me knows that I have a tendency to use what is considered to be crude language as adjectives, verbs, and nouns. I do this because often the emotion of the statement is best expressed as a swear. Also, many of the people I socialize with, no offense to anyone, would find me haughty or bookish if I use regular, articulate language. So, to fit in with many of my friends, I exercise liberally the proper vernacular for that social circle. If that proper vernacular spills over into my writing, as it is wont to do, my writing comes off as crude. I never really noticed that until about a week ago.
I was sitting in a Thai restaurant in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. I was bored and waiting for one of my favorite Thai dishes (Tom Kha Kai) so I picked up the Los Angeles City Beat, which is an independent paper. It was kind of interesting, as far as independent papers go. With them, quality of writing is always an issue. Since independent papers are usually a group of 20-something writers of differencing ability, with some kind of ad-revenue and printing powers, the writing is often of dubious quality. Not everyone who thinks they can write, can write well. Luckily, the L.A. City Beat seemed to have good writing. There was one article that struck me as juvenile and poorly written. It is of this article that I write. The article was an attack on Bush. I've nothing against attacks on Bush. I think there should be more of them. There were also attacks on religion. This is sometimes okay, depending on the manner of attack. The article, however, was resplendent with curses. The curses were all capitalized (The editor who allowed this should be flayed alive) and engaged in various sentence orgies. The attacks on religion were nothing more than name-calling (sheep! Sheep! SHEEP!) which insulted my intelligence, and my beliefs. Yes, I believe in G-d. No, I'm not a mindless sheep. On the contrary, I made my decision to believe after many years of research and thinking. The curses detracted from the over-all message of the piece, and make the author appear like a thirteen-year-old kid run rampant with his father's computer.
I know I've used a lot of swears in my writing in the past, and now I wonder if I came off like that writer. So, in order to improve the quality of my writing, I will minimize, but not cease, the amount of foul language I use. Sometimes, emotion is best expressed as a curse, and I will not completely deny myself the ability to use them.
Those are the changes you can expect. And, as a token of the New Year, I hereby resolve to improve my writing skills, and update more often.
My sister is pestering me.
My future as a future-gazer may be in question, and my clairvoyant skills may be less than accurate (after all, I can't figure out what I'm doing tomorrow, nevertheless months or years down the road) and my first entry hasn't garnered the appropriate cheers and choruses of Hallelujah, but I still feel the need to begin a new year with some new changes to the blog.
Actually, there's only one change, but it's significant enough that it bears mentioning. As you know, I've been using initials to designate a person's name. The initials were good for awhile and served to throw a shawl of anonymousness over the person of whom I was writing. As the blog progressed and more people were introduced, I found myself repeating certain initials and changing others to prevent confusion. After the thirtieth M. was used, I decided that change was necessary. I'm not even sure why I used initials in the first place. I guess other Blogs were using them so I felt that it was a good idea. I don't think those other blog-writers are as social as I am, though, and do not have the need to use multiple instances of initials. One blog, whose writer I respect (that's an odd choice of words, considering the writer), uses nicknames rather than initials. The nicknames designate a unique (like a snowflake) individual. Tucker Max's nicknames seem to be rather arbitrary, except in some cases, but mine won't be. I'll be pegging the nicknames to each individual's personality, or how I perceive their personality.
The second change implemented is an attempt to reduce the amount of cursing in my blog. Anyone who talks to me knows that I have a tendency to use what is considered to be crude language as adjectives, verbs, and nouns. I do this because often the emotion of the statement is best expressed as a swear. Also, many of the people I socialize with, no offense to anyone, would find me haughty or bookish if I use regular, articulate language. So, to fit in with many of my friends, I exercise liberally the proper vernacular for that social circle. If that proper vernacular spills over into my writing, as it is wont to do, my writing comes off as crude. I never really noticed that until about a week ago.
I was sitting in a Thai restaurant in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. I was bored and waiting for one of my favorite Thai dishes (Tom Kha Kai) so I picked up the Los Angeles City Beat, which is an independent paper. It was kind of interesting, as far as independent papers go. With them, quality of writing is always an issue. Since independent papers are usually a group of 20-something writers of differencing ability, with some kind of ad-revenue and printing powers, the writing is often of dubious quality. Not everyone who thinks they can write, can write well. Luckily, the L.A. City Beat seemed to have good writing. There was one article that struck me as juvenile and poorly written. It is of this article that I write. The article was an attack on Bush. I've nothing against attacks on Bush. I think there should be more of them. There were also attacks on religion. This is sometimes okay, depending on the manner of attack. The article, however, was resplendent with curses. The curses were all capitalized (The editor who allowed this should be flayed alive) and engaged in various sentence orgies. The attacks on religion were nothing more than name-calling (sheep! Sheep! SHEEP!) which insulted my intelligence, and my beliefs. Yes, I believe in G-d. No, I'm not a mindless sheep. On the contrary, I made my decision to believe after many years of research and thinking. The curses detracted from the over-all message of the piece, and make the author appear like a thirteen-year-old kid run rampant with his father's computer.
I know I've used a lot of swears in my writing in the past, and now I wonder if I came off like that writer. So, in order to improve the quality of my writing, I will minimize, but not cease, the amount of foul language I use. Sometimes, emotion is best expressed as a curse, and I will not completely deny myself the ability to use them.
Those are the changes you can expect. And, as a token of the New Year, I hereby resolve to improve my writing skills, and update more often.
My sister is pestering me.
posted by Jon at 9:32 PM
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