15 days since my last blog.
If anyone except my family members have been reading this blog, I certainly don't think anyone will be now. I am bellowing into the void.
I need to keep a 'blog topics' notebook on me because I keep thinking of subjects to write on and then when I get to the site, have completely forgotten what they were.
My memory is not what it used to be. I worry that I'm getting alzheimers.
There's none in my family - I've checked that already, but the fact I seem to keep forgetting simple nouns implies all may not be as it should be. Words like 'bird-table' and 'napkin' completely elude me . I'm only 28; it can't be an typical getting older syndrome. It's surely not normal. Maybe I should start reading the dictionary again.
Ah ha - that was one of them. Favourite quote(s) and dictionaries.
I used to read the dictionary and a quote book daily during my sixth form years. registration every morning a friend and I would go through the quote book and dictionary in our form room, pick a quote we liked and introduce to it to our fellow class-mates. I 'd then commit the quote to memory and made an effort to use the word in that week's conversations to transfer it into my active vocabulary.
Apparently the active vocabulary count of the average person is a mere one thousand. Shakespeare's is/was said to be thirty thousand.
I'd put an exclamation mark after that fact if I agreed with exclamation marks but I don't so I won't.
I can only remember one quote now which is pretty abysmal. A good one though and I use it at all available opportunities whilst trying to make out that I have a store of further hundreds of them. Given my phobia of fame and celebrity and the fact I scathe on this topic regularly, it's come in handy. It's by John Updike (who by the way was great author of one-liners)
'Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face'
Remarkable foresight given that Michael Jackson wasn't even around at the time.
Anyway. Perhaps I should start re-reading my dictionary to help me remember simple nouns.
Alternatively I suppose there is the Chris Tarrant advertised aide de memoire that's on the TV at the moment. Some little gadget that looks like an ipod and helps develop memory. I'd tell you the name but I can't remember it.
See?
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3 comments:
Why don't you agree with exclamation marks? You don't personally like to use them, or don't like their use in general?!!!!
An early sign of Alzheimer's is not being able to do 2 things at once... so watch out for that!
I don't like the use of exclamation marks as mostly they are misused.
1. As a general rule, if you need to use an exclamation mark, it implies that your writing is weak - you should be able to convey surprise or shock within the writing itself. Needing an exclamation mark to convey these emotions I think reveals the writer is either lazy, unsubtle or can't successfully express tone.
2. I find them stressful to look at. I've no idea why but I always squint my eyes when looking at them. Exclamation marks give me wrinkles.
3. My thoughts on this topic were prompted spurred by an article about the psychology of exclamation marks. Women use them three times more often than men and such overuse can only weaken the impression the mark is trying to convey - if you use it all the time, it loses it's meaning.
If you are interested to learn more about this stimulating and important topic, you can do so at http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue4/waseleski.html where you will find Carol Waseleski's article "Gender and the Use of Exclamation Points in Computer-Mediated Communication: An Analysis of Exclamations Posted to Two Electronic Discussion Lists"
P.S. Ben - It's nice to hear from you again. I thought you had deserted me.
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