Friday, December 09, 2005

Something like words

We (as a collective of the people I frequent including myself) talk a lot about words. I don't know if this is standard in the populace but I don't imagine that it is. Perhaps I am just vain. Myself, I enjoy words. I would consume them alone if they provided my daily recommended calories or marry them if they provided the appropriate tax/tuition/chapel credit breaks. (That statement is more than a little ridiculous and I apologize.) Lately we (the collective of the people who live in the same house as myself including myself) have been discussing the ways Jn phrases things. (Did you know that in english the word Phrase has no F? It shocks me every time. I prefer the frase variety of the word-> fra-say) Let me provide you with an example.

(Let me pause for a moment to think up an appropriate example. I will provide you with some background musica while you wait. Dee deet dee deedeedee Bomp (this would be the tune of the mario brothers for those of you who do not live with me))

Ok as the only real life example I can think of comes from the life of 5L I am going to borrow it. (We share a good deal of life experiences anyways) One of 5L's professors has this idea in her head that 5L is strange/weird for any number of reasons in this case because 5L forgot her lunch and so ate 2 portions of the food provided in the last class session. 5L recounted this story for me and the frase of response was "Pilar is not wrong." Now this is interesting because I use the frase a lot "___ isn't wrong" but I rarely ever use the frase "___ is right" and these mean entirely different things. "You are right" signifies that you are in fact completely correct both in the way you stated the comment or the idea and also in the mental processes that helped you formulate the idea. So Pilar is not wrong because 5L is wierd (we share about the same weirdness quotient but it leaps out in different areas of life), but her taking 2 portions of food does not make her so. This only makes her a college student. Therefore Pilar is not right.

Now this may seem like an easy distinction to make, 2 frases that mean similar but not the same things used in particular ways when they deserve to be. The problem crops up with it hits my subliminal brain filter and gets some scatter. You will almost never hear me say "You were right" even when it is deserved. I may validate you with a you weren't wrong but that is about as far as you get. Especially when it refers to an discussion we were having. Especially especially when you being write either strongly implies or firmly states that I in fact was wrong. That is one of those painful things to admit and while I feel as though I am good at it I think my subliminal consciosness works against that. However, if you do receive a "You're not wrong' from me dont automatically think that means that "You are right." I promise you that most of the time you aren't. I'm not either.

Also to be commented on in this post about words. Jn is working towards a 5L pronunciation of so many things she says especially abreviation words like TV, ATM, and VCR and this is not on purpose or entirely welcome. This does not actually change my practice of shortening words to their lowest pronouncible amount of letters and/or pronoucing abreviations as if they are real words. (DPS = Dippus (NOT EVER EVER EVER Go-Po))

And another note... Lots of things dissolve around finals time. This includes but is not limited to sentence structure, dishwashing, and people skills. Somewhere wrapped up in all of this, foul language rises to the surface and is spewed out exponentially proportional to the level of stress. (This might be one of the laws of physics. I don't know I have not studied yet.) Before the madness kicked in full swing we had a chat between housemates and appologized in advance for the dissolvation of the happy attributes we usually shine and for those unhappy underlyers that come out when things get dark. However, there are always some things that do not float well even when you have been excused ahead of time. There are some words that just have a characteristic bite to them and even if you know they are coming it doesnt exactly help. Therefore I have been taught some new spanish frases because when one has to think about what one is hearing it eases the sting a bit. Our house seems to be functioning rather well right now so this whole idea must have worked.

Time for breakfast- Jn

(Expect a blog in the near future about appearance. It will come out of my head one way or another. I just hope it is coherant enough thoughts to be blog-worthy)

1 comment:

Ramblin' Ed said...

You arrr correct. Or arrr, at least, not rong. At any wrate, right, notrite, er rong, you layed the concept out goodly.

You can't apologize in advance for something. Not really. Best you can do is to warn someone to, "Ignore me when I get mean."

I never went to college, so I have no phrame of reference for college food. I have, however, eaten any number of creatures that have been fried on a stick. Maybe it's the same thing. But diff. Rent.

Later, daze.