What in the hell …

Okay so I know I said I wasn’t fucking around anymore but sometimes I can’t help it, too often actually but I’d like to think that some of this sometimes is good for me and not in just a letting off steam sort of way but in a makes me a little smarter in a way kind of way. If you click on that second link, or if you read that post already, you will know I recently discovered garden path sentences. I think these are great, and/but they make my head hurt.

I decided to try to write one that contained global ambiguity (I learned this term today, here’s an example - “I know more scientists than Stephen Hawking,” this could mean either “I know scientists in addition to Stephen Hawking” or “I know more scientists than Stephen Hawking,” without additional context each interpretation is equally correct), and that referenced garden path sentences. Here’s what I came up with:

“The sentence led up the garden path made me very happy, more than my high school English teacher.”

This one isn’t self-referential, but I still like it.

The novel proved to be written by Calvino in a month was eaten by bookworms.

That one works, I think. I think it works… ambiguity because “in a month” could qualify “proved”, “written” or “eaten.” Garden path because of “was eaten by book worms.” It’d be funnier with “just like my high school English teacher” at the end.

I would now like one that contains a pun about the word “sentence”, one that references (either explicitly or more subtly) the Borges story “The Garden of Forking Paths” (which I should read again, because I don’t remember much except the title) - preferably this one will also contain a pun or some other joke of some sort, and one that begins with the phrase “What in the hell.” I’m not sure that last one is possible.

I’m not working on any of this tonight though cuz it’s late and I gotta walk my dog and really above all because that one I wrote made my brain feel tired and knotted.

Question: are garden path sentences paraprosdokians, or just sort of like them?

I finally got a draft of that talk on the common done. I’m not happy with it except the done part. This is as good as it’s gonna be, given my time etc. Say la vee. As they c’est. (more…)

Over time I’ve sort of started fucking around more with the blog, making dumb jokes and so on. That’s cool with me, it can be fun. At the same time, I’ve started to feel like some of the stuff I’ve spent my time on that doesn’t feel like it’s fucking around, like that stuff really is just fucking around. I need to reassess a bit, methinks. Fucking around, great. Not fucking around, great. Trying to do (and initially thinking one is doing) the second while ACTUALLY doing the first, unforgivable. The worst part is when the fucking around and the not-thinking-I’m-fucking-around-when-really-I’m-just-fucking-around eats time for stuff that is genuinely not fucking around and that I genuinely want to engage with. ARGH.

And I still gotta finish that damn post on ch24 of v1 of Capital. ARGH again.

In other news, I’ve started trying to read for enjoyment when taking the bus to work. Weird, eh? I’m rereading If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler again, because once again I find that reading and I are less in love than we used to be (it’s not you, reading, it’s me). This time I’m reading the book out of order - I’m reading the numbered chapters all in a row, then I’m going to go back and re-read the interrupted novel passages all in a row. Then, who knows, maybe read it again cover to cover. Or not.

This old post over at Jim’s music blog reminded me that I want to write about singing to my daughter. Jim’s post is about the Dismemberment Plan. Despite the fact that I don’t have their first record - actually, I don’t even know how many records they have, I have two of them - I consider them one of my favorite bands. I love how off-kilter the music is, and yet strangely no off-kilter. I love the dissonance, and I love the melodies, and I love how sometimes the dissonance resolves into melodies and sometimes it doesn’t. I also love the singing. I sometimes sing “Life of Possibilities” to my daughter. (more…)

During my baby induced blogging hiatus I thought a lot about the blog, in part because the blog is a bit of a habit and stopping or suspending a habit usually leads me to think about (but only sometimes to reflect on) that habit. One of the things I thought I’d like to do is to write regularly about parenting. I’ve gotten more comfortable over time talking about my personal life and so on here but remain a bit hesitant for whatever reason. Anyway, I want write more about being a dad. For now the plan is to sometimes just set a fifteen minute timer (literally if necessary) and free write about parenting. (more…)

One of these days when I finally feel like I’m ahead of the curve on at least some of the things I have on my plate (and when I’ve stopped mixing my metaphors) I’d like to work up some of the following. And so, notes to self. (more…)

I don’t do proper writing, really, I pretty much just blog and occasionally polish stuff up a bit. (more…)

By ‘you’ I mean ‘me’ of course. I was also making an allusion - clever allusionist that I am - to a Green Day song; I found an old mix tape recently, or maybe my wife found it, of hostile songs including that one. Anyhoo -

My blog is turning four! Holy crap! I’ve been doing this thing for a long, long time! That’s crazy!

This is the first ever blog post I did here. I just glanced at it briefly, I find some of it cringe-worthy (I try to maintain a general sense of shame about anything I thought more than 6 months ago, unless I happen to still think it and even then it’s probably best to err on the side of feeling embarrassed) and I really don’t relate to much of it. I do relate a bit at a sort of meta-level, the post was partly me saying “I’m gonna use this blog thing as a way to try to get clearer on some ideas,” and a bit of “I’m going to use this blog thing to make myself write more because writing is terrifying and won’t get less terrifying unless I do it more.” Both of those are still true though I definitely feel a level of progress.

There’s some quote I can’t really remember, about … someone … that they had conducted their education in public. Me too, for better and for worse. No plan to stop for the time being, though.

But yeah, four years. Woot! And if I count the first time around over at interactivist then I hit the four year mark in February. Weird.

In other news, I bought a finger board recently (my internet connection’s being slow or I’d put a link up here). I got it used for a real bargain at the climbing gym. I put it up in the basement at the new place, screwed it to the floor joists. I can do an embarassingly low number of pull ups on it. I’ve started to do flexed arm hangs on it with different numbers of fingers, and negative pull ups, and using a chair a combination of squats/stair steps and pull ups - using both my legs and my upper body. I put a sheet of butcher paper on the wall in the basement and hung a marker near it, to track workouts on it. That will help me measure progress and keep on track. Not where I want to be, but on the road to being there. The cool part is that no matter what I do with the board my forearms get a major work out, which will be a big help with climbing. While I definitely want more upper body strength (and plan to get it!) the reality is that I’ve had way way more climbs limited by my forearms wearing out than my arms and lats. I may put in a small climbing wall in the garage too, buy some plywood and 2x4s at the home improvement store and tack them up to the inside of the garage, then add holds to it to be able to get a quick workout that way at home.