Annunciate and Enunciate
In recent weeks my posts have been fewer and farther between. Whenever I want to write for this blog I start with something very loose and descriptive, but after a few paragraphs I start to ask myself, “What am I saying, why am I publishing this?” What begins as something I’m pretty interested in writing about turns into vanity and useless word-tossing.
I usually try to avoid daily journal style posts, à la “Today it was hot and I rode the bus to work.” But sometimes that kind of account is the best way to get some damned words on paper —er, screen.
Last night I drew something I didn’t completely hate. I’ve been drawing in my EVERY DAY sketchbook much less often than the titles suggests, and the usual result doesn’t get me too excited, but yesterday I had some luck. So here is a short illustrated description of a dream I had in which me and Batman were hanging out in my old neighborhood.
On the bus home from work today I was thinking about how one can never be absolutely certain that they understand the meaning of a word. If I want to make sure I know what the word adjunct means ([?aj? ng kt] noun, a thing added to something else as a supplementary rather than an essential part), then I must know what the words used to define adjunct mean. Then I need to know the definitions of the words defining the definition, on and on.
Surely, over time I can learn how to speak and read and write and become very confident in my understanding of a language, but I can’t ever be absolutely certain that I do. One might be able to relate this idea, of not being able to completely understand a system from within itself, to Kurt Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, if one actually understood what was being said.
While at work today I saw a pickup truck burst into flames in the street. Chico has been inundated with firefighters while the wildfires are burning so the situation was rapidly contained, but it was still totally awesome to watch.
Tomorrow is my friend’s birthday. I haven’t heard from them in a while but I can’t wait to call them and tell them how great they are and how much I miss them (it’s a lot). I’m really tempted to call them tonight, to be that person who calls early to avoid the birthday phone call traffic, but I will wait. I’ll call them from the farmer’s market while I buy fruits and vegetables and wait for the bus to come.
Also, vowels are awesome.