Sorely in need of a linguistic emollient

no pun intended (seriously though)
I just read this article by John Humphries (a Brit of course) about the deterioration of English as a language (at least it seemed to me to be about English, though I don't think he specifically mentioned English.......really, what else could he be talking about?)
The most priceless quote in the whole article is this:
'There can be no more grotesque illustration of the demise of formality on television than the rise of the monstrous confidence trick that goes by the name of "reality television"'.
Ok, maybe the most priceless quote is really this:
'The simple fact is we cannot afford to be careless with our language, because if we are careless with our language then we are careless with our world and sooner or later we will be lost for words to describe what we have allowed to happen to it.'
Yes, yes, it's the latter that is the better, without doubt.

So as we all know, I could probably carry on ad infinitum about how common parliance in the American English language has devolved into a thick bramble of meaningless clauses, sentence fragments, unidentified pronouns (no, they don't fly), and a myriad of other minutae that actually make the difference between the ability to communicate one's thoughts, feelings, & ideas and being totally inarticulate and unable to string the right words together in the right order to make the simplest action or intention understood by all involved.
Last semester, when I was student teaching, one of my kids had the audacity to send me an e.mail wherein she refered to me as "u". I kid you not. She didn't even have the good sense to capitalize the u, which perhaps might have been construed by me as a feeble attempt at a demonstration of respect, an aknowledgement, since she was only e.mailing me because she was turning her final project assignment in LATE, (much like all of her other work, shoddy and thrown together) that she was indeed sorry and recognized the error of her ways. No, she didn't even capitalize the u.
Anyway, I digress: I am in no way implying that I am not guilty of some of the same offences as others (though I can freely and proudly state that I have NEVER e.mailed any of my professors and refered to them as u, capital or otherwise) ; I have been known not to identify pronouns (to which my father will attest with great vehemence, I'm sure) to dangle participles, to end sentences with prepositions, to generally break the rules of English, not to mention that I don't use the subjunctive mood nearly often enough when I'm speaking English, and, and, and, etc. etc. etc.

This is my rant for today. Thank you for your support.

khaki dreams of greatness

Now I must preface by saying that I am not usually one to care a whit about fashion, new trends, being fashion-conscious (I'm barely conscious enough for the things that matter), or what's in and what's out. I'm your pretty basic type of girl: I wear what is comfortable on my body. I have my very own colour pallette (thanks for pointing that out to me, Maritza) which I suppose works with my skin tones and hair & eye colour (stop me if I'm saying anything that isn't true, PLEASE!!) and I also like to bear the season in mind. For instance, I don't usually wear shorts in the winter, nor wool sweaters in the summer. Nor am I judgemental of others' fashion choices (ok maybe a little, but please, you cannot leave your house wearing koolats, patterned stockings that end mid-calf, uggs, and an ill-fitting sweater all in completely uncoordinated colours and expect people not to laugh at you..........and I won't even mention the whole skirt over jeans phenomenon that has New York City in it's evil grip). I am also going to take this opportunity to voice my staunch opposition to leggings and big sweaters, (also leg warmers, big shirts, slouch socks, acid-wash jeans, banana clips worn "jauntily to the side", too-big belts) and pretty much anything that screams "I'm stuck in 1985 and I can't get out!!". Flashdance has its place in the annuls of cinematic history, but c'mon people, it's been twenty years now.....it's really high time we got over it, no? Read: While I am no fashion maven, I have my own unique, ecclectic, eccentric style which by the way includes refusing to pay a ridiculous sum of money for any article of clothing, no matter whose name is on it. It also includes not wearing things together that have no business being on the same body at the same time.
I also could care less about celebrities. These people make absolutely NO DIFFERENCE in my life whatever. I don't care who is pregnant, married, divorcing, a couple, how they are spending their money, what they had for breakfast, blah blah blah. I have enough of my own things to be concerned about, I can't worry about celebrities, now can I?
Now, all this being said, I am sad because I keep forgetting about Go Fug Yourself, an artful guide to the do's and don'ts of celebrity fashions. Which is ABSOLUTELY HYSTERICAL!!!!!!!!!!! Heather and Jessica are brilliant in their commentary and writing style. Their sarcasm and wit are priceless. I can only aspire to such greatness in my assessments of others' fashion faux-pas. If you visit, please be sure to check out Ask Aunt Fugly. Thank you Heather and Jessica for making the fashion world a safer place for all of us.

garden grove

garden grove
Originally uploaded by tresjoli.

So I went to Central Park on Saturday afternoon, something I haven't done nearly often enough. I've decided that I need to take advantage of everthing that New York City has to offer, seeing as how I'm not going to be here forever. Of course, I can ALWAYS come back.........
I've been feeling a bit depressed lately and I'm not absolutely sure what's happening to me. My life is undergoing a sort of renovation if you will; cleaning, painting, tearing down and building anew. It's causing me a bit of stress, but hey, these are the things we must do, right? Not everything is great all the time. I consider myself lucky that I don't have to worry all the time about things like clean drinking water (mine may be chlorinated, but at least it's potable: I hear that the consensus is that NYC water is the best, though to be quite honest, I'm not too sure), or finding my next meal, or where I will sleep tonight. I am thankful for a great many things in my life; not the least of which being my health, my friends and family, the sun, the moon, being understood, and the trees.........................

tasty tidbits

Snacks are a good thing; so are naps. Snacking and napping used to figure prominently in my life and they don't really anymore. I think that we (the world at large that is) should revert the world that contains a snack and a nap in the middle of the day immediately (that would mean now, ahem.....I SAID NOW). These are two things that I miss most about my childhood. The easy transition between consciousness and the semi-conscious dreamy state that immediately precedes a deep sleep, and sometimes can override it. Not to mention graham crackers and apple juice (that is a good snack) or apples and peanut butter (another good snack). Maybe I should write a recipe book for life. I'll call it "Why a Return to Snacks and Naps is Imminent" hhhhhmmmmmm that's not really a catchy title though, is it? I'll have to think on this for a bit...............
And in other news: Boccaccio is getting more and more daring in subject matter and writing style. He makes all these crazy sexual innuendos (that word can pluralize with or without an e) and the main characters are monks, nuns, abbots, and other ecclesiastical sorts; for the middle ages, this guy is really quite risque. He insinuates all kinds of crazy (and often inappropriate) activities in which these ecclesiastical types are engaging. Really quite surprising. I was under the impression, prior to having read any of the Decameron, that it was rather like Dante's Divine Comedy in the sense that the writing would be heavy to convey the severity of the subject matter; the opposite has however turned out to be the case! Boccaccio treats these matters of sin in a rather flippant, and at times comical way. The book is really enjoyable because of his word play (imagine though that I have to figure out this word play in a foreign language from the Middle Ages.....scary, isn't it?) Nevertheless, the puns come shining through (puns are like that though....all shiny and stuff)

hello from the planet Neptune

not so sure why I feel like I'm on Neptune today, but hey, I'm going with it. If I've learned anything so far in this lifetime, it's that when the moment presents itself, grab it because it may never reappear again (the moment, not the lifetime) and besides, I have always wanted to visit exotic places (what's more exotic than Neptune?)
I'm all tired and rueful of my own fatigue as I have to read Machiavelli excerpts from Il Principe tonight and make a comparison with Boccaccio's Decamerone with regard to the treatment of Fortuna (this should be interesting). Happily, I got an A on the first paper I submitted for this class, comparing the first three novels from the first day with each other and then with Novella #73 from Il Novellino (written by everyone's favorite author, anonimo!! but only because it rhymes with geronimo!! ok well, maybe not). I was assigned to compare only the third novella from the first day with novella LXXIII from Il Novellino. Not bad for a first attempt! The prof (in his infinite generosity?) marked up the paper and suggested that we re-write the papers and hand them in again (was this really only a suggestion?).
I made a big decision in the last few days: I am going to do a double major (Italian and Psychology....luckily the psych is already finished). This came out of my own angst about not being able to find a job once I get to Italy without some kind of documented formal education. Passing their tests will probably be fine (if not at least sufficient) but I somehow feel (wouldn't have anything to do with a working knowledge of Italian bureaucracy, now would it?), but passing tests doesn't replace formal education in anyone's mind (even I can't justify it). One of my profs (the very same that I mentioned earlier) suggested that I keep my options open, especially if I wasn't sure that I wanted to teach ESL for the rest of my life (I can't make any lifetime commitments right now)..........so that's what I'm doing..........I'm keeping my options open.......................

happy october

seemingly, this has been a productive weekend: aside from my momentary feelings of being inside out yesterday afternoon, the weekend has proved to be one of creativity and enterprise (as opposed to laziness and vice) a fact for which i am quite grateful. Friday evening I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see an exhibit. I succeed in visiting the Cezanne to Picasso show, however I did not have an opportunity to see the other exhibit that I wanted to see; it grew late and we had to leave, so we missed the Medieval Faces (Carved in Stone). I forgot how nice it is to go to the museum on a friday evening. The rest of New York is seemingly someplace else (so that's a fantastic reason to go at all) and there's an eerie calm to Manhattan when it's not hideouslly overcrowded and obnoxious.

I have also rediscovered wordplay (thankfully, as I was beginning to fear that my vocabulary was about ready to go on permanent hiatus for want of use). I love words, I love to play with words, I love how words can sometimes play with me. I cannot imagine my life without language; without the ability to communicate my thoughts and ideas with words (as opposed to cave paintings?)

I have finished reading the fifth novel of the second day (hello Boccaccio) both in Italian and in English. I am thankful that I don't have to go into work or school tomorrow (maybe I will finally endeavor to clean the house! er, maybe not) but I really at least should wash one load of laundry

It is 5.30 on a Sunday afternoon and I am again in love with the world. It's amazing to me that my emotions can very so drastically from one day to the next. It makes me wonder about neural pathways and how they are affected but what I'm doing, the company I'm keeping and how funny it really is that the guy who was just sitting behind me is not only wearing a shirt that says "nerd" across the chest, but also has a really bad bowl haircut (and not the cute long kind, but short and weird looking as though he was recently attacked with a flowbee) just ordered a decaf latte and tripped not only over his own chair, but also over the chair behind him in his attempt to retrieve said latte from the counter, all the while hoping to impress the girl he thinks is cute.
***SIGH***
So much for being in love with the world.

So just as soon as I have some interesting pictures to post, I will..........and thanks Dana for making me your latest contact .......I have no contacts, but if I did, you'd be first on the list ;-)

Alright, I must go now, and work on parsing some sentences in Italian (parsing is actually becoming one of my favorite past-times...............hhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmm..........maybe he's right, maybe I am a nerd..........though a nerd thoroughly unrelated to our flowbee-toting special friend mentioned earlier herein.......cringe)