wordless

Ironically, that’s about how I feel today. Yet I blog.

Too much going on; not much happening.

Not enough time to do anything; Too much time to waste.

Too many things to say; not enough words accessible to say them.

So many emotions to express; not enough tears left to spill.

That’s just how it is sometimes. That’s just how it is today.

Mostly, I think I’m doing alright. I think I’m just plain human.

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stag⋅nate

Derived from “Stagnant: not advancing or developing” the verb Stagnate means: “to stop developing, growing, progressing, or advancing; to be or become sluggish and dull.”

Verbs are action words, but this particular verb is built on a word that means the exact opposite, the lack of action. The lack of movement. How peculiar.

What happens when you build a verb around such a word? You get the reverse affect. You get backwards movement. You find that standing still is not good enough. Not only is it not good enough, it produces increasingly negative results. Thus, you are no longer simply standing still. You are moving again; moving backwards.

I examine the meaning of such a word in an attempt to  measure my current life movement. What direction am I going? What direction have I come from? And more importantly, have I unknowingly started to stagnate?  

Over the last several months, I have been wondering what’s next. I have noticed the tendency I have to “be idle; exist in a changeless situation.”  

With that in mind, I have taken baby steps forward. And now, it’s “Go time.”

Do not misunderstand me. I am both not taking drastic steps nor am I doing this on my own strength or gumption. The steps I take are just small, simple ones. But every baby step forward pulls me out of stagnation. Each time I submit to God to move closer to him, to follow his directions, even if they are a little scary or worse, contain an end that I cannot logically calculate, I am compelled to take another step. 

Two of my steps are moving and serving. I will be moving in October to live with one of the girls in my community group, and I have begun serving with the Student Ministries program at my church. Each step small. Each step pushing me forward. Each step combined with another small step, wards off the foul stench of stagnation, which ultimately leads to decay and death.

We each have but two choices, slow to a standstill and end up in reverse – dyeing or crawl forward to life. I chose life. You? What do you choose and how will you begin to see it done?

Proliferation of Information

So this is a “new phrase” I have really enjoyed using as of late. I use it to explain what is happening with the way the internet is affecting communication. It seems that others have made use of it as well, so at least I know from the beginning that it was not “Debra invented.” (Like the time I thought the term “biff it” was something I made up)

I also wanted to check in and see if any progress was being made on using “noon of the week.” I must admit, I have often forgotten to use it. 😦

Yeah, this is what happens when one is a little bored in the afternoon and takes a nap as a result. It comes to the night time and said person is not sleepy. Thus she blogs about odd things.

People who are known for coining words or phrases are my heros.

Win!

Yeah, M’s win (and even in extra innings)!

I watched the Mole tonight.  It was surprisingly pretty entertaining.  I was convinced I would not like it because Cooper Anderson is no longer the host. 

I realised that it really frustrates me when people do not understand me or what I am trying to say.  If the meaning of what I am trying to convey gets lost, it can be upsetting.  Whether in papers, in converstions, online, wherever its so frustrating!  Perhaps this is why when someone gets mad at me, or annoyed, or hurt, I want to clear it up right away.  I cannot stand for miscommunication or missunderstandings to go unaddressed.  

Which brings me to the problem of blogging.  Text looses so much. Between the time that the concepts and ideas form in my head and I push them into the constrains of language in order to type it out, something small in meaning is already lost. I form the words and sentences, share the ideas, but it all exists concretely in my mind, experienced in my time and space. For you, the reader to come in a different time, space, situation, culture, (whatever, just different from me) and read the text, more is lost, thus the meaning intended is not the exact meaning understood.  (I believe this are ideas brought up by Hans-Georg Gadamer in Truth and Method. You can correct me if I am wrong Tyler) The meaning of a text can never be completely understood by the reader (although you can get pretty close).

With spoken language loss of meaning happens. With text it is to an even greater degree. All written word is a derivative of a spoken word (except for the case of perhaps sign language, but even that in its original form is intended to be expressed). It is expressed. Which places great value on tone, voice, expression and presentation. Text looses most if not all of this. LOL and BEING EXCITED WITH CAPS do not provide adequate substitutes for someone actually laughing or shouting.

Therefore, there are bound to be misunderstandings as a result of text – specifically this blog. I had one just the last couple of days. I hope it concluded with a comment I received late this evening. I believe the poster did not understand what I was saying and their comment just made me sad. Rather than respond, misunderstanding begets more misunderstanding in a vicious cycle, I deleted it. Heres to hoping the we can keep misunderstandings at a minimum.

Noon of the Week

Do you know what “Noon of the Week” is? Quite simply, its exactly halfway through the week, which is 12 pm on Wednesday. There are other phrases commonly used to point to the joy that is wednesday, but I like to go for the uncommon, the underdog of the English language so to speak. Anyway, its a pretty handy phrase so I thought I would pass along this new discovery of mine.

Also, I have been doing some thinking and I came to the conclusion that I wish I had a new Mariner Jack.
A new Mariner Jack looks like this:

My Mariner Jack does not have such a glow about him anymore. I use mine to find my car quickly in a crowded parking lot, but he looks a little sad after a couple years in the rain and now a few in the cold. Do they have new Mariner Jacks every summer? I wish they did and I wish I could get one.

What else is happening….Well I am still waiting to hear about a possible job…Keep praying on that one please.

Oh, (I almost forgot) in my continual effort to complete a life goal of coining a new word or phrase that is released to the world at large and used so frequently, that it becomes common place and the inventor (me) is long forgotten, I am introducing the phrase “Noon of the Week” Please use it with love, respect, and regularity.

the constaints of language

I was trying to fall asleep and not able to. I had a headache this weekend, so I don’t know if my extra sleeping (while waiting for medicine to kick in) has thrown off my sleeping pattern. Probably, and I will regret it tomorrow morning.

Anyway, while I lay here awake, I was thinking about how language is actually a prison in which thoughts and ideas are bound and held captive. Many times we are left “speechless” because the ideas or thoughts contained in our heads are impossible to stuff into the simple words that we use to communicate. Music and art have an ability to communicate beyond what language can do. I wonder if societies that do not have written language are able to communicate better. Or at least communicate that which is abstract, better.

Or what about illiterate societies? I am thinking of in the Middle ages when peasants could not read. Their “bible” was the liturgy of the church, the stories on the stain glass windows, or the paintings on the cathedral walls. Maybe understanding God’s love in not at all a concrete idea, but an abstract experience and therefore understood and communicated perhaps better without the use of language.

If this is true with understanding God, and God created everything else that exists, all that we experience with our senses, all that we perceive and attempt to understand, then perhaps language is only a small tool in understanding and communicating. Reason and Logic are specific, concrete frameworks that fit within the realm of the usefulness of language. BUT could it not be argued that while creation contains a certain amount of logic, God is so much larger and more incredible than we can comprehend, therefore even in his creation, there is more that is incomprehensible then there is understandable. Which would then make me think that the scales of reality tip toward the concept that more things exist that are outside the realm of language. Does that make sense? Meaning that which exists in a neat and tidy, logical box and is able to be discussed with language, is less then the amount of that which exists and is unable to be capture in language.

At the same time, I cannot think of how I could discuss this very idea of language being restricting without using language.

Well, now that I have typed this out, I might be able to go to sleep.

What do the Bible, Superglue & Dictionaries have in common?

I don’t know, but I have two slightly funny stories about my Bible.

A year or so ago, the maps in the back of my bible fell out, but I just left them stuffed in place. The other day they kept falling out, so I finally just pulled them out and left them on my desk. Of course, that same evening, I could have used the maps at bible study. So last week I bought some superglue and glued my maps back into the my bible.

Next story:
My roommate asked me how to spell “beginning” which is one of those words that I can never remember how to spell. I told her “just a second” and she replied “don’t worry about it, I will just put it in spell checker.” I told her “wait, I wanted to get something.” “A dictionary?” she asked. “no, better” I replied. I then proceeded to bust out my bible and look up Gen 1:1. It was kind of amusing, though you may have had to be there.

Problematic.

Words are quite odd. Sometimes you learn new ones and then they seem to show up everywhere. (or as was pointed out to me the other day, its just that you now notice it. It had been used all along, it just escaped your attention)

Sometimes there are words that are used quite often in a certain setting with a certain group of people and as you become aware of the use of the word, it too shows up everywhere.

Such is the case with “problematic.” One of my roommates likes this word and uses it on occasion. As a result, I have started using it more often. And now I am noticing it EVERYWHERE. Just today, I ran across it in both my research and on Homestarrunner. If it is used too often, I think that it will begin to be problematic.

Here is a list of some of my favorite words:

Endured
Eschew
Obfuscation
Askance
Circumlocution
Eradicate
Imperative
Precarious
Preposterous
Categorically

And finally, a word I love to use that should be in the English Language:
Imaginate (combo of imagination and create)…Underconstumble?

Red

I was thinking today on the way to work…

The color red has a bunch of meanings or things it represents. Some quite opposite, yet ultimately related.

Red stands for:

Love
Passion
Anger
STOP
Embarrassment

Lack of Creativity

Here it is Saturday evening and I am a little bored. Didn’t do much today, other than the laundry. Watched a bit of TV, did a little reading, took a nap. Not feeling very creative this week. For a while on Wed, I toyed with the idea of creating my own line of office supplies.

This week I learned that the word “Tele” is Greek and means “far” which is why it is used in words such as, telegraph, telephone, television, and teleprompter. I really like that with the world teleprompter. It is someone out there who is “prompting” from afar, by use of computer and a little screen. If you type your own stuff, I guess you are also Prompting from afar in both space & time. Hopefully knowing the definition of Tele will be useful someday in a game of Trivial Pursuit.

I heard that the annual Valentines Talent Show/Desert Extravaganza that the church youth put on each year has a 50’s theme. Those in attendance are supposed to dress in outfits from the era. Fortunately for me, when I was in, oh probably 9 or 10th grade, there was a similar youth event. So I happen to have a home made poodle skirt. (Those other three out there who also made theirs the same night I did, one who I know occasionally reads this, I still laugh at our 4 seemed skirts.) I remember trying it on last year, and I thought I ripped a hole in it. I tried it on again this week and to my delight, no hole can be found and it still fits!

Now all I need are some Keds and a blue scarf to tie in my hair. I am actually looking forward to the event. Last year I did not attend because I figured it would be annoying to go by myself, but this year I will probably go anyway.