Journal Entries
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more in my journal
Posted Feb 3, 2004
It is difficult for me to recount this next chapter. Life had been so good: we were blinded by our ascending star to the possibility of its diminishing.
No, no. I cannot.
My mind is wandering. Rather than face the terror to come, I find my thoughts occupied with the labels of instant soup packets, the correct arrangement of a championship bridle, the most efficient way to collect conkers, lists of middle-ranking demons from the Lesser Key of Solomon, the shapes made by walking through jelly. Did you know the number of wives permitted an official of the East India Company posted more than 3 nautical miles from the dateline is seven? Or that some species of snakes were used as guard-animals for shoe warehouses (they can't steal the merchandise)? All true.
No, no more distraction. My resolution is with me once again.
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Latest reply: Feb 3, 2004
Compulsory subject
Posted Jan 23, 2004
Little by little we made changes to our timetable, ordered new textbooks containing more relevent studies, redecorated our classroom in subtle sea shades and bought heavily-textured hangings to create an aura more conducive to thought. Fine coffees and herbal infusions were ordered through the canteen, whose staff had proved resistant to our method and had walked out en masse at the sight of the first "I make this food because I hate people" stricker: fortunately, by that stage many of the teaching staff had reached a level of morale more conducive to their taking on more menial roles within the school. Life was good. The project proceeded apace.
Discuss this Journal entry [4]
Latest reply: Jan 23, 2004
This is the subject
Posted Jan 22, 2004
When I was at school we used to stick post-it notes on other pupils' backs. Lots of other people did this, it's not a new thing, but ours were different to the other schools, perhaps because we were all twenty or over and attending the college as part of a remedial program. In our earlier years, we'd all written "I'm am gay up the bottom" on an address label and stuck it on anyone wearing thick jumpers: now, our insults took a subtler, long-term approach.
No-one can remember who wrote the first one, but early in the spring one year various labels began to appear on the less popular pupil's shoulders: "I'm pointless", "No-one knows why I breathe", "My mum forgets to feed me". The focus was on fostering a long-term feeling of mediocrity amongst the stickerees, creating a belief that acheivement wasn't for them, that their lives were so worthless the best thing they could do was to stay out of the way. At the end of that term we - the five who had spearheaded the operation - passed our exam results with flying colours. No-one else passed. During the holidays three people disappeared: they might have killed themselves, or moved schools - nobody could summon the energy to investigate.
The next term started fantastically. Spurred on by the success of our campaign, we began to extend our influence to the staffroom. Unwary teachers began to sport "Unappreciated" or "Potential childkiller": to our delight, we found that they crumbled earlier, already worn down by years of underfunding and innuendo from their peers.
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Latest reply: Jan 22, 2004
do i really need a subject?
Posted Jan 16, 2004
no good, whatever i write comes out stiff. relax. that's it; good shake, really shake your arms out, and the left, and now roll...and back the other way...and oh. doesn't normally come off. not to worry, makes next bit easier.
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Latest reply: Jan 16, 2004
Brave New Dawn
Posted Jan 16, 2004
There's very little one can write that doesn't sound arch, precious or affected when read from a monitor. Lots of people seem to think that writing words designed to be seen via http is easy, or that the informality and directness of the medium removes the need to consider what you say. Early reports contradict this.
The web does have a less formal voice than prior publishing media, due in part to the speed with which your words can move from your fingers to the world, and now the medium is established, businesses have learnt that a friendly tone guiding users with clarity is better for them than a formal or deliberately obsfucatory register.
[tangent: funny that the natural tendency of people to trust and ascribe authority to incomprehensible jargon ("furthertofore re: our advising of your account status pending de-crediting...") doesn't seem to have made it out to the web. possible positive feature of inheriting a structure designed to share information amongst academics, for whom life is too short and full of complicated language to be fans of anything other than clarity? maybe, although not interested to find out 
]
Problem is, finding that happy line between informality and laziness, between accuracy and train-spotting, between clarity and dullness, between getting it right so other people read you gladly and getting it wrong so that your voice is indistinguishable from the million other people who think that reading a book means you can write a book, finding this balance is very hard.
Sigh.
Discuss this Journal entry [2]
Latest reply: Jan 16, 2004
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kokeshi
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