09.05.07

The End Is Near

Posted in Rants, Site News at 7:22 am

I got to thinking this morning about my little experiment with regards to this here blog. My constant/daily/incessant updating has been sort of good for me, in that I have managed to become even more verbose than I normally would. On the other hand, of the (so far) 270-some entries this year (I’m guessing that I only double-posted twenty or so times), 90% of them are “I got nothing” or Bailout. That’s not going to stop me, of course, from at least finishing out the year. But I’m not entirely sure if daily updates are going to be the norm next year or not… certainly it’s done wonders for maintaining a consistent frequency of updates, but if the quality’s not there, what’s really the point? My biggest fear, really, is that I’ll say “All right, updates weekly now” and then let those slip. At least daily means I have an obligation at all times, and that it nags at me unless I do it.

Wow. I’ve given myself OCD. I don’t think that’s ever happened before.

Anyway. Good Things from last week are still on track (but lately it seems like the object ON the track is no longer capable of autonomous motion and instead is being pushed by an anemic sleep-deprived lemur), and by Friday I will definitely be able to do the big, completely non-climactic reveal. So, yeah. Also, the RPG project from yesterday… is still going on, but kind of paused while I get up the courage to actually ask folks at GASP to see if they want to help playtest it. I’m still writing on it, occasionally, but the game mechanics are going to have to just be on hold for a bit.

This morning, I went through the usual feeds and came across, of all things, a year-old SomethingAwful thread about “words you learned from video games”. Despite the fact that it’s SA, it actually had some interesting mentions. “Sepulchre”, “dire”, “synthesis”, etc. were some of the big ones. I think, actually, that a lot of my wordiness comes from games and from books, but that’s not to say I don’t indulge in a little bit of linguankery on my own. (See? I can’t help it, even in metaconversation.) Case in point (as if it really needed another one): on my way in to work, I stopped at a convenience store and bought a bottle of soda. The clerk responded with the usual “Have a nice day!” as I gathered up my change, and (without thinking) I responded with my usual “I shall.” The clerk immediately said, “What did you say?” I looked at her, probably kind of funny, and repeated, “‘I shall’.” It was her turn to give me an odd look, and she said, “‘Shall’?” The notion that this girl had probably never heard the word ’shall’ actually spoken in an ordinary, throwaway conversation then struck me, and I said, abashedly, “Sorry… I’m kind of a word geek.” She smiled and said, “No, it’s cool.” And that was the end of the conversation as I left in a hurry, to avoid her seeing my rapidly reddening face.

I honestly don’t know what that says about me, her, education in general, or the sad state of linguistics and grammar. Mostly it probably just reaffirms my predilection for excessive vocabularic employment.

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