This morning, plumbing my soul for mood; seems like I'm pretty good, actually. Though the thought of marketing my stuff, doing drawings at all, making motions into the world, all have me very frightened, so maybe I shouldn't be so swift at making an assessment. I certainly don't have confidence, but for once I have no trace of wanting to off myself. So that's something!
I'm thinking of making a series of bumper stickers and t-shirts with grammatical advice on them. With this idea I shall save the world from itself! The first one:
THE APOSTROPHE'S NOT USED TO MAKE PLURAL NOUNS.
Now wouldn't you put that on your car? Or this one.
USE A SEMICOLON TO JOIN TWO COMPLETE SENTENCES; THIS PREVENTS RUN-ON.
I'm sure you have ideas as well.
-------
Another idea: in this state of mind, when I feel kind of okay and sort of worky and good, make a master list of Good Things, that scratch at a corner of the Infinite Variety of the world. When I am depressed, the world seems very limited indeed. So a list of odd wonders would come in handy. This might merit its own blog. An ongoing project to Catalog Obscurity.
I definitely want that first bumper sticker. The misuse of apostrophes is one of my life's constant irritants. I could make a list of the others, but it would be too long and make me too sad/angry.
Posted by: savtadotty | March 27, 2006 at 07:05 AM
Ooops. I just remembered I don't own a car any more. Is it allowed to put bumper stickers on non-bumperish places? Please give examples.
Posted by: savtadotty | March 27, 2006 at 07:06 AM
Imposter fee.
Posted by: Keith | March 27, 2006 at 07:24 AM
How about a fun book with punctuation-isms for school age kids.
BTW--Marketing can happen another time. Avoid anxiety provoking thoughts. Savor your accomplishments. They are HUGE right now. Peaceful mind space and no suicidal thoughts are wonderful. Give yourself a big hug.
Posted by: formerCalpal | March 27, 2006 at 07:29 AM
Thank you Calpal. As usual a font of comfort.
Posted by: Jo | March 27, 2006 at 07:36 AM
Life's An Interrobang, Then You Die
Posted by: Keith | March 27, 2006 at 08:01 AM
ITS = POSSESSIVE
IT'S = SHORT FOR 'IT IS'
GET IT RIGHT, STUPID.
This one might get the sticker-user rear-ended. Hmm. Must work on that.
And Calpal is absolutely right. The marketing can come later. Picture yourself hiring a Zulu bush guide for that part, a few years hence.
Jo: B'wana say, sell manuscript. Here's a cell phone.
Zulu bush guide: Hai! It is good! Will tell Doubleday that the hyperbole pounces like lion in the Serengeti.
Posted by: pam | March 27, 2006 at 08:06 AM
Shed unwanted octothorpes - FAST!
Posted by: Keith | March 27, 2006 at 08:18 AM
one word: tshirts
ok two words: cafepress
i for one need all the advice i can get :)
Posted by: k | March 27, 2006 at 10:43 AM
In the you learn something new everyday category, Keith sent me to the dictionary twice! If I wore t-shirts, I'd love to have one with just the Interrobang on it. Oh, maybe a polo shirt with a small interrobang on it.
Posted by: Stephanie | March 27, 2006 at 11:43 AM
Now, Stephanie, if I could only duplicate the trick at home with my own son.
Posted by: Keith | March 27, 2006 at 01:13 PM
Keith sent you and I followed. Whodda thunk?!
Posted by: 'mouse | March 27, 2006 at 02:37 PM
Speaking of t-shirts for nerds, the funniest one I've seen in ages was a woman wearing one which began, a little below the neckline (replace square brackets with "<" and ">"):
[tits]
and ended a bit above the navel:
[/tits]
Posted by: 'mouse | March 27, 2006 at 02:42 PM
um, Doubleday won't care, since it doesn't exist anymore. (useta work there, when it did.)
Posted by: e | March 27, 2006 at 02:56 PM
i've been thinking of putting a cool apostrophe in front of my handle, like 'liard, just to make it to the top of everyone's alphabetical blog lists.
Posted by: goliard | March 27, 2006 at 03:19 PM
that would make me '
Posted by: e | March 27, 2006 at 03:25 PM
here's one for the bumper:
["]Number sign [sic] is the Unicode preferred name for the glyph or symbol #. The name was chosen from several used in the United States and Canada. This sign's Unicode value is 0023 in hexadecimal and its ASCII value is 23 in hexadecimal.["]
wikipedia's "definition" for "octothorpe", which in itself makes absolutely no sense because they neglected to put "Number sign" in quotes...
Posted by: e | March 27, 2006 at 03:35 PM
'darn, they're onto my 'trick.
I wonder if !mouse will trump 'liard?
Posted by: 'mouse | March 27, 2006 at 06:30 PM
come back, jo! we're running amok here.
Posted by: e | March 27, 2006 at 07:14 PM
A la 'mouse, I too am adopting an apostrophe.
Posted by: 'counter | March 28, 2006 at 09:45 AM