Why Do People Read This?

In thinking of the title for this entry a question presented itself to me. Why do people read blogs? As I ponder this question... several explanations pop to mind. Actually two to be precise.

The first is perhaps the most obvious and probably the least accurate, but it may have a worthwhile kernel of merit. I reckon that for some the reading of other people's lives (through a blog, for instance) provides a percieved escape from their own lives. This escape could be desirable for any number of reasons. There is nothing to say that this tendency should be markedly different for someone who is trying to escape life all together than for someone who is merely procrastinating from a nagging task. This follows the classic explanation for the current proliferation of that despicable genre of television called "reality TV."

The other explanation I find more interesting, although its merit is questionable. Perhaps our lives in the current modernity have become dangerously devoid of human interaction. At first glance this seems absurd given the superfluity of communications options, but consider what all of our current modes of communication have in common. They maximize the amount of information transmitted while minimizing the need for actual real interaction with other people. In essence, the primary goal of advances in communication to create individual self-sufficiency with as little interpersonal interaction as possible. Thus, this blog is a means by which people can interact with my thoughts and "me" while not really interacting with me at all. As far as I can tell, that is the main goal of the modern life: being able to absorb information while being as isolated as possible.

Some may argue against this point by stating that communications are reaching such a state in which communications technology can replicate the fine aspects of human communication. Take for instance the telephone. It is a major improvement over the written word because it can communicate vocal inflection as delivered by the individual. As such, it comes closer to reproducing compeletely every aspect in which we communication. I believe, however, that this total replication of human communications will not occur until such things as holographic replicators come into existance. With this technology, I can appear to be with you in a certain area. Theoretically, this could transmit even the communications of body language. Even with such technology, there can be no substitute for real live communication where I know that you're real, and I can go do things with the thing I know to be the "real" you.

As it is, spoken language is a harsh enough barrier to communication.

Blogs are wonderful because one need not conform to structure or focused method of persuasion as one would in an essay. To do so would be "unblogly."

On the sinus front, it appears that I am a good candidate for endoscopic surgery. The fluid in my left maxillary sinus seems to not have drained much. The procedure would enlarge the sinus passage so that the cavity could drain properly. It is possible that there could be somekind of obstruction. During the same procedure, my deviated septum could be corrected as well. The surgery is barely invasive at all, with few side effects, most of which are rare to extremely rare. It can be done under sedation and a local anethetic.

More interesting than that, however, is that I'm signed up for calculus, and I just bought my textbook. Dear god there are some cool things. The book goes through single variable, differential equations, some multivariable, and vector calculus. I guess the course only covers derivatives, but the extra material in the book means that I can teach myself integration as well. And if I have some extra time, differential equations seem very appetizing.

In more other news of obscure quasi-academic banter, I'm really having a fabulous time teaching myself a little bit of Old English. The language really is quite cool. Since I'm taking Spanish, I have a decent knowledge of some of the grammatical features of the modern italic languages. I was interested to learn some of the features of Germanic languages, since English is very different from the main Germanic stock. Old English on the other hand is part of the Ingvaeonic group which also contains Frisian and Dutch. It has many more classic Germanic features. Coincidentally, I'm also reading a book about JRR Tolkien. It turns out that Tolkien spent much of his life obsessed with Norse, Finnish, and Old English mythology, which was largely overshadowed and obscured by classical Greco-Roman mythology. It piqued my interest a little because I haven't read much mythology other than The Odyssey and because Germanic mythology had such a huge impact on Tolkien's myths.

In any case, the verb system of Old English is really quite fascinating. There are two classes of verbs: strong and weak. Weak verbs conjugate according to three very similar classes of suffixes. It's really hard to know what class a verb fits in because all infinitives have the suffix -an, and it ends up being a little chaotic. There are seven classes of strong verbs which all apply a similar system of suffixes as the weak verbs but also contain up to three different vowel shifts to the stem in regular places. The strong verbs are categorized by their vowel shift. Hence, when we conjugate drīfan "to drive," we get: ic drīfe, þū drīfst, etc. with the stem drīf- in the present. In the preterite we get, ic drāf; þū drife; hē, hēō, hit drāf; with drif- being the stem for the rest of the preterite. Therefore, for drīfan, a Class I strong verb, the overall vowel shift is ī → ā → i → i. Interestingly there are only two tenses, two participles, and four moods in the language, the infinitive and imperative of which are tenseless. It's all a great break from the absurd inflections of Latin and the romance languages, especially considering that most of the plural endings are the same.