(no subject)
Xaquery (11:44:19 PM): ...I have this huge stack of books on a table near my computer. They're staring at me, I think.
Xaquery (11:44:53 PM): All non-fiction stuff. My Mom re-sells books on eBay, so she buys them by the bag at Goodwill.
Xaquery (11:45:30 PM): Anything that looks like it might be interesting/useful to/for me/my writing gets thrown on the pile.
Xaquery (11:47:21 PM): Where it sits, because I don't read books as often as I used to (blame the Internet), and because I rarely read things that aren't science fiction or fantasy (blame my parents), and even more rarely do I read things that aren't fiction of some kind (blame... my love of narrative? My dislike of some aspects of the world in which I live?), so they just sit there.
Xaquery (11:47:25 PM): And accumulate.
Xaquery (11:47:36 PM): And look interesting.
Xaquery (11:48:13 PM): Alchemy, Chaos theory, medieval society, philosophy, history, weaponry... UFOs... Brain chemistry...
Xaquery (11:48:33 PM): The Poetics of Space.
breadandgoatgod (11:49:22 PM): I have to ask if there are any interesting grammar books.
Xaquery (11:49:55 PM): ...I don't know. Not in view, currently.
Xaquery (11:50:00 PM): But there might be.
Xaquery (11:50:29 PM): Back, hiding, under the Beginner's Guide to Writing Comics (Everything you need to know to make it big in the Industry).
Xaquery (11:50:42 PM): Which I guess might be considered a grammar book.
Xaquery (11:50:45 PM): Vaguely.
Xaquery (11:50:54 PM): It talks about grammar, I think.
breadandgoatgod (11:51:09 PM): *smiles*
breadandgoatgod (11:52:47 PM): I met another grammar nazi tonight. She's my friend's mother. I spent most of the time the family was here talking to my friend's mother about grammar.
Xaquery (11:54:17 PM): You aren't a grammar nazi. You're a grammar communist, pre-revolution, when it was all idealism and hope for the future. Or maybe a grammar emotional communist, but that's more complex.
breadandgoatgod (11:56:06 PM): Hmm. That's true. Thank you.
Xaquery (11:57:04 PM): 'Sometimes the light shines down on me. Sometimes I can barely see.' Or other such sentiment. I can do insight/truth stuff most of the time, but I miss obvious stuff too.
breadandgoatgod (11:59:01 PM): Anything that causes me to be more accurate is welcome.
Xaquery (11:59:41 PM): You're... I'm... We're... It's... welcome.
breadandgoatgod (12:00:04 AM): *grins*
Xaquery (12:00:53 AM): The interplay between meaning and language is interesting. I like talking to you.
breadandgoatgod (12:02:33 AM): Thank you. I like talking to you, and I love language. I want to be as accurate as possible. And right on cue I tell my mother she's voluming too much. Brilliant.
breadandgoatgod (12:04:03 AM): I'm ridiculously, painfully shy, so if I'm going to make the effort to communicate, I want to communicate as well as possible.
Xaquery (12:05:28 AM): I want people to be able to see the things I'm telling them about, and feel the weight and shape of ideas I've had. There sin't really a language that's up to that level of detail, but you can sketch around a meaning, with a few choice words, and create a shape that the other person's mind will fill in mostly correctly.
breadandgoatgod (12:07:27 AM): That was some of the inside of my mind said quite eloquently. Thank you.
Xaquery (12:08:16 AM): You're welcome.
breadandgoatgod (12:11:58 AM): I want your ease with language. Your vocabulary is larger than mine and you know how to use it. I'm hoping to absorb some of your comfort with language, and I've been looking up words I don't know--that's why I love AIM. Unlike actual conversation, it comes attached to the internet, which has dictionaries.
Xaquery (12:12:52 AM): The internet has or will have everything, sooner or later.
Xaquery (12:13:17 AM): Barring catastrophic failure of my future-prediction engines.
breadandgoatgod (12:13:43 AM): Physical dictionaries are more fun, what with the amount of words I can't help but catch sight of and look up, but the internet is faster and less distracting.
breadandgoatgod (12:13:53 AM): Differently distracting, rather.
Xaquery (12:14:01 AM): Rather.
Xaquery (12:16:19 AM): Hyperlinks to do things like follow words to their roots and find other linked words are great too.
Xaquery (12:16:34 AM): As is finding words that the internet only half knows yet, like my forum name.
breadandgoatgod (12:17:18 AM): Explain your forum name.
Xaquery (12:17:30 AM): Eidoloclast?
Xaquery (12:17:42 AM): Related words: Iconoclast, Eidolon.
Xaquery (12:18:19 AM): It's in Roget's Thesaurus as a synonym for iconoclast.
Xaquery (12:18:26 AM): But it only kinda is.
Xaquery (12:19:16 AM): First definition of eidolon is a phantom or apparition.
Xaquery (12:19:32 AM): Second definition is an ideal.
Xaquery (12:20:03 AM): Clast means destroyer.
breadandgoatgod (12:20:55 AM): Destroyer of ideals... or ghost-buster?
Xaquery (12:21:08 AM): Close enough.
Xaquery (12:21:49 AM): I've actually never really looked it up, just dissected it and traced its associations. I could be wrong. I like that about it too, actually.
Xaquery (12:21:58 AM): It's an incredibly obscure word.
Xaquery (12:23:04 AM): And if I eventually find out I'm wrong about what it means, then that's somewhat symbolic of why I chose the name.
Xaquery (12:23:54 AM): Which has to do with me having a good eye for the flaws in any belief system, usually.
Xaquery (12:24:59 AM): The flaws in any sort of logical construction. I'm good at peeling away layers of falsehood, and finding little truths, and I occasionally suspect some of the big ones, but I tend not to believe in things.
Xaquery (12:25:26 AM): Believe needs to be two words.
Xaquery (12:26:24 AM): Because it means both 'accepting the reality of' and the religious... thing.
Xaquery (12:26:35 AM): Not sure how to quantify that.
Xaquery (12:27:16 AM): Anyway. I believe in people, and I believe in change, and.... that's usually enough. Odin when I need a god, science when I need an answer.
Xaquery (12:27:38 AM): Myself, whenever I can.
breadandgoatgod (12:28:31 AM): I'm sorry. I need to sleep. Can I come back to this tomorrow?
Xaquery (12:28:40 AM): You certainly can.
Xaquery (12:28:48 AM): I may post a chunk of this to my livejournal.
breadandgoatgod (12:28:55 AM): Feel free.
Xaquery (12:29:10 AM): I will.
breadandgoatgod (12:29:19 AM): Affection, respect, have a lovely night.
breadandgoatgod signed off at 12:29:22 AM.
Xaquery (12:29:41 AM): Mirrored. And sweet dreams, besides.
Previous message was not received by breadandgoatgod because of error (12:29:41 AM): User breadandgoatgod is not available.