3905: The Beauty In Ugly
[Grammar Nazi]
I am proofing and have written my latest stories in fixed-width fonts, the former because that's what was given to me, the latter because submitting in TXT format [of the requested formats] is almost 100% guaranteed to be readable regardless of viewer used. I've also gone back and looked at my printed books with this spacing aesthetics in mind and cringed--the same way I now cringe when I read, say, an old Nancy Drew book with the knowledge that contemporary style guides frown on adverbs as the "empty calories" of prose--because I have this idea that I want one-and-a-half spaces in a world with single and double spacing.
Because clearlyit is clear the happy medium won't exist. What used to please me no longer does, and I dislike the "accepted" standard. Even handwriting becomes problematic for me--it's ALWAYS either too much or too little. I'm now TOO conscious of this thing I'm doing WRONG that I don't quite understand why it is.
Granted, I have no grasp of aesthetics. This is the extent of my understanding of aesthetics: The amphora on the right is more aesthetically pleasingaesthetic than the one on the left.
...no, I don't understand why. Something about balance, like approaching equal mass in every direction? Even though the one on the left looks like it'd actuallyin an actual fashion be more practical/easier to carry?
What I've taken away from it is that aesthetics is largelyfor a large part preferential, and the preference is based on... the eye of the beholder...? Ugh. Art school was way too long ago for me to remember [10+ years!]. Remind me how I've had a difficult time being creative for other people.
Vaguely relatedlyRelated after a fashion in a vague way, I should point out that I've switched to at least partial British spelling for psychological reasons: When I see a word like "color," it pisses me off that the "o" isn't pronounced the same in both syllables. Spelling it "colour" makes me feel better that they don't sound the same. [This is a symptom of learning even a little Japanese and being irritated with the absurdity of the English language, that the same letter can have a billion pronunciations--including none.] I do recognize that the "ou" in colour and mould aren't pronounced the same, nor would the "o" in colour and mold, but there's really onlyjust so far I can adjust, and I'll take in-word consistency over no consistency.
I think most of the problem is that English is composed of all these arbitrarily devised letters devised in an arbitrary manner. The Japanese in my first book looks perfect, even the spacing between sentences, and that has to do with kanji being grid-based to a fault, that monospace is the onlysole way to go. I almost want to write my next books in a non-proportional font face out of spite/to get away with double spacing guilt-free, except that Jack Hamm actually DOES IT WRONG in his books T_T I don't understand how someone can used an almost-fixed-width typeface... the neatness of the grid is lost and the spacing issue is exaggerated by the differences in the letter sizes. [Also, even a single space in this face is too large.]
*looks again* ActuallyThen again, I bet he used a typewriter, is what it is, and he must have put double spaces even after other punctuation [commas, etc.]. Ugh. I don't miss my typewriter days--stupid ribbons and shit >_< [not to mention the typewriter smell--not awful, but it reminds me of being in middle school]
I think what bugs me is that period doesn't always equal the end of a sentence, or it'd be easy to fix all my fonts to the way I like--take them into Font Creator and change just the period to add just a little bit of space at the end. Abbreviations shouldn't end in periods. Numbering... ach, I don't know what to do about numbering, since I hate using a close parenthesis. Maybe they just all have to be in list format, never as sentences. At least I'm okay with decimal points and ellipses [except the coded ellipsis + period, which seems weird but not incorrect that I can find].
I have NO idea what English would look like if I could give it an official "fixing." CertainlyTo be certain, no one would follow it even if I did 9_9
While I'm rambling and on the subject, "a lot of" is another point of contention for me, but it's a bit annoying to explain. It has to do with that awful preposition in there mucking things up [besides people's tendencies to misspell it "alot", though I'm past that] and that "a lot of" is used as an adjective/adjectival phrase when it really changeswhat it does is change the subject/direct object. "A lot of apples" is grammatically differenta different grammatical structure from "many apples", deceptively soand it's deceiving.
[/Grammar Nazi] [no, reallyFOR REAL]
I think what's making me balk at the idea of going back to school is the fear I will have to take the same time-wasting "general education" elective requirements I did when I was studying Engineering Design [concentration: Design Graphics [concentration: Computer Animation]] should Whatever U. not accept my credits from ETSU. That's going to be hurtful if I have to go through the motions, in effect, to get what I need.
I guess a Plan B would be to take the core classes and maybe intern in the meantime, until experience = education and hey, it counts even though I don't have the actual degree! Which is sort of what I need, the way to prove I can totally do this thinghave what it takes that I'd be paying $thousands to learn to do beforehand when it would take thirty minutes for free if someone just explains it to me on the job.
I don't know where this was going, except to throw a block of text at you. At least maybe it's an aesthetic block of text, but maybe there's not enough homogeneity for that. [I dig a bit of contrast, myself. [Which is why until I need to reformat my books, say, for a new POD host, anyone taking issue with how I laid my pages can treat it the same as any other editorial distaste used by others, such as COMIC SANS in a comic. [read: I can't change it now, so deal.]]]
PS: All the strikethroughs are done sarcasticallyfor reasons of sarcasm, for the record.
I am proofing and have written my latest stories in fixed-width fonts, the former because that's what was given to me, the latter because submitting in TXT format [of the requested formats] is almost 100% guaranteed to be readable regardless of viewer used. I've also gone back and looked at my printed books with this spacing aesthetics in mind and cringed--the same way I now cringe when I read, say, an old Nancy Drew book with the knowledge that contemporary style guides frown on adverbs as the "empty calories" of prose--because I have this idea that I want one-and-a-half spaces in a world with single and double spacing.
Because clearlyit is clear the happy medium won't exist. What used to please me no longer does, and I dislike the "accepted" standard. Even handwriting becomes problematic for me--it's ALWAYS either too much or too little. I'm now TOO conscious of this thing I'm doing WRONG that I don't quite understand why it is.
Granted, I have no grasp of aesthetics. This is the extent of my understanding of aesthetics: The amphora on the right is more aesthetically pleasingaesthetic than the one on the left.
...no, I don't understand why. Something about balance, like approaching equal mass in every direction? Even though the one on the left looks like it'd actuallyin an actual fashion be more practical/easier to carry?
What I've taken away from it is that aesthetics is largelyfor a large part preferential, and the preference is based on... the eye of the beholder...? Ugh. Art school was way too long ago for me to remember [10+ years!]. Remind me how I've had a difficult time being creative for other people.
Vaguely relatedlyRelated after a fashion in a vague way, I should point out that I've switched to at least partial British spelling for psychological reasons: When I see a word like "color," it pisses me off that the "o" isn't pronounced the same in both syllables. Spelling it "colour" makes me feel better that they don't sound the same. [This is a symptom of learning even a little Japanese and being irritated with the absurdity of the English language, that the same letter can have a billion pronunciations--including none.] I do recognize that the "ou" in colour and mould aren't pronounced the same, nor would the "o" in colour and mold, but there's really onlyjust so far I can adjust, and I'll take in-word consistency over no consistency.
I think most of the problem is that English is composed of all these arbitrarily devised letters devised in an arbitrary manner. The Japanese in my first book looks perfect, even the spacing between sentences, and that has to do with kanji being grid-based to a fault, that monospace is the onlysole way to go. I almost want to write my next books in a non-proportional font face out of spite/to get away with double spacing guilt-free, except that Jack Hamm actually DOES IT WRONG in his books T_T I don't understand how someone can used an almost-fixed-width typeface... the neatness of the grid is lost and the spacing issue is exaggerated by the differences in the letter sizes. [Also, even a single space in this face is too large.]
*looks again* ActuallyThen again, I bet he used a typewriter, is what it is, and he must have put double spaces even after other punctuation [commas, etc.]. Ugh. I don't miss my typewriter days--stupid ribbons and shit >_< [not to mention the typewriter smell--not awful, but it reminds me of being in middle school]
I think what bugs me is that period doesn't always equal the end of a sentence, or it'd be easy to fix all my fonts to the way I like--take them into Font Creator and change just the period to add just a little bit of space at the end. Abbreviations shouldn't end in periods. Numbering... ach, I don't know what to do about numbering, since I hate using a close parenthesis. Maybe they just all have to be in list format, never as sentences. At least I'm okay with decimal points and ellipses [except the coded ellipsis + period, which seems weird but not incorrect that I can find].
I have NO idea what English would look like if I could give it an official "fixing." CertainlyTo be certain, no one would follow it even if I did 9_9
While I'm rambling and on the subject, "a lot of" is another point of contention for me, but it's a bit annoying to explain. It has to do with that awful preposition in there mucking things up [besides people's tendencies to misspell it "alot", though I'm past that] and that "a lot of" is used as an adjective/adjectival phrase when it really changeswhat it does is change the subject/direct object. "A lot of apples" is grammatically differenta different grammatical structure from "many apples", deceptively soand it's deceiving.
[/Grammar Nazi] [no, reallyFOR REAL]
I think what's making me balk at the idea of going back to school is the fear I will have to take the same time-wasting "general education" elective requirements I did when I was studying Engineering Design [concentration: Design Graphics [concentration: Computer Animation]] should Whatever U. not accept my credits from ETSU. That's going to be hurtful if I have to go through the motions, in effect, to get what I need.
I guess a Plan B would be to take the core classes and maybe intern in the meantime, until experience = education and hey, it counts even though I don't have the actual degree! Which is sort of what I need, the way to prove I can totally do this thinghave what it takes that I'd be paying $thousands to learn to do beforehand when it would take thirty minutes for free if someone just explains it to me on the job.
I don't know where this was going, except to throw a block of text at you. At least maybe it's an aesthetic block of text, but maybe there's not enough homogeneity for that. [I dig a bit of contrast, myself. [Which is why until I need to reformat my books, say, for a new POD host, anyone taking issue with how I laid my pages can treat it the same as any other editorial distaste used by others, such as COMIC SANS in a comic. [read: I can't change it now, so deal.]]]
PS: All the strikethroughs are done sarcasticallyfor reasons of sarcasm, for the record.