re: Work, 1984, writing, and instant messaging...

All is quiet on the work front. I’ve decided not to pay attention to my anxieties for a while and to simply delight in working well and getting my own job done. It’s such a relief not having to manage other people and having to sort out HR problems: instead, I concentrate on my work and take absolute delight in crossing things off my list. Enough for now.

I recently watched “1984” starring Richard Burton (in his last role) and John Hurt (see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087803/ ) . It’s an excellent film, which captures the mood and imagery of Orwell’s dystopic novel, written in 1948.

It got me thinking about the things that I find satisfying in my job. I realize I love to write. It’s a paradox, because I find it’s the hardest thing to do. It is sooo hard to put a feeling, an observation, a description into just the right words. I’m continually amazed at how some writers or novelists have the ability to capture and put into words a thought or feeling.

I stumbled on the article “Why I Write” by Orwell while I was researching his writings. It might also explain why one should write, or pursue any kind of activity that one thinks is worthwhile. It’s worth a read. You’ll find the article here: http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/897/

I was rather taken by some articles I saw on “WIRED” mag’s online edition. One is on how the French have embraced “blogging”. Apparently, French is the most common language in the blogosphere after English, but I wonder what proportion of the French is taken up by French-speaking Canadians and Québécois… ;-) Peut-être je devrais commencer à bloguer (?) en français, mais j’ai peur de faire trop d’erreures…

See "Vive les blogs!"
http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,67273,00.html


Which brings me to another subject: watching my kids chat with their friends on-line through instant messaging (IM). It made me think about some articles which I read in the media recently on the effects of IM on the development of language and writing. (I can’t be bothered to reference everything, after all, this is a blog, not an research article.) As far as I can tell, there is no conclusion on whether extensive IM is good/bad, but I take heart in this WIRED article on a researcher making a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS; www.aaas.org) this past February.

See “Web not the death of language” :
http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,66671,00.html

As a side-bar to this, here is a guide to the emerging language of “leetspeak” that is used in IM:

Microsoft’s guide to "leetspeak"
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/children/kidtalk.mspx

L8R, d00d !