Romance according to the Sunflower

Yesterday, a guy asked me what I would consider the most romantic first date. I replied:

"Romance is not about place or activity but about the connection between two people; you can be in a classy restaurant with great food and lovely ambiance, but if the two people don't feel any connection, it's not going to be romantic. If there is connection, you can be stuck in a stalled car by the roadside in the pouring rain, and it will still be romantic... especially if you can laugh about it together."

Incriminating evidence

Some of the loot from the Big Bad Wolf book sale.

For want of a full-stop, the tone was lost

Fascinated by this article. I've noticed I do leave out periods (or full-stops, as we call them here) when I chat online, but that's because I send fragments of thoughts line by line - as the author said, using line breaks to punctuate. But once I've completed my thought or whatever I wanted to put across, I end that last sentence with a full-stop.

In writing online, like in comment boxes and emails, I leave out the full-stop when I end the sentence with an emoticon. I consider the emoticon a punctuation mark in itself - it's the equivalent of me saying something to you face-to-face, then ending with a grin, grimace or pout.

I've caught myself doing what the author noted - using an ellipsis (...) to sound less definite and more tentative/diffident. In my mind, when I 'hear' what I'm typing, I envision my voice trailing off at the end of a thought or sentence, showing that I'm not closed against opposing ideas or further input, that I'm pretty laidback about this whole thing.

I know, I know... being so interested in the evolving use of punctuation in online contexts exposes me as a huge nerd. But I don't care :p

Say it ain't so!

'Selfie' is the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year? Really? SELFIE?!!!

I don't dispute its status as a "real word"; what I don't like is its connotation of narcissism or showing off. I don't care that it's been added to the dictionary as much as I care that it was chosen as the Word of the Year. Ewwww! There are better words to choose from!

Love letter

Found this beautiful letter Mark Twain wrote his wife on her 30th birthday.

"Six years have gone by since I made my first great success in life and won you, and thirty years have passed since Providence made preparation for that happy success by sending you into the world."

What an absolutely lovely thing to say :)

A rude awakening

I was, as usual, jolted into wakefulness by my blaring alarm this morning. As I lay back after shutting it off, heart beating triple time, adrenaline coursing though my body, it occurred to me that this can't be a very healthy way to wake up. Every morning when the alarm rings, I feel like I'm being attacked!!!

A legacy

I read a comment here that talks about students reading stories aloud:

I recently substituted for an English teacher who, in team with another, was having a high-school class read "The Gift of the Magi." First, "reading" it means exactly that--the students divided into groups and took turns reading aloud. (Of course, this was only one day--I assume the next day featured a discussion of it.) One student read like a first-grader; another read rapidly and correctly, but with absolutely no inflection or pause for punctuation. Their comments before indicated they understood the use of irony, and when I interrupted to ask a question they seemed to understand the story. But they obviously had no ability to translate the words into the emotions behind them. An O. Henry short story and the minutes of the council meeting were all the same to them.

I, too, have students who read like this: they are able to read, but when they read, they pause at the wrong places, or have no inflection, no expression. And I realised that I probably can thank my mother, who read to me when I was a child, for showing me how the printed words on the page can come alive.

I don't remember her reading to me, but I know she did -- in fact, she says I learnt to read on my own, picking it up naturally, as she read to me and pointed out words in my books -- and it was probably through her example that I learnt the ebb and flow of the written word, the beauty and lyricism in it. How it can sneakily reach out and grab you by the throat with the emotions cleverly weaved into it.

So I have a lot to thank my mother for, I think. Because reading still remains my greatest joy to this day. It's no wonder kids don't like to read if they can't hear the words come alive in their heads when they do so.