[Sca-cooks] Ellipsis...

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

I'm the instigator of this thread :-)

Why do extra dots effect me? Well...

I'm very visual. Colors, textures, patterns... Wearing very plain
clothing actually depresses me. And i can't understand folks whose
living room has only one table lamp or two. It's so dark in here!
Where's the light!?!?!

When there's additional sound around, i generally listen, even if
it's awful elevator music. I can't help listening to music. That can
be a bit of a problem or annoyance to me when i'm in some shop or
office with muzak playing. I really don't want to listen to it, but i
can't help it, even dredging up the words from my musty memory.

When there are multiple conversations or a conversation and
pronounced (not necessarily loud) sounds, i listen to them more or
less equally. This can be a problem for the conversation i'm in.
Speech can become almost musical, although i don't always understand
the words. My daughter accuses me of being deaf, but i can hear small
noises well enough, i just don't always sort the sound and ignore the
ones i don't need to listen to.

And written language... i'll read anything. I've even taught myself
some other writing systems because, well, it was there. For example,
when i lived in Indonesia, i had brought along a Thai cookbook from
America which had facing pages of recipes in Thai and English. Some
of the spice names were transliterated into the Roman alphabet on the
English side and the Thai side used the same kind of numbers we do,
so i began to figure out the Thai alphabet. I just can't help it.

So i often...


-- Oh, dear, confession time!


...correct spelling and grammatical errors in e-mail messages i
receive that i'm planning to save. I realize that on occasion i make
errors too, and when i read them on an e-list, my own mistake really
irritate me.

I agree that the informal use of the ellipsis suggests certain
conversational tones and i use them that way in e-mail, too,
especially for that trailing off at the end of a not-quite-finished
sentence.

Still, excess multiple dots have an effect on me for several reasons
described above.

Anyway, there is no one single person here who does it, rather there
are several who often put in extra dots in the middle of or at the
end of a sentences.

And i realize that most folks will continue to do whatever they've
been doing. I love you all anyway :-)

Aargh! See, i'm kinda behind on this list (and barely reading any of
the other lists i get)... I realize i haven't answered some messages
directed to me... And there i am correcting the Digest... (and i'm
not compulsive, really, if you saw my apt. you'd know i'm not...)

BTW, i often see fluorescent flickers, and i'm definitely affected by
the color of fluorescents, heck, i can even kinda hear some
electronic security or communications systems, for example in some
malls. I often just turn around and leave because of the irritating
lights and high-pitched sound (which, of course, i'm told i don't
hear).

On the other hand, i love lots of mental and sensory stimulus -
colors and patterns and textures in clothing and settings,
multi-layered music with complex rhythms, scents and flavors (why i
enjoy cooking, as well as blending incense and ritual oils), and
other sorts of stimuli that are, well, uh, personal and private.

Guess i'm just another quirky SCA Cook :-)

Anahita of the Ellipsis