I was thinking today about the
hypertextuality of my life. Having TV for a babysitter in my youth really helped shorten my attention span for any given subject while
heightening my ability to contextually jump around
in a wholly passive, willy-nilly way. That served as the perfect breeding ground for the internet - a world in which each and every whim I can think of must be googled, blogged and links explored. Someone wonders aloud, "where did the word willy-nilly come from?" and off I go, searching through philological sites, doing a google 'define: willy-nilly', and checking out wikipedia (oh wikipedia - I heart you). I spend countless hours doing this. The great thing is I do it on every subject that catches my fancy - and any one who catches my fancy. With my big ego, part of my routine is to google myself. It's a total disappointment. I think perhaps I should change my name to Fransiskanna Herberta Von der Gruenenhinterlaender just so that my name is distinct enough to match only my own small entries. I mean really, what was my mother thinking naming me Anne C. Russell? It's so WASPy I think I throw up a little in my mouth each time I have to say my own name. And there's like a million Anne C. Russells, so that really helps too.
But it's funny, because I just love to sit hours in front of my computer, jumping around willy-nilly as I explore the wonderful world of the WWW. I don't do anything with my gained knowledge except annoy strangers at parties. Especially since I have the retention of a sieve. But I can't even imagine a world anymore without this info highway only a few taps away on my keyboard(which, by the way, serves the function of my brain sometimes, allowing me to put absolutely no thought into 'thinking'). And who knows, maybe someday I'll retain something I've learned and use it for the good of mankind. And maybe, just maybe, someone someday will ask me if we're 'planning on reading the Old English text of
Aelfric, Lives of Saints' And I'll say, "oh, you mean wille we or nille we? I think nille, ha ha ha."
Website link of the day: A tee-shirt store where people can design their own logos and then the designs get voted on. If you win, you make some cash and people can then buy your shirt on the site. I think they're tres cute. Thanks Marcela for showing me the site.
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