The Inevitable Writer's Block Post, Kind of

It's been a while since I've written about my inability to write anything. I know I've been blogging fairly frequently this past week, but none of my entries are really saying what I want them to say and they are all feeling mediocre. The worst part is I keep feeling like I have things I want to convey but I'm struggling to articulate any of it (especially today - I wanted to tell my Dad how lucky I feel to have grown up with him as my Dad and how much I love him but I couldn't find the right words).

I'm worried that I'm spending too much of my computer time (I'm limiting so as not to neglect my family too much) sending and receiving one line notes, and that it's affecting my ability to write anything of substance coherently. It seems that form fades quickly without practice. I feel like soon I won't be able to write a proper sentence at all. My ability to use the comma has already gone out the window in the last few months (if I ever really was able to use a comma properly) and I fear that I'm only one or two weeks away from using prolly.

Many of you will have heard me rant on about prolly. For me, prolly is the written equivalent of the sound nails make on a chalkboard: there is nothing that irritates me more than receiving an email with the word prolly in it - I mean really, how much harder is it to write two extra letters and have the word probably? Whenever I read the word prolly, I immediately judge the IQ of the writer (kind of like I do when I see people wearing their ballcaps sideways). I won't even start on how I feel about the word hi-lites, which is apparently acceptable now. I know I've sent those emails where I've used there, their, or they're incorrectly even though I really do know which witch is which. I always catch those mistakes after I send the note that I should have proof-read first (or did proof read, but read too fast to really proof) and I always want to send another note to explain that I actually can write.

It seems that there is just something about being able to instantly send a note that makes us disregard the English language if we ever regarded it in the first place (though I cannot fathom an excuse for hi-lites as I'm assuming newsletters aren't written that hastily). I guess it comes down to a choice of speed over accuracy; or perhaps if we apply the rules consistently despite the medium, we can have both speed and accuracy. Maybe I should read Marshall McLuhan and attempt to understand how the medium is the message or maybe I will just keep practicing. Bear with me.