Tuesday, July 13, 2004
(11:01 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
Semantics, and related matters
I make every effort to counter what I take to be the incorrect usage of the term "blog" to denote an individual blog post, such that one could say, "The Weblog had several good blogs on Saturday." In my opinion, the term "blog" should be used to refer to all the posts classed under one heading, and individual items in a blog are more properly called "posts."I notice, however, that newer bloggers tend to drift toward using "blog" to mean "post." Is it simple ignorance, akin to those who refer to their "wallpaper" as a "screen saver"? Or is the blogging genre by now so well-established that the term "post" no longer seems appropriate to denote a piece of prose written specifically for a blog? Further, is there such momentum on the side of the newer usage that any attempt to correct it is futile? Could an unprecedented joint educational effort among Atrios, Kevin Drumm, Instapundit, and Andrew Sullivan possibly stem the tide and keep blogging slang from being corrupted? (Every time I write a post without a link, I corrupt blogging slang -- the blog format was initially intended to be a link-sharing vehicle.)
On a related note, today my computer was crippled. I considered taking it with me to Barnes and Noble so that I could park in a handicapped spot. I couldn't figure out the problem, so I did various housekeeping tasks, deleting unnecessary files, running a thorough Scandisk, trying to run Disk Defragmenter and failing, running another thorough Scandisk, then running Disk Defragmenting again. None of it helped. Then it occurred to me: I had turned on the "themes" option in Mozilla. Apparently for my computer, displaying more attractive menus and toolbars is the equivalent of having a leg amputated.
Part of my housecleaning involved getting rid of mp3s I no longer listen to. I was able to free up nearly a gig doing this. I could have done more, but I ran into two impasses. First, what to do about my intimidating collection of They Might Be Giants mp3s? I don't have the full catalogue by any means, but They Might Be Giants isn't the kind of thing where you prune and look for the better songs -- in a true example of Manichean dualism, either you're for them or you're against them, or against them except for "Birdhouse in Your Soul" and "Istanbul." I was able to delete Mink Car, saving "Another First Kiss" and "Hopeless Bleak Despair," but the stuff from the earlier albums basically seemed sacrosanct. Now I'm listening to They Might Be Giants for the sole purpose of justifying my decision not to delete the mp3s. "A Self Called Nowhere" is a good song. Smart. That's what I like about They Might Be Giants: they're just so much smarter than those other bands. I went to a They Might Be Giants show once, and the fans were annoyingly self-congratulatory -- I imagine a Radiohead show could probably be the same way. Second, what to do about Tenacious D? I have the entire album memorized in such exquisite detail that some of the details I remember are not actually on the album, and I can't imagine ever needing to listen to it again.
Alright -- I can't do this anymore. Sentiment can only carry it so far. I really do only like particular They Might Be Giants songs. I sincerely apologize to all the hardcore fans out there. Aside from the album Factory Showroom (which itself may face the chopping block soon), I have saved only the following songs:
- "Another First Kiss"
- "I Should Be Allowed To Think"
- "I Palindrome I"
- "She's an Angel"
- "The Statue Got Me High"
- "Kiss Me, Son of God"
- "Ana Ng"
- "AKA Driver"
- "Hopeless Bleak Despair"
- "Shoehorn with Teeth"
- "A Self Called Nowhere"
