Whenever possible, I have blank paper available while I attempt to sleep so that I can write down thoughts which occur to me or things to remind me of those thoughts. Very important things, like who the voice of the Honey Nut Cheerio bee was in the 1980s or what order the Berenstain Bear books were written in. If I don’t reach over and scrawl out through the darkness BEE VOICE or BERENSTAIN BEAR ORDER I might not remember to look those things up later, and then where would I be? The notes vary in legibility; with some I cannot make out right away every letter and with others I can read the words but don’t know what they mean; I recently wrote PALIN ENERGIZED THE BASEST and that one took me a while, because “Palin” looked like “Blin” and I couldn’t remember thinking anything about energy, and I would because that is a funny word. The important part of the thought only regarded the last word, but if I’d just written “basest” that would have confused me for even longer. I may have thought I wrote something about a beast, and I have no shortage of ignorant smiling beasts causing me problems. That I do not need to remind myself of! However, I always get it eventually. UNTIL NOW.
This one is a mystery. po nostev? pcn naGtar? i Do rostiL? pm rastyr? Dm loctov? Dq haqxld?
Natsoy Wd? I have no idea! None of these are close to being an idea or the name of a thing I wanted more information about. My own lack of consistency among letter cases and writing angles needlessly complicates things. And I wrote this days ago, so even if I do figure out the literary portion of the problem I may not be able to remember what I was thinking that it related to. I dared not erase it without making a record first, because it’s probably not important (unlike I get Popful junk mail which was incredibly important) but some things I only think about once a year and judging by my inability to interpret it this could be one of them.
The reason I had to erase it is because I write all my notes on paper that I intend to draw pictures on, because that’s the only way to force me-self to look at the notes and do something about them. Placing it here constitutes doing something, I decided.
All those people making fun with “Blagojevich” this week don’t know what I’ve been through. any hair a mannequin needs is available in wig form indeed!
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Jumbi sez:
I for some reason immediately thought of “Pa Nostev”, if that means anything to you.
Prunella sez:
I do the same thing, only it’s a tablet of cheap brown paper rather than a single white leaf. Originally it was meant simply for recoding dreams, but it seems to have expanded to include assorted observations and nonsensical statements as well. As far as the dreams go, I usually don’t even have to look at the tablet again to recall them; the simple act of writing a dream down is usually enough to cement it in my memory, though sometimes a quick glance helps to remind me of some minor details I had originally thought essential but had since forgotten.
There’s one entry in particular that confuses me, though. It goes something like this (the text is a little illegible, if not as bad as those samples above):
—
Rogeroses
School bus
Some help Nazareth
Not talk TV German’s
———————–[page break]
I can handle the world and maybe Eat N’ Park. No Aids.Two Particles in everyone’s blood.
The toilet is a sacred place.
—
I actually remember quite clearly the quote about the world and Eat N’ Park (a local restaurant chain), and I can even somewhat remember the face of the person who said it (a dream person, not a real individual). I also in retrospect sort of recall something about there being two particles of AIDS in everyone’s blood (not two human immunodeficiency viruses, mind–two particles of AIDS), regardless of whether they have the disease or not, but the rest? A complete mystery. I haven’t even the faintest trace of a clue as to what I might have been hinting at. The toilet comment, I suspect, may even stem from a different entry entirely, as it seems to be ever-more-slightly readable than the rest of them. It’s difficult to say.
I have, however, recently taken to employing a pen for the recording task, as it makes far more distinct markings and is less inclined to a trailing-off effect at light pressure than is the -cil. This seems to have increased intelligibility by a significant degree. And a good thing, too–it would be a shame if such pearls of wisdom as “Pac-Man ate the Holy Ghost” or “A pig with a rocket launcher…How did it ever come to this?” were not preserved for the ages.
Porticulo sez:
Jumbee: It means you may have written that.
Prunelluh: Clearly you have a much more serious operation going on so I will assume your way is superior.
Alas, if I wrote in pen I could not erase the marks afterward! Additionally, my own pens have a tendency to hesitate before they let out any ink and I could not know if mine were doing so.
The paper I use is generally the next blank page is in my book of pictures. The big paper helps because I often must reach over mulptiple times and it’s impossible to know precisely where the previously written item starts and stops. More than once I have ended up with intersecting messages.