In my comments (but not my posts), I feel that I overuse the exclamation point. The only other alternative is a period. But that seems too dry and dispassionate. For example, read these two sentences.
That's a cool idea!The first is overly jubilant, and the second is apathetic. Why is there no middle ground?
That's a cool idea.
Allow me to propose a new punctuation mark that applies more emphasis than a period but less emphasis than an exclamation point: the pipe|Yes, the pipe| That vertical bar shape, lazier than the exclamation point, but peppier than the period|
This interesting character shares the backslash key on my keyboard, but does anybody really use it? Why not put it to work? We have question marks, exclamation points, periods, commas, colons and semicolons, and that's about it| Let's hit the pipe|
Now that's a cool idea|
19 comments:
Well...
I'll invoke the "rewrite rule". First, I don't think "That's a cool idea," is apathetic. But even if you do, why not try other formulations:
That's a really cool idea.
Ooh, what a cool idea.
Hey, I like that idea &mdash it's very cool.
None of those sound apathetic to me, they all sound stronger than the basic one, and yet none of them imply that you've just been disembowelled.
I mean, Free-Guy, most folks can't properly use the punctuation marks we already have, Show me someone (besides me) who uses semicolons correctly; there are people who do, but ya gotta search pretty far. Let's not saddle 'em with another one to deal with.
Oh, and about the exclamation point: never, ever, ever use more than one at a time!
Ah; Pedant!!
I think I might rate each sentence I create in terms of excitement involved by giving it stars out of five ***
For example *
Eureka *****
ok *
Nah, that's just a bit silly|
One can use asterisks for *emphasis*, or be bold, or even make an odd point. Who uses these things now?
When i tell a joke, i do not use emoticons (;-> because, either people are going to get it, or may safely ignore it.
Yeah, what is that bar used for anyway?
I just go with italicised to beat the dry and overuse.
Eh. Something to do.
... vertical bar shape...
... the pipe...
See> Now you are sophisticated my friend! This bohemian would have called it that long vertical line or something along those lines... and only if I had noticed it to begin with which...
... and to answer your sweet question, I won't be opening my own place but will be teaching around the city at gyms, yoga studios and the like as well as being available to corporations, businesses and schools... so do not worry... if it is yoga you want, there shall be some way for you to get it FO SHO!!!
Now, I just need to sell my house and make it on over!!! Fingers crossed!
Wow! kEwL!!
Never even paid any attention to the | or the \, tee, hee!
'course if ya wanta cuz, there's lotsa choices...
!@#$%^&*()_+=-~`|\"':;,...
...'k, done playin' now {grin}
I think you're on to something|
That pipe looks too much like an 'L' though. I vote for the 'approximately' symbol~
As in approximately between ho hum and screaming~
Though it might be an interesting change if more sentences ended in L. It's a good letter|
Interesting idea| I don't think I've ever used that button before. Maybe now I can put it to some use.
I am seriously loving the pipe -- but I am however having difficulties typing one -- see: I don't have that key like you above my 'Enter' key. The key with the backslash is to the left on my keyboard -- where it shares its space with these two other symbols: < and >
.....guess it's because we have three more letters in our alphabeth. So our keyboards look different.
Any form of punctuation that can limit the overuse of exclamation points in the world is fine by me. As a dog, I am often troubled by the overly enthusiastic application of exclamation points by the humans. I see it as further proof that everything is going to hell in this country. Your post is like a good deed that shines in the dark, dark night. It's way cool.
Barry ~ Ah, you have a way with words, and your comment is well taken| After I am done experimenting with the pipe, I will heed your wisdom and refrain from using too many (more than one) exclamation points|
Nodders ~ No, not silly, I like your idea| The star-ranking concept works well on my iPod; why not rank sentences the same way?
Stephen ~ Overuse of the bold-italic-underline formats might be as bad as too many exclamation points| But even worse is the dreaded ALL CAPS|
Agreed, emoticons are a crutch| Write well and you won't need 'em|
VV ~ I think the pipe was used to make columns back in the typewriter days|
Buffy ~ A little italicization can be just the spice needed to convey the mood|
Miz B ~ And there are even more funky keys on our keyboards we all seem to ignore| I wonder what the keyboards in Spain look like?
I hope the real estate market is better for you in Spain than it is in the US now| It's not a seller's market| Nevertheless, sell soon and come back to The City, as I am ready to sign up as your yoga student|
Karen ~ It almost looks like you are cussing|
Robin ~ Right, the pipe does look like the letter L in lower case| However, we live with the zero looking like the letter O in upper case|
Jeff ~ You've left the pipe too lonely for too long|
Lilly ~ You have three more letters? And the pipe got "bumped? I wonder what else got bumped? Something is rotten in Denmark|
Sid ~ I've heard the communication of dogs, and it seems dogs only know the overly enthusiastic application of exclamation points|
LOL @ yes, it sure is! :-)
Aye, we've got these letters: æ/Æ - ø/Ø - å/Å -- but no pibe! Well, it's probably there too only I haven't figured out how to type it...
fan friggin' tastic|
although, that's a little tricky to use
i'm going to have to stretch my fingers properly before typing now. don't want to pull a metacarpal muscle|
There are more tools available for expressing range of emphasis in the english language than punctuation.
An expanded vocabulary for example...
Lilly ~ Through the magic of cut and paste, you can borrow a pipe from here anytime|
Chris-el-da ~ Indeed, it's a bit awkward to do the Shift+ to get the pipe, but it's even more awkward to get the exclamation point|
Purple Avenger ~ Yes, like the tool called tongue-in-cheek writing|
Ah yes, of course! I never thought of that -- cheers, FT |
This is a great post, FreeThought guy!
(It deserves an overly jubilant mark.)
If you have bought gold from others before, you may know that the deliver time of wow gold is too long.^_^
We farm the WOW gold by manual, no bots, no cheats, no hacks. We have the 24*7*365 Online Support.
Post a Comment