fontosaurus

Ever heard of Noam Chomsky? Bright guy, a linguist and a political science geek. Very intelligent. He has some theories on language that imply that only human beings are true language users (nevermind that there is no concrete definition of what it means to "use language"), and these theories are held in high regard. He is of the view that primates, dolphins, etc., are completely incapable of complex communication with one another. Language, he posits, is an innate human ability. I believe he even goes so far as to call it "genetic"...

Now, given the genetic argument, one can argue that Chomsky is dead wrong. Let's look at the recent discoveries in mapping genomes, first. One of the things that they have noticed is that the genes that control certain traits are located in the same areas of the genome between two species. ie.: there is a gene that controls the size of an individual's hands and feet -- this gene is in the exact same place in both mice and men. (No literary allusion intended.) There are genes that control basic bodily structures -- the formation of arms and legs, of heads, etc. -- and those genes fall into the same places across large numbers of vertebrate species. That said, I find it highly unlikely that human beings have this one basic gene for language that somehow we, and only we, have.

This is not to say that any animal is capable of human language. Quite the contrary. Just because a gene resides in a similar spot does not mean that the gene in question will be expressed the same way. There's a tremendous difference between the foot of a mouse and the foot of a homo sapiens sapiens, despite having genes in the same location. This is just to say that the physical structure changes.

In the left temporal lobe, there are two structures -- Wernicke's Area and Broca's Area -- and they are the seat of language, a complex little ripple in the cerebral cortex that give rise to language. CAT scans of ancient skulls of hominids, including Neandrathals, show that these areas not only existed in our early ancestors, but that they were well-developed. Furthermore, modern primates, dolphins, and whales, all show advanced structures in the left temporal lobe...

I'll leave the final decision up to you, of course...

This entry will serve as an open letter to school administrators everywhere. It is inspired by this story and the countless others like it that have happened in the wake of the Columbine Massacre.

Dear Administration,

Through your actions, schools have ceased to be a place of learning and have become as bad as prisons. Cliques of the "inmates" now basically run the show due, in large part to your misguided actions in the name of "safety."

Too many times now, you have removed individualistic and intelligent children from schools for standing up to their tormentors, and this does absolutely nothing to address the problem. The problem isn't the smart, "anti-social" kids...the problem is the cliques of kids who find joy in tormenting their peers... Take the case of high school junior Sean Sheeley, who was recently expelled after using sarcasm to stand up to a group of kids who had spent a great deal of time attacking and harassing this kid. What's being done to the kids that have initiated it? Probably nothing. In fact, I'd bet money on it.

So what schools have become now are holding pens for unruly kids to beat up on the "different" kids until they snap and either commit a violent crime or joke about it, which in your eyes, is just as bad. So you dump due process out the window, expel the smart kid, and let the little clique of obnoxious punks continue to harass other kids in your school.

This basically condones the behavior of the attackers, and slams kids for being different. What are you trying to do? Instill knowledge and intelligence in children? Or perhaps you're trying to make a group of little brainless "followers"? From the looks of things, it's probably the latter.

It's high time American schools woke up. You don't cure a disease by attacking the symptoms, you do it by going after the source. And let's face it -- the source is usually the "popular clique jocks" who seem to think that they have the authority to run the show. It's high time you cracked down on them. Their behavior wouldn't be acceptable anywhere else in the world, why is it acceptable in our schools?

Sincerely,
Someone Who Used to be One of the Smart, Different Kids

Okay, so much in my brain this time, that this is going to be a pretty long entry, written over the course of the day. (I'm still at the office and trying not to implode.)

I guess we can start with Last Night.

About 11pm, I decided I had to have some caffeine. Hopped into the XTerra and drove to the grocery store. While I was there, I saw a rack of those old Golden Books. When I was a little tyke, I loved those things...even as a child, I read voraciously, and my parents read to me constantly... Seeing the rack didn't remind me of childhood, strangely enough... It reminded me of a time a few years ago when I was visiting a girlfriend and we were staying at her granddad's place. I was in the guest room, and there on the bookshelf was a very old, battered copy of Scuffy the Tugboat -- my absolute favorite Golden Book, growing up... This was one of the original copies, with the heavy cardboard cover, as opposed to the new laminated crap. I couldn't help it -- I pulled it off the shelf, and took a look. Inside the cover, in the "This Golden Book Belongs To" section, was my girlfriend's name in the non-self-conscious writing of a five-year-old.

Now for a long time in my life, I was plagued by feelings of being generally inadequate for anything -- relationships, work, school, etc. -- and I always felt unworthy, particularly in that relationship. I guess it wasn't conscious thoughts of unworthiness...more of a general feeling that I didn't belong, that I just couldn't be a part of this girl's life in any meaningful way...she had this rich history that I would barely qualify as a footnote in, and something in that handwriting hammered that point home. A month later when she broke up with me, I didn't fight it, I just went with the flow -- whether that was due to a sense of relief, or because I was too tired to fight it, I don't recall. I like to think it was the latter.

Last night, I realized that why we're talking again, why she's interested again, is because I've cast off those feelings of inadequacy, that I've dropped my self-consciousness, and like a five-year-old, I'm (again) confident of just being who I am. I don't know how much sense this makes, if any. I don't much care...it just feels good to finally be able to be completely true to myself and to have the respect of someone because of it.

And now the hard part of this blog entry -- trying to segue between deep thought and lighter fare. Too tough for my current state of mind...let's just make the cut abruptly:

So ever since I bought the newest Rage Against the Machine CD and looked at the liner notes, I've taken to writing subversive messages on my money. I picked up Starbuck's for a co-worker on my way in to the office this morning, and she paid me back at lunchtime. I immediately added a couple of gems of knowledge to them -- "Spending This Will Not Make You Feel Better" and "This is What 'The Man' Uses to Control You"... Aren't I just the regular counter-culture sonofabitch? I'm considering having a contest to see who can come up with the best "Money Message"...

I'm going to try to get two new fonts out tonight -- Chairman Mao is something I've been working on for awhile now, and Uhop was inspired by the IHOP font... When they're released, they'll be strictly donationware ($2). Uhop will actually be Uhop Lite... Uhop Deluxe will probably become my first Deluxe Font (pay $X to get a copy emailed to you), and will contain a massive character set.

The other thing is, I NEED DINGBATS SETS. I'd been working on a set of Dinosaur Dingbats, incorporating designs sent in by "fans" -- ONLY ONE PERSON HAS SUBMITTED A DINOSAUR DRAWING. SO GET UP OFF YOUR LAZY ASSES, GET A BLACK PEN, SOME WHITE PAPER, AND SEND ME SOME HAND-DRAWN DINOSAURS, DAMMIT. :-) People will think you're cool if you have your art in a Fontosaurus dingbat set... ;-)

Anyway, I am going to go. I actually have work to do. This isn't as long as I was hoping it would be, but I'm starting to feel guilty for doing Blog updates at the office.

Well, color me horribly, horribly mortified and embarrassed. This entry will be serving as a public, open apology for earlier terrible behaviour on my part.

I was dating someone years back, and at her graduation dinner with her whole family. The waitress asked me how I wanted my steak, and what I said was, well, a combination of nervousness, tripping over my words, and just being an ass. I said, "Extremely well done, bordering on Holocaust victim."

Oops. What I meant to say was, "Nuclear holocaust." Which, while not much better a thing to say, doesn't carry the horrible implications of my actual words.

Let me clarify: I am not even remotely anti-Semetic. I cannot stand racism, and harbor a great deal of animosity toward white supremacists and neo-Nazis.

So, intentions aside, I screwed up. Big time. I made an ass of myself and was an embarrassment to everyone at the dinner table. For that, I would like to extend my deepest apologies to Denei and the entire Slowik family. I hope that they can forgive me, but I'll understand if they don't. My words, regardless of intent, were inexcusable, and for that I'm truly sorry.

(I'm sorry if this isn't my usual light-hearted fare, but lately, I've been thinking about who and what I have been over the last few years. I came to the realization that most of my arrogant, brash behavior was nothing more than a mask for insecurity and weakness. And I didn't like the realization. But rather than tell myself I was wrong, I decided to do something about it. You see, some mornings, looking in the mirror is like looking down the barrel of a gun. You may not realize it, but you're killing yourself with your actions and your behavior. You may not wake up dead the next day, but what you're doing is pushing people away, and building a life that will be very empty and shallow. And trust me, that's something you don't want. Three or four years ago, I might not have cared about my actions, but I certainly do now, and I wish I could take a lot of them back.)