Recluse

I realize that for the past few weeks, I've been living in the Dark Ages: no cell phone, no personal laptop/desktop. Surprisingly though, I kind of like it because it makes me unreachable, which I know can be frustrating for others (read: for my mom), but it's rather nice to be sitting in Starbuck's or the bookstore for five hours straight by myself with no interruptions. Without these things, I've created a sort of haven for myself where I can be alone (even in a public place) and do my own thing without constantly wondering where everyone else is or what they are up to.

Have you ever wondered, just who is Charles Bliss?

Wow, never?

Well, he's the inventor of the Bliss symbols, a writing system based solely on meaning, not sound, which is unlike any other writing system in the world. Even the Chinese script has a phonetic basis. One of my favorite symbols is the one for "secret", which is the symbol for "mouth" enclosed in a box. Doesn't it make so much sense? One can even write that ultra-famous nonsensical phrase coined by Chomsky: "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" in Bliss symbols, although "furiously" is written with the symbols for "angrily".

And this is exactly why I don't think a solely semantics-based writing system could ever flourish like a regular writing system with some phonetic basis, because there is no room for synonyms; otherwise the system would be way too unwieldy. I could be wrong about this though, who knows. Maybe it just takes a little thinking outside that Box that everyone keeps talking about. By the way, did I use that semi-colon correctly? Those things always confused me...