An Exploration of Sentence Structure (Concerning Stella)

It’s a stagnant, headaching, rainfalling mood.  I’m not really sure where to go with this post, as there are many different eddies flowing around in the stream of my consciousness.  Typically, I would do this with a list (or lists), but I’m just not feeling that for this post.  No.  This post needs to be special for reasons unbeknownst to me.  Let’s see…  Ok.  I’ve got it.  Now, let’s see here…

Simple Sentences
Stella’s been sick.  She’s vomited and messed.  She looks pitiful.  She’s getting better.  The Vet prescribed antibiotics.

Compound Sentences
Stella had not ate much and we were worried.  She did eat a little cereal, but not any dog food.

Complex Sentences
She needed to get back to her dog food, as she is a dog, but she was being stubborn.  Because of this, her messes have been disgusting.  I have a weak stomach and an extra-sensitive smeller, and, combined, I gag easily.

That’s enough of that.  Whew.  That was tough.  Forced me to focus.  Concentrate on subject, predicate, clauses, etc.  (I’m sure there are errors.)  I’ve always enjoyed grammar, to the point where I would read books for pleasure and analyze a sentence.  Part of the beauty of grammar is that, like with math, there are rules that must be followed.  The bigger beauty is that those rules can be bent and broken to your own means, if you so choose, and as long as it is within reason and understandable.  There’s a certain creativity to it all.

Another thing I’ve always been fascinated with is linguistics.  I find languages amazing.  Etymology is interesting, and I often look for root words when I’m trying to come up with a unique word for a story I’m writing.  If I had the time and money, I’d like to go back to college and learn a few foreign languages or study linguistics or philology or something.

Did you know that the act of yawning is called pandiculation?  Yep.  And just thinking about yawning can cause you to yawn.  It’s common knowledge that yawning is contagious, even among some animals.  Fascinating.  (How many of you pandiculated reading this paragraph?  I know I did while writing it.)

For several weeks I’ve been working on defining drainage areas for erosion concerns.  Not too sure exactly what I was supposed to do, but going on the assertion from my boss that it was like drawing watersheds, I began.  After many weeks, I’ve finally got all of the “watersheds” drawn.  The total site covers many acres, so it took a while.  This is a snapshot of what the zoomed-out map looks like now.  Kind of reminds me of spider webs wrapped around something.  Now I’ve only to populate an Excel sheet or two and discover that what I’ve done was pointless and wrong.  Oh the joys of self-teaching.

Published author, e-pal, and fellow blogger Brandon Barr posted a link on his blog yesterday to an audio presentation of a short story he wrote.  Titled “At the End of the Time Jump,” the tale was thought provoking, entertaining, and excellent.  I don’t want to give anything away, but I rather enjoyed the story.  The reader’s voice also was perfect for the science-fiction theme of the tale.  I don’t read a lot of sci-fi outside of the STAR WARS books, but I thought I could lend a few minutes for a short story.  In short (very short), if you’ve got 30-60 minutes to lend an ear, check out the story.  Or, if you’re like me, listen to it at work.

I really haven’t slept much since Sunday night.  I woke up by rolling into a pile of wet, chunky vomit sometime in the early hours of Monday morning and then listened helplessly as Stella hacked and choked the night away.  Monday she acted better, though she ate nothing.  Then, Tuesday morning ~2am, Stella pulled off a small lamp from our bedside table.  I woke up and found a pile of dark, black nastiness nearby.  Stella had to be cleaned and washed off.  Eventually I got out of the bed around 4 and went to the couch, trying to get some much-needed rest.  Didn’t happen.  Tuesday night promised to be better until I found several more piles of oily nastiness, which required an hour-and-a-half cleaning of the upstairs.  Sleep, once again, fell out of the question.  Repeat once again and we’re up to today.  It’s like taking care of a baby, I imagine, with the lack of sleep and mess cleaning.

Looks like Conan’s leaving The Tonight Show.  Dumb ole NBC.  I hope wherever he goes he brings loads of success and followers with him.

I have a love/hate relationship with coffee.  Sometimes it hits the spot, bringing warmth and smoothness and a caffeine perk.  Sometimes, however, it tastes bland, burnt, nasty, and lukewarm, and I have to struggle to get it down.  Of course, I don’t drink coffee everyday, but usually I do.

I’m not feeling well.  Good luck.