Blog of Josh Hall

Well, I just got done watching Donnie Darko again.  In the movie, Drew Barrymore says that a famous linguist once said that “Cellar Door” was the most beautiful word in the english language, which leads him to his destiny of going into Grandma death’s cellar door.  From what i have researched so far, the original “linguist” to have said this is debatable.  Fact:  Tolkien wrote about it in a short essay:

…continued

“The basic pleasure in the phonetic elements of a language and in the style of their patterns, and then in a higher dimension, pleasure in the association of these word-forms with meanings, is of fundamental importance. This pleasure is quite distinct from the practical knowledge of a language, and not the same as an analytic understanding of its structure. It is simpler, deeper-rooted, and yet more immediate than the enjoyment of literature. Thought it may be allied to some of the elements in the appreciation of verse, it does not need any poets, other than the nameless artists who composed the language. It can be strongly felt in the simple contemplation of vocabulary, or even in a string of names. …Most English-speaking people, for instance, will admit that *cellar door* is ‘beautiful,’ especially if dissociated from its sense (and from its spelling). More beautiful that, say, *sky*, and far more beautiful than *beautiful*, Well then, in Welsh, for me *cellar doors* are extraordinarily frequent, and moving to the higher dimension, the words in which there is pleasure in the contemplation of the association of form and sense are abundant.”

Others chalk the origins up to Poe, saying that Tolkien was just commenting on what Poe said.  do a google for “cellar door beautiful” and you will find a gagillion threads about the topic, pretty much all of them inspired by donnie darko. 

i had some other things to comment on and say, but i completely lost track, it’s 5 am.  what do you expect.  anyway, watch donnie darko.  Fear, love, religion, time travel, patrick swazey involved in a kiddie porn ring, what more could you want in a movie?

alright, i was going to just avoid writing about the whole thing, but i may as well not hide it.  I was also going to try and twist it like i was away for the whole weekend, but the fact remains that i wasn’t.  bob and i left my apartment at 2 am friday.  i was back in my bed by 7pm friday.  so i basically drove 12 hours for breakfast with drew.  did i have a good time?  yes.  would i do it again?  probably not.

so i am working sundays noon-midnight and mondays 4-12 this summer at helpdesk.  just for anyone who cares.  still the same after hours support for touchtown too.  may or may not try to pick up a few hours at touchtown during the day.  we’ll see.

congrats to Kip (DPA), he is going to E3 in LA.  how awesome is that?   I have always wanted to go to E3 (it is a giant gaming convention, Electrontric Entertainment Expo) and interview companies.  so awesome.  I am completely jealous.  One day i will have something great happen to me like that….

Congrats also to J’aime and Dan for moving into their new house.  I have yet to see it, and they ended up not needing my help today to move, but i am looking forward to seeing it.  I foresee them not staying over my mom’s house over holidays though, since they are closer now.  Perhaps they will be making more smaller visits though.  wink wink, nudge nudge.

So this summer….what to say what to say.  we got work taken care of.  provided helpdesk doesnt fire all student workers.   and concerts galore.  Kim and Kathy are coming up, Kim got an internship at UPMC, and Kathy is taking classes at Pitt, so i should be able to hang out with them a lot.  And hopefully the CStone crew will still be a developing circle of friends.  So I should be good for the summer, just got to worry about fall…how i am going to pay for school, how i am going to pay for where i am going to live, where i am going to live, who i am going to live with… A lot of unknowns for the fall.  Wish me luck.

No words of wisdom today, Kip and Paul got that covered with the below quotes.  I will just leave you with how i plan on getting a tan this summer…

“i can’t get what i want, and can’t want what i get”

-Kip

“People won’t hurt/offend/alienate someone that has something they want.  If you find yourself being treated like *crap*, odds are you aren’t bringing much to the table.”

“If you go around acting fragile, you are begging to get broken.”

-Heavy_Equipment

blarg.  no one wants to go to concerts with me.  matchbook romance may 1st, jimmies chicken shack the 6th.  i am there solo if i have to.

so i am going to delaware tomaro for the weekend with bob.  we have decided to not spend the whole time at drews, i want to go to philly, i have never been there.  and he wants to go to the beach.  should be entertaining.  i am taking my camera, hopefully i will remember to use it.

gotta clean out my closet.  literally.  all kinda of crapola in there.

so um, the shoutbox is borked.  something about the new server it doesnt like.  i will work with it later next week. 

i threw out some resumes this past week.  we’ll see if anything bounces back.  they usually don’t.

my host is moving servers, so that means i will be too, there may be a few glitches here and there, let me know if you have any problems.  I will probably start moving over tonight, and hopefully finish by morning