#20 - Metawriting

2 minute read

Motto: Knowledge comes from experience. Experience comes from doing things.

You like that motto? I thought of it myself. It actually has been my motto over the past couple months or so. This marks the first time I put a real motto in the spot where I put my “motto”. My new motto: That won’t happen again.

Motto. Motto. Muh auto.

If you say a word too much, it stops sounding real.

The motto is a reference to my desire to be a great writer. One who could write down his thoughts and have them read by people, even if they weren’t good thoughts. I can’t become a great writer without writing great things. In order to write great things, you have to write a lot of bad things first. It’s kind of like how when you go to a new place you have to be lost for a little bit before you can know where you are. That’s the driving force behind this column. Writing for writing. Writing about writing. Metawriting. The kind of writing that is fun to read. The kind that leaves people wanting more. The kind that sticks with you when you’re done. That’s the kind of writing I want to be capable of.

You aren’t supposed to end sentences with prepositions. You aren’t supposed to start start sentences with “because”. Because I do those things, much guilt I have.

I’m going to end this trek into the wildly mediocre with a short limerick which I will make up now.

Googled “limerick” to verify rhyme scheme, Wikipedia article’s sublime dream. But don’t rely on those, they’re written by bozos. Academically akin to a crime scene.

So it wasn’t great. You try writing one better. Haikus are so dumb.

I’m also thinking about writing because I located my old green notebook in which I used to do a lot of it. Not “poetry” type writing, usually… more like… nerd writing. Here is a picture of it next to my new tablet case. Notice how they compliment each other? That was accidental.

Left: Nexus 7 in its case. Right: The book for writing.

In other news. I’m almost 24.

ಠ_ಠ

Top 5: Pages in My Green Notebook

  1. A set of equations that, when plotted, create a Celtic cross, 45 degrees titled from the axis, whose segments all abide the golden ratio with respect to one-another… accurate to five decimal places.
  2. A short list of things Dan Brown has probably been obsessed with at some point over the past 10 years.
  3. A list of movie stereotypes that I wanted to make parodies for
  4. An index of my favorite symbols, where they came from and what they mean. Related: A list of my preferred mathematical notations.
  5. 20+ pages of life notes, hypotheses, and summaries. Lists of what makes a person “good”, “morale”, and “healthy”

Quote:

“I can pick up a mole (animal) and throw it [citation needed]” Randall Munroe