1:08 a.m. - 2003-01-17
Lemonade
I have one of those colds that feels like someone took a hammer to your face. My skin is so dry it feels like it would flake off like pie crust, if someone touched me. Darn thing has settled in one of the eustachian tubes and is just radiating outward. The rest of the body - can't even tell if it's there except that half the time I'm freezing, and then I'm burning up. I couldn't lie down because I couldn't breathe last night so I was 24 hours without sleep today. Just a tad cranky. I finally found that coffee, and only coffee, would ease the symptoms - go figure. Napped this morning.
I decided I might as well make lemonade from the lemons served up to me, so I played Mah Jongg for a while, then surfed the web for various information. Rewrote and then sent out a couple more resumes. While I was doing that, I used the grammar check on my wordprocessing progam to ensure everything was copacetic. The results kept coming up referencing the Flesch-Kincaid scale. Didn't know what that was, so I did search number one. Turns out it's like every other system of measurement. It works if what you want to measure falls within the parameters (assumptions) underlying the system.
For example, I'm familiar with two algebraic math systems. The first is Euclidean and the second is Boolean (I helped my ex study for his electronics exams). I can't remember exactly the number of principles listed for each system except that there were the same number - I think it was eight. All of those principles were identical except for the last two. Why does that matter? Well in the Euclidean system, parallel lines can never meet based on those principles; in the Boolean system they can. The Boolean system is the mathematical permission for developing circuits and describing their relationships. Ergo, you see, it allowed for the development of radios and such.
The short of it is for the work I was doing on my resumes last night, the Flesch-Kincaid system didn't apply. It focuses mostly on first person narrative expositions and would be used in schools, for example, for measuring grade level literacy. I didn't agree with all the assumptions underlying the system - more syllables doesn't necessarily mean a more difficult word to understand - for example ask a child to explain simplicity then to explain quark. However, as long as there is consistency in any testing and wobbles like the one I just cited are accounted for, then it is a reasonable baseline - not definitive - measure. I had bookmarked a grammar source sometime ago, http://newark.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/d.html, that is very user friendly, to reference instead. Once I was satisfied I hadn't made any major grammatical faux pas, I sent the resumes on their way with prayers.
The next bit I found on the net came from a site I visit regularly. They had bookmarked a site with the best satire I have read in a long time. At four in the morning, sick as I was, I was howling. My sons, at different times, sort of slipped into my peripheral vision. I guess they were just checking to see if I'd totally lost it or not. Actually it made me feel much better. The site is, http://users2.ev1.net/~file13/rant.html. Try it - you'll like it.
Went back to the job search issue and found that our provincial government's site had some interesting links. The text stated that, if one invested 12 to 15 hours on viewing the material they had provided, then one would be an expert in current job search techniques. Lovely idea, but when you've reached the point where you can barely remember your name, it's not a good time to try to absorb anything more complex than the TV Guide. I went to the sections that were most pertinent and then signed off.
Last stop was another person's weblog. I hadn't seen it before, but it was really interesting. They had included a translation option for visitors, so I thought I would try it in mine. Canada is an officially bilingual country, but linguistic surveys indicate there are several other language groups gaining ground - Spanish, Cantonese, German, Italian, Urdu, Punjabi. I e-mailed Elections Canada about it, to see if it would be a tool I could use for my work with them. We'll see.
Anyway, all that hard work had made me tired enough to finally go to sleep. I think that's where I'll head now too. 'Night.
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