Tuesday, May 10, 2005
A Different Font
I 'm still in the throes of late-semester whatnot. I took an exam yesterday; here are my notes (PDF). I've posted them here not because I expect you to read them or because I think you'll find the bits and ends collected in them very striking. Just share with me in marveling at my attempt to rake it all into a single heap. Later on, I will come back to this entry which will trigger my fast-fading memory and point out to me that I over-prepared responses to questions that were not on the exam. We were confined to just three pages of notes. Three pages? No problem. I openly gamed the 8.5x11 by changing font size. By switching to a seven point font--voilà!--5,000+ words, equivalent of ħsixteen pages of text. If nothing else, it's a testament to an evolving mania, which has blossomed handsomely toward the end of this first year of coursework. (Surprised? Well yeah, I try to keep the shenanigans off the blog.)
You know, with the font-smunching I also started wondering whether I could go a degree or two further--a five or six point font, say (something distinctive like TrueType Pismire 6). But if we could use a magnifying glass as a mediating tool to assist reading, why not a microfilm reader? Or a computer? What's a page's volume for condensed data if we're allowed the help of mediating devices? Of course it won't get me very far thinking like this; was just wondering about it.
Today I'm buttoning down (up? snapping down?) a project for 611: The Development of Modern Composition Studies. Suck in, dammit! It's like fitting old bluejeans that are two inches too slim. So maybe more than buttoning it (which would presume everything fits when, uhm, no. it. does. not.), I'm actually applying a figurative safety pin--a carefully chosen safety pin, at that. Or a belt. Whatever the case, I'm locked in with a familiar font size, so one thing about the project will look conventional.
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