Archives of Our Lives

{a narrow and broad look into the lives of people I love}

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Pick Apart {of Me}

I know it's Wednesday only, but I felt like answering a Thursday question today.

Q [from Jennie]:

I have a question to be added to your Thursday posts' list.

Why do you put brackets around your titles? You don't do it all the time, but probably half of the time, so you must have a reason for it. So, why? What does it mean? (By brackets, I mean { }. I don't know what those are called.)

A [from me]:

Hi, Jennie! Who are you? There wasn't a link accompanying your name, so I don't have any idea who you are. Which is a lot like making you anonymous, only kind of worse, because I have a bit of a hint. If you are from Mesa and I have met you, you could be a few people. Jennie my neighbor, Jennie my aunt, Jennie who takes pictures, Jennie the mother of my best friend, Jennie from the block.

In regards to your question...WRONG! There is not really any rhyme or reason to
my use of {these things}.

First off, let's figure out what they're called. According to the most reliable source on the internet, {these} may be referred to as 1} squiggly brackets, 2} squigglies, 3} curly brackets, or 4} braces. I feel silly using the term "squiggly" in my daily discourse, and braces make me think of how I need to see the dentist, so for our intents and purposes, let's call them "curly brackets."

Secondly, my inspiration: {Frolic!}
A simple "if, then" statement should suffice. If someone does it... and I like it... then I do it. Queen of mimicry, that's me. Never had an original thought in my head.

You are right about one thing, though: I don't use curly brackets all the time in my titles.
Only sometimes. I never know when I am going to use them. Sometimes my titles just look like they need a little...something extra. So I hug them with curly brackets, and go along my merry way. It's not something I give any major thought. If it happens, it happens. If not, fine. {I suppose that makes me sound very spontaneous and full-of-life. Actually, most days, the use of curly brackets in my titles is the most adventurous thing that happens to me. Everybody should move to a country where they're legally forced to be lazy.}

However, since you're probably looking for a little more closure in your life, and I don't take the challenge "ask-me-anything" lightly, I've broken it down for you.

Here is a list of recent posts that have been titled with the use of curly brackets:

{A Lesson in Self-Assertion}
{I Put the Ab in Abnormal}
{Flip My Flop}
{The Dog Ate My Blog Post}
{Communism at its Finest}
{Life Lessons and Muffin Tops}

Here is a list of recent posts that have been freely titled:

The Saga of Steve vs. Ned--This is Mostly Speculation
I Wonder How Many Angels Had to Die in the Making of This Bed?
There's no Such Thing as Edward and Bella
And Then I Was Faced With My Day of Reckoning
I Turned 22 And All I Got Was Adult Acne.

So maybe I use the brackets with shorter titles, or titles that are not quite long enough to be my life history.

I don't know.

But thank you, Mystery Jennie, whoever you are. For caring. For reading. I hope I answered you enough.

And if you have any more questions, anyone....please. Don't hesitate to ask.

Labels: ,

11 Comments:

Blogger Lindsey said...

Such a nice detailed answer. i think I would have answered with something like {because they're beautiful, and sometimes I simply want to use them!}

And I too want to know who this mystery Jennie is. It's not my mom by the way-her name is spelled J-e-n-n-y.

October 1, 2008 at 12:41 AM  
Blogger chelsie said...

Is this the first time you've written this? I swear I am having psycho deja vu if this is the first post about these brackets.

I like them and think they are beautiful too. I have deterred from using them on mine because I am a copy cat too.

October 1, 2008 at 1:45 AM  
Blogger HeatherPride said...

Well I like that the curly brackets are used to hug your titles. And when I typed that, I initially typed "huge your titles" so maybe that's kind of true, too.

October 1, 2008 at 7:12 AM  
Blogger RPH said...

thanks for the explaination. it sets my mind at ease.

now for another question for your question of the week:

what kind of camera do you have? do you photoshop your pictures? (like the pics of the flowers?) or are they naturally that colorful and vivid?

please, oh please, answer my question...i have only asked 100 times! come on, camille!

October 1, 2008 at 7:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Now Camille, thank you, thank you, for answering this very important, life-altering question of mine. I can now rest peacefully at night.

And I'm sorry, I'm just Jennie. Though you can certainly call me Jennie from the Block, should you like. I stumbled across your blog from my friend Brad who lives in Alberta. I kept coming back because I think you are funny. And hott.

This is all.

October 1, 2008 at 11:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Millie,

Interesting.

October 1, 2008 at 3:45 PM  
Blogger RatalieNose said...

Camille, we (meaning your faithful blog stalkers) have not had the privelage to hear much about your high school days. Being in high school myself I would love to hear some stories! So here are a few questions, you can pick whichever ones you want to answer:

1. Of all the dances you went to which was the best? the worst? Who was your date? What was the theme?

2.Were you ever on student council? If so, what position?

3. What was your best year of high school?

October 1, 2008 at 3:51 PM  
Blogger Lindsey said...

Camille. Question:

If you HAD to choose to NEVER see your nephew again, or have to own, and care for a cat, which would you choose? And just for clarification, by 'care for a cat' I mean feed it, pet it, give it a nice name, hold it in your lap, let it nuzzle its little head against you, and sleep in your bed occasionally, etc. Oh, and live inside your house.)

October 1, 2008 at 4:17 PM  
Blogger Merkley Jiating said...

Haha. Lindsey, that is hilarious! Camille, you crack me up every day and I love it!
-Emily

October 1, 2008 at 8:03 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi! I happened to stumble across your blog from a from a friend who follows yours!

This post made me laugh... seriously, pee-my-pants laugh! Funny thing is I totally us {whatever you want to call them} things! I don't really know why I do it either, but I do it on all my posts!

Thanks for the laugh!

October 2, 2008 at 7:56 AM  
Blogger Alicia said...

I have a question for you also, and I was going to hesitate to ask, but then the end of your post said "Don't hesitate to ask." So here's me not hesitating:

For how long will you not be able to work or go to school or whatever in Canada? Also, what are their reasons for not letting you do so? Don't get me wrong--I think you should do whatever you please with your time, but it would be nice for you to have some options (I'd think).

Also, on a related note, what do you think you will do once you are allowed to work and attend school?

That's all I got, but I'll keep thinking of questions for you. :)

October 2, 2008 at 3:15 PM  

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