The ferst time I was in Egypt a simplified speling epidemic had broeken out and the atmosfeer was electric with feeling enjenderd bi the subject. This was about fiev thouzand yeers ago. The simplifiers had rizen in revolt agenst the hieroglifics. An uncl of Cadmus hoo was out of a job had cum to Egypt and was trieing to introdoos the Phonecian alfabet and get it adopted insted of the hieroglifics. The Simplifiers wer fue, the Opozishun wer multituedinus. Amung the Simplifiers wer meny men of lerning and distinkshun, maenly litererry men and members of colej facultys, but all ranks and condishuns of men and all graeds of intelect, scolarship, and ignorans wer reprezented bi the Opozishun. Uncl Cadmus began an object leson, with chauk, on a cupl of blakbords. On wun of them he roet in hieroglifics: "At this time the King pozest of cavalry 214,580 men and 222,631 horses, of infantry 84,946 men, 37,264 transportaeshun carts, 321 elefants, and 28,954 camels." It fild the bord and reqierd twenty-six minits of time. Then he repeeted it on anuther blakbord in Italian script and Arabic noomerals and did it in wun minit and a qorter. Then he sed, "Mi argument is befor U. Wun of the objecshuns of the hieroglifics is that it takes the brietest puepil nien yeers to get the forms and thair meenings bi hart; it takes the rest of the naeshun all thair daes to accomplish it -- it is a lief sentens. If you wil renouns the hieroglifics and adopt riten werds insted, a tremendus advantej wil be gaend. Bi U? No, not bi U. U hav spent yur lievz in mastering the hieroglifics, and to U thae ar simpl, and the efect plezant to the ie, and eeven buetiful. But I apeel to U in behaf of jeneraeshuns yet to cum. Let yur suns and dauters adopt the riten werds and the alfabet, and thus saev milyons of yeers of uesles time and laebor." The Opozishun roez and combated his reezoning in the uezhual wae. Thoez peepl sed thae had long bin acustomd to hieroglifics and had deer and saecred memorys about them, that thae luvd to sit on a barrel under an umbrela in the brilyant sun of Egypt and spel out the rabits and eegls and aligaetors and sawteeth, and taek an our and a haf to the Lord's Prair, and weep with roemantic emoeshun at the thaut that thae had, at moest, but aet or ten yeers between themselvs and the graev for the enjoyment of this extasy.     —Mark Twain

I'm qikly becuming enamord with SoundSpel. Thair ar meny reezons for wonting to reform the speling of English, frum maeking it eezyer for maeking the tranzishun to English eezyer to lern for imigrants and uther non naetiv speekers to maeking literasy skils mor nacheral for naetiv speekers.

It wuud allso help solv a frustraeting ishoo I, and meny uthers, offen cum acros: thair ar meny werds I am qiet familyar with in print but hav no iedeea how to pronouns. Having red it meny tiems but never having herd it properly pronounst, I fiend it dificult to uez thees werds in oral conversaeshun. Speekers of langgwejes such as Spanish or German do not hav this problem and with a reformd sistem such as SoundSpel, English speekers wuudn't eether.

For sumwun uezd to the oeld speling sistem, SoundSpel is prity eezy to lern to reed but a task to lern to riet. Becauz of the readability of SoundSpel; laebels, siens, and public docuements cuud to be qikly chaenjd to SoundSpel without cauz much in the wae of confuezhun.

I am serten that no amount of nujing and cajoeling cuud sucseed in geting sum peepl to swich oever to SoundSpel. But, as pointed out bi Twain, this isn't for the curent jeneraeshun but of the jeneraeshuns yet to cum. The chaenj cuud be handld in a jeneraeshunal wae. Children cuud be taut to riet SoundSpel, but be instructed on how to reed the oelder spelings until thoes spelings becum obsoleet.

Taeking the leed in speling reform wuud be a huej advantej for the Uenieted Staets. It wuud esenshaly enshrien American English as standard. However, I do hav seerius douts that a cuntry that veeemently rezists adopting metric wuud undertaek sumthing as braezen as speling reform.

The American Literasy Counsil offers free sofftwair that wil automaticaly translaet standard English speling to SoundSpel (Microsoft Werd is reqierd). It is a bit bugy and I do fiend it anoiing that the proegram consistently drops the "e" frum "the", which isn't standard SoundSpel. The problem is eezily fixt with a serch and replaes. It maeks a fue uthere errors as wel, and eeven tho the rezults must stil be proofred it stil saevs time and increeses acuerasy for thoes nue to SoundSpel like mieself. In fact, I uezd it to prepare this poest. Perhaps I shuud practis rieting longger strings in SoundSpel.

Poll #844112
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Whut do U think of SoundSpel? (0 = "Pleez no! It herts, maek it stop!"; 10 = "Wun of th best iedeeas ever, we shuud all swich oever imeedyetly")

one cannot help but make harm
to live hurts
and hurts those around
consuming
and moving
break the space around you
as the dread pirate roberts said:
life is pain
anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something

we see only that which our narrow focus allows
even looking at the big picture is a narrow focus
one loses some of the small
even with all the shudders open
we can only take in so much
we do with what we have
seeing what we see
they say the road to hell is paved in good intentions
but inaction can lead there just the same
good intentions alone do not always good actions make
and we cannot do good action all the time
because we only see a narrow focus
we cannot see where all our actions lead
we all do harm
we can try to do more good than harm
even so we will sometime still do harm instead
we are half-blind elephants in a shop of glassware
it is inevitable

I remember when the Republicans used to complain wildly about "unfunded mandates". They don't do that anymore, because Bush is king of the unfunded mandate. Almost every bill the Republicans have rammed down our throats has included them, from No Child Left Behind to the PATRIOT Act. Compared to Bush and his cronies in congress, the pressure the Democrats had put on state and local budgets is like dew dripping from a leaf next to a pissing elephant.

Had a therapy appointment and a pdoc appointment today. Both went well. My therapist told me that when I thought they wouldn't let me on the bus because I was an elephant 8 years ago, I was psychotic. Also the voice 10 years ago telling me to go north was also a symptom of a "thought disorder". However, she did say that my more recent confusions of dreaming and waking are probably due to my SSRI rather than a psychosis. I haven't had any true symptom of psychosis in a long time.

My pdoc said that the way I felt when I didn't have any geodon was how I am without medication. She was adamant that it was not withdrawal. She said the reason it seemed worse is that I'm not used to being like that anymore, so it's an adjustment to go back to it. If that is me without Geodon, I can fully understand my suicide attempts.