A small rant: I’ve never been a fan of scare quotes. Used sparingly, they can be useful, I suppose; I just think a careful writer can usually find a better way to alert readers that a term is being used in a nonstandard, ironic, or otherwise “special” sense (see what I did there? Aren’t I “clever”?).

Sometimes, though, quotation marks are just straight-up misused, and the results are confounding:

At the entrance to the Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium, there is a welcome sign that uses quotation marks the phrase “Enjoy Your Visit.” Used properly, the quotation marks would indicate that the words are not being used in their usual sense. So what does the Nebraska Games and Parks Commission know that we don’t? The sign seems to be saying, “Pretend to enjoy your visit,” or something more sinister like, “Enjoy your visit, suckers!”

More troubling in its improper use of quotation marks, though, was Ian’s recent prescription for antibiotics. The instructions read, “Shake liquid well and give ‘Ian’ 4 ml by mouth twice daily for 10 days. Discard remainder.” Well, I’m not sure who or what they meant by “Ian” (fake Ian? wink-wink nudge-nudge Ian?), so we just gave regular Ian the meds.

And not to be obnoxious, but a little tip that might actually be helpful for some: when you use the word so-called, scare quotes are redundant (i.e., “my so-called life,” not “my so-called ‘life’”).

So, I’ve decided I’m going to participate in NaBloPoMo: a post every day for the month of November. I did this two years ago, and it was definitely challenging. I wasn’t up for it last year, but I think I’m ready to give it a go again. I like Lindsey’s idea of having a certain kind of post for each day of the week. In fact, I have been meaning to implement a similar strategy for some time, but like Jamie, I find that even though I have lots of ideas for the blog, it’s more fun to dream them up than to follow through. In any case, it’s November (!), so here we go. (Call me crazy, but I’m going to try to post every day over at Needs More Butter as well.)

I have dozens of journals. Dozens. A few of them are pristine, and the rest are only half full. This is because I am hopelessly daunted by blank pages. If I do happen to begin with the marking of the pages, I tend to then want the book to be for one purpose only. Inevitably, though, I will eventually mix sermon notes in with to-do lists, and then the book is no good to me (hence the half-fullness of so many).

And so it is with this new design (thanks, of course, go to my amazing husband). I am simultaneously completely inspired to blog again and utterly terrified to write anything at all. So…