The Art of rambling.... or babbling.... or whatever you’d like to call it.

Well, my stay in Winterpeg is nearing its close with only 6 more full days of work. In my last 4 weeks away I’ve developed a skill I thought I would share with you all. And that is the skill of the babble, or the ramble, or whatever name you would like to call it. Mind you, I had this skill before... but this last internship have definatly honed those skills into a well oiled machine! For this blog’s sake, we’ll call it rambling (moreso I’ll call it rambling and you’ll read it as rambling.... in the actual word form...as well as the verb form. My case in point #1, when you ramble... never stop to think about what your writing. Just merrily go along with the thoughts in your head that you probably shouldn’t be saying out loud (or written down in this case) and also probably don’t make much sense at all. ...Unless you read it really, really fast... I find that usually helps.

As you proceed through the ramble it is also a good idea to get off topic once or twice. This will engage the reader in a little quirky tidbit of information that they normally would not care to know. Profs seem to be quite good at this. Some teachers as well (Lance, I’m talking to you here buddy!) Perhaps they get some sort of course or class in rambling.... but I doubt it. It is a good thought though. Anyways, large words are also ok to be used in rambling. I guess small words would have to be used... So in summary, any size of word can be used. And if you do the rambling correctly some odd phrases or words just might spill out. For instance, I was writing a paper today on validating a drug screening procedure for serum sample (fun, I know.) and towards the middle of my “Results” section I found myself pondering for a word to replace the one I was thinking of. Normally I would be looking for words to substitute “good” or “valid”... something of that nature. But this time I was trying to find a word to use in the place of propensity... I ended up just leaving it in there because it was the only thing to make sense to me at the time... but you get my point there. Sometimes odd phrases and words are the only thing you can write, so never stop to try and think of another one... just write it down... it’s rambing... it’s not supposed to make alot of sense!

Now, I know I said that you shouldn’t read back through the rambling writings... but you should check for spelling. Spelling is usually the culprit in “ramblings gone wrong”. Mainly due to the fact that ramblings are stitched together very loosely and don’t often make sense to begin with, so if you spell something wrong, it makes even less sense. And less sense is not good sense.... in this sense. Along with spelling, proper punctuation is a good idea. It doesn’t have to be a proper sentence structure, but the reader needs to know when to take a break. Infact, your rambling could be just one giant sentence, but as long as you add some commas in there, everything will be ok. Another option is the flagrant use of periods... indicating a continued idea path but yet long enough to create a pause... see what I mean........ this could go on for a while.... it works quite well....I have to say I quite enjoy e-mails like this...... especially this one in particular..... but we won’t get into that at this time..... :)

So, my friends... there you have it. The keys to the success in the world of rambling... all the things you never knew you needed to know, but probably didn’t need to know anyway.

** I thought you would enjoy this little diddy of a tune.... for bagpipes I believe.... but still... goodtimes.... I'm sure 1785 was a good year for bagpipe composers.....