I used to be

[Note: Poem in progress. I know that if I never post it, I will just forget to. I start some poems that I never finish, but I am inspired to make this three stanzas long (I already have ideas), with each stanza as long as this first one.]


I used to be the pathetic

kid whose parent appealed to her gullible

co-workers for purchases of

chocolates

cheesecakes

               onions

used to fuel a trip to Hickstown, U.S.A. or else the nation's capital

with the sweetest intents for the local high school band or dance troupe,

whose potential for first-rate tooting or routines speckled

               with pliés could only be fulfilled by my generous

decision to submit myself to be the indignant victim

of highway robbery in the form of three-dollar industrial sweets

that cost less than half the price at the locally owned

               candy store on the corner.

Their intentions may be sweet, I think to myself with a self-satisfying chuckle,

but their trips will be sultry

War of the Js.

How common is it to confuse "Justin" with "Jason"?

I only ask because three separate professors I work with have done it.

It makes sense, because the two share three letters and an ending rime, [In]. Additionally, even though the "t" is missing in Jason, both have the stresses on the first syllable, and so the last part is sort of rushed out anyway.

And you would think that "a" and "u" would have distinct enough sounds, but in actuality, if you test it out, with the initial "J", both vowels are created with a lower front tongue and high back tongue. The only (slight) difference in the vowels are the result of a shifted middle part of the tongue. Try it out!

Jay

Juh

This is where I would include more specialized terms from Linguistics to impress my legion of dedicated readers, however I've gone blank on some of the jargon associated with vowels, so I will stop while I'm ahead.

I guess my conclusion from all of this is that words may be closer in sound than they may seem from how they are written. Which I already knew. So this is just another anecdote to support that conclusion.

Summer 2008 Movie Preview (short version).

[Note: I started this post a couple of days ago and ran out of steam. I don't think I'll get around to viewing/reviewing any more previews right now, so here you go...]

I'm looking to kill some time, so I'll view all the trailers for the summer movies coming out and give you a one word description, and an indication of whether it will be worth your time/money based on a snap judgment. Props to this site for help with this.

Movie	Release Date	In One Word	Yes/No
Iron Man	May 2	Steely	Yes
Made of Honor	May 2	Gay	No
Son of Rambow	May 2	Cute	Yes
Speed Racer	May 9	Overblown	No
What Happens In Vegas	May 9	Crapbomb	No
Chronic(what?)-culz of Narnia 2	May 16	CGI-rific	Yes
Indiana Jones 4	May 22	Sextagenarian	Yes
Sex and the City	May 30	Gayer	No
The Strangers	May 30	Heebity-Jeebities	Yes
Kung Fu Panga	June 6	Ugh	No
Mongol	June 6	Rehash	No