Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Making Sense of the Symbols

I find myself driving down the road making mathematical equations out of license plates. Do any of you, or am I alone in this? It's this need to create order out of disorder. Sort of like the nonsense text verification that appears when leaving a friendly message on someone's blog; jsqsspd, or klbxmz. I will look at those letters just scratching my brain trying to come up with a sentence or word. Rarely does anything emerge, but I try. This explains why I quit doing word scrambles at showers a long time ago. Most people would just be getting rolling and I'd be done. Kind of embarrasing. What does it all mean?

5 comments:

KT~MolarArtist said...

Creating "order out of disorder"? Yes. Me? I like to play a game and attempt to pronounce the three-letter combo on Nebraska plates. Many of them contain a vowel making them easy to get a pronounceable syllable. We have PLU cars 302 and 303. Without a vowel it's even more fun.

That word verification to which you refer is supposed to reduce text-reading robots who roam cyberspace collecting email addresses or whatever is they're supposed to do. The funky text graphic is associated with the real letters and allows us humans to interact, saying "no" to the surfin' 'bots. Or so I've heard...

As a graphic artist and lover of typography I never understood why the typeface used on Nebraska plates have zeros and O's represented by the exact same character. Usually, the letter O is more rounded than its zero counterpart. Plus, the up-and-coming Q is not much better. In addition, the letters K and X look similar as do the I's and number 1's. I thought if I ever got a personalized plate I'd ask for some combo of the aforementioned characters... just so it would be difficult to read, thus proving my point of an ineffective and lackluster font: QO0O0Q.

That's the kind of stuff I think about while driving around Lincoln...not sure what it all means...

erin said...

It all means that you and I share the same brain.
I refuse to do crosswords or word scrambles or word finds with anyone's help anymore. It's too embarrassing.
I mean, seriously, there are only so many ways that 'EWE,' or 'OREO,' or 'JUXTAPOSITION' can go in a crossword.
Canigettanamen?
I make mathematical equations out of the numbers on the clock, and try to think of words and phrases for license plates.
You are not alone.

Kristen said...

It's a good thing you girls don't live in southwest NE. We have only numbers no letters on our license plates. I also try to make words out of the license plates when I see one. My kids think I am kind of crazy. I still like to do crosswords and searches. It is supposed to keep my brain active or some such thing. And heaven knows, I need all the help I can get these days. Kris, you have some really smart friends. I feel honored to beconsidered one of yours. I don't think I want to be with all of them at one time though, kind of scary for simple minded me.

KT~MolarArtist said...

I saw a license plate this morning that was the first in a series: the last three characters were three zeros.

If there are plates out there with the first three letters being "O", then somebody in Lincoln or Omaha has "OOO 000."

I want that plate.

Birdie said...

Just breezed by for the first time...I can say a hearty YES, I can relate! No one plays me in Boggle anymore. Ever been to Boxerjam and played Strike -A- Match & Out of Order? Have mercy! I even post vanity license plates I've seen around town on my blog, just because I think they're fun to figure out. I don't care if anyone reads them, I have fun finding them. I've nearly run off the road trying to scribble them down on my hand- eek! When I see a good one it's like getting a point. It's a form of obsessive compulsive entertainment perhaps *L*

p.s. my word verification is vrear *s*