My Music Journal 2025 - January 7, 2025

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Time: 7:55 AM
Song: Shaky Town 
Artist: Jackson Browne
Mode of Consumption: MP3 – Drive to work listening to MP3s on shuffle from my phone.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/0PcqEMaEUepcTrPGemOFfd?si=e052c2e5fd414624

“That’s a big ten-four,” Jackson Browne sings.

While I had heard that phrase mostly in TV shows depicting truckers, it wasn’t one I used until I started my job at ASE at the end of 2015. My boss, Tom, uses 10-4 in his emails frequently, and it’s something that I have adopted in my communications.

Vernacular is like that. We all speak like the people around us. When that environment changes, new words appear in daily conversation and others fall by the wayside.

I remember in junior high in the mid-90s, Beavis and Butthead became popular. At that point, I didn’t have a cable or satellite dish TV, so I never actually watched the show, but I didn’t have to. Dozens of kids just started talking in the characters’ clipped, weird cadence to the point that I am sure I slipped into the lingo, too.

During my college years, I worked third shift at National Manufacturing during the summers with a small group of guys. They had a habit of making a strange collection of sounds, not words really, randomly throughout the night. It’s hard to describe in writing. By the end of each summer, I had grown accustomed to doing the same. Gradually, I lost that when I returned to school because the meaning was lost to others.

Since joining ASE, I’ve noticed other changes to my vocabulary. I use the phrase “I sense that…” and sometimes the word “Suss,” although that can be a bit of cheeky thing around these parts referring to a former co-worker. I am sure there were phrases that I used daily when I was reporting on sports, but none of those come to mind now.

This collage of people and experiences form the basis for my communication, so much of it scavenged along the way without my even realizing it. It’s something to consider when crafting characters and the things they say.