Tag: words

Word nerd

According to Merriam-Webster online, an acronym is only a word made up of initial letters from a set of words. It is a form of an initialism, which is anything made up from the initial letter or letters from a set of words. Example? Radar is an acronym (for “radio detection and ranging”), but FBI is only an initialism (for “Federal Bureau of Investigation”). Radar is also an initialism, of course, as all acronyms are initialisms, though not all initialisms are acronyms.

So, that’s all for my nerdy sharing for tonight. Goodnight!

Dear God, thank you for my nerdiness. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Nerd

So, my man has a sinus infection. Our family nurse told him to go ahead and go to an urgent care place, since he had a fever as of this afternoon, and he still was coughing up all the yellow stuff. (Fun fact: Just before he went, he finally gave in and used the saline rinse nasal pot. He did a very good job, and I am still proud of him for letting go of that fear enough to give it a go again. I hate using them, too, and only do it when I really need to use it.)

Anyway, the doctor said he was fine to be around people and all. Just don’t make out with people, share drinks and utensils, cough on people, etc. So, he stopped at the store on the way home.

While he was there, he was trying to get connected to the wifi at the store, while on the phone with me (because I’d told him that they actually have wifi and it works effectively, and you can actually send and receive photos easily when connected to it). He puts me on speakerphone while he tries to figure it out, and starts kind of cursing up a storm in his ‘I’m already sick and now I’m also stressed and annoyed’ frustration/exhaustion. I tell him, “Chill…” After a short beat, I realize and add, “Although, I guess you can’t, since you have a fever.”

We definitely shared a moment of enjoying that idiocy together. 😛 😀 And it was glorious.

Post-a-day 2023

A touch of research…

… has determined that, as I expected from the Rosary recordings, Mark Wahlberg was Catholic from childhood (perhaps from age 13). Why I believed this to be the case initially was due to how he says the prayers. Firstly, there is a comfort and ease about them that comes only from much time and practice spent with the prayers. Secondly, he has the cadence of them as they are actually said in Church, which is again something that comes with much time and exposure. And thirdly, he says a few words different from how they occur in the official version of the prayer. These are words that, I believe, would be easy mistakes when learning the prayers aurally, by listening, which is mostly how we learn them as children. For example, in the Our Father, instead of, “Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses,” he says, “Give us this day our daily bread, but forgive us our trespasses…” Also, at the end of the O, My Jesus prayer, the line is, “…especially those in most need of thy mercy.” Mark Wahlberg says, “…especially those in most need of thine mercy.” If he had been reading the words, he would have noticed and corrected his errors, I believe. And the only reason he wouldn’t be reading them is because he is already so familiar with them, he can say them by heart.

Anyway, that’s where we are now with it all. He was Catholic already as a kid after all, it seems. However, the film is a great story filled with lots of opportunities to cry one’s eyes out. It ends with a happy feeling inside (just for those who need to know that before watching movies with sad stuff in them).

Here’s the trailer and a small message from Mr. Mark Wahlberg himself about how he wanted to share this story with the world: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DHREzAdyCPs&feature=emb_title

Post-a-day 2022

Wait, weight

Two things here. Firstly, language, and secondly, looks.

Language: I find it important to be conscious of what language we use around everything in life. This includes body weight and fitness. So, I do not like to use the term ‘to lose weight’ or any form of it. Why? Because, like they say with hypnosis and all other subconscious-connected things, if we “lose something,” our brains will aim to “get it back.” So, if we say that we’ve lost weight, our brains subconsciously can be always on the lookout to find that lost weight. It may sound utterly ridiculous, but the ways in which our words can impact our thinking, our habits, and our lives is quite profound.

So, I say things like, “released,” “went down in,” “got rid of,” etc. weight or fat, or I just say that one “weighs less,” instead did that someone “lost weight.”

Now, that being said, I move to the second item on the agenda.

Looks: Have you ever seen or known someone who actually looks like he or she lost weight? Like it is actually missing from their bodies, and they look, somehow, incomplete without it? Like they need to fill out, and presently look shrunken and somewhat collapsed and odd in their own skin? Some people seem like they are actually made to be a bit thicker, tougher, more solid, and so they look odd – like they’re missing something – once they have lost their weight…, because it seems it really was lost somewhere and ought to be found.

Post-a-day 2022

Crosswords

I finally made it happen tonight, and I got back into doing crossword puzzles. Yippee!

I messaged the buddy who got me into them in the first place, and we both got on Zoom to do the e-puzzle for the LA Times online together. Started with a Monday, because it has been a while for both of us. Then we jumped to today’s puzzle, a Wednesday, and had a grande ole time. It feels good to be a nerd, and it feels really good to be a nerd with someone else doing the same thing with me.

I look forward to our next puzzle(s) together in the very near future!

P.S. Happy feast day of St. Jude, October 28!! He’s my confirmation Saint.

Post-a-day 2021

le (gros) mot du jour

What could be better, more interesting, and more useful than simply the word of the day? The bad word of the day, of course. We cannot deny that, though we need not necessarily use bad words ourselves, it is important and valuable to know the bad words, so that we are able to recognize and understand what is being said in the world around us. Foreign language courses seem to avoid such things, but at what cost? Firstly, the individual is likely to be quite lost when interacting with a native environment. Secondly, loads of potential interest is lost without them. Because most teens and adults are quite interested in the bad words, whether they’re willing to admit it or not. And thirdly, such words and expressions share loads about the culture tied to the language.

I am very much not a bad word person. And yet two of my favorite words in Japanese are manko and oshiri. It’s probably because they are such silly yet useful words that I enjoy them so much. They are fun to know, more than useful. Which makes them even more fun to know, I suppose.

So, yeah… the (bad) word of the day sounds like a kind of amazing idea to me… so long as the students can handle it, that is…

Post-a-day 2021

Making music

I started writing another song last night. It was initially to help me organize and express some thoughts around the work situation within my life so far – how it isn’t exactly consistent in terms of title or finances, but it is always part of being my true self and being committed to making a positive difference in this world. But an unexpected line showed up right at the end of the session last night, and it was clearly part of the chorus. It was a line about listening to the angels around me. And it made sense, but seemed almost out of place for the content so far in the song…

Until today, that is. Today, for whatever reason, a deeper fullness arose for the song. My mom and I discussed the situation with my Opa, how he is dying, and how he might finish that process in the very near future. It is an uncomfortable thought, itself, but we both are ready to allow what needs to happen next in the situation. At least, as ready as we know how to be…

However, after she and I discussed their things for a while, and then got off the phone, I started working on the song again, as I had just begun before our phone call (I think I had, anyway). As I got reacquainted with what I’d written so far, I started feeling what ideas needed to come next. I was reminded of the encouragement my Opa had given me one day, and felt immediately that it was perfect to use for the song, as it expressed what I was wanting to express… and then the idea fleshed out a bit…, and, without realizing it, the song had a deeper meaning.

Not only am I listening to the angels around me, having them call me forward in life, but a new one has just joined them, and he has given me further encouragement to follow this path I am forging in my life. Every time I sang that part of the song, I could barely get words out by the middle of the verse, and had to stop altogether for the tears and emotion that arose. And I think the words communicate beautifully in the song, even without someone’s knowing the whole situation.

Anyway, I look forward to finishing that song, but, boy, is it going to be a tough one, emotionally speaking.

Post-a-day 2021

Brains and words

I’m listening to a news audiobook this week. In it, the narrator does hand lettering and calligraphy. At various points in the story so far, she has described how she often sees the letters of the words people say, as though they are out in front of her, and she describes to the reader the size and style and font and, even at times, movement of those words. Every time she does this, I find myself agreeing with her. Yes, I saw it that way, too…, because I had seen it that way, when the other characters had said what they had said, before the narrator had described the way she had heard and seen it. I don’t have the education regarding specific fonts that she seems to have, but I’ve done a touch of research along the way, as she mentions something of which I am not certain, and now understand exactly what she means as she describes various fonts and words. And I get it, every time.

Which made me suddenly realize that, though I can relate so easily to this character in this way, I do not believe that was necessarily the intention. That is, I think she was more meant to be a sort of artistic anomaly, one that is fascinating to the normal folk, because they are not like she is; they do not see the world of words as she does.

At the very least, however, I have a fictional comrade in seeing the words that people speak, and then, likely, at least one person in real life, be it the author or someone the author knows. So, I’m not entirely alone on this.

But it does have me wonder how many people do actually see words this way, as I and this character do. Like how some people hear smells or see sounds; like how Julie’s R is always the color purple (a girl from my program back in France, many years ago). Is this a matter of neuron pruning, like synesthesia? Is it only a small piece of the population, or are there actually millions out there?

In a way, I wonder how alone I am on this way that my brain functions…

Post-a-day 2021

Talk

“The pleasure was All mine.”

What kind of comment is that? I know, I know: it is typical in the US. But how did we get there, and why have we stayed there? It was a pleasure for me, too. I even said so. So, why is someone degrading my experience and my statement, declaring them to be false?

Or had no one considered that that was what was happening when claiming the pleasure all his own, instead of having been shared by us both or all?

Post-a-day 2021

^Still had to think about it, but I got it the first time 😉

Grammar, man

I shared about some grammar concerns today with someone new. It didn’t exactly go very well, so far as accepting and understanding go. I was left with an experience of having been not heard, not believed, not trusted, and considered bizarre in a negative way. I merely shared that there were errors in the copy of almost everything official that I had read by this company, and that I wanted to reach out to the right individual or individuals to begin creating the corrections for all of those errors. I even gave various general examples of the error types that I had found. After doing that, I was asked what kind of errors I had found. I repeated myself almost verbatim in answering the query.

And I know that I care about language and grammar loads more than any average human being is likely even capable of caring – I get that. But it doesn’t make it suddenly not suck when I experience someone not only distrusting and disbelieving me but also verbally responding with words that suggest that I am a negative anomaly in the world. Because it does suck when that happens, and that does happen.

And I get that this person likely was very tired and rather surprised by the concept I was presenting. That also does not make it suddenly not suck, how that person responded to me.

So, I just wanted to share that – that it really sucked in those moments of someone, whether knowingly or not, invalidating me and my concerns for the betterment of this company.

Yeah.

I guess this is an opportunity for me to look at how I might do the same to others, especially when I am tired or sleepy. 🙂

Yeah. 🙂

Post-a-day 2020