OMG I'm ready for the GRE to be over. Until then, rejoice - this is my last vocabulary post.
There are an awful lot of words in this language of ours, which thankfully gives us the ability to be periphrastic. The meaning of a few of them will be expatiated in this post. Of course, that's not to be confused with expiate, which I will do for boring y'all right after Saturday - If you fulminate against another vocab post, I apologize.
Anyway, most of the words in our language, it seems, have to do with praise or blame. Want to scold someone? Just give them a good upbraiding. Burke does call humans the inventor of the negative, so maybe that makes sense. Abjure is related to that. It's to denounce formally, such as from the throne. Very exciting. Abstemious STEMS from abstain (ahaha)
Apothegms are always limpid, which never sounds to me like a good thing but actually is. Pithy prose is limpid, people, not turgid! The GRE teaches valuable life lessons....with such knowledge, how could the test not be a benison, you might ask? Well, I'll tell ya: if universities became contumacious and revolted tomorrow, I'd be a happier person. Incidentally, I think there's a children's book about Benison the bison, so I can never remember what the damn word means. Grr.
One of the things about winter - it's cool, it's crisp, it dries your skin out. It's very important to use emollients to protect your skin and keep it soft for cuddling. With Mr. Gregory Crane, my future husband.
Speaking of Mr. Crane, our wedding is really going to be something else. Hopefully Mike Gravel will read an encomium - he is, after all, the one responsible for bringing us together. We will walk through the ingress to the place we get married arm in arm, no longer gauche at the sight of each other. Is our marriage internecine? We will kill each other, and then ourselves? No one can know. (There's an interesting story about the etymology of internecine and good ol' Samuel Johnson, who was OCD, by the way, at the link above.)
I hate the words lassitude and lissome. To me, lassitude sounds like a lass with an attitude - in short, sassy. Lissome, on the other hand, sounds like listless, tired, without much energy. Wrong on both accounts. Lassitude means without energy. Lissome is lithesome - flexible, limber. Like a gymnast. Learn something new?
Really, why would vexillology be on the GRE? Seriously, the study of flags? Maceration usually has to do with wine making, and allowing liquids to seep into each other, but it also means to starve. FYI.
Pall is a dark cloth used to cover something, and to annoy - as in, this post is beginning to pall on me. I guess.
Debate makes people disputatious - prone to disputing. (I'm done linking... this is wearing thing.)
A tributary is a stream that flows to a larger stream of water.
A malinger is one who maligns - who speaks untruths about.
Someone lugubrious is gloomy. Booo. Kinda what it sounds like.
Forbear - to refrain from
Abscond is one of those words you know in context, but never use yourself - to sneak off in secret. To abscond with the stolen goods.
This post, in the end, is nugatory - there's little to no importance in me writing it. I'm just wasting time and bandwidth.
Iniquity - immoral. no e makes inequity just flat out immoral. It's amazing what the lack of an e can do. I feel enmity toward the e in inequity for bailing and leaving us with sin. My strong feelings almost make me vertiginous.
This post sucks the most, sorry about that, might not even be worthy of a post, but, well, it's written, so maybe you learned some new scrabbable words. Peace.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Last one...probably
NO SKINNY PIGS!!!!
Yup, I was right, google had nothing for me on "skinny pigs" or "underweight pigs" or even "svelte pigs". The only photos that came up were photos of guinea pigs and Mary Kate Olsen... that's really quite sad. The challenge is on the table for anyone who's brave enough.
An assortment of randomness
So many things! Yay!
1. Blogness: The tabs at the top are temporarily like that. I want the category ones to be on a second line. Workin on it. But it's loading faster, yeah?
2. The debate. Dems debated in Philly last night. By all accounts, it sounded amazing. Items of note:
I am excited to announce a new candidate for my future husband -- I think this one's going to stick, too. Mr. Gregory Chase, from Nashua, NH, manages hedge funds. He has two physics degrees from Harvard. He's 27 (kinda cute too - check out the link). He was pissed Gravel was excluded from the debate. He's waging a one-person fundraising and advertising blitz on Gravel's behalf. I heard him on NPR last night, and he's crazy smart. I'm in love. The best part? "I don't have a lot of personal needs," said Chase, who is not married and has no children. "To the extent that my business is successful, I should spend money on things I think are important. And this isn't just some third-tier guy who is polling low. This is a guy with real ideas who's got a communications problem. And I can help."
. Mr. Chase, will you marry me?
In other debate news....David and Nerdette both pointed this out. It speaks for itself. I can't comment, but as David put it "A lesser man would have fumbled the question. Kucinich just ran with it." MR. RUSSERT: Congressman Kucinich, I want to move to a different area, because this is a serious question.
The godmother of your daughter, Shirley MacLaine, writes in her new book that you've cited (sic) a UFO over her home in Washington state -- (laughter) -- that you found the encounter extremely moving, that it was a triangular craft silent and hovering, that you felt a connection to your heart and heard direction in your mind.
Now, did you see a UFO? (Laughter.)
REP. KUCINICH: I did. And the rest of the account -- (interrupted by laughter) -- I didn't -- I -- it was unidentified flying object, okay. It's like -- it's unidentified. I saw something.
Now, to answer your question, I'm moving my -- and I'm also going to move my campaign office to Roswell, New Mexico and another one, an extra, to New Hampshire, okay. (Laughter.) And also, you have to keep in mind that more -- that Jimmy Carter saw a UFO, and also that more people in this country have seen UFOs than, I think, approve of George Bush's presidency. (Laughter.)
MR. RUSSERT: Actually --
REP. KUCINICH: And so -- (laughter) -- wait. We're just getting started here.
MR. RUSSERT: No, no. Let me -- 14 percent of Americans say they have seen UFOs.
I'm going to move --
REP. KUCINICH: What was the percentage?
MR. RUSSERT: Fourteen percent.
REP. KUCINICH: What was that percentage?
MR. RUSSERT: Fourteen.
REP. KUCINICH: Thank you.
That's all for now. More later.
What I've Learned in this Morning's News
Good morning kids, here's what's going on in the world today:
The Iowa Department of Revenue has decided to tax jack-o-lanterns, stating that people are using them for decoration instead of food. Aren't they pumpkins before they're jack-o-lanterns? Pumpkins are food, I just had a pumpkin for breakfast!
A woman in Minnesota may be suing her pet sitter, claiming that the pet sitter made her pig fat... I didn't know pigs could be un-fat... hmmm, gonna search the web for svelte pigs, I'll get back to you.
A northern city in China has banned "seductive" marriage ads in order to reduce fraud (yeah, I don't get it either). Advertisers are banned from using such sexy words as "foxy lady" (instant pantie-dropper) and "moneybags" (I'm taking off my clothes as we speak).
You may check out more glorious stories at: http://mistupid.com/news/index.php
Monday, October 29, 2007
Blog future
In my opinion, the blog's loading pretty slowly these days. I stripped out some of the javascript, but it's still sllloooowwww. There's a poll on the side asking what should be removed, if anything. All of these gone will make it pretty fast, but will decrease functionality. Should it stay the same? Change? Vote, or all that you love will die!
Friday, October 26, 2007
Umm....Umbert the Unborn, Ladies and Gentleman
The Catholics have finally lost their mind. It's a comic strip about the zany, zany adventures of a fetus named Umberto who fights to not be aborted. Or something. Here.
I'd totally wear Facebook's class pin
Sorry to cross post/self-promote, but this is exciting, and I've already written it up, so just go here, you know, if you want to:
24% of Americans would rather date Facebook than you.
And, fyi, the site is going through a soft launch. It's going to look better in a week or so.
FYI
I'm going to be getting rid of some of the java script features of the blog today and Monday. As much as I like them, it loads unacceptably slowly these days.
If I take away something you love, let me know and I'll think about bringing it back. It also means it might behave erratically until everything's all squared away.
Cheers!