words i like today - chapter two

this month's installment is brought to you by the folks i know who like to make up words because we get excited or agitated about random things:

• squee! - it's a happy mary word... and makes a great noise!
• monumentous - the mixing of monumental and momentous. from hoarders, because i love that show. did i already say that one?
  
• vengeant - one can be vengeful, or have vengeance. i had no idea this wasn't actually a word! it is now, damnit.
• gruntled - derek and i use this when neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, yet feeling more than a ho-hum status.
• disgustation - a state of being to describe when you've totally fucking had it. disdain and frustration and anger combine to reach disgustation.
• blah-bitty-blah - my general fill in word for stuff. it comes in really handy when i have absolutely no idea what i'm talking about or lose track of my own sentences.
• domexcavate - the purging of shit in your house that you probably didn't even know was there. this could also be called domestivation.
• frizzie - a juice and fizzy water drink, in honor of my new-fangled gadget that i bought for the house.
• craptastic - thank you once more, mary. this word could be bad in an extreme case, but almost always alludes to something that is so bad, awful, or tacky that it's good. in fact, it's terrific! no, it cannot be used to describe a cosby sweater. yes, it can be used to describe your hideous sheets.
• fercockety - again, i thought this was an actual word. again, i may have already listed this one. it's like being all kerfuffled and wonky.
• quoi - another state of being. it's a real word, but in this instance used to tell someone that you're completely taken aback and befuddled. you can also use it as a veto measure on someone's fashion sense or cooking skills... i say it to myself in this way sometimes.
• epiphanetic - i say this when i'm feeling inspired, usually right after i leave the bathroom. too much info for ya?

i doubt i've made up any new curse words (unless you count sofia coppola) that i can remember off the top of my head. that's more of a spontaneous thing that happens when i'm in pain from stubbing my toe or getting a paper cut. if anything cool comes out during the next impromptu "fuck!" variation, i'll let you know. i'm all about the slanguage.

you should totally tell me all about your favorite made up words and phrases. it's just the kind of thing we could collect into an informative pamphlet for megan's birthday. and yes, i know about urban dictionary and other sites like that. and yes, i do read nerdy wordy books and giggle out loud. so does megan. she's my linguist role model. i just hope she writes a book with lots of semicolons in it someday, just for me.


it might be risky:
should ayn rand be film noir radio play comedy?

children of the corn syrup

it is possible:
1. that i'm now an old fogey
2. i think too hard while grocery shopping
3. food inc. and king corn are some scary-ass documentaries
4. it's all derek's fault

well, derek has given up soda and i bought him a new kitchen gadget to make super fizzy water at home to mix with juice. (izze is just too expensive!) we've gone to buying local meat at the meat market and concentrating on eating more and more of what one could call real food.

it's really not that dramatic of an adjustment. we've been going to harvard meats for a while off and on. eating more veggies and cooking at home more often kind of started when i began my nesting phase a while back. the no mountain dew thing for him is new, but i am trying to be supportive by only getting my diet dr. peppers when i go out. it's an addiction, i know, but i'm a pepper. wouldn't you like to be a pepper, too? hell yes!!! i HAVE to be a fucking pepper! "they" made me into a pepper when i was a kid, and i'm not stopping now. must! be! PEPPER!!!

see how that works? high fructose corn syrup must have been the impending doom epidemic of the twentieth century. dr. tony was chatting with me a few weeks ago (also in reference to food inc. - don't know if he's seen king corn) and made a passing comment that diabetes is the new black plague. that stuck with me as i was watching the "eat actual food" docs of the last month and hearing michael pollan's name an unusual number of times. to hear it told by these people, HFCS is the devil... not to mention all of the other corn-derivative products used in food production processes and as feed for slaughter animals. now corn is not be the root of all evil, and it probably didn't even make me into a pepper, but you know what? there sure is a lot of fucking corn out there. it's in a lot of stuff.

this probably doesn't mean i'll give up the occasional bag of blueberry muffin tops cereal, because who can give up crazy shit like that? (yes, i'm not kidding - it really does exist!) i probably won't even give up any other icky HFCS convenience junk food that i want on occasion. being the pepper that i am, i'll always want a burrito or some pudding to tide me over in times of craving. however, we do try to eat actual food around here. if that means reading labels and thinking about packaging and figuring out how to be informed to the hilt about things i really don't want to know, so be it. nobody said being a pepper was easy.

but i don't think the doctor would recruit me into his vast army of tasty liquid minions without expecting me to cram in the spinach, too. he is, after all, a doctor. he wouldn't want us to exist on his crack and heroin filled soda alone. that's why he kept in a few natural flavorings, don't you know. now he should prolly think about capitalizing on this whole "organic panic" craze by going back to cane sugar as a sales ploy. just think of all the peppers he would gain! our growing numbers could then spread the word that olive oil is not the enemy. we would reinstate good carbs to their rightful place in the world. maybe, just maybe, we could make the federal school lunch program get the funding to include things that didn't involve some unidentified food byproduct being boiled to greyish, soupy goop amongst a sea of abbreviated additives.

they say that if you can neither spell nor say the ingredients on your food, you most likely shouldn't be eating it. i can go with that theory. then again, i'm a pretty good speller, but you can bet the doctor would agree with this advice. and besides, our nations' children can't even tell where to put punctuation, so it's a decent enough rule to stick with until we can start funding education again... maybe the peppers of us out there can work on that next.


postal goodies:
urban craft uprising package from bonnie! EEE!

i don't really give a shit about sociological theory today

too bad that sociology what it is i'm supposed to know all about after i've finished my degree. to a large extent, most of the stuff is like, "duh" when i read it. maybe i just know more about sociology than i think i do, or maybe it's just easy because it makes sense to me.

plato does not make sense to me.

dead white guys like that just piss me off.

honestly, when something makes no sense to me i have to try extra hard just to even grasp any part of it, much less be able to study about it with any proficiency. does it say something about me that machiavelli and rousseau were totally easy to comprehend? it was like a lightbulb moment reading about people like mills or weber. others make me feel like i'm in the dark... cooking a large fancy meal. and we all know about my vast culinary skills. hardy har har, eh? how people get through college learning shit about shit is kind of a mystery to me. i'm just in it for the piece of paper, as they say.

frankly, the most profound thing i'm getting out of this experience is the ability to negotiate my way into being an exception to the rule whenever i possibly can. if my fast-talking skills weren't in tune before now, they're right up there with a politician at this point. the other thing i'm getting is an impending disdain for the written word. it seems comical to me that whenever i'm not in school i love to read, yet when faced with textbooks i begin to loathe all reading. people tell me just to skim, but i'm not sure i'm getting much from that. skim reading is kinda like skim milk. it'll work in a pinch, but i'm not really into dieting. i would rather taste what i've got.

my solution? i'll skim the textbooks and read the normal stuff. i'm known for my spectacular class attendance and devil's advocate participation, much to the chagrin of my instructors, so i absorb a lot through osmosis in the classroom. sparkling bullshit goes a long way towards getting the whole thing over with in the end, believe it or not. yes, my attitude regarding higher education currently is sardonic and gorgeous.

it's difficult sometimes to understand why people think i'd make a good teacher. but maybe it is exactly that - my mocking of the system makes me the perfect candidate for doling out some reality and pragmatism to the youth of society. somebody has to be a leader who isn't afraid to use a red pen. holy shit, i'm not really the wholesome role model type, am i? picture me wincing right now. just as i know you are, too. i'm terrible with rules. structure is great, and i need guidelines, but rules are... well, i'll get back to you on that one when i think of a better word than icky. all i know is, progress doesn't happen by simply following the rules.


current podcasts:
wait wait don't tell me
stuff you missed in history class
this i believe
today in the past
planet money

don't eat (too much) pie for breakfast

ugh. i shoulda gotten out a plate instead of just a spoon. and yet, every time i open the fridge i want another bite. mary and bev's key lime pie must have crack in it.

did i mention that i'm selling off my almost the entirety of my multimedia collection? that goes for books, cd's, dvd's, and whatever video games i can pry away from derek. not to be happy about the state of the economy, but it looks like a ton of people are opting for used goods over retail right now. this is excellent for me, as i still have a ton of things to sell off after going digital. what used to be several cases and shelves and other random fixtures in my house brimming with music and video and print has now dwindled down to two bookshelves and a media case. in the spirit of my newly organized self, i can happily say that the extra space (and all that extra moolah!) is really impressing me. now i have room for more shoes, right?

stuart copeland has parked himself on top of my arm once again. how does he expect me to type like this?

thankfully, my birthday falls during dead week at school. while i innocently pretend to prepare for finals, waiting until the usual weekend cram, i can concentrate on things more fun. things like getting all this cat hair off my sweater. or putting temporary tattoos on myself. perhaps relaxing and just reading anything except for a textbook. oh, wait... i'm "getting ready for finals" now, aren't i?


what we're doing right now:
looking for titanium sporks on the web