WAFFLES WAFFLES WOOHOO!
Aug. 12th, 2007 02:35 pm![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thehobbitwaffle, so if you are anyone else you are excused from reading this.I get a word-of-the-day email. GUESS WHAT THE WORD WAS TODAY??!
Bwah. Here follows the remaining text of said email for your nerdy delight.
Meaning: 1. (Noun) A pancake cooked in a waffle iron that gives it crosshatched surfaces. 2. (Verb) To waver, to vacillate, to hesitate because of being unsure, to be indecisive.
Notes: Today we offer you yet two more words for the price of one—and a very good price at that. (However, today's Word History will show that 5,000 years ago, they were one and the same.) If you waffle, you're a waffler given to waffling. The adjective is waffling, too, as in 'a waffling judge held up the final score'.
In Play: 
Among the punny headlines in our Laughing Stock, you will find this famous headline from the British press during the Falkland War: "British Left Waffles on Falkland Islands." It shows how these two words can lead to confusion. (Left can be a verb or refer to the British left political wing.) Here is a way to use both words without confusion: "Janice waffled so long between choosing pancakes or waffles for breakfast that the waitress left her table in a huff.
Word History: The noun waffle was borrowed from Dutch wafel "waffle" probably because the Dutch are known for their inventive pancakes. The verb waffle would seem to be a diminutive of obsolete waff, meaning to wave a little. Waft, as in 'a flag wafting in the breeze', is an old past tense of waff, itself a variant of wave. Now, wave and weave also share the same ultimate ancestor, PIE webh- "to weave", which also turns up in Modern English web. The back and forth movement of weaving quite expectably led to the sense of "wave" while the crisscross pattern of weaving led to the Dutch sense of the noun wafel. (We do not waffle in offering our deepest gratitude to Mike Groman, the Vacuumfoam of the Alpha Agora, for suggesting today's two Good Words.)
(Wow. I copy-and-pasted and it left the pictures intact... O_o )
grammatical fun with pictures!
Aug. 12th, 2007 01:21 am
MySpace thinks I'm sexy. SEXAY, do you hear me?! XD
Then there's this website we use for work, a government statistical database of public schools. I've blacked out the data here because the data itself doesn't matter, but just how they choose to report it...
I would assume that it's possible for the database to be unaware of whether or not a kid's a boy or a girl...but it just looks funny at first glance, lol.
Then I was on ANOTHER site for work, long story short checking out the competition, and found this...
No wonder we're the #1 IEP solution in America (yes, we are). The competition can't even SPELL. XD
Sarah: Hello?
Nico: Hey. Do you know what abjure means?
S: What?
N: Abjure.
S: A-B--
N: A-B-J-U-R-E.
S: ...nope.
N: "His illness had left him blind, yet he refused to abjure his faith."
S: ...oh. Like forsake.
N: Maybe.
S: Hang on, let me run upstairs and dictionary.com it for ya. *heads up the stairs*
N: You mean you're NOT in front of your computer?
S: I was watching Scrubs. It just went off.
N: Ah.
S: *looks it up and reads verbatim* "To renounce, repudiate, or retract, esp. with formal solemnity; recant"
N: Oh, okay. To renounce formally.
S: *heads back downstairs* Like forsake. Sort of, only--to not just abandon, but make it formal that you've abandoned it.
N: Right. So you know what's really sad?
S: Hmm?
N: I have a dictionary here in my room. How lazy am I?
S: So instead of looking it up, you make me run up a flight of stairs?!
N: Yeah, Sarah, thanks for exercising!
S: *laughs*
N: So I'm going to go finish up this short story and read another chapter of my book before I head to bed.
S: Okay. You do that.
N: Night!
S: Night. Later.
*click*
I was like, "OMG!"
Apr. 3rd, 2007 03:54 pmI am trying to break myself of saying "like." It's a horrible habit. I'm using "was like" in place of "said." As in: "He was all like, 'OMG' and then I was like 'No kidding!'" >_< And it's not as if I don't notice it when I do it. I started doing it when I was trying to convey an impression rather than use a "blah blah blah" filler or give off the idea that I was quoting verbatim when I wasn't, and now I seem to do it almost every time I need to say "said." Any suggestions to get me back on the grammatical right track?
I just got done with a load of laundry. I did a load on Friday and had to do one again today, simply couldn't NOT do it.
I put back in the hamoper:
1 shirt that I couldn't find enough other laundry to put with it to justify doing a "delicates" load
I washed:
1 pair of jeans
3 day's worth of undies
3 pairs of socks
3 uniform shirts
2 uniform pants
By 1 AM, there's a distinct possibility of up to two of those things being back in the hamper. I hate my job.
Still looking for anything else. Stupid banks. I'm going to see where I need to apply to get hired at the new Staples that they're building up by Wal*Mart. Staples would rock, especially if there's any kind of employee discount. ^_^ (OMG COMPUTER!)
My mother called me today. >_< I am so glad I don't live at home anymore. I'm not sure if she thinks I'm turning into a whore or if she just thinks I'm uber-innocent and stupid, but either way she was cautioning me against having Duncan over late at night. (I made the mistake of telling her the other day that he was supposed to come over one night--one of those nights when he had no signal--after I got off work to watch a movie, and she called me today because it was "worrying" her.) I just kind of let her blather, didn't listen, and then when she finally summed up with "I just don't think it's a good idea," I said, "Yeah, really, I should have just not told you like I'd been planning originally." XD
She changed the subject. I imagine that even now, as I type this, she's anointing prayer cloths and/or has started a fast, praying for God to send his angels of protection over me. Or something.
OMG! Laiken came through the drive-thru Saturday night! Hey, girl! Sorry I, like, ran off like that. I really didn't have anything I needed to do, I was just so surprised to see you that I kind of freaked out. (I really can be horribly shy if I'm put on the spot--and I always figured that when you did say hi, you'd be inside, not in drive, lol.) So that was really cool, sorry I was so crappy at conversation, lol. You weren't kidding when you said you were tiny--I saw your arm through the window. My God! Lucky you, lol. After you left I told everyone, "Oh my God, that was my friend Laiken that I've never actually met..." XD They all looked at me like I was just a little bit insane. (I'm used to that.) Anyway, I do want to meet up for coffee sometime, but with my work schedule of late it's probably going to have to be a lunchtime thing. (Email me?)
Tomorrow is the only day off I have this week, I work 5-9 on Thursday, and 5-cl the rest of the week. Happy happy joy joy. >_<
And tomorrow I, for once, have PLANS! ^_^ (Those of you who are tired of hearing about Duncan may skip the rest of this entry.)
typed last night...
Mar. 14th, 2007 07:45 pmShelly met up with us after me and my parents went to the Ripley's Believe it Or Not! museum, which was pretty cool. ^_^ I wanted to post pics, but I haven't yet managed to figure out how to move them from phone to computer.
I also got the Sims 2 (okay, so Dad wasn't quite sure what I was talking about and got me an expansion pack, but whatever, he was smart enough to keep the receipt and I exchanged it for the Sims 2), which I'll be able to play once I buy my internet-capable computer. ^_^ (Hobbity: I want to download your Elijah!! OMG!)
Speaking of my internet-capable computer--I got a thing in the mail today from Capital One and they said that if I used my card within the first 90 days (I did), don't exceed my credit line (I won't) and make my first three payments on time (I will), my credit line will automatically go to $500. So that's a failsafe, if I absolutely cannot scrape together $250 in the next couple of weeks, I can at least scrape together $100 (the computer I want is $548+tax, and doesn't come with a monitor, so after I get the balance paid down a bit I'll buy me a nice shiny flat-panel) and put more of it on the credit card. But DANG. I should have the cash long before that happens. (ETA: Got some more birthday money from Grandma Crawford and my state tax return turned out to be double what I thought it would--bad math in MY favor, who'd'a thunk??--so I'm going to crunch some numbers tonight, I MIGHT be getting it on Monday--payday. If not, then next payday for sure.)
OH! And I got Dance Factory, which is basically DDR, with the exception that you can put in ANY music CD and it'll generate steps to ANY song. ^_^ So that ROXORS. (It says "burned CDs will not work as well" but THAT turned out to be complete BS. XD )
And yet despite the fact that I had so much fun, what I can't get out of my head is what happened AFTERWARD.
After I got back into Mountain Home that night, I had to run to Wal*Mart (at least twice a week, it seems, lol), and then on my way back decided to drive around the side streets near my house, try to figure out some shortcuts and such. I accidentally turned onto a private lot--it was dark (approaching midnight and all) and it looked like a side street. After I turned I found it was just a bit of a gravel lane leading to a metal gate set back from the road. Not wanting to get shot or arrested for trespassing, I sensibly turned around and back onto the street, went back the way I'd come from.
I was just a little ways up from a stop sign, and a cop and I both approached the sign from opposite directions at the same time. I stopped carefully, and then started again. The cop went through the intersection--then PULLED A U-EE and started FOLLOWING ME without ANY lights on, including his headlights.
Well, needless to day, in this age where we forward emails to our girlfriends about how not to get raped, this didn't feel right to me. I was close to home (one intersection away, actually), but I've already had a cop pull me over in the apartment driveway once, when I had a taillight out. Left the blue lights going and all. I was freaked at the time, because I thought I might get in trouble for bothering the neighbors, but nothing came of it. Nonetheless, I didn't want to have it happen again, you know? Especially if the cop was going to accuse me of trespassing or whatever. No need for the neighbors to, like, think I'm a drug dealer or something.
So I was panicking, trying to think of where to go that wouldn't make it seem like I was trying to dodge the cop or hide something or whatever, and suddenly it clicked--the gas station up the street from my house.
As in, the one where Duncan works, and where I've been going once or twice a week (twice, more often than not) to buy Jones Sodas. At this point he recognized me, usually said hi, and would sometimes chitchat with me for five or ten minutes if he didn't have customers.
So I went there, and the cop went around me on the road and turned down the next street. Danger averted (I looked and I'm 75% sure it was a real cop, the paint job certainly looked like the town police cars--I've seen them, what with Taco Bell's manager moonlighting as a cop), but I was still unnerved, so I went inside and started babbling to Duncan. "I know I'm earlier than usual, and I'm in my car this time, but this cop was following me..." I told him the whole thing and he agreed, it was really weird and that it made perfect sense that I would be weirded out. (Nico later said that if the cop had tried to pull me over I could have gotten out of any ticket.)
Long story short, I ended up staying there for, like, an hour. We got to talking--I think I mentioned having been to Branson earlier and that turned to my birthday and then to alcohol and it got to cabbages and kings from that.
He's a Ringer. OMG. Like, one who actually loved the books first and loves the movies (despite their flaws and deviations from the books, he said, if you look at them in and of themselves, they're some of the greatest cinema ever created).
At some point (I think we were talking about cell phones and then it turned to text messages) we got to talking about punctuation and how sad it was that most people don't care, and not only did I find out that we share a love of the English language, but I ended up offering to loan him "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves." ^_^
Nico called me and invited me over, so I finally did leave (no longer shaken). I told Duncan I'd be back in the next night or two with the book, and he asked my name. "If you introduced yourself before, I'm sorry, I've forgotten..." I told him no, I hadn't, and told him my name finally. ^_^
So I went back the next night, Sunday night, with the book. He was on the phone when I got there, but since I bought another soda I waited five or so minutes for him to get off the phone (like, he didn't ring me up while he was on the phone) and we started chatting again. As a matter of fact he bought himself a Jones soda and we drank them together, there in the store. ^_^ Spent another hour.
I made a point of wearing my Elven Brooch and of course he thought that was really cool. ^_^
He finally did tell me that he did have work to do and couldn't really do it and keep talking to me, so I was like "Yeah, that's cool, don't want to get you in trouble" (I know EXACTLY how that goes at Taco Bell, there are times you'd like to chat with a customer friend of yours but there's someone watching and you really do have stuff to do), and then he said, "I've enjoyed these little chit-chats. ...I presume there will be more?..."
I told him that yes, unless something disastrous happened I would be back sooner or later, and he kind of laughed and said, "Yeah, barring death or zombie attack," and I was all, "Yeah, exactly."
So...I don't know. Clearly he wants me to keep coming around, but I don't know beyond that. I'm trying to remain calm, cool, and collected about it. I told JoJo about it tonight and she told me to try not to fall too hard until I knew more, but I told her it's already too late--I can never help myself. I fall fast and I fall hard and I rarely know why. (I think I recover faster these days, but the pain isn't any less so I still just...gah.)
At any rate, to avoid creepy-stalkerish-ness I didn't go back the night after that (though I wanted to). And I toyed with the idea of going tonight (Tuesday) but decided it would probably be a bad idea. (JoJo confirmed this and thereby strengthened my resolve not to go.) She did say tomorrow would probably be okay, so I'm going tomorrow, for several reasons. (He might have finished the book--it's short and he says he reads fast, I do usually go about that often, and it'll be my birthday and all...I should treat myself, right? XD )
After deciding that, he ended up coming through the drive-thru. I didn't talk to him long, what with the timer and all, but still. Made MY night. ^_^ And I'm relatively sure that it came out in the conversations that I worked at Taco Bell, so it MIGHT have been intentional on his part...
So yeah. It's really hard for me to think about much of anything without it turning towards Duncan at the moment. What I'm really trying to do at this point is NOT SCREW IT UP. If there's anything TO screw up.
And while I love replaying those conversations, I'm getting a headache. (Lack of hydration, methinks.) So I'm going to go to bed now, because tomorrow is my birthday and I have STUFF TO DO, hopefully including posting this at some point.
I'll be 21 in 25 hours and three minutes! ^_^
ETA: I'm 21 NOWWWW!
I got to see zebras, so I was happy. Also got Dippin' Dots for the second time ever, and they were yummy.
Skipped the monkey exhibit--I really don't like monkeys, never have even as a child. I was going to go in because Alicia was going to let the boys out of the stroller so they could run around (and I'm sure they were tres adorable), but the minute we walked into the building, the smell was--arrrgh. I mean, all the buildings smelled to some degree, but that one I couldn't tolerate.
Got slightly sunburnt, didn't even know it until I remarked about the kids' sunburns and Mom was all, "Oh, you're red too," and I looked in the mirror. THEN my nose felt a wee bit sore. Thanks, Mom.
Saw a Dory fish and a Nemo fish in the same room, so that was amusing.
Stood at the Burmese python cage for a few minutes, thinking maybe the glass would randomly disappear. It didn't, despite the fact that there was a bratty kid around at the time. ^_-
What else? ...New word of the day: herpetarium. Definition: a place where herps are housed and displayed (think of it like aquarium). And the definition of a herp: a collective word for amphibians and reptiles--any creature that cannot control its own body temperature. So the building that housed frogs, snakes, and lizards was labeled "herpetarium."
killing time, really...
Nov. 15th, 2005 05:11 pmThe auction was interesting last night--the power went out about an hour and a half in, so we all ended up going home. (It was only out a few seconds, but our tower took a direct lightning hit and we had no more internet with which to WORK the auction, so we decided to call it a night and come back tonight.)
Free pizza tonight! WOOT!
The other night I was working on something for school (I don't even remember what) and I was typing "samples" and typo'd it as "smaples." This amused me. If I hated Canadians I would start using that as an insult in a punnish sort of reference to their flag--"those smaples!" would mean, more or less, "those d**n Canadians!" But of course, the snag is that I <3 Canadians. *huggles Kat and Hobbity*
Witness my mad MS Paint skillz! I made Shelly an avatar! But since she, like, never reads this anymore, and since her heart races for a different Josh these days (her RL boyfriend) I thought I'd post this in case some other Josh Holloway fan stumbles through.
Someone who is better at making avvys and can animate them should make one that starts out: "Fly Oceanic!" then shows the Oceanic logo, then says, "Earn free HEAD trips!" then shows a bunch of people running from various things, then ends with the Lost logo. Lol.
I made a PowerPoint for Fine Arts: Visual! Go me! Sadly, you know where I learned to USE MS PowerPoint? ...from watching Shelly edit her "Top 15 Guys" list. XD But hey, it paid off!
Poor, poor Van Gogh. (I researched him as part of this PowerPoint.) He was a genius (I have Starry Night as my email background ^_^) and yet he had such a sad life, I really just want to hug him and tell him it'll be okay. (Yeah, okay, I know he's dead. But you know what I mean.) I want to adopt him. (I'm seriously thinking of starting a list of people I have adopted--Locke, Van Gogh...)
I still hate that class. Mrs. Bailey: "Half of life is following directions, have you noticed that?" AARRRRRRRGH. So narrow-minded! So disorganized! *screams*
Okay. Okay. Accentuate the positive. Random quotes time!
- "These are the three mantras of Biology: Energy cannot be created or destroyed, there are no T's in RNA, and Dry is king." --Dr. Dry, in lecture one day
- "She sells seashells on eBay!" --Nico
- "Luge is the only sport where the winner is called the luger..." --Peter (a lab partner) during a "meeting" where we "worked on our presentation"
So anyway. Everyone on the planet (writers especially) should read Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. Even I actually got more picky about punctuation since reading it. ^_^ Like the sign hanging in every classroom at school:
NO
Food or Drink
Allowed in
this Room.
Absolutely
NO
Exceptions.
(Of course it's centered IRL.) What's with the capitalizations? It's a Capitalizer Run Amok! Gack!
You know you're obsessed with LotR when...you see a car labeled "LTZ" and the first thing that you think is: "Lurtz!" XD
I have to be at the auction in 20, so this randomness fit is over. Thank you for listening.
FREE PIZZA!
