Words People Use

According to a Time magazine article I read long ago, women use roughly 4,000++ words a day in conversion while men use 1,000++. I dunno if this statistic still holds true and if someone is keeping count. But...

I wonder if they also counted pet words in that study. Most people i know have "pet words". Words they use over and over in conversation, words they have used and misused to mean different things than the original definition.

A good friend begins his sentences with "actually". Another one says "I'm sorry" whether or not she's apologizing. A collegue likes to throw "standard" in most exchanges. My boss uses the word "premise" every other sentence.

What is the dynamic of choosing a pet word? Maybe one day, out of the thousands or so words they use, they suddenly realize, "That one sounded good to my ear, rolled right out my tongue, made me and the other person I'm talking to appear smart (me for knowing the meaning of the word and having the good sense to use it in a sentence and my listener for knowing the meaning of the word and being able to give an appropriate response), and most importantly, I accomplished what I set out to do. I should use it again!"

And they do...over and over...ad naseum.

If I complain about this to my boyfriend, he'll say I'm being too picky about small things that I should just shrug off. Ha! He's the one to talk. His pet word is "relax".

At the tip of my tongue

"What was that song playing at the background of that ETC (cable channel) commercial?" my friend asked me. "Close to you by Kenny Rankin and Dan Siegal," I said.

Am I a genius? Hell, no! I googled it.

Flashback to five years ago, I would have been caught singing the song over and over until somehow something clicks and I remember this little trivia stuck inside my aging brain. I would have been chanting, "I know it! It's at the tip of my tongue..." until I become convinced that if I yanked it hard enough, the answer will come to me.

Now, things that used to keep me awake at night are no more. No longer will I suddenly wake up and shout "aha!" as the tip topples over and reveals itself because even my cell phone has internet access. I have access to google 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No trivia is too small or insignificant that I couldn't look it up.

Sometimes, I miss it though. Maybe next time someone asks me something, I'll resist "the urge to google" and give my brain the mental exercise.

Angst

I was in the passenger seat singing (rather, wailing) to the song "Perfect" by Simple Plan when this conversation came up:

K: You can't sing this song. It's not right.
S: What do you mean?
K: You love your dad. You're so close with your family.
S: And...?
K: It's just not right. You have nothing to be angsty about.
S: Duh?!

Appearances aren't everything. Sometimes the person with the brightest smile is the one most riddled with anxiety. We all cope with life's issues differently. Some choose to frown. Some choose to blame other people. Some walk around in a daze....and some choose to wail to "angsty" songs.

Escape

When you just want to tear your eyes out so that you won't see someone you are beginning to despise or you want to rip out your arm just so that you could have something to fling at him/her...

Take the day off. Sleep. Read a romance novel. Watch reality tv. Have a foot massage. Eat a banana (I heard they ease depression). Pray that the next day you'll feel better.

Foreign languages

I'm now reading The Broker, the latest novel by John Grisham. It's about a man given a last minute pardon by the outgoing president. In the middle of the night, he's whisked off to Italy to "auspiciously" escape his would-be killers through what he hopes is some sort of witness protection program. I haven't finished it yet but we know better, right?

Anyway, while in Italy he needs to blend in so he has to learn the language. Get this, in three days (count them, yup 3) he's learned enough that he can order in a restaurant, get into a train and ask complete strangers to mail something for him. Now that's impressive. I've worked with Italians before(weeks and months) and the only thing I learned was "Ciao bella!" and "Molto bene".

Learning a foreign language is hard but I am determined to learn at least three. In college I was so psyched that we had foreign language electives that I went and signed in for three different ones: Spanish, German and French. Big mistake!

Apparently, you must master one first before moving on to the next. As a result I mix up my verbs, confuse the nouns and struggle with the tenses. The only useful phrases I remember are "good morning!", "how are you?", "my name is...", and "where's the bathroom?" ( Guten morgen! Como ca va? Me llamo... Donde esta el bano?). Happily, when I met Spanish, German and French people, they all told me that what little I could say, I could say with perfect diction. Yey! There's still hope.

Because of the advent of Chinovelas (Chinese tv series) and Koreanovelas (Korean tv series) in Manila, my interest in foreign languages has again been stirred. I'm determined to do it right this time. Mandarin first before Korean. I now listen to Mandarin songs, watch Chinovelas left and right. Next I must find a tutor. I want to be as fluent in Mandarin as I am in English. Make that, I wish to be fluent... right now it's a very remote possibility.

So far, I've learned to say "how are you?" "my name is..." "hey look!" "you idiot!", "are you stupid?" "I love you". Hey what can you expect? I'm being taught by DVDs and CDs!

I wonder how they say "wish me luck!" in Mandarin?

Fanatic

A picture indeed paints more than a thousand words. :b

Check these out:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/solangaraw/vanness/abstract.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/solangaraw/vanness/chat.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/solangaraw/vanness/green.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/solangaraw/vanness/laughter.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/solangaraw/vanness/lonely.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/solangaraw/vanness/scandal.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/solangaraw/vanness/aug.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/solangaraw/vanness/sept.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/solangaraw/vanness/oct.jpg

Media Junkie

I don't drink. I don't smoke. I don't do drugs. I'm what you would call an upstanding citizen. But I do have an addiction. I am a media junkie. Yup, tv addicts are so eighties.

I am much more than that. I couldn't live without my tv, radio, mp3 player, computer, magazines, newspapers, books, cell phone, and internet. In fact I haven't been without any of these for three years now.

A friend handed me a chain-type letter one day asking me to be still for the Lord. Maybe a minute or two spent in meditation? I couldn't do it.

Just thinking about being still drives me nuts. I'm reminded of an Alanis Morisette song I love, she sings: why are you so petrified of silence? Here can you handle this.....

He's just not that into you

I've been trying for months to buy this book! Well that's an exaggeration...in the four times I've been to the bookstore in the past months, I've asked for this book and it's always out of stock. It must be good since people are buying it... or maybe Oprah is simply too popular in the Philipines, I don't know.

But why am I looking for it? Well... let's just say my stubborn friends would probably believe the bestseller.

Here's what I think will be inside:

• He's never the first one to contact you. For the love of god, the guy has your cell number, work number, office number, e-mail address, and ym account and yet can you count in only one hand the number of times he "kept in touch"? Oh I've heard the rationale for this one..."Maybe he's busy." I was watching tv yesterday and this very very popular guy kept on calling the girl he was courting (even though he hadn't had any sleep because he was shooting a movie) just to hear her voice...they were teasing him because he was so dead tired, he was snoring within minutes. But what the heck, he called her. Eat her space dust!
• He hasn't broken up with his girlfriend. I once met a guy who was so into my bestfriend he broke up with his girlfriend a week after meeting her and they haven't even dated yet. Oh and one more thing, my friend didn't have a phone so he'd call me and quiz me about her, every night. Talk about being interested huh?
• He doesn't acknowledge you in public. He's so nice and sweet to you over the phone, in person (and okay maybe in bed) but once you hit the spotlight... I mean when he's around other people, you are suddenly the girl with the communicable disease. He's just shy? Oh cut the crap, if he's so into you, he won't see other people. He'll be so focused on you and your every move, he'll wonder why the latent exhibitionist in him just came out now. Trust me I know what I'm talking about.

Okay fine. I could only think of three. This is why I need the book.

Why blog?

Since I can remember, I've been writing stuff in my head...I write, edit, rewrite, edit some more... I'm my own worst critic so in the end most of it never sees the light of day. Now that I'm much older I realized I should have. If only for the chance to one day say, "I used to think like that? What an idiot!" So if I write anything stupid, please resist the urge to throw tomatoes cause as they say "As we know better, we do better..."