A Word For Now: Milquetoast

From Merriam Websters:
milque·toast \'milk-"tōst\ n [Caspar Milquetoast, comic strip character created by H. T. Webster †1952 Am. cartoonist] (1935) : a timid, meek, or unassertive person

Milquetoast on WikiPedia

I hate people who blog about blogging

Blogging is an art form. It's an amazing opportunity to share one's self with the world. And some people ruin this precious, precious forum to share their ideas by blogging about blogging, and blogging about bloggers. You don't see people frog about frogging do you? Or dog about dogging? Do you know why not? Because it's stupid! I'm sick and tired of people I don't even like tainting my precious art form. It's a desecration. It's like money changers in the temple ripping off the worshipers by charging exorbitant prices for birds to sacrifice! It's like a freshly minted bride getting divorced during her wedding! It's like eating vanilla ice cream on top of rancid lard! It's a massacre of everything I hold dear. BLOG IT ALL! They've sullied my precious and I hate them for it.

ADDENDUM: These suckers are called "Meta Bloggers". Meta. Look it up.

Random Word Definition: Liminal

From Merriam Webster's Dictionary:

lim·i·nal \'li-mə-nəl\ adj [L limin-, limen threshold] (1884)
1 : of or relating to a sensory threshold
2 : barely perceptible
3 : of, relating to, or being an intermediate state, phase, or condition : in-between transitional ‹in the liminal state between life and death —Deborah Jowitt›

A related word:

sub·lim·i·nal \(")sə-'bli-mə-nəl\ adj [sub- + L limin-, limen threshold] (1886)
1 : inadequate to produce a sensation or a perception
2 : existing or functioning below the threshold of consciousness ‹the subliminal mind› ‹subliminal advertising›
— sub·lim·i·nal·ly adv


I think that "liminal" is an underused word. There's a theory that says: if a language doesn't have a word for a concept, the speakers of the language are less likely to think about or discuss that concept. Considering how many "on the threshold" moments there are in life besides the "big ones" like birth, death, marriage, etc, I don't think that enough attention is given to these moments. In part this is probably because change itself is typically under-appreciated (often feared or dismissed as uninteresting). I am in a liminal state in several respects, and it's odd how just thinking about this new word I've learned has caused me to savor these moments moments rather than blindly passing them by.

I really like this word.

Today I Saw a Man Cannibals Would Want to Eat

Today I was off work and free as a bird.

I went for a walk this morning, right after I got up. I stuffed unshelled peanuts in my pocket, a banana, an orange, and some water in my sling backpack and headed out to the greenway. I left my watch and cellphone behind. The greenway was full of people today and it was fun to watch them. I had sunglasses on, which allowed me to watch people without them knowing I was watching. A highlight: A shirtless jogging man who had muscles that would have made cannibals salivate: just the right balance between fatty and stringy.

When I watch people, I like to play observation games like:
- Which people look like they voted for McCain? Which for Obama?
- Which people would cannibals go for?
- Spot the mean people
- How many people actually look alert?
- Which parents wish they didn't have kids?
- Find someone who looks presidential
- Which people would muggers target?
- Which people are just BEGGING to have their pockets picked?
- Guess which people would help a mugging victim and which ones would walk away
- There are more!

Having a Roomie or Going It Alone: A Cost Analysis

One question a person fortunate enough to be single asks at some point: "Should I get a roommate or live by myself?"

In my area, decent one bedroom apartments are around $550 a month and decent two bedroom apartments are around $700 a month.

Living alone, rent for a year costs $6600.
Living with one roommate and splitting rent equally, rent for a year is $4200.

One concern is that the roommate will bail on you and leave you with a much higher rent bill. So I crunched some numbers, ground them up, mashed n bashed them around, and came up with the following:

- Splitting a $700 rent bill equally leaves you owing $350 per month. That's a $200 monthly savings over the $550 cost of living alone.
- If you're stuck paying for the two bedroom apartment by yourself, you're paying $150 more per month than if you'd rented the single bedroom apartment.

So let's say that you manage to keep your roommate for five months before he/she bails on you. During that five months you've saved $1000 thanks to the cheaper rent. For the remaining seven months, you'll spend an extra $1050 paying both shares of the rent. So in this scenario you lose $50 for the year and have a two bedroom apartment to yourself for half the year.

I think that's pretty cool: even if you can only keep roommates for less than half a year, you're still no worse off than if you lived alone, and if you can keep a roommate for more than that, you save money.

Getting a GOOD roommate is another story though...

People who think too hard hurt their brains

So many times people over-think decisions they're about to make and injure their brains. If they keep it up for more than a few months, they are seriously risking a brain explosion, which leads to a head explosion, and that's a mess I don't want to clean up. So keep it simple, stupid! Decisions aren't hard when you know what you want, so figure it out!

In a world filled with stupidity, a hero will rise...

I was born with a gift-- the gift of not being stupid, and that makes me mighty. I was born small of stature, and that makes me a pipsqueek. In a world filled with stupidity, a hero will rise. I am that hero. You can call me The Mighty Pipsqueek.