Exploring Communications

450 days ago we briefed a building designer to draw up plans for our new house

317 days ago the council approved our plans to build

117 days ago we got a construction certificate and building started

1 jungle removed including banana plants

1 big concrete truck arrived in driveway

1 game of Daily Spot the Difference began

1 tattooed feral looking brickie constructed the fastest block wall in history

2 decks and 2 pergolas were built

2 very happy adults sitting under new pergola when it was pouring with rain

1 loopy mother graffiti vanity to be ripped out

14 days of the 117 were spent in Nelson Bay

70 days ago we came back from Nelson Bay to see our house very different:

• 1 toilet with no cistern
• 1 bucket to flush the 1 toilet
• 0 shower
• 0 bath
• 0 sink
• 1 tap on entire property to use
• 1 pool to be used as our bath/shower for 3 weeks
• 0 kitchen
• 1,000,000,000,000 particles of builders dust

4 faces in shock after seeing what we were to live in

4 hours later 4 faces smiling and embracing our new camping lifestyle

2 weeks later 4 very happy Maccas with a new kitchen (still unusable, but a delight to stand in and pretend the rest of the house didn’t exist)

3 weeks of borrowing other peoples showers, trekking next door to our lovely neighbours, visiting grandparents and borrowing friend’s house while they were on holiday

3 weeks later an operable kitchen and a makeshift bathroom including:

• 1 bath surrounded by building site
• 1 new toilet without a cistern (at least it was new)
• 1 shower head

2 extremely relieved adults indulged in the shower, whilst trying not to splash the water anywhere because tiles still needed to be laid

26 days of action before Christmas delivered:

• 1 stunning kitchen
• 1 almost finished bathroom
• 2 kids happily in own bedrooms – even if they were full of furniture
• 1 family happily waving good bye to builders for two weeks of peace
• 1 Christmas tree erected to the sounds of carols with too many presents underneath
• 2 very excited kids figuring out how Santa could get into our new home

16 days without builders

2 builders return relaxed and happy to get cracking…

1 mother trying to shield her kids from the mayhem that ensued:

• 1 lovely yet crazy Italian tiler cutting tiles sending shivers down spines
• 1 nail gun randomly going off causing hearts to miss beats
• 10 billion particles of dust entering the house when without warning 1 builder decides to use concrete saw at front door
• 1 mother madly closing up all the rooms that were previously sealed, only to discover it was too late, and ‘GET OVER IT… there will be plenty more dust to come’
• 1 very disturbed cat randomly attacking mother
• 1 friendly dog owned by builder sneakily entering house and stealing disturbed cats food and water
• 2 awesomely behaved kids, taking mayhem in their stride

6 weeks of fabulous holidays enjoying the good things in the house

1 king sized bed arrived, with 2 very happy adults and 0 sore backs

47 days to get ensuite:

• 1 shower had very happily
• 1 toilet installed and working
• 1 vanity
• 1 cabinet with mirrors

1st time in 47 days to see face in a full sized mirror. Perhaps it’s best not to see it, but it was like greeting an old friend.

1 day very soon, this will be finished and 4 Maccas will be very happy!

1 very trying but awesome life experience nearing it’s closure.

[Update]: I just saw this one from a fellow member of a group (@Hank Shrier) in LinkedIn called Writing Mafia… had to add it:

sesquipedalianism (plural sesquipedalianisms)

1. (uncountable) The practice of using long, sometimes obscure, words in speech or writing. ?[quotations ?]
   • 1995, Michael Cart, From Romance to Realism, ISBN 0060242892, page 257:

     His voice here is a marvelous juxtaposition of cool elegance, unaffected hipness, unabashed sesquipedalianism (“the rich bouquet of exuded sebaceousness”) and swell conversational slang (…)

2. (countable) A very long word.

Definition source: http://en.wiktionary.org

[Original]:

I often come across interesting words penned by my fellow Twitterers and keep thinking that I’d like to use those words sometime… so rather than lose them to the cluttered filling cabinet in my mind; here they are and may they benefit your vocabulary also: (I will update as I find more and please feel free to add more!)

(explanations from my iMac’s dictionary)

scuppering [@susan_m]
verb [ trans. ] chiefly Brit.
sink (a ship or its crew) deliberately.
• informal prevent from working or succeeding; thwart : plans for a casino were scuppered by a public inquiry.
ORIGIN late 19th cent. (as military slang in the sense [kill, esp. in an ambush] ): of unknown origin. The sense [sink] dates from the 1970s.

Placebo [@neerav via @fridley]: noun ( pl. -bos)
a harmless pill, medicine, or procedure prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the patient than for any physiological effect : his Aunt Beatrice had been kept alive on sympathy and placebos for thirty years | [as adj. ] placebo drugs.
• a substance that has no therapeutic effect, used as a control in testing new drugs.
• figurative a measure designed merely to calm or please someone.
ORIGIN late 18th cent.: from Latin, literally ‘I shall please,’ from placere ‘to please.’ Interestingly I also found out the word “placebo” originates from 14th century tradition of hiring fake mourners to wail and cry at funerals…

Lambasting (@matthewgain): lambaste |lam?be?st| (also lambast |-?bast|)
verb [ trans. ]
criticize (someone or something) harshly : they lambasted the report as a gross distortion of the truth.
ORIGIN mid 17th cent. (in the sense [beat, thrash] ): from lam 1 + baste 3 . The current sense dates from the late 19th cent.

Avatar (@vipvirtualsols etc): ??I couldn’t resist this one as the movie was awesome and I love the feeling this one makes in your mouth when you say it… noun chiefly Hinduism
a manifestation of a deity or released soul in bodily form on earth; an incarnate divine teacher.
• an incarnation, embodiment, or manifestation of a person or idea : he set himself up as a new avatar of Arab radicalism.
• Computing a movable icon representing a person in cyberspace or virtual reality graphics.
ORIGIN from Sanskrit avat?ra ‘descent,’ from ava ‘down’ + tar- ‘to cross.’

Churlish (@matthewgain): adjective
rude in a mean-spirited and surly way : it seems churlish to complain.
DERIVATIVES
churlishly adverb
churlishness noun
ORIGIN Old English cierlisc, ceorlisc (see churl , -ish 1 ).

Delimiter (@trib): verb ( -limited , -limiting ) [ trans. ]
determine the limits or boundaries of : agreements delimiting fishing zones.
DERIVATIVES
delimitation |-?te??(?)n| noun
delimiter noun
ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from French délimiter, from Latin delimitare, from de- ‘down, completely’ + limitare (from limes, limit- ‘boundary, limit’ ). ALSO the name of online news service, Delimiter, launched in Australia to compete with AAP, covering IT&T and consumer tech news.

I have been inspired to write again… feeling very slack for not having posted in such a long time… but inspired by a fellow writer who has quite an amazing blog about a year of self discovery, tasking herself with learning a new thing every day. Check it out – Giving Back Girl.

My biggest take from Lisa’s blog is her passion for writing, much like when you see a painting on a wall that is just bursting with life, even though it’s just a 2D image. So, how do you get that passion, where do you find that voice? I am not really sure I know how to answer that question. I find that if I am writing for work regarding business matters, there is still the need for passion or light and dark, and perhaps finding that is harder than if you were writing about personal experience. Partly, I think it’s about immersing yourself in the scene as it were. Putting yourself on your canvas and looking out at the readers, and seeing what their expression would show. Comprehension, disbelief, confusion, kinship… So by essentially turning yourself into the words  you force yourself to understand far more intimately who you’re writing for. If it’s yourself or people who follow a similar life to you, a lot easier. If I am writing for a bunch of Chief Technology Officers or business leaders it’s quite a different kettle of fish. But the key is understanding their language before you start.

The passion I have for writing is that to me words are a living entity and it’s how you put them together that delivers a meaning… but also how the reader interprets those words. I’ve just read a wonderful book about painters called The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova (who also wrote The Historian and one of my all time favourite novels). Through her characters and exquisite writing she is able to help the reader understand what a painting with its own life is all about.  Subsequently I had the pleasure of attending a ‘private’ viewing of the Archibold Prize at the NSW Art Gallery. When looking at the paintings I was able to feel the soul and the passion of some of the paintings. Whilst the feelings I experienced might not have been exactly what the painter felt, probably quite different, yet I was still moved by the experience. This is what I think a good piece of writing should always endeavour to do; evoke a feeling or passion for the reader… to give them a new life experience. Hopefully, when that inner novel inside me is able to pop out that I too evoke that level of passion and that I help others experience something new and amazing. I just have to figure out how to get it out… and then I will share.

I couldn’t resist sharing this one… It’s certainly not new to anyone who tweets or even for emailers for that matter. Apart from the very valid points it makes in reference to society, I love the basic reversal of words to re-engineer the point. It’s this sort of thing that makes me passionate about writing!

I received two emails from eBay today (technically, one came last night and one this morning), the first had the subject line of “10% off voucher inside to say thank you”. It made me think ‘thank you eBay, you too are appreciating your customers and giving back in a small way in hard times.’

To be honest I was a tad surprised, but figured there’d be some catch to it as this particular brand just doesn’t seem to represent honesty or community-focus to me at the moment. Which is strange given the nature of its whole structure, without its community, it basically wouldn’t exist! When I try to pin point why I feel like this about the brand, the outcome is that it’s a combination of some ‘dodgy retailers’ as well as confusing and inconvenient changes to payment and feedback processes.

So… back to the emails – the second one, would you believe, says this:

Subject: IMPORTANT: CORRECTION TO EMAIL REGARDING 10% OFF VOUCHER

Dear xxxx,

A short while ago, you received an email from eBay which incorrectly contained
the following words in the subject line: “10% off voucher inside to say thank
you”.

The subject line of that email was wrong, and occurred as the result of a
technical error. Please note that there is no voucher or discount from
eBay.com.au associated with that email or otherwise applicable to you at this
time.

eBay sincerely regrets any inconvenience and thanks you for your understanding.

Regards,
The eBay Team

Technically, the email is right because the first didn’t actually have a voucher or anything in the email – it was just in the subject line. So obviously overnight there was MAJOR panic in the particular halls/desks responsible for this email as the first was sent without proofing… then the second sent in a panic without any thought for the recipients. Even the wording makes me feel insignificant and like perhaps someone else might be ‘applicable’ but certainly not me. Plus the fact that they blame it on a technical error… come one now, I think this one might have been human error yeah??

As a writer, I understand that proofing is such a critical element to any piece of writing. In spite of this, I too am guilty of not doing it enough and appreciate there is always a chance of human error. However, this incident goes far greater than just a proofing issue and could have been rectified in a far more effective way. I think the brand custodians need to have a long hard think about how they are portraying themselves as slowly but surely they are eroding their trust and community and one day they’ll wonder where their listings went.

Well as ‘a work of art’ might be taking it a bit far, but i did have fun playing with the colours, fonts and layout… go to http://www.wordle.net/ to create your own beautiful word cloud – thank you @KateKendall for sharing.

This morning as my #1 kid added a new word to his repertoire (to my shame it came straight from Ben10 via Cartoon Network)… and the word was ‘like’… but not used in the traditional sense of the word, but in the more youthful sense where you just like add it into like the sentence that you are like using because like it sounds like really good. Whilst I was the word grated on my nerves as I heard him say it, I was instantly transported back to my father giving me a hard time about it when I was in my teens.

So it has prompted me to write this post… not just in the exploration of the word ‘like’, but generally about how words change over time. It’s what excites me about language; the way it evolves and how a generation can have such an impact on how words are used.

According to the Oxford Dictionary ‘like’ has a few meanings… which depending on your interpretation actually includes the way my son used it… although I am sure it wasn’t in there when I was a teenager and I am sure it doesn’t mean to add it more than once to a sentence. The origins of the word date back to the 13^th and 14^th centuries, with the 1500s seemingly being the first use of the word in its form as it is today. So it’s been around for a very long time… no wonder the meaning is flexible and Generation X started playing with its usage.

So how does language evolve in this way? The abundance of International television, mainly from the USA has had an enormous impact on the Australian vernacular. However, it seems the influence on the use of words or expressions can come from varying influences. For example, according to Angus Stevenson (www.askoxford.com) the expression ‘go pear shaped’ (meaning to go wrong) supposedly comes from RAF slang, first written in the early 1980s but most probably in use a few decades before that in reference to the shape of a fighter plane after it has crashed into the ground or a novice’s attempt at a perfect circle in the air.

Considering the way communications has vastly changed from the early 80s, the impact online communication will be having on language would be significant. Just the impact of the TXT message has change the way I write emails and communicate with friends, family and colleagues. I’ve been told I am the queen of the succinct TXT msg and I am secretly proud of that.

Another avenue in the online world has been the advent of social media, more specifically the requirement to get our point across in 140 characters; delivered instantly to many. So perhaps my son or one of his generational peers will be studying the impact all this has had on language in 20 or 30 years time.

Whilst many have been scared or pessimistic about the impact technology is having, handled in the right way I see enormous benefits not just to you in your immediate community but for the world, in bringing us closer to share and communicate. Whilst there are segments of the technology world that have valid opponents, I am hoping the greater good will prevail and the impact my grandchildren (gosh I hope I get some one day) will experience will only enhance their communication and the way they use words and language. Perhaps they will more easily be multilingual… or perhaps even a new language will evolve, and I am not talking techno speak, but with common use words in one language being used by those of other nationalities. Of course, we have plenty of that already in existence… some words are just better said in their original language: hors d’oeuvres, hasta la vista (if you’re a Terminator fan), à la carte or annus horribilis.

I look forward to watching how my native tongue evolves and as I sit in my rocking chair trying to understand my grandkids in 30 or so years I hope I take as much pleasure in learning and using it as I do now.

I have been swaying back and forth between Plurk and Twitter over the last three months… After a rather strong addiciton to Plurk initially, i broke free and had a break. It was needed as i had become emotionally invested, not through sharing personal information, but i had started to lead a virtual world in some ways and that kind of scared me.

So i went back to twitter, but not in an involved way, more as a voyeur. Then just this week i returned to the plurking world… to anyone who knows it, you’d know that my kaarma was 0.00… a terribly uninspiring return… but i started conversations again… and my old mates commented and i felt a part of the community again.

To me something about plurk seems to embrace someone like me far more than Twitter, which seems to generally be a very individual and less engaging flow… I am not saying either is a failure, but acknowledging that as they are structured differently they will engage people differently. For my way of interacting i feel i learn more and have more time to browse with Plurk… but some very important failings stop me from being completely positive about the experience. The fact that you can’t track conversations you’re in makes it very hard work.

Either way, both have been pretty good at enabling me to be short n sharp with my point. A friend commented the other day that i was the most succinct txter she knows. I am pretty sure she wouldn’t have any tweople or plurkers as friends… so i wonder if this has had an influence. I think this is a new topic to be explored next post…

Tai Tai Life: The next President? I don’t think so. Mrs Tai Tai this sounds like a very interesting course… but wow what a tricky situation you’ve put yourself in by having that particular case study – will the other person know that they were the other party in scenario? Good luck. BTW i don’t think you’ve put in the comments option – do it in settings i think. This was the only way i could comment.