Hi there, and happy friday!
What a wonderful day it is. I like to watch the aeroplanes fly over me as I walk home from work (I got home just as the last tiny bit of light escaped from the sky into pure darkness. 4:45, I swear.
I was going to make peppermint meringues today, but didn’t realize until 9:00 that the egg whites have to reach room temp before the whole “still peak” experiment does begin. So stay tuned tomorrow to see if it works out! I bought some york peppomint m&m candies to chop up inside. Who doesn’t love a little pep-o-mint? (clearly, I’ve dipped into the york bites already… sorry…)
What have I been up to instead?
-Cleaned mold off shower! hooray!
-turned on pineapple express (thank you library)
-made fun of man go round (might have to do a bit more of this)
-played with my camera
-sampled asian pear (see photo-splosion below for more details)
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| no flash |
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| through my fleece- whoops |
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| through two layers of white paper… bettah! |
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| through an ivory envelope- sorta messed up |
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| through my super-worn navy t-shirt… me likey! |
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| dried flowers that will probably get tossed soon- enjoy em while they last! |
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and da asian pears
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I’ve had asian pears before, but not man-go-round. He approves! victory! see mom, i cleaned the shower AND ate my fruits all in one day!
so… I had some fun in the kitchen with the erasers, the flash, trying to make a good indoor picture at night with no natural light…. you see what I do with my free time. I”m not just a word nerd, I’m a nerd nerd! Nerd nerds unite! Like Celia Hodes said, I’m lettin my freak flag fly. Not that this is anything new I guess…
Okay okay, onto the “word” nerdery now. I don’t want to lose anyone due to sidebars.
Man-go-round has expressed to me on various occasion that he takes issue with adding the prefix “mini” where it not apply. He technically doesn’t like the word “miniature” either unless it is referring to some quaint train set or nostalgic hobby apparently. However, his prejudice carries over to times when “mini” is actually a HELPFUL description- examples that I find helpful, not irksome. Here is his hierarchy, as I understand it:
Worst:
“I had a mini meltdown”
“it was a mini crisis”
-“there was a mini-traffic jam”
“I need a mini favor”
Medium:
mini-marshmallows
mini-muffins “just call it a muffin” he said… um, no dude, a “muffin” is not small, its muffin sized…
mini-skirt
mini-backpack
minibike
mini-series
Acceptable:
“the nerdy man collected miniatures”
Minnie Mouse (its her name… I added this one)
Mini-Cooper (brand name I think)
Personally, I have a slightly different opinion. I find the “worst” column obnoxious as it is slackily using language badly to be manipulative and downplay how annoying, negative, and complainish (not a word? I DON’T CARE!) you are about to be. However, I have no issue with the word “mini” itself… I mean, it is a helpful qualifier. Por ejemplo:
-“what kind of skirt is it?”
-“mini skirt”
-“oh! now I get it! its not a bubble skirt, it’s not a maxi skirt! It’s not a jean skirt. It’s a MINI-skirt!
_”what are you bringing to the potluck?”
-“mini-muffins”
_”oh, okay, now I know how much sweets will be available. Since they are only mini muffins, I’ll bring cookies!”
See- sometimes it is an effective use! Just another example of people ABUSING one word when they are just too darn lazy to shut their yap long enough to think of a unique word that would more appropriately describe their sitch. (translation, sitch-ation, dubya style 🙂 )
Do you all have issues with applying “mini” to things that aren’t, in fact, a miniature form of something else? Do you hear obnoxious valley girl types using this or is it just us?
And finally, in honor of my diminutive stature, I will provide some alternate ways to profess something as smaller than usual: Hooray!
-petite (favorite derivative- petit four)
-small
-itsy bitsy (teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini)
-wee (as in my old nickname, “wee one”)
-little
-shrunken (not a fan, makes me think of shrunken heads? what on earth is wrong with me???)
-tiny (as in the enormous guy I used to work with that was nicknamed this)
-itty bitty (derivative of itsy bitsy I guess)
-micro (maybe too specific, too small)
-pint sized/ little half pint (little house on the prairie anyone?)
-baby (baby carrots, baby back ribs maybe? I guess I wouldn’t know on that one…)
What else? It’s late so likely I’m lacking here.
Eenie Meanie Miney Moe- Catch a Meri Meri Mo!
