Collection of words

I do a lot of writing. In my writing, I have to be critical of others' thoughts, ideas, and writing. This requires that I have a plethora of words at my fingertips that express disdain and contempt for others' thoughts, ideas, and writing without being a complete jerk.


<RANDOM THOUGHT>We're allowed to be "jerks", but not "complete jerks"? Fine by me.</RANDOM THOUGHT>

So, here is one of my favorite words to use: ignorant.

It's a strong sounding word, with the hard consonant "g" sound. Here is the entry at Thesaurus.com telling me other words that mean the same thing as "ignorant" (except that we know the words don't REALLY mean the same thing, (See my post on Semantics):

Main Entry: ignorant
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: unaware, unknowing
Synonyms: apprenticed, benighted, birdbrained, blind to, cretinous, dense, green*, illiterate, imbecilic, in the dark, inexperienced, innocent, insensible, mindless, misinformed, moronic, naive, nescient, oblivious, obtuse, shallow, thick, unconscious, unconversant, uncultivated, uncultured, uneducated, unenlightened, uninformed, uninitiated, unintellectual, unknowledgeable, unlearned, unlettered, unmindful, unread, unschooled, unsuspecting, untaught, untrained, unwitting, witless
Notes: stupid refers to lack of ability while ignorant refers to lack of knowledge
Antonyms: aware, competent, educated, intelligent, knowledgeable, literate, talented, wise

You've got a friend.

In life, you sometimes have friends that when something bad happens to them, you hurt with them, and when you are in pain or sorrow, they hurt with you.  You realize that you aren't alone, which is a very powerful realization.  If you do not have a friend like that, I hope you will someday.

"Be the kind of friend to your friends that you want them to be to you and watch how it changes your life."  --Jarod Morris

It's My Turn!

I don't understand voters in Oklahoma. Our state was founded on populist principles, which is why we elect everything from Governor to Dog Catcher (only partially in jest). Within 4 years, it appears that conservative voters of the 5th Congressional District have gone from one end of a spectrum to the complete opposite end. When Mary Fallin ran for Congress after serving as Lt. Governor for over a decade, many voters expressed the opinion that it was Mary's turn. Turn? Where is the end of THAT line? I'd like to get in line if that's all it takes to be elected to Congress in Oklahoma. Now, Mary Fallin vacates her Congressional seat and we have a new slate of candidates. It's amazing the difference 4 years can make. Now we have Calvey and Lankford in a runoff election pitting "experienced politician" (Calvey) against "integrity" (Lankford, and where have we heard something similar, a la 'Integrity in Congress’?). They're both counselors. One is a counselor of the law; the other is counselor of the camp. Where is the difference in the voters' eyes? Experience. Calvey took major hits because he was a "career politician". Lankford is a "fresh new voice" and "political outsider".




WAIT A SECOND!!!!!!!!!



Wasn't Kevin Calvey the next person in line after Mary Fallin? Isn't it his "turn"??? Are Republican voters being manic and swinging from one extreme to the other? Maybe I don't want to be in that line after all. So Mary's service mattered and it was her "turn" when she ran for Congress, but now that we have Lankford in the race, we need a fresh new voice for the people of Oklahoma's 5th Congressional District? Is it that we've lost our minds or our minds are easily controlled?



My wife had a wonderful insight a while back that applies to about everything in life, this included. Her statement was in the context of marketing her business. She said (loose paraphrase):



Marketing is a lot like high school. It's like the popular clique in high school. What did those kids do? The popular kids went around telling everyone how much better they were and everyone else was not. What do companies do? McDonald's burgers are SO much better than Burger King, Jack in the Box, or Wendy's. They tell everyone else what to think, and people start to think it!!!



Voters in the 5th District were told that Mary should win because it was "her turn" and she had dedicatedly served our state and it was time for her to go to Washington D.C. Now, we've been told that we need a fresh new voice in the 5th Congressional seat, and we're being told that voice must belong to James Lankford. What do the voters do? Go out and vote for Lankford even though Calvey has served in the State House of Representatives and in our armed forced.



Where do we go from here? I'm not sure, but I believe if I had an idea and told you to think the same as me, after hearing it over and over and over between now and the first Tuesday in November, you'd start to believe me.

Semantics

Ever have those arguments where you're saying one thing and someone else is saying something completely different than you are saying, and then when you figure it out, the other person says something like, "Oh, it means the same thing."  NO IT DOESN'T!  There are different words in the dictionary, with separate meanings, so the words do not mean the same thing.

If women get to say that "tan" is not the same as "taupe" (rhymes with "rope"), then no one can say "do-hicky" means the same thing as "dip stick", "radiator", or the "Service Engine Soon" light.

The world looks good way up here in the blogosphere!

So . . . I've decided to start a blog.  No one can accuse me of being a bandwagon hopper because I'm pretty sure that bandwagon is so far down the trail, I'm not anywhere close to it since it took me so long to start a blog.  This may just be my glorified diary journal (I about forgot that guys don't dairy, we "journal") for the world to see.

What to expect from this blog?

I should tell you not much so that I can keep your expectations well-managed and show my humility, but there is no room for humility in a blog.  You can expect answers to all of life's problems.  However, don't think that those answers will be worth much.
 
<RANDOM THOUGHT>When someone says, "I suppose you have an answer to everything!"  You can respond by saying, "Yes, I do actually."  Who said "answers" to questions or problems are worth anything?  They're just answers.  How about these questions to "world problems":

Q:  How do you fix the poverty of the world?
A:  Give everyone in the world a job.

Q:  How do you fix the hunger of the world?
A:  Give everyone in the world something to eat.

Q:  How do you stop war?
A:  Get along.

See, I provided answers to 3 HUGE problems in the world!  "Answers" are easy.  Answers that actually matter / are useful are completely different.
</RANDOM THOUGHT>