tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46572084576084546832024-03-14T02:29:59.141-07:00The Soapbox DivaI am woman, that should be enough.Artiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06629163111535372629noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657208457608454683.post-53951037800694434112019-12-27T16:31:00.000-08:002019-12-27T17:35:36.098-08:00Word for 2020<br />I am not a new year’s resolutions gal. I balk at time-based or quantitative goals. I hate how those things make me feel. They work great for many people, but. I’m not among them. This may be an Aquarian thing. I thrive in the world of the abstract, lop sided, deconstructed, and strange. I think cars that are ugly are cool. I like odd colors. Asymmetry is amazing. I prefer prose to poetry. I am a late adopter to almost everything. But I do love a pencil to paper brain storming sesh. I love circles connected by lines. I love random words written in all different angles all over the page (my college notes were not easy to share). I love word clouds. But I also love tables, bulleted lists, Excel spreadsheets, graphs... That’s where I welcome my Capricorn to the party. I create manifesting material this way, and I love manifesting!<br /><br /><br />As I write this, Jupiter conjuncts the Sun, which is a fortuitous and auspicious aspect. (oooh, lookit my Gemini rising…) And in a few days, we leave behind not only a year, but a decade. So I’ve been reflecting a lot.<br /><br /><br />This decade was full of loss for me. I lost a lot of friends, relationships, confidence, my job, my dad, my oldest nephew, and my marriage. I moved 3 times. (In my entire life I have only moved house 6 times!) I began dating online and had a number of nutty relationships, as well as some nice ones, and a few downright scary ones. I completely reinvented myself professionally. And I went through enormous metamorphosis spiritually. I started rebuilding my life at the beginning of 2010, and it was, like most gut-jobs, incredibly messy. About half way through the last decade I found myself, amid the rubble of my previous life, and started rebuilding myself as I knew I was meant to be rather that how other people thought I should be. And 10 years later, I finally have a life that I am happy in!<br /><br /><br />But contentment is not something I’m well acquainted with. I am restless and disquieted easily. So it is a constant process to shape my life into its best version. So to that end, in my reflection I brainstormed a list of things to leave behind, and the counterpart replacement for it. As I was doing this, a word jumped out at me. True to my nature, I am not one to commit to “a word for the year”. But this one spoke to me…<br /><br />Appreciate. That’s my word. But not in the cliche “have more gratitude” sense.<br /><br />To appreciate: to understand fully, to recognize the full implications of, to recognize the full worth of, to be grateful, to rise in value or price<br /><br />Synonyms: enjoy, acknowledge, value, respect, prize, cherish, treasure, admire, be grateful for, acknowledge, recognize, realize, know, be aware of, increase, gain, grow, rise…<br /><br />Appreciate, you will note, is not synonymous with Agree. I may not agree with things, or like them, but I can still appreciate them for what they are. Meaning, I can try to understand, recognize, be aware of...<br /><br />I appreciate transformation. The transformation of a seed to a flower, or tree, the transformation of tears in to laughter, the transformation of trust into love. But those are pretty things.<br /><br />Truthfully, transformation is basically some kind of organized chaos.<br /><br />I truly do appreciate the brutal transformation I have experienced (at times, endured) in the last decade. Transformations are generally not gentle and lovely. The caterpillar is not just taking a sweet nap in that cocoon - She is completely dissolving and reforming.<br /><br />Chemical transformations include: burning wood, souring milk, heating sugar to form caramel, digesting food, rusting of iron.<br /><br />What happens when you heat metal to a high enough temperature? It melts of course. Then what? Then it is free to take on a new form.<br /><br />Erupting volcanoes result in increased land mass.<br /><br />Debris and gas and chunks of rocks violently collide to create moons, and other heavenly bodies<br /><br />Birth - there’s a transformation for you!<br /><br />So we can probably all appreciate that in addition to pain, from chaos can come possibility.<br /><br />Sure. That doesn’t mean I want more chaos or that I agree with chaos, per se. I simply can appreciate it. I can recognize that from this incredibly difficult decade, I emerge a person whose heart, having been broken countless times, is now MUCH bigger than it was when it started. I can appreciate that.<br /><br />In 2020, I hope to embody appreciation.<br /><br />I will appreciate my own journey, my own talents, my own value.<br /><br />I will appreciate IN value<br /><br />I will appreciate the inherent value in others. I may not agree with them, like them, want to be around them, enjoy shopping with them, or like their pantsy-ness. But I can appreciate the value that they have simply because they exist here. And I can appreciate those who have gone before us and left big and small marks on the world.<br /><br />You are leaving a mark on the world, just by existing. You matter. You have value. Whether you currently appreciate your situation or not, you are appreciated by people who probably don’t tell you that. Appreciate your own journey and all that you have come through.<br /><br />In appreciation,<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Kelly<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-8012328649234104883" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #183d60; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 770px;">
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Artiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06629163111535372629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657208457608454683.post-54012246083857585002008-09-17T22:05:00.004-07:002018-11-13T15:17:43.352-08:00grammar part I<p align="left">Ok, I am not going to get up on this soapbox without disclaiming that I am not perfect. I commit comma splicing crimes. I'm not sure what a dangling participle is. I'm not sure about predicates and all that crap. I didn't pay attention to grammar lessons because I was much more interested in literature; and grammar as well as spelling, frankly, came naturally to me. My Papa's genes gave me an innate sense of language. I'm not perfect. However, my skin crawls when certain egregious crimes of English are committed. Let's discuss this, shall we. </p> <p align="left">PEOPLE! There is NO "M" in the word VOLUPTUOUS...meaning curvy, shapely, rubinesque...trust me...I know a thing or 2 about voluptuousness. there is NO "M" IN THAT WORD!! It is NOT volumptuous. Gawd that makes me want go screaming down the street every time someone says that. </p> <p align="left">Also, if you are trying to give someone the verbal finger, the phrase is "I could not care less", NOT "I could care less". </p> <p align="left">"I could care less" is meaningless. What you are saying is I care a little, but I could care less. What you want to say is "I could not possible care any less than I do about this topic...it resides at the lowest possible place on the Kelly spectrum of things that I give a shit about."</p> <p align="left">Where is it at? I'll tell you where it's at. It's in the 3rd grade when they taught you not to end your sentences in prepositions. I don't care if you heard the local newscaster say "they don't know where the body is at". It's wrong. My Papa McClain will roll over in his grave if you do it again. And while we're remotely on the subject of Papa, here's a non sequitur: get your flag off the ground and take it down at dusk please. Patriotism is beautiful but the flag has certain measures of etiquette due to it.</p> <p align="left">Moving on, and this is a big one...</p> <p align="left">Conversate. SO not a word. Oh my Gawd people. You participate in a converSATION by CONVERSING. Not converSATing.</p> <p align="left">Irregardless - also not a word. Ir - not meaning infrared, not meaning the symbol for the element iridium. Ir, prefix meaning not, or opposite of. </p> <p align="left">less - suffix meaning without. </p> <p align="left">regardless. without regard. ir-regardless. Meaningless. Not without regard? Meaning it IS regarded, in which case you just wasted 3 syllables of your life on a meaningless word. </p> <p align="left">Did you go to college? No? Well I know a lot of people who didn't and they still don't say "irregardless"! Perhaps the word you are searching for, in order to make yourself seem more intelligent by use of extra syllables is "irrespective".</p> <p align="left">Irrespective of your education, when one DOES go to college or start a new job and you have to go to that little mini-class on what to do and where to go and stuff, its an orientation. </p> <p align="left">when you get lost in the woods, and the temperature drops and it gets really cold and you get hypothermic and you can't find you're way around...you are NOT disorientated. the word, DAMNIT, is dis-oriented. Note that we dropped an extra "tat". disorienTATEd, vs. disorienTed. To disorient someone is to confuse them. dis - not a word meaning you insult someone. a PREFIX meaning to remove or undo. Orient, not meaning Asia. A word meaning to get your bearings, figure out where you are, ground yourself, to adjust, to familiarize. When you move to a new city, you have to orient yourself. Or conversely, when you move to a new city, you may feel disoriented!</p> <p align="left">not, disorieTATEd. </p> <p align="left"> I will insert here, the fact that disorientate is more widely accepted in the U.K. than here. But it came into being after the word disorient. Disorientate just takes up extra letters and is clumsy. Alot of words will become acceptable if misused long enough. Irregardless now appears in the dictionary (as non standard and absurd) because it is so commonly <em>used </em>(read: f'ed up). For example, a salesman is pressuring you. I have heard "a salesman is really pressurizing me". Really? Is this that game where you give me hints and I guess what you are? What are you like a freakin bicycle tire? An airplane cabin? What could be next?! "The salesman was <u>pressurisating</u> me!" Let's check our dictionaries in a decade for that one, eh?</p> <p align="left">Quit adding extra shit to words people. Save those wasted syllables up and use them on important words like "I love you", "thank you", "you're hot" etc. </p> <p align="left">Let me help you. </p> <p align="left">Regardless of what you may have heard, irregardless is not a word. Regardless of whether or not (my dad's pet peeve) you are disoriented due to the fact that you are ignorant and wandering around in a country with no language dignity, you still need to converse in a civilized manner. I couldn't care less if you think the word conversate sounds cool. This ain't no rap video. </p> <p align="left">so let me axe you a question...are we clear now? Do you need me to draw you a pitcher? Do we know where we are at? I don't mean to dis anyone, I'm just saying...speak proper freakin' English people!</p> <p align="left">I now respectfully dismount the soapbox and go back to my life, such as it is. Stay tuned next week when I will tell you what I think about the fact that during daytime television, a local plastic surgeon has a commercial about "vaginal rejuvenation". I KNOW you're looking forward to that blog!</p> <p> </p> <p> </p>Artiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06629163111535372629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657208457608454683.post-13184620619996169172008-09-17T22:05:00.003-07:002018-11-13T15:17:43.259-08:00grammar part II<p class="blogSubject"> grammatical pet peeves, a reiteration </p> <p>So I bought new shampoo. Finesse. 2 in 1. (does anyone else find it ironic that I am complaining about bad grammar and using incomplete sentences? Yeah well I like ee cummings so bite me.)</p><p>aaaaanyway, it says on the bottle: "For softer, more shiny hair."</p><p>I tilted my head like a dog who heard someone do one of those whistle-y farts that no one else in the room either hears or acknowledges, or they think it was the chair or the screen door or something. </p><p>I read it again. "For softer, more shiny hair"</p><p>well the problem is this: it SHOULD say "For softer, shinier hair"</p><p>aaaaaaah!!!!</p><br /><p>so then after I ranted about this, my husband and I argued about it. I researched it. What is the rule exactly? well there is a rule, more or less (you know how the english language is), which states that if a word is 2 syllables or less, it gets "er", if its more than 2, it gets "more". i.e. "more ridiculous" not "ridiculouser" "shinier vs. more shiney!" "happier vs. more happy" "stupider vs. more stupid". There are some that could be debated. Shiny, in my opinion, is not one of them!<br /></p><br /><p>FYI, my husband and I also argued about the difference between a supporting actor and a character actor...my point being that character actors are always supporting actors but not all supporting actors are character actors. It was the most ridiculous, no wait, the ridiculousest, argument ever!</p>Artiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06629163111535372629noreply@blogger.com