I have been kind of busy, in a good way.
That's... pretty much my week, actually. Kind of busy, in a good way. Gentle readers, you have already heard tales of the Great Cold, which is persistent, and of the baking endeavours of last Sunday, which were grand, and so forth. Since those times, I have also:
Tuesday) Gone to thought_goddess 's Altview group, which was very fun and good and involved cookie decorating, so really, two thumbs up. *grins* I may post something in a little while about sexual orientation, because it's kind of interesting and I've sorta skirted around it a couple times but never gotten up the guts to actually give opinions and thoughts and stuff. Well, mostly because I don't know what I think. So yeah, I'll get back to you on that.
Wednesday) Played Super Smash Bros. BRAWL with Jefferson the Younger for a few hours, until we got sidetracked by the characters from Earthbound. Well, specifically Lucas and Ness, who are in Brawl, but then from those two, we discovered Poo. No, really, there is a character called Poo. It was decided that we needed to buy a SNES and Mother 2 as soon as humanly possible. Uh, then we went out for supper, along with Jefferson the Elder, Super-Awesome Girl*, and The Kaiserin. With the exception of Jefferson the Elder, who I don't know that well, I missed them all kind of terribly while I was gone. *desires to hug everyone*
Thursday) Baked great amounts! I went to Surprisingly Un-Tragic Friend's house, and the two of us baked two ap-pear pies, one ap-pear crisp, a batch of shortbread, two batches of chocolate almond biscotti, a chocolate cheesecake, a loaf of chocolate chip banana bread, uh... We also made some pie dough that did not get used. And I'm feeling like I left something out here, but we didn't end up baking the cookie bars or the brownies as we had intended. We also watched Down With Love and Zoolander, because why watch a movie five times when you can watch it six times?!
Friday) Went to a writing meeting! After having slept over at Un-Tragic Friend's house, I hustled on over to my old high school, where I met up with the writing group The Kaiserin had started up last year. thought_goddess was also there, much to my delight. The writing group is always fun, but we didn't really get a ton done. There is talk of starting a communal blog, so I might link you up if that ever gets off the ground. Oh, I also went to The Kaiserin's house, and played with her adorable, sweet, charming, wonderful lab-Husky puppy called Abby until my father came to pick me up so we could sally forth to the airport and pick Sistor up. This was the first time since Thanksgiving my whole family had been in the same province, and the first time since July we had done so without extreme rushing about, so I am all full of the joy.
Today) Made plans to throw snowballs at the Curly Twins and Town-Switch Buddy. I should get dressed for that soon, but Town-Switch Buddy keeps pretty late hours, so that bought me a few minutes.
But my main reason for this post is to talk about homophones!
No, really. Homophones. They're awesome, right? Two words that sound the same but are not the same. They're like secret, in-disguise spy words, in many ways that I could enumerate here, but would have to kill you all if I did. And don't get me wrong, I totally understand that spies are confusing, and lots of people have trouble with them. Heck, I am not saying I am perfect. But... Okay, I have hidden it so far but I am a bit of a grammar Nazi. And recently there has been an outbreak of difficulty with the words "piqued," "peeked," and "peaked." I feel it is sort of my duty to bitch about it in an educational manner, so here I go!
I'm a huge dork, so I'll start off by saying these three words piqued my interest, when I peeked at somebody's writing and my grammar-Nazi tendencies peaked at the misuse of homophones. As I understand them, these are their definitions (I double-checked these with Merriam-Webster, but am using my own definitions because I am a special snowflake sometimes:
(to) pique: to arouse interest, to make curious. I'm pretty sure it's from the French, where 'pique' means 'prick,' and not in the sexual way. Something can pique one's interest, one's curiousity, etc.
(to) peek: to peer, usually through curtains or around doorframes and the like. Little kids do it, as do old men who pay for peep shows. Maybe that is how one can remember it, with 'peek' and 'peep' both having two 'e's.
(to) peak: to come to the top-most point of something, like a mountain's peak. People in sports do this, like gymnasts who peak when they're five, and that sort of thing. I mean, people outside of sports do it too (for example, my father's hair volume peaked in the seventies), but it's easy to remember with sports because, uh, mountain-climbing is a sport. So one can think of that!
That's pretty much it for today. I've got to go get dressed to hurl snowballs at some people in minus thirty-some degree weather, and that is no small feat. Hope your Decembers are going well, world!
[Footnote from LJ-cut text: *who really is super, awesome, and, in fact, super-awesome, but whose self-esteem is deceptively low. Hence: Super-Awesome Girl, in the hopes that if she ever reads this, she will be forced (by my persuasive rhetoric) to accept how super, awesome, and, in fact, super-awesome she is.]
Tuesday) Gone to thought_goddess 's Altview group, which was very fun and good and involved cookie decorating, so really, two thumbs up. *grins* I may post something in a little while about sexual orientation, because it's kind of interesting and I've sorta skirted around it a couple times but never gotten up the guts to actually give opinions and thoughts and stuff. Well, mostly because I don't know what I think. So yeah, I'll get back to you on that.
Wednesday) Played Super Smash Bros. BRAWL with Jefferson the Younger for a few hours, until we got sidetracked by the characters from Earthbound. Well, specifically Lucas and Ness, who are in Brawl, but then from those two, we discovered Poo. No, really, there is a character called Poo. It was decided that we needed to buy a SNES and Mother 2 as soon as humanly possible. Uh, then we went out for supper, along with Jefferson the Elder, Super-Awesome Girl*, and The Kaiserin. With the exception of Jefferson the Elder, who I don't know that well, I missed them all kind of terribly while I was gone. *desires to hug everyone*
Thursday) Baked great amounts! I went to Surprisingly Un-Tragic Friend's house, and the two of us baked two ap-pear pies, one ap-pear crisp, a batch of shortbread, two batches of chocolate almond biscotti, a chocolate cheesecake, a loaf of chocolate chip banana bread, uh... We also made some pie dough that did not get used. And I'm feeling like I left something out here, but we didn't end up baking the cookie bars or the brownies as we had intended. We also watched Down With Love and Zoolander, because why watch a movie five times when you can watch it six times?!
Friday) Went to a writing meeting! After having slept over at Un-Tragic Friend's house, I hustled on over to my old high school, where I met up with the writing group The Kaiserin had started up last year. thought_goddess was also there, much to my delight. The writing group is always fun, but we didn't really get a ton done. There is talk of starting a communal blog, so I might link you up if that ever gets off the ground. Oh, I also went to The Kaiserin's house, and played with her adorable, sweet, charming, wonderful lab-Husky puppy called Abby until my father came to pick me up so we could sally forth to the airport and pick Sistor up. This was the first time since Thanksgiving my whole family had been in the same province, and the first time since July we had done so without extreme rushing about, so I am all full of the joy.
Today) Made plans to throw snowballs at the Curly Twins and Town-Switch Buddy. I should get dressed for that soon, but Town-Switch Buddy keeps pretty late hours, so that bought me a few minutes.
But my main reason for this post is to talk about homophones!
No, really. Homophones. They're awesome, right? Two words that sound the same but are not the same. They're like secret, in-disguise spy words, in many ways that I could enumerate here, but would have to kill you all if I did. And don't get me wrong, I totally understand that spies are confusing, and lots of people have trouble with them. Heck, I am not saying I am perfect. But... Okay, I have hidden it so far but I am a bit of a grammar Nazi. And recently there has been an outbreak of difficulty with the words "piqued," "peeked," and "peaked." I feel it is sort of my duty to bitch about it in an educational manner, so here I go!
I'm a huge dork, so I'll start off by saying these three words piqued my interest, when I peeked at somebody's writing and my grammar-Nazi tendencies peaked at the misuse of homophones. As I understand them, these are their definitions (I double-checked these with Merriam-Webster, but am using my own definitions because I am a special snowflake sometimes:
(to) pique: to arouse interest, to make curious. I'm pretty sure it's from the French, where 'pique' means 'prick,' and not in the sexual way. Something can pique one's interest, one's curiousity, etc.
(to) peek: to peer, usually through curtains or around doorframes and the like. Little kids do it, as do old men who pay for peep shows. Maybe that is how one can remember it, with 'peek' and 'peep' both having two 'e's.
(to) peak: to come to the top-most point of something, like a mountain's peak. People in sports do this, like gymnasts who peak when they're five, and that sort of thing. I mean, people outside of sports do it too (for example, my father's hair volume peaked in the seventies), but it's easy to remember with sports because, uh, mountain-climbing is a sport. So one can think of that!
That's pretty much it for today. I've got to go get dressed to hurl snowballs at some people in minus thirty-some degree weather, and that is no small feat. Hope your Decembers are going well, world!
[Footnote from LJ-cut text: *who really is super, awesome, and, in fact, super-awesome, but whose self-esteem is deceptively low. Hence: Super-Awesome Girl, in the hopes that if she ever reads this, she will be forced (by my persuasive rhetoric) to accept how super, awesome, and, in fact, super-awesome she is.]