*yawn* 2

i have a friend who wanted to be able to hear the "Ummmmm....ahhhhhh...." guy, but her network at the office wouldn't allow her direct access to the mp3, so i decided to re-post the file, but this time with an embedded player :

does anyone ever feel like this is actually all you ever hear at a meeting? i swear that is all i EVER hear!

logorrhea

as i have said in the last few posts, i have been all over the country with work, and haven't had much time to myself, or much time to dedicate to this blog, which is rather unfortunate, in my opinion. (although yours my be quite the opposite).

one of the things that i love about my job, is that i get paid to learn. i also get paid to see some of the best presenters and performers from around the planet.

i have been compiling a list of things that have caught my eye/ear over the last few months. some of them are inspirational quotes, and other are quite the reverse, ie. silly things that people have said. other bits are just interesting words or phrases. in any case - here they are for your enjoyment. (or lack of)......


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GOOD QUOTES

"when the fire dies down, the predators come in"

"i want to be the person my dog thinks i am"

"be kind to the idiot, because in someone else's eyes, YOU are the idiot"

"don't measure your life by the number of breaths you TAKE, but by the moments that take your breath AWAY."


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BAD QUOTES

"what's that little box sitting on the mouse pad?" - (asked in reference to a mouse)

"do any of you read the internet?"

"growing like and absolute train"

"my mouse hand is stupid today"

"if you get a chance, see if you can spend some time with dick"

"some of the kids were REALLY poor. many of them had never even seen a TV screen larger than 19 inches"

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WORDS and PHRASES

"emotional firewall"

Kaizen

biometrics


this next word came to mind when i was thinking about the ambiguity of a word that a presenter used one day, and all of the different definitions of that word.

the word set has more definitions than any other word in the english language, and because of this is really fascinating to me.


here are the runners-up :

RUN - 396
GO - 368
TAKE - 343
STAND - 334
GET - 289
TURN - 288
PUT - 268
FALL - 264
STRIKE - 250

and this link is what you get when you type the word "set" directly into the address bar in firefox.


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that's about it for stuff that stuck with me over the last couple of months.


any of you guys have any good quotes or words you want to share with the other 2 or 3 readers on this blog?????










and simply because i need to spread the infection........



yes. i know.

it's all in the timing

my friend richard posted a piece on his blog recently, about the definition of time, and he managed to get some excellent responses, aside from the usual "it's the fourth dimension". and i had posted a video last week, which was "time lapse" so, in keeping with this whole "time theme" that seems to be happening, my brain started thinking about the phrase : "time flies like an arrow". this sentence is one of my favourite examples of how the english language is not only complicated, but also how different words can have more than one meaning, yet maintain the same spelling. (homographs). (which SOUNDS like a concept that my friend rich should be familiar with). in the original interpretation of this statement, we are comparing how the passing of time is similar to the movement of an arrow. but there are other ways for this sentence to be understood...... 1. measure time for flies as you would for arrows 2. there is a kind of fly, (called a "time fly"), and it is fond of arrows 3. there are flies that resemble arrows. measure their speed 4. measure time for flies as an arrow would obviously, a couple of these interpretations are not really possible, but i am still fascinated by the different way to read this. what are some phrases that YOU find don't make a lot of sense, or can be interpreted in more than one way?

"Not bad meaning bad, but bad meaning good"

A synonym is a word that means the same as another. "Necessary" and "required" are synonyms. An antonym is a word that means the opposite of another. "Wet" and "dry" are antonyms. While synonyms and antonyms are not in themselves interesting, the complexities and irregularities of the English language sometimes makes synonyms and antonyms interesting to explore. Many complexities result from words having multiple definitions. A trivial example is a word with synonyms that aren't synonyms of each other, the word "beam," for example, having the synonyms "bar" and "shine." Similarly, some words have antonyms that are neither synonyms nor antonyms of each other but completely unrelated: the word "right," for example, having the antonyms "wrong" and "left." A more interesting paradox occurs with the word groom, which does not really have an antonym in the strictest sense but has an opposite of sorts in the word bride, which can be used as a prefix to create a synonym, bridegroom. The word contronym (also the synonym antagonym) is used to refer to words that, by some freak of language evolution, are their own antonyms. Both contronym and antagonym are neologisms; however, there is no alternative term that is more established in the English language. Contronyms are special cases of homographs (two words with the same spelling). Some examples: * anabasis - military advance, military retreat * apology - admission of fault in what you think, say, or do; formal defense of what you think, say, or do * aught - all, nothing * bolt - secure, run away * by - multiplication (e.g., a three by five matrix), division (e.g., dividing eight by four) * chuffed - pleased, annoyed * cleave - separate, adhere * clip - fasten, detach * consult - ask for advice, give advice * copemate - partner, antagonist * custom - usual, special * deceptively smart - smarter than one appears, dumber than one appears * dike - wall, ditch * discursive - proceeding coherently from topic to topic, moving aimlessly from topic to topic * dollop - a large amount, a small amount * dust - add fine particles, remove fine particles * enjoin - prescribe, prohibit * fast - quick, unmoving * first degree - most severe (e.g., murder), least severe (e.g., burn) * fix - restore, castrate * flog - criticize harshly, promote aggressively * garnish - enhance (e.g., food), curtail (e.g., wages) * give out - produce, stop production * grade - incline, level * handicap - advantage, disadvantage * help - assist, prevent (e.g., "I can't help it if...") * left - remaining, departed from * liege - sovereign lord, loyal subject * mean - average, excellent (e.g., "plays a mean game") * off - off, on (e.g., "the alarm went off") * out - visible (e.g., stars), invisible (e.g., lights) * out of - outside, inside (e.g., "work out of one's home") * oversight - error, care * pitted - with the pit in, with the pit removed * put out - extinguish, generate (e.g., something putting out light) * quiddity - essence, trifling point * quite - rather, completely * ravel - tangle, disentangle * rent - buy use of, sell use of * sanction - approve, boycott * sanguine - hopeful, murderous (obsolete synonym for "sanguinary") * screen - show, hide * seed - add seeds (e.g., "to seed a field"), remove seeds (e.g., "to seed a tomato") * skinned - with the skin on, with the skin removed * strike - hit, miss (in baseball) * table - propose (in the United Kingdom), set aside (in the United States) * transparent - invisible, obvious * unbending - rigid, relaxing * variety - one type (e.g., "this variety"), many types (e.g., "a variety") * wear - endure through use, decay through use * weather - withstand, wear away * wind up - end, start up (e.g., a watch) * with - alongside, against

verbs before nouns

so today while doing some reading, i came across the phrase "verbs before nouns", (it was actually the title of a song), and it got me to wondering why the word "noun" is actually a noun, but the word "verb" is not a verb, but is in fact also a noun. my mind then started to wander a bit more and i began pondering over the accuracy of the statement. if there was a verb in the sentence, and it followed the word verb, it would make the sentence factually incorrect, kind of like as if i was to say "i am a liar, and therefore i always lie". this is a classic philosophical paradox. if i am always a liar, then by TELLING you that i am always a liar, means that i am telling you the truth, and therefore i am not always a liar, making the accuracy of the statement come into question. but at the same time, i could also be lying by telling you that i always lie, when in fact i am telling you truth, which would mean i am NOT telling you the truth, which would make the statement a lie. kind of circular, no? does any of this make sense? i am starting to think that i may have just confused myself........... anyway, if you want to check out more philosophical paradoxes, you can find them here.