Thursday Thirteen

1. Some days I think back on people I've known who are gone now. I remember them at a certain age, maybe even much younger than they actually were when they died. Does that kind of recall have a name?

2. That thought led me to look up words for odd feelings. I found lists of said words on the Internet, but the words aren't in my Shorter Oxford Dictionary. If they're not in my dictionary, are they not real words? I don't know.

3. Making up words or renaming things is something I do on occasion. For example, I use the term "laminate" when I put food away with a food sealer machine. I laminate the leftovers, in other words.

4. I also change words up a bit. For example, some days I feel "decrapid," which is a cross between feeling old and feeling like crap.

5. Since "invalid," meaning not legally recognized and "invalid," meaning a sick person are the same word, sometimes I pronounce it the first way to acknowledge how I am feeling as a sick person.

6. I also use acronyms. If I tell you I'm fine, I might be okay, but more likely I'm Fucked Up, Insecure, Neurotic and Exhausted.

7. It amazes me sometimes how words flow into our language with uses we didn't foresee. In this instance I'm thinking of the word "sad," which I now equate with #45 and thus I no longer use the word much. It's become a sentence all on its own. Maybe it always was.

8. Other words become verbs or nouns. "Friended" is a favorite irritation of mine. "I friended her on Facebook." What happened to "befriend"? It's a perfectly good word. "I befriended her on Facebook."

9. What does "incentivize" even mean? I think it means to encourage or push someone to do something. Why not "prod" or something. Good grief.

10. Phrases that are old to me: think out of the box, pay it forward, everything happens for a reason.

11. Phrases that simply silly to me: cray cray for crazy. Po-po for police. Just sayin'. My bad.

12. Am I guilty of using some of these words or phrases? Of course I am. I'm a human being living in this madhouse world, simply trying to muddle through life until my last breath, like everyone. Sometimes the most thoughtless way is the easiest and quickest way through the murk.

13. Even though language changes are different, or I think they are silly, that doesn't mean they aren't legitimate. I mean, I will laminate my food until my dying day but that doesn't mean everyone else will (though I do wonder what other people call it as a short cut).

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 603rd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.