slayerbarbie’s Neighborhood

I am a bad blogger, I haven't written anything for ages, mainly because I've been rather busy doing other things, like celebrating Christmas and the New Year. 

Lake Superior State University has released its annual list of "banished words"; words they consider trite, overused, annoying, or a combination of all three.  Following below is the list, with my comments in italics:

SHOVEL-READY

"Apparently, the generally accepted definition of this phrase is to imply that a project has been completely designed and all that is left to do is to implement it...however, when something dies, it, too, is shovel-ready for burial and so I get confused about the meaning. I would suggest that we just say the project is ready to implement.” – Jerry Redington, Keosauqua, Iowa.

"Stick a shovel in it. It's done." – Joe Grimm, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

I'd like to take a shovel upside the head of the person who coined this obnoxious phrase.

TRANSPARENT/TRANSPARENCY

"In the lexicon of the political arena, this word is supposed to mean obvious or easily understood. In reality, political transparency is more invisible than obvious!" -- Deb Larson, Bellaire, Mich.

Someone throw a blanket over "transparent".

CZAR

Long used by the media as a metaphor for positions of high authority, including “baseball czar” Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, appointed by team owners as commissioner-for-life in 1919. U.S. president Woodrow Wilson had an “industry czar” during World War I. Lesser-known “czar” roles in government during the last 100 years include: censorship, housing and oil czars in 1941; rubber czar in 1942; patronage czar (1945); clean-up (1952); missile (1954); inflation (1971); e-commerce (1998); bioethics, faith-based and reading czars (2001); bird flu (2004); democracy (2005); abstinence and birth control czars (2006); and weatherization czar (2008).

I thought the Russians took care of "czars" in 1917.

TWEET

And all of its variations…tweetaholic, retweet, twitterhea, twitterature, twittersphere….

Jay Brazier of Williamston, Mich. says she supposes that tweeters might be "twits."

Personally, I'd go for "twats", myself.

APP

"Must we b sbjct to yt another abrv? Why does the English language have to fit on a two-inch screen? I hate the sound of it. I think I'll listen to a symph on the rad." -- Edward R. Bolt, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Put "cr" in front of "app" and you get crapp!

SEXTING

Sending sexually explicit pictures and text messages through the cell phone.

"Any dangerous new trend that also happens to have a clever mash-up of words, involves teens, and gets television talk show hosts interested must be banished." – Ishmael Daro, Saskatoon, Sask., Canada.

A "word" spoken by those who aren't getting the real thing.

FRIEND AS A VERB

Came into popularity through social networking websites. You add someone to your network by "friending" them, or remove them by "unfriending" them.

"'Befriend' is much more pleasant to the human ear and a perfectly useful word in the dictionary." – Kevin K., Morris, Okla.

I pretty much hate any noun that is made into a verb and vice versa. 

TEACHABLE MOMENT

What might otherwise be known as 'a lesson.'

"It's a condescending substitute for 'opportunity to make a point,'" says Eric Rosenquist of College Station, Tex.

So, portions of time are now capable of being taught, hmm?

IN THESE ECONOMIC TIMES….

"Overused and redundant. Aren't ALL times 'these economic times'?" -- Barb Stutesman, Three Rivers, Mich.

I think this stuffy phrase has outlived its fifteen minutes of overuse.

STIMULUS

"Everything in the news is about the stimulus packages...it is no longer a grant, it's stimulus money, stimulus checks, etc. I think it is just being over-used." Teri Heikkila, Rudyard, Mich.

I've got your "stimulus package" right here! 

TOXIC ASSETS

"Whatever happened to simply 'bad stocks,' 'debts,' or 'loans'?" -- Monty Heidenreich, Homewood, Ill.

This list wouldn't be complete without an oxymoron.

TOO BIG TO FAIL

"Just for the record, nothing's too big to fail unless the government lets it." Claire Shefchik, Brooklyn, NY.

Tell this to the owners of the Titanic!.

BROMANCE

"I am sick of combined words the media creates to make them sound catchier. Frenemies? Bromances? Blogorrhea? I'm going to scream!" – Kaylynn, Alberta, Canada.

I've been lucky to have never heard this one before.

CHILLAXIN'

"Heard everywhere from MTV to ESPN to CNN. A bothersome term that seeks to combine chillin' with relaxin' makes me want to be 'axin' this word." – Tammy, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

What?  Does this mean to put an axe into the refrigerator?

OBAMA-prefix or roots?

The LSSU Word Banishment Committee held out hope that folks would want to Obama-ban Obama-structions, but were surprised that no one Obama-nominated any, such as these compiled by the Oxford Dictionary in 2009: Obamanomics, Obamanation, Obamafication, Obamacare, Obamalicious, Obamaland….We say Obamanough already.

Let's bomb all the Obama coinages.

My personal contribution to this year's list would be:

FAIL used as a noun.

For example, a football team loses big in a game and it's dubbed "an epic fail".  This one made me grind my teeth the first time I heard it.  It may be an "epic failure", but it's NOT an "epic fail".

What's your New Year's resolution for 2010?

I don't make resolutions other than the one I make every year and have no trouble in fulfilling: to get laid as often as possible!

2009 hasn't been one of my better years.  My finances have become increasingly tighter this year -- I'm nearly as broke now as I was in college -- and I remain underemployed in a state with a high unemployment rate.  I've spent much of the year robbing Peter to pay Paul just to barely make minimum payments on my bills.  My son also lost a good job this year, and he has yet to find permanent employment.

I ended an important relationship this year out of necessity, yet I still miss her to this day.  Intellectually, I know it was for the best, but my body tells me differently.

I also lost one of my cats this year and I likewise mourn his loss.

On the plus side, I remain healthy, and no one has died in my family or among my friends this year.  That's always something to celebrate.

I finally paid off my car loan, so that should help to ease my finances a bit in the new year.

Plus, my "social life" is still as active as ever which is, again, always a reason to celebrate.

But I can safely say I'll be glad to bid 2009 good riddance and I look forward to see what 2010 will have to offer.  I offer no resolutions, as it's not in my nature to do so, except to say that I will be alert to whatever opportunities present themselves  in the new year.

Grrrr! I just became "that person" to a customer service rep at an insurance company. I did however also apologize to her several times and explained I wasn't mad at her, but at the company and politely asked for her supervisor!

Our home owners insurance has our house insured for almost 3 times the amount is it worth. That also means they are charging us 3 times the amount of premium.

A little year ago I went on line after seeing the commercial telling me how much money they could save me I entered info for a free quote. I was amazed when the quote came back at almost half the cost of what I had been paying. So I switched insurance companies for both our car and our house.

After the quote became a policy I noticed something had been entered incorrect and the house was insured for 310,000.00! My husband and I laughed about that. We knew the value of the house was far from that and called the insurance company right away. I was told only an agent could change the info to get the policy corrected. About that same time some one called and set up an appointment for an inspector from the insurance company to look at our house and do an insurance inspection to confirm the accuracy of the quote.

I thought "Wow! They seem like a hands on insurance company. Great! I was afraid of going with a company that mainly deals over the internet and never having "real" person to deal with for big issues-but Ididn't want to have a pushy insurance agent keep trying to sell me other insurances.

A few changes were made to the policy and a new policy went into effect. Everything paid via the escrow account with our mortgage. I didn't get a bill or have to write a check, so I didn't give it  a second thought.

This year the renwal comes up and the bill is sent to the escrow acount and the amount is almost twice the amount it was last year. So I start reading the policy and notice all the mistakes that were made. Mistakes from the information the inspector turned in.

He had the age of the roof wrong by almost 12 years. That was a difference of $100. There were little charges for things like $12.00 because when he saw there was a computer he automaticaly had seperate coverage on it. Coverage that wasn't needed. The type of wood stove we had was listed wrong and was over charged by $200. Not to mention they had the square footage of our house listed at 2500sq ft. If you saw my tiny house you would see how absurp that was. Reality is it is 900 sq ft. That is almost a difference of another $500.00.

Again I called and told them about the errors on the policy. First person I spoke to was very freindly. Easily removed the items that didn't need to be insured and corrected the small errors. He was able to deduct almost $300.00 of the cost of the policy. I should get a check in a couple of weeks, but only an agent can do anything about the size of the house. I was transferred to an agent. Who tells me there is nothing that can be done to change the policy. After several minutes of arguing with him that there has to be somthing that can get the size of the house correct and explaining to him that some one will have a lot of explaining to do if the house burns down and they find only enough ash for a 900sq ft.

I was finaly told to call my county assesers office and get a "tax card" to send the insurance company, confirming the house is only 900sq ft.

I call the county. They tell me they don't have anything that shows the sqaure footage of your house. They can send proof of what they say the house/land is valued at.

I call the insurance company back and tell them this. Then I am told I can send a copy of the appraisal we had done two years ago when we refinanced.

So I make a copy I mail it in and I wait to see if they get it right.

I get a check for $250.00. I call to ask why it is $50 short of the amount I was told it was going to be by the first person who changed the policy. I was given some crap about a processing fee and being prorated to the date the error was corrected.

A little more then a week later I get a check in the mail from the insurance company. I think they finaly got it straightened out and they are paying me back. Except the check is for $937!

Another phone call.

I'm told it is a refund check because my mortgage company over paid the insurance company. When I question the mortgage company as to why they paid a bill that didn't need to be paid I was  told some one mistoke the policy change notifaction as a bill and I should just cash the check, then send the mortgage comapny extra money when I make my house payment and indicate that it is an esrow repayment.

At this point I'm just a bit pissed! Not only does this start to sound like some Nigerian internet scam (minus the Nigerian). But how much more can this insurance company screw up?

I'm probably starting to ramble a bit on this, but so far I have made several phone calls to the insurance comapany and even had to have the mortgage company put a hold on our escrow account so no more "mistaken" payments can get sent, since every time the insurance company makes the slightes change to our policy it generates the "policy change notifacation" to get sent to the mortgage company. That gets mistaken as a bill. That generates a payment from our escrow acount. That gets turned into a check from the insurance company and sent back to us. That then needs to get sent back to the mortgage company to re-pay the escrow!

It's so f*cked up it starting to look like I launder money for them!

The latest episode in this insurance nightmare is getting TWO policies in the mail on the same day. Both say they are effective Dec 12, 2009. One for a house valued at $300,000.00 with a premium of $937. The other for a house value of $145,000.00 with a premium of $550.00.

Finaly. They got the size of the house right, but what policy is the correct one that is the final one?

Another phone call.

I'm told it's all corrected now. As of Dec 12, 2009. Almost a year and a half after the first call to get this corrected. They have the right size of our house.

I'm told the check for $279 was sent dec 28th.

WTF?????

I'm may not be the brightest bulb in the light fixture at times but even I know 937 - 550 = 387!

$387.00 and should be the check I should be getting sent!

Now I get put on hold for an eternity. I finaly get a supervisor who looks over the account and varifies everything I had been telling them!.......But she put all the info into her computer and it confirms the refund check is for $279 and cheerfully tells me I should get it next week!

That's when I became "that" customer.

I asked her if she new simple math. The kind you use a pen and paer to figure it out. Write down 937 subtract 550.....what do you get? After a pause...387?

So explain how the check is only $279.

Now I'm told an IT tech has to look at the account to see why "the system" is doing the math wrong!

I'm starting to think my insurance company found it's own bail out system.
Conviently over charge then take an eternity to fix it. All the time you have a merry go round of checks, keeping the consumer thinking refunds and problems are being fixed.

Except each time the insurance company has figured out a way to keep just a bit of that refund money.

I wonder how many other people they are screwing over that don't even realize it.!

End of Another Year!

While reading a message board the other day, I saw a thread about New Year's resolutions and rolled my eyes.  My first thought was that nearly everyone would resolve to "lose weight" in 2010, as that particular resolution is typical and ubiquitous.  There's absolutely no originality about it at all.

Sure enough, I was right.  Every person who had posted on the thread put weight loss on their list.  I seriously doubt that every person who posts on that large message board is in need of weight loss, hence my rolling of eyes.  But no one ever wants to gain weight or just doesn't care one way (weigh?) or the other how much they weigh.  No,everyone resolved to lose weight, even if they were underweight.

And what annoyed me most about this is not so much the desire to lose weight, but rather the ubiquity of this resolution and the total lack of originality in coming up with a list of resolutions, not to mention the ubiquity of New Years' resolutions themselves.

I got to thinking and I realized that it was ubiquity in general -- the ever-present, the predictable, and the typical -- that is at the heart of my annoyance.   It connotes a lack of original or creative thinking and reeks of a lemming-like ordinariness.  Thinking further, I thought of other examples of ubiquity that irritate me.

One example is the fact that nearly every rock band, without question, contains only two types of instruments: guitars and drums.  Why do we not see wind instruments on a more regular basis?  Why not pianos? There's nothing wrong with guitars and drums, per se, but the ubiquity of the guitar-and-drums-only bands annoys the crap out of me.  I can't help but think of how much more opportunity for creative music is lost because most rock musicians just stick to the same ol' thing, instrument wise.

One petty example of ubiquity is that whenever you see a couple sharing a motorcycle, the woman is always the one on the back.  What?  Is this a freaking law or something?  You think they'd want to switch up now and then for a little variety.  A funny example of ubiquity is that whenever you are driving behind construction workers in a pickup, they always have a yellow plastic water dispenser with a red lid on top.  Never any other colors.

Feel free to list other example of ubiquity in the comment box, particularly the kinds that irritate you..

I haven't blogged in ages, bad me...
I only have two things of import to say
1. I am going to Florida tomorrow!!! I will be with my lover mans for New Years!!! Happy Holidays indeed *wink*
2. it snowed a SHIT TON over Christmas day, but that didn't stop my parents from coming over from their trailer, we exchanged gifts, we ate FAR too much, and then they spent the night seeing as they couldn't go home, hehe oh well I've got the space and it was nice having the help at the barn(I'm caring for 5 right now)
here is a look at our pie overload.

White lights or colored lights? Blinking or non-blinking? Bonus points if you show us a photo of the lights you used to decorate for the holidays.

I prefer colored Christmas lights, as I think white lights are boring and kind of pretentious.  After all, we see white lamps in different forms of lighting 365 days a year; there's nothing special about them.  On the other hand, we only see the strings of colored lights at Christmas time and color is inherently more interesting than the lack of color.

But I prefer non-blinking lights, as the blinky kind are kind of distracting and annoying.

I can't show you a picture, because I don't decorate for Christmas.

This morning, I read an interesting blog post by Paula Reed.  Her entry was based on a quote she'd received by email:

“The Left: People who demonize those with whom they disagree.”

My first thought was to think of how so many neocons today are masters at the art of projection: they take what is commonly done by neocons and turn it around saying it's really liberals doing it.

Personally attacking one's opponents, instead of coming up with reasoned rebuttals to their ideas is intellectually dishonest and is a symptom of the creeping anti-intellectualism in this country; an example of the dumbing-down of America.  It's much easier to blame liberals for everything that's wrong in our world today, than to come up with ideas on how to fix these problems together.

Gone are the days of erudite conservatives, such as William Buckley. Also largely gone are those conservatives, such as Barry Goldwater, who was able to often put ideological differences aside and work in a bi-partisan manner with his Democratic colleagues (now, I bet that is a word you don't hear too much in Washington nowadays) for the good of the country.

Now, it's neocon pundits, such as Limbaugh, Savage, and Coulter, among many others, who have brought the black and white, simplistic tactic of using ad hominems against their opponents in from the far right fringes of the tinfoil hat brigade into mainstream conservative thought.  Or what passes for thought.   This is not to say that the left is entirely free of such nonsense -- there are liberals, such as Rosie O'Donnell, who could hardly be called intellectual.  But those such as O'Donnell hardly have the reach or the influence tha those in the pantheon on the right wing do

I heard a prime example of this type of anti-intellectualism the other night while listening to the radio.  A man called the Dennis Miller show to express why he rejected intelligent design.  Miller didn't give him much of a chance to speak.  Instead he cut him off to say that he couldn't get on board with Darwinism because he just couldn't get into the idea of "worshipping a pile of amino acids" and that he liked the idea of an intelligent being creating life on Earth.

My jaw dropped when I heard this nonsense.  I could not believe that Miller, a former liberal and former cast member of Saturday Night Live -- in other words, someone who should know better -- was spouting off such simplistic ideas.   There was once a time when being a conservative did not mean one also had to accept intellectually bankrupt, fundamentalist Christian beliefs as well.

Instead of the Buckley types being the mainstream of conservatism, we now have the Archie Bunkers of the world running the Republican party, which is a sad thing for old-school Republicans and the party in general.

Thoughts?