Thursday, July 23, 2020

Thursday This n That

Just now I was looking up the definition of circumspect to see if it means what I think it means.  It does - watchful, discreet, prudent, etc., the surveying of all possible consequences before acting or deciding. (That last one is my favorite and what I had in mind.)  However, the Google definition at the top of the page?  'wary and unwilling to take risks'.  Interesting take there, Google.  Luckily, there are usually plenty of other definitions below the one they suggest.  Like there are more hits than the ones they give you on the first page, and they massage the hits the fit their agenda anyway, so don't always take the first few as being the definitive answers.  The gold is sometimes buried several pages in.

BTW, certain entities changing the definitions of words to suit an agenda  - not saying that's what the Big G did there but my conspiracy senses are tingling- or for any other reason doesn't actually change the meaning of the word. 

When I hear something strange, I tend to try and look it up on the web before accepting it as fact.  The other day, an acquaintance asked me if I'd ever seen a jellyfish in the lake.  I was immediately suspicious and told her I'd have to look that up before I believed it.  (Her success rate for strange info is about 50%.)  Sure enough, the lake does have freshwater jellyfish.  Huh.  I'd never heard of such a thing.  They're about the size of a quarter when they're in their sexual stage.  Most of their lives, though, are spent in the asexual stage and then they're only about an eighth of an inch and hang out at the bottom of the lake, stuck to stuff down there.  Every rare once in a while, when conditions are right, they reach the sexual stage and float around.  They can still sting, but all in all, not much to worry about.  Don't pick one up and you should be fine.  Pick one up and you'll still be okay, but with ouchie fingers.

I really need to start wearing my glasses while I'm at the computer.  Gah, getting old sucks.

A few days ago, I got an instant message from an author I follow.  He does this when he has a new book out and he calls me his favorite reviewer.  Neat.  Anyway, the fourth book in his series is out and I have it and I'm reading it.  Yay.  Maybe this will kill the reading drought I've been going through.

Now if I can just kill the writing drought.  

Anything on your this n that list today? 





1 comment:

  1. A certain well-known dictionary changes definitions to fit the current agenda so I'm not surprised that companies with known agendas do it. Grrr.

    Wow. Had no idea there were freshwater jellies. Learn somerthing new all the time. Now I REALLY don't want to ever get into a lake. 😆

    I have to stay away from anything to do with the news. If I start the day angry (and yeah, everything out there pretty much makes me angry these days), I don't get any work done. I also need to stop reading comments on a book blog that I've followed for years. Stupid remarks from stupid "children" also ruin my day. Ah well. Moving on.

    Watched the Cardinals beat the Royals last night. Yay. Opening day is...well, technically today, I guess. Cards opening game is tomorrow night. Gonna be a weirdly short season and I'm not sure I like the DH experiment in the NL. But it's baseball, so there is that.

    I made chocolate peanut clusters last night. Took about 10 minutes. Yay for microwave. Recipe I found was easy--chocolate chips and a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter melted in the microwave. Add peanuts, drop on parchment paper covered cookie sheet and let harden in refrigerator. I used semi-sweet chips. They aren't bad. I may try dark chocolate for the next batch.

    I started a library book I've had on hold, which just released. I was actually first in line. Yay! It's "southern magic realism" and I think it might be just what I need right now. I'm about an hour into it and so far, it's hitting the spot lick sipping sweet tea in a porch swing. I need a lot of that these days!

    Nothing else going on. Writing is hit or miss, mostly miss. Hope to get motivated today.

    Hang in there!
    And thanks for the definition. 😄

    ReplyDelete