But what does it mean?

I hate LiveJournal.  It's possible I'd hate BlogSpot, etc., just as much, but LJ is where I am.

If the internet as a whole is like a giant 24-hour library, LiveJournal is like one of those gated communities where you need a password to get in, and once you're there you're lost because everything looks the same.

There are people I like on LJ, but it's like having friends who live too far away.   Or maybe my solitary nature is asserting itself in virtual life as in real life.

Yep, that Fantasy Basketball League is sounding better and better.

"It is what it is."

Translation:

It doesn't work, and don't you dare try to fix it.


"He means well."

Translation:

The chaos, suffering, destruction, or waste he causes is motivated by something other than a pure desire for chaos , suffering, destruction, or waste.

Maybe he (or she) is working under a firmly held misunderstanding of the facts.  Maybe he is trying to hide his incompetence.  Maybe his (her) thought processes are impaired.


"Your loved one is in the recovery room.  You can see her (him) in about half an hour."

Said by a surgeon to the patient's waiting relatives.  It means:

See you tomorrow, I'm outta here.

Unless it means:  In the time it took me to walk from the operating room to the waiting room, your loved one was extubated,  teleported to the recovery room, magically hooked up to monitors, assessed by the nurse, and medicated for pain.  Within thirty minutes, the nurse will force someone on my service to write orders and will initiate those orders.  Then the nurse will get your loved one cleaned up enough  so that you can visit without being horrified.


Take our survey.

Buy something, or at least provide us with your personal information so we can sell you things later or at least sell your name to someone else.


Blankety Blank Hospital [Bank, Insurance Company, School] cares about you.

We hired a copywriter who was too indifferent or stupid to understand that you are aware that "caring" is not a function that is available to an institution.

Maybe we wanted to say that at this institution, you will receive everything you're entitled to without having to fight for it, but we were afraid you might try to hold us to that.


Those others are fine people.

This is used when the speaker becomes aware of your group affiliation, or that of a third party.  As in:

There used to be a Jewish family in town and the mother was in the PTA and the kids were in scouts.

There's a Puerto Rican woman at work,  her son goes to  Good College, and when we have our luncheons she brings in a wonderful rice dish, but I don't know what it's called.

Mr. ApparentlyGay taught at the high school, and my brother-friend-sister had him for two years, and he was a very good teacher and there was never any trouble.

Translation:

I mean those people no harm, but the mention of them makes me so uncomfortable that I have to say something immediately.

I have operator's manuals for stuff I don't even remember and pay stubs from 1978, but no birth certificate.

I also found a scrap of paper, maybe 2 inches by 4, on which I'd copied the following:

Progress in morals is an illusion, there is no goal to which moral development inevitably tends; indeed there is a hidden root of insincerity and hypocrisy beneath all morality, for goodness and badness and all other moral states are in fact states of conflict between opposing impulses.

You'd think if I cared enough to write that out longhand and save it, I might have thought to include the source.  I'm sure I didn't write it myself; I would have found more pretentious synonyms for goodness and badness.

I saw a bumper sticker that said "One Gay at a Time."

I'm mystified.

Only have sex with one gay at a time?

Exterminate them, one at a time?

"Cure" them, one at a time?

Sell them Amway dealerships? Timeshares? Win their votes?

Never hire a decorator while you're having your hair done?

Maybe it applies to schools or military units. Straights may use the showers or locker rooms in groups, but gays must go singly.

As I said, I'm stumped.

I've become a Project Runway junkie.  I couldn't possibly care less about fashion without being a radical nudist, but I love that show.

They got something right that every school I've ever gone to got wrong:  they separated the role of judge from the role of mentor.

I'm crazy about Tim Gunn.  He's confident without being an egomaniac.  He's knowledgeable, open-minded, articulate, and tactful, which makes him a good mentor.  He's also very entertaining, which is fortunate, since he's on TV.   As the Runway contestants design and sew their creations, he provides advice and feedback.  He's a resource to them, but he doesn't score their work.  That's left to the snarky judges.

I could have used somebody like that during my school years, because It's kind of tough to expand your knowledge when you have to be careful about revealing your ignorance.  It's not much of an issue in the primary years, and it wasn't a big deal in college, but it's major when you're  in a program that systematically cuts a large fraction from an entering class.  You don't ask a question because you need to know something, you ask a question to demonstrate how much you already know.  Real questions are whispered from one student to another.

In school or in life, people don't usually say, "That's a stupid question."  What they do say is, "You should know that," or "How did you get this far without knowing that?"  (If the offending asker outranks the person being questioned, the comments occur later and are addressed to a third party.)

Maybe we could have a stupid question amnesty day.  You'd have to be patient with a lot of idiots, but think of what you might learn yourself.

He sure thinks of a lot of different ways to kill his characters, doesn't he?