Sunday, February 20, 2011

First Crusader Challenge

When Rachel Harrie says challenge, she means it. For our first Crusader Challenge, she wants us to use filuguline in a sentence (no, this one doesn’t count). I looked it up on Dictionary.com and it wasn’t there. That’s like the time I went on Wikipedia to delete its personal Wikipedia page because it makes the universe divide by zero.

Anyone who doesn’t know what that means, I’m sorry, but there’s just no help for you.

Sorry, sorry. I have a problem with foot-in-mouth disease. I try to joke and go too far. It’s especially a problem online because people can’t hear your tone. It’s embarrassing to tell this, but once in a chat, I told someone to “Just ignore the annoying pests!” in reference to her parents (in all fairness, I really meant my parents). I don’t blame her for being insulted. Of course, I apologized immediately—I have the sense to realize when I’ve gone too far, usually right after I hit enter and freeze like a rabbit under a hunter’s flashlight beam because yes, I really did type that. But I still think it came off like I was trying to bloviate like some know it all rather than commiserate (which just makes me think that if you use bloviate in a sentence, it’s impossible to not sound like you’re bloviating). And while water may roll off a duck’s back, humans seem to lack this filuguline feature.

Words cut sharper than any blade. That’s why I love my cats. Words are meaningless to them! It’s odd that I’m compelled to look up the origins of words and go nuts when they are used improperly (or worse, combined into a useless new form—ginormous; ugh), yet my favorite creatures don’t understand the essence of “words.”

Okay, that’s all for me today. But perhaps something I said above isn’t true…

16 comments:

  1. Great Challenge post!

    The lie? Going to Wikipedia to delete its page. But I'm really just guessing here--I don't have any idea!

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  2. hmmm... Tricky...

    No... I tried all of them, but none make sense to me. So I will wait to see your answer instead. :-)

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  3. Hmmm...what you said sounds like like the truth, but I don't think it's possible to delete Wikipedia's page.

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  4. I think that you don't like to look up words. :/ Deleting the wiki page is good, too, though...

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  5. Great entry for the challenge! :)

    I think I'm in agreement with everyone here about deleting the wiki page ;)

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  6. Great post. I have no idea which is the lie. I'm a fellow crusader and new follower. Nice to meet you.

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  7. Is it some sort of pasta? I await your view and answer of the challenge. I don't use wiki--it never satisfies. Susan

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  8. Hello to a fellow Crusader :)
    Great post, no idea what the lie is.

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  9. hehe I wonder where she got those words. I should ask her.

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  10. I'll venture a guess. That animals think words are meaningless. Food, outside, and here hold deep meaning with the pets in our house. The dogs love the words park, treat, and kisses as well. :)

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  11. I have no idea! I think I'll go with the others who picked Wikipedia... but I'm torn between that and that animals think words are meaningless, because I know my husband's dog knows things like 'out' and 'walk'!

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  12. If the universe is divided by zero does that make it undefined..?

    I also went straight to Dictionary.com to look for fuliguline and was most disappointed that it wasn't there! And my normal dictionary didn't have it either! I resorted to Googling something like "odd words fuliguline"...

    Anyway, I think you incorporated the challenge words really well, and I have no idea what the lie is!

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  13. I am not sure what you're lie is either... I thought I'd get getter at figuring it out but it's really tough when you are just meeting people. Oh and you can find fuliguline at http://www.onelook.com/ It's a useful dictionary search engine. I use it whenever I can't find a word.

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  14. "Ginormous" is one of my favourites. But it seems to be more a UK thing than US. When I asked about its origins once, someone pointed out that the US had done the same with "humongous". I just smile and nod when things like that come up...

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  15. Hello fellow crusader! I am a tad bit late, so I just thought I would just say Hi! :D

    Well, I would venture that deleting the wiki page is the fib. You can create but not delete. You can edit, and delete everything there, but the page remains. So yeah, my guess is deleting the wiki page. :)

    Now, I am scared. I sub'ed a PB with the word "ginormous" in it. but, as Su said, maybe it's the English influence I had in my life that brought me to that word. I love it. I love it's use in my PB too. So, not so scared that one little word will ruing my sub, even though it is ginormous! hehe

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  16. Since everyone is going with the Wiki thing, I'm going to say you don't actually have cats.

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Please validate me.