Word Wednesday : Progress Baby, Progress

I was contemplating taking an internet hiatus next week - from Christmas to New Year's - as sometimes, even though I thoroughly enjoy the communication and sharing and goodness that can happen therein, the process of checking and keeping up can be exhausting to me.  But look!  - it seems I've already taken a snoozer from the ol' blog... lo siento mucho.

The original intent of this blog was to chronicle thoughts, photos, recipes, experiences, artwork that depicted my encounters and re-encounters with things new in my life.  Things I was "green" at, so to speak.  One of the ways I intended to explore my lack of knowledge was in choosing a spice or herb each season to research and cook or bake with.  Blogging is not something I'm yet good (or will ever be good) at keeping up with, but let's take a look at the stats, for fun:

Spring 2011 - Tarragon - one post

Summer 2011 - Cilantro - one post

Fall 2011 - Cinnamon - two posts

Progress baby, progress.

(That's today's word by the way...)

prog·ress

 [n. prog-res, -ruhs or, especially Brit., proh-gres; v. pruh-gres]

noun

1.

a movement toward a goal or to a further or higher stage

2.

developmental activity in science, technology, etc., especially with reference to the commercial opportunitiescreated thereby or to the promotion of the material well-being of the public through the goods, techniques, or facilities created

3.

advancement in general

4.

growth or development; continuous improvement

It's a pretty common word.  I often take for granted that it encompasses all movement towards a goal, towards some higher, something better.  My goals often don't get broken down into objectives, into digestible pieces.  Thus, it can get frustrating to not see any "progress"... Plus, I'm a numbers person, whether I like to admit it or not... I keep stats on myself, especially exercise.  Nerd, capital "N".  Point is, let's give ourselves some credit for the movements we do make (no exercise pun intended), however small.  Sometimes it's just a change in thinking that fuels the progress that will no doubt show on the outside - whether in increased grace or decreased waistlines.

Today, on the shortest day of the year, the official start of winter... give yourself some credit for how astounding you are today... and the path of progress you're on.

Word Wednesday

{rain blues}

I like this word:

ver·ba·tim

  [ver-bey-tim]

adverb

1.

in exactly the same words; word for word

adjective

2.

corresponding word for word to the original source or text

3.

skilled at recording or noting down speeches, proceedings,etc., with word-for-word accuracy

Origin: 1475–85;  < Medieval Latin verbātim,  equivalent to verb ( um )word + -ātim  adv. suffix

This evening, I asked a slew of people, via text, to fill in this sentence:

Today was a good day for ______________.

Here, in no particular order, are the answers of my family, friends, co-workers, and acquaintances from the gym, verbatim:

• hot cocoa!
• Buying a Camry!**
• For sleeping
• Laying on the couch reading.  Wish I had ;-)
• Puddle jumping
• Me.
• Coworker camaraderie.
• A beer!
• Magicians to work their magic and show us how to liberate spirit from matter.
• Eating soup?
• Doing anything but CPE.
• Prepping for the zombie apx*
• Getting ripped off at a car dealer**
• A round house kick!
• Dogs!
• Sleeping :) I am exhausted
• Sleeping, but I didn't, or... talking to kids about wanting vs. needing, which I did.
• REVENGE!
• Being sick
• Magazine flipping

*"apx" is apocalypse. I asked.

**these two people went somewhere together, can you tell?

...How about you?

Word. Wednesday.

Wednesday's words often have their origin in not just something that encapsulates my life at the moment, but a word that plagues my inner dialogue, or one that tickles my fancy.  Today's word is a tickler.  

As I looked out over the yard strewn with storm-littered tree shrapnel, I found myself exclaiming (inside my head), "Look at all this flim-flammery!"  (Inside my head because no one was there to listen and also because I wasn't quite sure of my word usage, despite the exclamation.)

And then, I knew that today's word would have to be flim-flammery.  Except... that's not a word.  It turns out my inner dialogue does not have an inner dictionary at its inner disposal.  And I dressed the word up in a hyphen and suffix for fun.  It also turns out that I didn't really know what it meant.  Not exactly anyway.  I thought it referred to a mess, a jumble of mixed up stuff...

Here is the real meaning, per dictionary.com, whose name seems too simple to be the authoritative giver of word meanings...

flim·flam

  [flim-flam] noun, verb, -flammed, -flam·ming. 

noun

1.

a trick or deception, especially a swindle or confidencegame involving skillful persuasion or clever manipulation ofthe victim.

2.

a piece of nonsense; twaddle; bosh.