Evil Wrapped in a Fangirl Disguise

When you feel sick to your stomach, about to vomit, you feel nauseated.

When something is nauseous, it causes nausea.

If you feel nauseous, you are essentially saying you cause other people nausea.

Thank you, Dr. McD, for explaining the difference so clearly back in school.

ETA: Usage note from my dictionary, The American Heritage Collage Dictionary, Fourth Edition:

Traditional critics have insisted that nauseous is appropriately used only to mean "causing nausea" and that it is incorrect to use it to mean "affected with nausea," as in Roller coasters make me nauseous. In this example, nauseated was preferred by 61 percent of the Usage Panel in the 1999 survey. Curiously, though, only 24 percent of the Panelists preferred using nauseous in the sentence The children looked a little green from too many candy apples and nauseous rides. Since there is a lot of evidence to show that nauseous is widely used to mean "feeling sick," it appears that people using nauseous mainly in the sense in which it is considered incorrect. In its "correct" sense it is being supplanted by nauseating.

Today's LJ Writers' Block asks: What was your first word?

I had to ask Mom. This prompted her to get out my baby book. Apparently my first word was "hot."

But now I am reading through the baby book - which is pretty thorough; nice job, Mom! - and finding it pretty amusing and interesting. Some things just do not change (Person smiled at: ...just about anybody who'll smile at us) and some things really do (Sounds made: ...likes to sing...hums a lot). Not to say I don't still like to sing and hum, just generally not where people can hear me. :)

At five months, it took me about half an hour to "unwind and get comfy and start talking." Which, yes, sounds about right. Also the whole "very serious" but generally happy baby thing with the smiling and laughing a lot. That's me. Pretty serious; generally happy. Easily provoked into laughter.

I had a pig named Hamlet (stuffed) and a cat named Stanley (real). I'm so glad I finally remember that cat's name! I kept wanting to say Sammy, but that was one of EB's first cats.

It is bizarre looking at baby pictures and realizing it's yourself you're looking at.

Friday afternoon working at the library, two boys came in and were using one of the computers. It's not a big building and the computers are next to the main counter, so I could hear everything they were saying.

What I found absolutely fascinating was the way English and Spanish were combined. The kids just flowed in and out of the two languages, back and forth like it was no big deal. It was really interesting listening to them. And kind of fantastic.

"Library" is a really funny word if you think about it too hard.

One thing that I dislike is irresponsibility. When I make an appointment, I do my best to keep it. When I schedule work, I do my best to be there. And when I'm there, I do my best to complete the job at hand. Most of the time anyway; we all have our off days.

Today was hectic at the library. They've been working to upgrade the circulation system since last Thursday, meaning that nothing can be checked in (boxes of returned items piling up) and all check-out is done by hand (off-line circulation being unreliable, imo). I was asked to sub, which I didn't mind because I've dealt with the system being down before and, really, if I can deal with finals week in a university library I should be able to deal with books and DVDs piling up.

That wasn't so bad. (I was three sentences past the beginning of this paragraph before I realized I'd written "That was so bad" while thinking "wasn't." Heh.) Especially since Shannon told me to keep trying the circulation system until it let me in. When it popped up with a box asking me if I wanted to upgrade, I said, "Sure! Bring it on!" And all seemed to be well.

No, what really pissed me off, and I'm willing to admit I was probably overreacting, was when the other sub who was supposed to come work four hours with me called and said, "Shannon said she'd leave a note if she wanted me to come in. Did she leave a note?"

"Well, no. Not really. But she did say she had a project you could help with. They want to incorporate the non-cataloged paperback juvenile fiction with the cataloged hardcovers..."

"Oh, yeah, we've talked about that. But that's not really important."

That really annoyed me. Because, what? It needs to be done but you're feeling lazy so I'm going to be the one that does it?

She then asked if the computers were still down and I said it was kind of iffy at the moment, though they seemed to be fine. She said, "Well, I don't want to show up if there's nothing there for me to do."

So I told her, "If you have other things you have to do today, you go ahead and do them. I can take care of this on my own."

She said some more things after that, and I just repeated that a few times. At one point she kind of laughed after I said it. I think she caught my fed-up tone. You know the one. Everyone has one. The one where you're not openly angry, but it's clear that you think time's being wasted and so you're being sort of...professionally nice. If that makes sense.

I feel a little bad about it now. Mostly I feel bad that I feel like I should feel bad. How's that for convoluted?

She did tell me that I could call later in the afternoon if I needed help. I could have used helped later (I could have used help then), but there's too much going on to go looking for a phone number and I like working alone. Plus, this particular person has a really grating voice. And personality. The first time she called this morning, after I hung up all I could think was, "I'm going to have to listen to that for four hours." But then, of course, she didn't come in.

And then there was the part of me that didn't want to call because I wanted to prove I could handle the big scary day all by myself. So take THAT.

I did have a slight moment of panic, though. I called the tech people because transit slips weren't printing when I scanned material that was supposed to be sent elsewhere. When they called back and I said I was using the system, she said, "You're using it? Did we walk you through the upgrade already? If we didn't, then everything you're doing isn't being recorded." I was like, "It asked me to upgrade, I clicked 'okay.' I thought it was all right."

When I called her back after dealing with patrons, she apologized for panicking and said that I was fine. When I told Mom this, Mom asked, "So you did something that they didn't think you were capable of?"

Sure. What I'm thinking is that I'm one of the younger people working there, ready and unafraid to click the upgrade option when a computer presents it. Not that the older employees aren't, but they're the ones that are benefiting from the tech/web related information sessions while I'm sitting there semi-bored because I'm already familiar with it.

So that ended well. I didn't screw anything up. And by closing there were many things to shelve, but it was all generally tidy and not completely chaotic. Which is a win in my book. Even if I am generally frustrated by some of the people involved.

I am going to use my "people:idiots" tag and not feel like a horrible person.

The term "Janto" makes me cringe. Possibly more than any other pairing portmanteau. Most of the time, I find these thing amusing. "Chlark" will always be hilarious for certain inside joke like reasons. Plus saying it makes me sound like I'm wearing my retainer and that's good for a giggle.

But I see Janto and I kind of immediately start judging people. It's a problem I have.

Apparently admitting that I'm mopey to the world in general helps me feel better.

Meanwhile, I'm a little over 200 pages in to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It's been slow, but in all honesty the last couple of months haven't been the most productive reading months for me. I'm really enjoying it so far.

After quickly glancing at the reviews at Amazon, I'm wondering at the readers who said that the book is too slow and difficult to finish. Is this merely a matter of taste? Of reading ability? Or is it also a reflection of the modern mind-set that faster is better? Where we want everything and we want it now? Have we gotten so used to television and movies (my most recent example being the adaptation of The Golden Compass) and books being about instant gratification and a surprise in every scene that more and more people can't appreciate a story that takes its time?

Who knows what I'll say about the book when I finally finish it. And I definitely won't be able to say it was a quick read, but I don't mind that. I like that I have to stop and read it, instead of consuming in like snack food. But maybe after another hundred pages I'll change my tune.

Also, randomly, on Sunday we sang "The First Noel." Except it was "The First Nowell." I did a double-take. And then pointed it out to Dad, who checked his book. I'm standing there going, "Who's Nowell?" and quietly laughing at Dad because, seriously, what? When did we change the spelling? We asked the pianist afterward and she said she noticed the same thing and checked several places to make sure it was the right song. Apparently someone has decided we have to use the English spelling now, at least in those books. Weird.

*

( What Age Do You Act? quiz. 'Cause it's been awhile and the results made me laugh. )

So. Lent starts tomorrow. That kind of snuck up on me.

Because I am a big, gigantic literature loving dork/geek/nerd, my parents got me (for Valentine's Day/making the Dean's list - excuses we/they are going for) The Riverside Chaucer. Because I've been going on about Chaucer and Masculinity and Koppelman suggested I look into it. It's huge! And wonderful. I'm currently geeking out over Middle English and glossaries and footnotes.

Also, randomly, I always feel weird associated "geek" with the literary stuff I'm into. "Geek" always feels more science/science fiction related to me. There's a very fine distinction between "geek" and "nerd" in my book.

Other than the bird incident, I can't really complain about this weekend. Kirby was fantastic. He's such a good dog. And, of course, the fish posed no problems.

Faux busy day. There was a wedding near the Tri-cities, so we had to drive out there to set up some of the flowers/arrangements. Didn't take too long, but it was uncomfortably warm in that hall and I do not envy those people. Something like 800 guests.

Dad said that there was no way they would do the same wedding/reception thing for me. Apparently my parents plan to help me elope. Which, all in all? Would be totally fine by me.

Afterward, we did actually make it to the Tri-cities and went to the mall where there was precisely diddly-squat playing at the cinema. So we went to an late lunch/early dinner at Red Lobster. Mom called it "linner," which lead to me trying to teach my parents something new. But do they make things easy for me? No. No, they don't.

"Do you know what the word is for that? When you connect two words and make a new one?" I said.

Dad answered, "A conjunction?"

"No, that involves an apostrophe."

At that point I'm about to do the whole, "Fine, I won't tell you" routine. And then our waitress came by.

"Well, why don't you tell our waitress what it means?" Mom said. The waitress turned and looked at me and I'm just going "why?!" "We have an English major at the table," explained Mom.

"Oh," the waitress asked, "what are you going to do with that?" Because you can't tell people you're an English major without having them ask you what the hell you're gonna do with your life. It's just not done. But apparently her daughter's getting a sociology major, so she understands.

ANYway. All I wanted to do was share knowledge! Finally got to explain what a portmanteau was. And then it turned out our waitress was a teacher! And had been a librarian! So we talked for a little while about opportunities and things. It was nice.

Later I spent part of lunch defending McKay to my parents. Who rather snidely said that he acts like a twelve year old. And I argued, "Well, not *all* the time." (Mom's also getting tired of his "are you sure this water's sanitary?" routine.)And then tried to defend possible emotional and social reasons for McKay's behavior. Also blamed, um, less strong writers on the show. Don't know if I succeeded.

Neesha stopped by and watched Sci-fi Friday with me. That was nice. Nothing really to say, mostly because I need to re-watch "Origin." And ( Runner )

Tom used a crutch to squish a GINORMOUS spider tonight. I haven't laughed so hard in a really long, long time. There were even tears involved. Heh. So funny. And then I watched The Red Green Show and that just made the evening funnier. And Colin Mochrie (sp?) was on! With Harold. It was great.

Forgotten English word of the day?

smeerkin - "The sweetest of all kisses; the kiss one lover gives another when they are quivering in one another's arms. Few joys exceed a smeerkin." -- John Mactaggart's Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, 1824

So that kiss between Westley and Buttercup at the end of The Princess Bride? *Totally* a smeerkin.

*

You know what's annoying? Finishing your rough draft composition for Spanish and then realizing you didn't really include any "objetos indirectos pronominales" that were probably sort of the point of the assignment. Or underline them if you did. Damn foreign languages. Shelley was kind enough to make some corrections for me though, so it's a good thing I wandered out of the room looking for advice.

Lately I've been really annoyed at people. Not for great lengths of time or anything, just generally annoyed. I need to find someone confidential to complain to and get stuff off of my chest. I could write it in my *actual* journal, but sometimes there's something nice about verbal bitching, y'know?

Also, I've been sick since Thursday. This sucks a lot. I've felt so crappy that I just want to curl up and cry. I hate it. You know you've got it bad when walking to the Student Center and up twenty to thirty steps darn near does you in. Suck.

Apparently this is my thrilling Valentine's Day post. In which I bitch and moan about everything but love. Hey, go me! :D

Seth asked me to explain some things about Smallville tonight and that just made me angry at SV. Why did the creators have to give us the pilot, which was oh so promising, and then switch to this crap? Obviously, they are dumb. Fandom is so much better.

Mary Shelley uses the word "puerile" in Frankenstein. I squeed.

::nerd::

Ha. Just got something against Christine Gregoire in the mail. It's nice that they want me informed, but I already sent in my ballot. Um. Is it bad I can't remember who I voted for on everything? Eh-heh.

Whoops. ::blush::