Verisimilitude: BOOM! Pregnant!

What can I say?  I have been waiting for this day for quite some time, and I'm so glad that I finally get to share it with all of you!

verisimilitude \ver-uh-si-MIL-i-tood, -tyood\, noun:

1. the appearance or semblance of truth; likelihood; probability: The play lacked verisimilitude.
2. something, as an assertion, having merely the appearance of truth.

Verisimilitude: BOOM!  Pregnant!

Go to 2:07.

You're welcome.

Ma Rainey's dramatic lilt

lilt \lilt\, noun:

1. rhythmic swing or cadence.
2. a lilting song or tune.

verb:
1. to sing or play in a light, tripping, or rhythmic manner.

I like to believe that I have made my Interpretation of Drama class famous on this blog, and the interesting events just keep rolling in.

Yesterday we had to read (and yes, I say had to because nobody read the play, we were all too busy writing a paper for this class the night before) a play called Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, a play that I also believe no one in the class had ever heard of.  Luckily, I think there was a point in the class that m teacher realized that no one read the play.

 So what can you do in a situation like this?  Show the class video clips of the bluesy lilt for which the play is named?  By the original Ma Rainey?  YES!

That's exactly what our teacher did.  For a good seven minutes or so, instead of discussing why Ma was late and forced her band to go get her a Coca Cola, we listened to the original Black Bottom song, and then clips of people dancing to it in the 1920's.  It was pretty interesting, and I honestly wish that kind of dancing was around now, instead of the grinding that we currently have.  The black bottom is so much funnier/classier depending on who you dance it with.  Maybe I would go out just a little bit more on the weekends....

Here's what we got to sit and listen to:

Rainy ingressions

ingress \IN-gres\, noun:

1. the act of going in or entering.
2. the right to enter.
3. a means or place of entering; entryway.
4. Astronomy. immersion (def. 5).

I was able to use today's WoD in a tweet!  Since it was raining extremely hard today, I had absolutely no desire to go outside, so I decided to order delivery.  My tweet went as such:

"I don't think the ingress of Sadler is worth it right now #rain #delivery"

Sadler is the building next door with the dining hall that I had no desire to enter.  My delivery was fan-freaking-tastic by the way.

Machinating the Internet

machinate \MAK-uh-neyt\, verb:

to contrive or plot, especially artfully or with evil purpose: to machinate the overthrow of the government.

Oftentimes I machinate to do my homework early on in the day, but fail miserably.  I blame the Internet for being such an entertaining place.

Plethoric amounts of rain in Syracuse

plethoric \ple-THAWR-ik, -THOR-, PLETH-uh-rik\, adjective:

1. overfull; turgid; inflated: a plethoric, pompous speech.
2. of, pertaining to, or characterized by plethora.

I don't usually say this, actually, I've never said this, but Syracuse has a plethoric amount of rain right now.  Seriously, there's thunder and lightning and everything. 

So.  Much.  Rain.

To all those demimonde engineers

demimonde \DEM-ee-mond; Fr. duh-mee-MAWND\, noun:

1. a group characterized by lack of success or status: the literary demimonde.
2. (especially during the last half of the 19th century) a class of women who have lost their standing in respectable society because of indiscreet behavior or sexual promiscuity.
3. a demimondaine.
4. prostitutes or courtesans in general.
5. a group whose activities are ethically or legally questionable: a demimonde of investigative journalists writing for the sensationalist tabloids.

Personally, I like the second definition, one can have so much fun with that if ever there was a funny social commentary.  The first, however, reminds me of my favorite show ever, The Big Bang Theory, therefore I shall write on that one because it is even funnier than social commentary.

For those of you who have not seen The Big Bang Theory, change that status, immediately!  It is a fantastic show about four nerdy guys who work at CalTech in Pasadena, CA and have a beautiful friend whom one of them likes very much and ends up dating and then there are two other girls as well for two of the other guys but there's still that random single guy who's mad about it and there's lots of Star Trek and Star Wars and Doctor Who and other comic book references and it's just great go watch it it's good for your soul.

In the show, there is a character named Howard Wolowitz, a.k.a. my second favorite character on the show.  He's different from all of the other guys because, well, he only has a master's degree.  No Ph.D.  What a loser.  It's funny because this little nip in eduction makes him a demimonde amongst his other doctorate friends.  He is (spoiler alert!) the first of his friends to get married, however.  

There, I've done it, I've used the Word of the Day.  Now I'm going to humor all of you with my favorite scenes and pictures from Big Bang.  You're welcome.

Above is a tribute to Howard Wolowitz.  Shout out to all the engineers out there.

The Whipped app.  I swear it's really funny.

Best.  Scene.  Ever.

The cast looking extremely attractive.

Roberto's idiolect concerning sports

Today's post goes out to a guy who makes up funny words in the middle of a Syracuse basketball game even though he claims to have used them in high school.

idiolect \ID-ee-uh-lekt\, noun:

a person's individual speech pattern. Compare dialect (def. 1).

We'll call this particular guy Roberto, a guy who lives on my floor, and happens to be a sports fanatic.  Roberto has a few words that he likes to use in his own little sports idiolect that I'm going to share with you below (p.s. I have to completely make up the spelling):

-Steeze: just another word for "swag" but implies athletic ability.

-Clutch: player HAS the ball.

These are the main two words that he uses, although there are more that Roberto doesn't particularly favor.

In other news, Syracuse just lost to Michigan in the Final Four round, and although it was a helluva game, I'm terribly sad about it.  :(

The codicil player

codicil \KOD-uh-suhl\, noun:

1. any supplement; appendix.
2. a supplement to a will, containing an addition, explanation, modification, etc., of something in the will.

I got to be the awkward codicil tonight.  Well, the injured awkward codicil tonight.

Sometimes, my floor likes to play late-night basketball and soccer at the gym, which is what we did earlier.  Playing basketball is really fun because if you knew how passionately involved these guys are with the sport, you'd think it's the best too.  Anyway, the time came when we had nine players, so someone had to sit out to due unfair amounts of people on one team.

We all took turns sitting out, but I had to take my turn after an unfortunate attempt to block the ball, and I landed on my knees.  Hard.  There is now discoloration and swelling in that general area, and I'm still waiting on it to heal.  

But yes, I was the codicil player while injured.  Hopefully that will not happen to anyone on SU's team tomorrow as we CRUSH Michigan in Atlanta!!

That is all.

This is the apology/long post. It'll never happen again.

I would like to begin by apologizing to everyone who so loyally turns to my posts to learn enhanced English.  That's right, I have not posted in over a week.  The Earth, however, is still rotating on its axis.  What I plan on doing to make up for this unforgivable blunder is to post all of the words I've missed over the past week and a half, and write you a little story using all of those words.  I swear I'll never do this to you guys again.

tranche \trahnch, trahnsh\, noun:

1. any part, division, or installment: We've hired the first tranche of researchers.
2. Finance. a. one part or division of a larger unit, as of an asset pool or investment: The loan will be repaid in three tranches. b. a group of securities that share a certain characteristic and form part of a larger offering: The second tranche of the bond issue has a five-year maturity.

verb:
1. Finance. to divide into parts: tranched debt; A credit portfolio can be tranched into a variety of components that are then further subdivided.

pharaonic \fair-ey-ON-ik, far-\, adjective:

1. (usually lowercase) impressively or overwhelmingly large, luxurious, etc.: a construction project of pharaonic proportions.
2. (sometimes lowercase) of or like a Pharaoh: living in Pharaonic splendor.
3. (lowercase) cruelly oppressive; tyrannical: pharaonic tax laws.

swivet \SWIV-it\, noun:

a state of nervous excitement, haste, or anxiety; flutter: I was in such a swivet that I could hardly speak.

gaumless \GAWM-lis\, adjective:

lacking in vitality or intelligence; stupid, dull, or clumsy.

impawn \im-PAWN\, verb:

1. to put in pawn; pledge.
2. to put in pawn; pledge.

ha-ha \HAH-hah\, noun:

sunk fence.

splenetic \spli-NET-ik\, adjective:

1. irritable; peevish; spiteful.
2. of the spleen; splenic.
3. Obsolete. affected with, characterized by, or tending to produce melancholy.

noun:
1. a splenetic person.

aperture \AP-er-cher\, noun:

1. an opening, as a hole, slit, crack, gap, etc.
2. Also called aperture stop. Optics. an opening, usually circular, that limits the quantity of light that can enter an optical instrument.

ingratiate \in-GREY-shee-eyt\, verb:

to establish (oneself) in the favor or good graces of others, especially by deliberate effort (usually followed by with): He ingratiated himself with all the guests.

The story that I'm about to tell you is absolutely true, and it's one of the reasons why I haven't written all week.  I am currently in a class called COM117, and it's a multimedia storytelling class where all of the work I turn in is related to some kind of project.  And by project I mean video project where you're in a group and film and edit things together.

I am in a group with two other people--a guy and a girl-- and our tranche just completed a project about a man here in Syracuse who gives food to the homeless.  For those of you who have never been to Syracuse (the city not the university), it's a rather pharaoinic city, large, with a substantial homless population.  My group and I were lucky enough to find this man who does this wonderful thing, and ride in his car for a few hours, filming as he gave sandwiches he made to the less-fortunate.  It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

I was in a bit of a swivet that day, partly because I was excited to get on this project, and partly because I got to skip French class.  I considered it quite the adventure.  The three of us got to ride in his car with us as we drove around the city on his route, stopping anywhere we found someone holding a cardboard sign off the freeway or just sitting amongst a pile of junk.  Although we didn't go near a lot of the homeless people (because they were strangers to him as well, and cameras can make people on the streets nervous), I really felt like I got to know their stories. 

A real eye-opener from that day that I will never forget was when he took us to an abandoned camp site where four homeless people used to live.  It was in a patch of forestry just off the 81 freeway.  There was trash everywhere, and a well-constructed shack in the midst of it all.  Sure it was dirty and disorganized, but I realized that it was a sturdy complex.  This was not built by the lazy, gaumless, drug addicts we as a society picture most homeless people to be.  This was simply their way of life.  It was not an ideal situation for them, obviously, but it was how they got by.  It was enlightening.

It was through this experience, however, that I impawned to myself that I would never like to be homeless.  That's an obvious life goal for the great majority of us, but it runs deeper than that.  I promise that I will never let life become too much to put a roof over my head.  I promise never to become a splenetic, ungrateful person who has to live life in the aperture of the Earth, or put up a ha-ha (whatever that is) to create a home.  After my experience seeing the homeless of Syracuse, I think that we should all ingratiate with one another.  Talk to each other, see each other.  One of the first things he always says to the people he meets is, "I just want you to know that I see you, and God sees you."

I don't think it matters how religious you are.  That's a beautiful way to see somebody.

Marmoreal skin and the streetcar

marmoreal \mahr-MAWR-ee-uhl, -MOHR-\, adjective:

of or like marble: skin of marmoreal smoothness.

Today I had the absolute pleasure of reading the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams.  I had to read it for a drama class I'm taking, and let me tell you: sexual innuendos GALORE.  No joke guys, if you want a good, sexy read, you will find it in this play, and you can play "Where's the Sexual Tension?" as if it were "Where's Waldo?"

The main character of the play is called Blanche DuBois, a beautiful woman who's something of a wilting flower with marmoreal skin and a high-and-mighty attitude.  The plot is set in New Orleans in the 1940's, after WWII; and Blanche, a high school English teacher, must take time off from her work for unknown reasons, and stay with her younger sister Stella and her brutish husband Stanley Kowalski.

Basically what happens from there is Stanley goes out of his way to annoy Blanche, who is in a fragile state 24/7.  Through a series of inquiries from Stan to the men in town who know where Blanche came from, we discover (spoiler alert) that Blanche was practically run out of town because of an affair she had with an underage student.  In the end she gets put into a mental institution.  But those are just main plot points, there's more to the story, soooo much more!  It's sexy!

If you aren't really one for reading plays though, it's a famous movie with Vivien Leigh and a very young, very HOT Marlon Brando.  Here's the trailer and a picture.  You're welcome.

Davening

daven

\ DAH-vuhn \  , verb;

1. to pray.

 

This template has been sitting empty for the past few minutes, mostly because I do not know a proper, crowd-pleasing way to bring up "pray" in a sentence.  We all know what it means, and it is different to all of us.  It may not even be important to all of us.  

 

I suppose that this is dictionary.com's challenge for me.

 

Well I shan't be challenged!  There are many ways that people daven, and even more things to daven for.  

 

There is davening for world peace, for no hunger, for all kinds of happiness, for safety, for anything in the world.  

 

Dere are different davens don't deny. 

Preterition and basketball

preterition \pret-uh-RISH-uhn\, noun:

1. the act of passing by or over; omission; disregard.
2. Law. the passing over by a testator of an heir otherwise entitled to a portion.
3. Calvinistic Theology. the passing over by God of those not elected to salvation or eternal life.
4. Rhetoric. paralipsis.

In the midst of NCAA season, there are many teams who face the tragedy of a preterition.  I know that this particular definition refers to being passed over (or overlooked) in someone's will or other legal document, but let's face it, college teams getting passed up can be pretty sad too.

Luckily, that hasn't happened to Syracuse yet, we just beat UC Berkeley, and we're going to DC baby!  Whoo!  I'm hoping though, that we stay in the game as loooooooong as possible.  The last time we won the NCAA Championship was about ten years ago with Carmello Anthony, and maybe, just maybe, we can push it a little farther this year.  

Or all the way!

Serpentine Street

serpentine \SUR-puhn-teen, -tahyn\, adjective:

1. having a winding course, as a road; sinuous.
2. of, characteristic of, or resembling a serpent, as in form or movement.
3. shrewd, wily, or cunning.

noun:
1. a device on a harquebus lock for holding the match.
2. a cannon having any of various bore sizes, used from the 15th to the 17th century.
3. Skating. a school figure made by skating two figure eights that share one loop.

You know something that's really serpentine?  Lombard Street in San Francisco!

 

Insouciance and basketball

insouciance \in-SOO-see-uhns; Fr. an-soo-SYAHNS\, noun:

the quality of being insouciant; lack of care or concern; indifference.

The feeling of insouciance came over me tonight as I was participating in a yearly phenomenon that I did not know existed until last year: March Madness.  

I mean, of course I've never cared before, I've never lived in an environment where people cared about basketball so much.  This year is the first time I've ever made a bracket, or stayed up until 12:47 at night for a game to end.  But it was really awesome!  Insouciance is rather the antonym for my excitement though, the true feeling of indifference came from the team that Syracuse played tonight, which was Montana.

What a joke.

I wouldn't have said anything like that last year, as I had no idea which teams were good and which teams were bad, but this year I know, and I now know that Syracuse is ten times better than Montana because we beat them by almost fifty points.  Talk about insouciance.

It's so primaveral today

primaveral \prahy-muh-VEER-uhl\, adjective:

of, in, or pertaining to the early springtime: primaveral longings to sail around the world.

Today is the first day of spring.  Have a happy, primaveral day everyone.  :)

Hypothecate people!

hypothecate \hahy-POTH-i-keyt, hi-\, verb:

1. to pledge to a creditor as security without delivering over; mortgage.
2. to put in pledge by delivery, as stocks given as security for a loan.

I've always been good at adhering to deadlines, and while I don't have a mortgage, college has been no exception.  

I always hypothecate my work, and always have, the second I entered school.  I don't think I've ever turned in a late assignment and it's a secret pledge that I make to all teachers-- my work will be in on time, all the time!  I know it sounds pathetic, but it's a message to my furure mortgager.  My bills will come in on time.  Unless I'm poor.  Or don't have a house.

My personal qualm

Sorry I'm a day late on this one people, but you know how it is with school and sleep and breathing.  We all get busy.

qualm \kwahm, kwawm\, noun:

1. an uneasy feeling or pang of conscience as to conduct; compunction: He has no qualms about lying.
2. a sudden feeling of apprehensive uneasiness; misgiving: a sudden qualm about the success of the venture.
3. a sudden sensation or onset of faintness or illness, especially of nausea.

You want to hear about qualms?  I'll tell you about qualms, specifically my qualms.  I have a qualm about my future.

That's right, but luckily it's a qualm in the best possible way.  You see, I'm not one of those people who have no options in life and can barely get by.  I am blessed enough to be pursuing my college education, and because of that, so many doors have opened for me.  The qualm that I have with this, is which door to choose.

One thing you should know about me is that I'm a joiner.  I join clubs, social groups, and volunteer projects.  So far, in my freshman year of college, I have joined one organization, and I'll likely not be able to stick with it forever, because of a major first world problem that's been on my mind.  Now that I'm in college, at a major university, I have the opportunity to study abroad.  Where?  I can double major.  In what?  I can have a minor-- don't even get me started.  

I just feel like all of these options make life after and even during college extremely overwhelming.  You can't help but feel like there is only one right path for you, and it's so easy to make the wrong decision.  What if you screw up?  What if you choose a path that was not right for you in the end?

Answer: there is always a right path for us as individuals, and any path we take has the potential to be the right path.  I just need to work on that.  Starting first thing tomorrow.

Geek and Sundry

sundry

\ SUHN-dree \  , adjective;

1. various or diverse: sundry persons.

 

I've never really heard this term before, with one exception.  There is a certain YouTuber (who I plan on seeing this summer at VidCon) named Felicia Day who has a channel called Geek and Sundry.  I absolutely love the name, and so I thought I'd share it with you:

 

Geek and Sundry  

 

Hope you all enjoy it! 

My prolepsis

prolepsis

\ proh-LEP-sis \  , noun;

1. Rhetoric.  the anticipation of possible objections in order to answer them in advance.

2. the assigning of a person, event, etc., to a period earlier than the actual one; the representation of something in the future as if it already existed or had occurred; prochronism.

3. the use of a descriptive word in anticipation of its becoming applicable.

4. a fundamental conception or assumption in Epicureanism or Stoicism arising spontaneously in the mind without conscious reflection; thought provoked by sense perception.

5. Pathology.  the return of an attack of a periodic disease or of a paroxysm before the expected time or at progressively shorter intervals.

 

 Dictionary.com's challenge for me today makes me think a lot about speech and debate, of which I knew several people in high school belonging to the S&D club.  

 

Picture two people in an argument, they're really going at it, and there can only be one winner, and one loser.

 

Prolepsis, I believe, is knowing the fault in your own argument.  If you can predict what kind of objection someone is going to have to your argument, there is clearly some kind of flaw in it.  For example, if I wanted to argue that the dining hall should serve chocolate cake every night for dinner, I should anticipate the prolepsis, that perhaps not everyone likes chocolate cake, or that it makes you fat, or that it's not healthy.

My arguments cease to amaze many a courtroom.

 

All furled up

furl \furl\, verb:

1. to gather into a compact roll and bind securely, as a sail against a spar or a flag against its staff.
2. to become furled.

noun:
1. the act of furling.
2. something furled, as a roll.

When it comes to this word, I can't help but think of sushi.  

I mean, to have rice and seaweed and other eclectic ingredients all wrapped up and furled together?  Here's what I'm talking about: