Reflection

Almost titled this post "Good-bye September." I'm always almost naming my posts different things. It does take me a rather long time to make up my mind, and I am to last minute mind-changes. The reasons I didn't are obvious in a slightly more subliminal way than not, so I don't think I could explain why on a practical bases why I didn't. It would just seem weird, kind of like the word weird. 

This post, a type of post I will probably be doing at the end of every month, is just to go through some things of the month that happened, or I saw, that I haven't spoken about. 

Through this entire month basically my sister Megan, and her four month baby. (The little boy is my brother Jacob, in case you were confused.)

The baby's name is Hannah, but more often than not we called her buggy, or bug-bug. (The reason why should be obvious.) Now that I'm an aunt, I really see no reason what the fuss is about. I suppose I was supposed to feel instantly connected to my niece on a deep and subliminal way that I only can with my niece. And I guess I was also suppose to think that Hannah was cute. Maybe somehow being my niece would suddenly make her break the laws of physics and actually be the cute adorable thing that babies were claimed to be. Quite frankly I think it is a conspiracy that transpires in a subliminal level that everyone pretends babies are not weird looking so when they become parents they can pretend that their babies are actually cute, and no one tells them any different. 

I finally watched the more than iconic episode of Doctor Who "Blink."

I know that was back in season three, and season eight (I think? seven maybe?) is the one that is airing right now, but I started watching after it started airing, and it is only watched when everything show has been caught up on. While "Blink" was still a pretty intense episode, I still don't think anything could ever replace "The Empty Child" on creepy factor. 

Are you my mummy?

The house has been sold! It wasn't sold within the first twenty-four hours, like the first time, but it was eventually sold to the first people who looked at the house again. The house has passed inspection and it was also appraised yesterday. "Oh house, you are such a good house. Don't let other mean houses get you down, you are such a wonderful home for anyone who will live in you."

...Hello Fall

I debated for a long time on what to title this post. A part of me wanted to call it "Hello September" so it would match my post from about twenty days ago Goodbye August. The two are supposed to be a set, hence the placement of the periods. You know, Goodbye August, Hello Fall. It's lame, I know. Best to roll with it. 

One strange thing about Central Oregon falls. When you think of fall, you think of crisp days with just a bite of cool weather, leaves turning a brilliant array of colors. Not so in Central Oregon. We don't really have a "fall." We have an Indian summer that lasts till part way through October, and then it goes straight to winter. The only two seasons we have in Central Oregon are winter and August. At the moment I'm still wearing shorts and tee shirts. 

Anyhoo, it is fall now, and so I shall celebrate that. Here are some things I look forward into the fall, and the colder months that follow.

Hot Chocolate: Recipe courtesy Alton Brown 

I would write the recipe out, but I'm too lazy. Instead if you click the picture you should be taken to the recipe on a separate website.  

Knitting and Crocheting 

 

Don't ask me why, but I always get the urge to knit and crochet in the fall. Not so much in the winter, but my fingers literally itch to wrap yarn around hooks and needles and make things out of it. The picture on the right  shows a pattern I'm actually using. The pattern can be found in Coats & Clark #J27-0014, Weekend Causal. 

Fall Color

If only we got more fall color! I admit, there are a few trees which turn a nice shade of red, and a few trees which turn a yellow, but the main color is brown. I used to like it when the leaves fell more, but I'm getting a little old too actually play in the leaves. Though I still do. Occasionally. I have little siblings, okay!

Pumpkin flavored everything.

Literally, everything.

Fall shows.

Fall cloths. 

Not that I'm particularly fond of fall cloths, I like them just as much as any other form of cloths, but the first few weeks are always exciting, (yes, I'm that vain.)

Those are just a few things I'm looking forward to in the fall. Of course, there are also the typical fall things that no one looks forward to, overly much, things like school. Events and holidays, such as Thanksgiving. Other quintessential Fall things.  

Why The Avengers Did Better in Theaters than The Dark Knight Rises

Yes, the epic debate that has been crawling all over the internet for months. Nerds and comic book fanatics arguing over with series is better, which turns out to be remarkably complex and somehow the quality of those two movies includes the over all quality of all Marvel and DC comics. The interesting thing about this argument is that the epic-ness is basically one sided.

I've only really seen arguments as to why The Dark Knight Rises should have done better, and why The Avengers, (and Marvel comics in general) is less awesome than Batman. One almost can't call it a debate since it is so one-sided. There are a few who argue for The Avengers, but all the articles and ranting blog posts I've seen talk about the movies on a more DC vs. Marvel bases. And yet The Avengers made $468,471,111 more than Batman. If there are so many more people talking about why Batman is superior, why do the numbers say other wise.

That's where I come in.

A couple quick disclaimers though. First, I have not actually seen The Dark Knight Rises, though I have seen  The Avengers. I have watched the first two Batman movies though, and have read reviews and epic "debates" about Batman, and I think I have a good enough feel of what the third movie will be like. Second, this isn't really an argument for The Avengers, or against The Dark Knight Rises. In fact, I like the Batman movies better than The Avengers series. I'm simply going to list the reasons why I feel that The Avengers did better. In fact some of the reasons why it did better are reasons Batman fans say the movie The Avengers is inferior to The Dark Knight Rises. 

Reason number 1: The Hype

There was quite the hype for The Dark Knight Rises, but there was probably more hype with The Avengers. The Avengers had more movies preceding it, which would add an epic feeling; every year there was a new Avengers movie, pulling more people into the whole Avengers hype. Plus there were the little clips at the end of each movie, which would get people excited about the next movie. 

Reason number 2: Multiple Heroes 

In the Batman movies you have Batman. In The Avengers you have Ironman, Captain America, The Hulk, and Thor (plus Black Widow and Hawk Eye, but they don't have their own movies.) If you're not to fond of Batman, you're not exactly going to go and see the third movie. If Ironman is your favorite super hero of all time, even though you weren't fond of any of the other three, you probably went to go see The Avengers. It also helped reason number 1, the hype. Here was the movie were all of the super heroes got together and formed one epic team, making for one epic movie.

Reason number 3: The Villain

The Bane. Psh. Who cares about The Bane? The Joker was awesome, but quite frankly The Bane isn't the most interesting villain in the world. Like I said, I haven't seen The Dark Knight Rises, but other than how people can't understand him, I have heard nothing about the villain quality of The Bane. Now Loki on the other hand, people like Loki almost as much as they like the Joker. (I think, in part, that has to do with Tom Hiddleston playing Loki.)

Reason number 4: Less Darkness, more Laughs

Now, I know people like me enjoyed the Batman movies more than the Avenger ones, but quite frankly I was more "entertained" by The Avengers. The Avenger movies are lighter, easier to digest, more fun to watch. Not everyone can appreciate the dark slant the Batman movies have. In fact, for someone lacking at least a slightly grim sense of humor, the Batman movies would seem simultaneously too serious, and not serious enough. It's so dark and scary, but seriously? It's about a man who dresses up like a giant bat, and he fights crazy people who wear makeup and strange masks. The premise is a little ridiculous, so unless you can appreciate the slightly ridiculous, and laugh at the slightly gruesome, the Batman movies are not for you.

Avengers on the other hand. Well? Those movies don't take themselves seriously at all. It's easier to swallow the more ridiculous aspects. There's at least a couple decent one liners in each fight scene that lighten the mood, laugh at the kind of ridiculous premise, without hurting the intense action.  

Reason number 5: Wider Fan Base 

Yes, despite what I said earlier about The Dark Knight Rises having more crusaders than The Avengers, the latter has a wider fan base, much due to the reasons already stated. This may seem paradoxical, but the simple fact is that Batman has fewer, but more dedicated followers. The type of people who will become obsessed with a single super hero and defend him as if he was a real person are more likely to be attracted to Batman. Casual fans are more likely to enjoy The Avengers. This fact is mostly due to reason number 4. It appeals to more people, even if not people who become as dedicated to it as Batman fans.

Plus, men probably found it a lot easier to drag their wives and girlfriends to see The Avengers than The Dark Knight Rises. 

Reason number 6: Robert Downey Jr./Ironman 

Yes, he does deserve his own reason. No, this isn't just because I'm some man obsessed woman who will enjoy a movie just because I think an actor is attractive. I honestly believe that the super hero of Ironman is what has made a lot of people attracted to The Avengers. You know that saying, "Be yourself, unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman." Honestly, all noble prejudice and righteous aspirations aside, which person would you rather be, Batman or Ironman? Ironman is awesome, and has one heck of a good time being a bad-ass hero. Batman is awesome too, but his life is one hysterical breakdown from being a bad drama.

There are my reasons. You may agree with them, you may not. You may be sitting there in a huff saying to yourself  "But The Dark Knight Rises was better." It may have been so, but The Avengers did better, and there really is no arguing with that. 

...And We're Back

Hello everybody in the world, please take a moment to look at the picture below.

That is the house I am currently living in an it is finally, FINALLY on the market.

Wait a moment, you might say, didn't you say back in July that you were moving, shouldn't you have put your house on the market already? 

Well yes, originally that had been the plan. In fact, the house had been on the market once before.

In mid June the house was put on the market, around the 20th. Within twenty-four hours someone had made an offer for it. There were counter offers and more counter offers. Meanwhile my family is living in a constant  frenzy of showing the house to people who will come whenever-ish. Finally, the last last counter offer to the previous counter offer to the other offers from the first offer we received from the first people to make the first offer was made, and everyone thought the house was sold.

They thought wrong.

There is something very curious about my house. It isn't hunted, no one has ever died there, and it's not like the house has pour structural integrity.

According to the city, the lot line for my family's house is nine feet more than it is in reality. (We're fairly certain that is has something fishy to do with the original contractor and inspector. Either they were idiots and missed the fact they gave nine of our feet to the next door neighbor, or there some bribery somewhere and the house got passed even though the lot line was incorrect.)

Also according to the city we are not allowed to sell the house with the lot line incorrect.

So the deal fell though.

It wasn't as if we were the people who got it wrong, (or were bribed,) we just happened to notice it.

Oh, by the way, to correct the lot line you're going to need to have your, and your neighbor's property completely surveyed, and then the new lot line must be cleared with the city, then the county, then the title company, then the county again, and then last but not least we mosey on back to the city. It probably is not necessary  but I'm going to go ahead and tell you that this took several weeks.

And it cost several thousand dollars besides.

Technically, some of that craziness is still going on, but it is near enough to being done that by the time we sell the house, and the escrow is over, it will all be done.

Basically for the past two months we've been in house limbo. Unable to sell the house, therefore unable to buy any houses in Tennessee. We couldn't pack, I really couldn't get a job, unable to do anything but twiddle our thumbs and wait for the city and county to take as long as they possible could to adjust our lot line.

But finally, finally, we have the house back on the market.

  

Ten Words I'm Surprised are Real

The English language is very rich and diverse, receiving a heritage from many languages.Which is probably why it is such a mess. The grammar is convoluted, the spelling arbitrary at best. Why do we say better instead of gooder? Why is it alright to say faster, but not funner? Why is it i before e, except after c, unless there's an a as in neighbor and weigh? Weird, no? Keep in mind, this is coming from someone who who is obsessive about being correct in her grammar, but unlike most grammar Nazis I understand that one must approach the English language with caution and the understanding of the flexible nature of the language. (Spelling can just rot though.)

That brings me to the topic of this post. There are words in the English language that quite frankly don't make sense. Why would we even have that word? As well as the words that seem like they shouldn't be real, that sound made up. Here is a list of ten words I'm surprised are real. This isn't an official list of the ten most bazaar words, just ten words that made me do a double take. Some are fairly common words, some  are obscure, and others are weird slang. 

Splutter-a confused noise (as of hasty speaking)

Now this may be a surprising word to be in the list, but as embarrassing it is to admit, I only realized it was a real word in the last couple years. For the longest time I merely thought it was a deliberate and comical mispronunciation of the word "sputter."

Hooliganism-rowdy, violent, or destructive behavior. 

I knew hooligan was a word, but hooliganism sounds like someone was too lazy to find a different word, so they just slapped an ism at the end of the word hooligan.

Chillax-to calm down

I totally thought I made up this word. I don't remember having ever heard it, and when I first used it, it was after I thought I was being clever for combining the words chill and relax together. I was surprised (and slightly embarrassed) when I finally learned it had been a common slang since the late 90's.

Defenestration-the act of throwing someone or something out a window

Do we really need a word for this? I mean, in what context would you use this word, or even want to? It's like using antidisestablishmentarianism in a sentence. The few times you could use it, there is probably an easier way to say the same thing. 

Finnimbrun-a nick knack* 

An entirely superfluous word, but fun to say. 

Wallah-a person who is associated with a particular work or who performs a specific duty or service. 

It is a common enough word that I have known the meaning of a long time, but I can never take it seriously. 

Nocular-a word which can substitute any word.^ 

Now this word is basically slang, you can't even find it in any reputable dictionaries. The only place I could find  it was the Urban Dictionary There is a weird story behind this word being among the chosen. Many of you will recall a strange ice-cream (sort of) treat called dip an' dots. The containers they came in were roughly shaped like binoculars, and I said as much. Katy, my older sister, misheard me and thought I said the containers were nocular. From then on it became a thing in my family to call something nocular if we weren't sure how else to describe it, more as a joke than anything else. One day I actually looked it up, curious to see if it was a real word. It may only be found in the urban dictionary, but I was surprised to see that the way we had been using the word was a way that others had been using it as well. 

Tyrotoxism-to be poisoned with cheese*

I feel this word speaks for itself. 

Inimitable-not capable of being imitated

This was actually the word of the day at Marriam Webster and when I saw the definition it seemed to break every single assumption I had made about the word. I guess I just though that it should mean the opposite of what it actually does. In is a very strange prefix, at times it mean in the positive, such as the word inflammable  and invaluable. But apparently it can also negate the meaning of something as well. 

She'd've-she would have

Seriously? I admit, I use contractions, but a double contraction seems a little excessive. Unless you're using 'tisn't, but only because it sound Shakespearean.

Even though not everyone will be surprised at this collection of words, it can not be doubted that at least of few of them are truly weird, 

* Definition reworded from my own brain. ``

^Definition from Urban Dictionary ``

``All other definitions from Marriam Webster.