What Did You Say?

Interpretation can be defined as an explanation or conceptualization by a critic of a work of literature, painting, music, or other art form; or something that serves to explain or clarify. The interesting and often funny thing is how we interpret one another in our day to day activities. It is hard enough to try and interpret spoken language while interacting with our friends and family, but even harder to interpret someone we don’t know well, like a salesperson, co-worker, or tech support operator.

Now throw in sarcasm, politics and religion and it’s a wonder we understand each other at all at times. Language is constantly evolving, and English is the best known example of this. Expressions, colloquialisms, deviations, and derivations illustrate the ever-changing complexity of the English language. The language adopts hundreds of new words per year, as they evolve via use and misuse alike, coincidentally "blog" was picked as word of the year in 2004 by Merriam-Webster.

Technology has added new factors to hinder the way we interpret each other. Emails, instant messages, and text messages are just some of the mediums causing some of us wondering, "What the hell was he/she saying?"

A common problem, and one that I just experienced, is what is the sender trying to say in an email, a commonly misinterpreted item. Emails are usually written very quickly, not proof read and not very detailed, which can cause a great deal of misinterpretation. For this very reason, a piece that I had written had been misinterpreted, but upon re-reading what I had written I could see how it could be misunderstood.

When you eliminate the subtle nuances of speech such as tone, inflection, and implication, you lose and important piece of the puzzle. The reader can get frustrated, confused, and even angry if they do not understand what the sender is trying to say. Sometimes a follow up email, a phone call, or speaking in person is the only way to clear up the confusion. We live in a complicated world, and these forms of technology are not making interpreting each other any easier.

Oh My Aching Back!

I have been having back problems for about 15 years now. The pain is in the lumbar region of my spine, and causes me agony sometimes making it nearly impossible for me to walk. I have seen several doctors over the years, taken loads of medication and even had some physical therapy. At times the pain is quite severe and certain activities can cause exacerbation.

I am the fortunate child of a physician, I say this facetiously because doctors never think that anything is wrong with their own children. My father told me several times this was probably just a muscular problem (the muscles were weak, injured or torn). Until yesterday I was nearly convinced this was the extent of the problem.

In the last 12 months I have nearly been immobilized by the pain on several occasions, I am currently experiencing such an occasion. Last night my father examined me and when he bent my left leg at the knee and rotated it slightly, I suddenly felt as though I was being skewered with a hot iron poker! The pain shot up my spine and caused me to cry out.

The diagnosis, I most likely have a herniated disc. Needless to say, I am having a great deal of difficulty moving and will not be posting for a few days.

Bring Back The Romance

This is a recycled post I wrote a few months ago. But at the moment I dont have much time to write anything new, so I thought I would re-post it. Although, it was written with the heterosexual male reader in mind, it can be quite easily modified to suit each individuals taste. I would also appreciate any feedback my readers are willing to give.

Remember, these are just ideas, so you can make them your own. Also, don’t smother you partner, feel her out to know if you are giving her enough, too little, or even too much attention. You should be sincere in your efforts and not make them seem contrived.

Give her a massage. Just as you like a good massage, so do women. Give her a foot massage when she gets home from work. If this is a first date, a foot massage may not be appropriate, but a back massage might be, listen to her ask her what she likes and do just that.

Tell her she is beautiful. This can be worded many ways. Its important not to say the same thing over again and again, this makes the comment seems insincere. Tell her she looks great, or radiant. Comment on her outfit, her hair, her eyes, and her skin. Try something like, "You have gorgeous eyes, or your lips are beautiful."

Tell her how bright or smart she is. Comment on something she says and reply a complimentary manner like, “Wow, you really know your stuff when it comes to literature.”

Pack her lunch. Include a hand written note telling her how special she is or that you love her, also take an opportunity to tell her she is beautiful, remember women love to be told they are beautiful, just don’t say it too often or it will lose its special meaning.

Take her shopping or go shopping with her. Help her pick something out; she will really appreciate the attention. It's important to show genuine interest, she will know if you are faking it, or if you seem distracted.

Give her flowers, just because. Just like giving a little gift, giving her flowers out of the blue will score you more points than if you give them on a specific day.

Run her a bubble bath. Have a hot bath ready for her when she gets home from work, or sneak off during a TV show and get it ready for her. Light some scented candles, this will certainly score you points plus she will smell great when you she gets in bed!

Get dressed up. Put on something that you know she will like. If you need help in picking something out ask a salesperson in your favorite department store or boutique.

Listen to her. One of the most common complaints of women is that their men do not listen. Try to show her you are listening by reaffirming what she says, for example she says, "I'm thinking about changing my hairstyle." You respond, "Really dear, you're thinking about a change? Tell me about it." This tells her you are interested and you care about her. Another great way to show her you care, is to ask her how her day was, but make sure you are prepared, if she has had a bad day, she may need to vent.

Go to Bed with Two Women!

In a recent Men's Health issue I read an article entitled, "Oh So Tempting." Well, with a title like that you just know its going to be good. But it gets better the author; Kate Daily has broken theses articles up into vignettes or mini-articles; each begining with whether you should indulge or resist in doing something rather tempting in your workplace or in your personal life.

One I found particularly naughty and rather funny, was called "Go to Bed with Two Women." Daily feels you should "of course" indulge! She tells the reader that according to Lou Paget, a sex educator and author of The Great Lover Playbook, these fantasies are not what men expect them to be once carried out. Daily recommends first choosing someone who you and your partner do not know well (someone you will not run into in a social setting), but someone you feel you can trust. (I'm not sure if I get that).

This is the best part; Ms. Daily feels that you should sit down as a group and decide what and who each person is going to do, and how long the "encounter" will last! What are you supposed to do, set an alarm? She says to be prepared for your partner's reaction, anything from, "disgust to girls rule!"

From what I know about the subject, it seems that it might be a bit awkward to sit down and plan it out before the incident. I would expect that most of these encounters are not planned however, I would say that it is probably not wise to do this with someone you care deeply about, because in the end someone will most likely end up getting hurt.

Read the full article here: Oh So Tempting

Blog Hack - Protect Your Words

Update:
It seems a lot of people have not been reading the following post carefully. I clearly state, that this hack can "deter" people from borrowing content, not protect against them. Also I state that there is at least one loophole. If you read the comments, I have updated the information to cover many of the other items that people have been commenting on. Yes, the only true protection is a genuine copyright, not just putting Copyright at the bottom of your page, but having your documents legally copyrighted.

I have been asked several times now how I have protected my blog against the infamous "right click". I should first point out that I got this information from Carolvs' blog, so he should get the credit for finding this. I actually worry about putting some items on my blog without a proper copyright.

This hack can deter would-be plagiarizers from stealing content from your blog and trying to pass it off as their own. However it should be noted that there are loopholes to this bit of security. If you would like help, just let me know.

Musical Minded Meme

Thanks Gulnaz, I appolgise for not posting this sooner as I said I would. I am an amature musicain, I have been playing guitar for over 25 years, and singing all my life. I write songs, and at one time wanted to earn my living playing music, it is one of the things I am most passionate about in life.

Total volume of music files on my computer:
Few, I still tend to throw a CD into my personal CD player when working out, or in the car, of course I try to pick one that has mostly songs I like.

The last CD I bought was:
I bought about twenty while I was in England from December to March, those included U2's latest, Keane, Athlete, Franz Ferdinand and the Killers. But most recenlty I have bought the new Coldplay single, and Beck's latest.

Songs playing right now:
I still tend to play Coldplay's Rush of Blood to the Head albumb a lot. I am also quite partial to Keane and all the bands or solo artists I mentioned above. Usually most anything Bowie, or Beatles. I love Jazz, world music, such as Indian and Brazilain, classical, what is now considered Classic Rock, Drum and Bass, Bangra, some Rap and a lot of pop music.

Five songs i listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:
I have way more than 5 but I will list a few.
I'm only sleeping - The Beatles
Cosmic Dancer - T-Rex
Yellowbrick Road - Elton John
Amsterdam - Coldplay
Sonnet - The Verve
Heros - David Bowie
Wild Horses - The Rolling Stones
Bend and Break - Keane
Wires - Athlete
There are many, many more, but I will leave it there for now.

Five people to whom I’m passing the baton: (I have a few more than five)
Cedia, Lorena, Ms. Laughs, Robi, Transience, Gus Greeper, Mitzzee, Mermaid, M, Nasra, Nicole, Natasha, Sk8Rn and Deem, and any other who might want to take the this up. If I forgot your name it was not intentional, I was supposed to limit this to 5 but I added a few more.

Relationships (Part One)

I recently visited another blog where I read an entry that caused me to do a bit of thinking. I am often asked why I am not married or have not married. The strange thing is that in our society it is totally acceptable, in today's terms, to have been married and divorced by your late twenties or early thirties, perhaps even twice!

I have been in several committed and long term relationships; the longest of these was three years. Within the last of the 3 years both she and I began to notice signs that we probably shouldn’t be together. The thing is the longer you are together, at least in my opinion, the harder it is to break it off. Eventually we broke up on very amicable terms.

The longer you stay in a relationship that you feel is flawed, the longer you perpetuate the problem. Sometimes only one person feels this way, but the likelihood is, that if you feel uncomfortable your partner probably does too. The best thing to do in the short term is try to talk about it. You may even try counseling, but in the long run if you feel something in the pit of your stomach, and a little voice telling you this is not the right person for you, you should probably follow your instincts.

Thirteen

There are so many amazing poets that have blogs. Many of you have recently become part of my virtual peer group, or virtual friends. I don't consider myself a poet, but here are some lyrics to a song I wrote many years ago:

Wandering so slowly cross the line
Cast between reality and time
Treading on the shadow left by you
Nothing left that anyone can do

Realizing love is the answer
To the meaning of your scarlet dreams
And ego left behind in the meadow
Blowing forever tranquil in the breeze