Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] [INSANITY] I don't know what

["Christian M. Cepel" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

The first article discusses trichotillomania, and I've had it bad since 
puberty, in that I absentmindedly pull hairs out of my chin until it's 
bald, and yes, I do have ADD & OCD (fortunately I managed to avoid the 
holy trinity third symptom of Tourette Syndrome).  I found an easy 
solution however.  I grew a beard.  Once the hair is over 3/16" or 1/4" 
long, it no longer irritates me into having to destroy it.... I now have 
a lovely curly lopsided goofy beard and have to find something else to 
satisfy my ADD/OCD nature... something like nose-picking or something.

I highly disagree with their treatment of the 'Swearing' issue.  It  
belongs not on it's own, but in the discussion of stupid phrases, verbal 
tics, and conversational padding.

Swearing isn't solved by replacing bad words with innocuous ones.  Oh 
sure it helps you get the filth out of your mouth and makes you more 
acceptable in public, but does nothing to solve the underlying problem 
of people having poor vocabularies and stupid learned behaviors, 
shortcuts, and lazinesses.

Have you ever listened to a devout Mormon (and other folks as well, but 
there is a good percentage of them that are like this) speak.   They 
don't indulge in these lazy phrases that are supposed to communicate a 
whole range of feelings/thoughts/etc with a single outburst or expletive.

For instance, "Cool" becomes a positive statement like, "I though it was 
enjoyable/clever/useful", etc.

"Dammit", "Darn", "Darnit", "Oh hell!" becomes a statement of discontent 
like "I wish that had happened differently", or "I'm very upset by 
that", etc.

These are bad examples, but I'm sure you can think back to someone you 
met that you walked away from them having a deep respect for them and 
didn't realize until later why it was.  You realized that they were very 
precise in their communication.  They didn't use open ended and vague 
expletives, leaving the exact interpretation to the listener, but said 
exactly what they intended to say, imparting exactly the 
feeling/impression/though they meant to impart.

I know I've managed at times to cut down on cursing using "crumbs" or 
during really bad times, "Cheese and Ice", and then from there managed 
to reduce even the occurrences of those, so it does serve a purpose, but 
only if it's taken to the next step.

I'll tell you what irritates me the most, and that's hearing pastors and 
spiritual leaders, and people like Glenn Beck (who reminds people that 
he's a Mormon nearly every day) use words like Sucks, and Frickin.

I remember growing up that some people would chastise me for saying 
'Jeez' as they supposed it to be a derivative of 'Jesus Christ'.  Though 
it could just as well have been a derivative of 'Gee', or 'Gee Whiz'.   
Those two could arguably have been derivatives of 'Jesus Christ' as 
well.... I'm no philologist.

I can't stand it when people don't bat an eye when their kid says, 
'Sucks', and 'Frickin', but wail the tar out of them when they say 
'C***sucker' or 'You really suck c***', or 'That sucks ____", or 'Fu**in'.

It really really angers me when my 'cool and trendy' pastor says it.

A big problem here is that it has gotten so mainstreamed that people no 
longer think about those two words (and similar).   But I tell you 
this... you can so a s/A/B/gi; for any of these with the phrases they 
were derived from and find a 1-to-1 correlation, so when my pastor stand 
in the pulpit and tells me that, "failing to watch one's language really 
sucks (balls)", I find it quite a bit less of a moral directive than he 
intends.

Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:
> Hargus, Diana wrote:
> > Stephen,
> >
> > I found this site rather, er, enlightening and full of bad habits:
> > http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A930269
> >
> > Diana 
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F110481?thread=277097 says it better 
> than I could:
>
> It's not just boogers ... it's the eye-watering thrill of pulling out 
> a clump of errant nasal-hair. I especially like chewing on the little 
> folicule that comes out with it.
>
>
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--
Christian M. Cepel - Thistledowne Productions - http://thistledowne.org
Computer Support Specialist, Sr. - University of Missouri - Columbia
College of Education - School of Info Science & Learning Technologies
VRCbd, KidTools & StrategyTools Support Systems Projects, and Truman,
Library Whistlestop Project - Web Design & Programming - 573.999.2370


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