Random Jetsam

Kat spoke about how her month-long ride to the end of the road and back again opened her eyes to how online poker had become a habit. Waffles agreed with her.

I've often spoken about how a break feels good, and others have brought up the post-BBT burnout combined with summertime lull. I didn't touch poker last night. I only played in the LPR on Monday. The Mookie is tonight of course, but that may be all I play.

In the time I'd otherwise be playing, I've been slowly taking care of small things that have sat undone. My Harmony remote finally works the way I want it to (after the latest Logitech update, which came months ago, but I never downloaded). My pocketable Casio camera has a new battery (almost a year after it died). Laundry's getting done, rooms are getting cleaned, DVDs are getting watched, etc.. Tonight I'll figure out my TIFF schedule. Cooking can start whenever and end when its done instead of trying to shoehorn it around poker games. I'm in no hurry to get home at the end of the day. In short - I'm feeling mildly productive, and that leads to a nice sense of calm. It's these little things that can mean the difference betweeen peace and frustration.

And when I do sit down to play? I'm more focused, and actually care more than before.

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Watching CNBC, Erin Burnett revealed that she shouldn't improv. Talking to someone (missed their name) about international accounting practices being taken up in the US, he commented that poeple are looking for a "lingua franca" for accounting. Erin's comment? "Uh oh, some viewers won't like that, we're going the way of the French!"

The guest covered well enough with something like, "well, we're looking for a universal language, not necessarily French or any other established one."

A lingua franca is basically a common language within a specified field (or, alternately a language that has broad reach beyond its native speakers). The term has almost to do with French or France (outside of the original lingua franca being an amalgam of Italian, French, and some arabic languages). But Erin, in all her wisdom, must have translated these funny words into sounding like "French language"... even though they're Italian, and don't mean French.

I get that people will have things thrown at them they don't understand. It's one thing to nod and smile, or make it sound like you know what you're talking about without laying out specifics, but to crack a joke about a specific term you obviously don't know the meaning of? That just exposes your ignorance.