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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Hi, I'm Elle. I'm based in Auckland, New Zealand. I'm the mother of two young adults, the wife of an entrepreneurial gamer and the Queen of Unfinished Projects. This blog will contain poems, short stories, possibly photos and book reviews if you're lucky, and my thoughts on a variety of topics. Hope you enjoy it. |
Write about some of the words that were introduced in the year you were born according to Merriam-Webster dictionary. ~ "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  1980, the year that brought you 'schmoozy', 'comb-over' and 'techno-pop'.  But we also brought you 'air guitar', 'chill out', and the 'director's cut'. Oh, but we also ushered in the age of 'differently abled', 'ecofeminism' and 'post-traumatic stress disorder'. Ooh, and 'high five', 'foodie' and 'veg out'.  I'm really not sure what words to write about. Let's see... Retronym - a new term created from an existing word in order to distinguish the original referent of the existing word from a later one that is the product of progress or technological development (e.g. acoustic guitar for guitar). I didn't know there was a word for that, but it kind of makes sense. My mind has taken 'acoustic guitar' and wants to blog about that instead of about retronyms. Wait, what's a prompt again? Something that's supposed to inspire an entry... Right, guitars it is! And hey, 'air guitar' is one of the 'words' (how can something with two words in it be a word?) from my year as well. I'm pretty sure the first time I encountered the concept of an air guitar was in the Bill & Ted movie. Did you hear they're remaking that? Steve can't wait. We have two child-sized acoustic guitars in our house, one 'original', one pink. Both my kids had lessons at school. Neither kept it up. My nephew had lessons for much longer, and I believe he migrated to a full sized guitar, but he dropped it eventually too. My sisters and I all learned from my dad (who worked part-time as a guitar teacher) but gave up. I can play three chords. Caitie learned to play Come As You Are by Nirvana - the bass line at least. I remember my younger sister learning to play Albatross by Fleetwood Mac. When I last visited Dad, he showed us his two 'good' electric guitars. We were talking about them, since we were discussing inheritances. I'm going to inherit his 1963 Gretsch Chet Atkins Tennessean guitar. Other than the regular things like the house and car, it's the only thing of significant value he has. My mother only has two things of significant value, and there are three of us, so yeah, one each and mine is Dad's guitar. Of the three things, mine is the least saleable, as it's more than 50 years old and has been much-used for most of those 50 years. The other two things are in much better condition. But that's okay. Steve and I will also inherit a bunch of stuff from his parents (they have a LOT of stuff and only two kids to inherit) so it was an easy call. Not that I think any of the three of us will sell the items anyway, but... *shrug* Given Dad's family history, he'll live another 20+ years anyway, so I don't need to be finding a place for it just yet!  He doesn't play the Gretsch much anymore, so he has a Epiphone Casino guitar that he uses. He has a bass guitar as well, which makes three electric guitars that I'm aware of. And then he has some acoustics. I'm sure there used to be at least two acoustics at all times, but I wouldn't know how many he has at the moment. I have loads of fond memories of Dad playing the guitar. And some really cute photos of him playing with the kids. I wonder if my youngest nephew and my niece who live in the UK will ever learn to play guitar? It's pretty much a family tradition, even if we've all given up too. Maybe it's the learning AND the giving up that's the tradition!  But it'd be cool to see someone pick it up and go all the way with it. Like a legacy handed down. If I'm going to inherit the Gretsch, it should be one of my two. Maybe I can convince one of them to take it up again. Okay, next word. Homeschool - I've said before that we made a mistake sending Jayden to the schools that we did, and in a lot of ways, I wish we'd homeschooled him. Well, now that he's back from Outward Bound, he's talking about finishing high school. So we're looking into Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu, which is the NZ correspondence school. It'll mean he can study at home, online, instead of having to actually physically go back to high school. I'm hoping he'll enroll this weekend and get the ball rolling. Jaw-dropping - I'm currently reading Threatening Sky, which is the second part of Osirantinous  's novel. Well, they're both novels in their own right, but it has taken two novels to tell the story. She has the most amazing skill with characters. I am just in awe of how real she makes them seem. As a reader, you're totally swept up in their lives, and think of them as real people. It's crazy. I gotta admit though, she does drive me a bit mental with her refusal to capitalise words like 'dad' when they're used as proper nouns instead of common nouns.  That's my only bugbear with her work though, and I'm loving this book. I'll be sad when it's over, I think. |
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