8 - Most Overused, Misunderstood and Butchered Word in English

Hey ... before I get to the reason for this post let me tell you that I am in the middle of a 5 day weekend. That's right, count 'em .... 1 ... 2... 3 ... 4 ... 5

Sounds great doesn't it? Not so much because I am painting all of the exterior trim on the doors and windows of the house. Because of my motivation issues and the ease with which I can abandon any project, I am working on a schedule. On Saturday I scraped and sanded the old paint. On Sunday I taped and puttied (where required). Today was painting with a primer. So far so good except that there was nothing in the weather forecast today that said anything about thundershowers!!!

There I was, sweating my balls off (it has been hot here for the past week) when a few minutes later it was nice and cool. Looked up and the formerly cloudless, sunny sky was covered with clouds of the grey variety. I rushed on the last window that I was priming and 10 minutes after I had finished it, the rain started to fall. It rained and thundered for a few minutes and then it was over. I have not yet gone to check the damage but it should be OK. It was only primer and dries very quickly (perhaps not as quickly as the rain fell). I think I'll be OK. Tomorrow is finish coat #1 and Wednesday should be finish coat #2 but the forecast says rain on Wednesday and a chance of showers tomorrow morning. I might end up having to get through both coats tomorrow.

I live in an old stone house, built in 1888. The stone is all greyish, beigeish and generally pale. The trim has been white since I moved in here so I decided to change it up a little. The white trim is going to become dark green. I think it will look good.

On another note, Welsby had to return the the Ontario Veterinary College today for a post operation 2 month checkup. The surgeon was very happy with the progress the boy has made and he can now run, jump and play like any other puppy. While he does not have 100% mobility in his front legs, he is doing great. Now all I hope for is that he doesn't get worse but that will probably happen at some point in time and will require more surgery, years from now and not a day sooner.

OK ... I have a pet peeve about a word that is so overused that it no longer means anything in my opinion.

The word is 'professional' and it denotes something special.

A professional is a member of a vocation founded upon specialized educational training.

The word professional traditionally means a person who has obtained a degree in a professional field. The term professional is used more generally to denote a white collar working person.

In western nations, such as the United States, the term commonly describes highly educated, mostly salaried workers, who enjoy considerable work autonomy, a comfortable salary, and are commonly engaged in creative and intellectually challenging work.

Because of the personal and confidential nature of many professional services and thus the necessity to place a great deal of trust in them, most professionals are held up to strict ethical and moral regulations.

Main criteria for professional include the following:
Academic qualifications - A teaching degree (University doctoral program), theological, medical, or law degree - i.e., university college/institute.
Expert and specialized knowledge in field which one is practicing professionally (architecture, accounting, engineering).
Excellent manual/practical and literary skills in relation to profession.
A high standard of professional ethics, behaviour and work activities while carrying out one's profession (as an employee, self-employed person, career, enterprise, business, company, or partnership/associate/colleague, etc.). The professional owes a higher duty to a client, often a privilege of confidentiality, as well as a duty not to abandon the client just because he or she may not be able to pay or remunerate the professional. Often the professional is required to put the interest of the client ahead of his own interests.

Reasonable work morale and motivation. Having interest and desire to do a job well as holding positive attitude towards the profession are important elements in attaining a high level of professionalism.

In Britain and elsewhere, professionalism is often designated by Royal Charter.

In narrow usage, not all expertise is considered a profession. Although sometimes referred to as professions, such occupations as skilled construction work are more generally thought of as trades or crafts. The completion of an apprenticeship is generally associated with skilled labor or trades such as carpenter, electrician, plumber, bricklayer and other similar occupations. A related (though not always valid) distinction would be that a professional does mainly mental or administrative work, as opposed to engaging in physical work.

So, here is my peeve ... in the past weekend I have seen signs for professional pet grooming, professional nail polishing, professional car washing, professional house painting and a few others, equally as asinine. If I am really good a masturbating (myself or somebody else) can I call myself a professional jerk off artist? If I work with a crane putting up tall buildings, can I call myself an erection professional? I might be the best in the world but there is no way that makes me a professional.

The overuse of this word has pretty much made it worthless as it no longer denotes a special occupation, only acquired after lengthy studies.

Would a professional nail polisher do a better job than an amateur nail polisher?

What words do you think are inappropriately used?

4 - Crap ...

This past week was awful. I had a project to work on that was due last Monday. I managed to get it done and hand it in and then it was changed each day until Thursday, right after I submit it each and every day. In a couple of words, work sucked.

A couple of weeks ago I joined a dating site, looking for I don't know what. I would love to have a bunch of 30 or 40 year olds contact me but alas that ain't happening. My profile is getting a couple of dozen hits every day and I get a few messages each day. I don't know what people are thinking when they decide to contact people. I receive a lot of messages from women in their 60s who, in most cases, look like they are in their 70s. They obviously don't read very well, nor do they comprehend. Sure they can take a chance but that chance of success is extremely slim.

I have started to correspond with a couple of women and one of them I cut off last night. We had exchanged quite a number of e-mails and touched on numerous subjects. One of them was movies and I said that I will not watch violent, bloody or gory movies, in fact, I would rather watch porn than violence. Dead silence. She then stumbled through a few words but didn't make a lot of sense. Figuring that she was not as enthusiastic about sex as I am, I dropped a few other "hints" that were sexual in nature and she was rather negative with them. So, suppose that I ignored that hesitation and we did do out together. Before too long we would end up in bed and with the hesitation she displayed if I tried anything other than straight missionary sex it would not have been received well or at all.

Sex is an extremely important part of a good relationship and if you can't or won't accommodate what you lover enjoys the relationship won't last very long ... at least from my point of view. So, rather than wasting my time (and money) on something that may end up in frustration and failure, I put a halt to everything.

Am I shallow? Perhaps.

Today has been an even worse day. I have an old shed in my backyard that I am getting rid of so I was out there taking it apart and my 3 dogs were in the yard with me. One of the boys, Welsby, enjoys going under, over or through the fence into my neighbor's yard. He never goes further than that. One minute he was laying beside the shed and when I checked again about 15 minutes later he has disappeared. I called and called him but he wasn't in the neighbor's yard. I checked in front of the house and walked up and down the street. Then I bundled the other 2 dogs into the car and drove every street in the neighborhood to no avail. The chance of finding him wandering on the street are pretty slim, having to be on the same street at the same time as he is.

This is the puppy (10 months yesterday) who had bilateral elbow dysplasia surgery 7 weeks ago and is not supposed to run or walk too much and is on a special diet. I pray that he is found somebody who either calls the pound (he has a city dog tag) or the microchip company (he is microchipped with a contact tag on his collar). I don't want to even think about him being hit by a vehicle or taken by somebody who disregards the ID that is on him.

I am going out again to see if I can spot him, please cross your fingers for me.

UPDATE : 6:15PM

Welsby is back safe and sound. He was a total of 4 houses away and was there for almost 3 hours. He was laying on the grass in front of a house and the owner brought him in. Meanwhile, I was walking and driving the neighborhood for a couple of hours. I realize it's rather pointless driving around to look for a dog. It would be luck if I happened to be on the same street as him at the same time. I came back in and called the pound. Closed for Sunday and the holiday tomorrow. There was an emergency phone number so I called that. After giving a description, the city tag number and the microchip number she says that she thinks my dog has been located. She gives me the phone number of the person. It was Welsby and as I said, 4 houses away.

I no sooner got him back in the house when I loaded all 3 into the car and went to PetSmart. I bought a 2 foot long anchor that screws into the ground and a 40 foot steel cable. He has brought this on himself by refusing to stay in the yard.