make up Scrabble words this holiday.

face it, you'll likely be subjected to game night at some point this month. it just comes with the territory of more food than you need and family members you may or may not want to see. it's about the only thing every can decide won't be overly offensive to do together. so be prepared.

--know the new words that made it into the Oxford English Dictionary this year. PS if you're playing with Merriam-Webster, you're a pansy. break out the big book.

--be hip with the youngsters. modify the rules a bit and bring out the lingo. brush up using Urban Dictionary, otherwise known as the directory for word vomit (check the page title).

--throw caution to the wind. get your Addictionary on. this is a favourite in my family. it's when you just make words up. you get to keep the word on the board if you can convince majority of players of a meaning for it.

happy holidays, Scrabulous addicts, copywriters, and wannabe English types. this one's for you.

lost your i/denti/tee? get a new one.

this is a pretty sweet idea: lyrics on tee shirts. novel, i know.

the concept is it has to start with "i." because... they like that.
i'm not really sure why.

i know it has nothing to do with iTunes other than that you get a free 10 iTunes songs with every tee purchase. that's pretty cool, admittedly, but that's also cos i'm a (legal) music download addict. a definite plus when their tees are $35 + S&H.

it's socially conscious, too. from their FAQ:
'Grow-to-sew' African means that from the cotton they source, through the spinning and knitting stages, all the way to the final logo print on the inside of every music tee - the benefit of each goes back to the people working on the product in sub-Saharan Africa.

only dilemma here? their lyrics are LAME.
of their current 9-tee line, the only one i can maybe relate to enough for purchasing... ok, well, none of them. and i even like Joan Jett by a lot. but for personalized feel, these "i" lyrics aren't really doing it for me.

i actually went through and read all 200+ song lyrics you can vote for. i submitted another 20 or so (odd that you can't also say who the artist is). i have not yet seen any added to the 200+ choices for the new line.

my suggestions included but were not limited to:
i am flawed if i'm not free [rilo kiley]
i won't sit nice & be quiet [the trucks]
i swear by my wrists that we're better than this [park]
i choose light i choose love [the submarines]
i want to be the car crash [snow patrol]
i am better with a pen [fall out boy]

Microsoft tries to be cool, again.

avert your eyes, if you must, or see more here. with a pun that would make Kenny Cole jealous, Microsoft is trying, yet again, to be relevant and cool with "Softwear," 80s inspired Microsoft clothing.

to be fair, i owned a Microsoft PC up until this year. i do not hate Microsoft. i think Vista ("Mojave") was a terrible mistake of epic proportion and handled poorly, but that's about the extent of my hatred.

the bottom line is that Microsoft just isn't cool and they desperately, desperately want to be. we have a computer company making clothing now. and a "conscious" rapper (whom i actually like, mind you) backing it up (that's a head trip).

people make Apple and Microsoft tee shirts for the hell of it anyway. because they're fans. because they support the brand. but Apple is that kid who's cool without trying too hard. Apple doesn't mean to throw epic parties... it just happens. elegant, sophisticated, well-dressed.

with Softwear, Microsoft is the less cool younger brother who wants to emulate and get a piece. but Microsoft is automatically positioning themselves as 30 years old. explain this to me. nostalgia? alright, maybe a little. but i just don't see it helping in the long run.

...unless Microsoft really does start throwing parties.
maybe in Williamsburgh. so Bill Murray can come.

you, my friend, are hella awkward.

let me set a few things straight. yes, i'm a GenYer. yes, we are wicked awesome and good for business. but we are also hella awkward. and, my friend, most likely you are too.

GenYers spend most of our days on the internet. but let's not kid ourselves. if you're reading this, you probably do too. you have a digi-positive 9-5; you write emails, texts, and generally communicate with words first--voice second; it's faster, sure. short of being Grandma who still (bless her heart) can't quite get all this new fangled stuff, you are in danger.

that's right.
you're becoming more awkward.
and likely, less understood.

that's the irony in this day and age. social networking. all points access to your friends 24/7. transparency to the enth. and yet, you still have no idea what i'm saying. and i'm an highly educated word-person-thingy.

half our country is still leaving 'h' out of "wat" and using "c" in place of 'see,' etc. there is no diction, no word choice, to convey emotion behind the txting, beyond maybe an ambiguous ":)"--and that is the primary mode of communication.

we're losing our body language, our vocal tone, our inclination to have conversations in real life, in person as well as the skills needed to decode those aspects.

we're just stuck in our heads. the Googling of thoughts, we read and intonate what we want to. personalized communication, it is what i want it to be--not necessarily what you mean for it to be. or so i'm noticing.

i had this issue this weekend. wanted to have a semi-serious chat with my sig other, who prefers only talking in txt (i prefer in-person). compromised, chatted on AIM (...no joke). and you know what? i 'walked out' of that chat not at all confident that anything i said actually was understood. the responses were just not on the level.

how do you combat your 'awkward' in an increasingly text-only driven world? do you feel less understood more frequently, or does the "140 character limit" just get you off? are you more in your head, or less? can you even tell if a person is lying by looking at them any more, or do you trust the transparency of consonants and vowels?

things to think about.

[img via.]

friday feline: kitty cat dance

epic, if only because of the voiceover. and i dance dance dance and i meow meow meow. that could be my theme song. anyway. i'm sure you are all tired of insubstantial (or absent) posts. i have 5 thoughtful ones coming. promise. it's just that my office is hella busy. tis the season?

[via @irockiroll, one of my fave people.]

twitter Secret Santa results & Feline Intervention

so by popular vote, my cat did indeed arrange the Secret Santa names. it took me a few days to sort out just how i was going to do it, but i did indeed pull it off. if you followed my twitter stream, you know that by 11:11pm on Black Friday, all the names were matched up and i began sending out all the emails. Jared coined this process feline intervention and i am much amused by the term.

so how did my cat do it? you can see the process on Flickr for the photoset. Phase I constituted getting her ready with a pregraming of catnip. i then sprinkled catnip over the "Blue Group" which had the names of all 21 participants as the recipient group. as Socks licked a (catnip covered) paper, i put it to the side, in order. did the same with the "Red Group" which was the giving group, again the same 21 names. Socks got bored halfway through the Red Group and had to be re-inspired with kitty treats.

a big thank-you to the 20 people who participated in the twitter Secret Santa along with me! your gifts should be to you by December 21st, if everyone is good. give our Santas all a follow and spread the love:

@ValeriaL, @nalei, @lovebabz, @jaredwsmith, @dnadeau, @kylecameron, @Adrigonzo, @Faris, @Dan_Rosenberg, @fawndue, @Chells, @ldwatters, @elfster, @samwithans, @heidirettig, @AllsionNadeau, @caff, @windo, @jasonoke, @cassondra

have a great season all! drink up on the egg nog, ravish the gingerbread, and stay away from the pasta necklaces <3