In a bad state

I saw a poster at my gym the other day, some kind of new member pitch poster, describing the "state-of-the-art" facilities my gym offers. It should be said that my gym is about as basic as they come. If my gym were to be a video game console, it would be a Super Nintendo. Far FAR removed from the Xbox 360s of the world.

Sure, the poster was there to entice visitors to join the gym, to make them aware of all the great things the place offers, even though the facilities are far from "state-of-the-art". Everything seems to be state-of-the-art these days. It's one of those words that is so overused the original meaning is all but lost.

For the record:

state-of-the-art: (noun) the latest and most sophisticated or advanced stage of a technology, art, or science.

This is not my gym. It makes me sad to see words like this being used so freely and so incorrectly when there is a thesaurus out there somewhere just waiting - nay, begging - to be picked up so a suitable synonym can be found. Think about it: if everything was state-of-the-art then nothing would be state-of-the-art because state-of-the-art is the most sophisticated and advanced stage of something. If everything is the most advanced, then nothing can be more advanced and the whole term is out the window.

So let's just keep it where it belongs (i.e. not my gym) and allow it to live just a little longer.

Initiated

Today at work I had my first driven-to-drink day. I feel like I've been properly initiated at the new job now. My three-month review is coming up as well so it all just seems appropriate.

But despite the frustration and the drama and the head-shaking and the "Surprise! It's due now!" parts of the day I left the office laughing. And I will carry this over to tomorrow night when I can sit down for that drink or four and just giggle at the fallacy of it all.

Really, who thinks clowns are funny?

When I started this blog, I liked the idea of choosing a word to define the post and how I was feeling, but now I'm kind of moving on the gimmickyness of that. I'm sure I will still do it when the moment strikes but not every post. In fact, not being able to think of a "good" enough word has kept me from posting and I'd rather just post.

The Santa Claus Parade is today. Why are there so many clowns? WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY??? There is nothing festive or Christmasy or happy or joyous about clowns. In fact, they are easily the scariest, creepiest, most horrid things ever to be created. Honestly, who thinks that clowns are funny? Shudder. Stupid horrible awful things. I actually may not be able to get through the parade. Although even if they got rid of the clowns, Susan Hay and Leslie Roberts and their commentary are enough to make my ears bleed.

Sigh. Oh well. I won't let this ruin my Christmas spirit. I must get ready to put the Christmas tree up. JOY!