I've Been Reading

I've been able to start reading again.

"Read," is the advice always given to budding writers. Actual practice helps your writing improve too, but reading... It seems to train your mind to Hear and See the world with capital Hs and Ss.

When your car rushes through a rain puddle, the sound registers as "a lush hiss" instead of not registering at all. A dance recital audience reaction becomes "an appreciative rumble of laughter" instead of just "chuckling." You have conversations and naturally detect things like others' "clunky giddiness"or "apologetic authority."

To me, words give the world more substance. When I read a lot, I start to sense the depth in the molecules around me. It's not like the world is brighter; it's like I start to see new colors. Everything isn't more beautiful, but everything is more intentional, specific. I'm not sitting on my couch; I'm sitting on My Couch, where I had a kiss that tasted like ramen, where I first fell asleep on Gem, where I once cried a tear stain into the cushion.

When I immerse myself in words, everything feels more real. It's like tapping a secret source of energy.

I guess this makes sense, seeing as the entire world is Words. "In the beginning...the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep... And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light."

This entire world is literally words. There was nothing, and then God spoke, and from His words came the existence that I now try to describe with my own words, like "lush hiss" and "appreciative rumble." Is that redundant? To use words in an attempt to express/describe/create a reality that is already so perfectly linguistically expressed that it is actually tangible?

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning."

Jesus is--maybe literally, maybe figuratively, maybe spiritually (which is probably some inexpressible middle ground there)--Words. God is Words. He made our world of words with His words. We are in this world, made in the image of God. We are spoken. We are words. The light is words; the water is words; the land is words; the day and night are words.

So yes, it makes sense that everything gets more beautiful and more real when I connect with words. Don't you understand the ocean better when you jump in?

Words are fun and powerful and persuasive and enduring and endearing and funny and piercing and beautiful and satisfying and frightening and dangerous. I like words, on principle, because I am a writer and a reader and I like to reason and persuade. But even deeper than that, I like words because I think they are cosmically important. When it all comes down to it, the world is just atoms and energy and space.

But when atoms and energy and space come down to it, they are all words.

~Stephanie

A Spirare

I just hit the "Publish" button on the post called "Aspirations." I clicked "View Blog" to proofread it again, and was struck by that word:

Aspiration.

Out of nowhere, its Latin roots assaulted me unbidden:  a meaning "of, from, by, since" and spirare meaning "to breathe."

Aspirations:  Something from which we breathe.

Our aspirations--our goals, our dreams, our desires--are not only what we strive to, but what we breathe from. They aren't just in our futures, they are in us now, motivating us. When we breathe, we breathe because we're working toward something, working to be something.

I got up this morning because I aspire to be an English major. To be an English major, I must get up and read things and write things and study things and drink a lot of coffee (it's in the major requirement. Don't check; it's there)--and breathe. Because I aspire to be an English major.

I'm really starting to love the word "aspire." It is a light word. It's airy and crisp and invigorating--like a breath, I suppose, but a really good one. A breath of cool, sharp air that fills you with energy like electricity and makes you want to jump higher and run faster and smile brighter.

Aspire.

To what do I aspire? From what do I breathe?

I aspire to be a lover of words:  to speak them effectively, read them closely, write them artfully.
I aspire to be a champion of truth, valuing it in people, institutions, and ideas.
I aspire to travel:  to see places that amaze me and meet people who change me.
I aspire to know God and make him known.
I aspire to drink my coffee at a mature pace.

From what do you breathe?

~Stephanie

The Sixteen Loves

Gem and I were talking about the definition of "love" the other day. We agree that it is a choice, but I also now believe that it can be FELT, for sure. There are so many different kinds of love, but only one word for it.

Together we mourned the reality of English's insufficiency, and the linguistic ineptitude of those who use it. {Actually, I ranted like that and he agreed and offered statements like "I am gonna make my own language. With blackjack. And hookers." #Futurama}

But he really did inspire me to define all the many, most common uses of the word "love." I took it as both a challenge and a personal exploration exercise--and we know how those things turn out here on Peripeteia.

I give you...my Sixteen Kinds of Love.

1. The God Love - That love we can't understand because we're not, like, God. The totally unconditional, infinitely the patient, inconceivably complete love of our unfathomable Creator.

2. The Family Love - I understand that some peoples' families suck, and that sometimes friends are just like family. However, I actually believe that there is a love for actual blood family {and, like, legally adopted kids} that cannot be duplicated or substituted. I'm sorry, but I am never, ever going to love someone in the frighteningly fierce, protective, unconditional, self-sacrificing way I think I love my sister. I love her the most of anyone in the world, and her going to Europe has only made that more clear to me. In my mind, this is the highest form of love on earth.

3. The Best Friend Love -  It's the adamant loyalty, the absolute comfort. When there is someone who you can be rude to, but still not live without. The person who has seen you at your worst, but can still make you believe your best. This love is both casual and astonishingly resilient. The total opposite of the word "fragile."

4. The Love of Ideals - It's theoretical. It's personal. It's lofty. It's fixed. It's a lifestyle. It's a choice. It's a calling. Your love of Truth, Freedom, Responsibility, Mercy, Justice, Peace, Joy--whatever it might be--is a very real and legitimate Love. It shapes your soul.

5. The Rational Love - The love that kicks in when you're angry or frustrated or disappointed in someone. You have FELT true love for them, and intellectually realize that you do, but at the moment you have to rely solely on that fact because you don't currently LIKE the person.

6. The Fun Love - You've been dating for months. You've already seen each other without makeup/in basketball shorts. You've heard a lot of dirty secrets. You've watched a lot of movies and TV shows. You "get"each other in an effortless, smile-inducing way. Fun Love surfaces when you catch an eye-shining moment that makes you beam at someone, and it's like a lamp is turned on in your chest. It makes you want to laugh or hug the person, because you're just simply so EXCITED about BEING WITH THEM at that particular moment. You realize that you still love this person's company, that you'd still rather read a dictionary with him/her than go rollerskating with someone else, that you still think they're funny. It's light and fun and the brightest form of love I know.

7. The Gentle Love - The kind of love that comes from the heart of your soul and is reflected in your eyes when you look at that person. The kind of love that makes you cover someone with a blanket when they're asleep, or brush a tear off someone's face. A Gentleness so intense and clear that it's almost rough.

8. The Mushy Love - The kind of love that makes people text sappy things and stare into each others eyes and touch each others cheeks and sometimes gush to their friends about how amazing so-and-so is.

9. The Animal Love - Without becoming too graphic, this is the kind of writhing, white-hot, blinding, blood-rushing, desperate, gasping, teeth-gritting, nail-clawing sort of love that results in the creation of babies.

10. The Real Misspoken Love - This applies to inanimate objects that you legitimately love, even though you realize that "love" should only be used for people. For example, I Really Misspokenly Love the book Tex, and my dad's old Taurus, and--holy shit--my baby blanket, RB. Like, I would probably kill live animals in defense of those things, especially the latterest. Like, no question about it.

11. The Crush Love - This applies to unattainable hott actors as well as cute "real" guys/girls you barely know but get butterflies about.

12. The Mental Love - When you fall in love with someone's mind. This usually doesn't last long, because it morphs into one of the other kinds of love. But it is possible--for a short while--to be totally caught up in someone's impressive intellect.

13. The Preppy Love - "Oh my god, I LAHHHHHV himmmmmmmah." Used when you know someone well enough to notice that they have qualities that are universally appealing, like a cute smile or a love of animals or a way with parents. This Love applies to 80% of loves formed in private schools, cheer squads, and expensive youth camps.

14. The Misspoken Love - This applies to inanimate objects, like ice cream and Converse shoes. You feel strongly about your feelings towards a particular thing, but if pushed, you would admit that "love" is probably an inappropriate verb to use here.

15. Obsession/Infatuation - Everyone knows this one. When you dedicate an unhealthy amount of energy and brain space to a particular person. This is the kind of Love a stalker feels, as well as girls who are overly aware of a guy's biceps, or a guy of a girl's breasts. It's like Crush Love, but creepier and based on even less.

16. Addiction - *wince* This belongs here, as Gem pointed out to me. Anyone who's ever been addicted knows the powerful hate/love relationship with their poison of choice. Of course you hate that it controls you--and you might even hate the thing itself--but you love it because you keep. going. back. and there's a part of you that won't let go.

~Stephanie

Lost Art

Can I just say how in love I am with the way words used to be used? Good gosh. I just finished reading Freud and Einstein's correspondence on war, and the way they address each other and form their thoughts gives me chills.

Why can't we articulate ourselves like that today? Why don't we CRAFT paragraphs instead of just hashing them out and hoping we get our points across?

Maybe it's just Freud and Einstein's older style. Maybe it just sounds better to me because it's DIFFERENT. Maybe in fifty years, people will read our blog posts and coo over how wonderfully we expressed ourselves.

Part of me thinks that would great, but most of me winces at the thought. If people fifty years down the road are so poorly educated and woefully inarticulate as to think that my clumsy thoughts are as well-put as Freud's...then there's just no hope for humanity.

I love the way old writers would convey meaning precisely, and yet leave the perfect amount of room for inference and extrapolation. Half of what they said was in what they DIDN'T SAY, and the recipients of their words were astute enough to catch the polite implications and file them duly away.

The fact that great words inspired me to write this post at all makes me even more sure of a truth I already knew:  to write well, you must read well. Reading good literature will always subconsciously push you to write better. It's like watching a movie that stars British characters. I can't be the only one who thinks in a British accent for a little while afterwards, right?

If you fill your mind with British accents, British accents will fill your mind. If you fill your mind with well-written words, well-written words will fill your mind.

Gah, there are a million things I should be doing right now, but I'm so in love with words that I just had to say something.

Being an English major is the best decision I've ever made. If I could marry words, I honestly think I might XD

~Stephanie

Creative Truth-Telling

Connotations (how a word makes us feel) versus Denotations (what the word simply means). For example, "rich" and "affluent" mean basically the same thing. However, "rich" has a tangible, golden connotation, whereas "affluent" sounds much more elegant and elevated.

Playing with connotations/denotations is such a lovely, dangerous game. Everyone should know how to do it a little bit, because along with classic honesty, sometimes it's important to be able to slant things positively.

For instance, what if you're trying to get a high-maintenance friend a date, or write a recommendation letter for a difficult person? {Or what if you're trying to portray your crush's awesome love interest in a less poetic light? Not that anyone would ever do that...} You might want to have some handy synonyms in the front of your mind...

Here are some words with the same (or similar enough) denotations, but very different connotations:

Negative ~~ Positive
Aggressive ~~ Energetic
Arrogant ~~ Confident
Cowardly ~~ Cautious
Emotional ~~ Sensitive
Foolish ~~ Innocent
Impulsive ~~ Spontaneous
Judgmental ~~ Analytical
Lazy ~~ Relaxed
Narrow-minded ~~ Careful Thinker
Shallow ~~ Socially Aware
Stubbornness ~~ Steadfastness
Tactless/Outspoken ~~ Straight-Forward
Timid ~~ Unassuming
Vain ~~ Self-Aware

John is outspoken, vain, and stubborn. He judges people too harshly and is completely obsessed with materialistic things.  His impulsiveness make it hard to plan things well, but he's so pigheaded that he won't let anyone change his mind.

~~

John is straight-forward, self-aware, steadfast. He analyses effectively and is very economically aware. His spontaneity makes life exciting, and his steadfastness can make him a valuable ally.

~Stephanie

Writer's Constipation

There are words inside of you. Tons and tons of Words. There are so many words inside your head that it's physically uncomfortable. You can feel them like a pressure behind your eyeballs. There are too many words to keep inside.

You smile. Cool. So you can write. You'll write. How exciting!

So you sit down at your computer, or pull out a notebook and pen. You stare at the blankness, and prepare to write. The words leap to the tip of your mental tongue. You wait for them to make the final connection and spill forth.

But they don't.

You put your fingertips directly on the keyboard, hoping to signal your words that it's time to come out now. This is their cue. Nnnnnnnnow.

But they just sit there.

You frown and make a conscious effort to dislodge the words from your mind. You close your eyes and try to hunt down a good word. Just one word that feels right. An adjective maybe. Or a name.

You picture yourself running around in your mind, arms outstretched, chasing a small word in block letters. "Come ON!" you demand. "It'll be FUN. What is WRONG with you?"

Eventually you might catch a word, but the satisfaction slinks away as the word glares at you. It doesn't perform. It just sulks there on the page alone, crossing its arms and hating you. It's not fun. It's just a pain in the ass, and you backspace it, half out of spite.

Forget words. How about an Idea? A word is such a specific, elusive creature; an idea can be led along much more happily. Just moments ago, there were a lot of ideas skating around in your head, graceful and strong and silver, like a spiderweb.

Your mind's hand drifts out to take one, but instead of sticking and blossoming, the idea goes limp and disintegrates. Just when you think you have one, it leaves. There's a terrible mental dryness leftover, like your head needs a drink. Maybe a stiff one.

So you sit there, staring at the blankness in front of you, feeling full of words, but unable to produce a single one. You stare at the blankness, frustrated and uncomfortable, and watch the moment tease you, and flee. The urge to write fades slowly as the irritation builds in its place.

There was something great there, you knew it, but now it's lost, gone, and it's not even your fault. The injustice. The frustration. The hurt.

Some call it writer's block. But that's not the most accurate description.

~Stephanie

{lyrics}

Sometimes lyrics just hit me. I get a weird Feeling when I hear them, a cross between a shudder and an adrenaline rush. Sometimes it's because the lyrics are great, and sometimes it's just because. For whatever reason, here are some of the words that have been giving me chills lately.

"The sun goes down, I feel the light betray me." ~ Papercut, Linkin Park

"I created the sound of madness." ~ Sound of Madness, Shinedown

"I believe in you, I can show you that I can see right through all your empty lies." Dance with the Devil, Breaking Benjamin

"And the first time, that you opened your eyes did you realize that you would be my savior? And the first breath that left your lips, did you know that it would change this world forever?" ~ I Celebrate the Day, Relient K

"Life me up, let me go." ~ The Catalyst, Linkin Park

"Black lips, pale eyes. Cyanide sweet tooth suicide." ~ Cyanide Sweet Tooth, Shinedown

"It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you. There's nothing a hundred men or more could ever do. I blessed the rain down in Africa. It's gonna take some time to do the things we never have." ~ Africa, Toto

"No light, no light in your bright blue eyes. I never knew daylight could be so violent, a revelation in the light of day. You can't choose what stays and what fades away." ~ No Light, No Light, Florence + the Machine

"This is the unforgettable sound; bringing you up and taking you down." ~ High Voltage, Linkin Park

"When you lie like the devil himself, no angel's gonna hear your cry for help." ~ Cry for Help, Shinedown

"Just like a crow chasing the butterfly, dandelions lost in the summer sky. When you and I were getting high as outer space, I never thought you'd slip away. I guess I was just a little too late." ~ The Crow and the Butterfly, Shinedown

~Stephanie

The Boyfriend

No, I didn't get one. But that phrase irks me.

"Going to a movie with the boyfriend."

"Seeing the boyfriend today."

"Gonna chill later with the boyfriend."

The boyfriend? THE boyfriend? Oh, THAT one.

What?

Number one, it's a glaringly obvious fail to subtly brag about your relationship. If you put "the boyfriend" in your status, you're not trying to convey the fact that you are going to see a movie with Steven. You are screaming into a virtual bullhorn: "OMGGUYSIHAVEABOYFRIENDYEAHLOL." It seems insecure and obnoxious. Everyone knows what you're doing. You come across looking desperate to prove yourself instead of confident and glad to be having fun.

Second, it's demeaning. I get pissed off when guys say demeaning things about girls, and I am going to get pissed off when girls do the same things. He has a name, use it. He is more than just "the boyfriend." He's a person. He exists apart from being "the boyfriend." If you broke up with him, he would continue to be alive even without your title for him.

Thirdly, it's hypocritical. If a guy said, "Going to the girlfriend's house," she would be all over him in a New York minute. "What, I don't have a name? Are you ashamed of me? I'm more than just your girlfriend, you know. I'm a person. God, how dare you be such an insensitive creep." {And I'd agree, just as I'm agreeing the use of "the boyfriend" is wrong.}

Fourth, it sounds air-headed and Valley Girl-ish. I can't even think the phrase without my inner voice going, "th' boyFRAN *peace sign*." Ugh.

And lastly, it's kind of grammatically incorrect. There is more than one Boyfriend in the world. Your saying THE boyfriend isn't really specific enough. It's stupid and ought to be vague, but we all know you're tooting your own relationship horn, so it's not really.

I have a question. What's wrong with "MY boyfriend?" Somehow that changes everything for me. It sounds warm instead of aloof. It sounds friendly instead of bitchy. It sounds proud instead of arrogant. It's like you WANT him to be yours, instead of him being an object that you control and drag around.

The word "my" is so much more personal. It works with everything. If I told you I was going to walk the dog, you'd get the idea that I didn't want to, that the dog kind of annoyed me, or that it was really my sister's dog or something.

If I said, "I'm going to walk my dog," it sound as though you actually LIKE the dog. He's something that you enjoy and find special and want to take care of. The word "my" changes everything.

Did I just compare boys to dogs? >_> No. I did not.

So there are my thoughts on that popular phrase. Please don't use it. It annoys the flaming piss out of me.

Just throwing that out there for the followers ;)

~Stephanie

This vs That

{Thanks for following, Sam and Gabrielle! You guys should really check out Gabrielle's blog that I linked to. She posted a short story on the 27th that I find absolutely beautiful.}

Am I selfish?

See, this is awkward, because if I spend an entire post contemplating whether or not I'm selfish, I am then being selfish. Or at least self-absorbed.

Are those the same things? Selfish and self-absorbed?

I do a lot of self-examination. I study my motives obsessively, try to get to the root of "me," analyze my dreams, question my thoughts and determine my desires. Is that selfish?

I'm not sure. It's definitely self-absorbed.

But I think "selfish" might be different. I'm not necessarily saying I'm NOT selfish, but that maybe being self-absorbed is sometimes different?

Selfish is when you act with only yourself in mind. You put your safety and comfort above all else, even at the expense of others' safety and comfort. A selfish person is often greedy, whether with time or treasure, and lacking in honor.

Self-absorption means you think about yourself a lot. When I say "think about yourself," I don't necessarily mean that you think about yourself FIRST; I mean that you contemplate yourself often, as I mentioned I do. Self-absorption can certainly lead to being selfish, but sometimes you study yourself in a non-selfish way. Sometimes you can study yourself with others in mind.

For instance, when I spend time thinking about my trust issues, it's not because I love myself to death and want every thought to be dedicated to my own loveliness. It's because I want to understand why I have trust issues so I can fix that and treat others the way they deserve to be treated.

I do not think I am a selfish person. I can DEFINITELY be selfish at times, and maybe it's conceited of me to say I am not a selfish person. But I don't think I am. I honestly try to do things for other people. It bothers me when I break promises or needlessly hurt feelings. I hate selfish people. I do try not to be one.

When I post about myself, it's not because I think I am the best topic there is. It's not because I think you ought to love reading about me. It's because I'm trying to figure myself out. I'm trying to smooth out the wrinkles and reprogram the glitches and straighten the twisted pieces. When I post about myself, it's because I think better with words that I can see, and I hope that perhaps some of you might benefit from my words as well.

And that, I hope, is not too selfish a thing.

~Stephanie

Staying Creative: Make Lists

What are you waiting for? Click here to get in on this Staying Creative action.

Okay, we all know how much I love to do this anyway. I have roughly six jillion lists running at any given time. However, I feel like posting lists I've already made is cheating. If I'm going to stay creative, I have to actually do this stuff, like, on-goingly. {'Cause thaaat's a word.}

So, in honor of it being fall, I give you these autumn lists I made today:

Words To Describe Outside:

1. Crisp

2. Bright

3. Clear

4. Cold

5. Sharp

6. Alive

7. Mischievous

8. New

Things To Do This Fall:

1. Read

2. Drink tea

3. Go on walks

4. WRITE

5. Do my best in school

6. Love

7. Laugh

8. Learn

Things I'm Glad About:

1. My senior pictures went well.*

2. The SAT is behind me {until November 5th. *sigh*}

3. I can wear my "I <3 Roma" sweatshirt.

4. I'm doing better in math.

5. Thanksgiving is only a couple of months away.

6. I'm becoming great friends with my Norwegian exchange student neighbor.

7. I saw an R-rated movie in the theater.**

8. I love "The Illiad."

* I'll post the three sneak preview pictures the photographer put up on Facebook this week. I actually LOVE them. It's amazing what good camera can do!

** Yeah. Cassidy and I saw 50/50 this weekend, and it was awesome. I've seen plenty of R-rated movies at home, but this was the first one I had seen in the theater. I could pretend that I was really chill and nonchalant about it, but there are no secrets or lies on Pandora, so I have to confess that I felt like a six-year-old getting to stay up late.

I was kind of disappointed that they didn't card me though. I wanted to be like "BAAM. SEVENTEEN."

Of course, what I REALLY wanted to do was go see an R-rated movie ten months ago, when I was actually sixteen, and see if I could sneak in. But that never happened, and I'll probably be disappointed about it for the rest of my life. I thought you should know.

Stay tuned for tomorrow, when I will be carrying a notebook with me everywhere.

~Stephanie

Book Week

Hi.

I know. Normally when I start out by saying "hi," it means I'm going to tell you that I'm not going to post. But that's not the case this time. This time, I'm actually just saying Hi. So.

Hi.

I was thinking about lists today, which is something I do a lot. I was thinking that I should have a List Week on Pandora, but then I got to thinking, "Right. List 'Week.' To get all your crud in you'd have to make it list MONTH, and then by that time you'd have a least four or five more little gems to share. Right. List Week."

I decided that List Week was a little too broad. So what did I do?

I made a list of all the categories of lists that I could pick from--

Haha, just kidding. {Although to be honest, that idea is tempting me like no one's business right now. Damn. I might actually do that. And then you could pick which one interests you the most--no. Nonononono. No.}

Actually I just decided to do Book Week instead, and it won't all be lists. I'll have a few lists in there, and a few book reviews on stuff I've been reading. {Or, if school decides to do that cool thing where it swallows me whole, I'll publish some OLD book reviews I wrote. Yeah, I'm that...lazy.}

So, I hope you like to read, and if you don't, I hope you at least have fun reading Pandora this week and making snarky comments to yourself about how reading is such an excruciating chore and you can't believe someone as beautiful and smart as me hasn't figured that out yet.

:D

~Stephanie

Our Generation is So, Like, You Know...

Thanks for following, Tinuke!

Video poem by Taylor Mali.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

~Stephanie

CORRECTION

*gasp* I WAS WRONG.

You may remember a few days ago that I corrected myself in saying "spitting image." I had found out that it was really "spit AND image." Well. I decided to double check my facts and found this little beauty:

"Spitting image/spit and image: These phrases mean "exact likeness." "Spitting image" is first
recorded in 1901; "spit and image" is a bit older (from the late 19th century), which seems to refute the explanation "splitting image" (two split halves of the same tree)."

It would seem that I was wrong about being wrong (and so were a lot of you guys too). "Spitting image" is apparently also correct! HAH, WE WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG. And we knew that, of course, right? We were just testing everyone else...

Um, yeah.

Okay.

Bye.

~Stephanie

Word on the Street...

I have a pretty good vocabulary. There aren't a lot of words that I'm unfamiliar with, and my stupid Latin background can help me figure out the rest. Most of what I know comes from reading, which I've been obsessed with since I was about 2. That's fine and everything, except for one thing:

You have to actually SAY the words in real life.

Facade ~ It's not actually pronounced fa-KADE. There's a little French thing on the C that apparently makes it an S...fa-SOD. The French would.

Vigilante ~ See this one I thought WAS French-sounding. vih-jil-AHNT. Little did I know, it's actually vih-jill-ANT-ee. Go figure.

Phoebe ~ I read a book about a girl named Phoebe when I was 8. I pronounced it POE-bee. Being 8, I didn't think about it. Then when I got to be about 13, I realized...that was little off.

Lambaste ~ I thought it rhymed with "cast." It rhymes with "paste." ...whatever.

Preface ~ It is not PRE-face. It's PREH-fiss. I hate words like this; they trick you with how simple they look, then all the sudden you find out you've been mispronouncing it since fifth grade.

Placate ~ ...yeahhh, I'm still not sure how this one goes.

Then there's the opposite problem, where I've heard a phrase all my life, but never actually seen it spelled.

You know the phrase "the whole kit and caboodle"? Until yesterday, I thought it was "kitten caboodle." Yes, I am seventeen, thanks for asking.

Ever heard someone was the "spit and image" of someone else? ...was I the only one who thought it was "spitting image"?

"For all intents and purposes." I finally saw that one written down a few months ago. Come to think of it, that makes a HECK of a lot more sense than "all intensive purposes." ...what was I thinking?

Hope this was good for a laugh, and maybe even a little bit enlightening XD

~Stephanie