Street Lingo 104 - Mastering Your Son and Daughter's Language

It’s been a while since I’ve discussed street lingo on the blog. I used to discuss common words, and phrases that I hear on daily to monthly basis, put them in useful sentences, and so on. So here is the latest installment of Street Lingo:

The word “shit” seems to have a tremendous amount of usage, for example, consider the phrase…

“you must be shitting me”

This usually said in a casual conversation with a friend when he/she tells you something you weren’t expecting. It’s the same as saying “you must be kidding me.” The “shitting” part makes the phrase stronger, and implies a greater surprise.

While we’re on the surprise category, girls often say

“Shut UP!” when they hear something that takes them by surprise. My friend told me that a girl in her class loudly said “Shut up!” after the prof. said that “some of your neurons could stretch from your head to your toes”

On a different note, this phrase is not as common, but I have heard it a few times:

“Shoot the shit”

If used in a sentence it would sound like:

“so me and John were shooting the shit when Mary came in”

To “shoot the shit” means to be involved in a conversation. Generally the conversation is not serious in nature, and usually it’s between acquaintances.

“I give that major props” is a widely used phrase among university, college and high school students. The phrase denotes happiness or acceptance of something. For example someone could say “I give that prof major props for delaying the due date” a variations to the original phrase is:

“props to that!”

And as an added touch I would like to introduce my own spin on “prop” and coin the phrase “propable” which simply indicated that something is worth giving major props to. “Propable” could be used to say “that’s a propable proposition” meaning the proposition is worth considering.

On the sexual side of things there’s an increasingly popular phrase indicating the sexual interest of a male in a female. The phrase is of course “I’d tap it!”

Of course, tap is used as metaphor in this phrase. If you’re having trouble seeing the metaphor I suggest you read this article. I foresee this phrase to be widely used among females in the next few years, as the pattern has shown for the phrase “I’d do him/her.”

I hope this informative lesson was of value to you. I think it’s important to understand street language, and I certainly encourage older people to learn these phrases. Just think of the all things your sons and daughters are saying, and you’re oblivious to. By learning these phrases not only are you connecting to your teenage sons and daughters, but you’re also viewed as a hip parent.

technorati tags: culture, street, langauge, slang, lingo, phrase, pop, culture

Screwed...

What do you get when you have a group of three students, working on a design project that’s originally designed for four? Yes, an increased work load.

What happens if a person on your team is forced to drop the term for personal reason? You get screwed.

This is what happened today to me and the remaining group member. We now have the daunting task of designing a heat sink, building it, testing it, analyzing the testing, modify accordingly, build a final prototype, verify design through more testing, and write a final design report, in a span of ten weeks. Add to that midterm week, applying for jobs, and (hopefully) getting interviews, and you get me.

I have this feeling of guilt surrounding me at every moment, no matter what I’m doing. Sometimes I have to remind my self that reading a textbook is an actual productive use of my time to ease the feeling of guilt. I feel guilty right now for writing this.

On a random note before I forget:

- I joined a Salsa class :D

- Ever since coming back from Syria this summer I came to the realization that George Wassouf is like beer, an acquired taste.

Snooooow Day!

Well, I guess nature was listening to my call for a snow day. This morning right after I hit the snooze button, my phone rang. It was my friend calling from the university parking lot saying “Could you check if today is a snow day, there are only 9 cars in the parking lot.” With a smirk on my face I turned on the radio, and the computer to get some news. I went to the university website to see that today has been declared an official snow day.

Keeping with the tradition of snow days, I went back to sleep for a few hours, waking up refreshed and ready to go, although my sleep was interrupted several times by other friends delivering the good news to me.

The ultimate snow day was actually last year. I was co-op so it didn’t matter to me, but that wasn’t the case for my friend. She had 3 exams on the Friday before reading week… go figure! And she was complaining to me the night before on how she just doesn’t have enough time to study. God must have answered her prayer. On Friday she woke up to hear the news of a snow day, and she had an extra week to study.

Snow days are usually declared when there is too much ice on the road, not too much snow. If the county decides that there’s a great danger for students to get to school, school buses are cancelled and all staff is asked to stay home. Whenever there’s a predicted ice storm, all students tune to a local radio station for cancellation announcements.

The snow/ice storm isn’t over yet, we have about 10 cm of accumulation left. I highly doubt it, but we might get another day off tomorrow. I’m going to make sure I tune in tomorrow morning before heading out.

technorati tags: snow, day, canada, waterloo, university

January Spring - Unusual Canadian Winter

While there is no scientific merit to what I have been observing lately, I think it’s worth while describing the weather trends Canada has been seeing the past few years.

I remember back in grade nine or ten when the snow on the sidewalk was literally over 5 feet high. We had to break the snow banks with our feet so we can get on the bus. By January, wearing a scarf, gloves, and a few layers were a must if you wanted to feel somewhat warm outside. Snow days were abundant. We had two or three every year, and those were the best days of the winter. That’s when snowball fights started, tobogganing reached its peak, and most importantly homework was dropped.

In a particular incident on Christmas Eve about seven years ago, my parents and I thought that we were in desperate need of “bizir” (sunflower seeds) to complete the coziness of the holidays. Given that the roads resembled an ice rink outside, and that all stores were closed, my dad and I decided to take the 5 minute walk to a nearby convenience store. After 30 metres of our walk outside, we couldn’t stand the -35 C temperature and decided to go back home to bundle up some more. Undeterred by the arctic-like weather, we marched on wearing two layers of everything, to get our holiday dose of bizir. That was probably the worst weather I ever had to endure, and the fact my dad and I still remember that night is a testament to how cold it was.

Two years ago just before the Christmas break, half the people didn’t make it to work because of an extreme snow fall. The ones who showed up, were a few hours late. There was so much snow that week, my boss and I pushed a car out of a small snow trench.

Last year I declared that the official start of winter on November 18^th, after my car drifted a bit while driving. After that post winter wasn’t too shy with the snow, enough to put our recently acquired snow blower to good use.

Fast forward to today and we’re in mid-winter without a hint of snow on the ground. It snowed once this winter, but it lasted a mere day before the grass reappeared. Two days ago it was 10 degrees, a few days ago I drove without a jacket, and when I came down from Florida the weather was spring like. Tomorrow the Environment Canada predicts a high of +2!

While I don’t mind the mild winter, I can’t help but be utterly worried about the unusually warmness of it. I actually want to see some snow. Maybe I’ll regret saying that later, but I really believe that the only reason I’m so refreshed during spring time is because of the long Canadian winter. Not to mention the extremely refreshing feeling of getting up early on a sunny Saturday, looking at the snow covered, then opening the door of the house and taking in the crisp, clean, cold air.

But I’m optimistic. I think this is the calm before the storm. I suspect February will make up for all the missed snow, and perhaps spill onto March as well. It’s about time we had another snow day.

technorati tags: Global, Warming, Canada, Snow, Winter, Temperature, Season, Weather

South Beach The Place to Be

I came back from Florida just a few days ago, and like last term, I dove into classes the day after.

The trip was amazing! I’m always up for seeing new places, and South Beach lived up to the expectations. I was initially shocked by how rich the residents of South Beach were. Seeing Lamborghinis, Porsches and Ferraris became an hourly, quite casual occurrence. The party life was evident in every street and corner of the little island. Ocean Drive boasted some of the most romantic, picture perfect dining experiences I have ever seen, a premium place for couples and non couples alike. There were live guitar performances, saxophone players, or salsa music in almost every restaurant. Our hotel had a daily jazz night that many Miami residents frequented. We took advantage of eating out everyday by trying out Argentine, Cuban, Greek and Italian food, on Ocean Drive as well on less known streets. If you ever heading down to Miami let me know I’ll give you a nice list of amazing restaurants.

The weather was premium, it was in high 20’s, and with the humidity it felt like it was 35. The ocean didn’t disappoint, providing nice powerful waves, especially during the last few days.

The road trip to Florida and back was also a lot of fun. We saw some funny road names including:

“Stinking Creed Rd” somewhere in Tennessee

“Hiatus Dr.” which brought the obvious joke,

your boss calls you and asks “Jim, where are you right now?”

Jim: “I’m on hiatus”

Boss: “Oh ok, no problem, you don’t have to come in today?”

Sorry for the extreme cheesiness of this “joke” but after 18 hours of driving, little things make you laugh.

Also as a bonus, we took a detour to visit the first ever KFC in Kentucky. Pictures of the “KFC Museum” can be seen on my Flickr account. As usual the pictures will trickle into Flickr slowly over time, and the odd video will be uploaded to YouTube, more on that later.

I’m glad to be back. I missed reading a lot of my favourite blogs.

technorati tags: south, beach, vacation, florida, miami, fine, dining, restaurants, food, party, KFC