To Coin a New Word: Patheticality

It's almost like the opposite of Ninjousity. I realize that I crave immediate feedback on these entries. People (I think I have like 3 regular readers, and two of them are me) should be commenting moments after I complete my entries and lavishing me with praise unseen in recorded history.

Well, that's what I feel, but I realized that is pathetic. It's like anything else in life though. I'm running hard at this "daily or more journal type thingy on the web" and yet I know that in a few more weeks, updates will be more like every other day, then weekly and so forth. But for now, since I am running hot, you too should be running hot. You should be constantly refreshing my page checking for updates, getting the RSS feed (which I think my blog provides) and pretty much making my blog the center of your universe. Well why not? It's really important to me right now, isn't the same true for you?

And here we come to the crux of things. How often are we biased so completely by our own personal passion by things that we can't imagine that someone else might not find what we are thinking as interesting as we do? I've become that guy sitting on the Metro talking about patiently waiting to take pictures of that one type of Locomotive that has eluded him for years. How exciting it is to be at the tracks when that train rolls by, and admonishing some fellow train watchers that they are wasting their time not taking pictures.

Train Engines. I can think of more boring subjects, but most of them include complex math or Jane Austen (Ginny and Megan, imagine me sticking my tongue out and giving you a big rasberry right now, complex math is far more interesting). To spend a large portion of ones time stalking a locomotive that has largely the same function as every other locomotive, and looks basically like a brick that has had bits knocked out so that it's not ENTIRELY brick like.

Birdwatching I get, granted I still think it's fairly boring, but some birds are really gorgeous, and there are a vast array of drastically different species. And while I concede that there are almost definitely hundreds if not thousands of brands of locomotives, I contend that they all are boring to look at.

But here I am feeling that every detail of my life that I feel worth sharing, is a detail you will be fascinated by. Not only that, but I'm sure I'm having a typical "new blogger" phase here and this post is nothing you all haven't read before (at least two of us have definitely already read this, or at least already are reading this).

I will now instruct you on how you construct a believable definition in Balderdash.

First - at all costs avoid the "a species of X that is found in country Y" Those are dead giveaways and should never be picked by the decerning player.

Second - When you hear a word, you will always want to assign a part of speech to it. You'll want it to be a noun, or a verb, or an adjective (and often a species of rare fish found only in the waters around equatorial New Guinea). Whatever you want it to be, don't use that part of speech. Chances are everyone else will want to use the same part of speech you are drawn to, and so you'll get a bunch of definitions that have the same feel to them. By shifting parts of speech, your definition will sound different from the rest. Figuring out the right definition is often a matter of identifying the definition that just sounds different.

Third - Your definition should be terse. The supplied definitions are rarely complicated, or even more than a single sentence.

Fourth - Avoid the obvious answers. If your word sounds like another word, avoid even implying that word in your definition. Again, this will serve to set your definition apart from the rest.

Fifth - Try an be careful to use correct grammar. While not immediately obvious, often times an incorrect turn of phrase will jump out to the other players when they are trying to decide between your definition and another.

Sixth - With a word like murrnong, it is almost impossible to avoid thinking of a noun, and an ethnic noun at that. If this is the case, avoid living things. Make it a building or a festival. Even natural landscape features are preferred, and keep your region general, like Asia or Australia or In Western Civilizations.

Seventh - Unless you are going for the pity vote, don't mention "Modern Spy Games" in any of your definitions.