What is it with being "open-minded"?

I found this hilarious quote in one of my journal app today. 

I know being open-minded means having "a willingness to listen to or accept different ideas or opinions" but I must say I don't like the word. 

I'm all for being a good listener but being all opened up for anything?

I guess that is what Stephen A. Kallis, Jr. is trying to say—you still need to have your own opinion and worldview and you can have your own stand in the matter. 

What do you think would be a better word instead?

pearlie

Did you know where the word "goodbye" came from?

My dad is someone who refuses to use the word "goodbye" and would prefer either "good night" or "see you again." 

This was brought up during our bible study today and we begin to then ask what is the meaning of the word anyway. 

It really surprised us to find out that goodbye is a contraction of God be with you. 

From the Wiktionary's section on its etymology, the word came from an earlier Godby, Godby'e, Godbwye, God b'w'y, God bwy yee, God buy you, God be wi' you, each a progressively shorter contraction of God be with you. Note the change of God to good by confusion with good morning, good day, etc. 

In that case, it's actually good to say goodbye, isn't it? I'd be wishing that God will be with you. 

pearlie

The seven deadly sins of speaking

I have blogged about this TedTalk before but this time I was reminded of it again. Julian Treasure spoke about the seven deadly sins of speaking: gossiping, being judgement all, negativity, complaining, making excuses, exaggeration and dogmatism. 

I experienced it yesterday--someone spoke to me in a very judgmental tone--it's not a big issue but I didn't like it. I did want to let it go and get on with the day, with life but it kept bugging me, and it suddenly reminded me of this TedTalk. 

He said,

"What would the world be like if we were speaking powerfully to people who are listening consciously in environments which are actually fit for purpose."

"Or to make that a bit larger, what would the world be like if we were creating sound consciously and consuming sound consciously and designing all our environments consciously for sound. That would be a world that does sound beautiful and one where understanding would be the norm. And that is an idea worth spreading."

pearlie

I finally understood words with the meta- prefix

I have a friend and language partner who happened to use the word "metaphysical" on me. And I had to tell him I only have a vague inkling of what that word means. 

But since he brought it up, and being language partners and all, I had better figure it out. 

But instead of searching the dictionary for its meaning, which I have done before and it wasn't of much help, I searched the Internet for "words with the meta- prefix" and found a Wikipedia entry. 

This portion was very helpful: "In epistemology, the prefix meta- is used to mean about (its own category). For example, metadata are data about data (who has produced them, when, what format the data are in and so on). In a database, metadata are also data about data stored in a data dictionary and describe information (data) about database tables such as the table name, table owner, details about columns, – essentially describing the table. Also, metamemory in psychology means an individual's knowledge about whether or not they would remember something if they concentrated on recalling it. The modern sense of "an X about X" has given rise to concepts like "meta-cognition" (i.e. cognition about cognition), "meta-emotion" (i.e. emotion about emotion), "meta-discussion" (i.e. discussion about discussion), "meta-joke" (i.e. joke about jokes), and "metaprogramming" (i.e. writing programs that manipulate programs)."

The "an X about X" gives me an excellent explanation of what those words means. However, I also need to be careful because that section comes with a "citation needed" notation. Looks like I still need more reading up on it. 

But it helps for now, particularly with words like meta analysis (analysis about analysis), metafiles (files about files) and meta-language (language about language).

I also realised why it took me so long to understand it. It all boils down to the word "metaphysics", one of the more commonly used meta- words. It's physics about physic/ and I didn't understand it because I don't understand much of physics to begin with!

It figures. 

pearlie