blogging

Irritations, and a glimpse into my new social media branding

Poll:

How many of you pronounce eSpecially as eXpecially?

Please stop. Learn to say the word properly.

And while we’re at it, it’s eSpresso, not eXpresso. ☕ 😀

I don’t know what made me hypersensitive to the pronounciation of certain words recently, but the *eSpecially/eXpecially* thing has now surfaced several times by a YouTube tarot reader and it annoyed me so much I stopped listening to her. It also reminded me of a high school friend who went on to study pharmacology and earned herself a PhD who still says eXpecially and I’m just… I don’t understand it.

Then I was listening to another YouTube video in which a guy was providing instructions on meditation practices and he said eXpecially and I couldn’t continue.

Note to self: do not let external things over which I have no control bug me.

As you can see, today I’m in a bit of a precautious mood. I didn’t sleep well, tried meditation, couldn’t find the blindfold I put on my bedside table, became more agitated, finally lit a candle, closed my eyes, tried meditating again but it wasn’t to be. My brain is in overload and I was fidgety, itchy, uncomfortable and, well, irritated. 🙄

Which incidentally is exactly the time meditation is most helpful.

🤷‍♀️

So to turn things around I decided to do this:

  • Finish my coffee
  • Have another one with my mom and watch the birds struggle with this excessively cold, wet spring through the big bay window
  • Go work out and try not to kill myself (it’s been almost 3 weeks since I exercised – I’m finally completely over my cold – I never tested as covid but I felt crappy nonetheless)
  • Get ready to take Mom to an appointment
  • Get ready for an online class I signed up at 1 pm
  • Try not to let anything else irritate me

Later in the afternoon, I will reattempt a meditation. I loaded a new app and would like to test it out.

Meanwhile, I have several draft posts written with much more interesting content than this drivel. I hope to get back on track with my work side of my business as well. I have some jewelry orders to fill, and some branding to finish. Check out my Instagram and let me know what you think of my branding efforts.

writerofwordsetc

I need to decompress. Know what I mean? Not let stupid shit irritate me. 😐

Thank you for reading my post. See you in the comments!

39 thoughts on “Irritations, and a glimpse into my new social media branding”

  3. In France they say expresso and that is what you order when you go to a cafe there. My father’s family was French and that’s how I was brought up to say it. Also in Webster dictionary it recognizes the spelling with an x as one version of the way it can be spelled.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. “Expresso’ May Be More Common in British English

      Oxford Dictionaries calls expresso ‘incorrect’, but the OED, Merriam-Webster, American Heritage Dictionary, and Macmillan Dictionary all list it neutrally as a variant, meaning it also lists “expresso” as another form of the word. In a search of words published in Google Books, “expresso” seems like it’s more acceptable in British English than in American English, although it’s definitely in the minority in both regions.

      Copy-editors and proofreaders will keep the variant spelling’s numbers down somewhat in published texts, but in speech and casual writing you can expect it to hold its own. If expresso continues to establish itself in general usage, it will eventually be accepted as standard by all but the most conservative critics.

      ‘Expresso’ Is the Standard in France

      In France, you order an “expresso.”

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. I bet dialect will have some variation in pronunciation as well. Thank you for the research.

        What did you find out about eXpecially? Both YouTubers I listened to who spoke that way were from California. Is this a regional thing?

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Two Americans from California. One is a middle aged mom of school aged kids born and raised in Cali, reading tarot online, the other a 30 something American man doing YouTube instructional videos on meditation. Also from Cali. 🤷‍♀️

        Like

    2. That’s interesting, thanks for the insights. I’ve been to France many times but never ordered either espresso or expresso. 😉

      My dad was Italian and he said espresso, I always assumed it was an Italian word and took it at that pronounciation.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. Espresso IS an Italian word. But it’s pronounced and spelled differently in various countries. In France their version is called expresso. Because my paternal side of the family were from Paris I grew up with the French pronunciation and spelling. Most Americans use espresso. But Europeans tend to use expresso. Se La vie!

        Liked by 1 person

  7. I love the new branding!
    English is not my first language, so every time I hear such mispronunciations it hurts my ears at first. Then I start doubting myself and thinking that perhaps I am the wrong one.
    Blessing to you, I hope the rest of the day was less annoying.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  10. This is too funny, my friend. (Except it’s not. I totally get your irritation.) Anyway, we are birds of a feather. The thing that especially grinds my gears is when people misuse the term ‘literally’. Which, it seems, most people do. 😡

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  11. My huge irritation: The word is picture- not pitcher when referring to something that is visual art hanging on the wall. I to am being irritated a lot lately by any number of things. Something must be off.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

      1. Well that makes sense. I just started reading a book on astrology with a feminist viewpoint. also googled this astrological event. All the planets they mention, plus the moon are significant. Must be why I just really want to find a cave in the forest and move into isolation for a time.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. I’ve been having sleep issues and odd dreams but I chalked it up to my recent Covid booster and just being off because of that. There really is just too much going on right now. You’re welcome to join me in my cave when I find one 😉

        Liked by 1 person

Share your thoughts!

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.