HOLY CRAP! My first seriously personally creepy on-line experience. Someone at LJ has the user name Frankenbuddha. Um. (I googled my user name because I was in that weird kind of mood).

Lee? you here? hop on IM?

I am now, if it's not too late.

I am going to wander away again, but I should be back on in a couple of hours.

Frank, I am so glad I never ran across that lj user in a comment tree, as I doubtless would have been familiar in a way that would seem disturbed to a complete stranger.

Gack! I'm trying to remember a word--it's a foreign word (maybe Portuguese? I have no idea) that expressed something we don't have a word for in English, something about wistfulness and nostalgia and...grr.

I think I'm feeling it, see, but can't be sure because I can't remember exactly what it is or what it meant.

eta: Bingo! Portuguese, saudade.

The Portuguese word "saudade", loosely translated,denotes "longing", "melancholy", or "nostalgia." In the context of Portuguese, however, the term connotes a meaning that is irrevocably lost in translation. In his book In Portugal of 1912, A.F.G Bell makes a few disquisitional remarks on the meaning of "saudade" given its intended context:

"The famous saudade of the Portuguese is a vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist, for something other than the present, a turning towards the past or towards the future; not an active discontent or poignant sadness but an indolent dreaming wistfulness."

Whereas a decontextualized reading of the "saudade" insinuates a rather dreary and destitute nostalgia for an impossible object, Bell's recontextualization posits saudade's meaning as a nostalgic yearning for an impossible object, only slightly tinged with the hues of melancholia.

They get all that in one word? Damn, they're good.

ION, thanks for the birthday wishes, peoples!!!

Off to party and eat cake.

Ooh, that's a good word.

Here's why I hate getting food delivery: I paid a ton of money for a ton of food, most of which I don't like. And the promised side of "vegetables" were actually rice, which, when what I ordered was pasta, and I knew it was coming with potatoes on the side, really led to carb overkill. At least I ate the salad.

That sucks, Jesse. Happened to me more times than I can count. I barely ever order in anymore.

ION, how much do I love that my congressman, Rahm Emmanuel, who I normally don't love, is spearheading an effort to defund the Office of the Vice President.

Happy Birthday, Steph!

Happy birthday, Steph!

I am apparently in a constant state of saudade. How is that pronounced?

I am apparently in a constant state of saudade. How is that pronounced?

[sai]