In the Driver's Seat

Now that I'm back in the driver's seat once more, I find that I missed being in control of things in general. For too long I have relinquished the power of control to others, simply because I was not exactly in the right state of mind to handle myself, but I suppose that it is time for me to figure out things that will better benefit me, considering that the worst is just about to be over.

Remember how I think that life sucks completely? Well, it still does, in my book, but I think that at the end of the day, the amount of suckage is highly dependent on the amount of crap that you are willing to put up with. If you are willing to put up with a lot of crap, then suckage will increase correspondingly, but if you take your life seriously enough, you may reduce the amount of suckage that you need to actually take in. Long story short, we have some control on our lives, and no one and nothing should make us relinquish this control easily.

That said, here's a pet peeve: the word ``utilise'' or ``utilize'' for those of you who think that the `z' spelling is cooler (it isn't, and it requires me to move my left pinky down on the QWERTY keyboard). I cannot understand why anyone would keep using that word instead of the semantically equivalent (and much easier on the eyes/brain!) word ``use''. So, instead of saying things like ``he used the computer to do something'', many people will write ``the computer is utilised to do something'' or ``he utilised the computer to do something''. To me, these sound worse than some of the scrawlings that I have written; somehow people seem to think that the word ``utilise'' is more sophisticated and aristocratic than plain old ``use'', but I beg to differ. Actually, I take offense to people who keep throwing around bombast for the sake of appearing intelligent, without actually using the word in the correct context to provide the necessary nuance, which incidentally is the only reason that I condone the use of words that do not appear in common conversation. What's the purpose of a language for communication when the people keep trying to obfuscate meanings with long and hard-to-understand words?

December is fast reaching a close, and the year of 2009 is wrapping up quickly. Soon, 2010 will arrive, and with a new year comes new resolutions and new viewpoints on life. Maybe by then I will discover even more about myself that I never knew before.