Today was chock-full of larnin’.

On the train home, I listened to a Word Nerds podcast about neologisms and technology and learned (much to my embarrassment, since I pride myself on knowing these little nuances) the specific difference between acronyms and abbreviations.

Please, please - friends who know me and might think less of me now that I’ve admitted this. Let me explain.

In my mind - from the teachings of New Jersey’s public school system - an acronym was a series of letters that each stood for a word… like USA would be an acronym for United States of America. An abbreviation was a shortened/truncated version of a word; same example - Amer. would be the abbreviation for America.

BUT NO!!! The very foundations of my linguistic “pillars”, if you will, were shaken. SHAKEN, I tell you. I learned that:

• An abbreviation is ANY shortened form of a word or phrase used chiefly in writing to represent the complete form; for example, U.K. for United Kingdom.

• An acronym is a word formed from the initial parts of a name, such as NATO, from North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, or Commintern, from Communist International.

Thus:

SCUBA = acronym.
RADAR = acronym.
LASER = acronym.

USA ≠ acronym.
ISBN ≠ acronym. (Well, unless you’re one of those people who pronounces is isss-bin, instead of saying “eye-ess-bee-en.” Which I don’t. It’s four letters to me.)
POS ≠ acronym.

I found another website (besides the Word Nerds homepage) which explains the difference between acronyms and abbreviations and ALSO loops in acrostics. It’s fascinating if you are even touched by word nerdiness (as I am).

(Actually, I shouldn’t be so hard on myself since the hosts of this podcast are both longtime teachers and this was news to one of them, and the other explained it to him… so I am in good company. And it is sort of nuanced. Why, then, am I still feeling really childlike and sheepish about it?)

Another term they discussed which I’d heard but never bothered/troubled to look up was “wetware.” It stemmed from a discussion of hardware, software, firmware, etc. “Wetware” is, in simplest terms, slang for the human brain. Wikipedia has a longer explanation. Granted, it’s not as exciting… but I had a moment of “Ah.”

I learned many things at work today, too… but those aren’t really things I can explain without totally divulging where I work, what I do, and other craziness in detail. And I don’t want to do that. However, I got a bunch of pretty interesting projects to work on and several of them allow me to do fun research and delve into the field i which I work a little deeper than I think I ever have. It’s pretty cool - and it smacks a little bit of, “Let’s see how eva does… and perhaps start preparing her for more responsibility.”

In other news, my father just got back from Poland. I went downstairs to say hello, but he wasn’t in the house. I asked my mother, “Where’s dad?”

“In the garden,” said she. So, after a few minutes (during which I helped my mother lug my father’s suitcases into the house) I went outside and found him weeding the garden. I said to him (in Polish), “You come out and look at the flowers, but you can’t even come inside to say hello to your daughter?” He allowed me to give him a hello hug, but then reprimanded me for not calling him when I got in from the airport when I returned… um. Yeah. I got home kinda late that night, and I would’ve been calling him at 4 or 5 in the morning. Ugh. I can’t win.

Additionally, I got a call today from the New York State Higher Education Commission (or Association? I forget.) They were letting me know that I was about to default on a student loan I took out in 1997. I went, “WHAT? What loan?” The chick ran through her records, and I told her that I was at work, didn’t have any of my files or records with me, but that the amount she was telling me I owed did NOT sound correct. I asked her what the loan amount in question was so I’d know what I was looking for and she told me it was $5500. I took out a loan for $3500 in 1997, but not for $5500. I said that to her, and she told me that she had $4965 in my file. That is neither $5500, nor $3500 (unless there was a discount or lots of fees.) So I asked her what the final amount was (thinking she’d tell me something that sounded right…). I heard her typing and then she said, “$10,969.”

I gasped audibly, and told her I would need to go through my records and then talk to someone there to go through everything. She started spouting off numbers again (”I show $6401 and then $4567 [which do add up to $10,968], and I also show $9586…” [???]) and I asked her to stop, give me her name and number, and that I’d call her tomorrow to go through this (since I had to run to a meeting with my boss at that moment.) With the exception of 6401 + 4567 adding up to 10,969, nothing else adds up. I took out a Stafford loan for $3500 in 1997, but after that, the only other loan was through Sallie Mae which I just finished paying off with monthly auto debit. I was denied a Stafford loan for $5500 in 2000, which is why I owed NYU’s bursar’s office money that I wasn’t notified about until two years after graduation. But that’s been paid off, too (that was just over $6,000 with fees/fines added in). I think I’ll need to find my documentation and go through this whole rigmarole step-by-step.

I did some nice deep breathing since I could feel myself tensing up at work; I told myself, “it’s going to be fine” and mentally moved the goal date for moving out to… uh… before my next birthday in April 2007 - since even if I owe half the amount this chick was quoting me, it’s still going to make a dent in my saving-money plan. However, it’s possible I’ll find something miraculous like a nice 1-bedroom apartment near my train station for $800 a month.

As I’ve learned time and time again (at least since 1998), whenever the bottom seems like it’s totally fallen out from under me, things get worse. Then when I’m beginning to sigh the sigh of infinite resigation* and accept that things are never going to improve and reaching all-new lows of pessimism and cynicism, something good happens.

*Read more about Kierkegaard and the Knight of Infinite Resignation here! and here!

Sometimes, though, it just takes an OBNOXIOUSLY and INSUFFERABLY long time… like getting my current dreamy awesome job? It took 10 months of unemployment and then almost 2 years stuck in a hell dimension of a workplace to get where I am. I’d like to think that the long time in between helped me build character. The truth is that “character” has never been lacking in my person. I can, however, state unequivocally that the long crappy time in between good job (2001-2002) and great job (Oct 2005 to the present) has allowed me to truly appreciate what a GOOD work environment is, what makes a good boss, good co-workers, what I need to be happy in a work environment and see how well I do, how I really shine and succeed and ENJOY it when all these things come together.

This is not to say I wasn’t doing well at my previous job - it’s just that doing well there didn’t mean much. Now, when I’m doing well - I hear about it… I hear how it helps people, how it makes things easier or makes something happen or whatever else. I feel effective.

If you’ve read Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning”, you might agree with his findings therein: while he’s writing specifically about his experiences in a concentration camp, he brings his painful life experience to a broader audience and understanding by looking at it as a sort of case study. I can’t quote verbatim, but one of the things that struck me overall was his assertion that when a human being is denied everything, the way he/she deals with life (giving up, continuing living, finding some particle of meaning to make his/her life worth continuing) is a choice.

For Frankl, this lead to his development of a psychotherapy “method” called logotherapy. Quick and dirty definition: a therapy in which the problems are solved by finding meaning in one’s life. You find meaning (and, therefore, happiness), if I recall correctly from the book, through various experiences… sometimes through suffering, sometimes through other emotions like love, and through actual deeds.

For me, the type of deed that gives me a sense of meaning is (generalizing here) “finding the answers”/answering a question. Having an editorial assistant ask me, “Eva, how do I switch the rows and columns in Excel?” is as satisfying and meaningful as having a friend ask me for career or relationship advice and as satisfying as having my boss ask me, “Can you go through this market research and create a profile for X, Y, and Z and let me know what you come up with?”

Whether the task at hand is giving advice, doing research, completing a task to get something done for work or family or friends, I thrive on filling in the gaps where there is uncertainty, misinformation, confusion, frustration, or just lack of knowledge.

Maybe this is why I abhor Swiss cheese. It’s full of gaps and holes and frustration.

Ack. It’s 9:30. I’m going to play Katamari Damacy for a little while and then get into bed and continue reading “Cryptonomicon” by Neal Stephenson. It was slow going for the first 43 pages or so, but I’m into it now… and I’m liking it. Who’da thunk I would like a book about crytography, World War II and crazy math like this? Not I, for sure. But I am enjoying it.