Just saying
My mom uses this phrase constantly and I think does not realize that it's terrible and infuriating.
I just didn't know what else to call the post...
"There are terrible people in the world, who will never be redeemed, and who cannot and will not ever contribute to the greater good of humanity"
1: After you've been a parent for long enough, you'll realize nobody is inadvertently terrible and infuriating to their children.
There are terrible people in the world, who will never be redeemed, and who cannot and will not ever contribute to the greater good of humanity
New mouseover text?
Just saying... Is one of the greatest phrases ever invented when used correctly. If you're not feeling it then that's on you. Mom should pay you no mind.
DN
I get the weirdest drive-by trolls.
I like a crowded gym, but I hate people. Go figure.
My 11-year-old says "Just sayin'", often after just saying things like "You're a dumb butt."
She also likes to say "What? I'm just telling the truth!!" after dumb butt notifications.
You should teach her "Don't shoot the messenger!" Because that would entertain me, after "You're a dumb butt."
Now, see, 9 is an appropriate use of the phrase. There are so many other uses (usages?) which are not.
And yes, there's a frequent commenter on bookselling discussion list whose tag-line, essentially signature, on every fucking post, is "Just sayin'" One of these days, I'm going to have to take that person down. I'll blame you.
When very young, my brother took to using "fine til you came along" as a reply to "how are you?" This was not amusing for as long as he thought it was.
Hawaiian Punch the other day said, calmly, "Do my ears look broken?" in response to Jammies' asking if she'd heard what he'd said.
It was funny once I found out that she said it to Jammies. I heard it from another room and was worried she'd said it to an elder relative.
I'm just going to assume that I missed you all mentioning that today is Bacon Day.
More better information on National Bacon Day.
Because we're all about the information.
Lastly in my linkage to things I find about the web:
Have we tried Haidt's quiz on your beliefs about criminal justice? Via the Bill Moyers blog -- which is excellent, by the way.
I had a hard time with some of those questions.
One of the suggested reads linked below the item in 18 is titled Pittsburgh rabbi sued for severing penis during botched bris. The infant required 8 hours of surgery and six blood transfusions. "Your average pediatric urologist probably spends about 20 percent of his or her time repairing children who have been circumcised." Ouch.
I wonder how many people have decided on pediatric urology as a specialty before med school?
I had the thought blasted in the OP while at the empty gym yesterday, but I didn't post it on Facebook.
She also likes to say "What? I'm just telling the truth!!" after dumb butt notifications.
She's sayin' what we're all thinkin'!
My eleven year old has started saying "just putting that out there" which, I submit, is more annoying than "just saying".
It is obviously the case that unfogged commenters should lead the charge in replacing these various terms with "This is just to say,"
This is just to say,
you're a dumb butt
The phrase that drives me nuts is "going forward." It's never used in a context where just dropping without replacement it would not be superior.
"Do my ears look broken?"
Hawaiian Punch is going to be an awesome teenager.
29: But what if someone discovers the counterattack, "Do I stutter?"
My eleven year old has started saying "just putting that out there" which, I submit, is more annoying than "just saying".
This is the verbal equivalent of ending your blog comment wtih "Just my $0.02."
Oops, that was me. Woo hoo, commenting from work for the first time!
32: Congratulations! Welcome to Slackerdome!
Welcome to Slackerdome
Two man enter, eh, maybe one man leave later for snacks or something.
I had the thought blasted in the OP while at the empty gym yesterday, but I didn't post it on Facebook.
And that diplomacy makes all the difference in the world.
But I was thinking it really, really loud.
Just saying... Is one of the greatest phrases ever invented when used correctly the most succinct expression of conversational passive aggression ever. Which is not to say that h-g was being passive aggressive, as I take her meaning to be "this is just to say", but generally it expresses the opposite of its literal meaning.
One of my daughters has a fun habit of prefacing insults with "Not to be insulting, but..." E.g., "Not to be insulting, but her butt is really big."
Maybe the daughter in question is merely making an appreciative remark which she realizes might be misconstrued.
Sadly, no.* "Not to be insulting, but..." invariably precedes a disparaging observation.
*Which ranks pretty close to "just saying", passive-aggression-wise.
Ah well, people will be verbally passive-aggressive. It is what it is.
Exact transcription of a portion of the instructions of my new quad copter:
(4) Far away from Adaption of the rolling parts.
While the blades are rolling with high speed, The operater and people arround should far away from the rolling objects to avoid the dangerous!
19: Those questions are impossible! My opinions vary too widely depending on the crime. I'm okay with pedophiles losing fingers, but for things like theft I think the system should help the offenders get an education and a job after they're released.
Topically, I'm trying to decide whether or not to try my second half-marathon. I'm weighing my natural laziness and tendon strength. My discount code expires at midnight.
Having a specific goal like a race really helps me keep at it. Otherwise, I find excuses too easily. On a related note, I went to the store for batteries and returned with a box of pigs in the blanket, some tater tots, a wedge of brie, mozzarella sticks, and a case of cider.
43: I don't know about you, but I know enough to avoid the dangerous without being told.
Topically, I'm trying to decide whether or not to try my second half-marathon.
You're not camped out halfway through a full one, are you?
46: do they fit in the battery slot?
The brie will probably fit into almost any shape.
It was more liquid than the pumpernickel.
Anyway, I left the registration window open. Maybe I'll be more motivated when I feel bloated and drunk later.
Past tense? I hope the Brie hardened rather than the alternative.
I'll have a nice glass of pwnernickel.
25: Perhaps you should start responding with "Hey, it's your world, we just live in it!" Bet she'll change her tune pretty damn quick after that.
55: How are you gonna leave that comment hanging without a "...laydeez"?
I also should've gone with "pumpwnickel".
||NYE parent challenge! So, I've neither read nor seen The Hunger Games, but my daughters are very much into it (they've read most of the book, as have most of their cohort). It seems appalling to me—there's all the violence, and beyond that, it is, after all, a popular entertainment product—but rather than forbid it, I'm going to let them watch it. Tonight. What should I know if I want to convince them to renounce its cheap attractions afterward?|>
60: Huh, I haven't seen any of the movies though many of my cohort seem obsessed with it, but I think the books are unusually frank about the psychological damage violence does to the people who use it, even if for "righteous" reasons, and I find it very interesting for that reason. I'm not sure that's helpful, but you can draw attention to that aspect, the horror and the grief and how essentially the whole society is living with that but only some recognize it.
It's angsty, not RAH RAH RAH-y. Its cheap attractions are basically those of being a morose adolescent (which will come what may), combined wiith the not entirely unrelated cheap attractions of only-semi-thought-out SF worldbuilding. What about it worries you?
Have they read just the first book or all three? I gather the second and third aren't as appealing - more politics, more complicated relationships, etc. Maybe their interest will just tail off - or you can spoil it for them. Just check out a plot summary. I was curious why my coworkers (who loved the first book) weren't too happy with the next two, so I looked it up rather than read the books. (No happy ending, loved character dies, fallings out between main characters.)
I was curious why my coworkers (who loved the first book) weren't too happy with the next two, so I looked it up rather than read the books. (No happy ending, loved character dies, fallings out between main characters.)
Also, shittier plotting!
Dan Brown shitty or just regular shitty?
Dan Brown shitty or just regular shitty?
64: That explains a lot, but I don't think either coworker reads for more than liked/didn't like/should have liked.
Also, shittier plotting!
Indeed. Especially book three, which, to the best of my ability to recall, made almost no sense at all. Also, I feel it's my duty to say, as I always do when the Hunger Games trilogy comes up, that the Gregor books, by the same author, are quite wonderful.
Happy New Year, YA fiction deprecators!
We're doing shrinky dinks with the kids, how's that for retro?
62: All the killing, basically, and the ways adolescent angst is typically turned into entertainment product.
But I already feel okay about it, and letting them see it and then stay up until midnight for the first time will earn me serious dad points.
I took 7 and 9 year old to Hobbit 2 which is PG13, probably for all the orc decapitations. It didn't seem to have any effect on them, and 7 y.o. used to be prone to nightmares from that kind of thing.
72: It's at least a little bit meta, in that adolescent angst is turned into an entertainment product within the entertainment product. Seriously, you can make all these complaints and have them make sense and the girls will be as impressed as they can be by their dad, I think.
but I think the books are unusually frank about the psychological damage violence does to the people who use it, even if for "righteous" reasons, and I find it very interesting for that reason
I liked the third much more than I expected to, for precisely this reason. (Although as I recall it wasn't just the users of violence.)
76: Well, no, everyone living through the violence (or dying in it, I suppose) but I put it that way because most people's focus seems to be on the core love triangle, all of whom are deeply damaged killers by the end.
Also, shittier plotting!
I used to think I knew what shitty plotting looked like and then last night I watched The Wolverine.
That was one of several movies with shitty plotting I watched with my parents over the holidays, but I think Elysium took the prize. Nothing in that movie made any sense at all to me.
Elysium could have been better but the end of The Wolverine felt like it was written to intentionally send me into a rage.
The guy who wrote The Wolverine also wrote the latest Total Recall fiasco and Live Free or Die Hard? It's a fallen world.
60. I watched the first hunger games movie with my 12 year old this week. He had seen the Japanese version previously, which was much more gory.
I liked the first part of HG a lot, mediocre plotting but great set design and dialogue-- a clearly political movie, focused on injustice and the defects of a vapid consumer society. Stanley Tucci was great. I'm interested in seeing the second one.
Complaints that "Hunger Games" = "Battle Royale" continue to be irritating. Although it seems like for just about everything that comes out some people decide to be knowing and cynical by saying "I liked it better when it was called [thing that bears some vague similarity]".
Elysium took the prize
Indeed it did. I'd wondered somewhat why that movie fell like a stone once it came out, and now I know why. Matt Damon, what happened?
I'm sad to hear about The Wolverine, but I shall have to see it anyway, because.
"The Wolverine" got very good reviews from most people I listen to. I liked it too. The reasoning was
A) It's much better than "X-Men: Origins: Wolverine"
B) It's set in an interesting locale which is filmed beautifully
C) It's a coherent story that doesn't have pointless convolutions and nonsensical 20-minute battle scenes
D) No wasted characters
Which all makes it a breath of fresh air for people who habitually watch every superhero movie, but as far as praise goes, that's a pretty low bar for success.
Stanley Tucci was great.
Speaking of which, I recently re-watched Big Night and was surprised at how well it held up to a second viewing, and how different it was from the first time I watched it. I could appreciate all of the foreshadowing and, more importantly, enjoy what a gorgeous film it is (in terms of both photography and acting/staging). It has so much craftsmanship to it.
85: I think most of it was pretty good but man that ending was fucking awful.
I'm so glad to hear 85's assessment of The Wolverine. Pleasurable anticipation restored.
I think my problem with The Hunger Games -- the first movie, haven't read the books -- was that it was rather important that the main character dress up nice (pretty). As in "You sure do dress up nice." Certainly it was emphasized that said dressing-up involved a great deal of effort and artifice, but still, she dressed up nice. Mm, it felt as though the subtext was that as long as you have that in your back pocket, in a pinch, you can eschew it, you can dress down.
In fact that does reflect reality. The film is still, then, speaking to (potentially) pretty girls. It felt still to be a variant on a princess movie.
That said, there's certainly a great deal of value of putting the issue on the table, as The Hunger Games does.
I liked both the films pretty well. Haven't read the books. Agree that the world-building (at least the cinematic version) leaves much to be desired, as the economics are worse than an S. M. Stirling novel, ferchrissakes. The whole thing so far could be read as an exploration of PTSD, and the way it plays out intergenerationally.
Also not impressed by the "oh it's just Battle Royale warmed over" stuff. If you can't name half a dozen YA SF texts with a very similar plot line, you're not trying very hard. The whole kids-battling-to-work-out-the-conflicts-of-adult-society might not be as well-trod ground as time travel or space exploration, but it's pretty fucking close.
Unrelatedly, this happened today:
http://www.startribune.com/local/238359121.html
Really sucks, but I think the community will rally as it always does when faced with a new threat or tragedy.
Complaints that "Hunger Games" = "Battle Royale" continue to be irritating.
It totally is though.
The average paediatric urologist spends 80% of his/her time bitterly wishing that the alarm clock hadn't malfunctioned on the day when sign-up sheets went up for specialisms at medical school.
Just can't resist taking the piss, can you?
Big Night . . . what a gorgeous film it is, set, as it is, on the Jersey Shore.*
Less parochially, I concur with NickS.
*Not the Jersey Shore. Fuck you, MTV.
