'X'

So I could be stereotypically nerdy and write about X-Men or something, but to be honest my knowledge of the X-Men is highly limited. I also can't be bothered to look more into it at this moment, as I'm playing lazy and just don't feel like it. I have, however, finally come across a topic to write about today for X: The lack of dictionary entries starting with 'X' in my dictionary.

There are actually only 9 definitions in my dictionary for words starting with the letter 'X'. 9. I don't have like, a new dictionary or the most super awesome dictionary out there, but I've got a Collins Pocket Reference English Dictionary published in Canada in 1998. I'm assuming therefore that it has all the entries in it that could be considered imperative or pertinent. However, only 9 entries? That's slightly sad. And you know what the entries are? Obviously not if you're there and don't have a copy of the dictionary in front of you, so I'll tell you: 'X', 'Xe', 'Xenon', 'xenophobia', 'Xerox', 'Xmas', 'x-ray', 'xylem', and 'xylophone'.

The biggest disappointment for me was that I went into this whole "let's check the dictionary and see if there's a cool word I can talk about" thing totally stoked to learn a new word, and I didn't learn anything new. It may sound pathetic, but with only 9 words, there wasn't really much to learn. And honestly, after studying Biology and English Literature as I have, the only words that could have been questionable ("Xe", "xenophobia", and "xylem") have cropped up in lectures on more than one occasion. 'Xe' is the chemical abbreviation of xenon, 'xenophobia' is the fear or hatred of people from other countries (which my Lit prof for 18th century novels liked to point out occurred quite a bit in some of our assigned readings), and xylem is the plant tissue that conducts water and minerals from the roots to the rest of the plant.

Wow, looking over that it makes me sound extremely boring and nerdy, but I suppose one of the two is at least slightly correct. I'm a bit of a nerd, I'll admit it. However, that doesn't mean I wasn't disappointed. I may have to go out and buy a better dictionary for myself soon. You know, one of those ones that looks like a gigantic tome, and when you pull it out people kind of gape? Yeah, I definitely want one of those! It'd be like when the guy in my Archaeology class pulled out a quill to take notes, but even more awkward. Yupp, it'd be great.

I feel like I haven't done a great job of talking about anything to do with 'X' today, but with only 9 entries in my dictionary how can I? It's not like I need to learn anything new... Xenon is bad to play with in large quantities, Xerox is a brand of copy machine, I can play the xylophone (though not amazingly, it's a skill I was taught in elementary school - ukulele, marimba, xylophone, recorder), 'X' is used in multiple ways (wrong, unknown, etc), x-rays are something I've had far too many of, and the others have already been explained. Oh well, I guess there's not really much more I can discuss.. I'm off to nerd out, I guess. Or watch hockey. And I'm going to eat some salmon dinner soon too, then have a glass of tea. And tomorrow I'm going with Ray-Ray to her last day of classes! :)