The Best Words In The World

This list is composed of words that are, quite simply, the best in the universe. Some words have cool meanings, some are delightful to utter... and some are a combination of the two factors.

• Petrichor: a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a period of long, dry weather. Well... it's actually hands-down the best smell in the world.
• Sycophant: a person who acts obsequiously towards someone important to gain advantage. I know a person who fits this quite well, and the advantage I want them to get comes in the form of a guillotine.
• Ameliorate: make (something bad or unsatisfactory) better. 
• Magnanimous: generous or forgiving, especially towards a rival/less powerful person.
• Vexation: the state of being annoyed, frustrated or worried.
• Innuendo: an allusive or oblique remark/hint, typically a suggestive (sexually) or disparaging one. 
• Obsequious: obedient/attentive to an excessive/servile degree. It's also one of the most infuriating qualities in a human being...  
• Fallacy: a mistaken belief, especially one based on unsound arguments.
• Heretic: (1) a person believing in, or practicing, religious heresy. (2) A person holding an opinion at odds with what is generally accepted. Not to be confused with 'heathen': (1) a follower of a polytheistic religion (a "pagan") (2) a person who does not belong to a widely held religion (especially one who is not Christian, Jewish or Islamic) as regarded by those who do.
• Gargantuan: enormous
• Herpetology: the branch of zoology concerned with reptiles and amphibians.
• Perplex: make (someone) feel completely baffled.
• Psychosis: a severe mental disorder in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality.
• Palindrome: a word/phrase/sequence that reads the same backwards as it does forwards. Interestingly, a semordnilap ('palindromes' spelt backwards) is a word that spells a different word when spelt backwards. 
• Vendetta: a blood feud in which the family of a murdered person seeks revenge on the murderer or their family.
• Pneumonia: a lung inflammation caused by bacterial or viral infection, in which the air sacs fill with pus and may become solid. Wish this one upon your enemies.
• Tuberculosis: an infectious bacterial disease characterised by the growth of nodules (tubercles) in the tissues; especially the lungs.
• Majestic: having or showing impressive beauty or scale.
• Complacent: showing smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one's achievements.
• Irrefutable: impossible to deny or disprove. 
• Unorthodox: contrary to what is usual, traditional or accepted (not orthodox). 
• Decomposition: the state or process of rotting/decay
• Cadaver: a corpse.
• Fascism: an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organisation. 
• Annihilation: complete destruction or obliteration.
• Desecration: the action of desecrating something (Justin Bieber's contributions to the music industry are a key example).
• Twonk: (British informal) a stupid or foolish person.
• Deranged: mad/insane. One of the most appropriate words used to describe me.
• Pestilence: a fatal epidemic disease, especially bubonic plague.
• Cumbersome: large or heavy, and therefore difficult to use.
• Mortuary: a room/building in which dead bodies are kept, for hygienic storage or for examination, until burial or cremation.
• Crux: the decisive or most important point at issue.

You'll have to forgive the excessive use of medical/disease/morbid words; medical dictionaries and history books are full of alluring words. 

• Alluring: powerfully and mysteriously attractive or fascinating; seductive.

Secrecy= Success

The key to healthy relationships and a blissful social life is no longer the affection we show to others. Petty emotions are dead. They are the playthings of daydreamers.
If you are to maintain a grasp on the sentiments of your peers, you would do well to know the importance of secrecy.
Secrecy is hard to come by these days. In the boom of the Digital Revolution, any information we want is but a click away. Whether it is about environmental matters or Parisian fashion, no one really has the excuse to be ignorant of everything in the world. It's all right in front of us.
Above all, what is on our screens are the lives of other people; people so quickly and willingly expose themselves online. But most intriguingly, people are more quick to expose others, and the phrase "keep this to yourself" has now become meaningless. Don't all words lose their meaning when no one listens to them?

Sadly, even without the help of technology, people are so quick to gossip about the lives of their peers, and all with a clear conscience by the time they've changed the topic. Even without adding false words to their 'knowledge', this disclosure has begun to spread a poison.
Toxicity has always broken down relationships, and it's brutal to keep calm and carry on talking to your toxic peer when you know they've stabbed you in the back. But they don't know that you know. Thus, a toxic pattern will start: you'll loathe them, you'll pretend not to, you'll go home cursing their name... All while grinning and bearing it, unless of course you're someone else's toxic friend.

Of course, you could rely on the few close friends you have, and be content. But even now that may be a lie. You never know anymore who loves you and who yearns to push you down the stairs. You just now know that they exist.
Each of us has had (or currently does have) at least one toxic friend who allowed/allows your friendship to die by sharing your secrets and personal stories. The discovery of such a 'friend' is painful, and it sucks that nowadays it's pretty much a rite of passage to discover such a b*tch/bastard in your midst.
Like all successful diseases, there remains no cure for toxic bastards. And much like band-aids, you can't get rid of such people without a certain amount of pain. The most successful preventative measure you can take is to be careful with the trust placed in other people.
Don't meet someone and give them your house keys if they make you smile once. Let the same smile reappear many times for all the right reasons, and you're onto something good.
It's good to have faith in people and it's wonderful to know that it's mutual. Once such faith is destroyed, it can never be repaired to its former glory. So it's wise to truly trust someone before you tell them all your secrets. And they need to expect the same from you. If they can't get what they're entitled to, why should you??

Information (particularly secrets) is power. It can be a force for good, or a weapon at your throat. To own it makes you the most powerful person in the room. To wield it wisely makes you the kindest. But to share it with all the other people never makes you the bravest. 

Kitchen Explosion Tuesday/Winter Is Coming

One afternoon, a girl was walking home from school in the chilly May breeze. Cool shivers running down her back delighted her; winter was coming.
As she entered her street (with enthusiasm in her skip), she could smell the pleasant fragrance of burning wood emerging from a neighbours chimney. The loveliness in the air inspired her to enter her kitchen (upon arriving at her house) and make toasted cheese sandwiches.

Alas, life isn't a pretty fairytale. The girl in question, is me. And if you knew her as well as I do, you'd never let her near an appliance again.
Because once she entered the kitchen to make the toast, she decided that today would be Kitchen Experiment Tuesday and that she would test out an innovative new way of making toasted cheese sandwiches.
I saw on Tumblr a post where someone tried to toast their cheese by turning the toaster on its side and putting the bread with cheese inside. Of course, in the magical world of Tumblr, the only way this could go wrong would be if the toast flew out of the sideways-toaster and onto the floor; bread-side up. Alas, some people can be so very lucky with their misfortunes.
My sideways-toaster began to smell of charred plastic, shortly before smoke billowed out of the electrical socket.

Not entirely disheartened, I decided to try another method of cooking my toasted cheese sandwiches.
I layered the cheese onto the bread, to the point where the cheese formed mozzarella mountains (love alliteration!), and I reached for my crème brûlée blowtorch.
For minutes, I stood over the flames as my cheese slowly melted and burnt. Eventually, I was satisfied with my very scorched lunch... until my eyes saw the microwave and I realised that the simplest methods are often the best.

Moral of this random story: Don't do drugs. 

The-actual-moral: Never let an idiot into a kitchen.

In other news: Winter is coming (if you live in the Southern Hemisphere). Be very delighted.