I wanted my word for yesterday to be work, because day stretched into night unexpectedly fixing glitches. Beetles scampering through technology's best laid plans. But it's meaning also stretches day to night, so damn long it would take me an hour to format it, and research more, and I need to get to [work]. Finally. To begin what I was going to do when way-laid by the world on Friday.
So here is my quick make-up word.
And then work.
And then tonight, today's real word,
the work of the day always being words.
Which are images and sounds. Which are letters.
To rip open. And vowels. Howls.
See, don't even get me started.
But also, the next time your computer fucks up, think about the change in the rotation rate of a pulsar. It will make for a much more interesting moment.
glitch
[ɡliCH/]
noun
1. a sudden, usually temporary malfunction or irregularity of equipment. "a draft version was lost in a computer glitch"
an unexpected setback in a machine, or a plan.
2. COMPUTERS. any error, malfunction, or problem. (Compare bug)
3. ASTRONOMY a brief irregularity in the rotation of a pulsar.
verb
1. suffer a sudden malfunction or irregularity. "her job involves troubleshooting when systems glitch"
Origin
1960s. possibly from Yiddish glitsh "a slip," from glitshn "to slip," from German glitschen, and related gleiten "to glide"; it began as technical jargon in the argot ofelectronic hardware engineers, popularized and given a broader meaningby U.S. space program. The original sense was ‘a sudden surge of current,’ hence ‘malfunction, hitch’ in astronautical slang.