"Opine" is the verb form of the word "opinion" (at least according to my dad)

So I recently got offended because I misunderstood something that one of my friends was saying. I asked a clarifying question and got over both the misunderstanding AND the being offended. :) Here's what happened:

What I thought my friend said: Anyone who doesn't agree with her political stance and opinions is gutless and an idiot. (I'm paraphrasing; she would never dream of being that harsh.)

What my friend meant: It's not interesting to talk to people who don't know where they stand on certain key issues or who don't have opinions on important things.

But even after the misunderstanding was resolved, the whole thing threw me, to quote Richard Gere in Runaway Bride, "into at least 15 minutes of serious reflection." I thought, "Do I have opinions about things?" (No comment from you, Jer.)

So I decided to find out by, of course!, making a list. And you, lucky reader, are about to see today's version of that list. As you read this, please keep in mind that I am NOT stating here what my strong feelings about these topics ARE; I am just listing things about which I HAVE strong feelings, one way or the other. If you want to know where I stand on these issues, email me or post a comment and I'll consider devoting a post to a given topic. :)

So here you go - I have strong feelings about:

• mens facial hair (that was for you, Josh)
• electric blankets
• appropriate usage of cell phones
• how meetings should be conducted
• pornography
• reading
• speaking other languages
• world travel
• teaching in general
• language teaching
• project management
• the right of other people to have an opinion different from mine
  
• loyalty - to family, spouse, friends, country, God, religion, employer, profession, ideals (not necessarily in that order)
  
• chocolate
• raw vegetables
• how a graduate program should be approached
• the position a toilet seat and lid should be in when the user of said toilet exits the room
• germs
• narrow-mindedness
• my family
  
• how men should and should not treat women
• journal keeping
• God
• my bro-in-law's pies
• reusing and recycling of paper
• the "Twizzlers versus Red Vines" question

I'm sure there are more, but this was a good enough list for me to discover that, YES, I opine.

Phew.

I also discovered in this process that there are other things that I feel neutral about. Stay tuned, maybe I'll list them in a future post. People will surely be interested to read a list entitled, "Things I couldn't care less about."