Remarketing

What do you think, guys, is remarketing a great way of converting or horrible pain in the butt - or something in between?

Remarketing is when you follow a user with ads after he or she has left your website without doing business. I can see the appeal for marketers, but I think there is a danger to your brand as well. After all, by now, as users, we've all experienced the irritation of remarketing.

For example, you want to take a mental vacation for five minutes at work, so you search for tickets to Jamaica- just to see what you could get for your money. Then, wherever you go after that - Facebook, Google, anywhere they sell ads, there are these hyper-excited salesy ads urging you to pack your goddamn bags and get on the next F-ing plane to Jamaica. Well, that'll teach you to daydream at work anyhow.

Geolocate

To find the location of a person, device or information in a specific area by digital means. This is either a nice word or a scary one, depending on whether it's you using technology to search for jobs in your area, or the authorities tracking down your rich uncle in the Cayman Islands.

Discombobulate

To addle, baffle, bamboozle or confusal - er I meant cofuse, but I got discombobulated.

Flamboasting

Hip hop artist, E-40, combined the words flamboyant and boasting to provide us with a brand new word meaning to show off in a flashy way.

Bajillion

One of those terrific dictionary words that sounds like it was invented by a 5-year-old, bajillion, means a really, really, really, really, really large quantity of something.

Pompatus

Normally used as part of the phrase, "the pompatus of love," I actually don't think this word means anything at all, but it found it's way from Steve Miller's awesome pop-rock song, The Joker, into movies, essays and novels. So that's good enough for me. If you're Steve Miller or you know what it means, let me know.

Rapscallion

Besides the fact that it's just fun to say, this word is also useful when you want to refer to someone who is dirty, nasty and unethical, but you don't want to swear. For example, after watching Diego Costa's shameful circus show for Chelsea against Arsenal in this weekend's football match, I could call him a lot of things. But I'll just stick with rapscallion. Publically, at least.

Craptacular

This word isn't actually in the "respectable" dictionaries yet, but it is in usage. It's a word used by Bart on The Simpsons to refer to something so horrible that it has an element of the spectacular. I don't know why, but every other word on this blog makes me want to refer to a certain Republican presidential candidate. Well, maybe it's because he's so craptacular.

Pizazz

It's dazzling; it's sparkling; it's delightful; it's exciting - it's got pizazz. Why am I suddenly imagining Neil Patrick Harris and Andrew Rannels tap-dancing in shiny suits? Cause they got pizazz, that's why.

Kafkaesque

When real life has an eery nighmarish quality, like a story by Franz Kafka, it can be described as Kafkaesque. What happens in Kafka stories? Men are put on trial for no reason. Instantly found guilty by a machine, which inscribes their sentence by tearing into their skin. Or they wake up metamorphos
ized into an insect but still with their human brain. You know, fun stuff like that.

Caprice

An impulsive, unpredictable condition, disposition or action. It has a bit of a negative connotation. For example, if you describe someone as acting instinctually, that's a compliment. But if you describe them as capricious - not so much.

Golem

A Jewish folkloric creature, which represents a revenge fantasy of a persecuted people. made from the earth, The Golem can be brought to life by writing a specific word on its body or on paper and feeding the paper to it. It can then be ordered to fight on behalf of its master
.
Besides its place in Jewish legend and folklore, this story has been an inspiration to many writers, including Mary Shelly, Jorge Luis Borges, Michael Chabon and Quentin Tarantino.

Scylla

A sea monster from The Oddyssey. Wheras the Scylla was on one side of a narrow body of water, another monster called the Charbydis was on the other side. So to be stuck between a Scylla and Charbydis is a fancy way of saying being stuck between a rock and a hard place. 

Although, it also means choosing the better of two evils. In the myth, Oddysseus chooses sailing closer to the Scylla and only loses a few sailors. So you can easily see how it could apply to nasty decisions that world leaders have to make.

Dystopian

Unlike utopian, which refers to something based on an a concept of idealized perfection (utopia literally means no place), dystopia refers to a society where everything has gone dreadfully wrong. There is a whole sub-genre of sci-fi dystopian literature, including novels like:

A Clockwork Orange by Anthonly Burgess
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Vice and Virtue in the Middle Time by Sven Åge Madsen
The Giver by Lois Lowry
1984 by George Orwell

And also, I can't help but mention Terry Gilliam's incredible film about a future bureaucratic society based on a Tom Stoppard screenplay, Brazil from 1985. Check out this clip, or better yet, get the movie.

in vitro

Literally, in glass, in vitro refers to a biological process that occurs in a laboratory setting as opposed to a human organsim. Most people think immediately of in vitro fertilization as an example.

Another recent example s has to do with Israeli and German scientists who have mimicked human physiology by creating a human organ on a digital chip. Not only could this potentially replace annimal testing, it also would make the results more predictable for humans.

Spurious

Somethng that is founded on a false premise or illogical reasoning.

For example, comedienne Gilda Radner's had a recurring character called Emily Litella who would base all her Saturday Night Live news update editorial replies on spurious reasoning, like in the skit below.

Facepalm

The easily understood international gesture of slapping one's forehead in frustration or disgust, which is often used on the internet to convey emotion. For example, the Danish journalist, Mads Brugger uses it in his Facebook profile where he posts (in Danish) about issues that he thinks are just too much.

Nutmeg

Nutmeg, as most people know, is a spice with a distinct odor used mainly for desserts.

But did you know that it is also a British football slang term referring to the dribbling trick where a player dribbles around the defender by putting the ball in between his legs and running around him (or her). Check out these 10 Lionel Messi nutmegs:

Gargantuan

Gargantuan means really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really big. The word comes from Rabelais 16th century series of five crude satirical novels, Gargantua and Pantagruel, in which Gargantua was a giant, voracious monster - born after an 11-month pregnancy with a yard-long erection and calling for ale.

Bet you want to read it now, don't you?

Inchoate

Only partly formed, as in, I want a new coat, but I only have an inchoate idea of the coat that I want to buy. And you can quote me on that.

Gobbledygook

Gobbledygood is meaningless jabber - speech or writing that is so convoluted, it makes no sense, which unfortunately, there is plenty  examples of in the business world, like this Dilbert comic strip illustrates.