Published on Saturday September 28, 2002 .
"So because someone was unfair to you in the past, you're saying we should be unfair to someone else, even though we can change it?" I asked an acquaintance I was having an argument with.
"Yes." he said with certainty that showed he had already made up his mind and which clearly told me that the conversation was over.
Man, that's the kind of narrow-minded, self-centered attitude that causes wars.
And just to be clear here, it's not his actual position that I took fault with. It was his reason for his position which was so very wrong.
Published on Sunday January 27, 2002 .
Prossibly very actually means halfway between probably and possibly. I suspect that when most people see me use this term, they just assume it was a brain fart on my part, and proceed to read into it whatever amount of certainty and commitment they like.
But when I say prossibly, I really do mean halfway between probably and possibly. Sometimes probably expresses more certainty than I actually feel, while possibly seems to express less commitment than I'm actually giving.
By the way, by commitment, I mean how much I want to be there, and by certainty, I mean how likely I am to be there.
In my mind, probably, prossibly, and possibly express two axes: Level of commitment and level of certainty. For me, probably is strong certainty and commitment, possibly is weak certainty and commitment, and prossibly is used for either strong commitment and weak certainty. I guess for completeness I should have a fourth term for weak commitment and strong certainty, but in practice I don't want to admit to weak commitment, so I just use either probably or possibly to express that, depending on my level of certainty.
| Word | Commitment | Certainty |
| Probably | strong | strong |
| Prossibly | strong | weak |
| Probably | weak | medium-strong |
| Possibly | weak | medium-weak |
| Possibly | weak | weak |