I'm Jakob Caisip, age 18, born in Glendale, CA. I have a little sister and both my parents are from the Philippines. I have no pets. I collect stamps and build plastic models.
My ethics consist of the Four Agreements as established by Don Miguel Ruiz:
This year, I have been accepted by two colleges (so far) and helped Acadec win city. Next year I'd like to have cut and sewn a cotton suit for myself, and studied Computational Linguistics in more depth.
My biggest pet peeve is the phrase "my guy" - it is just so condescending and obnoxious. You don't call your friend or compatriot "my guy". You say it to try and establish a false sense of familiarity with someone against whom you are diametrically opposed, in argument or other dispute.
"Don't get mad I crashed your car, my guy." "You're making a lot of assumptions about Derrida's definition of formal deconstruction, my guy."
, Maybe its the fact that it incidentally rhymes, and thus has the APPEARANCE of whimsy without actually being whimsical, like an existentially hollow Willy Wonka. Perhaps it's simply the addition of "my", trying to assume intimacy, to the already effective informal referent "guy", used so delicately and so well in certain argots of the American East Coast. Note the difference between the two:
"Watch it, guy, you almost spilled my drink."
""Watch it, my guy, you almost spilled my drink."
See? The first one has a kind of nonchalant candor, a deshabille, what the Italians would refer to as sprezzatura - unstudied elegance. The second is an affectation. It loses the poetic meter of banter. It is evidently pathetic and weak, the forced grin of a used car salesman. Trying not to care, but caring so so much. It lacks the pizzazz and duende of simply, "guy".
There is no reason for this phrase's existence. This is a matter that goes beyond the pale of prescriptive vs descriptive linguistics. If this phrase continues to be used, as it is, and indeed "catches on" in mainstream lexicon outside of the few uncharismatic awkwardniks whose vocabulary it lines like polyester does a leisure suit (sweaty, synthetic, and uncomfortable for all parties involved), then we surely shall be a lost generation - living without values or morals, without honor, only with the bitter, terrible knowledge that we are all each other's guys.
USE GUY INSTEAD OF MY GUY
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