[2005-06-23 : 11:38:48] : Do you still go out for lunch?
[2005-06-23 : 11:43:16] : Very rarely.
[2005-06-23 : 11:43:34] : I’m thinking about going to Buffalo Wild Wings at some point soon.
[2005-06-23 : 11:43:54] : You don’t seem like a Buffalo Wild Wings sort of person to me.
[2005-06-23 : 11:44:10] : No, I’m not. It’s professional curiosity.
[2005-06-23 : 11:44:16] : I mean, I like wings and all.
[2005-06-23 : 11:45:13] : Professionally?
[2005-06-23 : 11:45:26] : Investment-professionally.
[2005-06-23 : 11:45:42] : Oh that’s right.
[2005-06-23 : 11:45:45] : I’d forgotten.
[2005-06-23 : 11:45:51] : Not that I’m a professional investor. I just don’t know what else to call that type of interest.
[2005-06-23 : 11:46:06] : Amateur.
[2005-06-23 : 11:46:15] : amateur curiosity?
[2005-06-23 : 11:46:16] : Avocational.
[2005-06-23 : 11:46:21] : That’s a good one.
[2005-06-23 : 11:46:31] : I know a lot of words.
[2005-06-23 : 11:46:43] : I’ve heard.
[2005-06-23 : 11:47:25] : An avocational investor. That’s a good phrase to keep handy.
[2005-06-23 : 11:47:47] : Also, an avocational improvisor.
[2005-06-23 : 11:49:33] : Also, an avocational reader.
[2005-06-23 : 11:50:01] : An avocational poop-taker. There’re really no limit with this adjective!
[2005-06-23 : 11:50:07] : Indeed!
An avocational poop-taker.
I’ve planning to move up to “professional poop-taker.” I’ve been practicing nearly every day to prepare myself.
In a sense that’s what I am, since I do get paid for 5/7ths of the time I spend pooping.
Is that the job title for the guy who cleans out the port-a-potties?
Okay, quick English lesson from the guy trying to learn Czech…
You can make an avocational investment,
you can particpate in some avocational improv
you can do some avocational reading
but it is the act itself that is avocational, not you the person committing the act.
You can however be one who takes “an avocational poop” and thus in fact be “an avocational poop-taker” – unless you live in the Czech Republic in which case you’ll be making something of a career of it what with all the pork and cabbage.
You’ve made a distinction without a difference. “Investor” is the agent noun used to identify one who invests. If one’s investing activity is not a full-time profession, it’s not in any way improper or “incorrect” to describe such a person as an “avocational investor.”
The modifier and its referent, and their meanings, are perfectly clear to any reader.
Nuh-uh.