also "sci-fi" (skiffy) if you're afraid of using too many syllables.

a genre of fiction, consisting of stories that, broadly speaking, dare to imagine new inventions, technologies, or scientific discoveries, and how they would affect the world. often this will consist of showing us how humanity would use these new discoveries to destroy itself or oppress each other; there are startlingly few stories where police using psychics to stop crime, or society having a robot taskforce, or people upgrading themselves with cyborg limbs, actually turns out to be a *good* thing (though this may just be because stories where only good things happen are boring).

some concepts you should know about so you won't look like a dweeb in front of sci-fi fans:
* the future, where a lot of these stories tend to take place
* aliens, folks who come from off this island earth. show up in a lot of sci-fi stories, usually invading us, getting invaded by us, or just sort of hanging around bars as a way for the special effects team to show off.
* robot, artificially constructed people, because naturally you'd want your smartphone to look like a person
* ftl: faster-than-light travel, required in any sci-fi story with space travel, or else it would take millennia to finish
* time travel: being able to leave today and go to yesterday, or tomorrow. prone to logical paradoxes.
* hard science fiction: sci-fi that tries to be as realistic as possible. is not a form of pornography
* space opera: stories where people fly around in spaceships and have fantastic adventures on other planets
* cyberpunk and other punk; stories that show how technological process won't fix society's usual problems

n. A kind of inlaid work. From Moses, who when little was inlaid in a basket among the bulrush.

(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

(n.) the red-tinted stepchild of precious metals, a mutt born of wanton copper and petulant, abrasive tin.

ever in the shadow of its more accomplished siblings gold and silver, bronze lived an unromantic yet functional existence as a material for weaponcrafting, until it reached high school in the 13th century and was bullied out of existence by steel

Hideously appareled after the manner of the time and place.
In Boorioboola-Gha a man is presentable on occasions of ceremony if he have his abdomen painted a bright blue and wear a cow's tail; in New York he may, if it please him, omit the paint, but after sunset he must wear two tails made of the wool of a sheep and dyed black.
(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

(new yorker slang) place that is not new york; place safe to dump toxic waste

To proceed sinuously and aimlessly. The word is the ancient name of a river about one hundred and fifty miles south of Troy, which turned and twisted in the effort to get out of hearing when the Greeks and Trojans boasted of their prowess.
(also: the devils dictionary)

A certain quality of the human hand in its relation to the coin of the realm. It attains its highest development in the hand of authority and is considered a serviceable equipment for a career in politics. The following illustrative lines were written of a Californian gentleman in high political preferment, who has passed to his accounting:

---

Of such tenacity his grip
That nothing from his hand can slip.
Well-buttered eels you may o'erwhelm
In tubs of liquid slippery-elm
In vain — from his detaining pinch
They cannot struggle half an inch!
'Tis lucky that he so is planned
That breath he draws not with his hand,
For if he did, so great his greed
He'd draw his last with eager speed.
Nay, that were well, you say. Not so
He'd draw but never let it go!
(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

when u hate the world, insturance that u don't turn your back at everyone, that you are nice to whoever they are - a training

A species of geese indigenous to Portugal. They are mostly without feathers and imperfectly edible, even when stuffed with garlic.
(also: spain)
(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

Is this real life? Or is it just fantasy?
Cause in a landslide with no escape from reality.
Open your eyes.
Look to the skies and seeeee.

(n.) when dogs become children, you start to feel bad to just leave them, and so you give them over to a 4-or-5 star hotel of their own. but, it's one thing to treat pets as children. that's not even the problem.
but to treat any sentient being as a 'doll' to match your 'lifestyle' (with outfits, spa services, vegan/ gluten-free diets, etc.) is truly cruel. upper end doggy daycares may include such extravagances as spa treatments & getting nails done, clearly pandering more to the humans in charge than the dogs.

An advantage that accrues to A by denial of the right of B to take the property of C.
(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

art is any medium or form of expression that is used as to create or express. Art is culturally, and individually driven. elites within society often have a separate system for art that is private to them, and kept away from the mainstream, or working class. art was considered one of the most valuable treasures that could be seized when germany was defeated by the alliance, and some amongst the upper circles of those societies were mourned priceless german art lost in a great fire, even over the lives of those lost at the hands of the regime.

(also: society)
(also: expression)
(also: creativity)

Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes. Jim Carrey

Humans are bipedal creatures from Earth, and the third most intelligent species on that planet, surpassed only by mice and dolphins.

To convey the impacts of climate change, tell your students that if Earth were a pizza, we've been adding way too many "greenhouse toppings" that are making it cook faster than expected, leaving us with a crispy planet that's harder to digest

Tasks performed out of necessity or in exhange for currency
(also: chores)
(also: career)

(n.) the human tendency to hold contradictory beliefs at the same time on the basis that their truth is less important than their rhetorical usefulness

n. A gift from one who is legging it out of this vale of tears.
(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based.

(also: The Devil's Dictionary)