Some expressions I seem to have picked up but I’m not sure where they came from:

• Catch ya - Sign-off on the phone to some people, particularly when I’m in a hurry. Seems to be a contraction of “Catch ya later”
• Plugger - It was a once-off, but I still don’t know where it came from. Several years ago I called my Dad this when visiting him in hospital. Maybe it was the stress of it all, but its origins remain a mystery. (I can’t imagine why it would be related to footballer Tony “Plugger” Lockett.)

Some expressions I don’t like:

• Best - Some kind of shortened lazy version of “All the best,” I assume. Something about it just doesn’t sit right with me. It’s like it sounds insincere for some reason.
• Sure - Used as a substitute for “You’re welcome.” Ditto, seems excessively lazy and insincere. What, you can’t run to three syllables, you have to keep it to a single one? Is there a shortage or something?
• Get a life - Fair enough when it’s used in self-deprecation, but otherwise it’s gratuitous. You like something I don’t, so you need to get a life. What the hell is that supposed to mean? People who use this phrase when talking of others really need to get a life.

Some expressions from various past managers I’ve had (enough to cause a whole paradigm shift… or at least a game of Bullshit Bingo):

• Socialise - this meant discuss with colleagues
• Technical artefacts - documents, they’re documents. Ah yes, the memories, we’d go into meetings to socialise the technical artefacts…
• Down-line-load - one guy I worked with picked this up somewhere — it was his version of “download”

On an unrelated note, funniest TV advert placement seen this week:

• Ad for Tobin Brothers funeral directors, during Six Feet Under