opposite of epic

Epic is a word that everyone seems to be tossing around lately. Actually, it's a word that's making a resurgence is more like it. Naturally, I feel the need to jump on the bandwagon and over-analyze this word. It's almost as popular as "like" as pointless as the word "seriously" as annoying as the word "whatever" and as misused as the word "literally".  The worst use of the word I stumbled upon was Epic Zen. This is as confusing as full contact egg carving. The origin of the word Epic dates back to the late 1500's from the Latin term epicus. In the definition, it is stated that the word means a long narrative poem. Figuratively though, it can mean any event or task of great magnitude, and that's where things get a little messy. The problem is that defining what constitutes something of "great magnitude" is up for debate. My silly little accomplishment might be another person's chef-d'oeuvre. For example, to someone who can't bake, the fancy Buche De Noel my sister made might seem pretty impressive, but would anyone really call it epic? No, epic traditionally was reserved for spectacular feats. Take a look at some of the chocolate sculptures in the world chocolate competitions, and then the little Buche no longer seems so epic.

This is chocolate!

At some point, Epic started to be translated into meaning impressive, and that's even harder to define. It used to be that the word was used sparingly to describe only very unusual or out of the ordinary occurrences.  "That was EPIC, maaann!" was a phrase that became popular about 10 years ago. It was used most often when some kid landed a sick skate move like the loop transfer at The King of Skate, but just like "awesome" and "radical", people started using it for everything from blog posts to toothpaste to the description of a date. Guy 1: "How was your evening, Fred?"
Guy 2: "Oh WOW!!! It was EPIC! Jenny and I went to Leaf and got some tofu."
(outrageous!) Um....no.

BTW,check out some of the way cool female skaters in a skate competition:

And some of the younger girls in this one:

I'll come out and say right here that my writing is not epic. How funny that I just finished a short story, which is indeed, the opposite of an epic. My laziness, on the other hand, has been quite epic. Actually, I did get a few more structured bike workout in last week. Still, I feel like I'm dragging quite a bit lately. I'm sure it's partly because being in the stinky air cast makes getting around and doing pretty much anything a drag. I haven't been outside in a month, really. I must look like Dracula.

I keep wanting to keep up with everyone's blogs and write some decent posts. Unfortunately, I'm not completely out of the funk yet. It's getting better, but I'm still not quite there. I wonder if I should be taking some extra vitamin D since I haven't seen the sun in forever. Hum.

OK, someone pointed out a picture of a girl eating a large hot dog that was impressive. It got me wondering, so I did a little research. I have to say that this hot dog is...well...epic.