Some are synonyms and some are variants. You see, this is what happens when you try an learn asl out of books and not from the deaf or with an instructor. By the way, local signs are signs that typically are signed only locally and you never see them in dictionaries. They are valid and a part of the language but they are signs for things locally. Like for example, the city I live in, the sign for that, a deaf person in another state would not know the sign for it. Its a small city I live in and the sign represents something only familar to people who reside in the town or have resided in the town.
