July 2011
“He who fights, can lose. He who doesn’t fight, has already lost.”
– Bertolt Brecht (via quote-book)
“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls.”
– Anais Nin (via girlwithoutwings)
“A thought, even a possibility, can shatter and transform us.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche (via girlwithoutwings)
“Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”
– Mark Twain (via kari-shma)
“The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.”
– Ferdinand Foch (via light-essence)
“Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of...”
– Judy Garland (via kari-shma)
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think. -Jean de la Bruyere, essayist and moralist (1645-1696)
HAW
haw \HAW, verb:
1. To utter a sound representing a hesitation or pause in speech. 2. To turn or make a turn to the left.
noun: 1. A sound or pause of hesitation. 2. The fruit of the Old World hawthorn, Crataegus laevigata, or of other species of the same genus.
interjection: 1. Used as a word of command to a horse or other draft animal, usually directing it to turn to the left.)
I find...
MAN FRIDAY
man Friday
PRONUNCIATION:(man FRY-day) MEANING:noun: A man who is an efficient and faithful aide to someone. ETYMOLOGY:After Friday, a character in the novel Robinson Crusoe (1719) by Daniel Defoe. Crusoe named him Friday because that was the day they met. Crusoe often referred to him as his man Friday. By extension, the term girl Friday is used for a female. Earliest documented example of the...
June 2011
Tumblr iPhone App 2.0 Makes Managing Blogs Easier →
jeanprytyskacz:
Tumblr is out with version 2.0 of its iPhone app, and it has completely overhauled the interface, making it much easier to post from multiple blogs. Tumblr announced the update via its blog, stating that the app “has been recoded, rewired, and rethought from the ground up to offer you the very…
APHORISM
aphorism \AF-uh-riz-uhm, noun:
A terse saying embodying a general truth, or astute observation.
He who first uttered the boast was a public benefactor, and every man who repeated the aphorism, and believed it, furthered a good work, and helped to build up the structure of his country’s greatness. — Charles Mackay, The gouty philosopher
The aphorism wants to deflate our...
CATAWAMPUS
catawampus \kat-uh-WOM-puhs, adjective:
1. Off-center; askew; awry. 2. Positioned diagonally; cater-cornered.
Very circuitous, I must say- most sidelong and backhanded, cockeyed and skew-jawed, catawampus and wonky. — Candace A. Croft, Annalia’s Simply Splendid Flight: From Another Side of Day
The only traditional touches are the catawampus walls and whichaway entrances dictated...
THRASONICAL
thrasonical
PRONUNCIATION:(THRAY-SON-i-kuhl) MEANING:adjective: Bragging or boastful. ETYMOLOGY:After Thraso, a braggart soldier in the comedy Eunuchus (161 BCE) by the Roman playwright Terence. The name is derived from the Greek word tharsos (bold). Earliest documented example of the word used allusively: 1564. USAGE:”But I decided to give further thought to this friend’s...
“It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which...”
– Eleanor Roosevelt (via dishevelment)
An Existential Life: Camus on Kierkegaard from The... →
fuckyeahexistentialism:
Of all perhaps the most engaging, Kierkegaard, for a part of his existence at least, does more than discover the absurd, he lives it. The man who writes: “The surest of stubborn silences is not to hold one’s tongue but to talk” makes sure in the beginning that no truth is absolute or can render…
“Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly — they’ll go through anything....”
– Aldous Huxley (via coolcooldeath)
“There are times when those eyes inside your brain stare back at you.”
– Charles Bukowski (via henrycharlesbukowski)
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than...”
– Anaïs Nin (via girlwithoutwings)
“I am lonely, yet not everybody will do. I don’t know why, some people fill the...”
– Anaïs Nin (via kari-shma)
“There comes a time when you look into the mirror and you realize that what you...”
– Tennessee Williams (via princess-steppenwolf)
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Writing, when properly managed, (as you may be sure I think mine is) is but a different name for conversation. -Laurence Sterne, novelist and clergyman (1713-1768)
JEEVES
Jeeves
PRONUNCIATION:(jeevz) MEANING:noun: A personal servant, especially one who is resourceful and reliable. ETYMOLOGY:After Reginald Jeeves, a valet in the stories by P.G. Wodehouse. Jeeves first made his appearance in a short story in 1915. Earliest documented example of the word used allusively: 1952. USAGE:”When you’ve got a billion dollars at your disposal, and a Jeeves to...
ATTENUATE
attenuate \uh-TEN-yoo-eyt, verb:
1. To weaken or reduce in force, intensity, effect, quantity, or value 2. To make thin; make slender or fine. 3. In medicine, to render less virulent, as a strain of pathogenic virus or bacterium. 4. In electronics, to decrease the amplitude of an electronic signal.
With no reactor coolant to absorb the heat of the uranium rods, the nuclear reaction actually...
fuckyeahexistentialism:
“In cosmic terms, we are subatomic particles in a grain of sand on an infinite beach.”
-Bill Watterson
TORREFY
torrefy \TAWR-uh-fahy, verb:
1. To subject to fire or intense heat. 2. In pharmacology, to dry or parch drugs with heat. 3. To roast, as metallic ores.
A coffee-roaster answers for this purpose, taking care not to torrefy them too much, as the oil of the nut suffers thereby, and it becomes a dark brown or black, grows bitter, and spoils the colour of the chocolate — Ernest...
SIROCCO
sirocco \suh-ROK-oh, noun:
1. Any hot, oppressive wind, especially one in the warm sector of a cyclone. 2. A hot, dry, dustladen wind blowing from northern Africa and affecting parts of southern Europe. 3. A warm, sultry south or southeast wind accompanied by rain.
The winter, with its cutting tramontana and sultry sirocco days, we spent in the eternal city, taking rooms of an old woman who...
“If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come...”
– Chuck Palahniuk (via kari-shma)
