O Internet. Considering the etymological accuracy of the average "Name Your Baby!" book/website, the "definition from the gut" approach here is refreshing. Some highlights:

MORAY: Scottish place name, would make a nice name, despite the eel connotations
Nothing good has ever preceded "despite the eel connotations."

MORVEN: definitely unusual, ( Read more... )

"Okay, I'll quiz you. So what's down here?"

"The semen, the colon, and the rectum."

"The what?"

"The semen--"

"The what?"

"The... secum! The secum!"

This is the last week of summer classes, which means I'll soon have students coming in either to cheer about their exit scores or to curse the name of algebra. Then I get a break. I plan to spend it not teaching anyone how to factor polynomials ( Read more... )

You might have noticed that the LJ NavStrip is now set to "always show" by default, and that while you can disable it on your own journal and on journals that are set to defer to your preferences, you still have to see it on the journals of people who leave it as "always show." Yes, their "always show" overrides your "never show ( Read more... )

The new power adapter I ordered for my laptop? Was in fact delivered five days ago. To my old address in Waycross, which I haven't used for years but which PayPal decided was my "confirmed address" because I confirmed... something with them five years ago, even though I've never shipped anything to it and it's not my billing address. Despite my not ( Read more... )

I think a new ocean here would be aesthetically pleasingIn other news, my mother is throwing a Christmas party tonight, and there will be small children running amuck, one of whom is a known screamer and chair-kicker. Alas that she won't take me seriously when I express a desire for some Southern Comfort to add to the eggnog so as to better cope ( Read more... )

Advent Children and a file of subtitles sit patiently on my hard drive, waiting for me to go home, make popcorn, seclude myself, and turn into a raging dork. I can't believe it's been eight years since the game came out, folks. I feel old. I feel even older knowing that some of those damn kids with their music got to see pirated copies of this ( Read more... )

While cleaning up my bookmarks, I found an absolute gem tucked away in the "MY EYES" folder. I have no idea how I came across this page in the first place, but odds are it was once linked from a comm that delights in mocking this sort of thing ( Read more... )

My Okoppe third-years are the best kids in the world. This is the ten-person class I've had since they were all little first-years, and they've been onboard the "English Is Fun!" train from the get-go. They finished everything quite early in today's class, so we ended up chatting in an exciting pidgin for nearly twenty minutes. I'm still not sure ( Read more... )

Okay, so they did transfer kyoto-sensi. The new guy was the one who was out with the flu. Our replacement is considerably less manic than the original, but I like him so far. He doesn't speak any English, really, but he speaks comprehensible Japanese and had an extended conversation with me about his trip to Europe and how he wished he'd known some ( Read more... )