Gah, I am just tangled up in words that won't come out right, written or spoken. (Fannishly-speaking. Am mostly doing okay in the Real World. And I just had a lovely weekend with propinquitine, in which we took in some history at Independence Park and had many chats accompanied by food and tea, all of which made me miss having local friends so much. *fails at ( Read more... )

I was a reading a book today, in Spanish (I'm reading Spanish again! yay!), and I came across the phrase "sangre azul" (literally "blue blood"). So then I wondered about the English phrase and how it came to mean people of the aristocracy. Technically everyone's blood is blue when it's inside them; it only turns red when exposed to the air, hence ( Read more... )

( 'On Etymology' by Jennifer Finstrom )

Not my first computer program ever, 'cause I took an intro computer science class before I started my master's, but for that course we just used some Microsoft language I can't even remember the name of, rather than a language that anyone actually uses. So now I've written my first program in a language that is used more widely. It's just a dumb ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

( words you don't expect when translating info about a children's program )

I was working on my Fanlore paper, and I made a definitions section because 1) it is meant for a general audience, and 2) it takes up room! So naturally I had fun with that most hallowed tome, the Oxford English Dictionary and especially the usage history (which is probably my favourite part).

( 'fan' and 'fandom' )

Today's poem is for retroflex, who likes canoes and dislikes math. Also, the word "spelunking" is used, which automatically makes it an awesome poem.

( 'The Certainty of Numbers' by Bruce Snider )

Besides taking a million photos of the [ gardens] on Tuesday, it also occurred to me that, hey, I have my camera and I'm at work. So, here is a bit of my work-life, including the Giant Labeling Project of Doooooooom.

( Byzantium ahoy! )

What is censorship?

I've got all my proper dictionary definitions (OED! ♥) and such, but I'm curious what it means to people in general.

What does "censorship" (and/or the verb "to censor") mean to you?