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I can't believe I haven't blogged since Tuesday. This is getting ridiculous.

Wednesday I learned the word "tarradiddle" which means a fib or pretentious nonsense. I added the dictionary.com word of the day application to my iGoogle, but I don't really like it that much because most of the words are easy. Tarradiddle was a new one on me though. It would be funny if somebody just made it up and put it on there.

Thursday I learned about charts and graphs in Excel. I didn't learn that much new stuff, but there was some. This will be the last in my Things I Learned at Excel Training blog series, as I am now finished with all of those trainings.

Friday I learned about windshield wiper blades. I had never bought my own before, but now I know that there is a little book thing there that you can look your car up in to see what size to get. Or you could measure them, I guess. I haven't put my new wiper blades on...that will be a blog for another day.

Saturday I learned about the movie Battle Royale, in which a bunch of Japanese high school kids kill each other in ridiculous manners. It is based on the novel of the same name. There is a rad song over the closing credits, which is "Shizuka na Hibi no Kaidan Wo" by Dragon Ash.

Today I learned about Clintonville, specifically what it encompasses and how it came to be.

269, 270

Yesterday I learned the word "fungible." I know I just did a word of the day not too long ago, but I like "fungible." It means easily replaced; interchangeable, flexible.

Today I learned about Gregor Mendel, the pea plant guy. Did you know that his ideas weren't really accepted until like 35 years after he first presented them? And it also is hard for me to believe that he was doing his work less than 150 years ago. 150 years ago does not seem like very long at all, but to think that a.) we really knew nothing about genetics then and b.) Mendel basically discovered genetics just by planting and observing a ton of pea plants is insane to me. Think of all the crazy-high tech, complicated scientific research that goes on these days. This is so rambly. I can't get my point across...it's just that what he was doing seems so simple to produce such amazing results. It seems like that can't happen anymore.

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Friday I learned that "balaclava" is another name for a ski mask.

Saturday I learned that "shandy" is a type of beer flavored with/mixed with lemonade (or pop or something of that nature).

Today I learned that the Canon Elph is like the size of a pack of Trident gum. Waaaant. I am looking at new cameras b/c I want to ask for one for Christmas. It will be exciting.

213

Today I learned what a "denier" is, and also other ways to measure textiles.

204, 205

Yesterday I learned what a "haruspex" is. A haruspex practices haruspicy, or the study of the entrails of dead animals that have been sacrificed. Being a haruspex is an ancient Greek thing. Also, a gross thing.

Today I learned that the population of Columbus is over 700,000. Include the metro area and you'll add a million onto that. That's a lot of people.

196, 197, 198

Saturday I learned the etymology of the word "lollygag," because it is a funny word. Etymonline.com says "dawdle, dally," 1862, lallygag, Amer.Eng., perhaps from dial. lolly "tongue" + gag "deceive, trick." The Word Detective has this to say:

Unfortunately, the origin of "lollygag" is unknown, but there are clues from which we may, perhaps, be able to extrapolate the roots of "lollygag." ("Extrapolate" in this context, by the way, is a fancy word for "guess.")

First up in the batting order of possible "lollygag" clues is "loll," which is a very old word originally meaning "to droop or dangle." We use "loll" today to mean to relax or pass time idly, the sort of behavior that vacations are designed to encourage. There seems to be a plausible connection between this "utterly relaxed" meaning of "loll" and the "wasting time" sense of "lollygag."

Another bit of evidence might be found in the fact that "to loll" also means to let your tongue hang out, and that "lolly" is an English slang term for tongue (quite possibly the source of the name of our friend the lollipop, by the way). Perhaps "lollygagging" arose from the perception that lazy lollygaggers were adept at exercising only one muscle -- their tongues.

Sunday I learned about the Waffle House. How did I learn that? BY GOING THERE. Oh yes, I am a Waffle House virgin no longer. Despite scary numbers of flies and the possibility of getting a breakfast meal completely covered in cheese, I have to say that my food (pecan waffle and a side of bacon) was actually super good. I love waffles and I love pecans. I want all my waffles to have pecans from now on. Um, as for a specific learning, I learned that you pay up at the register and not at your table. That was a funny night. Nice meeting you, Waffle House.

Today I learned about sushi. All I did really was read the article on Wikipedia, but it had a lot of information in it. I learned about the different types, like nigiri-zushi (the blob of rice with a piece of fish sitting on tip of it) versus maki-zushi (rolled sushi). I learned about some things that can go in sushi such as "gobo" which is a type of vegetable and "masago" which is a type of fish egg. I actually do not eat sushi mostly because of the different vegetables like cucumber and raw carrot that are always showing up in there. There is almost no raw vegetable that I like, and cucumber is especially heinous. Other than that it all sounds pretty good.

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Yikes. OK kittens, I've been putting this off but I think the time has finally come. Here for your pleasure is a huge list of things I learned on vacation and in the 2 days since.

1.) Where did the name Shamu come from? According to seaworld.org, "Many stories exist about the origin of Shamu's name. One revolves around the first collected killer whale that was named Namu after a British Columbian town. When SeaWorld welcomed its first killer whale, it was named Shamu, for 'She-Namu.'" That sounds like bull, but whatever.

2.) I learned that blackwater is "a term used for sewage containing fecal matter, in contrast with greywater, which is the waste water from kitchen sink drains, washing machines, and other washings."

3.) Mount Soledad in San Diego is 822 feet high.

4.) I learned that I can live in one of these rad condo things in La Jolla for the low low price of two and a half million dollars. HAHAHA! That's funny. They are pretty sweet though. Why don't I have two and a half million dollars?

5.) I learned that Giverny is this place in France where a ton of impressionist painters, including Monet, lived and worked. They hung out at the Hotel Baudy and painted lots of pictures of haystacks. I saw an exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Art: more here.

6.) If you want to avoid stepping on a stingray that's laying on the sand underwater, you should shuffle your feet as you walk. This is especially true in calmer waters.

7.) At the science center I learned about the Horsehead Nebula and how stars form in these nebulae. I watched a cool video on it. Um, I'm like real dumb or whatever, so I don't remember a lot of it, but it was pretty interesting and I did learn some stuff, I promise. You can look here or somewhere similar if you need a simple explanation.

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1.) There was some discussion today on the meaning of the word "vase," mainly weather when pronounced to rhyme with "face" it means something different than when pronounced to rhyme with "bras." It was suggested that "rhymes-with-bras" refers to a decorative object while "rhymes with face" is just any old thing you stick flowers in. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered if it was true. It turns out not to be, though. None of the sources I checked (Wikipedia, the OED, and Merriam-Webster online) says anything other than that they are variant pronunciations. MW actually breaks it down pretty well, while also throwing in "rhymes-with-days" as a third pronuciation (fucking Canadians): US oftenest ˈvās; Canada usually & US also ˈvāz; British usually, Canada also, & US sometimes ˈväz.

2.) I also learned today, kind of, about tides. The Wikipedia article is a freaking 90-page report on the subject, and therefore was not particularly helpful to me since I would have to spend more than 4 seconds reading it. I also checked on Howstuffworks.com. It still does not fully make sense to me with regard to the water actually moving around on the Earth and rising up higher on whatever particular beach you happen to be standing on, but I get that the pull of the moon bulges out the Earth on the sides closest to and farthest away from the moon. This happens, for the most part, twice a day: two high tides and two low tides. Eh. Thinking is hard.

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Yesterday I learned that the word "stanchion" means a vertical support post or beam. Thus, if one were to use this word in reference to those little stands and ropes they use to control lines (think of the ticket line at the Easton movies), one would be wrong. You could argue that the little vertical posts that connect the ropes are stanchions, but they aren't really being used to support anything (such as a porch, a ceiling, or a railing) in the correct sense. So suck on that, snooty post-it writers of the world.

Today I learned that that sound I thought was a mourning dove really is a mourning dove. That might seem like lame learnings to you, but you try looking that shit up on the internet. Googling "woo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo" probably sets of some kind of national security alarm for crazy.

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Today, by request, I looked up the word "pussy." First usage dates from the 1500s as a term of endearment for a girl or woman; 1726 shows a diminutive form of "puss" meaning cat or rabbit. The 1800s is when it first appears as slang for lady parts--"perhaps from O.N. puss 'pocket, pouch' (cf. Low Ger. puse "vulva"), but perhaps instead from the cat word on notion of 'soft, warm, furry thing.'" Eew. Hehe.

I thought I had already looked this up, but I looked up the etymology of "bunny" which overlaps in places.

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Today I learned that the word "factoid" originally meant something that wasn't true. The OED says: "Something that becomes accepted as a fact, although it is not (or may not be) true; spec. an assumption or speculation reported and repeated so often that it is popularly considered true; a simulated or imagined fact." I think most people have come to use it to mean a piece of trivia or like a "mini-fact." That's how I use it.

I also learned this in the book that I'm reading.

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Today I learned the word "antimacassar:" a covering to protect the back or arms of furniture. From anti & macassar meaning oil; the antimacassar will keep your greasy hair off the good furniture. I had honestly never heard this word before. It's in the book I'm reading.

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Today I learned Sunday's M-W word of the day because I am lazy and because I already knew today's word and yesterday's. The word "cavil" means to raise trivial and frivolous objection. Hey, I do that!

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Wednesday I learned about the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. It is a giant suspension bridge that connects Staten Island to Brooklyn. The towers supporting the bridge are an inch and a half farther apart at their tops than at their bottoms; the bridge is so long that the earth's curvature had to be taken into account. The bridge is referenced in the Rhett Miller song "Hover" and also in the book I'm currently reading at work. So that's why I looked it up. (Total side note, but Rhett's real name is Stewart Ransom Miller, and one of my favorite lines from any 97's song is "My name's Stewart Ransom Miller, I'm a serial lady killer." I'm sorry but that would totally work on me.)


For today, randomly (or is it??), etymology of the word "satellite."

121

Hmmm. Nimrod.

Ninety six, Ninety seven

I really could use a break from this blog. I'm not going to take one, I'm just saying I could use one. I'm learning as much as ever but sometimes it wears on me to have to remember what it was, where I read about it, etc. Aaaanyway...

1.) I learned about the word "bunny." I wondered where it came from, because it's really not similar at all the the word "rabbit." At least, say, "kitty" and "cat" are somewhat close-sounding. Well it's a really old word and it may be related to the "bun" hairstyle, so like, the little bunny tail is like a bun? Hehe. It also was a term for a pretty woman or young girl.

2.) I learned about something called "polymorphous light eruption" which sounds sort of like what I have as far as getting a rash in the sun, but also kind of not. I'm almost positive that mine's triggered by cosmetics (ie, lotion) but I'm not sure. It sucks, I'm sure of that.

Eighty seven

Etymology of "new fangled":

c.1470, "addicted to novelty," lit. "ready to grasp at all new things," from adj. newefangel "inclined to take" (c.1386), from new + -fangel, from root of O.E. fon "to capture" (see fang). Sense of "lately come into fashion" first recorded 1533.

FOURTEEN SEVENTY, you guys. That is an old-ass word. (Old-fangled, if you will.) Seriously though, had humans as a species even evolved the ability to speak in 1470? Jeez.

Eighty four, Eighty five, Eighty six

Saturday I learned that, um, you do have to fill out a security report if you happen to see someone's boob at the library.

Sunday I learned about the word "picnic." There was an urban legend going around that "picnic" was a horrible word because it originated in the practice of people sitting outside and eating lunch while watching a random black person be lynched (you can use your imagination to make the connection between that activity and the word). Of course, this is completely untrue. It actually comes from the French "piquenique," "pique" meaning to pick or peck and "nique" probably just added because it rhymed.

Today I learned about the website Goodreads, because Mary added me as a friend. I haven't totally looked around the site yet, but it seems cool. I actually was wondering a while ago if something like this existed, and then thinking that I would become a multi-billionaire by creating it myself. Frick! Beaten to the punch.

Thirty nine

Grumble grumble...unsatisfactory learnings on the etymology of "high-falutin." In short, nobody's sure. Is unsatisfactory learnings really learnings at all? I say yes.

Twenty seven

As promised:

"Wilco" is voice procedure shorthand for "will comply." Makes sense. And that's where the band got its name, too, which I probably should have wondered about before now.

10-4 good buddy.

Over and out.