This is interesting. I know several phrases, such as die morgigen Zeitungen (tomorrow's newspapers), that imply the existence of the adjective morgig, which would mean 'relating to tomorrow'. But I cannot find a German dictionary that admits to such a word's existence.
I'm going to start using morgig at every opportunity, until the Duden adds it.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Small, interesting, unconnected things
It still feels like magic to me that I speak foreign languages. Until I started learning Japanese when I was 19, it never even occurred to me that it was possible to learn another language well enough to communicate in it. Eight years later, I still have Keanu/kung fu moments where I go "I know German."
When my feet get cold, my middle toe is always the first one to go numb. I cannot conceive of why this might be the case.
While we're on the subject of toes, I realized yesterday that I conceive of my toes incorrectly. I'll explain what I mean. When I said "middle toe" above, I did mean the one in the middle, but I usually conceive of the toe next to my big toe as being the central one, although a quick count of the toes on either side of it demonstrates that this is not the case. Oddly, I still think of the fourth toe over as being my "ring toe", leaving the actual center toe somewhat lost. Maybe it goes numb first because it is lonely.
Rose and I have a perennial debate on the subject of what our children will eat for breakfast. My mom mostly kept us to unsweetened cereals. Well, unsweetened in the box - once Mom's back was turned I frequently mixed my Cheerios at a 1:1 ratio with cane sugar. I agree with this principle; if children are going to eat candy for breakfast, they should at least have to be sneaky about it. Rose, however, doesn't see the harm in sweet cereal, mostly because she's had a morning routine of eating Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes every morning since forever.
I see myself sneaking into the kitchen at night, dumping out the Froot Loops and replacing them with dyed Cheerios. Then I see my kids waiting until my back is turned and dumping out the entire contents of the sugar bowl on them.
The character for "woman" in Japanse (女) is also found in characters meaning ease/relaxation/inexpensiveness （安) and slave (奴). This character (姦), made up of three women together, means noisy.
In German, herrlich means outstanding, wonderful, fine. Dämlich means idiotic, silly, foolish. These are derived from the words Herr and Dame, "lord" and "lady."
English, on the other hand, is the least sexist language known to man, though I'm sure anyone could find some traces of gender bias in the language's conventions if he tried.
I know German. That is awesome.
-
When my feet get cold, my middle toe is always the first one to go numb. I cannot conceive of why this might be the case.
-
While we're on the subject of toes, I realized yesterday that I conceive of my toes incorrectly. I'll explain what I mean. When I said "middle toe" above, I did mean the one in the middle, but I usually conceive of the toe next to my big toe as being the central one, although a quick count of the toes on either side of it demonstrates that this is not the case. Oddly, I still think of the fourth toe over as being my "ring toe", leaving the actual center toe somewhat lost. Maybe it goes numb first because it is lonely.
-
Rose and I have a perennial debate on the subject of what our children will eat for breakfast. My mom mostly kept us to unsweetened cereals. Well, unsweetened in the box - once Mom's back was turned I frequently mixed my Cheerios at a 1:1 ratio with cane sugar. I agree with this principle; if children are going to eat candy for breakfast, they should at least have to be sneaky about it. Rose, however, doesn't see the harm in sweet cereal, mostly because she's had a morning routine of eating Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes every morning since forever.
I see myself sneaking into the kitchen at night, dumping out the Froot Loops and replacing them with dyed Cheerios. Then I see my kids waiting until my back is turned and dumping out the entire contents of the sugar bowl on them.
-
The character for "woman" in Japanse (女) is also found in characters meaning ease/relaxation/inexpensiveness （安) and slave (奴). This character (姦), made up of three women together, means noisy.
In German, herrlich means outstanding, wonderful, fine. Dämlich means idiotic, silly, foolish. These are derived from the words Herr and Dame, "lord" and "lady."
English, on the other hand, is the least sexist language known to man, though I'm sure anyone could find some traces of gender bias in the language's conventions if he tried.
-
I know German. That is awesome.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Benny & teh N1nj4z #4
The final episode of Benny & teh N1nj4z. So far
The poster in the America panel is my favorite part. It says "Please eat quickly and then leave, to make room for more satisfied Omniburger customers."
The poster in the America panel is my favorite part. It says "Please eat quickly and then leave, to make room for more satisfied Omniburger customers."
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Benny & teh N1nj4z #3
Ninjas talk in black speech bubbles. Obviously.
I created an entire history for Omniburger, an international chain of religiously-themed fast food restaurants.
I created an entire history for Omniburger, an international chain of religiously-themed fast food restaurants.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Benny & teh N1nj4z #1
Back in 2007, I got bit in a big way by the creativity bug and spent a month or two drawing a comic I called Benny & teh N1nJ4z. I've been thinking about trying this again, since I had such a ridiculous amount of fun making these.
(click to embiggen)
Believe it or not, drawing this took me about eight hours. I sketched it with paper and pencil, scanned it in, and inked it in Paint. My comic skills are, as I point out above, quite limited.
I should point out that Rose is far nicer than I've portrayed her in this strip. I do, however, regularly sing The Scotsman at top volume in the shower.
(click to embiggen)Believe it or not, drawing this took me about eight hours. I sketched it with paper and pencil, scanned it in, and inked it in Paint. My comic skills are, as I point out above, quite limited.
I should point out that Rose is far nicer than I've portrayed her in this strip. I do, however, regularly sing The Scotsman at top volume in the shower.
America and the world
Sorry for the late update - Blogger is bouncing requests from Firefox with a 400 error, meaning it thinks Firefox is sending malformed http requests - and I didn't think to try Internet Explorer until this morning. Here's what I wrote for y'all last night:
Something that fascinates me without cease is the impact of American politics around the planet, and the extent to which it is followed abroad. An Italian man once told me he'd happily trade his Italian suffrage rights for the ability to vote in American national elections, because he thought their results had more of an impact on his life than the ones he could influence.
As a result, the State of the Union address President Obama delivered yesterday was in all the papers and on all the news programs. Isn't that amazing? When was the last time a speech by the German chancellor was covered on the 10 o'clock news?
Just to be clear, I'm not as critical of Americans as some our for our tendency to be ignorant of other countries' affairs. America simply plays such a massive role in the world that everyone has an interest in our politics. I used to feel incredibly ignorant because of my relative ignorance of European geography and politics, until I realized that Germans also have no idea who's in charge of Japan, the Japanese have no idea who's running things in France, the French do not know the name of Australia's head of state, and so on. Americans, I think, only give the impression of relative international ignorance because we happen to come from the country that everyone else everywhere else knows about.
Something that fascinates me without cease is the impact of American politics around the planet, and the extent to which it is followed abroad. An Italian man once told me he'd happily trade his Italian suffrage rights for the ability to vote in American national elections, because he thought their results had more of an impact on his life than the ones he could influence.
As a result, the State of the Union address President Obama delivered yesterday was in all the papers and on all the news programs. Isn't that amazing? When was the last time a speech by the German chancellor was covered on the 10 o'clock news?
Just to be clear, I'm not as critical of Americans as some our for our tendency to be ignorant of other countries' affairs. America simply plays such a massive role in the world that everyone has an interest in our politics. I used to feel incredibly ignorant because of my relative ignorance of European geography and politics, until I realized that Germans also have no idea who's in charge of Japan, the Japanese have no idea who's running things in France, the French do not know the name of Australia's head of state, and so on. Americans, I think, only give the impression of relative international ignorance because we happen to come from the country that everyone else everywhere else knows about.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
A moment of silence
One of my closest friends lost someone today. Regular broadcasts resume tomorrow.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Fear the Boom and Bust
I know I'm posting a lot of links lately. I've been practicing the piano a lot this week, and work's been busy, so no time for a lot of writing. This one goes out to my father, who taught me to love macroeconomic theory. The competing theories of Keynes and Hayek are presented below as an amazingly well-written rap. You seriously don't want to miss this.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Get Out
Do yourself a favor; find eight minutes and watch Get Out, an incredible short film about Gary, who lives in a world of fantasy and is terrified of doors.
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