It my personal guiding word:

non sequitur \NAHN-SEK-wuh-ter\ noun
1 : an inference that does not follow from the premises
*2 : a statement (as a response) that does not follow logically from or is not clearly related to anything previously said

Did you know?
In Latin, “non sequitur” means “it does not follow.” The phrase was borrowed into English in the 1500s by people who made a formal study of logic. For them it meant a conclusion that does not follow from the statements that lead to it. But we now use “non sequitur” for any kind of statement that seems to come out of the blue. The Latin verb “sequi” (“to follow”) has actually led the way for a number of English words. A “sequel” follows the original novel, film, or television show. Someone “obsequious” follows another about, flattering and fawning. And an action is often followed by its “consequence.”

And it’s SNOWING again!

WHEEEEE!

Some of these (perhaps all) have appeared here before, but all are worth visiting again.

Name Voyager Not related to Star Trek. Looks at the popularity of names over time. Shockingly, the popularity of my name peaked in the 70s.

Giant Microbes I have a cold sitting on my desk.

Odd news from the BBC: Who doesn’t have a belly button. (More importantly, How and Why?!)

Basic Instructions My favorite is this one.

for erin:

gravid \GRAV-id\ adjective
*1 : pregnant
2 : distended with or full of eggs

Did you know?
“Gravid” comes from Latin “gravis,” meaning “heavy.” It can refer to a female who is literally pregnant, and it also has the figurative meanings of “pregnant”: “full or teeming” and “meaningful.” Thus, a writer may be gravid with ideas as she sits down to write; a cloud may be gravid with rain; or a speaker may make a gravid pause before announcing his remarkable findings.

So a post over at Eric‘s has inadvertently lead to my consideration of a very strange question.

Initial question was if crosses and holy water are effective against vampires, would vampires be safer if they moved to India or the Middle East?

But the question that came from that is whether a Jewish vampire who drank human blood would be keeping kosher.

Here are my arguments supporting the thesis they would be.

1. I believe that in a life or death situation, a Jew is allowed to eat non-kosher foods to save his own life. If a vampire could survive only upon blood, shouldn’t the drinking of human blood be okay as long as the victim was not killed or maimed? (i.e. if the vampire was polite and asked nicely beforehand.)

2. Isn’t there a difference between drained blood and blood straight from the source, so to speak?

3. Would kosher rules even apply to vampires? A vampire has died an moved on from human life. Do the rules of Leviticus even apply to the undead, assuming they still retain free will?

Anyway, just some thoughts filtering through my brain.

It’s snowing! Big fluffy flakes!

I took some pictures of the view out “my” window at work, but I the card reader I keep with this camera seems to have disappeared, so nothing until I get home.

Still, it’s beautiful outside!

ADDENDUM the First:
It’s snowing MORE now! HA HA!

I’ve taken more pictures, but you shan’t see them until I get home.

I answered only for Kat, and not Kit.

(via Jim)

ADDENDUM the First:
Here are the results for Kit:

I believe these results are entirely too high.

Kit isn’t smart enough to plot anything.

My grandmother turns 91 today!

Happy Birthday Grandmom!

If it is warm enough to be wearing a mini-skirt or short-shorts, then it is too warm to be wear big ugly fluffy boots.

Conversely, if it is cold enough to be wearing big ugly fluffy boots, then it is too cold to be bare legged in short-shorts or a mini-skirt.

Also, big fluffly boots and skinny jeans that don’t fit either into the boots or outside the boots, but instead are kinda scrunched up at the top of the boot? That just looks plain stupid.

Dress for the weather people. Y’all have the internet, use it.

In fact, let me help. Here’s the Morgantown weather and forecast. Not only does it tell you the projected temperature for today, it also projects temperatures for several days in the future! This means you could check the weather before you even went to bed!

I realize this is a strange concept, but really, it’s so much better than the alternative of thinking you look hawt, when in fact you look like a fool.

Also, to the tall blonde woman: If your chest is large enough to have it’s own zip code, belting your dress directly underneath your breasts looks like what it is: you’re impressed with your boobs and want everyone else to be as well.

You may as well just wear a Hooters shirt and be done with it.

</end snark>

I got nothing today, so let’s play a game of word association.

As usual, to get around the spam filters: old word = new word.

Here we go!

Mistakes =

Today was my first day back to work.

Which explains why I had one of the most difficult classes I’ve had in about a year. Normally things go smoothly, but occasionally when I teach my web design course I get very slow typists and or people who need a little longer to “get” what they’re doing when writing HTML code.

I had all of the above today.

Then I lost the ability to import data into my access database, and was unable to figure out what the heck I’d done wrong.

I did a couple other things, but I’m pretty sure I’ll need to look at them tomorrow to see what I did wrong there too.

Don’t get me wrong, I am feeling better, but I am tired. And if I truly had mono again, I’ll remain tired for a couple more weeks.

Now you’ll have to excuse me, I need to try and stay awake for another couple hours before I can go to bed, because if I take a nap now, I won’t be able to go to sleep later, and that’s just a vicious circle I don’t want to get into.

I am constantly listening to the radio, from my alarm walking me up with Morning Edition to falling asleep to the Real Jazz channel on XM radio. My days are filled with music, but also with news and the voices that read that news.

I love the voices of Carl Kasell, Bob Edwards, Sylvia Poggioli, Noah Adams, and Susan Stamberg. Those voices make me feel calm and relaxed and even happy. (Really, how can Sylvia Poggioli’s voice not make you happy?)

But in the same way, there are voices that grate on my ears, that I do not like to hear. On NPR those voices include Liane Hansen, Joe Graedon, and Sue Scott. (Something about Sue Scott’s voice makes me run for the radio to turn it off.)

And of course there the voices of people in the news. Which brings me to my point. Now I can’t stand George W. Bush’s voice, but I think that’s more association than anything inherent about his voice. And I don’t like Al Gore’s cadences. There’s nothing wrong with his voice, but his cadences when he’s speaking formally bug me. And John Kerry, something about his voice and speech patterns.

But nothing like Sarah Palin’s voice. All it took was listening to the debate, and her voice makes me twitchy. I want to find her, and smack her into taking elocution lessons.

There’s only one other voice I can think of off the top of my head that does this to me. There’s a very nice woman in my building who has the most annoying voice every. Her voice is located in her nose, and to make it worse it’s extremely high pitched. Sometimes I just want to yell at her to speak from her chest. (Note to Gina: I am not talking about she whose computer senses fear.)

The difference is that Sarah Palin should KNOW better. She was a newscaster. She should know how to modulate her voice. Why she should choose such a nasal register is beyond me.

Especially when dropping your voice into your chest to deepen it is so much more effective when dealing with men. :)

HA!

38 miles per gallon

Created by The Car Connection

My problem with this is that it asked questions about running, which I haven’t done in years and years. But I walk daily. My average pace for walking is about a 14 minute mile.

(via Jim)

It’s time for another game of word association.

To get around the restrictions, type the old word, an equal sign, and then your word.

Marshmallow