Wednesday, June 30, 2004

"All I want and all I need is someone who believes in me..."

Guess that Band!

Random Quote Time! "Working at the bakery was fun and gastrically
rewarding until I could no longer stand the cloying, sweet tastes."
Oh yes. What a quote.

For Your Enjoyment:
Oleaginous: 1) Of or relating to oil. 2) Falsely or smugly earnest;
unctuous (anyone heard of oleaginous flattery? see synonyms in
"unctuous"

Unctuous: 1) Characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere
earnestness. 2)
Having the quality or characteristics of oil or ointment; slippery.
3) Containing or composed of oil or fat. 4) Abundant in organic
materials; soft and rich

I neglected to write an email to yous yesterday because I was worn out
from work, and then I chatted a bit online and wrote one or two
personal emails, and then I ate Chinese food for the first time ever.
Only I hear that it's not real "Chinese". I'll have to do real
Chinese food sometime. This was Mongolian food, and until a few years
back (actually 1921), Mongolia was part of China, in the same sense
that Tibet is now part of China. And along with neglecting the email,
I also neglected to wish my friends Ryan "The Wild Man Of Budge" and
Christina "Honky-Tonk Princess" happy birthday. You're now both a
year older than you were just two short days ago... or something...
Speaking of being older, everyone should listen to "Older" by They
Might Be Giants. It's a good song. It can be listened to (although
it's not my favorite version of this song) at
http://pan.intrasun.tcnj.edu/610/Prive/sounds/Older.mp3

Have fun with that. I'm not sure if it will make a link for you or
not. I almost said (I actually *did* say, but I deleted it and
started over) "I'm not sure if it will make you a link or not" but
then I remembered the deixis issues I had last night with a similar
phrase. Is it making a link for you, or is it turning you into a
link? It's a tricky situation. I love deixis. I am going to start a
communications company called Deixis Communications© and I will be the
CEO or the president (whichever seems cooler when I get there) and I
will sit in my office in my comfy chair, and I will laugh and laugh
all the day long. Also, feel free to take a gander at this website:
http://jeannicod.ccsd.cnrs.fr/documents/disk0/00/00/04/11/ijn_00000411_00/ijn_00000411_00.rtf
and if you like it, you can find more like it at:
http://jeannicod.ccsd.cnrs.fr/documents/disk0/00/00/04/11/ Or you can
even look at http://jeannicod.ccsd.cnrs.fr/view_ROOT.html and see what
they have to offer you.

Hope you enjoy this site as much as I did. And I'm about out of time.
I would, however like to tell you all how cool you are. I wouldn't
be keeping contact with you if I didn't respect you for some reason,
or for many reasons, rather. Have a good evening everyone, and off I
go.

--
Brian D. Harris

Saturday, June 26, 2004

"You and me could never hide, Too busy walking out of stride..."

Name That Band!!
Well I survived work this week and it was my first full week of full time work, so that was pretty cool.  And I got off three hours early on Friday and still got 5 hours of overtime, so that means more money for Brian.  Woohoo!!  And as tiring and boring as my job is, I don't abhor it.  I just have to remember to turn my brain to standby or else bad things happen, like me blowing up.  Probably.  I haven't done that yet, but I think I would if my brain was trying to work at the same time.  Something about pulling thousands of deodorants off the shelf and thinking deep thoughts don't go together.
 
Aaaaaaand, today is Beauticians' Day.  How fitting since it's my friend Kim's birthday too.  She's a cute girl, as anyone who knows her will testify!  Happy birthday Kim!
It's also Do Something Different Weekend.  Sorry I didn't give yous any advance notice, but maybe you can still pull off something exciting for tomorrow.  Maybe... uh... write a letter to you grandparents or something...  Haven't done that in a while, eh?
And in Spain, today is the celebration of Feast Of The Shepherds.  And for the Native Americans, we have Green Corn Festival.  And of course all of us can enjoy National Chocolate Pudding Day!  It's also Baseball Day, Summerfest (in Iowa) and Blueberry Festival (in New Jersey).
Tomorrow, so that yous can prepare, is National Orange Blossom Day.  I might find some more, but I won't be writing tomorrow, so I might have to catch you up on Monday or something.
 
Today is the 177th day of the year, with 188 remaining.
Check out this link: click here
 
And some birthdays for today are:
Charles Joseph Messier, 1730
Abner Doubleday, 1819 (ahhh... one of my heroes!)
Pearl S. Buck, 1892
Lord Rawlinson, 1919
Ian Prestt, 1929 (he's an ornithologist, thought my sister would like that :)
Ruth Kempson!!!, 1944
Zeng Jinlian, 1964 (tallest woman in recorded history: 8'1")
Kirk McLean, 1966
 
Some famous deaths for today:
Johann Wilhelm Stadler, 1819
Samuel Crompton, 1827 (inventor of the mule-jenny)
Georg A Erman, 1937 (he studied the Egyptian language, back when no one had any clue what those wacky symbols meant)
 
And the fun things that happened today in history:
Pied Piper lures 130 children of Hamelin away, 1284 (actually happened)
Toothbrush invented, 1498 (I heard a good joke about this, from my high councilman in Provo.  I won't tell it here, but if you want to know it, email me!)
Cawnpore England massacre, 1857
Wagner's opera "Valkyrie" premieres in Munich, 1870
Karl Benz of Germany receives US patent for gasoline-driven auto, 1894
Gustav Mahlers 9th Symphony premieres in Vienna, 1912 (I really like Gustav Mahler...)
End of USSR experimental calendar; Gregorian readopted, 1940 (this really messes me up when I try to read about Russian history, but I guess its just one of those things I'll have to get used to)
Elvis Presley sings in Indianapolis, last performance of his career, 1977
Brittany separatists bomb Palace of Versailles, 1978
Supreme Court rules 16 year olds can receive death penalty, 1989
Supreme Court upholds doctor-assisted suicide ban, 1997
 
I just want to make a quick public announcement to say that I am very much proud of my friends Elizabeth and Rachael for going to Wal*Mart.  With no shoes on!!  Way to go, girls!
 
And here are your words for today:
Curple: 1) the hind quarters or rump of a horse  2) the posterior (there you go michael!  And to anyone who was wondering, this is one of those rhymes for "purple" that everyone says doesn't exist)
Smaragd: the emerald
Storge: parental affection, the instinctive affection which animals have for their young
Martinet: a strict disciplinarian
Woolgathering: Indulgence in idle daydreaming
 
I have a favor to ask yous.  I saw sooo many movies while I was in Provo, and now I can't remember the titles... If you know the name of that movie about the two Australian Aboriginal kids that ran away from their camp, or the crayonish looking movie about the old man who planted trees, I would appreciate if you told me.  Thanks bunches.
 
And I need to be going now, I kind of have to teach sunday school tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.  And I hope you all have a good remainder of the weekend, and hopefully I'll be able to write another little email on Monday after work, but I don't know that I'll have the time.  Maybe just a quick one.  Well, keep the emails coming, and I'll see you all later!
Brian


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Thursday, June 24, 2004

"This is the kingdom of my heart, No longer bright, it's cold and dark..."

Name that band.  Actually, sorry to admit, but I didn't know it when I heard it coming home from work today (I was the one coming home, not the song.  confusing, tricky, conniving deixis!)  But I looked it up and now I know.  Isn't it great how Google is always there when we need it?  I love Google.  If it were female, and also human, I would marry Google.  She'd be the smartest girl I will ever have met (or maybe a close second).  And she would be so aesthetically stimulating and pleasing.
 
I've decided that today's email is going to be more personalized than the rest.  I think I'll still put in historical events simply for memory's sake, but I will limit it only to the people that everyone else will think is cool.  Most of you probably don't get as excited as I do about the people I talk about.  Meh.
 
Anyway... My family is gone, and I have no idea where they ran off to.  I know my youngest brother is camping, so he's exempt from my wonderment.  But the rest of them are gone.  Hmmm.... It could be that they are in Emmett picking cherries?  It could be that my brother is finally taking his driving test?  It could be that they were kidnapped, and then also all the cars were taken?  It could be that they decided to go out for a really nice dinner, just my parents and Andy... those jerks...!  I'll assume that's what it is, so that I can have an illogical reason to be upset, and then when I bad-mood them, they'll wonder what's going on, and I'll claim that it's their fault.  Hmm, sounds like a bad plan now that I've put it in writing.  I'll come up with another.
 
Oh and just for kicks, here are some songs that I highly recommend:
"Mad World" by Gary Jules
"Hello, McFly" by Relient K
"Every New Day" by Five Iron Frenzy (actually, I recommend almost everything by Five Iron Frenzy.  I got their "Proof That The Youth Are Revolting" album and I like every song on it!)
"Peace Train" by Cat Stevens
"Spirit in the Sky" by Norman Greenbaum (he's the "1" in "1 hit wonder")
And here is the word I made up just now:  curlylicious.  It means "tasty because they're curly fries!"
So for yesterday's holiday, I said it was National Pink Day and Let It Go Day, and something else that I forgot.  Well, now I have remembered, and it was Pizzazz Day as well, but I didn't celebrate.  I'm lacking in the pizzazz department.  I'm feeling rather drained now.
 
And here is a list of things I thought about while I was at work today:
-Brominated Vegetable Oil (I saw it on my can of orange soda and I got to wondering.  I'm glad that part of me hasn't died yet.  I keep losing bits of my personality, and I like wondering about things.  It keeps me alive)  What exactly is "brominated"?  I looked it up as soon as I got home.  And it has something to do with adding Bromine by some special process.  Is Bromine healthy?  Do I need a certain amount each day?  If I get too much, will it hurt me?  How much is too much?
-Why are there soooooo many different kinds of deodorant?!?  ditto shampoo?!?  And why don't the makers of shampoo make them so that the bottle stands up nicely in a box.  They're all wavy shapes with small bottoms and they topple over.  again and again...
-"This woman [working next to me] is the most obnoxious woman I have ever met."  Yes that is a direct quote from my mind.  She was, I think, the most immature middle aged woman in the whole warehouse.  Everyone I saw her interact with seemed thoroughly annoyed with her, and I don't think she knows that she drives everyone up the wall.  And in a warehouse, we have some pretty dang tall walls.  She reminded me of a 6th grader.
-I have never sat and "watched the ships roll in".  I thought that as I sat outside during my lunch break and watched the freight trucks "roll in".  And watching ships is kind of a common childhood memory for all those famous authors and playwrights and scientists, and pretty much everyone but me.  I have never sat on a dock and looked at the ocean.  I looked around the grounds of the warehouse and all I saw was dirt and pavement, and then the four trees they had planted on a small bit of grass so that the place would not look so dreary and forbidding.  What a sad childhood I have led, with no ocean, but dirt.  Dirt, as far as the eye can see...
-Why do the vending machine people always put the different flavors of Hostess© fruit pies on the same row?  A lady commented that I should have bought the apple pie so that she could get to the cherry one.  They don't put the Peanut M&M's behind the regular M&M's do they?  Whats the difference, really?  They are two different products, just like any other kind of candy.  Peanut Butter Twix and regular Twix are sold on different rows.  They are simply two slightly different variations of the same name.  Not the same item, not the same row.  But fruit pies get shafted.  And who knows how much business Hostess has lost because of that apple pie in the front?  If they had a separate cherry row, they would have made a sale, maybe two, maybe a hundred...
 
Ok, so my brother was looking at a website featuring Intel products and he was looking at a motherboard called D865 Perl.  And the topic of our conversation transitioned to the term "mother of pearl" and I asked who Peal's mother was, and he promptly responded, "D875PBZ".  That shut me up.
 
I found out who my brother's love interest is.  He kept talking about Adelle.  Although it could have been "a Dell".  But recently I think he fancies Pearl more (or maybe its "Perl", short for D865...)  I just hope he's not going after older women...  He spends all day writing out price sheets trying to find the best prices on all the different components of a high quality computing system (I learned from Stephen the Canadian's computer science textbook, written by nerds for nerds, that the "computer" is just the CPU.  The "computing system" is what most people commonly call a "computer".  A computing system includes all the memory and hardware and monitors and things.)
 
Well, I've decided not to include any historical stuff today, but you can always look it up if you'd like.  Google is good for things like that.  Or you can wait until tomorrow when I may or may not have the time to write a good, long, email.  And as always, you can read all previous Daily Emails at my webspace.  Well, thats all for today.  Most of you won't even get this until tomorrow (well, when you read it, it will be today, and today will be yesterday... i dunno)  Peace out, all!
Brian "the coolest guy ever" Harris


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Wednesday, June 23, 2004

"I try to let the river flow in and out of me..."

Yah.  Name that band!

Hey homies, today's work report: Not as tiring as yesterday, but much more boring.  They put me back on order selection.  I could do shipping all day, but I'd rather not stuff the boxes.  Just stack 'em.

And today's weather report:  Right now it's 6:00pm and it's 98 degrees out there.  And always, there is no humidity.  It's a nosebleeder's worst nightmare.

Today is Pink Day, like I said yesterday, but I learned this morning that it is also Let It Go Day.  If something is bothering you, let it go.  And it was something else, but I forgot, and can't find it right now.  Meh.

Happy Birthday to:
Matthijs Siegenbeek, 1774 (he studied spelling.  how cool is that!)
Kari Takko, 1969
Felix Potvin, 1971
My little sister Julie (she's older, but she's so small and cute!)

Happy croaking day:
Ho-tse Shen-hui, 758
Franz de Backer, 1961
Jonas Salk, 1995 (WHAT AN AWESOME GUY!)
Betty Shabazz, 1997 (she's the widow of Malcolm X.  What do yous think of him?)

On this day:
World's oldest parliament, the Iceland Parliament, is established, 930
Henry Hudson set adrift in Hudson Bay by mutineers on his ship Discovery and is never seen again, 1611
1st US balloon flight (13 year old Edward Warren), 1784
Antoine Joseph Sax patents Saxophone, 1848 (one site I went to said that today was his birthday, but that is absolutely false.  He was born on November 6, my brother Andy's birthday!)
Frederick Douglass nominated for president, 1888 (first black nominee!)
Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Assn (UNIA) incorporates, 1919
12 women graduate from Harvard Medical School, 1949 (the first women to do so)
Swiss parliament refuses voting right for women, 1950
Walt Disney's "Lady & the Tramp" released, 1955
Hurricane Agnes strikes, 1972 (costliest natural disaster in American history)
Alice Cooper falls off stage in Vancouver, breaks 6 ribs, 1975
Nintendo 64 goes on sale in Japan, 1996

Picture of the day:  click here!

Hope you enjoy that.  If it doesnt work for some reason, just let me know somehow and i'll fix the problem.

Words of the day!
bromhidrosis: the secretion of foul smelling sweat
Check out this site!

delectation: great pleasure, delight, enjoyment

That's all I'm allowed to do today.  Dinner time, then off to participate as assistant scoutmaster.  I've only been such since Sunday, and tonight is my first chance to do something, I'll let yous know how it goes.  Later all.
Brian



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Tuesday, June 22, 2004

"And we tend the garden all day long watching history unfold..."

As always, Name that Band!
 
Yah, I'm really sorry everyone.  I lost the opportunity to have fun of almost every kind.  Here's the story of my average weekday:  Get up at 5:30, get to work at 6:30, stack boxes on palettes until 4:30 or 5:00, spend twenty-five minutes driving home (with no air conditioning), and then I don't have any plans in the evenings, and I'm usually dead tired anyway.  So supposing I get home and sufficiently relaxed by 6 pm, I have 4-5 hours with which to have fun.  Bleh.  There goes the exciting and interesting and, as some would say, "quirky" part of my life.  Well, you've witnessed what happens when you get a job.  The best part of working at the warehouse though, is that there is no music playing, so whatever gets stuck in your head plays ALLLLL day long.  Today it was "Maybe Katie" by The Barenaked Ladies (awesome band, they are capable in so many different styles, and all their songs are good, not just a few!)  and I also had Amazing Grace bobbing around in my head for a while, but it was the Garrison Keiler version, where it's sung to the tune of the Mickey Mouse Fan Club song.  hehe, I love it!
 
So, I guess the loss of the funner part of my existence will lessen the quality of these emails, but as Jase pointed out, I had been slacking in the personal part anyway.  Maybe I couldn't have gotten any worse.  So maybe working won't hurt anything after all.
 
I played about 8 games of croquet last night.  It was intense.  And I kept almost winning, but not quite.  I beat my dad the first game of golf croquet (just a variation, not at all like golf) but then all the subsequent games I took second, or tied for second or something.  Even when I had the lead, as I did in the antepenultimate game, I flubbed at the end and by an amazing run of 5 or 6 wickets by my opponent, I lost.  But thats ok.
 
I don't remember what the most recent holiday I listed is, so here is Saturday through today:
Saturday was World Sauntering Day, Sunday was Ice Cream Soda Day, yesterday was, unfortunately, nothing.  And today is National Chocolate Eclair Day, and tomorrow is National Pink Day.  (HEHE!  Have fun with that Julie E.!)  I think everyone should listen to Pink Floyd tomorrow too.  My brother suggested it, but I like Pink Floyd.  A lot.  I actually heard them on the radio this morning on my way to work.
 
And today is the very happy birthday of:
George Vancouver, 1757
Guus Jansen, 1911
Paul Frees, 1920 (the voice of Bullwinkle!!! :-p )
Bobby Gillespie, 1961
 
Happy day o' death:
Machiavelli, 1527
Howard Staunton, 1874 (he designed the modern design of the chess pieces.  they werent always like that.  bet you didnt know that!)
David O Selznick, 1965
Judy Garland, 1969
Alan Webb, 1982
 
Things that happened today in history:
Bilbo Baggins returns to his home at Bag End, 1342 Shire Reckoning (heehee!)
Zebulon Pike reaches his peak, 1808
Doughnut invented, 1847
Future Queen Elizabeth of England meets future husband Philip, 1939
Finland invades Karelia, 1941
WEB DuBois becomes 1st Black member of National Institute of Letters, 1943
Pluto's satelite Charon is discovered, 1978
Little Richard quits rock & roll for religious pursuit, 1979 (I'd say it's better that he quit.  that guy is definitely a weirdo)
Florida passes a law prohibits wearing a thong, 1990
Two skeletons excavated in Yekaterinburg identified as Czar Nicholas II & wife, 1992
 
peremptory: 1) putting an end to or precluding a right of action, debate, or delay.  2) expressive of urgency or command.  3) marked by arrogant self-assurance : haughty
 
jeremiad: A tale of sorrow, disappointment, or complaint; a doleful story; also, a dolorous or angry tirade.
 
denigrate: To defame or belittle.
 
Irish Word Of The Day:
eile (EH-luh): other
Usage:  Eile, like other adjectives, follows the noun:
           an saol eile (uh SEE-uhl EH-luh) = the other world
           la/ eile (LAW EH-luh) = another day
History:  Old Irish "aile" comes from Common Celtic *alyos, which is fromIndo-European *alyo- (other, out of a group of more than two; as opposedto *altero-, the other one of two), which is an extended form of the root*al- (beyond). Cognates found in English are "else", "alias" and "alien".
 
 
"Any great truth can -- and eventually will -- be expressed as a cliche -- a cliche is a sure and certain way to dilute an idea. For instance, my grandmother used to say, 'The black cat is always the last one off the fence.' I have no idea what she meant, but at one time, it was undoubtedly true."
      Solomon Short
 
"Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes."
      Francois Marie Aurouet de Voltaire (1694 - 1778)
 
"I have learned to use the word 'impossible' with the greatest caution."
      Wernher von Braun (1912 - 1977)  <--- This guy is flippin' awesome!
 
"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come."
       Matt Groening
 
Yah.  Those are your quotes for today.  I really like the thought of ice weasels coming to pick at your flesh by night.  But I don't know if that's how I would describe love.  I would say: "love is a pair of fours."  I don't know why.  It just seems right.
 
Name this book/play/poem/sonnet.  Or name the author, whichever you prefer.  |:-)
"Here now I stand, poor fool, and see
I'm just as wise as formerly."
I'll give you a clue.  The original language is German, this is just someone's translation (George Madison Priest's to be precise)
 
And with that, I'll leave you to your affairs.  If any of you have good ideas for things to do in evenings that don't take much energy and can be done within 5 hours, let me know!  peace out.
B.D. Harris


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Monday, June 21, 2004

"I want to be where yaks can run free"

Hey all-

Name that band!!!  Name this guest writer!!! (both for a prize, unless brian can't think of one)

Brian has actually gotten a life.  Hard to believe, but true.  So on a few days my brother Andy and I will be taking his place.

Now I'll just make something up that sounds like something Brian would say:  If any of you can find any yak pictures and send them to me, I'll be very happy.  All I can find is a big fatty yak with an arrow pointing to its back that says 'this is posterioir'.  I'll go look posterior up in the OED really quick. Posterior: Later, subsequent in time; opposed to prior. Wow.  The yak's back is posterior to what exactly???

And now for your quotes:

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940)

Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians.
Chester Bowles (1901 - 1986)

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860)
Happy birthday to:

1566 - James I Stuart, king of Scotland (James VI)/England (1567/1603-25)
1608 - Thomas Fuller, England, literary (History of the Holy War)
1782 - John Bray, composer
1783 - Thomas Sully, US portrait painter (Queen Victoria)
1842 - Carl Johann Adam Zeller, composer

Happy Deathday to:
1730 - Jean-Baptiste Loeillet, composer, dies at 49
1822 - John Bray, composer, dies on 40th birthday
1993 - William Golding, author (Lord of the Flies, Nobel 1983), dies at 81

Today in history:
0987 - Louis IV, crowned king of France
1464 - French King Louis XI forms postal service
1963 - 2 Russian space missions return to Earth
1984 - "Weird Al" Yankovic gives free live performance at Del Mar Fair (cool guy)

Worthless word of the day: Bork
Word of the day: ameliorate: to make or become better; improve

Focal An Lae: maith
Adjectives follow the noun in Irish, and adjectives following a feminine noun are subject to mutation:

fear maith = a good man

bean mhaith = a good woman (WAHH)

Maith is also a noun, meaning "the good, what is good", for example, in the common phrase for "thank you":

go raibh maith agat (guh ruh MAH-huhguht)
(lit., may there be what-is-good at-you)
Wow. Irish is the coolest!

In case you don't know me, I'm Michael Harris, Brian's 12 year old brother. So if you're bored and have nothing to do, email me at maharris@gmail.com and go to my just-created-blog-thing-with-only-one-post http://maharris.blogspot.com.  Peace out everyone, and may the force be with you.

-Michael "Brian" Harris



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Wednesday, June 16, 2004

"By the time they started showing up, I ran the risk of blowing up..."

Hey all-
Name the band (and song if you feel like it) from my subject line!
Name this book! (& authour if you feel like it): "A handsome face, only a little pimply, as though with drinking."
 
 
I offer a reward to any who can tell me what a lowercase 'f' might mean, i found it when I looked up the word "etymology" and read the etymology of it (yah, I'm a nerd) and I saw OF. (Old French) and Mod. F. (Modern French) and L. (Latin) and Gr. (Greek) and f. (???).  I have ruled out French because they would have capitalized it (as in 'F.' and 'Mod. F.') and also the word after the f. says etymologos (only in Greek characters).  The French don't write in Greek characters.  Is it Frisian?  Is it Fijian?  Is it Finnish?  In photography, a lone lowercase f. would mean Focal Length.  The name of the letter f. is Digamma, and is not found in the Greek alphabet.  In the Semitic language 'f' was called 'waw' and made the w sound, and later the u sound.  Which has always been linked to the v sound.  And we know that v and f only differ in voicing, not place or manner of articulation.  What is going on?!?  I need your help.  This is your chance to explore my world, take advantage of it and maybe you'll like it.  I need to know what that little 'f.' means.  It happens a lot in the dictionary.
 
"Man is, as Mr. Palmer says, and etymologizing animal, and abhors an unmeaning word."
          Althenaeum, 23 December, 1882
"The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture."
          Ralph Waldo Emerson
'Ah,' shrugged out monsieur le valet, with a sparkling Voltarish look which every Frenchman has when convicted, as if planning a repartee, 'c'est très vrai.'
         B.R. Haydon (autobiography, 1927.  III, xiii, 252)
 
Those will be the quotes for today.  Hope you found some inkling of enjoyment from them.
 
Today is National Hollerin' Contest Day!  YELL AS LOUDLY AS YOU CAN!!!
 
Happy Birthday:
Gustav V, 1853 (King of WHICH COUNTRY?!?  BE THE FIRST TO TELL ME)
Fritz Schulz, 1879
Barbara McClintock, 1902
John Howard Griffin, 1920 (anyone ever read Black Like Me?)
Tupac Shakur, 1971 (Is he really dead?)
Erin Clark, 1987
 
Happy Deathday:
Hugo, 956 (The Great, duke of France)
Jan Coppenhole, 1492 (Flemish resistance leader)
Stenka Razin, 1671 (Cossack rebel leader)
Hermann Grimm, 1901
Dubose Heyward, 1940
Francis E Meloy Jr., 1976 (US ambassador to Lebanon, kidnapped & killed)
 
And Today in History:
Mary, Queen of Scots, imprisoned in Lochleven Castle prison Scotland, 1567
Holland forbids orange clothes, 1784
Gilbert & Sullivan's "HMS Pinafore" debuts at Bowery Theater NYC, 1879 (Bart Simpson's life was saved when Sideshow Bob was forced to sing the entire score of HMS Pinafore, hehe)
17" hailstones weighing 1.75 lbs fall in Dubuque Iowa, 1882
1st roller coaster used (Coney Island NY), 1884
RW Rueckheim invents Cracker Jack, 1893
Pepsi Cola company forms, 1903
1st US airplane sold commercially, by Glenn Curtiss for $5,000, 1909
US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) created, 1933 (The first of FDR's New Deal)
Ngo Dinh Diem elected president of Vietnam, 1954
Pope Pius XII ex-communicates Argentine Pres Juan Peron, 1955
"Psycho," opens in NY, 1960 (I had a good chat about Psycho with a kid in NY online the other day)
Homer Simpson & Marge Bouvier wed, 1974 (I always like it when cartoons have history further back than when the show takes place.  And not just cartoons, I like how we know Hermione's birthday is September 19th.  Oh and don't try to find that in the books, it's not there, but JKR said so)
Moslem Brotherhood kills 62 sheiks in Aleppo Syria, 1979
Subway gunman Bernhard Goetz acquitted on all but gun possession charges after shooting 4 black youths who tried to rob him, 1987
"U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer peaks at #8, 1990
Longest salami is 68'9 & 25 circumference, weighed 1,492lbs/5oz in Flekkefjord, Norway, 1992
Martin Brodeur becomes 1st Devil to win Calder Trophy, 1994
 
Words of the day(!):
oofy: wealthy, rich
erstwhile: in the past, formerly
ancillary: Subordinate; subsidiary; Auxiliary; helping.
papuliferous: pimply (lit. bearing "papules"  Don't bother looking up papule, it means pimple)
 
Irish Gaelic Word of the Day:
fionn (FIN): white, bright, fair haired
Usage: bean fhionn (BAN IN) = a blonde woman
          Fionn Mac Cumhaill (anglicized as Finn Mac Cool) = the Blond, son of Cumhall
History: Old Irish "find" comes from reconstructed Common Celtic *wind-os.  Compare Gaulish "Vindo-bona", the ancient name of Vienna, meaning "whitespring" or "white city", the second element being uncertain. Welsh has"gwyn" and Breton "gwenn", both meaning "white". The original sense ofthe Common Celtic *wind-os seems to be "clearly visible", from theIndo-European root *weid- (to see).
 
Play this game!  Its one of my favorites.  And it's nice because I can type much much much faster than i can write.  The only problem is when you play it for too long your head explodes and then for the rest of the week, all you can think about are three, four, and five (sometimes longer for more points!) letter words.  And you spell words in your dreams.  It's actually a little frightening, but oh, so fun!  Play Boggle Now!
 
And now for your random poem/sonnet/song/ode for the day!  Name the author!  (A clue, the title is "Sonnet XLIII" mwahaHAHAHA!!!  that didn't help at all!)
 
"How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!--and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death."
 
Yah.  So yesterday I almost played croquet, and I almost went driving around, but I never actually got up out of this chair.  But the good news is that I went to bed at 11 last night and I slept until 10.  I never sleep that late.  I used to at school, but that was when I was heavily under the influence of Austin.  He liked to suck all energy out of the room, and I tended to sleep much later than I ever did (or do) at home.  At the end of the year, I started waking up earlier again because I slept outside a lot more.  The sun is quite good at waking you up early.  Well its noon now (for me, anyway.  I figured it out and I'm sending this to people from 7 different time zones!  And who knows how many people have seen it on the internet now) and I need to eat some breakfast and stuff.  Hope you're all having a wonderful day!
Brian "give me money" Harris


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Tuesday, June 15, 2004

"Excuse my grammar, but the fat lady sung..."

Name that band!  (I didn't forget you Marel, I'll do yours tomorrow)
 
Today I'm going to make a short email because I have lots of books that I want to read, and not lots of time to read them in.  I'm still in the middle of that one by Snorri Sturluson, and then after that I have: A Short History of Sweden (last semester I read "A Brief History of the Swedish Language", that was rockin cool), A Brief Concise History of Scandinavia, Medeival English Literature, a biography of William Tyndale, and probaby by the time I finish those, I will have found something else to read.  And with any luck, a job.
 
So, I played pictionary lat night until 4am.  It was pretty cool.  I made fun of this guy from New Zealand and I called him an Aussie and he got all offended.  And I also talked to this girl from Norway about Norwegian history.  That was way cool.  Everyone else probably thought we were nuts.  Which is fine with me.  And I also "slapped" Caleb a lot too.  And Kim played too.
 
Today is Smile Power Day.  So smile.
 
Happy Birthday:
Frederik II, 1221
Richard Grenville, 1542
Edvard Hagerup Grieg, 1843
Trevor Huddleston, 1913
Waylon Jennings, 1937
Jim Varney, 1946 (IT'S ERNEST!!!  YOU KNOW FROM ERNEST GOES TO CAMP?!?)
James Belushi, 1954
Helen Hunt, 1963
Ice Cube, 1969 (hehe, Ice Cube...  One time I saw on Celebrity Deathmatch a fight between Ice Cube and Vanilla Ice.  It was cooool)
Jesse Belanger, 1969 (yay for hockey)
Jean Francois Labbe, 1972 (yay for more hockey)
Sandy Mccarthy, 1972 (yay for even more hockey)
Dean McAmmond, 1973
Neil Patrick Harris, 1973 (he played Doogie Howser, back in the day)
 
Happy Deathday:
Robert I, 923 (king of France)
Romanus I Lecapenus, 948 (Armenian emperor of Byzantium)
Theophano, 991 (wife of Otto II)
Andronicus III Paleologus, 1341 (another Byzantine emperor)
Wat Tyler, 1381 (leader of the English Peasants' Revolt)
Nicolaas van Nieuwland, 1580 (corrupt first bishop of Haarlem)
Antoine Court, 1760
James Knox Polk, 1849 (one of those presidents that only seventeen people in the whole country actually know existed)
Jakob Jud, 1952 (Swiss Etymologist!!!!!)
Meredith Willson, 1984
Victor French, 1989 (actor (#44 on Get Smart) and shows/movies)
Ella Fitzgerald, 1996
Fitzroy Maclean, 1996 (AWESOME guy!  no foolin' check him out!)
 
Here is a quote from Fitzroy Maclean (who is thought to be the real life model for 007):
"On his extraordinary travels, even in old age, he carried a tube of anchovy paste, a flask of vodka and four small silver cups. 'At a pinch,' he would tell friends, 'you can always find a piece of dry bread to put some anchovy paste on, and if you have three or four noggins of vodka you have a party straight away--which is good for morale.'"
Churchill told him: "Your job is to find out who is killing the most Germans--and determine how we can help them kill more."
 
And here is your random picture for the day.  I found it at this site.  It's a bunch of nerds that dress up and fight each other dressed as LotR characters.  Not like I've never done that... It's sickening that I'm not ashamed of this.  I just thought some of you might get a kick out of it.  Laugh all you want.
 
Today in Earth's Expansive History:
King John signs Magna Carta at Runnymede, England, 1215
King Valdemar brought victory for Denmark, 1219
Battle at Carberry Scot: Protestant troops beat Earl Bothwells army, 1567
Pope Leo X threatens to excommunicate Martin Luther, 1590
Able Tasmania returns to Batavia after discovering Tasmania, 1643
NJ established, 1664 (I don't know if NJ is worthy of capitalization or space in my email...)
2 French balloonists die in world's 1st fatal aviation accident, 1785
Goodyear patents vulcanization of rubber, 1844
1st White settlement in Idaho (Franklin), 1860 (I say they should have left it alone, it wasnt worth the effort of settling)
Celluloid patented by John Wesley Hyatt, 1869 (the first plastic)
1st attempt at motion pictures (used 12 cameras, each taking 1 picture) done to see if all 4 of a horse's hooves leave the ground, 1878
Boys Scouts of America forms, 1916
1" of snow falls in Northern Pennsylvania, 1918
John Lennon (15) & Paul McCartney (13) meet for 1st time as rock group Quarrymen perform at a church dinner, 1956
Bob Dylan records "Like a Rolling Stone", 1965
Supreme Court rules all children, regardless of citizenship, are entitled to a public education, 1982
Pravda announces high-level Chernobyl staff fired for stupidity, 1986
 
Words of the day:
lirp: a snap of the fingers
slipshod: wearing loose shoes
primogeniture: being the firstborn
labrose: having thick or large lips
 
Irish Gaelic Word of the Day:
Sagart:  priest
Usage: sagart paróiste (SAH-guhrt PU-rohsh-chuh or puh-ROHSH-chuh) = parish priest
          Chuaigh sé sna sagairt. (XOO-uh shay snuh SAH-gwirt) = He joined the priesthood. (lit., He went into the priests.)
History:  Old Irish "sacart" was borrowed early on from Latin "sacerdos",which comes ultimately from the Indo-European root *sak- (to sanctify),via the compound *sak-ro-dhot- [macron over final o], meaning "performer of sacred rites".
 
"It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them."
     Alfred Adler (1870 - 1937)
 
That's really all I have for today, unless you want to give me more ideas.  I'm fresh out right now.  Hmmm... fresh, that's actually something I'm not.  I didn't shower today.  And I'm sure you all care... so anyway, I'm gonna quit while you still don't hate me (or so I think).
Brian Harris


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Monday, June 14, 2004

"Never ask us to play this song, or that song about our pants..."

Name that band (from the subject line obviously)!  The reference to the pants song is "Rock Opera of the Pants" by the same band.  Rockin cool song.  I love this band.  They also have a song about eating pork and beans and getting gas.  And a song called the Phantom Mullet.  Awesome stuff.
 
In the words of the poet Thjodolf:  "Above the prow, the dragon rears its glowing head".  Just thought you might care.
 
And also, I would like to take this opportunity to invite any and all of my friends (hehe, i make it sound like its my party...)  to come to Jase and Kallene's birthday party.  It's this thursday night, 6ish DeMeyer Park.  Be there or else you're no friend of mine.  Unless you have a really good excuse, like, say "i don't even live in idaho" or "i already had something planned, like my job" or something.  Seriously, everyone come, the Cutlers rock, and this partys gonna be way non-lame.  actually, i would even say it will be freakin awesome.
 
     Did you know that the word "napiform" means "turnip-shaped"?  And did you know that the nap- part of the word is of the same origin as the -nip in turnip and also parsnip?  One of those words in crazy old Latin is napus which means turnip.  So you just add the Latin ending -form, which means "having the shape of".  
     The termination (-form) is always preceeded by -i-, either representing the Latin stem-vowel or its weakened form in combination, or inserted after consonant stems.  By some this 'i' has been ignorantly supposed to be the genitive ending; hence such misspellings as fabaeform, tabulaeform.
     When I was trying to pick this word apart, I also assumed that the -i- was the genitive ending of napus.  I looked it up in the trusty OED and learned the error of my ways.
 
Take this Free Tour!  Actually it might not work.  I'm not sure.  It worked for me because i loggen in...  i guess if it pops up a little screen and you can't get in, you can do username: bdhar; password: 1007584.  Don't abuse this.  Please.
 
Today is Flag Day.  Let's all show a little patriotism here.  We have a really awesome country, you know, go ahead and let everyone else know you believe that.
 
    "Flag Day, is a day for all Americans to celebrate and show respect for our flag, it's designers and makers. Our flag is representative of our independence and our unity as a nation.....one nation, under God, indivisible. Our flag has a proud and glorious history. It was at the lead of every battle fought by Americans. Many people have died protecting it. It even stands proudly on the surface of the moon.
    As Americans, we have every right to be proud of our culture, our nation, and our flag. So raise the flag today and every day with pride!"
 
Did you know that if you like to study flags then you are a Vexillologist?  Thought not.
 
Happy Birthday to:
*Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, 1736  (I heard all about coulombs in my sleep, but i have noooo idea what in the world they are.  definitely related to physics though, because austin and the canadian always did their physics when i was in bed.)
*Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811  (yah, name her famous book and WIN A PRIZE!!!)
*John Bartlett, 1820 (this dude complied Familiar Quotations.  That's almost as cool as compiling a dictionary, in my mind.)
*Louis Finkelstein, 1895
*Burl Ives, 1909  (I remember his song about sitting on your hat or your toothbrush, or your grandmother, or anything else that's helpless)
*James Patrick, 1963 (now of the Buffalo Sabres.  Did you know he was drafted 1st round, 9th pick?)
*Eric Desjardins, 1969 (yah, wurd.  Go philly flyers)
*Sami Kapanen, 1969 (also of the philadelphi flyers, born in Vantaa, Finland)
*Montgomery Edward Scott, 2160 (this is Scottie the engineer from Star Trek)
 
Happy Deathday to:
*Gottfried Wegner, 1709
*Benedict Arnold, 1801
*Karl-Birger Blomdahl, 1968
*Salvatore Quasimodo, 1968
Uhh, yah.  thats all.  Not too many to choose from today i guess...
 
Today in History:
*1st compulsory education law in America passed by Massachusetts, 1642
*US Army founded, 1775
*Isaac Fischer Jr patents sandpaper, 1834
*1st Canadian parliament opens in Kingston, Ontario, 1841
*California declares independence from Mexico, 1846
*Robert von Bunsen invents the Bunsen burner, 1847 (remember back about a month ago, when we celebrated Bunsen Burner Day?  Well that was von Bunsen's birthday.  Today is the anniversary of his discovery.  So let's celebrate again!  Bunsen Burners rock!)
*Norway restricts woman's voting rights, 1907 (traditionally Norway has allowed women to vote since the days of the Vikings.  they restricted their rights at this time because they were preparing for communism and tyrrany and all manner of vileness and evil.)
*Pres Harding is 1st US president to use radio, dedicating the Francis Scott Key memorial in Baltimore, 1922
*Dorothy Lathrop wins 1st Caldecott Medal, 1938 (someday I want to win the Caldecott)
*Auschwitz concentration camp opens, 1940
*1st bazooka produced, 1942
*Canadian Library Association established, 1946 (I wand to join a Library Association someday)
*Eisenhower condemns McCarthy's book burning proposal, 1953 (yah, you flippin' Nazi!)
*No Nukes concert at Hollywood Bowl, 1981
*Southern Baptist convention decide on no women clergy members, 1984
*Queen Elizabeth II knights Ronald Reagan, 1989
 
The theme for this weeks Worthless Word for the Day is "obscure four letter words"!  This is like a dream come true!  Although I don't have anyone to play my four letter word game with anymore.  When Kelv was still around, we played a bunch.  But still, I love four letter words.
And your word(s) for the day:
winx: to bray like a donkey  (british dialectal, related to whinny)
equinimity: evenness of mind; calmness
 
Focal An Lae:
draoi (DREE): druid, wizard, magician
Usage:  Here it is, folks: a word to conjure with. Heaven knows therehas been plenty of conjuring with it over the last century, as it hasbeen variously interpreted and appropriated. In translating "draoi"from Irish tales, "magician" or "sorcerer" would often be the mostaccurate equivalent. The work of a "draoi" is "draíocht" (DREE-uhxt)
     faoi dhraíocht (Fwee GHREE-uhxt) = enchanted, under a spell
     ceol draíochta (KYOHL DREE-uhx-tuh) = enchanting music (lit., music of magic)
History:  Old Irish "druí" derives from the hypothetical Common Celtic word *dru-wid-, meaning "he who has firm knowledge". "Dru-" can be traced back to the Indo-European root *deru- (to be firm, steadfast)."Wid-" goes back to *woid-e (he knows), from the root *weid- (to see).  English cognates of *deru- are "true" and "tree", and of *weid- are "wit"and "wise". The English word "druid" comes not from Irish, but from the Latin version of the Gaulish word.
 
Ahhhhhh..... words!
 
I think I might want to have a water fight one of these days.  Those are always cool.  I can get all my friends (the ones that are left.  I feel like they're dropping like flies, only not so "dead") and all of Andy's friends, and all the people that wish Andy was their friend and all the people at Jase/Kallene's party.  I think that would probably be enough.  maybe all the stake young single adults too.  Then we could take over DeMeyer or something.  We'd almost have a real army.  Uhh, ok I just was saying stuff, and I don't actually have a plan.  If you're interested in a water fight later this week or even next week, or anytime over the summer, give me an email.
 
Also, I think it would be way cool if everyone informed me when their birthdays are, so that i dont forget anyone.  I would feel bad, because I put on the people i know, and the rest just kinda get slighted.  And its sooooo hard to try and keep track of a hundred and twenty birthdays.  I know of five that are coming up in the next week or two.  So if you would be so kind as to send me an email with your birthday in it, that would rock.  Go ahead and send it to bdharris@gmail.com  This is a new account that i have set up because i keep running out of space (Thats one risk of getting 20 emails a day...) So I will never have to delete another message again.  Sorry to keep changing my address on yous (pl. "you".  "y'all" is just lame and hickish, and "you" is too ambiguous) but hotmail has really let me down, and BYU mail is very much unreliable and non-useful and frustrating.  So yah.  I think I'll still send my mass mails from this account, and set the reply-to address as my gmail.  I dunno.  More details later, when I figure out how to use Gmail better.
 
And here are your quotes for today, hope you like 'em.
"It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man."
          H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
"A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterward."
          Jean Paul Ritcher (1763 - 1825)
"The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think."
          Horace Walpole (1717 - 1797)
 
Yah, peace out everyone.  Keep the suggestions and criticism coming.  It gives me something to do.
-Brian


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Saturday, June 12, 2004

"And the stains comin' from my blood tell me 'Go back home'..."

AhahaHAHAHA!
 
Just felt like laughing is all.
 
If anybody feels like giving me ice cream, you have no idea how much I'd appreciate that.  That's what I really really want right now.  Either that or lots of cold water to pour down my back.  Ahhhh, cold water down my back.... ahhhh..... Even imagining it feels wonderful.
 
And I just want everyone to know that I have been playing online pictionary at www.iSketch.net  It's great fun, and if ever you want to play me, let me know.  I'm almost always online, as you well know.  I've just been promoted from "Newbie" so now I have the privelege of "warning the artist" if they break rules or draw offensive things.  Woohoo.  And also I play online Boggle, but thats more a single player deal.  One of these days, I'll get my name on the high score list.  I've just got to!  And the Jumble doesnt even have a high score list, so I only do that once a week (but i play a whole weeks worth.  it only takes me about 2 minutes to do all 7 of them)  I like games...
 
And today happens to be: Machine Day.  Tomorrow is National Juggling Day.  I doubt I'll be putting out an e-mail tomorrow, so you'll just have to remember.  Maybe you can juggle the Sunday Paper.  Or not.  Maybe just tennis balls or ping pong balls or something.  I hear scarves are easy, but no one actually has those, do they?  I always thought they were kind of a carnie thing to have.
 
Yah.  Wurd.  So I celebrated Machine Day today by doing roughly 4 hours of manual labor using nothing but the machine God gave me.  I shoveled a lot, and carried big logs and beams and stuff.  And got my shoe stuck in the mud.  That was high quality fun.  And I got free hot dogs, soda, and ice cream from it.  I wish I could do this every weekend.
 
Bold.  Isn't "Bold" just a good word?  I think its a very good word.  I think it sounds bold because it has two voiced stops in it.  Both a bilabial and an alveolar.  What a word.
 
Happy Birthday to:
Johanna Spyri, 1829
Priscilla Lane, 1917
Anne Frank, 1929
The 420th kitten of "Dusty", 1952
Mathieu Schneider, 1969
 
Happy Deathday to:
Philip Livingston, 1778
Isidore Weiss, 1936 (World Checker Champion!)
Walter Leigh, 1942
Nicole Brown Simpson, 1994 (wife of OJ.  well, not anymore.  she was.)
 
And the fun things of today's past:
Frisian rebel leader Jancko Douwama arrested, 1523
William of Orange marries Charlotte de Bourbon, 1575
English rename New Amsterdam "New York" after Dutch pull out, 1665
Prussia & Russia sign secret treaty, 1714 (they'll never suspect Russia and Prussia are together...)
Roof collapse kills 30 at murder trial in France, 1885 (He strikes again!)
Single tornado kills 119, injures 146, 1889 (woefully unprepared I would guess.)
Harry Houdini frees himself from a straight jacket while suspended upside down, 40 feet (12 m) above ground in NYC, 1923
Hitler orders enslavement of Slavic peoples, 1942
3 convicts used spoons to dig their way out of Alcatraz, 1962
Supreme Court unanimously ends laws against interracial marriages, 1967
Kevin St Onge throws a playing card a record 185 feet, 1979
"Raiders Of The Lost Ark" premiers, 1981
 
Word of the Day:
Asperity: rigor, severity; roughness of surface; roughness of sound; roughness of manner or temper
 
Focal An Lae: uasal (OO-uh-suhl)
uasal = noble
Usage:  Uasal is both an adjective and a noun:
     bean uasal (BAN OO-uh-suhl) = a lady (lit., a noble woman)
     An tUasal Seán ó Sé (uhn TOO-uh-suhl SHAWN oh SHAY) = Mr. Seán ó Sé (lit., The Nobleman S. ó S.)
     na huaisle (nuh HOO-ish-luh) = the fairy folk (lit., the nobles)
History:  Old Irish "úasal" can be derived from a reconstructed CommonCeltic *(o)uxs-elo-s. The earliest attested form of this word is theGaulish "uxellos", as in Uxello-dunum (High Fort), a placename whichhas survived as Issoudun, Exoudun, etc. Modern Celtic cognates includeWelsh "uchel" and Breton "uhel", both meaning "high". The Indo-Europeanroot *upo- (over, etc.) is the ultimate source. English cognates include"up" and "above".
 
And on the request of my friend, I am going to put in something about currency.  You've all wondered how much the Turkish Lira is worth right?  I always thought it was less valuable than Yen.
Well, as I found out, 1 US Dollar is worth 1,500,000 Turkish Lira or 110.70 Japanese Yen.  So I was right all these years.  People always make fun of the Yen for being valueless, when really the Turkish Lira is very much un-noticed.  Maybe we should show more consideration for the Lira.  It doesnt have any friends.  Maybe it would feel more confident if we all spread the word about the Lira.  You know, raise awareness.  Just like all those "worthy causes" tell us to do.
 
"Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind."
          Marston Bates
"There is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don't know."
          Ambrose Bierce
"Leave it to a girl to take the fun out of sex discrimination."
          Calvin from "Calvin and Hobbes"
"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines."
          John Benfield
"Men of genius do not excel in any profession because they labor in it, but they labor in it because they excel."
          William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830)
 
Well, I dont think
i have anything left to say.
Hahaha!  you all thought that I was just going to stop at "I dont think"
Fooled you good!
 
Peace out
-ThE b. hArRiS


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Friday, June 11, 2004

"And the sign said, 'Long haired freaky people need not apply'..."

Name That Band.
 
Oh shmerz... today is Hug Holiday.  I refuse to participate.  No, I won't even "hug" anyone online.  I'm done hugging.  Possibly forever.
Get ready to celebrate Machine Day tomorrow.
 
Happy Birthday to:
Ben Jonson (1571)
Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1847)
Jose Bernabe Marino Barreto y Casanova (1907)
Nelson Mandela (1918, STUD!!)
Scott Mellanby (1966, plays for Florida Panthers)
Joshua Jackson (1978, actor in Mighty Ducks)
Austin Call (1985)
 
Happy Deathday to:
Hendrik (1216, emperor of Constantinople)
James III (1488, King of Scotland)
Mary of Lorraine (1560, Pro-French regent of Scotland)
Dugald Stewart (1828, Scottish philosopher)
Machmud Shevket Pasha (1913)
John Wayne (1979)
Marjorie Newell Robb (1992, Oldest living survivor of Titanic)
 
Today in History:
Harderwijk becomes a city (1231)
England grants Sir Humphrey Gilbert a patent to explore & colonize US (1578)
Benjamin Franklin invents his Franklin stove (1742)
Capt James Cook discovers Great Barrier Reef off Australia (1770)
Charles Lindbergh is awarded the 1st Distinguished Flying Cross (1927)
Marx Brothers' "A Day At The Races" released (1937)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt serves hot dogs to the king of England at a dinner party (1939)
"Paint It, Black" by The Rolling Stones hits #1 (1966)
109th Belmont: Jean Cruguet aboard Seattle Slew wins in 2:29.6 (1977, most recent triple crown winner)
Freedomfest - Mandela addresses Wembley Stadium London (1988)
I ate Marshmallow Mateys for breakfast (2004)
 
Words of the Day:
Polyonymous: having or being known by many names
Obtund: to blunt, deaden, or dull
 
Old/Middle English Words of the Day:
Hlaftage: uncooked bread
Wem: to disfigure, mutilate, impair, or injure; to desecrate or violate; to stain or cause impurity
 
Yah, this is the first time I've done an Old English word of the day thing.  I didn't even really mean to.  I was just perusing the OED and I keep finding all these cool words.  And I can't get enough of them.  If I decide to do the English Language major, then I'm required to learn either Old English or Middle English (or both) so I'm excited for that.  And even if I don't major in ELang, I'll still take at least one of those.  I think they're on the optional list for the Linguistics major.  And my goal is to someday read Beowulf in its original form.  None of this "let's translate it for you AND put editorial notes in every three lines".  I can do that for myself.  Well, not yet.  In three years I can.
 
Bands that I feel like listening to today:  Pink Floyd, The Notwist, Van Halen, Flogging Molly, Linkin Park, The Deviates, Yellowcard, Led Zeppelin.
 
Bands that I really don't feel like listening to today: The Hippos, Rilo Kiley, Postal Service, The Aquabats, Good Charlotte, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Relient K.
 
Irish Gaelic Word of the Day:
teanga = tongue; language
Teanga names both the fleshy organ in our mouths and human speech:
   Teanga names both the fleshy organ in our mouths and human speech:
   teanga bheo (CHANG-guh VYOE) = a living language
   Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam. (CHEER guhn CHANG-guh, CHEER guhn AH-nuhm) = A land without a language is a land without a soul.  (I personally really like this quote.)
History: Old Irish "tengae" derives from Indo-European *dnghu [dot under the n, macron over the u] (tongue). Modern cognates are "tongue","language", "linguist" (these latter from Old Latin "dingua").
 
This is the book I want, but it's too expensive.
 
And here are your quotes for today:
"You can be a rank insider as well as a rank outsider."
          Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)
"Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it."
          Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784)
 
I just spent the last fifteen minutes not typing.  I played with this little wire thing I found.  Right now it's shaped like an S with extra curves.  Its actually more like two S's on top of each other.  like that Nak symbol §.  Hopefully that shows up in your email.  It shows up on my screen but thats no guarantee.  Sometimes Hotmail is lametarded like that.  I never know what you're going to see.  I just guess.  Hopefully the text shows up.  I've had problems with that before.  My cousin wrote to me and said that she only was getting the subject lines.  Psh.  What gives?
 
And another reason I'm sick of Hotmail:  I keep having to delete things and make new accounts.  I don't like erasing my memories, and I'm afraid I'll forget people if I don't save some near-tangible memory of them.  Anyway, I'm done now.
-Brian


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Thursday, June 10, 2004

"It was a cool party, Cool pool party, La la la la..."

*note to Scott, i thought i added you, but then i didnt think i did, so i added you again.  hopefully you dont get this twice now.  and sorry if this is your first*
 
*note to Erin, share these with David, if you would be so kind?  I think he'll enjoy it*
 
Don't forget to play Name That Band with my subject line.  I'm trying to diversify more, so be on the lookout for your favorite bands.
 
Hey everyone!  I'm writing this pretty late today, so some of you probably won't get it until tomorrow.  Which would be sad because then you wouldnt get to celebrate todays holiday, birthday, and other cool events.  Please read this today.
 
I have already written my complaint about job searching.  I will not type it again.  look here.  This is only my second post for this particular blog.  I will be including in this one things that I don't mention in my daily emails, or just random thoughts that cross my mind.  Hopefully I will update it frequently, and maybe if you check it out once in a while, you'll enjoy it.
 
Today is National Yo-Yo Day.  Have a yo-yo.  *imagine me giving you a yo-yo*  Now I don't actually have to be nice, but you still think I'm a great friend.  Isn't that wonderful?
 
I went online today and I checked out Half.com.  I then clicked on the little button to look for textbooks and I found "Universe" by Roger Freedman (some of you remember this book slightly less than fondly, I'm sure) and it was only $10.  Do you know how much I had to pay for it at the BYU Bookstore?  It was absurdly a lot, I don't remember how much exactly.  Too much.  So that's why I have decided to never buy from the BYU Bookstore ever again.  And also this is part of the reason I have decided to open my own bookstore to compete heavily with it.  I will destroy them.  It will be called thus:  Brian's BYU Bookstore-Battling Bearable Bargain Bookstore of Bliss.  And also on Half.com I found many many many books for under a dollar.  And not lame books either.  Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (hehe, its British...) was there, and Maniac Magee, and each of the Lord of the Rings books were $0.75, and Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" is only $0.75 as well.  Ahhhh, I could live in a bookstore.  Thats my dream.  Maybe someday, I'll actually follow through.
 
Happy Birthday to:
Nikolaus A Otto, 1832 (creator of a motor engine)
Zbynek Vostrak, 1920
Maurice Sendak, 1928 (You all recognize the name surely?)
F Lee Bailey, 1933 (attorney in Sam Sheppard and OJ Simpson cases)
Brent & Duane Sutter (Chic. Blackhawks and NY Islander, respectively)
Tara Lipinski, 1982
 
Happy Deathday to:
Frederik I van Hohenstaufen, 1190 (A.K.A Barbarossa)
Mary de Guise, Queen Mother of Scotland, 1560
Bridget Bishop, 1692 (first witch to be executed in that whole Salem thing)
Giacomo Matteotti, 1924 (assassinated by the fascists)
Marcus Garvey, 1941
Sigrid Undset, 1949 (rockin cool Norse author)
Louis L'Amour, 1988
 
And famous things that happened today in history:
Catholic German monarchy signs League of Neurenberg, 1538
Thomas Cromwell arrested in Westminister, 1540
1st Dutch settlers arrive (from NJ), to colonize Manhattan Island, 1610  (I'm going to learn Dutch)
Tornado in Connecticut uproots a 3' diameter oak tree, 1682 (I found out today that they actually do have tornadoes in Connecticut.  My friend in Maryland said there was a tornado warning, and I had no idea you could get tornadoes there.  Hm... I grew a new dendrite!)
Ben Franklin's kite is struck by lightning-what a shock!, 1752 (Don't blame me for the pun, I didn't make it up.  I found it already like that!)
1st public zoo opens in Paris, 1793
Washington replaced Philadelphia as US capital, 1793
Millard Fillmore sworn-in as president of US (replacing Taylor), 1850
Girl Scouts founded, 1915
Great Arab Revolt begins, 1916
1st demonstration of artificial lightning, 1932
Norway surrenders to nazis, 1940 (I'm going to live in Norway someday)
PBS begins broadcasting, 1954
James Earl Ray escapes from prison (FIRST TO TELL ME WHY HE WAS IN JAIL WINS A PRIZE!!)
Burger King begins using Newman's Own Salad Dressing, 1990 (first of all, why is this noteworthy?  don't ask me.  I do really like Newman's though... and I like Newman too.  He's a cool guy.)
Stanley Cup: Colo Avalanche sweep Florida Panthers in 4 games, 1996 (the game took 6 periods, and the Avs won it XD )
 
 
Today's nonsensical word that someone thought was real:  zzxjoanw.
He thought it was a Maori drum because he trusted some book called Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary.
"Kiwis of my aquaintance agree that zzxjoanw is not a Maori word, as there are no Z, X or J in the Maori language - and the the phonetics aren't right either." - Jeff Miller
 
And real words of the day:
Incipient: beginning to come into being or to become apparent
embrangle: To embroil or entangle.  (Nice combo)
ollycrock: a turban shell eaten as seafood and used as bait.
 
Quotes of the Day:
"I don't feel like finding quotes today.  Do it yourself if you care that much."
            Brian Harris (1985 - )
 
And now for that special time when I share things that are personal.  Not just this generic everyday stuff.  This is the time when I talk about things like Streamlined Cows, but that's already been done.  This is the time when I used to talk about all the crazy random places I slept, but I can't do that now that I'm home for the summer.  Ahh, the memories.  The vending machine was the best.  People would get in and would be halfway done getting their food before they realized that I was sleeping right above them.  I think I freaked a few guys out.  That was fun.  And also that night I talked the security guard into letting me stay under the staircase.  Good times, good times... Maybe I should go back to Provo just for the campus camping.
 
Oh, I didn't put Natalie Portman's birthday on the list yesterday.  Oops.  Hope she's not mad at me.  Mostly I hope Austin's not mad at me.  He's a hardcore Natalie Portman fan.  That's why I don't send him these emails.  And also the fact that his email doesnt work when I try to send him things.  Meh...
 
The OED (Oxford English Dictionary) makes me happy.  Just wanted to share that.  But to own it would cost me $1,500 unless I can find it offered by someone other than the OUP (Oxford University Press).  Half.com and Ebay didn't have any.  The problem is that no one wants to sell them.  Only Wordnerds buy them, and if they're willing to invest $1500 into them, they're not likely to decide they don't like the OED after all.  And 20 volumes would cost almost my entire "fortune" just in shipping.  So I'll wait until someone loves me enough to buy me the whole set for my birthday.
please?
 
And I've been sitting here FAR too long, and I have books to read and people to IM and dinner to eat.  Well, not dinner yet.  It's only 4:30.  But one of my friends online just got back from dinner and so it made me hungry.  And now I'm eating cheese sandwiches.  And you didn't even know that I got up, did you?  Didn't think so.
Catch you later,
Brian Harris


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Wednesday, June 09, 2004

"Hello hello hello, is there anybody in there..."

Good morning everyone.  Well, its morning for me anyway.  And its going to be a good one.  I get to play hockey at 10, and then again in the evening.  So i'm happy.  I havent played hockey in soooo long.  I played last night and i was really rusty but i got back in my groove, more or less.  I think the last time I played was in March.  Its been way too long.  So I play today.  Oh, and some more good news (for me) I got a free hockey stick from David who got it from a hobo.  Pretty good, eh?  It's even left handed.  I keep switching off between right and left.  I can't decide which works better for me.  But my nice right handed stick got stolen, so I've been playing with borrowed sticks for a while.
 
So Today is officially National Jamie LaPierre Day, the big 2-0.  And it's also Hockey Day, and The Official Wednesday of Surprises.  Also I did even deeper searching to try to find a valid holiday and I found one.  Today is the Festival of Fornax, the Roman goddess of ovens.  Today is also Vestalia, in celebration of Vesta.  To celebrate this, (seriously) women walk around barefoot carrying grain all day long.  At least thats what i gathered.  If any of you have heard of the Vestal Virgins, this is when they do their thing.
 
Happy Birthdays to the following old people:
Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor (1658-1705), 1640
Peter I "the Great" Romanov, tsar of Russia, 1672
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, 1st woman mayor in England, 1836
George Axelrod, 1922
Geraint Gruffydd, 1928 (that is mos def a Welsh name.  His last name is pronounced like "Griffith")
Donald Duck, 1934 (If only Mike Moss could see my emails...)
Jon Lord, 1941 (keyboardist for Deep Purple and also White Snake.  Very cool.)
Johnny Depp, 1961
Grant Marshall, 1973 (right wing for Dallas Stars)
Abraham Joseph Groening, son of Simpson creator Matt Groening, 1991
 
Happy Deathdays to the following:
Claudius Nero, 68 AD (this guy was wacked)
Charles Dickens, 1870
 
Yah, not too many cool people died today.
 
Today in history:
Willem van Oranges army occupies Gelderland, 1572
Sweden & Denmark signs 3rd Treaty of Stockholm, 1720
1st book copyrighted under constitution, "Philadelphia Spelling Book", 1790
Charles Graham patents false teeth, 1822 (but these were not the first false teeth, just his style)
Ammunition plant at Fort Smederovo in Belgrade explodes; kills 1,500, 1941
Nazis kill all inhabitants of Lidice Czechoslovakia, 1942
"Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley hits #1, 1958 (WHY?!?)
Bob Dylan given honorary Doctorate of Music at Princeton U, 1970
Silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth celebrated with fireworks, 1977
Gutenberg Bible (1 of 21) sells for $2.4 million, 1978
"Star Trek V: The Final Frontier," premieres in US, 1989
 
Good times, good times.
 
Just so you know, I'm typing this email sitting in the middle of the office, which has been torn apart and repainted and all that stuff.  And the lights don't work, so I'm relying on the early morning light through the window which has recently been untaped.  And I have a hockey stick on my lap.  And there is a ladder to my left and a big bucket to my right.  Now you know.
 
Words of the day:
Kwyjibo: A big, dumb, balding North American ape with no chin and a short temper.  (courtesy The Simpsons)
Propinquity: 1. oseness of blood: kinship. 2. nearness in place or time: proximity
Braggadocio: 1. A braggart, 2. Empty boasting, 3. A swaggering, cocky manner
Wamble: 1. To move unsteadily; to totter, waver, roll, etc.  2. To feel nausea.  3. (Of a stomach) To rumble or growl.
 
No Quotes Today.  I had trouble finding any good ones.  I just was not meant to find a good quote.  And also, the universe is out to get me.  Its a good thing i dont live in discworld, because then the multiverse would be out to get me.
 
Oh, i almost forgot, the Focal an Lae:
 
"File" is today the most common word for a poet. The craft and product of a "file" is "filíocht" (FILL-ee-uhxt), poetry. The wordcomes from an old verb root meaning "see" and in earlier days the poet also functioned as a "seer" or prophet.
History:  Old Irish "fili" derives from Archaic Irish (ca. 500 AD)*welís. An Ogham inscription from this period contains the word VELITAS, apparently a genitive singular form (= "of (a) poet")corresponding to Old Irish "filed". McCone derives the word from the Insular Celtic verbal root *wel-. Compare Welsh "gweld" (to see).The words "fuil", "bhfuil" and "níl", long firmly established as forms of the verb "to be", are related. They originally had the imperative meaning "see!, look at!", and in Old Irish were still followed by the accusative case.
 
I can't believe how cool languages are.  That's all I have to say about that.
 
Words that rhyme with "light":  spite, right, tight, bite, write, height, white, kite, sight, aight, plight, byte, fright, fight, night, knight, might, mite, quite, Amalakite.
 
Everyone have a good day, remember to surprise people.  do nice things, like.
Brian


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Tuesday, June 08, 2004

"The rich kids had convertibles and we had to ride the bus (55)..."

Yeah.  What.  Here we go.
To begin, I'd like to make an apology.  One of my loyal subjects wrote me thus:

"Brian,
I must say I am dissappointed to say that your severe lacking in the daily newsletter department has lead me, and possibly others, to believe you have gotten some sort of life.  I have noticed that it has not only become just "business days" of the week, but now I'm not even getting them on those days.  Then to add to it, this last one had hardly any personal rantings, personal jokes, or even the personal daily record of events.  Either you should formally denounce the daily newsletters, or tell and shock us all that you actually got a life, or get back on the ball.  I don't want you to think I'm angry.  I almost feel responsible, because I don't respond to them.  I don't have the time or the background experience to look up song titles, understand your elvish, but I didn't respond on the days you asked for simple things, like a dare.  I hope that I haven't discouraged you by not being an "acitve" reader, but I'd like you to know I get great joy everyday to read your emails.  Keep doing them.
Jase"
 
That put me in my place.  It's true that I havent been writing as faithfully as I have in the past.  And I'm really glad about the phrase "tell and shock us all that you actually got a life".  It lets me know that you arent assuming the worst.  I'm glad that it would come as a shock if I got a life.  The truth of the situation is, I love writing these, but sometimes my parents think I'm wasting time.  And I havent written since last Thursday because my internet committed suicide.  It randomly stopped working, and I havent had a chance to get online until today.  I apolagize for that.  I will try to write every day as is implied by the titles Daily Email or Daily Newsletter or Daily Blog or whatever you call them.
 
I went and saw Harry Potter III: The Prisoner of Azkaban last weekend.  Severe disappointment.  If you want to discuss that with me, I would be happy to receive emails or instant messages, but I will not discuss that in my mass messages because I wouldn't want to ruin it for anyone else.
 
And *da, dada DA!* I went on my first date in months last weekend.  Yah.  I went and got Slurpees and ate/drank them at DeMeyer Park with Megan.  It was cool.  In that the Slurpee numbed my hand.  And it was pretty fun too.  I was having trouble getting the last of my Slurpee out of the cup and she suggested that i crush it a little with my hand, so I did, and my cup cracked and spit Slurpeeness all over my hand.  Very exciting.  She laughed at me.  But it's ok because I laughed at her when the bugs attacked her.  But then she also laughed at me when the bugs flew down my straw.  Meh.  Good times, good times.
 
So, I'ma catch up on the last few holidays.  The 5th was World Environment Day, the 6th was National Gardening Exercise Day, the 7th was National Chocolate Ice Cream Day (oh happy!), and today is both Best Friends Day and Name Your Poison Day.
I think for tomorrow, as there is no holiday listed (*shock and surprise*), we will have to improvise and possibly celebrate many trivial things.  I will make a list of holidays that I think should be celebrated tomorrow, and any emails I get regarding this will also be added to tomorrow's email.  (And there will be an email tomorrow)
 
Did everyone watch Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals last night?  It was a pretty good game except that Tampa Bay won.  Seriously, no one wants the #1 seed to win.  Everyone always wants a huge upset, so it would have been really very cool if Calgary had overcome.  They were so close.  During the whole of finals, no team had won two games in a row, and it was Calgary's turn to win, but it was TB's home game.  And Fedotenko got both goals for TB, which was pretty cool.  I like Fedotenko all right.  Actually I like a few of TBs players, but I still think they shouldnt have won.
 
Happy Birthday to:
Eleonora Plantagenet, 1318 (I HATE THE PLANTAGENETS!!)
Giovanni D Cassini, 1625
William Dampier, 1652 (pirate!)
Moriz Heyne, 1837
Frank Lloyd Wright, 1867 (STUD LIST!!)
Guëmundur J¢nsson Kamban, 1888
 
(I only put him on today's birthday list because I saw that he was an Icelandic writer, and I'm currently reading a book by Snorri Sturluson, the most famous Icelandic prose writer ever.  It is of course translated into English, but it's fairly Icelandic still.  Lots of names.  Its a book about King Harald (of Norway) vs. King Harold (of England) vs. William the Conqueror (of Normandy, and he wasn't called the Conqueror until after the time period of this story.  It covers the time of Harald's (of Norway) rise to power until his death at the Battle of Hastings, 1066.  Check out www.battle1066.com if you get a spare minute.  Although I would spend more like a year there.  Back to birthdays...)
 
Jerry Stiller, 1927 (he's that old actor that always plays the dirty old man, i.e. Frank Costanza on Seinfeld)
Bryan McCabe, 1975 (Defenseman for NY Islanders)
 
Deaths of today:
Mohammed, 632  (STUD LIST!!)
"Black Prince" of Wales, son of King Edward of England, 1376
Hans Leo Hassler, 1612
Christian Huygens, 1695
George Wythe, 1806
Thomas Paine, 1809
Friedrich Heinrich Himmel, 1814
Andrew Jackson, 1845
 
And today in history:
Italy invaded by Attila the Hun, 452
39 German states unite under Act of Confederation, 1815
Washing machine patented, 1824
1st Civil Rights Act passes, 1886
Walt Disney graduates from Benton High School, 1917
World's largest flower blooms in NY Botanical Garden, 12' calla lily, 1937
Rolling Stones release "Jumpin' Jack Flash", 1968
Nippon Airways announces that painting eyeballs on Jets cut bird collisions by 20%, 1988
 
Good stuff.  My mother really wants me to get off the computer soon, so I will have to finish this up real quick like.  I need ideas of things to talk about.  Things like Streamlined Cows, from back in April.  I think I was supposed to also talk about Beveled Polyester Splicers, I think I'll do that tomorrow.  If anyone has a random thing that you think I should talk about, let me know and I'll do my best to write a full email about it.
 
"Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language."
             Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 - 1951)
"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures."
             Daniel Webster (1782 - 1852)
 
And a good day to you all!
Rianbay Arrishay


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Friday, June 04, 2004

"I am a man of glory, I've got a million stories..."

june 2nd was National Rocky Road day, the 3rd was Repeat Day.  today is Old Maid's Day.
 
birthdays:
Carl Gustaf baron Mannerheim, 1867
Christopher Cockerell, 1910 (he invented the hovercraft)
Nick Kypreos, 1966
 
deaths:
Hendrik of Vianden, 1267
Emily Wilding Davidson, suffragette, trampled to death by a horse, 1913
 
things that happened:
Mob led by Ferrand Martinez surounds & sets fire to Jewish quarter of Seville Spain, surviving Jews sold into slavery, 1391
hurricane hits NYC, 1825
Mexican-US war starts, 1845
Oil City & Titusville Penn, destroyed by oil tank explosion; 130 die, 1892
Automatic washer & dryer introduced, 1907
Massachusetts passes 1st US minimum wage law, 1912
The synthetic rubber tire unveiled, 1940
Oldest animal fossils in US discovered in NC, 1975 (stupid fossils)
"Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," released in US, 1982
 
 
word of the day:
vigesimation - the putting to death of every twentieth man
 
 
and now some quotes:
 
"Reality is a crutch for people who can't cope with drugs."
        Lily Lebowitz
"When defeat is inevitable, it is wisest to yield."
        Quintilian
"a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  so, of course, does falling down a flight of stairs"
 
"The journey of a thousand miles sometimes ends very, very badly"
         Dr. E.L. Kersten (the rest are his as well)
"Dreams are like rainbows.  Only idiots chase them"
 
"Some people dream of success, while other people live to crush those dreams."
 
"When the winds of change blow hard enough, even the most trivial of things can turn into deadly projectiles."
 
"Until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore, you will never know the terror of being forever lost at sea."
 
"If you never try anything new, you'll miss out on many of life's great disappointments."
 
"The only consistent feature of all your dissatisfying relationships is you."
 
"That which does not kill me only prolongs the inevitable."
 
"It's always darkest just before it goes pitch black."
 
"The harder you try, the dumber you look."
 
"Success is a journey, not a destination.  So stop running."
 
"The tallest blade of grass is the first to be cut by the lawnmower."
 
"Mistakes: It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others."
 
"Quitters never win, and winners never quit.  But those who never win AND never quit are idiots."
 
have a terrible day.
brian


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Tuesday, June 01, 2004

"One day I closed my eyes and here I am, a cold unhappy man..."

Name that band!  That line is out of the middle, but its a good one.  here are the first two lines: "Staring at the white above Can't tell if I'm alive or am I dead..."
 
Good band, i like every one of their songs (at least on the old album, i havent heard the newer one yet, but i will before too long)
Today is the start of june, and a whole bunch of month-long celebrations, campaigns etc.  For this month: Aquarium Month, Candy Month (i like this month already!), Diary Month, Fight The Filthy(great word) Fly Month (gereat thing to do!), Rose Month, Turkey Lovers Month.

And this week is Fishing Week (3rd - 9th)
 
Today is Dare Day (I'll be taking dares today.  seriously.  email me and give me something crazy to do.  i'm out of fresh ideas) and Navy Day (thats a Mexican holiday!)
 
Random useless fact for the day:  Hermione's birthday is three days before Frodo's and Bilbo's birthdays.  talk about symbolism... ok i didnt have anything in mind.  this is your english assignment for this week.  figure out some symbolism and report back.
 
Happy Birthday:
Christiane Vulpius, 1675 (wife of my dear friend J.W. von Goethe)
Brigham Young, 1801
John Drinkwater, 1882
Frank A Whittle, 1907
Andy Griffith, 1926
Marilyn Monroe, 1926
Dan Quinn, 1965 (Flyers center, kinda)
 
Happy Deathday:
Gijsbert van Bronkhorst-Batenburg, 1568
Solomon George Washington Dill, 1864
James Buchanan, 1868
Leslie Howard, 1943
Lester Patrick, 1960
Helen Keller, 1968
 
Things that happened today in history:
1st written record of Scotch Whiskey appears in Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, Friar John Cor is the distiller, 1495
Duke van Alva beheads 18 nobles in Brussels, 1568
1st earthquake recorded in US, at Plymouth, Massechussettes, 1638
Kentucky admitted as 15th US state, 1792
Voting machine patented, 1869
1st pay phone installed, 1880
John Krohn begins walk around perimeter of US, which took 357 days, 1908 (i so want to do that)
Superman 1st appears in DC Comics' Action Comics Series issue #1, 1938 (overrated)
Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs Robinson" hits #1, 1968
Paul McCartney & Wings release "Live & Let Die", 1973
Ted Coombs began a 5,193 mile roller skate from LA to NYC, 1979 (i want to do that too)
Stanley Cup: Pittsburgh Penguins sweep Chicago Blackhawks in 4 games, 1992
 
Words of the day:
klazomania - compulsive shouting.  one who engages in klazomania is a klazomaniac.
dulcet - pleasing to the ear; agreeable, soothing
 
croí = heart
Usage: Croí has a wide range of both concrete and figurative meanings,not unlike English "heart":
          croí lag (KREE LAHG) = a weak heart
          croí bog (KREE BOG - O short, almost "bug") = a soft heart
          A Bhríd, a chroí! (uh VREEJ, uh XREE) = Brigid, darling!  (lit., O Brigid, o heart!)
History: From Old Irish "cride", which goes back to Indo-European *kerd-(heart). Cognates found in English are "heart", "cardiac" and "cordial"
Scotch Gaelic: cridhe (KREE-uh) (Note that the spelling indicates that the "r" has a slender pronunciation in Scottish Gaelic, while the Irish spelling shows that the word has a broad "r" in that language. I have not tried to show these distinctions in the imitated pronunciation.)
 
"I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow."
            Woodrow Wilson (1856 - 1924)
"Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else's can shorten it."
            Cullen Hightower
"There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity."
            Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)
"AFFLICTION, n. An acclimatizing process preparing the soul for another and bitter world."
            Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1914)
"There is no such thing as an underestimate of average intelligence."
            Henry Adams (1838 - 1918)
"Life sucks, then you die"
             Unknown source, but dang what a great quote!
 
And i'll conclude this raffish email with one word that describes me at this moment.  "uugh".
-B'arris


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