“Conversation is said to be a lost art… good talk presupposes leisure, both for preparation and enjoyment. The age of leisure is dead, and the art of conversation is dying.” – Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly, Volume 29, 1890
Lost in Translation: Foreign Signs
I love it when signs or notices are translated by non-mother tongue English speakers;it can be anything from cute to funny, misleading or just downright embarrassing. I especially love Asian translations! Here are a few examples.
Filed under Images, Mistranslations, Nuts & Bolts, Quotes
Countdown Deal!
This coming weekend, from Saturday 22 March, 6:00 a.m. (PST) through Sunday 23 March, 11:00 pm (PST) my first novel, “The Price of Freedom” will be available on Kindle for $3.99 instead of $6.99! As of next week, the title will also be available in paperback! I’m excited to finally have the paperback edition available to those of you who’ve been asking for it. Please—pass the news on to your friends and contacts! Share, link, and shout it from your rooftops (preferably without getting arrested)… you are my greatest asset when it comes to getting the word out, getting into the hands of people who enjoy reading, and enjoy the genre of the likes of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer!
Filed under Publications
Science-Fiction Made Real: The Origami Microscope
Recently I looked at past technologies; today I came across a TED video that is simply mind-boggling: An Origami microscope that is cheap, powerful (magnifications up to 2,000x), waterproof, durable, and can be made available to anyone. It sounds like science fiction, but it’s real, today; think of the possibilities for early diagnosis for the remote people of the earth who have all too often been neglected due to a lack of funds. Click on the image below to see a 9-minute presentation by Stanford bioengineering professor Manu Prakash, PhD.
Filed under Articles, How It's Made, Research, Videos
Fools & Madmen
“The vast majority of human beings dislike and even dread all notions with which they are not familiar. Hence it comes about, that at their first appearance, innovators have always been divided as fools and madmen. ”
Aldous Leonard Huxley, 1894-1963, British writer
The Future in the Past
I love keeping up with the latest technologies, scientific developments, astronomical discoveries and the like; it informs my novel-writing and plot development. But what did our present look like in the past (if one could say that)? What did past generations look forward and envision for our time? How much of it was humorously inaccurate, and how much of it could be inspiration still? For a glimpse into the minds of the past, click on the photo below.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault
Like something out of a Science Fiction film, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault looks like a monolith rising out of the snowy mountains in Norway. Its purpose could be out of the same film: It’s a depository for seeds from around the world, to preserve plants in case of global disaster, whether fire, flood, ice or nuclear. To read the whole story, check out the Wikipedia article by clicking on the image below. If you write Science Fiction, be inspired! If you are into gardening, global environmental issues, or simply worried about the direction society is heading, take comfort… there are people planning ahead.
Filed under Articles
20 Common Grammar Errors
For writers and bloggers, being reminded of the basic grammar rules from time to time is a good thing; they can help to improve our communication and efficiency. If you’re like me, you may be writing along when a question pops up like, “Does this sentence need a comma here or not?” The more familiar we become with the rules (and keep in mind that there are some differences between nationally-accepted rules, e.g. between the British standard and the American standard), the faster such decisions will become and the less time will be lost on such mundanely important details. Click on the image below for a link to the 20 most common grammar errors and how to solve them.
Filed under Nuts & Bolts, Research, Writing Exercise
60 Uncommon Things Men Find Attractive About Women
Here’s a list that proves attraction is just weird, and that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder! I find this interesting especially because of the possibilities for finding that quirky element for building fictional characters. Enjoy, and be inspired to write depth and breadth! Click on the image below to view the article:
Filed under Lists
The Etymology of February and Wednesday
We can blame both spellings on the Romans! February is fairly clear: Februa is thought to be a Sabine word (maybe we could blame them for italics, too), meaning “purifications”; Februarius mensis was the month of purification. Before 450 BC this was actually the last month in the ancient calendar and referred to the feast of purification celebrated on the ides of that month throughout the Roman Empire. Ides was the term used for approximately mid-month, being the 13th or 15th, depending on whether that particular month had 29 or 31 days. Interestingly, in English it replaced the Old English solmonað (“mud month”… very appropriate, that) sometime in the 12th century when they began using the Old French term Feverier.
Wednesday accumulated slightly more pedigree before landing in our agendas: It started off as the “day of (the god) Mercury,” the Latin dies Mercurii. It was confiscated by the Scandinavians for their own religious version for Odin, Oðinsdagr (Old Norse) or Onsdag in Swedish. This came with them over the Channel and was adopted by their English counterparts as wodnesdæg, or “Woden’s day.” Old Frisian came fairly close to modern English with Wonsdei (I’ve probably seen that spelling on Facebook from people who can’t type with their i-phones properly…). By the mid- 400 AD period, the Germanic Goths had been converted from Paganism to Christianity by Greek missionaries, and their language began to reflect the changes: The astrological or religious terms gave way to ecclesiastical (or at least neutral) ones. This difference is reflected in words like Mittwoch (German for Wednesday, meaning literally “mid-week”), sreda (Russian), or środa (Polish), both meaning literally “middle.”
So there you have it: Blame it on the Romans, or the Vikings; but whoever you blame, just remember to spell them in correct modern English.
Filed under History, Nuts & Bolts
Stephanie Huesler 