World Domination

Next time you are in a Chapters, or an Indigo, or a Coles:  go to one of those search computers and type in "How to Take Over the World" (capitals optional) and see what the first thing to come up with.

It is epic!

Btw, the answer is no, I am not going to tell you what comes up, you just have to go do it to see for yourself.

Don't worry, it is awesome, totally worth your time :D

orthography (N)

1. the art of writing words with the proper letters, according to accepted usage; correct spelling.

2. the part of language study concerned with letters and spelling.

3. a method of spelling, as by the use of an alphabet or other system of symbols; spelling.

4. a system of such symbols: Missionaries provided the first orthography for the language.

5. an orthographic projection, or an elevation drawn by means of it.

Proper Etiquette and No Other Such Sense

So tonight (well actually, yesterday night for you folks) the cafeteria served spaghetti and meatballs.  Yay! Good food.  But as I was eating I realized something: What is the proper way to eat noodles?
You can twirl 'em, cut 'em, fork 'em, use chopsticks or what?

and lets say you twirl them, and there ends up being one really long one at the end, does one slurp it in (regardless of speed) or does one bite it off and let the remainder be nommed later?

This really has me bothered for some peculiar reason.

And for this word, I did not think it was 'formal' English.  According to dictionary.com it is! (I really should get me a dictionary ><)

Bamboozle (V)

1. to deceive or get the better of (someone) by trickery, flattery, or the like; humbug; hoodwink (often fol. by into): They bamboozled us into joining the club.

2. to perplex; mystify. 

3. to practice trickery, deception, cozenage, or the like

Studiousness

Hello all!

Today I have decided to not pay attention to class.  Well, to be honest I did not decide, I merely cannot, for the life of me, keep track of all that my professor is saying.  As such, a wonderful friend of mine is sending me her notes from today.  In my defense, I have written all the papers for this class and the final test is an in class essay that I can take time to prepare for.  So the notes are not all too important.  And the topic today is rather boring, even though he is a fascinating professor who one can tell enjoys his subjects and teaching.
There is one flaw in his classes though.  Especially this one.  This is all about Japan's Imperialistic years, which is a fascinating topic.  However I love to play games such as Sid Meier's Civilization IV, Caesar III, 1604 AD etc. and it is not often for him to say something that makes me want to go and play the game.  Even my other classes that ever deal with history (Which all my non-language classes do in some way) often mention Tokugawa.

Now Tokugawa was one of the three unifiers of Japan that was a very militaristic man that puts his clan in the position of Shogun (ruler) in Japan.  In Civ IV, one can play as Japan with Tokugawa as the leader.  Every time I hear the name I have an urge to go and play the game.  To make it worse, there is also an era in history that is named after his clan.  So the professor does not need to even be talking about something he did or refer to his life time, just the era.  This is not helping my productivity!

Today's word is not a common word, however to any avid reader they would know it, but I have noticed that at times I only ever take the definition from the context.  Which is a good skill, but it does not always lead to the correct definition.  As in the case of this word, I did not know it could be anything but a verb.  Go figure.

thwart (V)
1. to oppose successfully; prevent from accomplishing a purpose.

2. to frustrate or baffle (a plan, purpose, etc.). 

(N)

3. a seat across a boat, esp. one used by a rower.

4. a transverse member spreading the gunwales of a canoe or the like. 

(ADJ)

assing or lying crosswise or across; cross; transverse.

6. perverse; obstinate.

7. adverse; unfavorable. 

Progress

So today I got back my latest Japanese exam, 76% overall.  Not too bad.  What does rock though is the 22.9% out of 25% for speaking!  I may survive a year abroad yet :D  There is progress happening, this is good.

Ever wonder what you could do if. . .

Yesterday I contemplated what I could do if I had a ZPM.  Basically, unlimited energy.  So long as I had it, I could essentially create all sorts of technology or even just build me a house with no energy concerns.  I could be crazy and use the finances from the inventions to build an entire city state.  It would be awesome.  Modifying objects would take a while; it would so be worth it.  Build a portable unit for the ZPM that allows the object ti interface with it for energy consumption.  So if I could mod a car to use energy from a ZPM it would, in theory, never run out of gas (so to speak) and never need to stop. 
If I could use it as a power source that is stationary, I could build a lab that had no power restrictions, or a research hospital.  The progress that could be made in science or medicine.  Even if I couldn't recreate the ZPM, I would be able to power a lot of stuff.  It would be legend . . . dary (HIMYM reference for the win).

And for those that don't know: A Zero Point Module is a piece of technology from the Stargate universe that is essentially never ending self contained power unit about the approximate size of a medium video recording camera.

And now I pose a question: what would you do if you had an unlimited energy source? (World Domination is not an option)


or/and


What else should I ponder 'what if...' about?

Clandestine (ADJ)

characterized by, done in, or executed with secrecy or concealment, esp. for purposes of subversion or deception; private or surreptitious