Tip Tuesday/Word Wednesday

I was originally going to do this as a Word Wednesday but then I decided it was rather fitting for a Tip Tuesday. So, here's the result--a hybrid.

Are you ever sick of saying, "Jimmy was wearing a red shirt." and wish you could say something more interesting like "Jimmy was wearing a crimson shirt." but "crimson" just sounds too stiff? Here is something that might help you! (to be honest, some of these I have never heard of!)






Originally found on: http://ingridsnotes.wordpress.com/2014/02/04/the-color-thesaurus/

Word Wednesday

Bamboozle :
to confuse, frustrate, or throw off thoroughly or completely <a quarterback bamboozled by an unexpected defense>

I don't know why, but this has long been one of my favorite words; it's so much fun.  =)
There isn't really much to learn from the word, I don't suppose.  We once named one of our cats Bamboozle when we were on an alphabet kick and naming a batch all 'A's and then all 'B's and so on.  We called him Bamboo for short. 
So I guess the point to this is that the next time you're writing a story and want to use the word "confused", but need something more imaginative, you can use "bamboozled"!

-Josie

Word Wednesday

Ha ha... I just remembered I said I would do Word Wednesday. I guess it's not too late, but about this time of evening, my brain is fried. I apologize if the quality of my writing is not so good tonight. Anyway, this won't be a typical Word Wednesday. Instead of sharing a word, I'm going to share a suggestion that has to do with words. Really, this post would probably better fit as a Tip Tuesday. Oh, well... definitely too late for that one.

Okay, back on topic. I really just want to share with you all a wonderful website that has proved handy for me in increasing my typing speed - and memorizing scripture all at once. It's called ScriptureTyper, and it is specifically designed to help make Bible memory "fun and easy" through "actively engaging three separate cognitive areas: Audio, Visual & Kinesthetic (Touch) memory." You can memorize from your preferred translation, import the verses of your choice, or choose a collection of verses. Join a group, have a little competition, encourage each other - it's actually kind of fun if you get a good group together.

Now I personally would not say Scripture Typer is "easy". It's a lot of work to keep all your verses reviewed, but I can definitely say it's worth it. My typing speed has increased. I have some days now where I can reach 80wpm. I've also noticed that more scriptures have come to mind recently at times when I need them. It has proved encouraging.

So now you're probably asking, what's this have to do with Word Wednesday? Well, I'm sure a faster typing speed is useful for finishing stories :) Plus, scripture can prove to be excellent inspiration for writing. Just think of Pilgrim's Progress, the Chronicles of Narnia, and Hinds' Feet on High Places. All of them are wonderful Christian classics and all inspired by scripture.

Anyway, don't feel pressured or anything. I just thought I'd share it since I found it helpful. If you are interested and would like to join a group, Kelpie and I have one you are welcome to join. Just let me know :)

Word Wednesday

 

  Perseverance: 

steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.

 You may be guessing that there is some connection between this word and the fact that we seem to be out of writing ideas. To answer you question quickly, there is only a little connection.

Perseverance is something I personally do not have much of. I would rather do something, and get it done as soon as possible. If a task takes longer, I lose interest and prefer to leave it than to practice self-discipline. One thing recently that has required a lot of perseverance for me is running. To be blunt,  I hate it. But, I know it is good for my body and that  I feel better the more consistent I am in doing it. Still, every step of the way I am thinking, "Ach! I hate this!" Eventually I get to where I am simply telling myself "Put the next foot down and pick it back up!" 

Sometimes we have to apply this concept to other areas of our life. We must force ourselves to take the next step and not get distracted. The next step is what we must focus on. 

This also brings in priorities. To really persevere in something we may need to remove distractions. Or simply decided what is truly the most important thing. 

So here is how I am going to tie this all back together. Decided your priorities, and persevere in them. If a priority to you is writing, make yourself take that next step, and the next, and the next. If something else is more important put aside scribbling novels and focus on it. 

I have been rather non existent on this blog recently because I was needing to persevere in some other areas. I am growing our family garden, cooking a large number of the family meals, studying for my ACT, trying to finish up several school subjects and many other things. Out of all of the former, the only thing I enjoy is gardening. But I must persevere in the others. 

You too must persevere in whatever are your current priorities. Power to ya!

Word Wednesday/Tip Tuesday - Creating Fantasy Creatures

Ever had troubles coming up with fantasy creatures? My brothers helped me find an entertaining way to fix the problem.

Step 1: Gather a small group of friends or siblings. (I think it works best with three or four people)

Step 2: Quietly, and without telling anyone, each person thinks of a totally random animal.

Step 3: When everyone has thought of one, take turns telling them out loud.

Step 4: Throw ideas around about how you could combine different aspects the animals all into one. It may be helpful to have a sketch book handy.

Step 5: Take the names of the animals and combine them in different ways too. Vote on the best name.

And there you have it! Your original and totally unique fantasy creature. But wait...

Step 6: Google your new creature just in case he might not be as original as you think (or if it has some meaning you didn't intend it to).

Here are a couple of our crazy ones: Dung Doggle (Turtle/Dog/Dung Beetle) and T-Floodle (T-rex/Flamingo/Poodle)

Well anyways, that probably wasn't of any value to you all, but I hope you at least found it entertaining....

Word Wednesday

In honor of my father whose 60th birthday was yesterday I have decided to make his "name" the subject of my post today.

My fellow blog authors know that  I call my father "Papa". I used to get many strange looks when people overheard and quite often I was asked if he was my grandfather. (He's been gray haired all my life so it's really not that surprising.) The older I get the less people question.

Why "Papa"? I really don't know. He wanted to be called something a little more unique than "Dad" so he chose "Papa". My brother, who is now himself a father, has also followed this pattern.

This word can be traced from many languages (probably because it is a onomatopoeia) but I have often found the French origins of this word interesting and enjoy reverting back to them by pronouncing it Pa`pa. (accent on the last syllable). Fathers were first called this in the courtly circles and it was not until the 18th century that the common people began to use it.

In Latin it is also closely related to another word, "pope". This word started out meaning simply "father" but was eventually taken over by the Catholics and made to mean a more specific person.

"Papa" is also used in code communications to represent the letter P.

This little word has a surprisingly large number of meanings. Another one of which refers to a soft blue-grey clay of marine siltstone or sandstone. This was a most interesting discovery for me...I have played with this type of "Papa" numbers of times and until recently did not know it's real name.

I doubt that you will find this word very useful in your writing but at least you know have a larger vocabulary should you ever wish to appear intelligent. ;)

Word Wednesday - Are You Hungry?

I did sandwich a few times back, so I thought I'd do a few more food words.

Spaghetti comes from the Italian word spago which basically means little cord.

Hamburger actually came from Hamburger steak, which was basically a shorter way of saying "steak in the fashion of Hamburg," which is a city in Germany.

Sundae: I found lots of controversial stuff over this popular summer treat all over the internet. It seems nobody really knows, but it is speculated that it came from the word "Sunday" either because it was ice cream sold only on Sundays or leftover from Sundays and sold cheaper on Monday.

Word Wednesday (or shall I say Thursday?)

So it turns out you're not the only one forgetting things this week, Hope, and I'm also stealing from my homework, too. I've been studying Realism in American Literature and ran across this handy-dandy word, which I'd heard/read before but hadn't ever taken the time to actually look up the definition.

verisimilitude

1. the appearance or semblance of truth; likelihood; probability: The play lacked verisimilitude.
2. something, as an assertion, having merely the appearance of truth.

(from dictionary.com)

Sorry that's all I have today. I'll try to do better next week.

Word Wednesday

Hello everyone!  Today I picked two words that I love to have flow through my mind.  I don't know why, but there is just something fun about them.

Skew [skyoo]:  To turn aside or swerve; take an oblique course.  To look obliquely; squint.   To give an oblique direction to; shape, form, or cut obliquely.  To distort; to depict unfairly.

Waft [wahft]:  To carry lightly and smoothly through the air or over water.  To send or convey lightly, as if in flight.   To signal to, summon, or direct by waving.   To float or be carried, especially through the air.  A sound, odor, etc., faintly perceived.  A wafting movement; light current or gust.

Do y'all have any words that when you read them, you sigh in pleasure?

Word Wednesday

My whole family loves words. I think we got it from our father though there are undoubtedly many other things that influenced our vocabularies. One of the things that has highly influenced my vocabulary is Math. At this point you are probably thinking I have gotten some words mixed up, but trust me,  I haven't. Whoever wrote Saxon math (the curriculum that I and all of my siblings went through), must have swallowed a dictionary.

A recent problem starts out: "Ramses cogitated."

With only that sentence I made a guess "cogitated" meant something along the lines of "pondered." The answer? To think hard or ponder.

Another problem begins: "A paroxysm of laughter escaped a few."  I am actually familiar with the word "paroxysm" but upon seeing it in my math book, I decided it might actually be a pretty nifty word! It explains exactly what was going in just one simple word.

That same problem includes another unusual word: "Stolid". It's a very useful word if you think about it. Rather than saying "This many people laughed. This many people kept straight faces...ect." John Saxon (the mathematical dictionary swallower) made that second sentence into one, vivid, word.

How about this one: "Querulous was not satisfied because the sinecure did not pay enough."

My first question is naturally, "Is Querulous are real person?" For those of you who are wondering the same thing the answer is, no. It's another "big" word.

quer·u·lous

1.

complaining in a petulant or whining manner.

I think in the back of my mind I knew that but the way the problem is worded makes it sound like a plausible name.

The word I wondered about next was "sinecure". However, this time, instead of grabbing my trusty dictionary I am going to rely on you.

Make your guess what this word means and leave your answer in the comments. (I forbid you to use a dictionary.) When I have several guesses,  I will give you the answer.

 

Word Wednesday - Sandwiches and Snow Angels

Forgive my cheesy title, but this is something I've been thinking about posting for a long time. Last year sometime, my great aunt and uncle came for a visit, and after Church on Sunday we all went over to my grandparents house to eat. Whether or not we were eating sandwiches, I can't remember, but somehow we got into talking about sandwiches...which somehow or another led to talking about snow angels. Anyway, the main question flying around the table was, "How did the sandwich get its name?" Some humorous speculation went on for awhile, but someone finally said something about how there was a town called sandwich over in Europe somewhere. That got me curious, so I looked it up online soon after. Here is what I discovered:

Once upon a time there lived an Englishman named John Montagu, also known as the Earl of Sandwich. He had a bad habit of gambling, and, consequently one day, as he was doing so, he wanted a bite to eat. However, this man did not want to interrupt his game, so he asked the cook for something he could eat easily while playing. This led to the cook bringing a slice of meat wedged between two pieces of bread.

Additional readings:
http://www.open-sandwich.co.uk/town_history/sandwich_origin.htm
http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodsandwiches.html


As for the origin of snow angels,  I personally prefer this view point (which is pure speculation...)...

Two angels lay on their bellies in the clouds, peeking down at human life below. The first angel, Mike, was thick and broad shouldered. He had a very serious look upon his face. His golden eyes pierced the cloud cover below, searching. The second angel, Gabe, was smaller but shared the same twinkling eyes. A yawn escaped his mouth; and he stood, stretching his arms and wings. His gaze turned to a sleeping cherub, her golden head resting on a pillow of cloud. Chuckling to himself, Gabe grasped his own pillow and tiptoed toward the dozing Goldilocks.  He raised it high before launching it at the mound of curls. The cherub let out a yelp and withdrew a tiny sword. Upon seeing Gabe, she let her flashing sword slide back into it's sheath and grasped her own pillow, a determined grin on her face. Gabe's eyes widened, and he let out a whoop, starting heaven's pillow war. Unfurling his wings, he leaped into the air, the cherub at his heels. Other angels, cherubs, and seraphs joined the fray. Giggles and laughter echoed off the clouds. Someone's pillow burst, releasing a puff of white. More giggles erupted, and soon all heaven lay beneath a powdered mess.

Mike lay motionless, ignoring the play around him. Not a single feather on his wing twitched. His eyes were fixed on the life below the clouds. Temporarily dropping out of the game, Gabe hovered to his friend's side. “Why don't you come play, Mike?”

Mike barely turned his head to look up at his friend. “We have all eternity to do things like that” He motioned towards the pillow fight. “But this...” he said, pointing towards the earth. “...is temporary. Besides, see what damage you have caused below?”

Gabe peeked through the cloud cover, eyes colliding with a world of white. The tiny flakes from their pillows frosted the ground. More flakes tumbled from the clouds, dusting the trees. “It's not so bad,” Gabe insisted. “I think it's kind of pretty!”

“Yeah, but what will they think?” This time Mike pointed towards white-covered tents where tiny faces peeked out. One bold human stepped from the safety of his home to examine. He gathered a bit of the stuff in his hands and watched it shrink in size, a pool of water in its place. His eyes widened, and he frantically waved his arms, motioning for the others to join him. Laughing, the children burst from their tents, leaving a trail of footprints wherever they went.

“See, Mike, they like -” Gabe's words were cut short when something smacked him from the clouds. Pillow in hand, Mike chuckled, watching his friend's hollering form tumble toward the earth. White flakes flew back into the air when Gabe's flailing form plopped into a snowdrift. Laughing, he shook the flakes from his wings and leaped into the air.

Meanwhile, a young girl spotted a blur of white drop from the clouds and bounce back into the sky. Curious, she plodded over to investigate. Stumbling across an oddly shaped canyon in the snow, she shrieked for her father to come see. “Papa, Papa!” she giggled. “Come see what I have found!” Her father dashed to his daughter's side. “Look,” she said, grasping his hand. “A snow angel!”

Word Wednesday - Can You Be Exceedingly Exorbitant?

Today I'm going to continue with the "ex" prefix. Last week Faith was excruciatingly happy, and this week I am going to be exorbitantly excited, as spring break has come, my brother is visiting, and my family will also be taking a trip to see my Dad's side of the family. I do believe it is going to be an extremely excellent week. Hopefully it will exceed my expectations. Sorry, I'm getting a little excessive with the "ex's," but I can't seem to help it. I'm extra exuberant. Okay, that probably wasn't proper English...


Exorbitant:

adjective
exceeding the bounds of custom, propriety, or reason, especially in amount or extent; highly excessive: to charge an exorbitant price; exorbitant luxury.

Word Wednesday

Here is your word for the day!  Hopefully you won't find it too strange . . .

Excruciating [ik-skroo-shee-ey-ting]:  1. Extremely painful; causing intense suffering; unbearably distressing; torturing.  2. Exceedingly elaborate or intense; extreme.

There is a reason as to why I picked this word.  For awhile, I was in the habit of using this word quite often.  However, I used it in ways that other people wouldn't (i.e. excruciatingly happy).  People would pause and give me a strange look.  So, I don't know if that is really the correct use of it or not.  Nevertheless, I will more than likely use it to describe things other than pain.  :)

Word Wednesday - What's Your Favorite Word?

For this week's Word Wednesday, I thought I would share my favorite word. It's not one that is in common use anymore, but you will find it in the King James Version of the Bible. Mostly it's just fun to say.


Whithersoever [hwith-er-soh-ev-er, with-]:
conjunction Archaic.
to whatsoever place.


Not much of a definition, but understandable. I love the poetic effect it has on Joshua 1:9 (KJV):

"Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest."

Just try saying the last three words over and over again. It's so much fun!



What's your favorite word? Why?
 (Note: This is not a rhetorical question. Please put your answer in the comments :) )

Word Wednesday

I know, I know, I missed Tip Tuesday yesterday (I'm filling in for Hope) ... I wish I could say I was busy, but honestly I spent a nice majority of my free time watching the Hobbit. So how about a Word Wednesday instead?

Before I reveal our word for the day, I'd like to wish a certain somebody a happy late birthday. She started this blog and brought us all together. On top of that, she's a wonderful friend and Christian sister. Happy Birthday, Hope!

And our word for today is ... you guessed it! Hope!

Definition(s) from Dictionary.com:

Noun

1. the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.
2. a particular instance of this feeling.
3. grounds for this feeling in a particular instance.
4. a person or thing in which expectations are centered.
5. something that is hoped for.

Verb (used with object)

6. to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence.
7. to believe, desire, or trust

Verb (used without object)

8. to feel that something desired may happen
9. Archaic. to place trust; rely

What I would like us to do with this word, which I'm sure we're all familiar with, is to share a specific time when someone or something gave you hope. Maybe it was a card someone sent you or a Bible verse. Whatever it is, you can put your thoughts in the comments or if you want to make a whole blog post or story about it, feel free.

I'm going to share about a time when Hope gave me hope :) Almost eight years ago, my family took three foster kids into our home, and it was during that time and shortly before, I lost my two closest friends. My new siblings kept me pretty distracted, but there came a time when I was really lonely. There were many nights when I would go to bed and cry, asking God for a new friend in my life. The order of events are a little jumbled up, but I remember sometime during this time receiving a letter from Hope, whose family had moved to another state shortly after we had gotten the kids. We had been friends, but we were different enough, we didn't always relate to each other very well. And here she was sending me a letter. I was pleasantly surprised and excited at the little question, "Do you want to be my pen pal?" I wrote back and thus began a long distance friendship that became deeper than I ever thought it would. We even discovered we had more in common than we thought. :) I suddenly had hope and encouragement of a long-lasting friendship for many years to come. Hope's letters and phone calls since then have been the highlight of many days. Thank you, Hope.