Category: Randoms & My Life
-
Why It’s Harder to Write a Term Paper Than a Blog
Some people might think blogging is pretty scary – putting up stuff for all the world to criticize, and maybe to use to your disadvantage when you run for President someday (fortunately, there’s no chance of me doing that). However, I realized these past two weeks that writing academic papers scares me more. Then I…
-
Un Bon Mot – Language Learning is Hard…
No language is justly studied merely as an aid to other purposes. It will in fact better serve other purposes, philological or historical, when it is studied for love, for itself. – Tolkien, English and Welsh I’m thinking this is true, as my Spanish and Portuguese “fluency” languishes… It’s tough to learn languages, and I…
-
Quotable Misquotes
3 Ways Misquotes Happen “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” –Mahatma Gandhi Delightful little quote, isn’t it? I’ve seen it plastered all over the net, on T-shirts, on bumper stickers. But it nicely illustrates the problem of using quotes, especially ones you find on the internet. According to Wikipedia (behold the…
-
Two Questions for Those Who Wish to “Occupy Wall Street”
Occupy Wall Street is scheduled to “sweep” through my city today. Yes, my blog is wading into the seas of current events for a moment. If you’re here to find out about writing and literature, ignore this post. First of all, some questions for the protesters of Occupy Wall Street: 1.) Do you expect the…
-
How to Find the Next Fantasy Novel to Read
I’ve blogged before about fantasy novels, and the trouble I’ve had to find more fantasy novels that I enjoy. Which was why I was so excited to see this chart of fantasy (and sci-fi) novels on Slate! It’s easy to follow the options – “Wizard and Barbarians?” “Looking for and Old-fashioned Trilogy?” and even “I’d…
-
Blah Days
Five Reasons Today is Blah, and, Is There Any Hope For the Future? Yes, I get these too. Far too often, probably. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, after five and a half weeks of excitement in Brazil, that I’d have a blah day once in a while when I got home again. Still, blah…
-
Things You Might Not Have Known About Brazil
One last post on Brazil, now that I’ve returned to North America (and experienced a touch of reverse-culture-shock). Here are a few things about Brazil that I found interesting: Brazilians like things very sweet: You may have been able to guess this one, since Brazil is known for growing lots of sugarcane. Still, I was…
-
My Typical Day in Brazil
I thought I’d give my faithful readers some idea of my life in a different culture, since some sort of explanation as to why this blog isn’t being updated as often might be nice! I wake up in the morning around 7:30 (thankfully my fellow Canadian, Esther, has an alarm clock, or I’d never know…
-
Possibility of Blog Post Scheduling Interruptions! Oh, the Horror!
I mentioned in a previous post that I decided to stay in Brazil three weeks longer. The good news is, that means I like Brazil! (Also, none of the things in 3 Things that Scare Me About Traveling to Brazil actually was a problem!) The bad news is, I may not be posting as often.…
-
Things You Shouldn’t Do (In Brazil)
On Doing Them Anyway Before you go off to a tropical country, people give you all kinds of advice. Advice from doctors on how not to get sick, advice from your parents, advice from other travelers… there’s a load of things you should or shouldn’t do. Of course, half of them you find yourself doing…
Hmm... 