Mysteries

Not, like, the genre. Just something weird. Last week I got an email that I first thought was spam, but then realized wasn’t:

1. I didn’t order any appliance repair.

2. I looked up the case number, and it’s for a top loading washer/dryer, which I don’t even have.

3. The company it came from is in New York City, like four hours away from where I live.

So, yeah. This isn’t for me. I don’t know why or how I could have gotten this. I don’t know if someone gave them a fake email address or maybe just transposed a character somewhere. Honeil4(at)gmail(dot)com could be wondering why their confirmation email never showed up.

Anyway, I just thought that was weird. Have you ever gotten anything that was meant for anyone else? What did you do about it?

It Gets Everywhere

It’s getting to be time to cut my hair again.

 Huh, I wonder if I could sell my hair for money to buy a new laptop…

Language of Confusion: -Ment, Part I

Got another big multi-part series for you, because apparently I don’t learn. I’m not going to do every word that ends in -ment because that would take frigging forever. Instead I’m going to focus on the ones where I probably won’t be talking about as part of another group. Trust me, there are still A LOT.

The -ment suffix is a common one in forming nouns. It’s from French, and related to the classical Latin suffix -mentum, something added to verb stems to make it “the result or product of the action”, like how enjoyment is something that’s the result of doing something you enjoy. That follows for a lot of these words—payment is a thing you pay, treatment is how you treat, equipment is things you equip. But there are words where if you drop the -ment part, you’re left with something that’s rather confusing.

Take, for example, instrument. Instru- isn’t a word. Is it from instruct? Is an instrument a thing you instruct? That does kind of make sense…

Instrument showed up in the late thirteenth century from the Old French instrument/enstrument, which had the same meaning we use for it. It’s from the classical Latin instrumentum, tool, which is from instruere, which could mean to deploy or to build/erect, but also to arrange, set in order, or inform/teach. It’s a mix of the prefix in-, meaning on, and struere, which means to construct and is from the Proto Indo European stere-, to spread. And instruere is where we get instruct, although that word came to us through the past participle instructus.

So that’s one example.  There are many, many more to come.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Google Translate

Omniglot

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language

Quality Over Quantity

Today I’m talking about a game which… kind of isn’t a game? It’s more of a visual novel that plays like a game in some places. There’s a bit of exploring, but mostly you’re walking around areas and experiencing narrative. So it’s like a book, but also like a game, which of course appeals to me on several levels.

The game I’m referring to specifically is called What Remains of Edith Finch, and involves the titular character’s return to her childhood home and unlocking the histories of her family, of which she is the last. You find different things around the house, letters, notes, even a comic book, that let you experience the last moments of Edith’s seemingly cursed to die young family. It’s an expertly crafted story that leaves you thinking about what you experienced.

In all, it takes under two hours to complete, which kind of makes the $20 price tag on Steam seem a bit hefty in spite of the beautiful visuals. However there are plenty of commentary-free play throughs on YouTube if you want to watch for yourself. Thoroughly recommended.

If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

I… was in a dark place when I wrote this one. I blame the fact that it’s impossible to find a decently priced laptop that won’t start falling apart after a year of use.

 In reality I actually managed to fix it, although who knows for how long? How I wish I could afford a really nice one that won’t break the second I take it out of the package. But those are dreams for someone with actual money.

Secret Origins: 6

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, I think.

Six comes from the Old English siex, which is from the Proto Germanic sekhs and Proto Indo European sweks-. We also often use the prefix hexa- when there’s six of something and that too is from sweks-, just through the Greek hexa- instead. I guess they’re the ones to blame for changing it from an s to an h.

As for the numeral, the ones we use come from India and the Middle East. Both Brahmi and Hindi used curly-cues that look a lot like 6 with a little more flourish to them, but then when it went into Arabic they changed it so it looks more like, well, a 7. As the number migrated to western Arabia, it took on a more “six-ish” look, which then eventually migrated out to Europe (and probably helped along by the Crusades).

So that’s it. It still leaves the question of just why they chose the curly-cue to become the 6. Maybe they liked the way it looked?

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

Old English-English Dictionary

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Archimedes Laboratory Project

May Goals

It’s May! Now every time I write “may” in a sentence it will try to autocorrect to the date. Good thing I don’t write it that much.

Now, let’s look at my goals for last month.

April Goals

1. Finish the book! If I haven’t already. As of this writing, I have two more chapters left. I may have already tweeted my victory, though.

WOOOOOO! I did it! The first draft was done! I was pretty vocal about it on Twitter, so most of you are probably already aware of this. Still could use more accolades, though.

2. Make a plan for editing!

Did this, too. It was pretty easy.

3. Start editing!

This was…well, not easy. Kind of tedious, really. And I would have completed my first major read through with notes if my stupid frigging laptop power jack didn’t break.

A pretty good month, laptops notwithstanding. Now, for May…

1. Finish the read through and all the editing notes that come with it.

2. Start working on the notes. I’m not so sure I’ll be able to finish them as it looks like there’s going to be around six hundred, varying from “change this word” to “change this whole section”.

3. Find something mindless and boring for me to do to recharge with. I have a feeling I’m going to need it.

So that’s the plan for May. What are you up to this month?