Archive for December, 2008

Asylum

Asylum… a place of refuge.. but where did the word come from?

Also… KEEP VOTING FOR ME for sexy geek of the year

Wired Sexy Geek Contest 2008

They are having the Wired.com Sexy Geek of the Year Contest again… the one that I won last year and NOTHING HAPPENED!!!

Anyway… if you’d like.. you can vote again.   It looks like people added me ‘like’ a 1,000 times, so it might be hard to figure out which one to vote for.. so go for the top rated one.

Vote here. Top Rated is here.

Car

Car seems like a fairly new word for an automobile.. but it’s not.

#1 and #2 most viewed on YouTube

This was cool… over the weekend, I had the #1 most viewed and the #2 most viewed videos, simultaneously, for the day

Bedlam

Bedlam… why does it mean chaos, a madhouse?

Cliché

Cliché has an interesting origin.

Obama Girl

Cute little Happy Holidays from Obama Girl to yours truly

Lollipop

Lollipop… named after a horse that was named after a candy?

PedanticKarl is the new TA

Please welcome Karl Newman as the new HotForWords Teacher’s Assistant. Karl has been helping out the TAs  and myself in many projects and we felt it was his time. – Marina and Capt. Jack

PedanticKarl

You can call me Karl Newman, PedanticKarl, PK or just Karl but just make sure to never call me late for a new viewing of a HotForWords lesson. Because of my thoughtful and generous nature, some of my friends lovingly call me Klaus, Santa Klaus, Santa, or just St. Nick and other endearing names.

I am blissfully single in Southern California, and being the perennial romantic optimist, I am looking forward to an ecstatic and soulful relationship some day. The good news is that there is no one to tell me when my daily allotment of HotForWords viewing is exceeded. The bad news is, that there is no one to tell me when my daily allotment of HotForWords viewing is exceeded. What?  You expect me to have common sense?

My background is in both software and electronic hardware technology and I call myself a technologist, or sometimes geek, but never nerd. I have way too many hobbies and particularly enjoy dabbling in the visual arts such as painting, photography and creating videos, and studying history and the origins of words. To keep myself grounded, I enjoy getting my hands dirty in gardening and creating pleasing landscapes.

What you may find interesting is how I happened to come across the HotForWords You Tube channel. I had been watching You Tube videos before Google bought them, and early in 2007 I was doing some very intense research into the origins of the names of countries and cities in Europe, which led me to a variety of subjects and word origins. I read someplace about the many unchartered word origins in Eastern Europe and that an etymologist would be richly rewarded if they took up this challenge.

As I took my research to You Tube, I came across Marina’s channel and later found her videos to be on the “Most Viewed” pages. I casually followed her videos from early 2007, but did not take notice of her keen sense of humor and style until the “Dime and Penny” video. I continued to follow Marina’s videos, thinking that she probably belonged to some organization, not unlike “LonelyGirl15″. Later I learned more about Marina’s values and core beliefs through one of her videos, wich made me a fan, but I did not subscribe to her until June of 2008 after seeing the fantastic job that she did with the HotForWords web site.

Through Marina’s videos and comments, she has become a sort of mentor to me. Marina doesn’t know that, so don’t tell her. It is unbelievable what I have learned from Marina’s videos and I have some interesting stories to tell regarding my new-found knowledge. I have never met Marina, and only know her through her videos and comments. It is a wonderful privilege and an honor to serve Marina and the HotForWords community.

Sincerely yours,
Karl

Chinchilla

Chinchillas.. like little bugs?