Posted By Rob on December 3, 2008

Ever since we invested in a digital SLR, we’ve filled countless gigs of space with pictures. Now that my wife is looking to do it professionally, I can only expect that there will be even more! So we’ve been looking at digital picture frames, so we can save on having to print our photos.

I saw this one, that has a really cool feature. It’s the CEIVA picture frame, and believe it or not, you buy models that either are Wifi, or plug into a phone jack, and actually receive pictures from friends that then display in real time! Imagine, you could go to work, and then come home to a whole new set of pictures waiting for you! It’s a cool way that families could share events and special moments with each other. I really liked the idea. And right now, they are running a Got a Wish Sweeepstakes, which sees daily prizes given between now and Christmas. The entry area is pretty cool. There’s a video with Santa and an elf discussing the Ceiva frame. Then, when it’s time to enter, you input your first name, what you want for Christmas, and you can even upload a picture. Once you’re done, your picture appears on the frame in the video, Santa says your name, and your desired Christmas item shows up in Santa’s Wish Book. It was kind of cool.

So go check it out. Like I said, the video is actually kind of fun, and the frame sounds like a pretty great thing, especially to send to loved ones who might be far away.

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Posted By Rob on December 3, 2008

No man knows till he has suffered from the night how sweet and dear to his heart and eye the morning can be.

- Bram Stoker from Dracula

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Posted By Rob on December 3, 2008

hypaethral \hye-PEETH-rul\ adjective
*1 : having a roofless central space
2 : open to the sky

Example sentence:
During our tour of Egypt, we visited the hypaethral temple of Philae, which was dismantled and relocated after the construction of a dam caused its original site to be submersed.

Did you know?
Ancient Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius used the Latin word “hypaethrus” to describe temples in which the “cella” (the part of the temple housing an image of the deity) was wholly or partially uncovered. “Hypaethrus” is a word sculpted from the Greek prefix “hypo-,” meaning “under or beneath,” and the Greek word “aither,” meaning “air or heaven.” In the late-18th century, English classicists adopted the remodeled form “hypaethral” in their writings of ancient architecture. Another adjective that they occasionally employed is “cleithral,” which designates temples having roofed central spaces. (”Cleithral” comes from “kleithra,” the Greek word for “lattice.”)

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Posted By Rob on December 2, 2008

litany \LIH-tuh-nee\ noun
1 : a prayer consisting of a series of invocations and supplications by the leader with alternate responses by the congregation
2 a : a resonant or repetitive chant *b : a usually lengthy recitation or enumeration c : a sizable series or set

Example sentence:
The student offered the usual litany of excuses for being late.

Did you know?
“Litany” came to English through Anglo-French and Late Latin, and ultimately from the Greek word “litaneia,” meaning “entreaty.” A “litany” refers literally to a type of prayer in which a series of lines are spoken alternately by a leader and a congregation. Recent decades have seen the development of three figurative senses. The chant-like quality of a literal litany led to the “repetitive chant” sense. Next, the repetitious nature of the original litany led to the “lengthy recitation” sense. Finally, the “lengthy recitation” sense led to the meaning “a sizable series or set.”

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Posted By Rob on December 1, 2008

reticent \RET-uh-sunt\ adj
*1 : inclined to be silent or uncommunicative in speech : reserved
2 : restrained in expression, presentation, or appearance
3 : reluctant

Example sentence:
Unlike the chatty, gregarious protagonists of his novel, the author is quite reticent in public.

Did you know?
“Reticent” first appeared about 170 years ago, but the “reluctant” sense of “reticent” is a mid-20th century introduction. Though it is now well-established, this newer sense bothers some people, particularly because it has veered away from the word’s Latin origins — “reticent” is from the verb “reticere,” meaning “to keep silent.” But there is some sense in the way the newer meaning developed. We first tended to use the “reluctant” sense of “reticent” when the context was speech (as in “reticent to talk about her past”), thus keeping the word close to its “silent” sense. Eventually, however, exclusive association with speech was abandoned. Now one can be “reticent” to do anything.

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Posted By Rob on December 1, 2008

I found this website called Franchise Gator. If you’re looking for a franchise opportunity, this is a great place to start. It not only allows you to see what franchises are available based on industry and geographic location, it even allows you to search based on the amount of the initial investment.

If you’re looking to open a franchise, this could be very handy. And while some of these types of sites can be fly by night, this one is a Microsoft subsidiary. Which could be good or bad based on your opinion of Microsoft, but at least there’s no denying that it has the money behind it to provide good resources.

So if it’s your goal to escape from being a slave to your boss, go check out Franchise Gator!

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Posted By Rob on December 1, 2008

I want my family to be healthy and happy,
I want my family to feel secure
I want my son to speak
I want my kids to sleep the entire night in their bed
I want my wife to have a career that she is happy and proud of
I want to not have to worry about how every last penny is spent
I want to not be struggling to buy groceries with a week still to go until I get paid
I want to do something creative that makes me feel fulfilled
I want the pain to stop
I want to feel relieved
I want to go on Caribbean cruises
I want to wake up feeling refreshed and looking forward to my day
I want my house to feel like a home
In combination with the above, I want all the boxes unpacked, the furniture in place, and the garage cleaned out

And that’s just the start…

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Posted By Rob on November 30, 2008

So complex is the human spirit that it can itself scarce discern the deep springs which impel it to action.

- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
from The White Company

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Posted By Rob on November 30, 2008

lodestar \LOHD-star\ noun
: one that serves as an inspiration, model, or guide

Example sentence:
When she started her own business, Melinda used her father’s motto — “Trust your instincts” — as her lodestar.

Did you know?
The literal, albeit archaic, meaning of “lodestar” is “a star that leads or guides; especially : the North Star.” (The first half of the word derives from the Middle English word “lode,” meaning “course.”) Both the literal and the figurative sense (”an inspiration or guide”) date back to the 14th century, the time of Geoffrey Chaucer. The literal sense fell out of use in the 17th century, and so, for a while, did the figurative sense — but it appeared again 170 years later, when Sir Walter Scott used it in his 1813 poem The Bridal of Triermain.

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Posted By Rob on November 29, 2008

A Short Work of Fiction…

I had never been in the bosses office. She had invited me here, though I was at a loss as to why. I was one of those workers, kept my head down, did the best job possible, drew little or no attention to myself. I did the last one so well they had almost forgotten to invite me to the annual Christmas party, but no bother, I hadn’t intended to go anyway. So it was with some surprise that the boss had made her way to my desk and asked me quietly to accompany her to her office.

It was odd to me, that her office was as far removed from our cubicles as it was. Odd too that there appeared to be no secretary, windows, much of anything that screamed successful department manager. But it was here she had led me, her name emblazoned on the gold plate on the door.

I followed her in and she closed the door. It might have been my imagination, but I thought I heard a ‘click’ as it locked be hind her.

She removed her eyeglasses and regarded me with a look that appeared seductive, or maybe hungry.

“John,” she started in a voice that had caught me off guard. It was melodic, hypnotic. “You’ve been here some time, is that right?”

“Yes Ma’am.” I stammered.

“And yet no one here seems to really know you. Why, I don’t know if they’d even notice if you didn’t show for work one day!”

“I like to keep to myself.”

“No family, wife or girlfriend?”

“No. Just me.” Where was this going? With every new word from her mouth, I felt a stupour increasingly come over me. I doubt I could’ve even stood to leave if I had wanted to.

“Oh,” she said, almost merrily. “That is exactly the kind of man I’m looking for…” And with that her eyes went red, her teeth become fierce and sharp, and I suddenly wished I had made far more of a spectacle of myself on a daily basis…

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