anyway

The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.

Give the world the best you have anyway.

blimey

<-- I love Harry Potter, but this is indeed an interesting way to see its evolution.

By the way, it's only about the biggest money maker ever, even beating out the Dark Knight, which recently beat Titanic. Even internationally, HP7.2 very well might attain the title of highest grossing film. All because one lady dreamed up a fantastical story. It's an amazing thing really.

I'm sad that it's over. Much of my generation grew up with these kids. We loved them! I mean, when Halloween rolled around, me and a million other little girls definitely donned a black cloak, frizzed our hair, held a twig in one hand and a beanie baby kitty cat in the other, lectured people on how to say "Wingardium Leviosa," and called ourselves Hermione. But hey, to all my friends who are tearing up, it'll be alright:

"Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home" - J.K.R.

that pesky virus

Sweet little animation made by a Mr. Alan Becker.

oh that L’esprit de escalier

English is my native language, but I guess I never thought about how there's not always a word for everything. . . Here's a few words that don't exist in the English language:

L’esprit de escalier: (French) The feeling you get after leaving a conversation, when you think of all the things you should have said. Translated it means “the spirit of the staircase.”
Waldeinsamkeit: (German) The feeling of being alone in the woods.
Meraki: (Greek) Doing something with soul, creativity, or love.
Forelsket: (Norwegian) The euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love.
Gheegle: (Filipino) The urge to pinch or squeeze something that is unbearably cute.
Pochemuchka: (Russian) A person who asks a lot of questions.
Pena ajena: (Mexican Spanish) The embarrassment you feel watching someone else’s humiliation.
Cualacino: (Italian) The mark left on a table by a cold glass.
Ilunga: (Tshiluba, Congo) A person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time.
Pochemuchka (Russian) - A person who asks a lot of questions.
Chantepleurer (French) - Singing and crying at the same time.

In some ways, finding this made me feel quite uncultured and like I should become a linguist or anthropologist or something and actually learn about other people outside my own happy little bubble college town. But finding this made me wonder what other similarities and differences my language has to others around the world and whether there are words unique to English.

Waaait. I can claim a tiny bit of culturedness! I learned some sign language this past year, which was a really fun and interesting experience and showed me that there are so many different ways to communicate similar things. Sign language is particularly captivating because it's so physical. Sometimes, hearing-people talk quite boringly, but ASL users are always telling a story and always so animated. It's often like watching a performance.

Anyway, I just think it's cool that different cultures are creative in different ways. Am I going to adopt at least one of the words in the above list into my everyday vocab? Duh. (Slowly, but surely y'all, I'm gonna triumph over the whole uncultured thing.)

Click to view larger. (Photos from foreignlanguageexchange.com and bab.la)