Friday, June 30, 2006

12 new words

I am elated that I have been able to keep my promise of learning five new words every day, which means that I am not being feckless a word I learned yesterday which means being irresponsible. Here is the list Exhort, Extant, Expatiate, Facetious, Fatuous, Feckless, Distrait, Disinterested, Dissemble, Disabuse, Din, Discomfit and Chimera.
To Exhort is to request earnestly and Extant is something which is still existing. So lets start with some Facetious but not Fatuous sentences. What I mean to convey with these two new words is to make playful, funny sentences but not absurd or something which is stupid. To be facetious means is to be playful, humorous and not being serious while Fatuous means innanely foolish. To exhort is to incite, to make urgent appeals for example coaches in the soccer cup have been known to exhorting their team to give their best. The word Distrait is pronounced more like "distray" and I found this sentence on thefreedictionary.com "When she did not occupy her accustomed chair at the seminar, Freud felt uneasy and distrait". To be distrait is to be inattentive. Another good sentence I found on wiktionary is "I noticed that after my host had read it he seemed even more distrait and strange than before". So to feel distrait is to feel inattentive because of anxiety not because of boredom or carelessness. Another word which comes to mind is disinterested which is frequently misused as inattentive. The sentence "The exit poll company has been using the latest advances in the theory of statistics to make their results as disinterested as possible". Which should give you the drift that it means unbiased.
Continuing our words starting from letter D, here is one another great word to express ourselves in fact it means to conceal. The word is dissemble. To dissemble is to feign or conceal one's true feelings, motive or facts. The devil dictionary has one great definition "To put a clean shit upon the character" and there is one more sentence "So when should you be honest and when should you dissemble? " A quick search on google got some more sentences here are few to savour "Perhaps it was right to dissemble your love, But -- why did you kick me down stairs?". "See George dissemble. No, I'm not talking about our president but George Will". " He who is passionate and hasty is generally hoest; its is your cool dissembling hypocrite, of whom you should beware". "Rage cannot be hidden, it can only be dissembled. This dissembling deludes the thoughtless, and strengthens rage and adds, to rage, contempt". "He was and open, candid personality who did not dissemble his thoughts, and the public respected him as a politician who was unusual in the sincerity of his views". " However, like that litttle Mexican boy, I learned to dissemble my anguish and sat as quiety as I could, hoping that no one would notice I did not like the food". " In the years since he joined Today in 1987, Humphrys, 61, has perfected the abitility to extract the truth from those who aim to dissemble. Moving on to next D word we have is Disabuse. To free from a falsehood or misconception: I must disabuse you of your feelings of grandeur. The word is pronounced as two words dis and abuse rather than the 'sa' sound one may expect, it is dis+abuse. "Some people are still not disabused of the old idea that the universe revolves around the earth". "I always thought that those two were sworn enemies, but seeing them behave in such a friendly manner has disabused me of my notion".

Here is one great website which lists almost 3400 words that are for GRE preperation and I think should be part of my everyday vocabulary.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

16 New Words !

So Akina and I are finally able to sustain the momentum of learning new words. In the past two days 16 new words have made it to the list and this is definitely music to my ears. The new words are Disport, Fractious, Froward, Ford, Pied, Petuant, Yegg, Acquisitive, Quintessence, Avocation, Ardor, Peruse, Peremptory, Morose, Exemplar and Fungible.

If you read the last post of mine you would see that I did try to use some of these words. To entertain is to disport. The easier way to remember is to remember that "We play sport to disport ourselves". Being Fractious means to be unruly, its an adjective, so one can also express their emotion by using this word for example "Sandi was feeling fractious after not finding a single computer to use in the lab". Froward could be mistaken for the misspelling of the word forward however froward is indeed a word and is a pretty old word and it means to be stubborn. Thus a froward child is a unruly child. A trivial sentence using froward could be "Nick has always been a froward child". To Ford is to wade through shallow water. For example "Our Ford broke down while fording the river !". Pied is multicolor usually blotches, the thing which comes to mind is the clothes of a jester. If someone is feeling petulant give that person some room to give off their steam, its pretty close to being fractious.
What would you call a person who breaks your safe and stole the eggs you kept there ? Well you can call that person a "Yegg". A Yegg is a safebreaker or a robber. Adams march towards becoming a yegg started as he become more and more Acquisitive. Which brings us to the new word Acquisitive which means becoming materialistic.
Something which is quintessence is a paragon, exemplar. If you have a hobby than you definitely have an avocation and if you been perusing this wonderful blog than it means you have been reading very carefully. Peruse is pronounced as perooze. Something which is done peremptorily is done with authority and one of the synonym that is listed is "Imperious" which we encountered in last post on words. While imperious is like scoffing the action peremptory is like not even letting that action take place both are bossy words and if reading this making you feel sad than probably a better word to describe it is "morose". Its similar to moron which means stupid and its no secret that if you being moron you are more likely to have morose more often. One thing that people do to change thier emotion is to go shopping but what if you don't have much green with you ? Well if you have something fungible then chances are you will get your green pretty easily. So anything that is fungible can be liquidated.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Global Yatch Race

Ever since I read the Robinson Crusoe I have nurtured a strong desire to someday sail around the world over the fractious sea adding jest to the quotidian life. Circumnavigating it in a boat and in ultralight another time . Today I found something which I strongly feel that I should do. Its a Global Challenge race which may not be your way of disporting yourself. The cost for it is close to 30,000 pounds which is ok for something you do for whole 5 weeks of your life. The best thing is one doesn't need to have a sailing experience or even sailing as one's avocation, most of the crew member are inexperienced working under one professional skipper. There are also 15 days trans Atlantic junkets among other. If reading this makes your heart skip a beat then here is the web address you should visit.

Monday, June 26, 2006

New Words !

Its now almost two days since I last posted. I said that I will be learning new words and the past two days have been good. I learned 5 words per day and in all learned 10 new words. The words are Accretion, Abscission, Quail, Quaff, Quotidian,Gambol, frolic, Gainsay, Germane, Impetuous, Imperturbable and Imperious. While Accretion means increase, Abscission is to cut off. To quail is to shirk with fear and Quotidian is the word for banal everyday thing for example her quotidian ride to work place. To gainsay is to deny and an impetuous decision is the one taken without a thought so if you find yourself in Greenland without a blanket probably it may be of you making a impetuous decision of flying there without even thinking that it will be cold out there. Being Imperious is to be authoritative and so usually imperious persons are not liked. Making an imperious hand gesture is pretty rude. Gamboling is playing and making noise and it is same as frolicking. The common sentence one encounters for gamboling is the "lambs gamboling in the meadows", so that gave me the idea of constructing my own sentence. "I discovered that I overslept only after I woke up by the gamboling going in my back yard by my neighbor's kids".
Here is one more website which has its archive online and some great words in the list "The Maven's Archive".

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Sumant's June 24, 2006

Yesterday I did lot of shopping. I was on a shopping spree after a long long time because most of my shopping these days is done on internet. However one thing which I still haven't brought online is cloths. So when I say I was on a shopping spree it means I got more cloths for me. I also got a Math GRE book and a vocab book too. Yes I am planning on giving Math GRE sometime probably December 2006. I am excited about buying a vocab book, its after a very long time that I have a vocab book and I am planning on finishing it as soon as possible. Its a Princeton review vocab and the content seems good.

Today was another exciting thing that happened I got a second bicycle its a schwin bike and I bought it from mid west cash in Marion. So now I have two bicycles one schwin and another one is roadmaster. I had a spare bicycle lock the one with a number lock and now I am able to use it. LOL ! Today also my car broke down while coming back from Marion to Carbondale at a place not far from John A logan college, I guess the name of the place was cranville. It was next to a liquor store. I was really moved by Omar's gesture. I called him just to find about the number of a towing company and he offered to come and take a look so he can fix it and within half an hour he was there. Omar gave me the company for the next half an hour under that scorching sun even getting the jump start kit from his automotive school, replacing his car's battery and numerous other ways he can think off. Finally we got it towed by American tow company. Fortunately I had some pizza and cold drink and that was our lunch. I still feel that I haven't been able to thank enough for Omar's gesture. Infact gestures like these make you think how good some people are.

Another interesting that today happened was that I finally solved the whole Rubic Cube today. The feeling was just sublime. I had been trying to do that for quite sometime the breakthrough came yesterday when Daniel for the first time showed me his method and solved the cube. Then there was Yuan Lin who had solved the cube unlimited number of time when he was in kindergarten, I had the solution with me and with 10 minutes he solved the cube from the scratch. He had a better understanding of the notations and later that evening he got me his handwritten directions for solving the cube which substitute arrows for the clockwise and anti clockwise directions. Yesterday also was interesting when Joyce cooked the green Thai curry. It was spicy and I loved it. I had some fried dal to offer and they loved it. So I think pretty soon we will be getting together again for another dinner.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Ode to joy

Yesterday I learned the first two lines of Ode to Joy and had some more practice with finger techniques and v7 chord. I found more video lessons on youtube.com under piano lessons which is a good news. I can also play a little of marching saints. I will be starting my Math GRE preparation from today after I meet Reza in an hour and will buy a review book for Math GRE. There is a lot going on the Partial Differential front and we dwelled into the weak solutions today after covering non conservation laws last week.

Friday, June 16, 2006

First week of summer school



This summer I am taking Partial Differential Equation class and today was the fifth day for the class. We are using Jeffery M Cooper's book on Partial Differential Equation with Matlab. I am looking forward to get comfortable with Matlab. My interest in Partial Differential equation was whetted after taking Dr. Kammler's wonderful course on Fourier Analysis. In this course we are going to take a rigorous look at the solution of the general partial differential equation paying attention to the uniqueness and existence of solution rather than just cranking the solution. The first homework is already been assigned and its due in a week. On other front my piano is getting better I am now able to play some trivial songs with both hands and I am loving it! Its one facet of skill one begins to appreciate only after acquiring it that how our hands respond without us making a conscious effort to redirect our attention to play it. Something like typing as I type I know I am not thinking of the individual letters and yet I am able to type at a reasonably good speed and perhaps this was one of the other motivation besides Dr. Kammler's class that I can learn Piano since I can type. I am looking forward to revise most of the stuff this week it will include Abstract Algebra, Fourier Analysis and Multivariable Calculus.

I finally took time to rent Forrest Gump and saw it from beginning to end. In the past I had watched pieces of it. I loved the movie and since I am getting piano literate I had a whole lot of appreciation for the title score and tried to play it on my own and to me it sounds good though I am pretty sure many of you won' t agree !

Monday, June 12, 2006

Summer break over

So finally the summer break is over and I finished it off by taking a trip to Paducah in Kentucky. Its only like 60 miles from carbondale and it was an on the spur decision to go there. I love driving so it was fun. We actually planned to go to the ice cream factory but it was closed however the place was at the banks of Ohio river and we sat there enjoying the beautiful Ohio river. We then had dinner at a chinese buffet in Paducah and came back home.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

My blurb on The DaVinci Code

I saw the The DaVinci Code only after reading half way through the book and some other documentaries. I think religion is a personal matter its a choice we make. We choose to believe what we feel comfortable with. It amuses me that why should Jesus be looked down if he was married and had children. He gave wonderful teachings of love and compassion and that alone puts him amongst the greatest people mankind ever had. Historically organized religions have not been kind to women and TheDa Vinci Code was an attempt to explain how this could have happened. I believe we all have an inner compass which tells us what is good and what isn't. So if one ask oneself shouldn't the women be treated equal ? and the answer comes out "Yes" they should be and so the prevalent view of not treating them equal exposes the bias nature of religions and the conspiracy of the people who are at helm of the affairs.

Update

To begin with I saw few more movies these include Munich, Sideways, Troy, Howl's Moving Castle, Shaoulin Soccer, Underworld 3, Tibet Cry of the snow lion. The best comedy was definitely Sideways. Troy and Howl's Moving Castle were both visual treat. The hashing at Giant City park was great. I am begining to read Music though a lot more practice is required to become fluent. Visited Vineyard Church and I loved the Jonah's story about fish swallowing him to save his life after he encourage his fellow storm struck sailors to throw him into the sea so that storm will stop. Its an interesting story and I like the way its being told. I was surprised that Bible condones eating animal infact encourages it and animals are treated inferior to humans.
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