Counting Down...

Nine

Coffee Lovers...

Coffee Lovers, are you ready?

I'm counting down...

Ten

Alvin Toffler

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
Alvin Toffler

Directionality

Directionality is the direction of a writing system. Languages don't have a direction. Their scripts, or how they are written, do. Languages can be written in more than one script. Some languages have changed their script direction over time. Here are links to a few useful websites on this topic:

https://omniglot.com/writing/direction.htm

https://www.worldswritingsystems.org/

https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/34052/languages-which-changed-their-writing-direction

https://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php

Saul Bellow

“You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.”
Saul Bellow

Coming Soon...

 

Fireflies

In the final chapter ("Fireflies") of Reflections: A Journey of Transformation, I wrote:

The fireflies have returned. Who knew what is basically a type of beetle could bring me so much peace? I love just sitting outside and watching them glow. I would love it even more if other bugs didn’t get in the way — one of the reasons I want a sunroom.

Well, here's where I am now with that sunroom:

Hiral Nagda

“Stop what stops you.”
Hiral Nagda

Languages & Life Lessons

 

A Little Latin...

Fiat justitia.

Let justice be done.

Coming Soon...

 

Reflections

 

Rumi

“Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.”
Rumi 

Reflections

 

Encephalishitis

A few years ago, one night when I couldn't sleep because I felt angry at certain people I had met in real life, I came up with the word encephalishitis to describe these people. Thinking of these people's head filled with poop instead of a brain - or technically poop causing the swelling of their brain - allowed me to accept that there are and always will be idiots in the world who will harm others with both their words and their actions. 

My anger eventually dissipated, and I went on living my life peacefully. I didn't think of the word for quite some time until now.

These days, as I read the events that unfold daily in the revolution in Iran and I listen to these mullahs talk, I have found the word appropriate again. I know it's not a nice word, but it is accurate. 

#encephalishitis

Coming Soon...

 

Leo Babauta

“Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest.”

Leo Babauta

A Vocabulary Lesson

The word "spouse" in Persian is همسر (pronounced hamsar), a compound noun made of ham (same) and sar (head), which means "equal in rank and authority."

Book Review

Coffee Taster's Flavor Wheel

This Coffee Taster's Wheel, which I downloaded for free at   https://counterculturecoffee.com/learn/resource-center/coffee-tasters-flavor-wheel on October 12, 2022, includes body descriptors as well as adjectives and intensifiers for coffee.

Here's another website with another wheel:
https://atlanticspecialtycoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/SCA_TasterWheel_English_8.5x11.pdf

 

Reflections

 

Reflections: A Journey of Transformation

 

Languages & Life Lessons

 

Paul Theroux

"A journey awakens all our old fears of danger and risk. Your life is on the line. You are living by your own resources; you have to find your own way and solve every problem on the road."
Paul Theroux

Coming Soon...

 

Book Review

 

In Six Languages

زن زندگی آزادی - Farsi

Woman Life Freedom - English

Femme Vie Liberté - French

Frau Leben Freiheit - German

Mujer Vida Libertad - Spanish

Donna Vita Libertà - Italian

Language & Fashion

About Cinderella's glass slippers, I recently read a piece that explained her slippers may not have been made of glass, after all. You have no idea how relieved it made me feel to know she didn't have to walk in such impractical shoes, even in a fairy tale. Apparently, the shoes were made of white squirrel fur, a practical material, according to Google, used in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as a trimming or lining for garments.

In 1697, Charles Perrault, a French author, rewrote the tale of Cinderella, or Cendrillon, and replaced the word vair, which Merriam-Webster defines as "the bluish-gray and white fur of a squirrel prized for ornamental use in medieval times," with verre, which, in French, means glass. 

#WomanLifeFreedom

#WomanLifeFreedom 

Woman = زن 

(pronounced "zan")

Life = زندگی 

(pronounced "zendegi")

Freedom = آزادی

(pronounced "azadi")

Mahatma Gandhi

“The greatness of humanity is not in being human, but in being humane.”
Mahatma Gandhi

Shervin Hajipour