_______*'s Friends

11:06PM

Finally updated my website. Will have to add a portraiture section at some point, but not without first having some sort of cohesive reasoning behind it. Added lightbox in order to have an option to read an introduction to each series. Also removed some filler - it's time I concentrate on what it's all about. Of course, since I'm coding these on my own, it's still strictly amateur hour when it comes to the design:

http://lungliu.com

11:30AM - ;

merry cat couch days to all.

.

10:30AM - ;

on va où, zsa zsa pouchkine?

2:52PM - yesterday

yesterday, n. [yes-ter-dey, yěs-tər-dā]
-Though the requester correctly noted that yesterday and yeast have similar pronunciations and spellings, they are not in fact related. Yesterday is first seen as a single word in a document from about 1250 CE, being spelled as yisterdai. It was formed from the Old English compound noun geostran dæg 'yesterday day' (c. 950), with geostran being first recorded on its own around 725. While geostran was originally sufficient on its own, over time it became absolutely paired with dæg. Interestingly, though many of the cognates of Old English geostran have equivalent definitions, several mean 'tomorrow' or both 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow': Middle Low German gistern 'yesterday,' Middle Dutch ghisteren 'yesterday,' Old Norse gær 'tomorrow, yesterday,' Gothic gistradagis 'tomorrow.' All of these stem from Proto-Germanic gestra 'the other day,' which could refer to either before or after the present day, leading to the dichotomous definitions in the daughter languages. The Germanic root is thought to have descended from prehistoric Indo-European ghes-, which also created Sanskrit hyah, Avestan zyo, Persian di, Greek khthes, Old Irish indhe, and Welsh doe, all meaning 'yesterday' or 'an indistinct past time.' Let's not forget Latin heri 'yesterday' and hesternus 'of yesterday,' the founder of French hier and several other words for 'yesterday' in the Romance languages.

4:15PM - ;

la tête qui se tourne à la lune, se tourne à la terre, l'orbite dégringolée qui raconte toujours la même histoire sans pourtant revivre des mêmes mots, maudire la mauvaise foi, les multiples coups de couteau muets, se retenir à deux mains au balcon des étoiles, les oreilles qui scintillent et l'amour qu'on ne connaît pas, le moût en attente du serment, les dégels qui fourmillent, les chevilles aux longues lanières, les lignes et le regard qui se pend, surprendre une paire mais pas les yeux, ne jamais répéter le même abandon, s'absoudre.

3:30PM - interstice;

.

the empty/full dichotomy takes part in all visual art. emptiness introduces an active discontinuity which allows for a complex organisation of visual elements, thereby facilitating interpenetration and internalization. the outgrowth of a piece into space, either through diptychs or panoramas, amplifies the structure of emptiness. classical composition rules no longer apply; the parts engage in a new dialogue that is revealed by a void where, seemingly, nothing happens. symbolically, emptiness becomes a code with underlying meaning, an ambiguous code leading to multiple interpretations.

january 7th - january 31st 2010
at the ottawa school of art
35 george st, ottawa, canada

la dichotomie vide/plein participe à toute forme d’art visuel. le vide introduit une discontinuité active qui permet aux éléments de s’organiser de façon complexe. il en facilite l’interpénétration et l’intériorisation. l’éclatement de l’œuvre dans l’espace, sous forme de diptyque ou de panorama, exacerbe la place du vide. les règles classiques de la composition cessent de s’appliquer; un autre dialogue s’engage entre les parties de l’œuvre, médiatisé par des zones où, en apparence, rien ne se passe. au plan symbolique, le vide devient un code qui sous-tend le sens de l’œuvre, un code ambigu menant à des interprétations multiples.

du 7 janvier au 31 janvier 2010
à l'école d'art d'ottawa
35 rue george, ottawa, canada

2:15PM - yeast

yeast, n. [yeest, yēst]
-Though we now consider yeast to be any fungi of the genus Saccharomyces (especially S. cerevisiae), which reproduces by budding and from ascospores and is capable of fermenting carbohydrates, Middle English yest, yeest specifically referred to the froth of fermenting beer. The Middle English term was developed from Late Old English gist ' yeast,' which first appeared around 1000 CE. Scholars are not sure of the Germanic ancestor of our English word, but they do believe it to be a Western Germanic word that also produced Middle High German gest 'foam, froth' and Old High German jesan 'to ferment.' Whatever the source is, it sprung from prehistoric Indo-European jes-, yes-.


Side note:
If anyone knows the definition of this PIE root, would you please let us know? I've been searching for about an hour now but just can't find it. I think this calls for a new reference book purchase. :)

11:30AM - ;

anthropomorphisme de l'échantillon T-2:

(the rock is very friable &
the grains are easily removed
at the slightest handling.

in fact,
the consistency is one of
sparsely compacted
argillaceous sand.)

mon pauvre amour,
comme je te comprends.

2:17PM - curmudgeon

curmudgeon, n. [ker-muhj-uhn, kər-mŭj-ən]
-Such a lively word, rich with meaning and imagery! Unfortunately, scholars have absolutely no idea where curmudgeon comes from, though there are a few theories. As the definition is 'a cantankerous, ill-tempered, and difficult person,' some scholars think that the cur- in curmudgeon might refer to English cur 'a mongrel dog' because this has come to be used as derogatory slang for a person. An older theory claims that curmudgeon might be the poor English translation of French coeur mechant 'evil heart,' but this opinion has fallen out of favor.



The infamous duo of curmudgeons from The Muppet Show

3:33PM - fine

fine, adj. & n. [fahyn, fīn]
-Depending on its part of speech, fine can have seemingly very different definitions, though their histories meet up in one common ancestor. Starting with the adjective, fine 'of high quality, superior' was first recorded in English around 1250 CE as Middle English as fin 'free of blemish, refined, pure.' It was directly borrowed from Old French fin 'perfected, of highest quality,' which itself came from Latin finis 'the end, limit' in the sense of 'peak, acme, supreme state.' Scholars have also found traces of this Romantic root in Old High German fin and Middle Dutch fijn. The history of the noun form of fine, defined as 'money paid in penalty,' follows the exact same path through French and Latin but took a slightly different interpretation of the Latin base. Starting with the meaning of Latin finis as 'the end, the limit,' Old French adapted it to the noun form of fin 'the end, the conclusion.' Once again around 1250, the first known usage of Middle English fin 'ending, termination' was recorded. By 1399, it had developed from a general meaning of payment (to end a deal or interaction) to our modern sense of 'payment as punishment for an offense.'

8:45PM - carbone;

vie de famille.

.

4:48PM - tickle your fancy

tickle your fancy
-This idiomatic expression is used when something pleases you or strongly engages your interest, though it can also be used as a euphemism for sexual pleasure or attraction, especially in women. If you break down the phrase, tickle is used to mean 'to excite or stir up in a pleasing manner' (think of the smiling, laughing reaction of a person being physically tickled), and fancy as a noun that means 'a notion or whim, a fantasy.' Dating at least from the late 1700's, tickle your fancy's original definition may have originally been closer to our modern euphemistic approach. One of the earliest known references comes from Abraham Tucker's 1774 In the Light of Nature Pursued, the author tells of animals "whose play had a quality of striking the joyous perception, or, as we vulgarly, say, tickling the fancy." After World War II, British English speakers began using it in a rhyming slang expression that associated a Nancy (a male homosexual) with tickling your fancy (arousing you sexually or performing sexual acts with you). An alternate version is found in strike your fancy.

12:47AM - Cape Cod Chronicles: Us

WATCH IT AT FULL SCREEN OR ELSE...

8:24PM - Writer's Block: Voulez-vous parler ...

English, and I've been studying French for eight years, but I'm not 100% fluent. As for one other language...Spanish would probably be the most practical. German or Swedish/Norwegian would be really interesting.

11:47AM

At the San Luis Hotel in Galveston. Photo by Tynne.

3:58PM - dragon

dragon, n. [drag-uhn, drăg-ən]
-There are as many kinds of dragons as there are myths about these creatures: some dragons have giant wings, some small; some breathe poison, some breathe fire; some live in tall mountains, some live in big lakes or oceans; some are evil, some are good; some have legs, some do not. What most Indo-European words for dragon have in common, though, is a link to snakes. The first known reference in English to a beast similar to our modern conceptualization is Middle English dragun, which comes from about 1250 CE. Prior to this, the Middle English word meant the more general 'a huge serpent' and was also used as a surname. It was taken directly from Old French dragon, itself a learned borrowing of Latin draconem (draco being the nominative form) 'a serpent, a dragon.' Per usual, the Latin version came from Greek drakon 'serpent, sea fish,' which had the literal translation of 'the one with the (deadly) glance.' Drak-, the stem of drakon, is also part of the Greek verb derkesthai 'to see clearly' and is derived from the prehistoric Indo-European root derk- 'to behold.' These ancient versions of dragons are akin to the Greek basilisk, a huge serpent-like creature who could kill a man with its gaze (and breath).