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Thursday, December 19, 2002

South Korea Branded! Ever quick, as always, the NYT notices and responds: Mr. Roh, however, clearly staked his campaign on continued engagement with North Korea and has forcefully ruled out deadlines for compliance or economic sanctions to force South Korea™s impoverished communist neighbor to respect its international engagements. 8:01:41 PM    comment []

When I finally got around to leaving for work this morning, after a two hour conference call I did at home, there were two packages outside my door. The first was the UPS, recursively, maybe paradoxically, delivered by UPS. "There's nothing sexy about a UPS", I confided to a friend at work last week. "It just sits there. New video card means nifty WinMarks and awesome games. Sound card, fast CD burner, there's a new toy for a while..." "Aha!", he says, "Plug it into your switched outlet. Then stand by your light switch, click it up and down, watch the monitor and go 'woo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-HOO!" I'll wait for the weekend for that, the UPS is still in the box. The other package was from Sendexnet. Dende oil, cheese bread mix, a huge chunk of carne seca, and a couple of other things I forgot why I ordered. Wonder how long a microwave would run on a 1000VA UPS? The dende oil will enhance the next batch of farofa. I've never read it, but something tells me this is the oil you should use, only approximated by an olive oil/butter mix. Or my stereo, is there enough power there to make it through a CD? The cheese bread mix will also wait for the weekend, which ain't that far away right now. What if the power goes off while it's baking in the oven? I expected something like jerky for the carne seca. Instead, it's a rectangular hunk, with no connections for either protected USB or 110V. I suppose I should check out recipes... 4:45:46 PM    comment []

Random Words: Career An ideal career would be a steady progression from one set of responsibilities to other, increased responsibilities rather than a mad race from job to job. The pace of a modern fast-track career actually seems to reflect early senses of the word itself, In early use the English word career, first recorded in the sixteenth century, had such senses as "racecourse ... .. a short gallop at full speed," "a rapid course," and "the moment of peak activity." Clearly this was a word that had to do with speed. However, the French word carrière from which career comes, originally meant "chariot road." In French carrière quite naturally developed the senses "course or progression of one's life" and "one's chosen pursuit," and these senses were borrowed into English from French in the nineteenth century. Thus, they did not develop in English from the "fast" senses of the word. Etymologically, at least, one can get one's career off the fast track and travel at normal speed on the road. From a random book selection and a random opening, as much as random can be random. The book is Word Mysteries & Histories. From Quiche To Humble Pie, by the Editors of The American Heritage Dictionary, ISBN 0-395-40264-6 (pbk.), Illustrations by Barry Moser, Foreword by Robert Claiborne. "Career" is on page 36. It's probably in the dictionary as well, since American Heritage did that too. I think I borrowed this book from someone a long time ago and neglected to return it, I hope he doesn't read this. Then again, maybe I should give Ken a call. Returning forgotten borrowed books is a good way to renew an old friendship. It's happened before. 1:48:54 AM    comment []