The Answer to One of Life's Many Questions: Why Colonel Doesn't Have an "R"

If you have been following my blog for awhile, all two of you may remember a blog post I made awhile ago about spelling, and I complained about the missing 'r' in colonel. For the rest of you, I'll be nice and give you a link so you know what I am talking about. 

Ok, now that you are back from reading my old post, I can move on. 

The other day I was reading The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way (this has become one of my new favorite books. Yes, I do have very weird interests) and I came to the chapter on spelling. Much to my great excitement, this absolutely amazing book explained about why there is no 'r' in colonel!!!!!!! Now, I am going to pass this splendid bit of information on to you. 

"Colonel...comes from the old French coronelle, which the French adapted from the Italian colonello...When the word first came into English in the mid-sixteenth century, it was spelled with an r, but gradually the Italian spelling and pronunciation began to challenge it. For a century or more both spellings and pronunciations were commonly used, until finally...we settled on the French pronunciation and Italian spelling." 

See! I knew the French had something to do with it!

A couple of other interesting fact that I learned from the chapter on spelling:

1) For the longest time people didn't care at all about consistent spelling. In fact, in some cases they would  spell the same word two different ways in the same letter. Why can't things be like that now?

2) During the early 1900's there  was a movement to simplify spelling in the US. The Simplified Spelling Board released a list of 300 words that were commonly spelled two different ways (like judgement and judgment) and endorse the simpler spelling. They were able to get the support of National Education Association and President Theodor Roosevelt, and actually succeed in changing the way words like catalog and program were spelled. Sadly, WWI happened and so a great movement died before it could do any real good.

Well, I think I have thrown enough useless facts at you for one day.

Until next time, au revoir.

~Nat

P. S. I apologize for the fact that I haven't posted for a really long time. Unfortunately there is this thing called life, and it takes up a lot of my time. But I shall endeavor to improve, and post something about once a week. We shall see if I can manage it.

I Think Calvin has the Right Idea

So, yesterday I had my first chemistry class.

It.  Was.  Horrible.

I had no idea how much math was involved.  I spent more time doing math than actually learning about science.  I don't think it's fair that they make you do two subjects at once.  Especially when one of those subjects is math.

Bleck.

I think Calvin has a brilliant idea....




















...Too bad I'm home schooled.

Oh, well.  I'll probably end up learning a lot.  Plus my teacher is a ton of fun.  He makes sound effects when he adds up problems.  He is awesome.  Besides, if I want to go to a good college, I can't really get out of it.  Curse our ridged educations system that somehow thought it was necessary for every child to know how to do scientific notations.

At least I have American Vision and Values to look forward to.  I've only read 29 pages in the book, and it already looks like this class will be epic.

Anyways...
Until I write again, au revoir.

~Nat

Oh Irony

When I started writing my previous post Sunday night, I had no idea how relevant it was.  Since then God has tested the dedication to completely surrender my future to Him, and it hasn't been fun.

On Monday something happened that I had hopped would happen for a while, but never really thought would.  Then on Tuesday, God let me know that now was not the time for it, and that it might not ever be the right time for it.  After two days of excitement and happiness, to find out that it couldn't happen now was very hard for me.  But what made it really difficult was that a short while before He said no, I had felt sure it was the right thing to do, and that God was going to let it happen.

I don't really understand why those two days happened, or why God would give me this, and then take it away.  But I do trust Him.  I know He has a plan, that He is in control, and that even though now it is disappointing, it is for the best.  But sometimes complete surrender can be very tough.

Until next time, au revoir.

~Nat

Like a Child Making Mud Pies

Yesterday, as  I was riding home from dropping my brother off at college, I started daydreaming about the future. I contemplated where I would go, what  I would do, who I would become; and then  I realized something, I was becoming way too attached to my version of the future, when God already has a plan for my life. A plan that may not include any of the things that I want to happen. I can just imagine God, up in heaven, smiling lovingly at my attempts to plan my future. Knowing perfectly well that He had already devised the perfect plan for my life.

Even though I knew that God's plan was already set in stone; I really, really wanted it to fit in with my plans. Thinking back on that moment, I remind myself of the child from the analogy by C. S. Lewis:

"We are...like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea."

Although, Lewis was talking about the gospel, I feel that this also applies to my situation. God has a wonderful blueprint for my life. But I still want to stick with how I laid my life out; even though, any plan I can think up, will be greatly inferior to God's idea. I would be perfectly content to remain in the slums with the life I have planned out, despite the fact that God is offering a holiday at the sea. As I sat in the passenger seat of that car, I realized that I needed to let go of my idea of a perfect life; I needed to commit my future to God.

You know what? Complete surrender is kinda nice. If I step back, and trust God to run my life, I no longer have to worry about how things will turn out. Yes, sometimes I do relapse, and start worrying about how I am going to pay for college, and who I will end up marrying. But for the most part, it is much more freeing. Besides, even if you let go of your dreams, they can still come true. After all, what you want, may still part of God's perfect plan for your life. Just be willing to accept it if it isn't.

Until  I write again, au revoir.

~Nat

Is the Makeup Industry a Scam?

Here is another article from the fictitious Big Blue Cow news. Enjoy!

Makeup Industry Revealed to be Giant Plot to Make Guys Miserable

By Natalie Schneider

Big Blue Cow news, August 22, 2010

On Tuesday, the Federal Examination Department for the Discovery of Undiscovered Plots (FEDDUP) announced that discovered a conspiracy, created by 85 year old Magdalene Dupree, to frustrate guys everywhere. In 1948 Dupree, then 23, was left at the altar by her fiancé, Albert Stockton. Dupree then allegedly decided that it would be her mission in life to make men everywhere miserable. “It started out with small things,” Dupree’s best friend Annabelle, said. “First it was only wearing too much perfume when she went out, or wearing big hats whenever she sat in front of guys at the movies. But soon her activities became meaner and more elaborate.”

Dupree’s activities allegedly culminated in a scheme to expand the makeup industry to such a point that it would become the bane of all men everywhere.  “I think she got the idea from our father complained about how much time we spent getting ready in the morning,” her sister Magnolia Dupree said.  “He used to always say that we spent all of our time, and all of his money, on makeup and hair stuff; and that because of it he was broke and late for everything.”  In the fall of 1949, Dupree started selling her makeup door to door. It was slow going, but after she received the endorsement of actress Olivia De Havilland, Dupree’s 15 step makeup process began to sell more rapidly.  In just a few years Dupree’s makeup company, Vision, became the highest grossing make up companies in the United States. After that, Dupree’s company continued to grow in its success. Until, in the spring of 1993, Dupree suddenly announced that she was selling her company to Cover Girl. With no explanation, she handed over her company and went quietly into retirement.

In the statement issued by FEDDUP on Tuesday; Senior Director of Press Releases, Robert Page explained that Dupree had sold her original company, because her larger plan had come into place. “It appears that since the winter of 1948, Magdalene Dupree had been planning to take over the entire makeup industry, and make it so expensive and complicated that it would ruin the lives of all men affected by it. On April 15, 1993 she achieved her goal, and on the 19^th she sold her company, and went into retirement.”  According to the statement, Dupree had spent most of the money she had acquired from the profits of her company to secretly by up every company that created hair and makeup products. In the end she controlled companies such as Maybelline, Cover Girl, and Herbal Essences; among others.

Dupree declined to comment except to shout through her open car window that this was “another example of men trying to ruin her life.” Her female lawyer did issue a statement saying that “Ms. Dupree is completely innocent of any of the bogus charges the FEDDUP may decide to charge her with. The idea that she somehow had a master plan to take over the makeup industry  and ruin the lives of men around the world is ludicrous.”Stockton also refused to comment on the alleged activities of his former fiancé. But his neighbors say that Stockton is often late leaving the house, because his wife takes two hours putting on her makeup and fixing her hair.

Déjà vu

I saw this article, and I just had to laugh. It reminds me of a mock 1AC I wrote for debate last year. Here is a excerpt from the article:

"Chinese officials say they want to clean up a pollution scourge fouling the capital and government centers nationwide: bureaucratic gasbags.The problem, Communist Party functionaries say, is that civil servants talk too much — at meetings, in speeches and when speaking off-the-cuff in public...To set an example for his peers, Li Yuanchao, a top member of a key Central Committee department, told the state-run New China News Agency that he is keeping his speeches short during meetings. In one recent video-conference, he kept his remarks to just 10 minutes..."

If only our politicians would follow their example.

Until I write again, au revoir.

~Nat

"Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting." -Peter Pan

This summer has probably been one of the awesomest, and saddest summers ever. In the past, summer's have been things of tedium. This summer was different; I was so busy, I didn't know what to do with myself. Between hanging out with friends, going swimming, and ballroom dancing, I haven't had time for the for the boredom that usually plagues me.

 But, like I said, this summer has also been really sad. I have reached the point in my life, where it feels like so many more things are ending, than beginning. With the end of model UN earlier this summer, switching from Team Policy, to Lincoln Douglas debate, and so many of my friends (and my brother) going off to college, it seems like everything I love in my life is changing. On top of that, I just turned 18, and I can't help feeling like things will never be the same as when I was child. At times like this, I can't help empathizing with Peter Pan and his wish to never grow up.

I remember, five years ago, when I looked forward to being 18, and a senior. An event that felt like an eternity away when I was 13. Now it's here, and I almost wish it wasn't. It seems like we go through our whole lives looking in anticipation of events that are to happen in the future. Only to wish that we were in the past, when we finally get there. Don't get me wrong, I am excited at the prospect of going to college, and getting to have all new adventures. But, at the moment, all I feel is sadness at the approaching change; and I wish I were still 17, waiting for the next debate season to start. 

But I know that God knows what He's doing, and I know that I can't spend the rest of my life as a 17 year old. Things change, that is the way of life. Even though it's hard now, the changes bring about more new, and wonderful events. Events that, tomorrow, I will look forward to with anticipation. But today, all I find myself doing, is wishing that it was still the past.

Until next time, au revoir.
~Nat