Origin of Words

I found an interesting link on the Origin of words!!
I thought of sharing it with the others who might be interested.

For example the word 'pug' as in pug-marks comes from the Hindi word 'pag'
as in pag-chinhh ie foot steps.

Etymology is the study of the origins of words: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology

You can have a look at the funny, interesting and engrossing book 'How to build a better vocabulary' by Morris Rosenblum, Maxwell Nurnberg
A paperback edition, it is available quite cheaply.
Though mostly used by TOEFL students it is very interesting :-)
Many words have interesting stories behind them. Like the phrase 'Cutting the Gordian Knot' which is explained in the book. It starts every chapter with a funny and apt Cartoon. I especially liked the one which goes - "No, No. This is a stalactite and That is a stalagmite'

Happy Reading

Travelling Genes?? Women Hit the Road

Came across this interesting factoid (is it a fact or just fancy statistics??)

From ibnlive :
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/accidentally-porn-hot-on-web-trail/10728-11.html
"Among other surfing trends in both the sexes, it seems more
men visit sports and investment sites (42 and 39 per cent respectively) while at work
than women (18 and 20 per cent respectively).

Women, on the other hand, seem keener on travel and shopping-oriented sites (60 and 53 per cent) than men (52 and 43 per cent)."

And here's the interesting part Curiously I observed in matrimony search that almost 80-90% of women claimed Travelling as a hobby. Is there a link here?

I'd read somewhere that Men tend to spread their genes by travelling a la' Sindabad the sailor with a home in every port... and that women tend to spread their genes by small jumps nearer to their place of birth. Hmm... come to think about it, women travel just as much, as their husbands homes may not be close by.... Anyway just a thought....

Blogging without Blocking

Have you ever thought
"I've got a lot of interesting things to talk about... It's just that I can't think of anything to write"
(OR)
"I wish I could write something, I don't know what but..."
(OR)
'A recipe for Free Flow Bloggage'

1)Save the IDEA!
Start a stub or Draft Blog with Just the Title
and maybe a reminder about what you wanted to talk about.
Common source of ideas you mention in conversations with friends....
Like "hey did you know this..."
"I saw something funny today..."
"It was great in Darjeeling at this time of the year... I remember"...
Anything that would make interesting conversation is a good starting point.

"I feel..."
"I think..."
Opinions.

Interesting mails that You wrote lying around in your mailbox.
Chat conversations with friends still accessible through your chat client.
[Note: This Blog is derived from a chat conversation with a friend on how to increase blogging... See bottom of the blog]

2) Grow Mt. Everest an inch at a time!!
Jot down each thought as a word on a line by itself.
Don't worry about grammar or completion.
Capture as many thoughts as you can before they disappear.
Now you can go about elaborating and expanding each word into a sentence by itself.
Once you have this working set, Expand words into sentence.

When you have enough sentences, Group them into paragraphs.
When you have enough paragraphs. Rearrange them into Intro, Middle, Conclusion/Summary paragraphs.
This process takes anywhere between a few hours to 15-20 days.
Depending on your idea flow and enthusiasm or time available.

There are still some old drafts that I haven't posted.
Their time will come.

3) It's more like making a scrapbook of random thoughts and ideas which you can share with friends in far away lands and in time visit years later... Enjoy the process of setting aside some memories for tomorrow.

4) Express Yourself!
Write it more like as in a conversation with a friend. This avoids getting stuck on format and concentrates on the "what you want to say". The chat session for this blog below is one such example.

5) Finally publish the draft version as a full blown Blog. It's no good waiting for the perfect blog.

6) Share your blog with everyone. Add a link to your email signature to your blogspot. This will ensure that your blogs get the attention they deserve. I regularly mail my blogs to my friends just in case they don't read from blogspot. It's just a rough pad for writing good emails. It's better than just forwarding stuff onward.

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[Original Chat conversation : in Hindi]
Jab bhi kuchh aisaa soojhta hai to mein ek stub article daal detaa hoon....
Nahin to achhe ideas gayab ho jaatey hain....
Idea save karke rakh diya to baad mein build karna easy hotaa hai....
Whenever I get some time... I just fill in some points in the blog...
To be expanded later.... Helps to keep the momentum going...
So the blog builds up over time.. as a draft and one day when I feel its good enough to post I post it....
Till now I've managed to post a huge no. of blogs in this way and more drafts are in the pipeline all the time....
Somewhat like emule!! :D
First thing I did was to search for any interesting articles I'd written in my mail box.... Uploaded those as drafts....
Then slowly edited them to make them more readable....
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