Don't Make No Sense

I have the blood of both an English teacher and a former algebra teacher coursing through my veins. A blessing in many ways, but as such, I have a strong tendency to dissect the English language with an overwhelmingly logical mind, often to the annoyance of people within a 10-foot radius. (And you.)

But bear with me, because I've found something that will make your head explode.

Commonly, the "in-" or "un-" prefix negates the meaning of a word. For instance, "flexible" vs "inflexible", or "tie" vs "untie". This is the case the vast majority of the time...but not always, for no good reason at all, such as with "flammable" vs "inflammable", which essentially mean the exact same thing. (Look it up.)

My co-workers and I ran across another interesting example the other day.

Consider "valuable", which describes something that has tangible value. A Babe Ruth rookie card has value. Now consider "invaluable", which frequently is used as a more intense version of "valuable". Friendship, for one, is invaluable. Literally, if an object is invaluable, then it has no value; not because it isn't precious, but because the object is so valuable that its value cannot be quantified...if that makes sense. "Invaluable", therefore, has a very positive connotation.

Now consider "worth". The aforementioned Babe Ruth rookie card has lots of worth, in the same way that it has lots of value. But friendship is so precious that its worth cannot be measured. So would you describe friendship as "worthless"? Even though this is exactly the same line of reasoning we followed from "valuable" to "invaluable", the word "worthless" has a strong negative connotation. Friendship isn't worthless, but that lousy novelty t-shirt you got from your distant relative for Christmas might be.

How is this possible? "Value" and "worth" are synonyms. But negating them as shown above, getting "invaluable" and "worthless", are antonyms.

No doubt this is because the words evolved in different ways through the years. Sort of like "terrific" came to mean something very positive, even though it springs from same root as the word "terror", which ain't so positive.

Just another way the English language don't make no sense.

Will It Blend?

Trying to sell a blender? Forget those boring, pointless, 3am infomercials. Just upload YouTube videos of your state-of-the-art Blendo 3000 -- or whatever you call it -- blending anything and everything, from Bic lighters to golf clubs to light bulbs!

That's what Blendtec did...achieving hitherto unreached heights of randomness and hilarity. Check out Tom Dickson -- who isn't the greatest of actors, but apparently makes a living doing this while the rest of us are stuck behind desks -- as he blends a dozen glow sticks into an eerily fluorescent smoothie:



I think I like the background music best, if not the profound conclusion, "Yes! It blends!" See: Will It Blend? for more. It's actually staggering how many of these videos there are.

JoshCast #31 - Furr

Kudos to my brother for turning me on to Blitzen Trapper, an indie rock group hailing from Portland, Oregon. The title track from their 2008 release, Furr, in particular continually invites me to hit that rewind button, just so I can hear it one more time.

It's a whimsical tune about some wandering soul that, enamored by the wild, assimilates with a pack of wolves, only to be drawn back to reality six years later after meeting a pearl-skinned girl. ...Um, I think. It's probably open to all sorts of interpretation if you study its lyrics, but at any rate, it's a fun listen.

Pretty cool papercraft animation accompanies it on the music video. Check it out:

Not-So-Calm Before The Storm

Sure, back when I went storm chasing earlier this year, I saw perhaps a dozen funnels briefly touch down left and right in a multi-vortex tornado. As surreal and scary as the actual funnel clouds were, I maintain that they oddly weren't the most threatening sight I witnessed. Rather, it was the violent motion of the clouds associated with the updraft that composed the larger mesocyclone (that's some fancy wordsies, ain't it?), in which the clouds seemed to be moving in all directions simultaneously: up and down, swirling counter-clockwise in a haphazard yet strangely organized fashion.

As you can tell by my feeble attempt to describe this phenomenon, it's difficult to convey exactly what this looked like until now, thanks to the magic of YouTube (and the good folks at TornadoVideos.net).

The following video is a time-lapse of a rotating supercell in Argentina. (Yes, they have tornadoes in the southern hemisphere, too.) Just after the 1:00 mark, when you can begin to see the wall cloud form, is when you begin to see what I'm talking about:



Eerie, ain't it? True, this is a time-lapse video sped up somewhat, but these clouds can move close to the same speed in real-time. So while there is no doubt the sight of a tornado is terrifying, the movement of clouds beneath the greater mesocyclone is a quietly foreboding image.

Delusions of Ungrandeur

WARNING: this entry's Mindless Rambling Index is dangerously high. Proceed with caution.

Ever had an idea, a thought, a philosophy that you wish you could follow and remember each and every day, but that inevitably loses your mind's grip on a regular basis? As hard as we try to keep apathy and a sense of "coasting" through life from creeping into our streams of consciousness, these tend to return on a somewhat regular basis, and it takes something significant to wake us from that stupor.

I had one of those wake-up calls recently.

On Thanksgiving morning, I was busy at a gas station, filling up my car, withstanding the newfound chill in the air. A woman that may or may not have been homeless passed me on a nearby sidewalk, and sunnily said, "Now THAT is one cute car!" As an owner of a Mini Cooper, I'm accustomed to hearing this -- and to the hint of emasculation that comes with it...the word "cute" often does that to a man when referring to one of his possessions. I smiled and thanked her, and she continued, "You have a wonderful Thanksgiving; I know I will!"

I'm not sure what it was. Maybe it was the genuine excitement with which she said it. Her attitude was somewhat unexpected, given her ragged appearance. But her words set off alarms in my head: I'm coasting through life.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I wasn't looking forward to Thanksgiving with the folks. I really was, but I also was preoccupied with how difficult this, that, or the other will be to overcome tomorrow, next week, next year. Or other times, I was consumed with disappointments past. It wasn't intentional, but the attention I was giving to yesterday AND tomorrow sort of represented a de facto lack of value I was placing on today. The awareness that something really significant was about to happen RIGHT NOW -- Thanksgiving with the folks -- was missing. This lack of focus also implies an illusion that life is just so ordinary: delusions of ungrandeur.

Not to go all self-indulgent on you, but I've been guilty of this a handful of times recently, I think. I'm reminded of a phrase "struggled to see past my nose", from Tom Petty's song, "Square One". If you retreat into this self-imposed shell, it's easy to get so wrapped up in life's challenges that the truly great things in life pass you by, like cars going the other way on the interstate.

I recently watched a movie called "The Dish" -- an adaptation of a true story about the Australian radio telescope that received radio and TV signals from the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. One of those uber-charming movies that your outer self will say is cheesy, but that your soul appreciates. The telescope's crew overcomes a series of challenges (accompanied by dry Aussie wit) and ultimately accomplishes its mission. But one character caught my attention.

Cliff Buxton (played by Sam Neill) is the head of the telescope's crew. You get the feeling he used to be a real hard-ass, running the operation with an iron grip, but has obviously loosened up in recent days. As it turns out, his wife had died a year before. It's not clear how, but she had been instrumental in the dish's missions, with more enthusiasm and less gravity than her husband. In one scene, this all comes to light, as Cliff confides to another member of the team:

"She was so excited by all this. It made me realize that I should be excited, too. And I am."

A simple line, but it tells a lot. In months leading up to the mission, Cliff apparently was preoccupied, obsessed with running a tight ship, letting the "amazingness" of the mission (i.e., man about to walk on the friggin' moon) pass him by. Delusions of ungrandeur.

But when his wife passed away, her enthusiasm went with her. Maybe that set off the alarm in Cliff's head. While he continued to lead his underlings strongly, he did so with a more laid-back, appreciative attitude, fully embracing the excitement of his circumstances. And doing so, you could perhaps argue, empowered him to deal with the mission's challenges more capably.

Back to that woman at the gas station, though: it was definitely a wake-up call that I needed to hear. If I could just bottle the lesson she taught me, because I'm sure I'll slip into cruise control again, probably next week.