Microbiology. PhD student. Modelling dental caries. 23. Liverpool/Leeds. Photographer. http://anom-y.deviantart.com. Audiophile. Gig-a-holic. Avid zine reader. Serial book reader. Fashion lover. Comicbook collector. Cinema geek. BSL self learner. The colour RED lover. Self piercer. List writer. Daydreamer. All round scatter brained. Ridiculously private but striving to be more open. 5' 2" = microgeek.
1. Toska
Russian – Vladmir Nabokov describes it best: “No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.”
2. Mamihlapinatapei
Yagan (indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego) – “the wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start”
3. Jayus
Indonesian – “A joke so poorly told and so unfunny that one cannot help but laugh”
4. Iktsuarpok
Inuit – “To go outside to check if anyone is coming.”
5. Litost
Czech – Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, remarked that “As for the meaning of this word, I have looked in vain in other languages for an equivalent, though I find it difficult to imagine how anyone can understand the human soul without it.” The closest definition is a state of agony and torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery.
6. Kyoikumama
Japanese – “A mother who relentlessly pushes her children toward academic achievement”
7. Tartle
Scottish – The act of hestitating while introducing someone because you’ve forgotten their name.
8. Ilunga
Tshiluba (Southwest Congo) – A word famous for its untranslatability, most professional translators pinpoint it as the stature of a person “who is ready to forgive and forget any first abuse, tolerate it the second time, but never forgive nor tolerate on the third offense.”
9. Prozvonit
Czech – This word means to call a mobile phone and let it ring once so that the other person will call back, saving the first caller money. In Spanish, the phrase for this is “Dar un toque,” or, “To give a touch.”
10. Cafuné
Brazilian Portuguese – “The act of tenderly running one’s fingers through someone’s hair.”
11. Schadenfreude
German – Quite famous for its meaning that somehow other languages neglected to recognize, this refers to the feeling of pleasure derived by seeing another’s misfortune. I guess “America’s Funniest Moments of Schadenfreude” just didn’t have the same ring to it.
12. Torschlusspanik
German – Translated literally, this word means “gate-closing panic,” but its contextual meaning refers to “the fear of diminishing opportunities as one ages.”
13. Wabi-Sabi
Japanese – Much has been written on this Japanese concept, but in a sentence, one might be able to understand it as “a way of living that focuses on finding beauty within the imperfections of life and accepting peacefully the natural cycle of growth and decay.” (Altalang.com)
14. Dépaysement
French – The feeling that comes from not being in one’s home country.
15. Tingo
Pascuense (Easter Island) – Hopefully this isn’t a word you’d need often: “the act of taking objects one desires from the house of a friend by gradually borrowing all of them.”
16. Hyggelig
Danish – Its “literal” translation into English gives connotations of a warm, friendly, cozy demeanor, but it’s unlikely that these words truly capture the essence of a hyggelig; it’s likely something that must be experienced to be known. I think of good friends, cold beer, and a warm fire.
17. L’appel du vide
French – “The call of the void” is this French expression’s literal translation, but more significantly it’s used to describe the instinctive urge to jump from high places.
18. Ya’aburnee
Arabic – Both morbid and beautiful at once, this incantatory word means “You bury me,” a declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person because of how difficult it would be to live without them.
19. Duende
Spanish – While originally used to describe a mythical, spritelike entity that possesses humans and creates the feeling of awe of one’s surroundings in nature, its meaning has transitioned into referring to “the mysterious power that a work of art has to deeply move a person.” There’s actually a nightclub in the town of La Linea de la Concepcion, where I teach, named after this word.
20. Saudade
Portuguese – One of the most beautiful of all words, translatable or not, this word “refers to the feeling of longing for something or someone that you love and which is lost.” Fado music, a type of mournful singing, relates to saudade.
So it's that time of year again. The deadline to submit this year's PDR (or personal development record to those who were wondering) is fast approaching. I really don't mind keeping a record of my activity in a structured format like this (I actually think it will be of great benefit later on), but it does seem like the last thing I wish to do in my day. As I may have said previously, the PhD is in full swing now and I'm definitely developing that "i've-got-better-things-to-do-with-my-time" attitude all the other PhD students seemed to have when I started. Ah well, it will get done....simply because it has to! My plan of action has been to get at least some parts of it done each day, which I'm sort of succeeding at.....hehe. Do any of you have to submit something like this as part of your PhD progression? What are your thoughts?
In order to keep motivated and faithful in the whole "Personal Development" phenomenon I started to wonder what I'd need to do to make the best of the process. Here I've compiled areas I feel can be more easily addressed by embarking on PDR's properly:
This will forever amuse me. Is it weird that I find myself humming it to myself in the lab?? xx
So I decided to use posterous to its full potential. To clarify further, I have categorised the content I had a tendency to clip or blog about into entirely separate posterous domains. I realise I find quite a diverse range of subjects interesting. Whilst there are very strong themes running throughout my interests, and many more people have interests just as diverse as mine, I cannot be sure that the people that wish to hear about the trial of PhD life find my photographic endeavours of major interest along with my strange interest in lifehacks, food, music and everything in between. Therefore, I have set up the following domains:
1. The Extraordinary PhD Adventures of Microgeek : http://microgeek.posterous.com.
I will continue to blog about my PhD and clip the various pieces of advice I find around cyberspace. Lifehacks, organisation tips, PhD tips and so on will be blogged about here.
2. The Photographic Exploits of Microgeek : http://thephotogeek.posterous.com.
Photography, both mine and others will be blogged here along with “photography tips”. I plan to blog more about this aspect of my life and setting this up may just encourage me to do so.
3. The Home Life of Microgeek : http://thedomesticgeek.posterous.com.
This will be where I clip recipes I plan to use, tips for better home living, crafty things and other such domestic goddess-y geeky stuff.
4. The Other Interests of Microgeek: http://theothergeek.posterous.com.
Miscellany will appear here. This will probably be the most to resemble a dumping ground but it will be highly likely that it will be a goldmine. I see myself clipping articles, music, art and literature here. This could even become more of a personal blog for me to rabbit on about some of the other things my life entails.
Feel free to subscribe to whichever you think you will be most entertained by.
I’m actually hoping that this structure will encourage my blogging and be a great way to keep everything I love in one place. I really didn’t like that the “old structure” (or lack thereof) had become such a shambles of clippings and writing. I’m sort of quietly laughing at myself for this strange need for organisation in everything I do.
I realise I haven't posted here in so long. I haven't even had the inclination to clip web content here (as you may have noticed I do from time to time).I suspect this has something to do with the PhD, as usual but more recently I have decided to really pursue my interests in fashion photography. This takes up most of the time I had free around the PhD work but I'm loving it. I find I have so many ideas and energy for it, not to mention the wardrobe. I am shooting with a model tomorrow in fact and very excited about it. Balloons and clowning around, should be interesting. Life's just getting busier and busier for me but I'm loving that I have finally cut to the chase and got on with something I have been wanting to do for such a long time. Perhaps I'll post some of my photography to here some day, but in the mean time, it's freely available at my Deviantart account. I am also on Model Mayhem, if anyone would like to contact me there at all.
In PhD related news, I attended the University organised Poster Day on Friday. I presented a poster I prepared only a couple of days earlier as it's very recent work but received very good feedback for it. I felt it was a little of a strenuous exercise for me as I already have conference and poster presentation experience, but I can see the benefit of this to other students and the reasoning that the Uni skills team has when placing such an emphasis on this day. This work/poster has been accepted for the ORCA 2010 conference in Mont Pellier, France so I'm busy sorting my passport and travel arrangements for that. Which reminds me, I need to contact my industrial supervisor with the costings. Damn, should have done that sooner. I have also submitted an abstract for the IADR conference in Barcelona which will be happening only days after ORCA. I'm really hopeful for that one as I'm writing a paper on that work at the moment and will actually need to have that submitted to a journal before the conference if the abstract is accepted. I'd love to hook up with some models out in Barcelona whilst I'm there to be honest. It'd be a great bonus.
I could start to talk about how having to move my offices and labs to the new building have hampered my work (4 months lost oh my!!) but I fear that's a can of worms too rancid to open right now.
That's all for now folks. I WILL try to keep this more regularly updated. I like that it is forming a nice record for me to look back on in the future.
xx
