Etymology: Susurrus

I ran across a webcomic some time ago that was called "Today Nothing Happened", and as that sums up my week, really (the only unusual event that occurred was a co-worker/assistant going on vacation the last few days of the week, leaving me manning two desks), I decided to do some research on the etymology of a mostly-unused word.  My sister, who's a linguist (also one of the below-mentioned nerdy grammar fans), suggested a rather fun site (if you're into words, anyway) called etymonline.com.

Susurrus:

Definition (Oxford Dictionaries): Whispering, murmuring, or rustling
Pronunciation: soo-ceres

Pre-early 1800s, the word was actually referring a medical condition, similar to tinnitus.  The modern definition is actually late middle english.  The word itself is actually straight from Latin, which simply meant 'whisper'.

Susurration, a form of the same word, can be pinned down to about 1400 AD.  The Latin word it originates from is susurrationem, which (for you very nerdy grammar peeps out there) is the past participle stem of susurrare, meaning to hum or murmer.



Next Saturday is April 1, when I'll be beginning the Camp Nanowrimo challenge.  :)

Extra-Curricular Activities, and Economics

So this last week I picked up a transcribing job.  It's from someone I've previously worked with (yay for returning clients!) and her audio's are always pretty good quality.  Though, I gotta say, typing conversations that last just over 6 hours can be quite intensive.

Still, they're paying for my car payment this month, so there's that :).  Also... the car is new (well, to me, anyway)!  I'm not sure how I forgot to mention that, previously.  I bought it back in January.  It's a cute little car, though I'm not particularly big on it being silver.  I don't have anything against the color - it's normally one of my favorites - but soon after buying it, I went to a parking lot, where every other car is silver, black, or some variation on those two.  A little silver car fades right into the background.  I've recently seen some bright pink cars, and I bet those don't get lost as easily.

It's technically used, though only with 6000 miles on it.  I really wonder what the story is behind it being available for me to buy it.  Who sells a car that's practically brand new?  (Although, perhaps my viewpoint is a bit skewed, as my last car had 180,000 miles on it.)

It's also given me my first official loan in my life.  Which is... kind of wild.  I'm not a big fan of having loans, but it's such a necessity - an absurd one, in my opinion, but apparently, unless you've shown that you previously couldn't afford something, you'll have a very hard time purchasing something else you can't afford.  Which really, really, really sounds weird.  And ridiculous.

(This is (part of) why I'm not an economist.)

In my case, I'm using a car loan that's fairly easy to pay off so I can (hopefully) purchase a house in the future.  Someday. :)

Weekly Report: Dancing

It occurred to me that last week I had neglected to mention something that's become one of my staple weekly activities: dancing.

So apparently finding a dance studio that teaches classic ballroom is kind of hard to find - in Los Angeles, anyway.  Wonder if it's different in other places?  On top of that, my main interest is waltz, which is even harder to find.  Still, I managed to find a studio a couple of months ago.  They also teach tango and foxtrot during the 'American Smooth Ballroom' classes on Saturday afternoons, which are fun to do, even if they're not my favorite.

What with the complications with my knees and feet and all, even though my knees were healed, finding cute dance shoes can be difficult.  I don't generally wear heels, and when I do, they're orthotic (which is the best invention we've come up, ever, regarding shoes).  But when I went to lessons, the pretty shoes I liked best were heeled.  Also, orthotic dance shoes aren't a thing, apparently.  So I hunted around, and discovered that the style of heel I preferred is called Cuban (no clue why.  Research project waiting to happen, I suppose).  Generally speaking, I also have a preference for shoes that aren't very pointy at the toes, but when I saw these on Amazon, I couldn't resist.

 

 

Aren't they cute?  The purple part is velvety, as is the inside, which makes them more comfortable.  The colors of the purple and red are customizable, as is the type of heel and the height of the heel.  Of course, I got the shortest height available, which was two inches.  You can check them out here: http://amzn.to/2merHoL

Before I got these, I'd been using flat jazz shoes, which, as an aside, work just fine.  But since I want to dance socially at some point, knowing how to dance in something fancy comes in handy.

Published!

This'll just be a quick post, but... I'm published!  :)

I created an Amazon Author page, which you can access here: amazon.com/author/callistasteele

Also, for a preview: goo.gl/BnuMub

Come drop by!