Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

Have you ever smiled when hearing a favourite quote or instantly liked someone because of the book they happened to be gushing about? Language connects us and words are powerful. The way we use them says a lot about who we are as people and as a society. Personally, I'd love to live in a world where insulting or belittling others is unncessary and hurting others using words is a thing of the past. A world where people talk to each other, accept and respect others as they are and do not feel the need to try to change people just because they don't happen to think or believe as we do. I am very much in favour of free speech and believe it is extremely important that people are able to honestly say (and write) what they think or feel, without having to fear for their lives. However I also believe that it is important that we respect others as they are, without belittling them using words or actions and without the need to insult the choices people have made in their lives or be...

Last night I posted a photo of a very foggy street - which, due to the fog, was pretty much invisible - and asked myself what would happen if flesh-eating zombies suddenly came out of the fog to roam our streets. Trying to find descriptive words that somehow work well with vague photos of trees and descriptions of fog and mist and zombies, I came across the following explanation for the word haze. I like language and am no stranger to complaining about Dutch / European weather, which makes this description a must-share. Do enjoy! Haze    n.   1706, probably a back-formation of hazy. Sense of "confusion, vagueness" is 1797. The English differentiation of haze, mist, fog (and other dialectal words) is unmatched in other tongues, where the same word generally covers all three and often "cloud" as well, and this may be seen as an effect of the English climate on the language.   Word Origin and History for haze  | Dictionary.com

Wait, how do I spell that again... Is it grey or gray? Cloud in amazing shades of white, light and grey Nimavenl Photography on Facebook That's exactly what went through my head earlier as I posted several photos to my Facebook page. Google directed me to an amazing page which explains that 'grey' is the British spelling, while 'gray' is the American way of spelling the word. As I spell words like colour and favourite the British way (as is common in New Zealand), I decided to go with the British spelling here as well. Want to remember whether you want to write grey or gray, use this memory booster from the website How do you spell the color Grey or Gray? Which is correct, "grey" or "gray" spelling? : Grey with an E is English Gray with an A is American Other words with varying spelling in British and American English the website lists are for instance centre and center, theatre and theater, colour and color, doughnut and donut, aer...

Source: Daily Info Graphic A friend shared this on Facebook.  I loved it and now I'm sharing it too.  I even screencapped the silly picture that came with it to attach it to this post as I really liked that too! Not everything needs a personal motivation statement to help explain why I post it, so I hope you'll all enjoy these very helpful few hints and understand exactly why I'm sharing them!  Check out these 15 Grammar Mistakes that can make you look silly over at InfoGraphic!

I LOVE Shakespeare! To me, Shakespeare's works are amazing stories that will definitely stand the test of time. They can also be hard to read / watch and thus hard to understand. The English language has changed and evolved since the time of Shakespeare, yet Shakespeare's works remain as they are - brilliantly written however not in today's language.  There have, over the years, been many attempts to convert Shakespeare's plays to the modern era. Look at for instance the 1999 movie 10 Things I Hate About You ( link ) starring tragically brilliant Heath Ledger and the amazing Julia Stiles. Based on The Taming of the Shrew, this movie is set in modern-day USA with the characters speaking modern-day American English. Other Shakespeare adaptations set in the modern day or adapted to the modern day are for instance the 1994 animated movie The Lion King ( link ) which is/ seems based on Hamlet and 2006's Amanda Bynes / Channing Tatum movie She's The Man ( link ) ...

I keep promising myself that I'll write more blog posts. Really, I do. Actually intend to write, and even think of stuff to write about. Thing is, when I'm not working, eating, sporting, playing Scrabble and Restaurant City on Facebook or spending time with friends and family, I'm asleep. Yes - really. Turns out working full-time again is really amazing, however it also means I suddenly have about 50ish hours less a week to just blah and think of crazy stuff to write about. I pretty much always want stuff I write to be profound and meaningful and all "I'm making a statement here"-ish, and when my writing is not like that it tends to be filled with really long sentences, and lots of "so yeah"s and expressions like that. The way this post is - if you know what I mean!  The words don't flow as easily as they used to. Might be 'coz I don't speak English on a daily basis anymore. Might be 'coz I think in Dutch when I'm at work...