芝 - Zhi1 - Sesame, A Fungus

芝加哥 - Zhi1 Jia1 Ge1 - Chicago

Maybe no word of the day until Monday, because we’ll be in Chicago!

毽 - Jian4 - Shuttlecock

I was looking up how to say “SPACE SHUTTLE” when I found that Chinese has dedicated an entire character just to the concept of “shuttlecock”!

Welcome to the Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism.

The Bush administration is retooling its slogan for the fight against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, pushing the idea that the long-term struggle is as much an ideological battle as a military mission, senior administration and military officials said Monday.

In recent speeches and news conferences, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the nation’s senior military officer have spoken of “a global struggle against violent extremism” rather than “the global war on terror,” which had been the catchphrase of choice. Administration officials say that phrase may have outlived its usefulness, because it focused attention solely, and incorrectly, on the military campaign.

盞 - Zhan3 - Cup, measure word for Lamps

金盞花 - Jin1 Zhan3 Hua1 - Gold Cup Flower — Marigold

Not sure if we’ll ever actually see any marigold blooms or just bare stems.

Jenny’s new enemy:

BEETLES! Who do this:

before	after

They seem to especially love her newly grown marigolds. They skeletonized two of them in just a few nights! We think these beetles are really tricky, too. After Jenny realized what was going on, she decided to bring her potted marigolds in for the night so they wouldn’t get eaten. We checked the plants very carefully for any bugs before bringing them in the house. That night, we were watching a movie, and suddenly Jenny’s spider senses began tingling. “I think they’re eating my plant!” We ran over and Jenny found, to her horror, that TWO beetles were happily chewing away! Did they hide somehow until night time? Under the dirt maybe? I grabbed both bugs, threw them outside, and squashed them. Usually we have a live and let live attitude with bugs, only transferring them outside peacefully when they bother us. BUT THIS IS WAR.

Later on a THIRD beetle got revenge by starting to FLY AROUND THE HOUSE, driving Jenny nearly into hysterics! She really really really REALLY hates bugs. I executed a kung-fu style mid air beetle grab, and killed that one too.

Next night, the same thing! Checked the plant for bugs, brought it in, then late at night, THERE THEY ARE EATING AGAIN! How are they so smart? Where did they hide?

We tried to buy some poisony stuff from the home store and spray it on the plants, but it doesn’t seem to have any effect on these beetles. Should we move up to the higher grade stuff? Or is there another solution?

烘 - Hong1 - Bake, Dry By Fire

奶蛋烘餅 - Nai3 Dan4 Hong1 Bing3 - Milk Egg Bake Cake — Waffle

We finally got to pick blueberries. Which means we’ll soon be eating blueberry waffles!

險 - Xian3 - Dangerous

危險 - Wei1 Xian3 - Dangerous

Tonight: A Korean retelling of “Dangerous Liasons” set in the Choson Dynasty, called Untold Scandal. Jenny liked it, I thought it was fine.

Jenny’s getting just what every girl wants for her birthday this year: A new version of Internet Explorer!

Microsoft confirmed to internetnews.com that it will deliver the beta 1 version of Longhorn Server on August 3, along with the beta 1 release Internet Explorer 7. They’ll be available along with the beta 1 version of Windows Vista, the next-generation Windows client formerly known as Longhorn, which Microsoft announced Friday morning.

囪 - Cong1 - Window

Another graphically suggestive one. It turns out Jenny hates these because I just browse the dictionary looking for strange looking characters and the ones I pick usually are extremely obscure and useless words.

Somehow about 10 days ago something happened that broke commenting completely. It’s fixed now. I’m sorry if you tried to post something since then and were blocked.

Now I get to go through the 5237 (not kidding!) comments made since then and see which ones were real and reinstate them. Recently I’ve been getting .6% real comments, so there may be around 20 real ones buried in there.

停 - Ting2 - Stop, Halt

停車 - Ting2 Che1 - Stop Car — Park

停留 - Ting2 Liu2 - Stop Stay — Stop Over, Stay Over

Today I present to you the Alpha and Omega of keyboards.

嵒 - Yan2 - Cliff

It should really mean “flowers”.

I found the Joint Security Area in Google Maps. That is all.

警 - Jing3 - Alert, Warn

警察 - Jing3 Cha2 - Warn Investigate — Police

故事 - Gu4 Shi4 - Happening Affair — Story

新 - Xin1 - New

New Police Story? More like New Puh-LEASE Story!

And now for the latest installment in our ongoing series: “Famous Gradys Who Have Actually Had A Weblog For Quite A While But Steve Is Just Finding About Now (Despite The Fact That His Friends Have Repeatedly Emailed Him Saying “Hey Steve! Did You Know That Grady X Has A Weblog?”)”:

OMG! GRADY BOOCH HAS WEBLOG!

Finally Bionic Commando gets the recognition it deserves! Now let’s see if they’ll also be smart enough to include the other forgotten classics: Rastan and Twin Cobra.

咒 - Zhou4 - Curse, Scold

This one goes right along side 哭 in the “characters that look like a face which emotes their meaning” department.

Why am I last to find out these things? GRADY HENDRIX HAS WEBLOG!

澹 - Dan4 - Calm, Placid, Tranquil, Quiet

We didn’t get The Quiet Family, I guess.

蝶 - Die2 - Butterfly

蝴蝶 - Hu2 Die2 - Butterfly

飛蛾 - Fei1 E2 - Moth

What’s the difference between a butterfly and a moth? Mainly, the 觸角 - Chu4 Jiao3 - Feel Horn — Antennae.

酥 - Su1 - Flaky

But I think it means flaky only in the culinary sense.

曰 - Yue1 - Speak, Say

曰 and 日 look altogether too much alike. This won’t do at all.

曰曰日曰日日曰曰日日日曰曰曰日.

庭 - Ting2 - Hall, Court

家庭 - Jia1 Ting2 - Family Court — Household

精武 - Jing1 Wu3 - Proficient Martial

精武家庭 - Jing1 Wu3 Jia1 Ting2 - Proficient Martial Household — House Of Fury

Kind of like Mission Impossible 2 combined with House of Flying Daggers. Seemed to be very consciously set up for sequels, too. Not that great.

法 - Fa3 - Law, Method

法院 - Fa3 Yuan4 - Law Court — Court

法院的 - Fa3 Yuan4 De5 - Court (relating to) — Forensic

Effie regaled us with exciting stories from her Forensic Entomology class today over dinner. Go black putrefaction! (warning: SUPER GROSS LINK!)

Forensic Etymology is totally different, and only useful when considering such absurdities as the famous no-op constitutional convention.

毛 - Mao2 - Fur

I wonder if Mogwai are called that because of 毛怪 - Mao2 Gwai4 - Furry Monster?

Ha! I just did a search, and it seems Wikipedia has another theory: 魔怪 - Mo2 Guai4 - Demon Monster.

By the way, there is another famous 毛.

And finally, Jenny just reminded me that Timeshots recently posted a really nice picture of a 毛毛蟲 - Mao2 Mao2 Chong2 - Furry Furry Bug — Caterpillar.

啟 - Qi3 - Explain, Enlighten, Start

啟航國際 - Qi3 Hang2 Guo2 Ji4 - Enlighten Boat Country Among — Chii Hang International

Jenny got totally hosed by some fake karaoke DVDs she bought today. I’m not sure if they’re really by Chii Hang, or if some pirates are just stealing the logo, but the discs were obviously just pieced together from various videos recorded off TV or downloaded off the internet. Some of the videos had logos and copyright symbols around the edges blurred out, and on some of them they didn’t bother. The quality ranged from VCD-level to third generation VHS. And the “karaoke” tracks were a complete joke. Usually it was just a random piece of music with no singing, like the intro, clumsily repeated over and over. Other times they had tried to use an equalizer to drop the voices. On a few tracks, they didn’t even do anything! The karaoke tracks and the vocal tracks were identical!

Karaoke buyers, beware 啟航國際!

反 - Fan3 - Flip, Reverse, Turn Over

I have discovered REVERSE POCKY! Just like regular pocky, except the pretzel is on the OUTISDE and the chocolate is on the INSIDE! What will they think of next?

幻 - Huan4 - Fantasy, Illusion, Vision

Tonight: A Japanese movie, 幻の光, which I gather means something like “Illusion of Light”, known just as Maborosi in English. The slowest movie I have ever seen, but still enjoyable.

奇 - Qi2 - Strange, Odd, Weird

奇妙 - Qi2 Miao4 - Strange Wonderful — Fantastic

Also a discovery: 奇異果 - Qi2 Yi4 Guo3 - Strange Unusual Fruit - Kiwi Fruit. But that’s not how Kiwi got its name, it’s the other way around.

閂 - Shuan1 - Bolt

A door 門 with a bar 一 across it obviously means “bolt”.

催 - Cui1 - Press, Urge, Prompt

催眠 - Cui1 Mian2 - Urge Sleep — Hypnotize

61! Sometimes. In particular, the last minute of 2005 will have 61 seconds. Unfortunately, it’s the last minute of 2005 in the UTC time zone, so we don’t get to see the ball in Times Square go haywire as time misses a beat right as it’s about to hit bottom.

剄 - Jing3 - Cut Throat

I’m not feeling murderous today or anything, I was just startled by the existence of this word while browsing the dictionary.

覆 - Fu4 - Cover, Reply

We wanted to pick some 藍莓 - Lan2 Mei2 - Blue Berry — Blueberries today, but they aren’t quite in season yet. We had to settle for 草莓 - Cao3 Mei2 - Straw Berry — Strawberries and 覆盆莓 - Fu4 Pen2 Mei2 - Cover Basin Berry – Raspberries.

售 - Shou4 - Sell

騙售 - Pian4 Shou4 - Lie Sell — Foist

This year’s fireworks were just like last year’s - but with no finale. Instead of turning it up to eleven, and then up to one hundred eleven, they only turned it up to 8 or 9. Weak. Riverfest? More like RiverFOIST!

員 - Yuan2 - Employee, Member

飛行員 - Fei1 Xing2 Yuan2 - Fly Capable Employee - Pilot, Aviator

The Aviator: pretty good!