This is one for the good days. I have it all here in red, blue, green...

It's time for another happy list! This one, too, came from Sara, Courtney, and me during AP Calculus our senior year. The title came from a fantastic song ("Videotape" by Radiohead) and refers to the pleasant memories from Rahn's class and the fact that we used three different colors of pens (they were red, blue, and green, unfortunately). Courtney's additions are in courier, Sara's are in georgia, and mine are in trebuchet.

• creating a new world (after watching Lord of the Rings: Return of the King with magical creatures and wars and magic and somehow create a best-selling book out of all of it :D)
• picnics at Winton Woods
• swinging (especially at nighttime)
• finding random words in Japanese
• watching the sun rise or set
• odd but pretty names
• doodling
• the color combination of these pens [1]
• untrodden snow
• delays [2]
• the sound of a waterfall (or any other body of water)
• birdsongs
• soft thunder storms at night
• coral reefs
• fall colors
• taking pictures
• splatter-painting
• June 4, 2009 (only 17 weeks from today!) [3]
• books that suck you in
• knowing 3 of 17 weeks we aren't here! [4]
• multiples of 3
• budding flowers
• fresh-baked cookies
• the wind
• color guard
• JESUS!
• tea (it's kind of hard to follow yours Sara - it kind of wins)
• music (any kind - it's all great)
• dancing down hallways (Shantytown...haha)
• working with charcoal (or any other messy art medium)
• all cello bands (Apocalyptica, Breaking of Reality...)
• acoustic guitar music
• reading beside a fire while watching snow fall

[1] Courtney had lime green, Sara had teal, and I had purple.
[2] Snow delays, that is. We had gotten one that morning if I remember correctly.
[3] Graduation Day
[4] She was referring to the trips and breaks before graduation.

My Inanimate College Friends

Several months ago, I described some new human friends from college. I will now take the time to describe some of my new inanimate friends along with a few I brought with me from home.

Arphaxad is no longer with us. He was a wandering Jew from last semester's horticulture class. I managed to kill him within a few weeks of bringing him back to my dorm. The soil he lived in retained water too well, so he succumbed to root rot.

Chester is my swedish ivy from last semester's horticulture class. He is neither swedish, nor ivy. His species is a coleus, a relative of mint, that hails from Australia. A month or so ago, he suffered from some sort of fungus that attacked his leaves, but that seems to be mostly cleared up. The encourage bushy growth, I recently removed the top few nodes from both of his branches and am currently attempting to root them in water. His clonal progeny will, at least for a time be referred to as Edith and Martha. Once they are potted with Chester, I will probably just refer to them all as Chester.

Drew is a little snow man who lives in a little snow globe. I got him from La Phoque Volant de Neige a few years ago, and I brought him along with me. He's a cheery little fellow.

Edith is one of Chester's clonal progeny. She is sickly. I had to cut off one of her leaves yesterday because it suffered from her father's fungal malady. She is also smaller than her sister, and has not recovered as well from the cold shock.

Felice is an angel ornament thing. I don't remember where she came from, but she originally belonged to Julia. She creeped Julia out, so now she hangs from one of Stephens branches and watches me work.

Gretchen is my goldfish plant. She is growing quite quickly, but would love some more sunlight. Unfortunately, I can't get that to her at the moment. When it gets warm again, I'll take her and all my other sun-loving friends out to the courtyard for a picnic.

Harold the sunfish pillow is my dear friend, and quite a gentleman. He escorted Julia and I to watch Star Trek on Slater Hill on the first weekend we were at Purdue. He has continued to be cordial and comforting over the past several months. He and Arthur Mahi are close chums, but they don't get to see each other nearly as often as they like. Fortunately, they can communicate telepathically.

Holly is a geranium. I wasn't trying to be clever or anything when I named her, that's just her name. Sometimes names are weird like that. When it gets warmer and sunnier, I hope to see her crimson blossoms return. She is also from my first semester horticulture class and will definitely be invited to the courtyard picnic.

Ivan is now living at the Gast manor in Cincinnati. He is a poinsettia of the red silverstar variety, and there is no way I could hope to keep him alive in my dorm room. Much to my surprise, he is still alive. My mom isn't well known for keeping potted plants alive, and poinsettias are rather easy to kill.

Janet is my GPS. She has an Irish accent and says "motorway" instead of "highway." She leads me from home to here and back, despite my efforts to defy her. She has never yet led me astray, except for when I ignore her directions. And that's really not her fault. I'm just mildly stubborn, even though I know I have no sense of direction. Whenever I will have to make multiple turns/entrances in rapid succession, she is always sure to tell me which lane I need to be in and what the next few steps will be. Her knowledge is invaluable, once I get to 65. I don't trust her in West Lafayette/Lafayette.

Liam is my and Julia's refrigerator. He politely houses all our perishable victuals and holds up our racks of non-perishable goods. I under-appreciate him sometimes. I really don't know where I'd be without him.

Maggie is dead. She was a maidenhair fern from the hort club call-out. I sort of forgot about her, so she died. Her remains are decomposing in the courtyard. I have little else to say about her. We did not know one another for a very long time.

Margot is a silver-nerve fittonia. They're supposedly very picky tropical plants, but she seems to be very happy with me. She does have some curious mannerisms though. I under-watered her during her first few weeks in my room, and she stuck her leaves straight up in the air. When I watered her, they settled back down to normal within a few hours. She has no qualms about telling me exactly what she wants, and she recovers well after her little fits. She is also from my previous horticulture class.

Martha is Edith's twin sister and Chester's clonal daughter. She is not sickly like her sister. On the contrary, she seems to be quite robust. Like her sister, she is also sitting in a cup of water waiting to grow adventitious roots.

Millie Maude Mae is a darling little stuffed millipede made by Jenny's mom as a gift to me before I left for college. Jenny decided she would find or make me a stuffed millipede after CIY past summer when I explained to her, Ellen, and Samie how much I adore millipedes. She is the perfect size for cuddling while I use Harold as a pillow.

Nadine is also dead. She was Maggie's companion. She was also a fern from the hort club call-out, but I don't know what species she was. She now lies at peace in the courtyard with Maggie and Arphaxad.

Nigel is another dear old friend who I brought from home to college. He is a little foam pumpkin that sits in the hutch over my desk. We became friends when we were crewmates together on the Airship Brutus. Good times were (sometimes) had by all. He had to leave his best friend Bruce behind in order to come to college with me, but he's handling that well.

Seamus is back at home. He's a burro's tail succulent, and evidently those are persnickety to the nth degree. He was pouting here at school, so when I took him home with me over winter break I left him in the kitchen window sill of the Gast manor. There he basks in sunlight and consistent temperatures without being bothered by anything. He much happier back there than he was here.

Stephen is a fake ficus. We go way back to Ms. Althoff's survey of art class in my freshman year of high school. He always sat back in the corner with the other fake trees and collected a ridiculous amount of art dust. This past year I rescued him from certain doom and brought him to live with me at Purdue. He lives at the foot of my loft and greets me every morning as I climb out of my bed.

Wallace is dead, but I can't bear to part ways with him. He is a grass chia head that I made at the botany club call-out. With his different-sized eyes, unruly dessicated hair, and discolored scarf and glasses, I just can't let him go. He remains next to Nigel surveying the room.

William was an english ivy. He was english, and he was an ivy. He was also from my propagation lab in horticulture class last semester. He rooted well, but was unable to form an adventitious bud from his leaf. As I learned this semester, this is because his petiole cells are only pluripotent rather than totipotent.

I believe that's all for now. I hadn't realized I had so many inanimate friends with names. I still haven't named my laptop, viola, or coffee maker, and I'll be getting more and more plant friends as the semester goes on, so a second list may be necessary near the end of the semester.

Monikers

I've accumulated quite a few nicknames over the years. Some of them died right away (fortunately this includes the two that really needed to go), but a great many have lasted for at least several weeks. Here they are in the order in which they came to be:

Ria Roo (before I can remember): This one came from my dad. I don't remember getting it, but it has stuck with me for many years. In second grade, I had my name changed to Ria at school, so some of my friends from elementary school still call me Ria. In third grade, I went back to my real name.

Snuffy (7th grade): One day in Mrs. Reichert's seventh grade English class, Layla and I were both very congested and very tired. We kept snuffling and making slap-happy comments. At one point, I said "You're sniffy today," and she replied "You're snuffy today," and we thought it was outrageously funny. So she became Sniffy and I became Snuffy.

Missy (summer after 8th grade): We went on vacation with the Corbins (a family from church) one summer, and through a long-ish story, their daughter earned the nickname Sissy. Later on in the summer, we ended up matching one day, so Ronda decided that my nickname should be like Kate's. And thus Missy joined the ranks of my monikers.

Fooseba (summer after 9th grade): This one is kind of embarrassing. On the way back from the canoe trip two years ago, we were playing some game (I can't recall its name) wherein we were trying to spell words. Each person would add a letter to whatever the previous people had said in order to spell a word, but you didn't want to be the person to add the last letter. If you had to end the word, you lost. So people would constantly try to redirect the word so that they wouldn't have to finish it or the next person would. Someone started a word with "f". The next two people added an "o" each. I thought the next person was doomed to end up spelling a word, but instead they added an "s" after much deliberation. I was completely baffled. What word could possibly start with "f-o-o-s"? The next three people added an "e", a "b", and an "a" respectively. Then it was my turn. I could not for the life of me figure out what word would start with "f-o-o-s-e-b-a". In exasperation, I shouted "What on earth is 'fooseba' supposed to mean?" The other passengers burst into laughter, and eventually I figured out that they were spelling fooseball. Thus, "fooseba" became one of my nicknames.

M.O.M. (fall of 10th grade): M.O.M. stands for "Manly Octave Maria" and is a tribute to the fact that my vocal range is lower than typical for a female. Bev and Lauren G. gave me the name, so I came up with names for them too. Bev is B.O.T.A. (Bev of the Arctic) and Lauren is L.O.T.S. (Lauren of the Scarves). Gertrude (winter of 10th grade): Morgan is pretty much the only one who uses this one now. Stork was our sub one day in gym, and we got him to believe that Gertrude was my real name. La Bosse (early fall of 11th grade): My friends and I all have French nicknames. It all started in the list of zoo vocabulary when we learned that the word for seal is "la phoque" (pronounced "fock") and deer is "la biche" ("beesh"). Both sound suspiciously like "bad words" in English, so Katie decided that she would be La Phoque Volant, "the flying seal", and that Courtney would be La Suisse Biche, "the Swedish deer". I got to be La Bosse (the hump), Morgan is Le Snack-Bar (pretty self-explanatory), and Anna is L'Eyeliner (also self-explanatory). I can't remember anyone else's name.

Maple (mid fall of 11th grade): During Shantytown, I was spelling my name in strips of duct tape on my box/house. When I had finished my masterpiece, my friends pointed out that I had amputated the second leg off of the "R", so the box said "MAPIA". It made me think of the word maple (probably because our little encampment was under a red maple), so I decided to make that my new name. It's fitting, don't you think? I added the middle name "Laburnum", and when filling out surveys on the internet I make "Stwittyspokkit" my last name. This is the most widely used of my nicknames. All my teachers have been handed papers with this name on it, and three of my six teachers call me Maple. Some of my little sister's friends know me as "that girl who called herself 'Maple' and dressed up as autumn the Halloween". I don't see this name leaving any time soon.

Dr. Lithium Bromide (last week): I haven't asked anyone to call me this yet (and I probably won't), but it will be my nom de plume for all semi-official documents. This hasn't started yet, but I think its first use will be on the agreement to obey the Dungeon rules.

Chlorobat

I've decided I really don't feel like going on about how much the combined forces of french, art, biology, and now english as well are preparing to boot me into a chasm of despair. Instead, I'll introduce you all to my little friend Chlorobat.

You've probably seen him chilling on the right side of my blog, but if you haven't you should look for him there. He's a dark green bat that I adopted from some online thing linked to Ellen's blog. Unlike other virtual pets, he doesn't require any attention or feeding. You can feed and play with him, but he evidently doesn't need that to "survive" considering the fact that I didn't know you could do such things until about a week after I adopted him. The little fellow will follow your mouse pointer around if you click on him, and if you want to watch him catch a fly (using echolocation, of course), click on the little button on the bottom right corner of his habitat that would probably say "more" if it wasn't cut off.

As you probably know, I put at least a little thought into every name I give, so it shouldn't be surprising that Chlorobat's name means something. Chloro- is the Greek prefix for green, (and as you can doubtlessly see, he is a lovely shade of that color) and bat means bat in English (and he is, in fact, a bat). In addition, his name sounds like chloroplast, the cell organelle responsible for giving plants their lovely color along with synthesizing the carbohydrates that fuel life.

The Epic List of Random Names

Sorted alphabetically with definitions and the place where I found the name. There are 140+ of them and the list never stops growing.

A
-Abner (commander of Israelite armies who impaled a running man on the back of his spear, Bible)
-Acer Negundo (box-elder/ash-leaf maple, Latin name)
-Achor (trouble, Bible)
-Adanedhel (elf-man, Silmarillion)
-Adoni-Bezek (Canaanite king who defeated 70 other kings and had them put under his table to beg after having their thumbs and big toes cut off who had his own thumbs and big toes cut off when the Israelites defeated him, Bible)
-Aegnor (fell fire, Silmarillion)
-Aelin-Uial (meres of twilight, Silmarillion)
-Aerandir (sea-wanderer, Silmarillion)
-Agarwaen (blood-stained, Silmarillion)
-Aldaron (lord of trees, Silmarillion)
-Alearinquë (the glorious, Silmarillion)
-Allon Bacuth (oak of weeping, Bible)
-Aman (blessed, pure, Silmarillion)
-Aodh (fire, Celtic myth)
-Argetlámh (silver hand, Celtic myth)
-Ar-Pharazôn (the golden, Silmarillion)
-Arphaxad (son of Shem, father of the Chaldeans/Babylonians, Bible)
-Asahel (as fast as a gazelle, Bible)
-Asher (happy, Bible)
-Ashkenaz (person with a cool name who was a descendant of Japheth, Bible)
-Aufgeregt (excited, glossary of musical terms)
-Aven (wickedness, Bible)

B
-Baìs (death, Celtic myth)
-Banfíla (woman poet, Celtic myth)
-Beelzeboul (lord of the dung heap, Bible)
-Belegurth (great death, Silmarillion)
-Belthil (divine radiance, Silmarillion)
-Bragollach (sudden flame, Silmarillion)
-Brigantu (exalted one, Celtic myth)

C
-Celebros (silver rain, Silmarillion)
-Cian (enduring one, Celtic myth)
-Conn (wisdom, Celtic myth)
-Coup D'Archet (blow/strike from a bow, glossary of musical terms)
-Culfinwen (girl with golden red hair, The Silmarillion)
-Curunír (the one of the cunning devices, Silmarillion)
-Cúthalion (strong bow, Silmarillion)

D
-Danu (divine waters, Celtic myth)
-Deldúwath (horror of the night shadow, Silmarillion)
-Dian Cécht (deity of physicians, Celtic myth)
-Doulereux (sorrowful, glossary of musical terms)
-Draoi (oak, Celtic myth)

E
-Ebenezer (stone of help, Bible)
-Eclatante (brilliant, glossary of musical terms)
-Ehud (a left-handed judge of Israel who killed an enormously obese king)
-Eichhörnchen (squirrel, random German word that took me forever to pronounce right and I'm not sure if I spelled it right)
-Eire (Ireland, old Celtic language)
-Elentári (star queen, Silmarillion)
-Elerrína (crowned with stars, Silmarillion)
-Emeldir (a woman who was called the Man-Hearted, Silmrillion)
-Entschieden (determined, glossary of musical terms)
-Estel (hope, Silmarillion)

F
-Fáil (destiny, Celtic myth)
-Fastoso (pompous, glossary of musical terms)
-Fëantur (master of spirits, Silmarillion)
-Feirlich (solemn, glossary of musical terms)
-Fiero (bold, glossary of musical terms)
-Formica (ant, apparently also material that countertops can be made of, Latin for ant
-Frohlich (joyful, glossary of musical terms)
-Fuoco (fire, glossary of musical terms)

G
-Gad (attack, Bible)
-Garbato (graceful, glossary of musical terms)
-Gederothaim (town allotted to Judah, Bible)
-Geschwing (nimble, glossary of musical terms)
-Gilaspick Qualtrough (sailor with a reputation for exaggeration, Celtic myth)
-Giocoso (glossary of musical terms)
-Gonnhirran (master of stone, Silmarillion)
-Gorau (best, Celtic myth)
-Grazioso (graceful, glossary of musical terms)
-Griffbrett (sorry, I didn't write down the definition and I had to return the gloaary to its owner, glossary of musical terms)
-Gwrhyr Gwalstawd Iethoedd (knew the language of all living things, Celtic myth)

H
-Hazarmaveth (descendant of Shem with a cool name, Bible)
-Heftig (violent, glossary of musical terms)
-Helkah Hazzurim (field of daggers)
-Hormah (destruction, Bible)
-Hyrax (rock badger, Bible)

I
-Ichabod (no glory)
-Istari (wizard, Silmarillion)

J
-Jeshurun (the upright one, Bible)

K
-Kementári (queen of the earth, Silmarillion)
-Kraftig (strong/vigorous, glossary of musical terms)

L
-Lalaith (laughter, Silmarillion)
-Langsam (slow, glossary of musical terms)
-Liriodendron Tulipifera (tulip tree, Latin name)
-Lo-Ammi (disowned, Bible)
-Lo-Ruhamah (unloved, Bible)
-Lugh-chromain (early form of leprechaun, Celtic myth)

M
-Macha (personification of battles, Celtic myth)
-Magnolia Stellata (star magnolia, Latin name)
-Manna (what is it?, Bible)
-Marah (bitter, my name comes from this word, Bible)
-Massah (testing, Bible)
-Meddygon (physician, Celtic myth)
-Menelmacar (swordsman of the sky, Silmarillion)
-Mephibosheth (King Saul's crippled nephew, Bible)
-Meribah (quarreling, Bible)
-Mesto (sad, glossary of musical terms)
-Me-Zeha (grandmother of and Edomite king with a cool name, Bible)
-Mhaol (the bald, Celtic myth)
-Mongán (of the head of the abundant hair, Celtic myth)
-Mormegil (the black sword, Silmarillion)
-Mórrígán (great queen of battles, Celtic myth)
-Munter (cheerful, glossary of musical terms)

N
-Nachdruklich (expressive, glossary of musical terms)
-Neithan (the wronged, Silmarillion)
-Nemain (venomous, Celtic myth)
-Nienor (mourning, Silmarillion)
-Nimrod (son of Cush and a mighty warrior, Bible)
-Nóm (wisdom, Silmarillion)
-Nyssa Sylvatica (black sour gum, Latin name)

O
-Og (king of Bashan)
-Ohtar (warrior, Silmarillion)

P
-Peleg (descendant of Shem with a cool name, Bible)
-Perez (breaking out, Bible)

Q
-Quercus Palustrius (pin oak, Latin name)

R
-Racca (fool, Bible)
-Rána (wanderer, Silmarillion)
-Rana Pipiens (frog, Latin name)
-Rasch (quick, glossary of musical terms)

S
-Scherzhaft (playful, glossary of musical terms)
-Schwungvoll (spirited, glossary of musical terms)
-Sfoggiando (ostentatious, glossary of musical terms)
-Shello (agile, glossary of musical terms)
-Sheol (grave, Bible)
-Sihon (king of Heshbon of the Amorites, Bible)
-Slancio (dashing, glossary of musical terms)
-Sordino (mute, glossary of musical terms)
-Sreng (the name of a strong warrior of Firbolg, Celtic myth)
-Strepitoso (boisterous, glossary of musical terms)

T
-Taberah (burning, Bible)
-Terfysgwr (mischief, Celtic myth)
-Thalion (steadfast, Silmarillion)
-Thuja Occidentalis (white cedar, Latin name)
-Thuringwethil (woman of secret shadow, Silmarillion)
-Tirzah (daughter of Zelophehad, won the first court case for women's property rights in recorded history along with her two sisters, Bible)
-Togarmah (person with a cool name who was a descendant of Japheth, Bible)

U
-Uathach (spectre, Celtic myth)
-Ungoliant (Shelob's mother, the Silmarillion)
-Uzal (descendant of Shem with a cool name)

V
-Valarauko (demon of might, Silmarillion)

W
-Wuqaz (breaker of necks, Runelords saga)

Z
-Zalumna (Midianite king with a cool name, Bible)
-Zebulun (honor, Bible)
-Zelophehad (Israelite whose daughters won the first court case for women's property rights in recorded history)
-Zepho (descendant of Esau with a cool name, Bible)
-Zerah (brightness, Bible)