What's in a name?

Some of my friends helped me come to a realization the other day - as it turns out, I have very strong opinions about very inconsequential topics.  (Best map projection, best brand of pencil, how many continents there really are, and whether or not Pluto is a planet, to name a few.)  This may or may not be related to me being somewhat of a grammar/orthography stickler.

Anyways, I have opinions about names.  I'm a big proponent of traditional names and traditional spellings.  (Names specific to one's heritage and/or culture are cool, too).  I'm not going to go into too much detail other than that (for fear of offending someone).

My mother shared this article (click) with me, and I thought it was intriguing.  It's the inspiration for this post, I guess.  (That, plus I met a girl named "Courtlin" this week.) 

That reminded me of a couple other name-related things - here and here.

from The Far Side by Gary Larson.  I hope posting this isn't illegal.

Green for St. Patrick's Day!

I've LOVED the warm winter (can I even call it that?) that Provo has had for the past several months.  (Deepest sympathies to my boarder/skier friends.)  Although it's been relatively warm, there hasn't been much color - just the usual Utah brown/grey/blah palette that accompanies the transition from winter to spring.  However, the past week we've had green things starting to appear!

I planted some daffodil bulbs in the flower bed in the front of our apartment (thanks Mom).  There's obviously some weeds I need to take care of, but look at them coming up!  I've seen lots of daffodils and other flowers around Provo in full bloom already, but these guys are in a pretty shady spot so it might take them a bit longer.

These are some more daffodils I planted in the fall.  This is from a plot nearby my apartment in which I'm 'guerrilla gardening.'  They're further along than the others because they have a sunnier spot. 

Took this one on campus on my way home from school.  (It's been warm enough that they turned the stream back on, as seen in the background.)

Most of the grass has been in brittle greenish-yellow for the past few months, but I found this rogue patch of new soft grass!  So excited for summer...  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Mayans

I found this image on the interweb the other day:

This makes complete sense since the ancient Mayans were totally using the Julian calendar. I'm sure whoever wrote this also took into account that starting in 1582 (with the adaption of our current Gregorian calendar), we omit 3 leap days every 400 years.


(For those who can't detect sarcasm, I'm saying that whoever wrote this didn't think it out very well.  Also, I don't believe in the Mayan apocalypse.)