I’m back at school. It actually starts on Monday, but I got back to town yesterday. I’ve started unpacking and already had one Navigator’s meeting (several more Nav related events/meetings over the next week).

The rest of my time at home went well. I was able to spend a lot of time with Mark and Mark, my family and grandparents, and even Moriah one evening (Mark’s ex-girlfriend).

Got two new CDs from the mail today: Lucerin Blue and New Comers Home.

I blame Tracy’s computer entirely for this post. The ethernet in the dorms is turned off due to computer viruses and worms (and a bit of perhaps justifiable paranoia).

Jake and I came over to Tracy’s apartment, cooked some gyouza, Jake made some mugicha (tea), and we ate it. It wasn’t quality gyouza (it fell apart) but it tasted good. (Mom: “It still tastes fine even if it is in pieces”) Jake had a lot of Japanese anecdotes to share. Now we’re sitting here discussing Seinfeld and Tracy is sewing a pillow.

Categories: Friends, Life
Tags: Crawford, food, gyouza, Jake, Japan, Mark, Moriah, Navigators, New Comers Home, Tracy

My names in Elvish:
OR

Via quenya lapseparma: -

It seems that almost everyone who interested in Tolkien and particularly in his invented languages played with an idea to have his/her own name in an Elvish language. Some use names taken from Tolkien’s books, while the others try to coin their own Elvish nickname. It seems to be a common habit. Sometimes people create their own poetic Elvish name and sometimes they try to translate the meaning of their real name into Elvish.

Yes, I too am now interested in knowing what my name is in Quenya, the language of the high elves. I was able to find my name on the elvish names site. Now, my name is Calvin, and it has an unfortunate meaning associated with it - “bald.”

CALVIN (m.) - from Norman French ‘bald’; perhaps Heldacarite (= “bare-headed”, helda “bare”, cár “head” + ite, cf. maite “handed” from má “hand”) or Úfindo (”without hairs”)

In search of a more meaningful name and perhaps better associated with me, I looked around the site for other names. Here’s a few I found.

OBADIAH (m.) - Heb. ’servant of God’; Eru “God”; -ndur “servant of”, thus Erundur

MARA (f.) - Heb. ‘bitter’; sára “bitter”, thus Sára itself (to keep similarity) or Sáre with a fem. ending

If you’re interested what your own name is, just head to the site. Below is a list of the names of some of my homies:
• BENJAMIN (m.) - Heb. ’son of the right hand’ and also ’son of the south’; unfortunately Quenya word for “south” hyarmen is related to hyarya “left”, while Hebrew word for “right hand” is related to “south”, but Hyarion (-ion “son”) would be good
• CHASE (m.) - ‘chase, hunt’; raime “hunt, hunting”, thus Raimo or Raimon
• CRYSTAL (f.) - ‘crystal’; silima “crystal substance” (the Silmarils were made of it), thus Silime; or more literally: derived from Greek ‘ice’; helce “ice”, thus Helce itself
• JENNIFER, JENNY (f.) - Celtic ‘white/fair + soft/smooth’; losse “white”; pasta “smooth”, thus Lossepaste; or Celtic ‘white + wave’, so Lossefalme (falma “wave”)
• MATTHEW (m.) - Heb. ‘gift of God’; Eru “God”; anna “gift”, thus Eruanno or Erunno
• MELISSA (f.) - Greek ‘a bee’; nion, nier “honey-bee”, thus Nione or Niere
• RACHEL (f.) - Heb. ‘ewe’; *máme “she-sheep” (máma “sheep”, probably a general word), thus Máme itself
• TRACY (f.) - French ‘road, path’; tie “road, path”, so Tie as such
• TYLER (m.) - Old Eng. ’tiler of roofs’; Telutan (”roof-maker”: stem telu- “roof in”, stem tan “make, fashion”)

Outside Resources
Behind the Name - A site for regular old name info
Amanye Tenceli - the writing systems on Aman (Tengwar) info
Tengwar Transcriber
Quenya Course - for the hardcore linguists

Categories: Good Times
Tags: elvish, Jenny, Quenya, Rachel, Tolkien, Tracy, Tyler

I have had a splendid day. Update (6/2/2003 - finished the post): My friendly bedside alarm awoke me at 10:30AM to the sounds of a local classic rock station. I think the song was the Grateful Dead singing about riding a train high on cocaine.

In any case, the day proceeded. I prepared sandwiches and fruit, loaded up those, juice, pretzles, and cookies into a small cooler. I grabbed a nerfish football from my boxes in the basement, some a few things in my backpack, set my CD-binder next to my things. Thus the preparation ended.

Preparation for what? Patience, please.

I read my Bible for a while and prayed. I think it’s a good way to spend some time every day, especially when making decisions, planning, and seeking guidance in any aspect of life. (I often fail with regard to the “any” aspect.)

Philippians 4:19 - “And my God will meet _all_ your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. ”

I watched Matt play Diablo II while waiting for a phone call. The phone call came, and I then drove fifteen minutes across town in order to…

pick up Tracy for a date. We went to Pioneers Park and had a picnic (hence the food preparation). It was an enjoyable time of talking, football tossing, and meandering through the park. If you sniffed at the right moment, you really could smell the pine trees.

Categories: Life
Tags: 4L, Diablo II, Tracy

I am in the Havenstein’s house now. I actually got here on Saturday morning and unloaded the few things I’d taken with me for my week at Kevin’s apartment. But now, here I am in the big house. Matt’s gonna stay up and work in Omaha for another week, so I’ve got this place all to myself for a bit. One of my only complaints: Dialup internet! AAaaaaah! Oh well. Good old NetZero is letting me surf for free and all I’ve got to do is stare at their ugly banner ads and commercials when it’s dialing the net.

I’ve had a pretty fun weekend. Yesterday we all headed to the AMC 24 in Omaha to catch Matrix:Reloaded. 10 Second Movie Review: Not as good as the first, the whole orgy/dance party and sex scene sucked, the characters weren’t developed much, and most of the plot (that wasn’t in the commercials) happened in the last 30 minutes of the movie. On the upside, the plot is pretty cool. I mean, Neo isn’t as cool as Jesus (and he’s not real, either), but he’s an interesting character. I wish he just wasn’t so indecisive and would stop asking “why am I here?” You’re here ’cause you need to do your thing, dude! Figured that out already. Thanks. Ok, I’m done ranting.

After the movie, about 15 of us went to the house of Jenny’s family. Barbecue, hanging out, Monopoly (I lost… oh well), hanging out, talking, and hanging out. Tracy and I both crashed there so we didn’t have to make the drive back to Lincoln. I’ve gotten used to sleeping on couches; I’ve done it three nights in the past week.

Went to a Vineyard church in Omaha with Jenny, Tracy, and Travis (a friend of Jenny’s from high school, graduated from Wheaton this year). After that had lunch, stopped by Mead (Tracy had some work to finish up real quick), and then came back to Lincoln. Oh, and also got some food (Thanks, Jenny!).

And now I’m just chillin’. Tomorrow: Job hunt continues. A few retail places, a few online apps. Maybe I’ll hear back from somebody, too. That would be a nice change.

Like that’ll happen.

Categories: Life, Work
Tags: Havenstein, Jenny, omaha, Tracy

I’m out job hunting and enjoying less then every minute of it. * sigh * So many stores, so little available positions, and me so clumsy with my pen when filling out applications. “Drat! I filled in the wrong thing again! * scribble scribble *” * sigh * There’s maybe one or two opportunities that could work out, so I’ll fill out those applications and get back to them tomorrow.

What I’d really like is for a non-retail job to vaporize out of thin air in front of my nose. That would be nice.

I’m without internet access at my place of residence for the rest of this week. My response to emails (nobody ever really emails me, except maybe Mom or Mark) will be limited and slow.

I’m getting my hair cut today. Yay! (Thanks again, Tracy!) It could just be the highlight of my day.

And now I flee for my parking meter is nearly expired.

Categories: Life
Tags: family, Mark, Tracy