Musings Upon Snow, After Digging Out Cars

Living in Central Pennsylvania all my life I thought I had gotten used to the crazy changes in weather. I was wrong, and I will most likely continue to be wrong so long as I live. This weekend saw record snowfall and instead of enjoying the beauty of freshly fallen snow and the way the sun makes big fat flakes sparkle like diamonds I spent it wondering if I would be able to dig my car out in time for work on Monday. I guess there is something to be said for not growing up, you get to enjoy the beauty of nature even at its extremes.

As a child I loved snow and couldn't wait to go out and turn that blank canvas of white into a whole new world with my imagination and would spend as long as I possibly could in it. These days I can't seem to recapture that same sense of innocent joy and spend as little time as possible "out in the elements". One thing hasn't changed though, no matter how long you stay out in snowy weather it's always great to come back inside to a mug of hot cocoa or tea and curl up under a warm blanket with a book to keep you company.

If I've noticed one thing over time it's that people who enjoy books tend to also enjoy playing word games. Crossword puzzles, scrambles, fill-ins, and most recognizably Scrabble and its newer rival Words With Friends bring hours of delight to the linguistically minded the world over. With this feature I plan to help you up your game, and your vocabulary, by highlighting words from The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary Fourth Edition that you don't see every day and might not come to mind right away while playing.

Today's word is worth 9 points (10 points for the plural)







\ˈwēld\
n pl. -s a woodland
  

In a sentence: The future of the growing wild boar population in the Weald is set to be decided within the next few weeks.

Petition Launched to Name Newly Discovered Element 117 "Octarine"

I was interested to hear the other day that the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has announced the verification of the discovery of four new chemical elements, completing the 7th row of the periodic table of elements.  At this time the four elements, 113, 115, 117, and 118, are going by temporary working names and symbols while the teams who discovered them decide on the final ones to be announced in the coming months.

In the meantime a petition has been launched by Blogger/Chemist Dr. Kat Day to name element 117 Octarine. As she writes in the introduction to the petition:

"This petition is to name element 117, recently confirmed by the International Union of Applied Chemistry, as 'Octarine', with the proposed symbol Oc (pronounced 'ook'), in honour of the late Terry Pratchett and his Discworld series of books."

The effort already has the support of the late author's Twitter feed, @terryandrob, which has been run by Sir Terry's assistant Rob Wilkins since the author's passing in March of 2015.

Name element 117 Octarine? If you think that's a good idea - and we do - please sign the petition here; https://t.co/j9MzGXCfFf

— Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) January 6, 2016

At the time of this writing, just 3 days after it launched, the petition has already received 37,408 of the targeted 50,000 signatures. Mine is included in that list. I encourage you to check it out and add your name to the effort. Who knows, maybe the scientists responsible for this discovery are fans Terry Pratchett as well.

I would like to thank The Guardian for their lovely and in depth article which brought this petition to my attention.

Why the Phrase "New Year, New You" Needs to Stop Being a Thing

It's that time again. Everywhere I turn I'm being bombarded with the phrase "New Year, New You". No matter what kind of content you view, no matter the medium you receive that content through, and no matter how hard you try to avoid it the "New Year, New You" machine will find you. Heck, in its own backwards way it's even managed to invade the content here!

2016 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge

A few weeks back I was playing Trivial Pursuit: Book Lover's Edition at the monthly bookstore mingle that Cupboard Maker Books hosts and realized that I have dramatically narrowed the field of books that I read and am knowledgeable on. This thought troubled me but I didn't really see a way to fix it. You can't help but read what you enjoy, and if what you enjoy has narrowed down to Science Fiction and Fantasy that leaves a lot you aren't reading.

For 2016 I decided to participate in the Goodreads Reading Challenge which has you set a goal for how many books you want to try to read in the course of the year. While this encourages me to read more it doesn't encourage me to read more broadly. That's where the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge comes in.

2016 Read Harder Challenge Checklist via bookriot.com

The challenge consists of 24 reading tasks designed to make you read outside of your comfort zone and think more about what you are reading. Tasks range from the simple like "Read a play" or "Read a horror book" to more challenging like "Read a book that is by an author from Southeast Asia" or "Read a book that was adapted into a movie, then watch the movie. Debate the differences".

Anyone who is interested in broadening their literary horizons should definitely check this challenge out, even if you don't do everything at least you will have read something you wouldn't have otherwise. As a bonus, Book Riot offers a 30% discount to their store for anyone who submits a picture to them showing that they completed the challenge. A .pdf version of the checklist is available on their website where I linked it earlier.

This really ought to get me reading more outside of my Sci Fi/Fantasy niche this year! Who knows, maybe next time we bust out the Trivial Pursuit: Book Lover's Edition I might know some more answers.