Diurnal and Nocturnal; Log-Blog #01; Monday, September 10, 2007

First attempts to present a diurnal (daily), or "journal", including nocturnal activities

Today is my first effort to keep a running record of what I am striving to accomplish in this Word Info English-vocabulary site.

My primary concern is that I must concentrate on completing the units of words and definition; that is, I MUST FOCUS, focus, and constantly focus on getting as much done with this project as I can in the time that I have remaining in this world.

I have chosen to avoid the typical BLOG setups and designs because they are too time consuming and, as such, the blog formats available from Google and other sources are simply too distracting for me.

I am basing my blog comments on the fact that I started the following blog, but I have had very little inclination to continue with it: Deviant Definitions. There was another one, but I can't find it, now.

Today's first diurnal (journal) and nocturnal activities

I spent the last three days (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday [September 7-9]) working on the onym- or "name; word" unit which, at the time of this writing, contains 10 pages of 149 words which may contain one of the following elements: -onym, -onymy, -onymic, -onymically, -onymous, -onymously, -nym.

Despite the number of hours spent on this unit during the last three days, there are still several words which need definitions. My objective is to complete this unit today, Monday, September 10.

The -onym unit is finally completed!

At 9 p.m. (21 hours), after interruptions, I finally finished the -onym unit of words. One of my purposes with these units is to find as many related words as I can AND to put links to other "name" words in their related subject groups.

The completion ended with ten pages of 149 word groups which now include the + sign, indicating that all of the words in this unit have definitions.

This is just one of several advantages for people who are trying to learn more about English words that are derived from Latin and Greek origins; that is, they will find related groups in this Word Info site which are not as conveniently available in any of the other dictionaries that I have researched (on and off the internet).

This Word Info production shows the words in their family units, not just as individual words with their definitions and some limited spelling differences; such as, suffixes which change their tenses; including: -s, -ed, -ing, -ment, -mous, etc. as seen in just about every other dictionary.

Some word families are very large (over 350 words) and a few may have only five words, but since they are in family units, they provide a much better perspective as to how English has expanded the usage of certain Latin and Greek roots, prefixes, and suffixes.

Taking time out to check out a magazine and a newspaper

One of the "interruptions", which I mentioned above, includes a look at The Futurist magazine and today's International Herald Tribune. I will now present a few of the subjects mentioned in the September-October, 2007, issue of the Futurist that caught my attention.

• "Joy-riders, car thieves, escaping terrorists, and the law-enforcement officers who chase after them can cause a lot of damage to property and lives."
• The article points out that a new nonlethal entrapment device is supposed to literally put a stop to such chases.
• A "Super X-Net" which has been developed by QinetiQ, an independent British science and technology company, is a portable spike-and-net system which, when thrown in a vehicle's direction, wraps itself around the wheels and axle, punctures the tires, and prevents the the car (or whatever is being driven) from moving any further.
• Also, since the net can be "shot" at the target vehicle from a safe distance, police and security officers are protected from the danger of car bombs.

• The aging of Japan society foreshadows challenges ahead for other advanced industrial nations like the United States.
• About 20% of the Japanese population jis over age 65 (compared with 12% in the United States), and Japan is wrestling with many consequences of this unprecedented and ongoing population shift.
• Typical of the unexpected impacts in an increase in the number nationwide of kodokushi, "lonely death", referring to an elderly person who has died with no relatives or friends to provide care in the last days, weeks, or even months.
• Traditionalists point to this as evidence of the collapse of the conventional family system and the erosion of networks of local community ties.
• As aging alone leads to death alone, new services are emerging from both for-profit and nonprofit organizations.
• One new for-profit company, called Keepers, was founded in 2002 to perform such services as cleaning up the mess commonly found when a body is discovered in a disheveled flat.
• "Keepers" does this in the Japanese way, with euphemisms, discretion, and diplomacy artfully employed to make grieving relatives and friends experience the least amount of public suffering and remorse; perhaps, because of their neglect.
• "Keepers" is now getting about 30 kodokushi-related requests a month.

• In the first half of the twentieth century, H.G. Wells was considered one of the leading intellects of the day.
• He influenced the direction of the century's literature, education, biology, science, social policy, and history.
• He was a friend and confidant of practically all the great people in England during the period; such as, George Bernard Shaw, James Joyce, Henry James, T.H. Huxley, Bertrand Russell, and Winston Churchill.
• In 1901, at the age of 35, Wells published a small, but then widely read nonfiction book called Anticipations, subtitled Of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress Upon Human Life and "Thought.
• His aim was to describe the development of the world for the 100 years following 1901.
• The book contained forecasts on technology, population distribution, economy, class structure, management and leadership, education, politics, daily life, social problems, dominant languages, and international affairs.

I will include more about this article in my next journal entry.

Index of journal, or log-blog entries, regarding the Word Info site activities.

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