It’s no secret that I’m an introvert by nature. I like people and once I’m comfortable with you, I’ll never shut up, but groups of people, make me seriously nervous. I get overwhelmed and then all I can think about is running away and hiding in a corner. Give me a group big enough that I can’t possibly interact with all of the individual members though, and I’m perfectly fine. I loved lecturing to large undergraduate classes, but for the first few weeks of classes, whenever I had to lead a small group seminar I wanted to hurl. Fortunately, I never did, and by all accounts I was really good at being a Teaching Assistant – at least if my feedback sheets were anything to go by. [Read more…]
When Depression Lies, Music speaks the truth.
Almost two years ago, my mother passed away very suddenly. I will never forget the moment I found out, the pain in my father’s voice, or the task of calling my grandmother to inform her. I had some amazing friends who stepped in to help, but that didn’t stop grief from enveloping me. The program I was in at the time was not what you would call supportive of the grieving process. They grudgingly gave me a week off but after that it was full steam ahead, and keeping busy is one thing but trying to juggle a tough academic curriculum while your brain is hazy from grief is almost impossible. I was made to feel abnormal for taking “too long” to mourn, which helped send me down the rabbit hole of depression (again). Post-secondary institutions talk a good game but when it comes down to it, their mental health programs aren’t exactly stellar and even in a program that talks a LOT about mental health there were faculty members who openly suggested that maybe it wasn’t grief or depression, maybe I just couldn’t hack it.
Celebration!
It comes as no surprise to those who know me that I’m a sports nut. Football (particularly the CFL and the Toronto Argonauts, but also the NFL and the Detroit Lions) was and continues to be my first love, with Auto Racing (Formula 1, IndyCar, and NASCAR in that order) a close second. Third place has changed a few times – most of the time it’s Baseball, unless the Olympics are on, with Hockey and Basketball tied for fourth in my hierarchy of sports. Living in Blue Jays’ country (which, technically is all of Canada since they’re the only professional baseball team in the country) though, it’s hard not to get caught up in the excitement that has been gripping the Toronto sports community.
Word Wednesday – with a twist!
In case you haven’t guessed I’m pretty passionate about my work with kids who have autism. This means that I occasionally get pulled into some of the Autism wars. I firmly believe that there are very few black and white situations in life, and even fewer in the world of autism. There’s a saying that if you’ve met one person with autism, then you’ve met one person with autism. Which is all well and good except it really doesn’t only apply to people with autism. Every person is different, and one-size-fits-all thinking should really be called one-size-really-fits-none. [Read more…]
Word Wednesday – Not so extra-terrestrial.
I spent a lot of time this summer with my eyes turned towards the skies. Unlike last summer where it seemed to rain every time I went up to the cottage, and a lot of the time at home (which put a serious damper on the amount of time I could spend stargazing), this summer had less evening / nighttime rain. Mosquitoes aside, there wasn’t anything keeping me from going out on the dock and just staring up at the night sky. While I wouldn’t consider myself an astronomer, I do have a healthy appreciation of the heavens and love learning more about space (and not just from Doctor Who, although that’s pretty awesome too). Speaking of The Doctor, this week’s Word Wednesday post would not apply to anyone from the planet of Gallifrey.
The word that came to mind (mostly because I heard it on an episode of Antiques Roadshow referring to the astronomical tool, when I was trying to figure out what word I should use for this week’s post, is tellurian. The word tellurian has two meanings, one of which is an old astronomical device that I know of as a tellurion but can also be spelled tellurian (at least according to both the Antiques Roadshow and Wikipedia). I’m keeping with the more traditional meaning: a noun meaning “an inhabitant of the earth” (now does the Doctor Who reference make more sense? Probably not, unless you’re a Whovian like me).
Once again, unsurprisingly, this word comes to English via Latin. Though unlike some recent words it is a pretty direct link. The Latin root word is tellus which means “earth”. Interestingly I can’t come up with any other words with the same root, which is unusual for a Latin root. (That’s not to say that there aren’t. If you know of any, please let me know in the comments!) To use it in a sentence: While The Doctor is an alien, his companions have traditionally been tellurian in their origins. Though once they are in the TARDIS are they still able to be described as tellurian? They’re not really inhabiting the earth when they’re off exploring time and space except for all the times they explore earth in another time period. Maybe semi-tellurian should be a thing? While I go ponder that, I’ll leave you with the traditional definition and pronunciation guide.along with a picture of the Earth, taken from space (but sadly, not from the TARDIS). Happy stargazing fellow tellurians.
Tellurian (te-loo r-ee-uh n) noun
An inhabitant of the earth.
adjective
Of or characteristic of the earth or its inhabitants, terrestrial.
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