Blog Titles

I sent out an email requesting blog name suggestions. I got some very nice ones from everyone including "Carrie... THE BURNINATOR". This name has appeal partly because it's a reference to Homestar Runner, one of my all time favorite internet cartoons and partly because it just sounds cool. To see video reference, click here. However, I'm not sure it's descriptive of the blog itself.

Another suggestion was Carpe Vive (Latin for Seize Life) submitted by someone who knows I took Latin for far longer than I care to admit. I'm pretty sure that Carpe Vive would translate roughly into seize live: both Carpe and Vive being verbs. Embarrassing admission here: I don't actually know how you would say "seize life" in Latin. This does not bode well for my future language learning requirements. Vivo is to live which makes it a verb. I think the noun for life is Vita which makes it first declension (?). Oh no... this is going to turn into a search for old school books... joy. Or perhaps I will make use of the fabulous internet.

Latin grammar warning.

There are a surprisingly large number of on-line translators to turn English into Latin. One can only assume that this an industry used almost exclusively to cheat on homework assignments. What other possible purpose would there be to translate to and from Latin. If that's your job and you're using the internet to translate for you, no offense, but you kind of suck at your job. And if this is what you do for fun on a Sunday night... man what a loser... oh wait... Anyway, moving on, here is how one service would translate "seize life:" occupo vita. Hmm, how does it translate "Seize the Day"... Occupo Dies. Have we all been using that phrase incorrectly for the last 2000 years? What happens when I translate Carpe Diem? ahh, it means "to pluck the day". The problem with on-line translators is that you can't tell it that you want to translate pluck into the imperative. If you replace the "o" in Carpo with an "e" you get the present active imperative (which is how Romans ordered people around). Since I am assuming based on its "a" ending, that vita is a first declension noun, the correct translation is Carpe Vitam. "Vitam" of course being in the accusative as it is the direct object of Carpo. If you're still reading this post, all I can say is "wow" you must really feel cheated at this point although to be fair, I gave you a Latin grammar warning. You didn't have to keep reading.

Carpe Vitam... not a bad ring to it. I suppose it might have a bit of a Grim Reaperish feel to it. Maybe I'll try it out for a few days and see if anyone else submits something I like better.