AFM's Abode

Word of the day is flabbergast. It means to be surprised or astonished.

eg. I was left flabbergasted by the audacity of his speech.

The etymology of this word is disputed - it first appeared in print in 1772 and it is suggested that the author combined two words: flabby which originally meant something that wasn't strong i.e. soft, and now means to be fat, and aghast which means to be filled with horror or shock. The original quote is "Now we are flabbergasted from morning to night", with the context being that the author was writing about how Britain was constantly shifting from being in war, to being at peace (I think, I read an except of the original passage but it wasn't so clear, with lots of old english words that are now defunct).

The prevalent theory is that it comes from frófregást (Old High German fluobargeist), a word meaning literally "consoler" or "comforter" and coined to translate the Greco-Latin paracletus which sometimes refers to the Holy Spirit in Vulgate translations of the New Testament. It possibly that a playful coinage of a participial form "flabbergasted" emerged, a word that would originally have meant to be somehow overwhelmed or dumbstruck by the Holy Spirit. However the modern usage has discarded this religious element.

Wow, that was longer than I expected it to be.:eek:
 
Y'all need to watch Crazy Rich Asians if you haven't already. A good film, and a possible landmark in terms of representation for Asians. It's so refreshing to finally see a mainstream film that doesn't place an Asians in stereotypical roles, or just ignore us completely. The women are strong and powerful, and whole the men are given less to do, they're normal roles. Even heartthrob roles. I can't remember a Hollywood film that placed an Asian man as an object of desire.

This article represents a lot of my feelings about the film.

Some background reading on harmful Asian male stereotypes.
 
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Really interesting.

I want to see it. I read the book and thought it was fantastic. And agreed, way under representated.
 
I would have done an audio on this but there just isn't enough information to get a proper clip. I recently discovered that there's a cave in Vietnam which is so large that it has it's own ecosystem and it's own weather system as well. It remains largely unexplored because it's so difficult to get to, but an absolutely fascinating discovery. Pictures in the link below.

http://www.messynessychic.com/2015/...mplete-with-its-own-river-jungle-and-climate/
 
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