Spinal Fire Scientia Est Potentia

Let’s look at the word telephone and does it still apply to cellphones?

Also, please forgive my signing!

Oh, and please thumb-up, comment and fave over at YouTube to help the video

At 4:32 am on June 13, 2008, the following comment was made on this website:

Hello My Dear Teacher HotForWords,

Regarding the article, “Funny post about counting with your fingers”,
the video indicated is the one entitled “Cookie Game”.
http://www.hotforwords.com/2008/06/03/cookie-game/

You cracked me up when you answered the “Ten Blonde Science Fair Projects” with ‘inflammable’. I reviewed that video which is 20+ stars excellent.
http://www.hotforwords.com/200…..flammable/

.k.

It was pedanticKarl’s first comment on the HotForWords website.  Over the next 2 years and 1 month, pedanticKarl would make 4,970 comments, welcoming every new visitor to the site, participating in discussions about words, putting out fires, helping people when they had troubles with the site, even helping people when they had troubles in their own lives!

pedanticKarl helped me out when I was trying to figure out the complexities of the online world. He spent hours making complex graphs and charts to show me how certain videos of mine were affected by certain things on the net.  If I was stuck, late at night, with a complex problem, I could email him and he would always respond very quickly, no matter the hour!  pedanticKarl was always there looking over me, and it felt very comforting to have him there!

pedanticKarl was a very smart person.  I knew nothing about him, other than the image I had of a young, genius of a man who, rather than work, spent his days helping people, like myself, on the net!

pedanticKarl made his first video about me here, for a contest I was having:

He ended up winning the contest and I was able to give him an iPhone as his prize!  He continued to use that iPhone to access the HotForWords website whenever he was away from home.  If you listen to his voice, he sounds like a very young man, which is how I perceived him to be.

He then made me a birthday video with some of the other HotForWords students:

Then over the next couple years, he became an integral part of my life.  For the first time since arriving in the United States by myself, I truly felt like I had someone watching over me, that truly cared for me, and that was pedanticKarl.

Even though he did all these things to help me, and others on the website, he never asked for anything in return.  When I had a get-together at Comic Con last year and he couldn’t make it, he delivered a message that you see me holding in the following picture:

When I heard that pedanticKarl passed away last week, I was truly devastated.  I felt that I had lost my angel who was always looking out for me!  I feel like I have lost a member of my family and I feel so lonely now with him gone!

BUT, pedanticKarl was so good at making everyone feel good, even his YouTube channel has the following statement, “Don’t take life too seriously -- we’re not getting out alive.”  So, in his passing, I know that he would not want us to be sad, as he did everything he could to make us all happy, when he was alive!

I miss pedanticKarl so much right now, and my heart is in so much pain, but if you look at the card he wrote me above, “sorry I couldn’t be there, but I’m with you in spirit”, I’d like to think he is watching over us all right now in spirit, as he did in life.

- Marina

pedanticKarl’s real name was Klaus Herzog, he was 62, and as soon as I know of funeral arrangements, I will let you know.

Here is my Life in a Day submission for the Ridley Scott / Kevin MacDonald Project in YouTube. I also got a lesson in there talking about Vacations and Vanity!

Please thumb-up, comment and fave over at YouTube to help the video  Oh, and record your own Life in a Day video and submit it as well!

Hey guys! I just moved to a new server, but the move is causing people to have some issues with logging in. If you cannot log in to comment, then please clear your cache and your cookies and then log in again.  

Here is info on how you clear your cache and cookies.

You should be fine after doing that. If you still can’t log in, send me an email by clicking here, and I’ll see what I can do.

Oh.. and why are they called cookies in the first place? Might make for a good lesson

Hey guys, I moved the website to a new server today.  I *think* everything works, but you never know!

Please let me know in the comments below of something has stopped working.

After seeing the trailer for Inception I thought I’d look at the word Inception.

Please rate, comment and fave over at YouTube to help the video.  Also.. did you see Inception or are you planning on seeing it?

Here is the REAL Anna Chapman video.. I don’t know who that girl is that’s impersonating me!

Here is the FAKE video with that girl pretending to be me!

Please rate, comment and fave over at YouTube to help the video and find this spy!

Here is a refresher course on Soccer and Football.

Please thumb-up, fave and comment over at YouTube

Sorry, I didn’t understand.

Who, what, where, when, why and how?

The English: A Nation of Anglers?

Dedicated to Izaak Walton

We get the name of our language from the English people; but where did their name come from?

The English have their roots in a fifth-century migration of Germanic peoples to the island of Britain. Among these were the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes; it is from the Angles that the words “England” and “English” derive.

The Angles came from a region of northern Germany called Angeln. It is widely believed that these people were fishermen, since angeln in German means “fishing” or “to hook,” and Angeln borders the Baltic Sea and a long inlet known as the Schlei. Ultimately, Angeln derives from the Proto-Indo-European root *ank-, “to bend” (as in a fishhook), the root word for angle, ankle, and anchor.

At any rate, once they got their hooks into Britain, the Angles set anchor and never let go, and the English became a people always angling for other peoples’ lands and fishing for words to add to our language.

Here is a nice critique I just found.  I’m a little late here (it’s almost a year old!), but I thought it was nice what he said.

That darn vuvuzela!

Please thumb up, comment and fave over at YouTube to help the video

Here is the filtering technology.

Learn “Good Luck”, “Excuse Me”, “I see”, and “I’m Running Late”.

Be sure to make some comments below the videos over at RT as well!  :-)

Cute song by MIC SOL-O about VidCon where yours truly appears!  To help him go to VidCon, you can purchase his song here I did!  VidCon may be sold out, not sure.  Info about the event is here. I’ll be there doing something.. I have no idea what.. but that’s what makes it great!

Here is the origin of the term bargain.. plus I show you some awesome bargaining skills I learned from Bugs Bunny. Be sure to sign up to LivingSocial.com and get awesome one a day specials delivered to your email. They rock, which is how I found out about the F16 simulator!  And, yes, I am having a Dog Fight in the F16 simulator with 4 of you if you want to participate!  Let me know if so in the comments below!

Please thumb-up, comment and fave over at YouTube to help the video.  :-)

Here are some more lessons in Russian.

Here is “Goodbye.”

Here is “You’re Welcome.”

“What’s your name?”

“Thank You.”

And “All the best.”

Here is the origin of “bully”. It didn’t start out being such a bully!  Oh, and please thumb up, comment and favorite over at YouTube to help the video.

Here are pics from my day at E3 at the Chang You / Dragon Oath area!  It was a BLAST meeting all of you who came, plus some unexpected visitors stopped by to say hi, from Dave Days, to Sxephil, to V Producer Jace Hall, even David Arquette stopped by to say hi!

The pics are by David Markowitz who will have more pics up on the Chang You website shortly, the last 4 pics are from my iPhone.

How to say “I feel bad” or “I feel good” in Russian.

How to say “How are you?” and “What’s new?” in Russian.