Nat gave me an idea for my blogname — express the idea of “my thoughts” in Latin. Although much of it has turned to mush, I did take five years of Latin in high school. Drawing on the remnants in my head and access to an Internet dictionary, I came up with “mens mea” as a loose translation for “my thoughts.” The word “mens” has no exact translation in English. All of the following are in the dictionary for this one word: mind, understanding, intellect, judgment; feelings, disposition; courage; opinion, thoughts; intention, resolve. I am indebted to Nat for this idea and the results.
Those who have seen Legally Blonde and those with a legal background will see a similarity to the legal term “mens rea” which is literally translated “guilty mind” but is perhaps better expressed as “criminal intent.”
In other news, I have also shamelessly stolen (with permission) Nat’s stylesheet for WordPress. Standing on the shoulders of a giant, my blog looks better.
3 responses to “new blog name”
You humble me with your kind words. But, let it be known that the only reason I passed Latin class the 4 years I took it was becasue of Shawn. I’m not afraid of admitting that part-way through my fourth year of Latin Shawn put his foot down and no longer allowed me to copy all his work. Kudos! I had to take an incomplete in Latin IV but later Ms. Sorben changed it to a Pass, for which I’m very greatful.
The stylesheet is also freely given to all who desire it. I think the default style sheet WordPress provides sucks. It’s ironic that WordPress prides itself on having a flexibile and typographically superrior look, and their default look is so typographically poor.
I’m fine with my stylesheed becoming the slut of the WordPress world, just as Papyrus has become the slut of the font world.
By the way, I really like the new name.
I really liked Ms. Sorben. I feel privileged to have had her for all but my first year of high school English, and all those years of Latin. It was especially nice in the years that we had her first period, and got to watch the original (five cat) Voltron almost every morning.
Hey Shawn! Welcome to the world of WordPress. I met you a couple of times whilst you helped SandStar migrate mail and setup a firewall and such. Oh, and I enjoyed some Chinese food in your most excellent company.
I found this collection of Handy Latin Phrases — well, they appear useful to me as one who took far too many years of Spanish in high school instead of Latin. 😉