Do you know the meaning of your name?

I know the meaning of mine.

My name “LJUBOMIR” is a Croatian and Serbian name, according to the website Behind the Name.

It is Љубомир in Serbian (probably this is written in Cyrillic, but I’m not sure).

LJUBOMIR is the Croatian and Serbian form of “LUBOMIR,” which in turn is the Polish form of “LUBOMÍR,” a Czech name.

Whew.

The same website says LUBOMÍR “means love and peace from the Slavic elements ‘lyub’ (love) and ‘mir’ (peace).”

LJUBOMIR = love and peace

It may also mean “great love.”

Behind the Name says the Old Slavic “mer” means “great.”

Random thoughts about Spanish, German and Filipino languages

• I’ve noticed that the Spanish word puso (I believe it’s one of the conjugated forms of the word “poner” = to put) is spelled the same way as “puso,” which means “heart” in Filipino.
• On the other hand, the German words damit and lang (“thus” and “long” respectively, to the best of my knowledge), are spelled the same way as the Filipino words “damit” and “lang” (“clothing/dress” and “only” respectively).
• Totally different languages, similar-looking words, totally different meanings.

Take pictures of yourself, it is fun!

Yeah, I know this bull in Cologne, Germany is much cuter

Like a zombie in Berlin's Reichstag, Germany's parliament building

When I saw on German journalist Marcus Bösch’s Twitter page a link to a piece about models taking pictures of themselves, I couldn’t help but click on the link right away and read the article.

We don’t have to be models to take photos of ourselves. Anyone can do it!

I like to take pictures of myself.

Superb background in Shanghai! The foreground? Ummm...

No, it’s not because I’m a narcissist, but because it’s easier for everyone.

I can take a photo of myself a thousand times, literally, but I doubt I’d find someone else who’d do that for me. For free.

Besides, I can get as serious as I want or as silly as I want when I take pictures of myself. I don’t get conscious at all when I do that.

And with literally thousands of pictures to choose from, it’s much easier for me to have very serious or really silly photographs.

The more the merrier, indeed.

Be conscious of your background… be very conscious

Seriously:

A September to remember

I will never forget September 2009, especially its first day and last day.

September 1 – my worst day, ever

September 30 – my best day, so far

That’s all.

University of the Philippines as a research university

Oblation, symbol of academic freedom in UP

UP President Emerlinda Roman at a conference held in May this year underscored the need for the university to establish its “identity as a research university.”

Roman defined a research university “as one with a research orientation and highly active graduate programs across a wide variety of fields.”

“Research universities are distinguished by the fact that they aspire not only to apply and transmit existing knowledge but to create new knowledge,” said Roman, whose remarks were published in the July-August 2009 issue of the UP System Information Office’s FORUM newspaper.

Nice words from UP’s highest official.

But it will take more than carefully-crafted statements to make UP a research university.

Where should we begin? The university should assess the dedication to research of the people in UP’s graduate programs.

How many of them can honestly say that they’ve really helped researchers in UP?

Now, now, that’s one research problem.

Five oddest news stories

I would just like to share my list of the strangest stories that I have come across on the Internet.

Here they are, from the oldest to the newest:

From the BBC on February 24, 2006

Sudanese man ‘marries’ goat

From FOXNews on September 17, 2007

God sued by politician

From USA Today on September 19, 2007

‘For sale’ on eBay: Belgium

From Reuters on September 21, 2007

Expiry date for marriage

From the BBC on April 27, 2009

‘Woman too noisy in bed’

Hmmm. September 2007 was such an odd period.

Good things come in threes. Bad things come in threes. Odd things come in threes as well.

Owner of gutted topless coffee shop vows to reopen business

I agree with the owner of Grand View Coffee Shop in the US state of Maine.

In these trying times, no one should lose his or her job.

Here are some news reports about the fire that destroyed the business establishment:

The Boston Globe

FOXNews

Yahoo!

June 2 – International Whores Day

I’ve never heard of such event before. I only found out about it while reading today’s newspaper, which carried a photograph of the celebration in Sydney.

I learn something new everyday and I like it.

By the way, I googled “International Whores Day” and here are some stuff about it:

ABC News

The Daily Telegraph

Yahoo!