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The Random Text Says: "" Thanksgiving 2001 (an unoriginal title) Thanksgiving 2001 - 9:29 a.m. I'm Currently Avoiding:Know what? I started this entry more than 12 hours ago, and now I'm too tired to really want to do it at all, but I've already gone to the trouble of copying and pasting, so there *shall* be an entry posted here, because I can't stand the waste. I had turkey dinner with my boss and then went out to the movies with her and her family. None of which I paid for. Unless you call me drying the dishes payment. Seemed strange to participate in a "family" event without any family anywhere that belonged to me. I don't know, it's nearly 10:30, maybe I'll go to bed now (10:30 pm? What the hell is wrong with me? And why can't I sleep these hours when I *don't* have a mini-vacation?). omphalos (n. AHM-fuh-lahss) : a central point : hub, focal point Omphalos comes from an ancient Greek word for navel, and is distantly related to the Latin umbilicus (meaning navel) and the Old English nafela (the source of our navel). The ancients also used omphalos to designate a boss on a shield (that is, a raised ornamentation) and a rounded altar at Delphi, which was supposed to mark the center of the earth. In the 19th century, English speakers borrowed omphalos for these senses, as well as the more general sense, center of activity. In the 1920s, omphalos made another appearance in English in the word omphaloskepsis, meaning contemplation of one's navel. But this term, like omphalos itself, is relatively rare.
xylography (n. zye-LAH-gruh-fee) : the art of making engravings on wood especially for printing Xylography combines xylo-, meaning wood, and -graphy, which denotes writing in a specified manner. Xylography didn't appear in print in English until 1816, but it is linked to printing practices that are much older. In fact, the oldest known printed works (from Japan and China in the 8th and 9th centuries) were made by xylography, a printing technique that involves carving text in relief upon a wooden block, which is then inked and applied to paper. This method of wood-block printing appeared in Europe in the 14th century, and eventually inspired Johannes Gutenberg to create individual and reusable pieces of type out of metal. These days, xylography can also describe the technique of engraving wood for purely artistic purposes.
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