Oh, hello springtime! Long time no see, come on in! Sit down, take a load off, stay a while, would you like a cup of tea?

Spring. Primavera. Frühling. Printemps. Vår.
/sprɪŋ/ Show Spelled Pronunciation noun: the season of the year following winter and characterized by the budding of trees, growth of plants, the onset of warmer weather, etc.
One of the few words that sound just as beautiful in every language.

The entire northern hemisphere is waking up, and so am I. I was out running this morning, after work. Usually after work I have problems staying awake while driving home, but today I had so much energy, I ran for a whole hour, and even after that I felt I had more to give. The sun was shining, birds were singing, and I was smiling. It is absolutely remarkable what a bit of sunlight and a few extra degrees in the air can do to you.

I have some rituals when the seasons change: The first day of the year fit for a barbeque, I clean out my warderobe, putting all of my winter clothes and jackets and shoes waaaay in the back, and all the shorts, t-shirts, skirts and dresses are put in the front. I make a new playlist on iTunes and my iPod with light, relaxing, music that puts me in the right "waiting for summer" mood. I make a list of what books I'm going to read over the summer, and then go online and order the ones I don't have. This summer I'm only gonna read light, entertaining stuff, in fear of having to read only heavy, classic English literature the next 5 years.

You see, I've just sent my applications for university. A masters study in English, with teaching and a second language (Spanish). If I get in, and I'm being positive, thinking I will, I'll be moving a 5 hour trainride away come autumn. A trainride I'll be doing this coming week to visit my friend who already lives there. The city's beautiful at spring time, people are smiling, the guys are wearing T-shirts, and the beer tastes better.

And in a few weeks time, as the spring unfolds in full bloom, I head off to Iceland. I have been promised to see geysirs. Geysirs! And the blue lagoon! I'm absolutely extatic about going, and I'm going to stay with the fabulous Hulda and her family. So nice of them to let me stay. I miss Hulda. We're gonna cry about missing Barcelona together, and make plans for next summer.

Pictures and detailed information on Linn's upcoming travels will be blogged about. Have no doubt about it.

I've previously blogged about my affection for quotes and how they often portray my feelings much better than I can do with my own words (http://linnterpretation.blogspot.com/2009/02/and-i-quote_19.html), and wouldn't you know! Some genious has poetically described spring
as well:

"Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush"
- Doug Larson

Happy birthday!

"I think, therefore I am"

The man behind these famous words, René Descartes, was born on this very day in 1596. 413 years ago. I was born on this very day 21 years ago, and our philosophies on this very day are much the same:
"I eat cake, therefore I am"

Happy birthday to me! And to René Descartes, and according to famousbirthdays.com, a happy birthday also to: Joseph Haydn, Christopher Walken, Rhea Perlman, Angus Young, Al Gore and Ewan McGregor.

And I quote...

[kwoht], verb: to repeat (a passage, phrase, etc.) from a book, speech, or the like, as by way of authority, illustration, etc.

"I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself." -Marlene Dietrich.

Exactly. Ol' Marlene here said what I'm thinking several decades ago, and she put it far more elegantly than i could have done. I could just end this post right now. But I won't.

If you know where to look, you can find a good quote on more or less anything, it seems everything worth saying has already been said. Estimates are that between 69 billion and 110 billion people have populated the earth since about one million years ago. So many brilliant people have come and gone, so many great ideas and comments are already out there, that being original has become a problem. "What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing he knew nobody had said it before" - Mark Twain. Well, I couldn't find a single good quote by Adam, go figure. The level of authority in what you're trying to get across rises significantly if you can use the words of some long gone genious to back them up. To quote David H. Comins: "People will accept your ideas much more readily if you tell them Benjamin Franklin said it first". Benjamin Franklin said "Time is money". He also said "God helps them that help themselves", "Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today" and "There was never a good war and never a bad peace". He was mistaken on some of his theories concerning electricity, but what a genious, huh?

People seem to think so, so in attempts to sound more intelligent, or to prove a point, they throw out a quote by someone a lot smarter than them here and there. I know I occasionally do. Samuel Palmer said "Wise men make proverbs, but fools repeat them", and Mary Pettibone said "The next best thing to being clever is being able to quote someone who is." Is it true, that in my use of quotations to prove my cause and ideas better, I actually weaken them by letting people see my lack of faith in my own wit? Maybe so, maybe I should put more effort into coming up with something genious by myself and let fools of the future use my words as their own. But what if it all actually has been said before? It seems Alfred North Whitehead was convinced of this when he said "Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it".

Fool or not, it so happens that finding the right quotes, and using them correctly, is harder than you would think. In books on quotations or webistes dedicated to the matter, you will often find them categorized by subject, so finding one close to what you're discussing won't be very hard. But findig the one that strikes hard, throws light on the matter, and gives your cause a deeper meaning, that is somewhat close to an artform. I mean, H.L. Mencken had this to say about Shakespeare: "After all, all he did was string together a lot of old, well-known quotations". And I personally prefer Anatole France's way of looking at it: "When a thing has been said and well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it".

Feel free to quote me on any of this.

Today's thought provoker:
The English language contains about 540 000 words, estimated to be about 5 times as many as during Shakespeare's time.