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March 23 One year down...Well, Christine and I celebrated our 1st anniversary this weekend. And I even remembered it. It was nice. It was really nice.
Since our anniversary was on Sunday, which wouldn't give us much opportunity to do anything, we decided to use the entire weekend to celebrate. On Friday night we went out to dinner and she gave me my first present: tickets to the opera.
The Utah Symphony and Opera was putting on a production of The Marriage of Figaro. Since we both actually like opera, we decided it might be fun to go. Unfortunately, it's in Salt Lake and we're in Vernal. Granted, it isn't a long trip to Salt Lake. It would have required a one night stay but overall it wouldn't be too bad. And it would have been lots of fun. But we decided that we were a little tired of traveling and that it would be more relaxing to stay home. So, Christine made arrangements for the opera to come to Vernal. She went all out, too. I knew she had been plotting and scheming for a while about it, and while I had some ideas as to what she might do I just couldn't put all the pieces together. At first I thought she might be setting up something in the spare bedroom of our house, because one day she told me I wasn't allowed to go in that room any more. When I asked how long this prohibition would be she stated simply: "not 'till the baby comes." (That's July, by the way.) Well, that got me thinking she might have gone out and picked up some baby furniture for us. Except she wouldn't do that without discussing it with me first. She's terribly indecisive at times and I figured she would need my help picking out what she wanted. But, you never know, girls do crazy things around their anniversaries so it might be. But then again, she would probably want to do something more romantic for our first anniversary, so maybe she is setting up the opera there.
Anyway, on Saturday, as it got closer to showtime, we got dressed up and ready for the opera. Christine told me that the Vernal operahouse was rather flexible and wouldn't mind if we brought our own snacks. So, she had me make some popcorn and gather some other treats to take to the opera. Then, and this threw me for a loop, she had me go take the snacks out to the car! We were going somewhere! So what is in the spare room? Now I'm really confused. And I had a minute to think about it because she wanted me to drive around the block and come pick her up. It would be fun. Like it was when we were dating. So, I get back to the house to pick her up and we get in the car. I still don't know where we're going; she would give me specific directions at each intersection. At first, it looked like we might be going to her office. Maybe she set something up in their conference room up there. But then we turn. Maybe she arranged with her mother to have it in her classroom at the school. She had spent a bit of time on the phone getting this set up. Nope, not there. Eventually, we arrived back at home. I knew it! It's in the spare room. While I was driving around the block she had rushed back there to finish setting up. She had the DVD player hooked up to a projector. There was a rather professional looking program (to match my tickets), and she gave me a copy of my favorite opera: Turandot, starring Placido Domingo. It was fantastic.
On Sunday, Christine gave me my last present: a copy of the book Waverly by Walter Scott. I had mentioned this as one I would perhaps like to read. It is supposed to be one of his best, and if it is anywhere near as good as Ivanhoe, I'm sure I'll enjoy it.
We also had the opportunity on Sunday to attend the dedication of the Draper, UT temple. (It was broadcast to stake centers in Utah.) What a perfect way to celebrate our anniversary.
I love you, Christine. Thanks for one wonderful year! I look forward to many more.
February 25 Learning new things While on our trip to Salt Lake, we came across a reproduction of a reader printed in the Deseret alphabet. For those who don't know, the Deseret alphabet was developed in the 1850s by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This was during a time when converts to the church were pouring in to Utah from all over the world. In an effort to make it easier for these immigrants to learn English, Brigham Young directed the creation of a phonetic alphabet, with a separate character for each sound in the English language. In the late 1860s the church published two different "readers" and the Book of Mormon in the Deseret alphabet as well as a few articles in the Deseret News. Despite Brigham Young's best efforts, though, the new alphabet just didn't catch on. Anyway, while in Salt Lake, Christine and I picked up a reproduction of the first reader and have been teaching ourselves the Deseret alphabet andwritting notes to each other using it. It's actually quite easy, but I'm still not sure I understand why they pronounce some words the way they do.  If you're interested in learning more, visit http://www.deseretalphabet.com/. You can even download fonts for your computer so you can type in it.  January 27 Deer CountOkay, so I usually don't get paid to go out and look at deer. There are a couple exceptions, though. Each year we do two deer counts in Brown's Park, and then two in the book cliffs. Last week we did the winter deer count in Brown's Park. In a couple weeks we'll do the winter count in the book cliffs. A couple months after that we'll do spring counts in both places.
The Brown's Park counts are set up by some folks at the BLM. I'm not entirely sure how the DWR habitat folks got involved, but I'm not complaining.
Of course, I can't get paid to drive around and look at deer without taking a few pictures. So enjoy.
        December 10 The War on CheatgrassBy now I'm sure some of you think that all I do for work is drive around and take pictures of deer. That is really just a perk. Much of what I do is centered around habitat restoration projects, specifically for sagebrush ecosystems. We focus on sagebrush ecosystems because of their importance to two major species of interest and concern: mule deer and greater sage-grouse. Mule deer are known as a sagebrush-associated species; that is, they rely heavily on sagebrsh. One study I saw recenty showed the average winter diet for mule deer to be 52% sagebrush. Sage-grouse, on the other hand, are a sagebrush-obligate species; that is, they specifically require sagebrush for some part of their life cycle. Pretty much everything sage-grouse do revolves around sagebrush. They nest under it, they roost under it, and they eat it. During the winter, up to 95% of their diet is sagebrush.
In another blog a while ago (the Juniper Jihad) I described one sort of project we often do, namely removing pinyon and juniper trees that encroach onto sagebrush-dominated ecosystems. Another type of project we often do is related to cheatgrass.
The biggest problem with cheatgrass is fire. Traditionally, sagebrush ecosystems would experience a fire every 50-100 years. And then, they were generally small, low intensity fires. This sort of fire has been shown to be advantageous in mountain big sagebrush communities. However, when cheatgrass is present, the fire interval can be reduced to a little as every 3-5 years. In addition, these fires are often large and high intensity. This is the sort of fire that has catastrophic effects on sagebrush communities. With the short fire interval, it doesn't take long for cheatgrass to dominate the landscape. When you end up with large areas of land dominated by cheatgrass you get very large catastrophic fires. Just last year there were two such fires in Utah: the Neola North fire, and the Milford flat fire. Both began in areas that had become dominated by cheatgrass. The Neola North fire burned over 43,500 acres and resulted in the deaths of three people. The Milford flat fire burned over 360,000 acres and is blamed for the deaths of two people (traffic accidents resulting from low visibility due to smoke and dust).
So, the projects I am working on now are directly tied to cheatgrass and their negative effects on sagebrush ecosystems and their associated wildlife. On all of our cheatgrass projects we used the herbicide imazapic (trade name: Plateau). This is actually a relatively new tool for us. It wasn't until this year the BLM approved its use on BLM land, where a great deal of our projects take place. This herbicide effectively controls cheatgrass by preventing its germination for up to three years, but it doesn't have an effect on the desirable species we plant.
The two tools we are using to implement our projects are a dixie harrow, seen here:
 And a rangeland drill, seen here:
 We are using the harrow in an area where there has been a lot of sagebrush mortality. It is really good at removing all the dead brush and providing good soil disturbance to receive the new seed that is broadcast over the top.
The rangeland drills are similar to those farmers use to plant their fields. They are more useful when there isn't a lot of brush in the way. We are using it on some greenstrips that were tried a few years ago. Greenstrips are basically strips of more fire-resistant vegetation scattered throughout an area which will (hopefully) stop a fire if one starts. The greenstrips didn't work last time due to a combination of factors: the wrong tool was used and didn't get enough ground disturbance to receive the seed; no herbicide was used to control the cheatgrass; and, not enough precipitation to get the seed to germinate. I think we fixed the first two problems here, but that third one is always tricky.
So anyway, I don't just drive around looking at deer all day. It's just that my projects take me to places where I happen to see a lot of deer.
November 10 Jack-o-lantern tutorialI've gotten a couple requests for information on how I created the best jack-o-lantern in the world. Here's how I did it.
Step 1 - Choose a picture. It should have pretty good contrast and shadows or it won't work as well. I chose one from my wedding.
Step 2 - Open the picture in a photo editing program on your computer. I happened to use Photoshop 5.0, because that's what I have on my computer. Others would probably work, too.
Step 3 - Crop the photo to be just your head (or whatever part you want to carve into the pumpkin). Adjust the picture size so it will print nicely. I did mine on a full-sized 8 1/2 x 11 paper.
Step 4 - Erase everything you don't want to carve, such as backgrounds, etc. Convert to a black and white image.
Step 5 - Play with the brightness and contrast a little until you get some good shadows. This is important because when you carve the pumpkin, all the dark patches need to be connected, or there won't be anything to support the pumpkin pieces. I didn't originally save all of my steps so the next couple pictures are NOT the one I actually used. Once the contrast was adjusted, I used the tool on photoshop called "posterize." I used three levels. This basically converts the picture to three shades -- black, white and gray. You may need to play with this a few times to get a picture that will work. Remember, the dark parts all need to be connected.
Step 6 - I then used an artistic tool called "cutout," which basically smoothes out the edges. Again, this isn't how mine originally turned out, but it will work for the purposes of this tutorial.
Step 7 - I made a few minor adjustments to the lines, just to make it easier to carve, and I added a line around the outside to show where I would cut. This IS the picture I originally used.
Step 8 - Tape the picture to the pumpkin and, using a pin, mark all the lines so you know where to cut. The white parts get cut out. The black parts get left as they are. The grey parts need to have the pumpkin skin shaved off and the flesh thinned so the light will shine through it. I didn't thin mine as well as I probably should have, so the light doesn't shine through them quite as well as I was hoping, but it worked. Once you have it carved, it probably won't look like much of anything.
Step 9 - Light it up.
Step 10 - Brag to everyone you know about how your jack-o-lanten is so much cooler than theirs. Of course, this isn't terribly necessary, because they will just admit it anyway.
October 20 Doesn't it feel good?I just got an e-mail today that made me feel rather good. The pictures I posted the other day about the sage grouse were taken in Brown's Park. Apparently the DWR has on occasion received reports of sage grouse use in that area but had not been able to document it. When I was talking with my boss about seeing the birds there he asked me to notify our sensitive species biologist, so I sent him copies of the pictures I posted here, along with an accurate location where they were seen. I got his response this morning. I just documented the use of that area by sage grouse. I'm not entirely sure what difference it will make, but it makes me feel good anyway. October 06 The great sage grouse hunt of 2008I got a couple tags to hunt sage grouse this year. There were two reasons I really wanted to hunt them. First, I wanted to get a tail fan to hang on the wall. Second, they are really close to being placed on the endangered species list as threatened and I might not have another chance to do it. I went out about a week ago, and tromped through the sagebrush for an hour or so when two birds fly up in front of me. BLAM! ... they kept flying. Then another one flew. BLAM! ... still flying. I didn't see any more that day.
I went out again on Friday. Christine came with me this time and we tromped through the sagebrush for another hour. Finally we came to a place where we had done some harrow work to improve the sage grouse habitat on Blue Mountain. I explained what had been done to my wife and told her that would likely be our best bet on seeing a grouse that day. We took two more steps and about six birds flew up. They seemed like they might be just out of range but I shot anyway. BLAM! To my surprise, one fell! I had hit it! Feeling very proud of myself I went to pick it up when another flew. BLAM! I hit that one too! I had just winged it an it was flopping around so I went to get it and take care of it first. Just then about 20-30 more birds flew up. We watched them fly off before collecting my second bird. I got it and turned to get the first. It wasn't there. We looked for 2 and a half hours and found nothing more than a pile of feathers. I was sure that bird was dead. It didn't flop around when it landed, but it wasn't there. I suspect it was abducted by invisible aliens shortly after I shot it.
We took our one bird home, put it in a marinade, and cooked it on the grill the next day. It wasn't very good. I hope the one the aliens got tasted just as bad. Serves them right, stupid aliens.
Oh, and I didn't get a good tail fan either. The bird was molting and missing all the good tail feathers. I guess that's what I get for trying to be a trophy hunter. No trophy and a lousy meal. September 05 Why?The DWR had a Division-wide training conference this past week, so I got to spend a couple days at Snowbird. I'd never been there before, and it is a pretty neat place. But I have to say, I'm not terribly impressed with the lodge we stayed in. Oh, sure, it's a nice enough place but our breakfast was cold oatmeal and lunch was vegetarian lasagna. Why would they serve vegetarian anything to a bunch of people from the Division of Wildlife? The worst part of the place, however, was the room.
At first, it seemed like any other fancy hotel room. Beds, lamps, television, etc. It's the bathrooom that had problems. It was actually a nice, clean, roomy bathroom. The real problem was the shower. The bathtub was against the wall separating the bathroom from the rest of the room. Only there wasn't a wall there. There was a window. That's right. There was a window in the shower looking out into the bedroom. And it wasn't just any window; it was a big, wide picture window. The kind you would like to have in your living room. Granted, there was a curtain you could pull across the window so you could have some privacy, but still. Why a window in the shower? Is it so you can watch TV while taking a bath?
The window wouldn't have been so bad, but I had to share the room with a complete stranger. (They wanted to save a little money, I guess.) Anyway, when we got up in the morning, my roommate got in first. When he turned on the light in the bathroom, it filtered through the curtain in the shower-window and illuminated my bed. So much for sleeping a little longer. Fortunately the curtain was heavy enough to prevent a silhouette on the window.
Then came my turn. I was a little nervous at first but after a while I forgot about the window and just enjoyed my shower. Then disaster struck. I guess as I was showering I got a little disoriented. When I was done, I opened up the curtain to step out. It was the wrong curtain. There I am, sopping wet, standing in all my glory looking through a perfectly clear window into the bedroom, with my very startled roommate looking back at me. It took just a moment to realize what I had done, but that was one moment too long. I quickly closed that curtain, took a moment to recover, then exited the shower the other direction. By the time I got out of the bathroom, my roommate was gone. I didn't see him again for the rest of the conference. If I ever see him again it will be too soon. I'm sure he thinks the same about me. August 28 Anyone need a hat?A while ago I was called as the Venturing advisor for our ward (Venturing is the scouting program for the older boys). I ordered some things from the scout supply place and have been waiting for them to come. They got here yesterday. I eagerly opened the box and went through all the stuff to make sure it was all there. After I found everything I remembered ordering I turned to the smaller box inside the large, main package. Christine asked what else I had ordered that would be in that box. I couldn't remember. What was in the box? 12 Webelos hats! Is this some sort of new promotion I hadn't heard about? "Buy $20 worth of stuff and get a dozen Webelos hats, free!" Or is someone out there missing an order? The real question, though, is what am I supposed to do with 12 Webelos hats? July 29 Pyramid ProblemsI'm sure you all know that my wife talks in her sleep. Actually, she does more than just talk. We have some major conversations. It is quite entertaining.
The other day we had what is probably our best sleeping conversation, ever. My wife was napping while I was working on a lesson for church. After a while she asked me a question. This isn't unusual; she asks me a lot of questions while she is asleep. It was the nature of the question that was unusual. She was apparently envisioning a pyrimidal stack of cans. I guess these pyramids have plagued her for most of her life and she has a sort of compulsion to count the number of cans in the pyramid. Her question for me was something like this: "If there are three cans on the bottom of the pyramid, how many are on top?" Well, first I had to figure out if she was imagining a two dimensional pyramid or a three dimensional pyramid. Two dimensional? That would mean we had a row of three cans on the bottom, a row of two cans on top of that, and a third row of one can on the top. That makes six cans total, or three cans on top of the bottom row of three.
After satisfying that question, she asked me another: "What if there are four cans on the bottom?" Together we counted the cans, and then she asked: "What about five cans?" Then ten cans. Like I said, she has a sort of compulsion to count cans in pyramids.
As we were working out these problems she occasionally said: "We need a math to figure it out so we don't have to count them each time." I, of course, didn't think we needed to count them at all, but my sleeping wife just couldn't stop. "Maybe we should call the math guy," she suggested. "What math guy?" I asked. "I don't know. There has to be one somewhere."
So, with pyramids of cans flooding her mind and in need of "a math" to figure out how many cans are in any given pyramid, we set to work. We started with a pyramid with a base of three cans. This has three rows, and six total cans. If we add one can to the bottom, we also add an extra can to each other row and make the pyramid one row taller. This gave us an idea. We eventually figured out an equation that seemed to work and tried it out on several different cans. The equation gave us the same number as we got when counting so I guess we were right. Remember, all of this was while Christine was sleeping. When we developing the equation and were testing it on several different pyramids, she would get started on the math, multiplying and adding in her head at a pace that lost me. It was amazing. We did, however, get a little bogged down for a pyramid with 1000 cans on the bottom row.
Well, eventually my wife awoke and, as usual, didn't remember anything about the conversation. I had to recap the entire thing, but she may have remembered counting the cans. Apparently she has had this sort of thing happen a lot and she had always wanted to sit down and figure out an equation so she wouldn't have to count them, but usually upon awaking she got busy with something else and never did. She was pleased to discover that we had done it in her sleep. We wrote down our equation and did some simplifying.
Here it is:
For a pyramid with N cans on the bottom row, the total number of cans in the pyramid is (N^2 +N)/2.
Now none of you will ever have to count the number of cans in a pyramid again. Or, if you would like to build a pyramid of cans, you can easily calculate how many you will need. July 15 Elk huntingSo I bought an over-the-counter elk tag this year. I've never hunted elk before, unless you count as a spectator on Dad's hunt. I bought the general any bull tag and have been wondering where I should go to hunt one. And I found out this morning that I drew out for an antlerless elk tag, too. I got the South Slope/Vernal/Blue Mountain tag. Both hunts take place in October, although at separate times. Anyway, I have an opportunity to get two elk this year. Anybody want to come along? June 03 My Wife, the Hockey FanI've discovered something recently. My wife is crazy. I didn't know this before we got married; she seemed quite normal then. That was, of course, before I had seen her "enjoying" a hockey game. I knew she was a fan, just not a crazed fan.
You may already know that her favorite team is the Colorado Avalanche. You may also know that they were defeated in the Stanley Cup playoffs by the Detroit Redwings (who, apparently, are all agents of the devil himself). Now the Redwings are playing in the finals against the Pittsburg Penguins (who, apparently, are also agents of the devil, only slightly less sinister ones). I made the mistake last night of turning on the TV during the latest playoff game. The Redwings were leading the series 3-1, which meant the Penguins needed a win to stay alive. The score was 3-2 with the Redwings on top, creating a pefect recipe for disaster in my home.
My normally calm, quiet wife was suddenly transformed into a raving lunatic, sort of how I always imagined the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde thing worked. She starts yelling TV in an attempt to distract the Redwings, because we all know how effective that is. And we just can't have Detroit win the Stanley Cup. But neither can Pittsburg. At one point I heard her yell "Go Pittsburg! Why am I cheering for Pittsburg?!"
I guess it worked, though, because the Penguins scored to tie the game, forcing them into a sudden death overtime. More bad news.
The sudden death overtime meant that they would play until someone scored, be it two minutes or two hours. This increased intensity in the game also resulted in an increase in objects flying at the TV. At one point, a fight broke out, eliciting an evil laugh from my otherwise compassionate wife. I would have left the room but that would require crossing between my wife and the television, and I wasn't sure I wanted to risk it. And I couldn't change the channel because she had confiscated the remote. I was doomed. For three overtime periods. Finally Pittsburg scored, ending the game but extending the series. The next game is on Wednesday night. Does anyone have a couch I can sleep on that night? At least until the storm blows over?
May 30 Spring WildflowersThis spring has been fairly busy for me at work, partially because two or three projects we were hoping to do last fall didn't get funded until it was too late, and then we had heavy snow and couldn't get started on them as early in the spring as I would have hoped. So, I've spent a lot of time away from the office and out in the field. This has brought me into contact with lots of wilflowers. I've enjoyed looking at them and taking pictures of them so I thought I would share.
The Graham's penstemon is a rather rare flower. It grows only in the Uintah Basin on shale outcrops. Some have petitioned (unsuccessfully) to have it listed as endangered. There is only one place I have seen it growing.
The other penstemons are really common.
The Paintbrush has been brilliant this year. I love looking over a landscape of black sagebrush and seeing the bright red paintbrush.
Sego lilies are probably my favorite, and there are lots of them this year. Most are the white color, but I have seen lots of patches of the pinkish/purpley ones, too.
The cactus are quite fun, and I love the claret cups. I'm missing prickly pear though....
There are other flowers that are conspicuously absent from my collection, and I hope to get photos of them too. Globemallow, blue flax, Fritillaria, firecracker penstemon, and scarlet gilia are on my list. I've seen several of them too, but I didn't have the camera with me. April 08 Photo album updatesOK, I finally got all my film back and have posted some pictures from the wedding and honeymoon. I put them into several different albums so if you want to see them all you'll have to do some digging.
Just a note: I am really rather disgusted with the way the color turned out. For some reason, most of the Bryce Canyon ones turned out rather dull. The rocks were really orange. For some reason, my pictures show them being brown. If you compare the pictures taken with my camera to those taken with Christine's camera, you can really see the difference. For example, the picture on the left was with Christine's camera, the one on the right is with mine.
Again, the one on the left is Christine's the one on the right is mine.
Again:
If anyone can tell me why this happened, please enlighten me.
I am pleased, however with how the sky turned out in the Grosvenor Arch pictures (Grand Staircase). At least my polarizing filter worked for that. March 31 Busy WeekWell, Christine and I were married March 22. It was fantastic. Hopefully we will have some pictures soon, but since we didn't take any of our own we will have to borrow some from other people.
Thanks to everyone who came. We really appreciated having you there. We are still working on opening gifts and thank you notes will be on the way shortly, but I am really looking forward to using the new BBQ grill. Thanks guys. It will probably take us months to sort and put away everything.
We spent a week in Bryce Canyon for our honeymoon. That was great. We had perfect weather, and just enough snow on the ground to make for some good pictures. We also went to Kodachrome Basin and the Petrified forest state park. Christine should have some pictures ready to post before long, since she has a digital camera. I think there were some 400-500 pictures on that camera so we'll have to narrow it down to the good ones. I'm still using film so it will take a while to get those developed. I hope I end up with some good ones (I should out of about 20 rolls of film).
We were able to go to church in our new ward yesterday, too. I think it will be a good one. Any guesses on what callings we will get, and when?
It has been hard coming back to work after a week off, but I guess it's about time to get back to life.
March 07 You should be more careful...I thought some of you might be interested to see that Dad had his picture in the newspaper yesterday. Here it is.
The caption says: Rep. John Mathis of District 55, above center, plays with his necktie to help pass the time during the final day of the Utah legislative session.
Just goes to show that you need to be careful when around people with cameras.
February 28 We're homeowners!Just an update. Christine and I just closed on our house. The title company will be pushing the paperwork through and we should have keys and be able to move in tomorrow. So, for all intents and purposes we are homeowners. Or at least we will be after 30 years of payments....
We'll likely take some pictues and get them posted so you can all see our new home. February 01 Starvation Perch SearchWell, I got paid to go fishing again yesterday. At least I think I'll get paid for it. The aquatics section decided they needed another day of fishing and I got invited along.
As I understand it, people are able to catch yellow perch at Starvation reservoir all summer long, but as soon as the ice forms, the number of perch caught drops dramatically. I've heard some reports that nobody catches perch during the winter there. That simply isn't true because, when we showed up we were shown on a map where we have had reports of people catching them. Anyway, our goal was to try to get as many people on the ice at one time and see if we could find out where the perch are hanging out during the winter. I'm not sure how many people we ended up with but it wasn't as many as I had hoped. Perhaps a Saturday would have yielded more participants.
After we fished for several hours we nearly concluded the perch either migrate somewhere else, or they hibernate all winter. We were almost ready to call it a day when one of the guys started getting bites and I was able to pull one up. I managed to get two more over the next hour or so and then it stopped. There were several groups scattered throughout the lake, and I think I caught more than anyone else. There are not many times when I can say I caught the most fish.
When I got home, Christine and I made up a little batter and deep fried my catch. It was quite tasty, but the fish were small enough that we could have used a few more for a decent meal. I think the next time we want to do a "research" project like this we need to pick somewhere we might actually be able to catch a few.
Overall, it was not the best fishing trip of my life, but probably not the worst either. Especially because I get paid for it. I do have one request though. Next time I go out and do this kind of thing, would somone please remind me to put on sunscreen?
January 29 We found one.Well, apparently Christine and I made an offer on a house today. Hopefully all goes well. Here is a link to some photos:
It's not very large but we love it. Wish us luck. January 18 Names, etc.Last night was our branch's Family History Night. As usual, Christine and I were the only ones there. We got a lot done and had a lot of fun, again as usual. As we were looking up names and checking to see if work had been done, we got discussing the meaning of different names. Sort of in the form, "where in the world did they come up with that?" Or, "who in their right mind would name a child that?" Anyway, we got on the internet and found a website that gives the meaning of lots of names. For example, "Christine" is the feminine form of "Christian." This particular website didn't have "Tory" but it did have the feminine version "Tori" (quit laughing). It was short for Victoria and came from the Latin for victor. Not satisfied with that I found another website that did have "Tory." It said it was derived from the Scandinavian name "Thorir," which means "Thor's Warrior."
Anyway, the really neat thing about this particular website is that it has a random name generator. So, for those of you who are having children soon and haven't decided on a name (or those who need to change what they decided), check it out: http://www.behindthename.com/random/
For example, if Christine and I were having children (which we're not, yet) and we couldn't decide on a name, we could just generate a random one and end up with a girl named Finnguala Audie Mathis or a boy named Stephane Amram Mathis. Of course we could limit the names to English and end up with stuff like Kalisha Denise, or Valentine Macy (that is supposed to be masculine, by the way).
That website also has other fun stuff, like matching names for twins (like anagram names, or names that mean the same thing in different languages), names based on the day you are born, name themes, and all kinds of weird stuff.
Thanks to the internet it is now easier than ever to come up with a name that will make your descendants scratch their heads in wonder. |
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