Re: On nerds and dreamers

Oooh.  Carsten, you've been gracious, though you might not know it in
sharing a few German idioms.  However tenuous, here are my best
approximations:

> self-forcing (Überwindung?)
willpower

> as we say in German, a "Teufelskreis" (devil's circle).
"vicious cycle"

> 'enthusiasable' (begeisterbar?) about sports up to now.
There really isn't a single word that works in begeisterbar's place.
In fact, I can't think of a good way to express it without resorting
to passive voice :(.  "Be enthused about..."?

Speaking of idioms, or more to the point, slang, I have a graduate
student friend who runs a website where common English speakers post
/their/ definitions of words and idioms that fly in and out of common
use before the dictionaries can catch them.
http://urbandictionary.com

Kris Kowal.