Writing to cope

Yesterday I was working on a short fiction piece that is probably one of the weirdest things I've written (though it may not be weird enough), and I walked away from the computer very happy. Which means that I have to keep writing because when other stuff doesn't fall into place in life, writing sure does. Or at least the way I feel about it does.

I think my mistake has been to put all my eggs in one basket: whether it's a job or people or whatever. For some reason, I sometimes assume that things in the non-fiction world (ie, reality) will be enough, but then when I hit walls, instead of focusing on the obstacles, all I've got to do is write, and it's a nice option to real-life disappointments.

So the lesson I've learned is to keep pursuing creative projects because it makes life a lot more tolerable. Sort of like a backup plan: if there's no real-life adventure, then writing (or photos) can provide it.

Going to TO

As I said yesterday, I'm going to Toronto for the weekend, so I'll most likely not post anything for a few days.

Hating Toronto

I didn't know so many people in Canada hated Toronto. I like it, which is why I'm going there this weekend for a short vacation. Too bad I can't see this documentary there. That would be cool. But it was only shown for a couple of days (last weekend), and it sold out fast.

According to an interview with the filmmakers, if people don't hate it, they mock it. That's odd, but I guess they don't have much else to do up there ;)

Italian George?

I came across an Italian proverb:

Meglio sola che male accompagnata.

Better to be alone than in bad company.

But then I found a similar quote from George Washington:

Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

So which came first: the Washington quote or the Italian one? Or did they create those independently? Or maybe George Washington was Italian ;) Either way, it's good advice.

Weird writing

I'm attempting to write something for Jon Konrath's crazy/weird-themed zine, based on situations I've seen both fictionally and realistically. I posted a comment that's related to the theme I'm writing about at someone's journal, and thought there'd be no reponse. But then much later, they *did* respond, saying that I was "weird", so I figured, hey, since someone said such a thought showed weirdness, it's a kind of confirmation, so I might as well try to write something I've been thinking about for a while. It's yet another "what if" that has led me to other fiction writing (that has yet to see the light of day). I've written part of it and plan on finishing it soon because I want plenty of time for the potential rejection or editing request (hope it's the latter).

Sounds vague, and there's a lot I'd like to write about it, but I can't.

Vitamin C

I was talking to a fluent English-speaking German about Vitamin B (the German phrase that people use to describe good connections), and he suggested that English speakers say "Vitamin C" because C stands for "connections" (while of course the B in German represents Beziehungen). I have yet to hear English speakers use that phrase, however. But it's a good idea.

Pop

Sometimes I watch home design and clothing design shows (the kind that give people advice on what to wear) and I often hear the designers and commentators say "pop" as in, "This pillow makes the red in the couch POP." And the way they say it, it's as if they've never said the word before and want to experience the excitement of it. Why? Is it because it's a trendy design word, and those people want to be fashionable in words as well as things? Or is it because of the sound of it, which lends itself to its emphasis?

"The scarf makes the color of your eyes POP."
"The curtains make the blue in your carpet POP."
"My head is going to POP from saying POP so much."

Guessed wrong

I met someone today who didn't sound like they were from Chicago or even the midwest, so I assumed they were from Philadelphia or at least Pennsylvania, since the way they were pronouncing their r's and other consonants was different. Plus, their words didn't sound as "relaxed" as other parts of the country.

Well, I was wrong. They were from New Jersey, and I was disappointed I hadn't guessed their accent, especially because I know people from New Jersey and have heard the accent often. Then I realized that perhaps because they were originally from New Jersey but had been living in Chicago for a while, that perhaps their accent had become softened and not remained as "severe."

I used to be pretty good at guessing accents, and still think I'm okay at it, but maybe because I don't meet as many people as I used to, it's affected my accent-detecting skill level. Oh well.

Vitamin B

I've resumed corresponding with Nev recently (a German-speaking Brit I've mentioned before) and was telling him about situations where people are given certain jobs just because they know someone (ie, they're incompetent but are given the job anyway), and he said that having contacts is called Vitamin B in German:

Vitamin B (VEET-ah-meen BAY) is good connections (gute Beziehungen) to influential people, an expression that came out of World War II and food rationing. Vitamin B2 (BAY-tsvye) is even better connections.

I also found some interesting historical information about it as well:

East Germany had a command economy, in which virtually all decisions were made by the governing communist party, the Socialist Unity Party (SED). The system of planning was inflexible and eventually caused ruinous economic conditions. Power, influence, and personal connections (Beziehungen, or “vitamin B”) drove economic decisions, and all groups, including trade unions, were expected to collaborate to achieve the SED's economic objectives.

I need more Vitamin B, for sure.

Speech accent archive

Here's something so extensive, only a strongly supported academic could put it together: The Speech Accent Archive:

The speech accent archive uniformly presents a large set of speech samples from a variety of language backgrounds. Native and non-native speakers of English read the same paragraph and are carefully transcribed...This website allows users to compare the demographic and linguistic backgrounds of the speakers in order to determine which variables are key predictors of each accent. The speech accent archive demonstrates that accents are systematic rather than merely mistaken speech.

There are many accents in there from well-known and more obscure language backgrounds. You can spend a lot of time there listening to all those variations.

I miss German

I've been studying Japanese consistently, but at one point I studied German too, and I haven't studied it in a while. My work schedule does not allow me to take a German class, and I don't want to study it privately because I want to be in a class with other students. I did study it privately for several months or a year (I forgot how long), and if so much of my work time wasn't solitary, then maybe I'd consider taking private lessons again.

The bottom line is that I miss studying it. Sure, I can look at my textbooks and read German stuff online, but it's not the same as doing homework, going to class, and having an overall structure, which is easier than trying to find the discipline to study on my own. There are already other things that require discipline to do on my own, such as writing fiction and finishing the query letters that have to be sent out for the inevitable rejections I will receive.

Maybe my work schedule will normalize enough to squeeze in a German class, but for now, I just have to deal with missing it and try to be disciplined enough to look through texts from past classes and other German sources.

Double English

I finally saw Das Boot. It's a great film, though not really my type of movie because I'm not interested in war movies or thrillers or plots that are overwhelming suspenseful with disturbing scenes--there's enough stress in life without the need to get lost in a movie that is relentless. It clearly shows how awful war is and how humans can suffer and inflict suffering and express degradation and debauchery in difficult situations.

I was fortunate to see the director's cut which I guess has lots more scenes in it than the original. I recommend that version, though I have nothing to compare it to, but the director said that this version allowed him to show what he wanted without the constraints of time and content that international distribution required back in the early 80's. It was a big-time hit back then, and I was actually old enough to be able to tolerate it when it came out, though I doubt I would've appreciated the subtleties and artistically presented scenes.

One cool feature of the director's cut is that you can play it in dubbed English (the original is in German, of course), and you can watch it with subtitles in French, Spanish, or English. But what's really a weird experience is watching it in dubbed English with English subtitles--they don't match up! The idioms are different and so are the phrases. So if you're really into the variations of English, you can be exposed to both at the same time.

I am looking forward to seeing the extra features: The Making of/Behind the Scenes and Director's Commentary, which I'll probably watch later this week.

What's weird is that it wasn't made in Germany, but WEST Germany, ie, when there was Free Germany and Commie Germany. Which reminds me of the awesome German movie I recently saw about East Germany.

Funny conspiracy

A while ago, I saw the Voyager Conspiracy, and took it quite seriously as I followed Seven of Nine's explanations of her theories of sabotage aboard the ship. Then I found out that it was all a result of information overload and her resulting paranoia.

Well the episode is on right now, and I'm just cracking up because I know what the outcome is, and I see Janeway and Chakotay distrusting each other, while Seven is even accusing a girl of taking sides in supposed looming destruction. Too much information in her cortical implant. Which reminds me of conspiracy folks I've met who even doubt the validity of the landing on the moon.

Danish language

I saw this funny video at Languagehat (aka, The Great One). I wonder if the subtitles are really Danish, and what Danish folks think about it. I should ask Lily :)

Japanese comfort

When I hear people speaking Japanese, I like to practice my listening skills by eavesdropping on them. Sorry, but I'm going to be rude about it and not respect people's privacy because I've put way too many hours into studying Japanese to not do it.

Last week I was in a cafe, watching the rain and taking a break from writing, when two Japanese people sat down at a table near mine and started talking about different stuff. Even though I had work to do (well, "work" that may never see the light of day because it's a pipe dream), I managed to catch the gist of what they were saying.

If I eavesdrop on Spanish conversations or another language I've studied, I have to concentrate more to figure out what they're saying, even to understand where the words separate into comprehensible units. But with Japanese, I can relax. Sure, I don't know all the words, but because I lived there and have continued to study it, I feel comfortable, so my mind can settle on the sounds of the language. Even if I'm watching a movie where Japanese is spoken and I don't totally understand what they're saying, I still feel "at home" with it. I still have a long way to go until I'm awesome in that language, but at least it doesn't scare me.

Text to speech

Arrogant Polyglot found a nifty text-to-speech application for the following languages:

Catalan
Chinese
Dutch
English
French
German
Greek
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Portuguese
Spanish
Swedish

And each language has different voices to choose from. It's an incredibly cool application that is also practical: someone today asked me what the pronunciation of Aegean was, and I used the application to verify it. It's also fun to try out the different voices and English words in different accents if you choose a non-English language to voice them.

Japan in DC

Someone sent me this really cool picture of cherry blossoms in Washington DC from the cherry blossom festival. I lived in Japan, so I often saw cherry blossoms every spring, but I've never seen them in the US. The cherry blossom trees were a gift from Tokyo in 1912, and more were added throughout the years.

Eccentric endangerment

Rose (whose blog I unfortunately discovered too late because she's not blogging as much anymore) had a post with a quote from John Stuart Mill:

Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.

Well, I don't think a lack of eccentricity is a "chief danger," but then again, he wrote that before a lot of horrible stuff happened even as societies became more "civilized" and industrialized and modern. But I do see how a lack of individuality creates group think and apathy.

Crazy schedule

I was going to do a more lengthy post tonight, but I just got home, and I have to wake up in a few hours. So I'm going to do a post tomorrow. I'm just letting folks know because I usually post more often, but I've had a very long day which started when I woke up at 4 AM. So I have to manage to get at least a few hours sleep instead of thinking a lot for a decent post.

Integrity

Here's another word that I often want to use but always forget: integrity. When I see someone or a group that I respect, I want to say, "They have integrity" but I forget what the word is. So I use other adjectives that don't come close to describing what I'm looking for. And it's very frustrating, which is why I'm posting it here--as a reminder.

The last often-forgotten word I posted was tedious, and since then, I haven't forgotten it, even when I've had to do tedious work. So now I think, "Wow, this work is tedious" rather than saying "This work is...I forgot what word I'm looking for, but it's like nitpicky and boring, but there's a better word for it."

Well, tonight was a situation that I want to end: I was thinking of Rush, and how they work hard to create quality music and don't have typical "rock and roll" or trashy lifestyles, and wanted to say that they have integrity, but I drew a blank. So I said, "They have, you know--it starts with an 'a'," then thought that maybe the word I'm looking for is "ethical," but that can't be right because ethics are about honest values, and I don't know if they have that. So then someone reminded me that the word is "integrity."

However, the definition mentions "moral" in one of the meanings: "firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values" though I don't think of "moral" when I think of all folks who have integrity. But it's good to see "artistic values" mentioned, because that's what I often think of.

So now that the word is posted here, I won't have to search for it again.

Where else I am

Okay, I said I probably wouldn't say where else I'm blogging, but if you want to know what other kinds of thoughts I have that aren't related to language or Star Trek or whatever else I post here, check out the first blog on my blogroll.

Milking the British accent

Toby Young, one of the few famous people I'd like to meet, has an interesting article that refutes the popular belief that Brits "have succeeded in bilking the American entertainment industry out of hundreds of millions of dollars simply by speaking in 'veddy Briddish' accents." He quotes Stephen Fry (some Brit who's probably well-known but whose name I don't recognize) as saying, "I sometimes wonder if Americans aren't fooled by our accent into detecting a brilliance that may not really be there."

Sorry, but Americans aren't so duped, and luckily, Toby agrees:

In my experience, this particular cliche is long past its sell-by date. Planeloads of freeloading British hacks - not to mention the three million British tourists who visit the country every year - have poisoned that well. On first hearing an English accent 50 years ago, Americans might have thought: stately home, private school, good manners. Nowadays, they think: low income, poor diet, alcohol problem.

So according to Toby Young, Brits perhaps can't milk their accent anymore. They actually have to prove themselves.

Hookish enough?

Ok, I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who've whined about the writing process, and I'm not going to pretend I haven't. And this is my latest concern: I wonder if my story has enough of a hook. That's the important word, I guess, in the fiction biz: hook. I think what I wrote is something that women are going to be able to relate to, but it's not earth-shattering. So if there's no fancy hook, is a potential book doomed? Perhaps what I wrote is not hookish enough for the PIC (Publishing Industrial Complex). But I won't know until I polish my query letter and send it out. Then after 50 or so rejections, I will know, and will have to go back to the drawing (writing) board.

Tell-all origin

I watched "Mommie Dearest" today. I had never seen the movie, though I read the book back in the late 80's, and it was quite tragic. What's sad is that people didn't believe that Joan Crawford could be so abusive, and they essentially implied that her severely abused adopted daughter was lying. She and her brother were victims--he obviously never got over it (he was abused more severely than she was) and after he led a screwed-up life, he died in his early 60's a psychologically and economically broken man.

What I discovered is not just that "Although 'tell-all' books regarding celebrities are somewhat commonplace now, Mommie Dearest was the first book of its kind" but that the term "tell-all" originated when the book was published.

I read the transcript of a Larry King interview with Christina Crawford, the author of the book and other books about abuse, and saw this:

KING: Did you ever feel there is a part of me here that is doing the tell-all?

C. CRAWFORD: That -- that phrase was coined after the book, so that was never my intention. The one thing that surprised me...

KING: You mean, tell-all resulted from your book.

C. CRAWFORD: Yes.

KING: The term "tell-all?"

C. CRAWFORD: Yes, yes. The one thing that surprised me was that so many people who knew did not understand that I was speaking as the victim and the survivor.

The King interview is really good--I recommend reading it if you want some more info about her and her upbringing. I'm tempted to read the revised edition of the book (with 100 extra pages), which was published on the 20th anniversary of the original release.

Good artist's statement

I know an artist who is having an upcoming show, and he shared his artist's statement with me today (I can't directly link to it because of how the site is set up--you have to go click on the "Statement" link at his site). What he wrote is quite good, especially this part:

The world I live in today is filled with the most amazing shapes and colors. For every dark there is a light, for every push there is a pull, for every contour there is a moment of silence. My goal is to recognize each of them with the respect that they deserve.

Sometimes I read artists' statements that sound fake and grandiose, where the artist is trying to sound important, serious, deep, etc., but he really means what he said. Actually, I know other artists who write what they mean, so it's not like I see phoniness everywhere, but then again, I tend to know artists who aren't full of themselves or who aren't posers. And not all artists are like that. But whatever--the statement (and the art) is worth a look.

Language chick

My husband came upon a cute language site, Jennifer's Language Page, which lists greetings and phrases in hundreds of languages. There's no bio information there (unless I didn't look carefully enough), so I'm assuming she's just really into languages. She has a very long list of contributors, so maybe she set it up and people kept sending her more and more translations.

Many translations have come from people who have seen these pages and sent me comments, suggestions, additions, and corrections by e-mail from all over the world, as well as people I know who I have asked for translations. These people have provided a lot of the translations on these pages and also have verified (or corrected) translations I have found from other sources. Other translations have come from my own research in libraries and online, from dictionaries, phrase books, travel books and Internet language resources.

Her language resource list seems quite comprehensive. She also offers her email address, in case you want to contribute.

INCREDIBLE German movie!

I just saw one of the best movies ever (not just an excellent German film): The Lives of Others (or Das Leben der Anderen in German).

It deservedly won an Oscar--it wasn't just awesome because of the interesting story, which takes place in East Germany before The Wall went down, but it works on so many levels. I could easily see it again. I don't usually get so excited about movies, but this one was entertaining, evoked a range of emotions, and had symbolism and layers of meaning.

I highly recommend this film! Even with the subtitles, you can see how great the actors are and appreciate both the complexities and subtleties of the story. It was so thought-provoking and stimulating that I'm sure it will be on my mind for a while.

Etc etc

Sometimes I see a sign with a list of things the place has to offer, and instead of saying "etcetera" or "etc." once, they say "etc etc" - in other words, they say "etc" twice.

That is redundant. Etc means essentially "and more", so if they're repeating the word, they're adding to the concept of more. More is more, you don't have to repeat it.

I think when people double up "etc" on a public sign, they're doing it out of naivety. Some people will purposely repeat the word to emphasize the abundance of something, so I'm not talking about them. They are knowingly "misusing" the word to illustrate a point. But I think when people think they "should" use two etc's, they really don't understand the meaning of that word.

I'm not prissy

I've been looking at examples of successful query letters, and they seem prissy. That's not me. I came upon an agent (who's not accepting any unsolicited queries, so I can't contact her anyway) and she posted an example of a "great" query at her site (which I don't want to link to because I don't want to slam anyone by name).

I read it over, and thought that it was wordy and prissy and silly and self-consciously "cute". But according to the agent, it's a winner, and the book ended up not only getting published, but sold as part of a series. Actually, I read the book, and the writing style was a lot tighter and more straightforward than the query. So based on that example and others I've seen, do we have to write prissy queries in order to get our straightforward books accepted?

And then there's the inevitable editing that happens: the prissy query I read didn't have the same plot as the finished book. Which means that the agent had the author rewrite it before submission to publishers. Which goes back to my usual complaint: why do we have to kill ourselves to write a "perfect" manuscript if it's going to get rewritten anyway?

I just want to write a straightforward query, not some fussy, girly words that are supposed to make the agent giggle in glee.

How a word looks

I saw a sign today as I was driving along, and it had a word whose meaning seemed to reflect how it looks and sounds. Or do I just think that way because I know the meaning of the word?

When I see the word "strict," for example, the s-t-r combination makes it sound like a serious word, like someone means business. But it could be that I know what kind of effort it takes to make that sound, which implies seriousness.

I wonder if speakers of other languages notice this about their own languages, at least those folks who don't use scripts such as Chinese characters or kanji.

Tedious

This is a word I should know, but for some reason, it often escapes me. Someone mentioned their work being "tedious," and it occurred to me that I often forget to use it. So if I'm doing work that requires concentration, is detail-oriented, and not very exciting (ie, it numbs the brain), then I should use that word. But for some reason, I'll say that such work is "nitpicky" when what I mean is tedious, implying that it's very detail-oriented and tiny in its goals.

However, when I saw the definition as "so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness," I realized that it's not exactly what I've meant to say, though if I'm doing such work it does become quite boring, as in the example they provide: "the deadening effect of some routine tasks." So actually, since I've seen that definition, I've realized that yes, the work I sometimes do is truly tedious because by the end of it I want to scream and run around and get away from it to loosen my brain.

I've certainly not thought of their other example, "a boring evening with uninteresting people," as tedious but rather as a simply uninteresting time. I think if I were to get to the point of a social function being "tedious," then I better check my ego to make sure it's not outgrowing the room.

Another place

Since my exodus from MySpace, I've been thinking of starting an online journal that will cover observations and thoughts that don't fit into the scope of Metrolingua.

Actually, the idea started to form when I went "fishing" in the online "sea" for a phrase, and found a journal that I've since been reading. Typing a phrase in Google is also how I found Jon Konrath's journal, which is my fave.

I think when I establish the other place, I might not mention it here, just write stuff and let people discover it. I have a journal on my computer, but for some reason, I want to start a public one, probably because I like writing and don't always want to do it without an "audience."

So if you find something that sounds like me, it just might be :)

Online Canadian phrasebook

Via Languagehat (aka The Great One), I found out about A Canadian Phrasebook which is in progress, so if you have any additions, feel free to contact them.

The Phrasebook started life more than ten years ago as a goofy comparison of regional terms in four Canadian places...Before long, readers from all over the country—and beyond—were sending in their ways of saying things, and the letters have never stopped coming. Like Canadian English, the Phrasebook clearly has a life of its own. We’re working on a more interactive version of it for www.geist.com. Send all Canadaspeak from anywhere—we love it!

Canadaspeak--neat word :)

More Spanish

I think I'll be talking about Spanish more often here because I'm sort of in that world, since I teach Spanish speaking people and work with them as well. Today I had to interact with a lot of Spanish speakers, and I just could not get over their openness to me speaking (butchering) their language. I studied Spanish but never got the chance to speak it, so my knowledge of it is passive--I can understand it okay. A while ago, I spoke Portuguese enough to be able to survive a couple trips to Brazil, but my Portuguese at this point is quite lame. So I don't have that to fall back on when I speak Spanish.

Well today, people walked up to the table where I was and started speaking in rapid, natural Spanish. They had no idea that I didn't really speak it, they just assumed I did--and not because of how I look--I don't look Latin American. So I pulled out the miniscule Spanish I knew out of the far corners of my mind and tried to speak with them, and they were just so cool about it.

But most of the time I was thinking, "I shouldn't try to go all the way with it--I should just throw out some words and mix it with English, because I'm American, not Latin American." But then I realized that I had adapted such an attitude from my Japanese speaking experience (which I've talked about before) because no matter how comfortable I am with Japanese, they won't assume I'm in their world at all. But the Spanish speakers were very welcoming, which not only made me feel good, but made me try harder to understand what was going on.

Why I left MySpace

Last summer, I decided to join MySpace because my friend kept telling me how great it was. When he first told me about it, I didn't join right away because I wasn't sure I wanted to participate in such a sleazy, tacky place with no purpose (such as promoting a book or whatever). It's worked for him since he does photography, and his network has grown. It really took me a while to join--he was getting annoyed with my indecision, and he thought I was being uptight because I was worrying about what impact it would have on me, etc. But I joined, and ended up feeling yucky, so I yanked it the other day.

I am not being critical of people on MySpace or the concept of it--I know some decent people over there, and it's really worked for them. But overall, it seems like a big, shallow, drive-by party where a lot of people are there to be seen and not much else.

There are a lot of things I can say about it, but one thing I noticed is when people I know offline (or in other contexts) would transform into the shallow people they really weren't. Like the friends list: people chose folks they hardly knew as their "top friends", but then they wouldn't choose their supposedly "real" friends because they didn't appear cool or hot enough. Another thing I noticed is that I would meet someone offline (or in other contexts), then post a comment, and wouldn't get a response. That doesn't happen in the blog world--usually, I've noticed that if you get along with someone and post a comment on their blog, they'll eventually respond at their site or even through email. MySpace doesn't seem to foster such sincerity.

One way is how the site counts your "friends" and reminds everyone how many "friends" you have. So it becomes a game and popularity contest to see how many "friends" you can collect. Another is how it's a quick hit-and-run experience--people leave short comments and slutty or dumb pictures, send mostly useless or innane bulletins, and post blogs that no one reads--because people aren't into reading there, just mostly seeing, as if they're trying to create a music video or reality TV show, since they don't know anything worthwhile to emulate, nor can create anything independent of the sleazy culture they've been exposed to and want to aspire to.

Every time I logged on, I would be greeted with pictures of half-dressed people who were part of ad campaigns for singles sites, or a list of new members who were always in ignorantly exaggerated poses as if they were trying out for an MTV spot. The stuff I don't like about the popular culture that appeals to the lowest common denominator is all there.

Sure, people use it to keep in touch with their friends and family, and others have succesfully used it for their professional and creative endeavors, but at this point, I don't have such needs. And I don't want to be on that "popularity" ride, receive friend requests from mercenary people, see tacky layouts that take forever to load, or be exposed to the aesthetically unappealing MySpace site design that is technically faulty and has no purpose other than to get more consumers.

If you're there with no purpose, it does, indeed, seem to be the ghetto of the Internet. But if I ever need to be there to promote anything, I'm going back. Until then, I'm going to stick to blogs, and other aesthetically pleasing and relatively quality sites.

Bitter gall

I was reading Proverbs 5 and saw the phrase "bitter as gall," which made me wonder what the heck "gall" was. It seems that it's bile, but initial definitions, at least in my copy of Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, describe "gall" as "something bitter or severe" or "bitterness of spirit." Which is odd, since the proverb compares bitterness with gall. So what's originally written as a noun becomes an adjective, using the comparison to become the definition itself.

60k

I just found out that I've had over 60,000 unique visitors to this site, from over 100 countries, including:

United States, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, China, Ireland, Poland, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, France, Iceland, Australia, Brazil, Thailand, Taiwan, Belgium, Sweden, Russian Federation, India, Israel, Romania, Malaysia, Austria, Singapore, Czech Republic, Ivory Coast (Cote D'Ivoire), Philippines, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Hungary, Denmark, Mexico, Finland, Argentina, Turkey, Indonesia, Norway, Portugal, Colombia, Egypt, Pakistan, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Peru, Ghana, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Lithuania, South Africa, Senegal, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Ukraine, Chile, Ecuador, Croatia, European Union, Luxembourg, Greece, Ethiopia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Jordan, Guam (USA), Slovak Republic, Morocco, Yugoslavia, Latvia, Tunisia, Moldova, Panama, Qatar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Nigeria, Belarus, Cyprus, El Salvador, Palestinian Territories, Macedonia, Sri Lanka, Monaco, Bangladesh, Algeria, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Benin, Albania, Trinidad and Tobago, Armenia, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Myanmar, Saint Kitts & Nevis Anguilla, Mongolia, Macau, Kazakhstan, Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia, Syria, Polynesia (French), Bolivia, Gabon, Antigua and Barbuda, Virgin Islands (USA), Libya, Bermuda, Netherlands Antilles, Madagascar, Lebanon, Andorra, Malta.

What's cool is that I haven't asked people to promote my blog, have no online advocates (though a few bloggers list it), have done no articles that link to it, and have done nothing to market it. It also has a relatively narrow focus (ie, no politics or social commentary or controversial content, etc). A while ago, I read "build it and they will come," which is true. My blog isn't a blockbuster, but it's apparently decent enough to get visitors. So thanks! I will mention this when I contact agents :)

"Election"

I put that word in quotes because here in Chicago, there was an election and I voted, but as usual, the results were predictable: Da Mayor won. No surprise there. It's his sixth term, and if he lives through it (unlike his dad, who also was elected for a sixth term), then he'll be the longest-serving mayor here.

He's corrupt, but he's done a good job overall. But really, what can we do? The competition can't match his experience or power, so I really see Da Mayor more as a king than an elected official. There were also aldermanic races, and I was going to say that my ward is another predictable election, but surprisingly, the incumbent alderman might actually lose! Which means that I have to follow the election results, which I never do on the city level.

Chicago is a one-party town, which makes voting odd: you're either voting for one Democrat or another. Luckily, not everyone thinks the same way, but it's sort of strange to live in a free country yet have a huge city with only one party. And what's also bizarre for a "free" system is that the aldermen in the city council usually go along with what Da Mayor wants. So they're the knights in the ruler's kingdom.

Snow in Denmark

I haven't been too happy about the below-zero weather here in Chicago, but Denmark (according to Lilly) seems to have worse snow than I've seen here. I like the change of seasons, but dang--they have too much to deal with.

Excellent Japanese movie

I just saw an excellent Japanese movie--actually, it's an excellent movie, no matter where it was made: Always - Sunset on Third Street. The acting is great, the story is interesting with humorous and sweet moments--it's just a lot better than some other films that everyone goes crazy over. It won a bunch of Japanese Academy Awards and could easily win awards in the U.S. too, but people are too busy salivating over such drivel as the Pursuit of Happyness, which I seem to be the only one it didn't win over.

Also check out the official Japanese site too.

Online picture dictionary

This is incredibly neato: an internet picture dictionary in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

Each dictionary has flashcards, fill-in-the blanks, word scramble, spelling, and straight recall based on the pictures. And there are various helpful links there, too.

Keep the Canadian accent!

I saw this letter in a media column:

Just when I thought it was safe to watch TV news again without having to cringe at Canadian accents and mispronunciations, Channel 7 hires Ravi Baichwal. I'm sure he is a nice guy, and I'm willing to give him three months. If he hasn't dropped the Canadian accent by then, I say we call it a day.

I disagree--I like Canadian accents!

Need to write

Since I finished the novel, I've started working on another one (amazingly!) while looking for agents. I didn't write all weekend because I took the time off, but I shouldn't have because I'm at the point where I can not NOT write. This is a big deal because a lot of unpublished writers give up, or they want an incentive to write, but my incentive is that I enjoy it. Sure, I'd love to publish what I've written, but it's not the sole reason anymore.

I know people who tell me that they want to write a novel, and I give them a trite response: "then write it." But they think there's some magical feeling they should have. It takes discipline and commitment and a belief in the worthiness of the process. But people don't want to sit down and do it. Or they're scared because it's difficult (which it is) and it's hard work and requires people to let go and become something/someone that they might not usually be.

Great lyrics

I heard "Guess Things Happen That Way" by Johnny Cash, and was struck by these lyrics that seem sad but hopeful:

Well you ask me if I'll forget my baby.
I guess I will, someday.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.
You ask me if I'll get along.
I guess I will, someway.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.

God gave me that girl to lean on,
then he put me on my own.
Heaven help me be a man
and have the strength to stand alone.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.

You ask me if I'll miss her kisses.
I guess I will, everyday.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.
You ask me if I'll find another.
I don't know. I can't say.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.

God gave me that girl to lean on,
then he put me on my own.
Heaven help me be a man
and have the strength to stand alone.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.

Garrett Wang seems cool

I highly recommend listening to the interview with Garrett Wang. It's a podcast, and the interview isn't at the beginning of it--it starts around a quarter of the way in.

It's interesting to hear about his background, and his impressions of Hollywood and Voyager (which includes harsh opinions about producer Rick Berman and tidbits about Kate Mulgrew's negative reaction to the addition of Jeri Ryan).

The interview is long--a rarity in the media, which is why podcasts are sometimes better than other audio/video, and it allows you to really see what Garrett Wang is like: he seems interesting and fun!

I've posted a picture of what he looks like now, with another Trek actor I'd like to meet: Tim Russ.

If anyone wants to grant me a wish, it's that--and I think they'd think I was interesting, too :)

Temperature converter

It has been very cold here, and since this blog's readership is international, I wanted to use both Fahrenheit and Celsius to describe the temperature: it's been around 5-10 degrees Fahrenheit, which is -15 to
-12 degrees Celsius.

How do I know what the temp is in both forms? From the Fahrenheit to Celsius Converter. You can convert either way--just enter the temperature you know in its respective box, and it'll do the rest. Very nifty and handy!

They should've asked me...

Someone gave me this weird translation of a Japanese sign--there are so many native English speakers there who could've translated it correctly, but they went with this odd meaning...or they could've asked me to do it :)

Done!

Ok--I reached my goal of finishing the novel today. I was supposed to meet Johnny B for lunch, but it was snowing so much, it would have been a very long trip up to the burbs, so we rescheduled for next week. But my goal was to finish the book by the time I met up with him today, and I still stuck to my goal. Which is a victory.

And now all I have to do is proofread it. I'm so used to it hanging over my head, it's strange to not have to write the story anymore. The story has been told! I just can't believe it--I started a while ago, did different drafts, trashed a lot of stuff, got into radio and put the novel aside for a while, and now it's done!

Besides proofreading it, I have to get a list of agents to contact and write a convincing query letter. There's a lot more work to be done and rejections to be received. But I'm still motivated, and am happy that I stuck to my goals and was disciplined and focused enough to write it. I see the fact that I worked on it despite the absence of any editor or agent waiting for it as an incredible feat--lots of people give up when there's no such external motivation.

One side note: the upside of work not being too busy or satisfying is the ability to think about and pursue writing--and my attitude towards it has changed. Because I took the time to write, it helped me appreciate the process. I have a lot more to say, but will save it for another time. I'm both elated and feel sort of odd that I've finally crossed the finish line.

Basho was lonely

I read that Basho, the Japanese poet, was quite lonely: "The more famous and wealthy Basho became, the more dissatisfied he was. He was lonely and depressed..."

And his writing reflected this as well:

I feel lonely as I gaze at the moon, I feel lonely as I think about myself, and I feel lonely as I ponder upon this wretched life of mine. I want to cry out that I am lonely, but no one asks me how I feel.

You'd think that even though he had hardships, all the students and fame and acquaintences would help his loneliness, but that wasn't the case. And he became successful from his writing, but it didn't seem to help. What was his deal?

Destinos

A while ago, I had to take science and other classes for a teaching certificate I was going for (which I ended up never using, but that's another story). I ended up taking language classes to help balance out the dreaded education classes I had to endure, and one of them was Spanish through the television: a telecourse called Destinos.

Destinos teaches speaking, listening, and comprehension skills in Spanish. This telenovela, or Spanish soap opera, immerses students in everyday situations with native speakers and introduces the cultures, accents, and dialects of Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and Puerto Rico. Understanding of Spanish and appreciation of many Hispanic cultures increase as students become absorbed in the mysterious and entertaining story.

An excellent series. I didn't know Spanish when I started out, so I didn't understand everything, but by the end of the first section, I was paying attention to the story, not thinking about the structures (ie, not analyzing the language itself). So I got engrossed in the story as I was learning--which is the point.

Of course, I didn't learn how to speak because it was about listening and learning grammar and vocabulary, but at the beginning of foreign language acquisition, we're passive anyway. So it suited me fine. Even when it comes on the TV now, I still watch it--it has good memories for me.

Manglish

Linguistics & Language had a guest blogger who talked about the blend of Malay and English called "Manglish". Here are some examples:

“Why you so likedat wan?” - Why are you like that?

“I dunwan to talk you anymore.” - I am not going to talk to you anymore.

“You say correct anot?” - Do you agree with me?

“Die-die I oso want.” - No matter what, I also want (something).

But most significant is our ‘lah‘. We use lah to emphasise our point.

Come lah!
Let’s go lah!
Eat lah!

She uses also uses Manglish at her blog.

There are a lot of such blendings throughout the world, including Spanglish here in Chicago, and Japlish, which my friends and I dabbled in when we were in Japan--the mixture is hard to avoid the longer you're exposed to more than one language.

Misogynist Weekly

Nunavuter (who reads this blog) created these lovely magazine covers. The "article" names include "10 Tips to Shut Her Up During Football" and "Finding the British War Bride for You." It is, after all, "the magazine for men who love hating women."



It's satire, in case you're wondering...

Franglais

I saw this at Arrogant Polyglot

Not lay

What's wrong with the quote below?

Firefighter: I saw him laying facedown
Firefighter saves 8-year-old -- the 2nd rescue of his career

When Chicago firefighter John O'Brien got to him, 8-year-old Max Crawford was in a heap on the floor at the end of his bed, his little nose black with soot. He was barely breathing.

"I [saw] him laying facedown on the carpet," said O'Brien, who crawled through thick smoke in an early Friday morning fire on the West Side to find Max, who was wearing his PJs.

It's the verb: lay. I often hear people say, "I need to lay down." I want to ask, "Lay down what?" because "lay" is supposed to take an object. The correct word is "lie", as in, "I'm so tired, I need to lie down." So the firefighter should have said, "I saw him lying facedown." But he was too busy being a hero, saving someone's life to worry about grammar :)

(seen in a Sun-Times article)

The end is near

I am almost done with the novel I've been working on. The first draft took just a few months, which I was happy about because I've discovered that it's best to write something quickly instead of agonizing over stuff that will inevitably be revised again and again. I felt like I was being disciplined and responsible by getting that first draft out. But the problem was that I felt like it was fake, that it wasn't from the heart, so I put it aside and pursued other creative stuff. Then I observed some interactions between people and found out about some other people's experiences, and ended up wondering "what if...", which I incorporated into the story. So I got rid of the first draft and totally started over. It took a lot longer to do the second draft because I was involved in exciting work that sort of subdued my desire to write. But the desire came back strong, so I started working on the book again.

Now I really don't have a lot more to do--I see the end of the tunnel, which is driving me even more to finish it. I even have put off other stuff to do it, which isn't so responsible, but is still a breakthrough because this book might never get published, and that's not stopping me.

I actually don't feel the despair we unpublished writers usually feel but excitement that I've written something I'm pretty happy with that is going to be completed. Hopefully I'll remember that when I get the rejections.

Funny menu

Someone sent me a link to a hilarious menu that was weirdly translated from Chinese. There's a lot more than what I'm posting here, so check it out. It will crack you up, even if you like more raunchy humor.

Great day

This is for the record: I had a day yesterday that ended up great. I had to work in two locations that were very far apart both in terms of distance and culture: the far southwest side of the city, surrounded by factories and functional stores, and the northwest suburbs, where tidy lawns and huge malls reside. Then I went to a friend's place on the north side of the city for an enjoyable dinner and wine with interesting music playing in the background, then a smooth martini lounge nearby. The conversation was great and I was able to truly relax after a very long work day. I was going to do a post here last night, but I ended up chatting very late with an online bud, and amazingly, I'm back this morning at the computer writing. So at least yesterday's activities didn't set me back.

Canadian idiot

Not kiyoto

Here's something I've noticed but have never mentioned here: how English speakers say "Kiyoto" [kee-yoto] instead of "Kyoto." Even the Japanese characters 京都 do not allow for the "ki" sound because the first one is "kyo" (or more precisely, "kyou" because the vowel sound is long).

I think it's because the "kyo" sound isn't common in English, or really exists in English words (I don't think--I haven't done a word study on it), so to say "Kyoto" is strange for English speakers. "Kiyoto" allows for alternating the consonant and vowel sounds and is more comfortable, it seems.

Proves my point

Yesterday I talked about the lack of enthusiasm I encounter when I speak Japanese to Japanese people whose English isn't great. Well, I experienced an example of that today.

I was at a Japanese store, and asked a guy, in English, where the fruit was. He was speaking Japanese with a female coworker, and I haven't seen him speak English with people before, so I didn't know if his English was good. But I used it anyway. He looked at me blankly, and so did his coworker, so I asked them in Japanese. The woman said in muddy English, "You speak Japanese" with a nervous smile, and spoke no Japanese with me, but pointed in the direction of the fruit, then told me in broken English that it was elsewhere as well.

If I had walked into a store in a Mexican neighborhood, they would've spoken Spanish once they discovered I could speak it. And a similar thing would happen in Chinatown, I'm sure. It wasn't as if I had asked the Japanese workers incorrectly where the fruit was, they just didn't want to continue in the language because, I think, I'm not Japanese, so broken English is better than me entering their language world.

So it's both ironic and convenient that such an incidence occurred the day after I had a post about it, lest anyone think I was making such an observation up.

Shakuhachi and Japanese

The shakuhachi (sound samples here) is my favorite instrument--especially in modern contexts, such as in more experimental jazz or contemporary world music, which I would characterize as a blend of various instruments throughout the world playing together. I like when instruments are taken from various cultures to create new music that goes beyond their national sources, without losing traces of their own ethnicities.

Tonight I saw a concert that included contemporary Western "classical" (put in quotes because since it's contemporary, it may not be "classical") chamber music and music from Persia and Asia. The latter music was incredible and dynamic, though I did like the Western music as well. But the Persian and Asian blend was very interesting and refreshing to hear in a venue that usually offers Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, etc.

After the concert, I got a chance to greet the shakuhachi player, who is Japanese and Danish. I told him I lived in Japan, and he started speaking Japanese with me--even though I didn't tell him I could speak it. I was pleasantly surprised because Japanese people rarely speak Japanese with non-Japanese (outside Japan), or if they do, they don't initiate it. Many other language groups are happy if people can speak their language, but I've noticed that Japanese people aren't. Sorry, but it seems to be true in my experience. Perhaps that guy initiated Japanese conversation because he's half European, so he's not caught up in the idiosyncracies of Japanese culture. Whatever--it was a rare opportunity that I enjoyed.

What's interesting is that earlier today, I was speaking with some Chinese people about my dilemma: that I know Japanese but don't encounter many Japanese people, and if I do, they would rather speak bad English than Japanese. But when I went to China, I noticed that Chinese people were happy to hear even a few words, and even in Chicago, I can see conversational opportunities if only I spoke Mandarin (don't have much interest in Cantonese). One Chinese chick who speaks good English even said that if I were to learn Mandarin, she'd speak with me. Imagine that.

Language tools

My husband found a site called iTools Language Tools which has:

**several English dictionaries

**VoyCabulary, where "you can change the words on any webpage into links, so you can look them up with just a click--in a dictionary of your choice"

**terminology dictionaries

**several thesauruses

**a crossword solver

**Babylon, which translates words "to and from Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish"

**a Text Translator from English into Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and Norwegian or the other way around"

**a Web Page Translator from English into Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and Norwegian or the other way around

That's a a lot! Though I don't think Babylon is the best translation tool, but still--that place looks packed.

Chinese high

What are they smoking in there? Just straight weed, or are they mixing it with tobacco to create a British-style spliff, or what? I wonder if their pot is spicy.

But seriously: this is a word challenge as well, of course, as a cultural one. "Rolling" can be a verb, thus the humor of this sign. But "rolling" can also be an adjective, which I'm sure means something different in Chinese--bad translation!

Still writing

I was going to do a post here yesterday, but I totally forgot because I had to do some translations and when I finished those, I decided to work on a novel I've been revising. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm almost done, which means that this year, possibly even before winter ends or during the spring, I might be approaching agents for more rounds of rejections. But the difference between what I'm writing now and what I wrote before is that I really feel like the book I'm working on now is a lot better and something that more people (especially women, since the protagonist is a chick) will be able to relate to. I hope. If not, then I'm just going to move on to the next novel, which will be my third attempt. I already have an idea for one, and am ready to get going on it.

Why I keep pursuing fiction writing is a mystery to me because I've had no indications that I'm going to make it. I've gotten positive feedback here and for other non-fiction writing I've done for work, but not for fiction. But I really like writing it, so I have to remember that if I fail again, at least I've enjoyed doing it. That's all we can do, really, because if we don't enjoy it then it's all a waste of time.

Rush on

Bruce spotted this very cool license plate. It references the Toronto International Airport (YYZ), a typical Canadian word (eh), and Rush, since they have a song called YYZ.

Online multilingual keyboard

Language Hat (language blogger extraordinaire) mentioned an incredibly cool site that is an online onscreen virtual multilingual keyboard emulator that "enables you to write in your language wherever you are in the world."

You can type in the following languages:

Albanian (Shqip) / Arabic (العربية) / Armenian (հայերեն) / Azeri (Azərbaycan) / Belarusian (Беларуская) / Bengali (বাংলা) / Bulgarian (Български) / Chinese (中文) / Croatian (hrvatski) / Czech (Česky) / Danish (dansk) / Devanagari (देवनागरी) / Divehi (ދިވެހި) / Dutch (Nederlands) / English (English) / Estonian (eesti) / Faeroese ( Føroyskt) / Farsi Persian (فارسی) / Finnish (suomi) / French (Français) / Gaelic (Gàidhlig/Gaeilge) / Georgian ( ქართული) / German (Deutsch) / Greek (Ελληνικά) / Gujarati (ગુજરાતી) / Hebrew (עברית) / Hindi (हिन्दी) / Hungarian (magyar) / Icelandic ( Íslenska) / Irish (Gaeilge) / Italian (italiano) / Japanese (日本語) / Kannada (ಕನ್ನಡ) / Kazakh (Қазақ) / Korean (한국어) / Kyrgyz (Кыргыз) / Latvian (Latviešu) / Lithuanian ( Lietuvių) / Macedonian (Македонски) / Malayalam (മലയാളം) / Maltese (Malti) / Maori (Māori) / Marathi (मराठी) / Mongolian (Монгол) / Multilingual / Norwegian (Norsk) / Polish (Polski) / Portuguese (Português) / Punjabi (ਪਜਾਬੀ/पंजाबी) / Romanian (Română) / Russian (Русский) / Serbian (Српски) / Slovak (Slovenčina) / Slovenian (Slovenščina) / Spanish (español) / Swedish (svenska) / Syriac / Tamil (தமிழ்) / Tatar (Tatarça) / Telugu (తెలుగు) / Thai (ไทย) / Turkish (Türkçe) / Ukrainian (Українська) / Urdu (اردو) / Uzbek (Ўзбек) / Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt).

Congee recipe

Mad Minerva saw my congee crisis post, and sent me the following congee recipe. The sort of disconcerting thing is that they call it "Rice Congee Soup." That sounds so serious and formal--it doesn't have the same cute ring to it as "mixed congee." Plus, I like the canned congee that I get--it has a consistently delicious taste. One time someone made some for me, but it wasn't the same. I guess I'm pedestrian in my congee tastes.

Congee is called "jook," so maybe next time I should use that word when I confound the folks in Chinatown.

MM says, "Here's a recipe that's pretty close to mine (I like to stir-fry some paper-thin slices of ginger -- you can do this easily with a veggie peeler -- in a bit of oil in the pot first, then add the other ingredients. I don't use the random turkey wing, but do use chicken broth --low-sodium canned is OK -- for the liquid). I hear you can do the congee in a Crockpot too!"

9 cups water
1 cup uncooked long-grain rice
2 teaspoons salt
1 fresh turkey wing (about 1 pound)
1 (1/2-inch) piece peeled fresh ginger (about 1/4 ounce)
Chopped green onions (optional)
Minced fresh parsley (optional)
Julienne-cut peeled fresh ginger (optional)
Low-sodium soy sauce (optional)

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large Dutch oven, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat, and cook 1 1/2 hours or until soup has a creamy consistency, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; keep warm.

Discard ginger piece. Remove turkey from soup; place on a cutting board or work surface. Cool 10 minutes. Remove skin from turkey; discard. Remove meat from bones; discard bones. Chop meat into bite-sized pieces, and stir meat into soup. Divide soup evenly among 6 bowls; garnish with green onions, parsley, julienne-cut ginger, and soy sauce, if desired.

MM continues: "Yup, ladle out the congee and pile on whatever toppings you want! We've done stir-fried veggies of all types, stir-fried meat of all kinds, etc. etc. Even quail eggs and straw mushrooms. Try with braised beef too with shiitake mushrooms. Yum!

"This recipe uses uncooked rice, but my family and I always make congee with whatever white jasmine we have left over from dinner the night before. If you start with cooked rice, you can basically cut the cooking time by about half. A great way to use up leftover rice if you're tired of recycling it by making fried rice (stillI know one restaurant in Taipei that makes 60 kinds of fried rice!)."

Thanks MM! Now can you share some of your brain power with me?

Mom

I talked before about how Thai people (or some, at least) laugh online: by using "5" because it is "ha" in Thai. So someone will say 555 to show laughter instead of what we do, which is "lol" (laugh out loud).

Well Austin (an interesting and nice guy who I actually know offline from my Japanese class) had another nifty idea: say "mom" when wanting to laugh online, because "haha" is mother in Japanese. So, if something is funny, instead of typing "lol," he might type "mom". The only problem is that he'll have to explain the whole thought process: how it started with a conversation about the Thai use of "ha" for 5 and how that led to the Japanese use of "ha ha", which all came from the need for an alternative to "lol."

I'm still not a fan of "lol"--it looks cumbersome.

Six years

I wrote about how teaching is degrading in Air in the Paragraph Line. I was going to do a post here about it, but since the theme of the latest issue is work, it gave me an opportunity to vent there, and to use many more words.

I pretty much quit pursuing teaching as a career in 2000 after an awful experience, but I occasionally taught a class or a private student once in a while. But 2000 was the last time I taught in a school. Well, I'm returning to teaching a class in a school on the southwest side of the city, and so far, things don't seem so bad. At least from an administration and co-worker standpoint. But I'll see next week when I step into the classroom.

One co-worker is totally into languages: he's from Iran, so he speaks Farsi and also speaks English totally fluently. I first met him in a Chinese class we briefly took, where he would write the Chinese words in phonetic Farsi. I remember looking at his notebook and asking him what the script was above the Chinese ones, and he said exitedly, "Farsi--it's easier to understand the pronunciation." Very cool, indeed. He could also say hello in several languages, and had a curiosity that is rare, especially in people his age (he's closer or beyond 60).

Recently, I saw him speaking with some Mexican people in Spanish, and when I asked him where he learned it, he said he learned it on the job--without any books. When I complimented him on his language abilities, he said "I love languages." Right on! I don't meet many people who enthusiastically say that.

Congee crisis!

I was in Bridgeport, so I decided to stop by Chinatown because it's not far north of there. I thought I'd run into the place where I can get lots of mixed congee, but I couldn't find it--stupidly. In the past, there was construction, so I could follow the detour signs until I ended up at that store, but it's in such a weird location, I got lost. So I ended up in the middle of Chinatown and I figured that there had to be some stores there that had mixed congee.

I went into some stores, and they had no idea what I was talking about. It says "congee" on the can--I thought that was odd. But I guess they only know the Chinese word[s], which is too long and tonal to remember. Store after store had none, but I finally reached one that had lots of it. I was, of course, very happy, told the owner I loved the stuff, and took four cans from the fridge. As I was about to pay for it, the owner stopped me and looked at the cans. Expired! The date was late December, but still, I didn't want to take a chance, and he wasn't about to sell bad congee. So that was it--I was so close, but couldn't acquire any, and I never did find the store I was originally looking for, even though it's really big and well-known. Or so I thought--when I asked people where it was, they either didn't understand me or didn't know its English name.

Basically, I don't know where the heck I can get mixed congee. I found a Japanese place that carried it, but when I returned to buy more, it was gone. Is there a mixed congee shortage? If there is, we need to tell them (especially Taisun in Taiwan) to step up production!

Learn Hebrew

My husband likes to study Hebrew in its various forms, and found a Learn Hebrew site that has audio files and a flashcard-type set up for different languages, including English, French, Spanish, Russian, and Dutch. There's only audio of the Hebrew words, but the written translations of the words are in those languages. Each "card" offers the Hebrew word, transliteration, and translation into whichever language you need. Simple but nifty site.

Great year

Well, the year is coming to an end, and I must say that it's been one of the best years ever. I have had a great time in radio and have learned a lot. I hope that the new year brings more adventures and takes me closer to my dream[s]. Last year I wouldn't have thought that I would have done so much or would have felt so alive and refreshed and excited. In fact, I didn't know that life can be so fun, especially in my post-travel/expat existence. Sure, I've had some good times since I returned from my life abroad, but never this consistently. And to attribute it to work is quite a feat.

So Happy New Year to everyone--I'm assuming that no one at this time is into the new year yet, though that of course will change as the day progresses.

Going to LA

I'm going to Los Angeles this weekend--I'll be back next year. Well, it's technically next year because I'm returning on January 1. So it's just a short weekend trip. I haven't been there in probably a few years, and I'm not its biggest fan. Their downtown isn't that great, and people have even compared it to a third-world country. And of course, you can't walk around, unless you drive a car to a destination and park it--in other words, you have to take an intentional stroll. LA is also very expensive--I don't know how people afford to live there. There's no way I'd be able to afford a decent place in a nice neighborhood--I'd have to move to the boonies or forfeit most of my paycheck to make rent.

But probably the most annoying thing about LA is the plasticity. There are so many people who have fake whatever, and it's quite nauseating, especially because I'm female. I don't want to become anorexic or exercise a million hours a week to become acceptably skinny, I don't want to dye my hair blond or put tons of products in my hair, and I want to stick with minimal makeup--at this point, I just wear lipstick. That's not really tolerated there, it seems. Sure, there are different kinds of people there, but the tone is set by Hollywood, which trickles down to the masses.

Still, I'll be staying in a very nice place in Beverly Hills, so I shouldn't complain about my departure from the ordinary to the wealthy.

House to hip hop

This past weekend, I went to a really cool party in the Pilsen neighborhood, which is south of downtown Chicago. It was in a large space where a very cool, friendly dj resides, and I had a great time. What I love about living in an American city is the diversity of the people--sounds trite, but it's true. One week I might be with white yuppies, another week I might be in a situation with hardly any white people at all, among a mixture of professionals and people who have no office aspirations.

I found out about the party through a friend of mine who I used to hang out with when he was spinning records around the city. The music that he and other dj's I knew played house music and underground stuff--deep sounds that had warmth, positivity (don't know if that's a word) and good vibes. So the Pilsen-dweller, who had known my friend for a while, wanted to bring some dj's together to celebrate that type of music.

When we first arrived, there weren't many people there, so I just hung out and enjoyed the tracks and mixing. I talked to some talented dj's about music and the scene, and once again, I regretted never learning how to spin or really pursuing it. Late in the night, more people started showing up until the place was quite packed. But it was weird--no one was really dancing. I don't dance, but still, I was surprised that the clubby-looking people around me weren't. The dj who was on was incredible--his selection and mixing were just so tight, soulful, and groovy (not in the 60's way), and really should have inspired people to move or at least show interest in what he was putting out there.

Since it was getting really late, my friend and I wanted to leave, and we noticed that the music went from house/underground to hip hop. I guess the crowd was so passive, the dj and host discovered the only way to get them going was to play it. And I heard that it was hip hop from then on. Which really wasn't the intention of the night.

Ok, hip hop is popular, but Chicago is known for house and for creating innovative music. Yet there are people here who want and only are aware of and open to hip hop, which is quite sad. I wish that there were more outlets for people to hear more variety, more quality, more of what the alternative has to offer.

Great book

I just finished George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London. What a great book--I highly recommend it. The writing is excellent, detailed, high quality, and readable though I didn't make my way quickly through it. I think it's because he has such detail about his life as a tramp that I had to take the time to savor it.

Well, it got me interested in his life, so I looked for a biography. I settled on Inside George Orwell because it's the most psychological one I found. Other bios are either literary, which really wouldn't give me much insight into how he thought and lived, or just too academic. I want to know about the man who wrote the books I've read so far: Burmese Days, Down and Out in Paris and London, Animal Farm, and 1984.

Actually, when I was in Romania in the mid-90's traveling around, I met a Romanian who read 1984 when it was banned back during communism--someone from a British governmental entity "smuggled" it in. She said that 1984 described Romania at the time. Which would help explain why they'd want to ban it--in addition to the government's contempt of freedom, culture, and thinking.

Chinese Christmas

This is cool: last year I went to someone's house on Christmas Eve, and was one of a handful of non-Mandarin speakers there. Since I'd studied it a tiny bit, I did my best to try to guess some of the words people were saying, even using my Japanese to infer the meaning, but after a while, I just got lazy and stayed in the English world with those who were willing to speak it with me.

Well, this year, I'm going to someone else's house, but it's going to also be filled with a bunch of Mandarin speakers. And since it's happening tonight, it's too late to take out my Chinese books and cram for such an occasion. The cool thing is that since a lot of the folks there are from China, they haven't been inundated with Christmas, so to them it's a new and/or different experience. The host has decked her place out with Christmas decorations, and even though it's not a new thing for me to see them, I'm going to be seeing all that stuff differently, because to her, it's fresh and something that she never did back at home. So I can celebrate Christmas Eve with people who are discovering it, rather than those who are just doing what they "should".

I didn't grow up celebrating Christmas and never had "tree envy" or any Christmas-related resentment, and now that I'm older, I still pretty much don't care about it, but it's refreshing to be with people who are exploring it as part of Western culture.

Chaucer rapper

Mad Minerva often has interesting links--and she seems like an interesting, smart person who[m] I'd love to meet someday.

Her latest interesting contribution is a guy who raps Chaucer.

She also mentions a Chaucer blog that is written in Chaucer language--very cool and nerdy.

Jesus celebrated Chanukah?

I just told someone who goes to Bible school that Jesus celebrated Chanukah (or Hanukkah, depending on how you transliterate it), and they didn't believe me. So I'm posting this info for anyone else who doesn't know, either:

From John 10:22-30 (New Living Translation):

It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah. He was at the Temple, walking through the section known as Solomon's Colonnade. The Jewish leaders surrounded him and asked, "How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly."

Jesus replied, "I have already told you, and you don't believe me. The proof is what I do in the name of my Father. But you don't believe me because you are not part of my flock. My sheep recognize my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. So no one can take them from me. The Father and I are one."

John 10:22-23 in the Amplified (which tries to take all words and meanings into consideration, thus the brackets are theirs): "After this the Feast of Dedication [of the reconsecration of the temple] was taking place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in Solomon's Porch in the temple area."

And finally, the New International Version (NIV) of the same: "Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon's Colonnade."

The trenchant gamine

For some reason, I've been curious about Judy Garland's parents because she lived a tragic, short life, and had lots of talent. So I wanted to know what type of background she came from. I don't have the time nor desire to read a biography, but I came upon a good review of one.

Things were going fine until I read this sentence: "Now the gamine was overlaid with the trenchant sophisticate."

I was an English major and am obviously into language, but I could not understand what that sentence meant, even by trying to understand it in context (one of the rules of reading comprehension).

Gamine means "a playfully mischievous girl or young woman." When I saw that word, I had no idea that it implied a female, or even a human being.

Trenchant is a word I should know, but it obviously hasn't stuck yet: "vigorous; effective; energetic."

So now that sentence makes sense, and I can continue to finish the article before I move on to all the stuff I have to do today.

A movie you should see

I rarely go to movies because they're expensive and some of the other movie-goers are usually idiots who like to talk during the show or are just annoying. You'll see that I have two favorite movies, though there are other ones I've seen and enjoyed, though not enough to list them as my faves.

An excellent movie that I saw recently was the The Queen. At first, when my family invited me to see it, I was like, "Who cares about the Queen and Diana?" I was in junior high when they got married, and to me it was such a fairy tale. I still remember how I felt watching the wedding and all that surrounded it on TV--absolute envy and hopefulness that I would one day experience such a thing (though without the pomp or wealth). I'm sure I was one of millions of girls who thought that.

Little did I know what a failed nightmare it would become. And as Diana continued with her PR campaign to make up for her misery, I didn't follow her, but it was hard to avoid her exposure because she was everywhere in the media, mostly unwillingly. Surprisingly, when she died, I was really affected. I really didn't care about her, or so I thought, but she'd been in the background of my own life for so long, I just always assumed she'd continue being there.

I remember the night I turned on the TV to check the weather--it was very late at night, and I had to wake up early the next day for my Japanese lesson, so I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to melt in the hot Chicago summer. I saw the words "Diana dead" on the screen--what? I couldn't believe it. I watched TV for hours to find out what the heck was happening, and during that subsequent week, I read practically every article about her and watched all the TV specials I could about her. Stuff I usually don't do--I don't like to get caught up in celebrity crapola. I told a friend about my obsession, and she said she felt the same way--she hadn't cared about Diana, or so she thought, until she died. I think a lot of people were mourning her death.

I'm so not into movies that I didn't even know this one existed until I was invited to see it. Even after I heard the title, I still couldn't figure out what it was about--"The Queen" could mean many things. I really thought it would be uneventful and an unnecessary viewing experience, but it was absolutely incredible--so incredible, in fact, that I'm planning to see it again.

It doesn't have special effects or really awesome scenes, but the acting is superb, and perhaps because it's a British production, it doesn't have that Hollywood mercenary style or the cheapness that pervades American films as they try to rope in the world for profit. It is an elegant, understated movie that is in excellent taste, and I walked away wanting more. It's really like viewing fine art--the combination of excellent acting (which I already mentioned), cinematography, direction, whatever. If this movie doesn't get an Oscar, at least for Best Actress, then there really is something wrong with popular culture.

Not worth it

I got a free ticket to see The Pursuit of Happyness, and it's a good thing I didn't pay for it because it's not worth the dough.

Will Smith is a good actor, and so is his son--actually, everyone is great in this movie. But the story is full of struggle after struggle, obstacles followed by more obstacles, letdowns and frustrations--for most of the movie. I kept looking at my watch, wondering when it was going to end because I felt like I was being barraged with negativity and frustration most of the time. I knew what the ending was going to be, but I had to wait through a lot of stomach churning endurance to get there.

So I'm glad I didn't pay--it's not even a movie that has to be seen on the big screen.

Like swords

Bruce (who can speak Cantonese) sent me a link to this rapoff (freesyling battle) between two rappers. Definitely check it out--Jin (a Chinese-American guy who also speaks Cantonese) totally blows the other guy away. Impressive.

As I was watching it and reading about these types of battles, I was wondering why people do it. It seems dumb. But then I realized that it's really the lastest incarnation of an old activity: sword fights. They're just using words as weapons.

The bloody man

This morning, I was at a gas station and saw a gangbanger-type of guy--the type of guy who hip-hop fans revere and imitate. This guy, though, wasn't just wearing the fashion--he had the eyes of someone who was drugged and apathetic even about his own existence, and he really looked like he'd emerged from the streets--though which streets, I'm not sure, because I wasn't in the city but in Indiana near some smallish towns.

When he walked in and I was going out, he barely uttered a hello. I looked at his car, which had no license plates and was left running--so anyone could've walked up and stolen it. As I was pumping my gas, I wondered if he was going to do anything crazy inside, but he seemed so sleepily high that I wasn't sure he'd be able to manage it. After he left, I went back inside to get my change, and told the girl working behind the bullet-proof glass that his car didn't have plates. She said that there was blood on his shirt, which I hadn't noticed.

The guy is a thug, but I sort of pity his self-destructiveness.

Prairies

I didn't know that there was an area of Canada called the Prairies, "an area of flat grasslands in Western Canada. The phrase 'the Prairies' in Canada usually refers to the provinces of Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan."

I've been to Manitoba, but when I was up there, no one told me it was part of the Prairies. We don't really have that here--we have the Midwest, where I live, and west of us is Nebraska and so forth, which is considered the Great Plains, but I don't hear people use that term, like "my friend lives in the Great Plains." They'll just say the state. But it seems like Canadians like to say "the Prairies."

When Americans say "prairie," we're referring to what falls within this definition: "a region of flat or hilly land dominated by tall grasses, typical of the American Middle West."

So in the U.S., "prairie" is a physical condition of the terrain, rather than a geographical area that Canadians refer to. I like those Canadian Prairie-dwelling accents though. :)

Isochronic

I came across the term "isochronic recurrence" and since I've never gotten deep into linguistics, I had no idea what that meant. Then I found a pretty decent definition of a related word, isochrony: "A sequence of events is called isochronous if the time separating each pair of successive events is strictly equal." And, interestingly though not surprisingly, "The absence of isochrony is called anisochrony."

Now I'm trying to understand what the heck mora means. I read about it, but can't figure out what they're saying. But it sounds interesting, like lots of other language stuff out there.

Critical condition

A family member is in critical condition--it's so bad, I didn't go to work yesterday and won't go today, and I probably won't go to my beloved Japanese class, with the best teacher on the planet. One thing I've noticed is how caring people can be. A lot of people are busy, but it's incredible how some will take time out to talk to me on the phone or email or chat via IM. Even strangers--yesterday someone walked up to me at the hospital and asked me how my mom was doing and how I was doing. I had never met this person before, but they had a sick relative nearby, and heard what I was going through, and encouraged me. Incredible!

I think it's because a lot of people have experienced loss and suffering, and it's just one more thing that connects us as humans.

Canadian pizza in Malaysia

And speaking of Canada, Jordan shared this photo. What's funny is that to me, pizza is a Chicago thing more than a Canadian thing, but then again, I'm biased.

Congrats AP

Arrogant Polyglot has come in third place for the best cultural blog. Considering that Canada is quite big and there are a lot of blogs coming out of there, that's quite a feat. Now I wonder if he's going to keep his "arrogance" under control--if/when I meet him, I'll find out for myself ;)

Get the book

I just got a copy of Air in the Paragraph Line #11, edited (and some written) by the talented Jon Konrath. The theme is work, and the writing is really good. It's not puffed-up literary preciousness, but real writing, where communication matters more than self-importance.

I got something published in there too: how teaching can be degrading, something which I've wanted to write about for a while.

Get the book and see for yourself.

Larry's party

I went to a party tonight in Ukrainian Village, which is west of downtown. I've had some challenging situations lately that have been emotionally draining, and a party was just what I needed. I'd never met Larry before, but I'd read his comments at Jon's journal and had been to his MySpace page, and when he sent out a bulletin about the party, I figured, what the hey? I might as well meet some new people. I knew no one there, but ended up having a good time. I even met some skateboarding dudes, who unfortunately invited their loser friends, which really killed the vibe of the party, I think. Which is pretty much why I left.

It was a night for hearty winter-dwellers: some of us were outside in the freezing cold the whole time, standing around a barrel that held burning wood. When I got home, I noticed that my face was stained with smoky ash. So now my eyes are dark, as if I've just emerged from a coal mine.