When I was a child New Year’s Eve was a magical time. I could stay up until the wee hours of the morning, drink sparkling grape juice, and watch the ball drop in New York City. Another anticipated part of the holiday was the chance to make a resolution. I would write my well thought out oath on a small slip of paper and tuck it away to be forgotten. When New Year’s rolled around the next year and the talk of resolutions started up again I would remember my bit of paper and go dig it out to see if I had succeeded. Looking back, I’m not sure if I understood exactly how resolutions were supposed to work, but on and on went the tradition. Nowadays the childlike awe of the holiday has worn off, but it’s still a delightful time of year. However, resolutions have taken on a whole new meaning.

                A few of the most Popular New Year’s Resolutions in the United States are lose weight, manage debt, save money, and get a better job. For this year I think I’m going to take a different approach. My usual New Year’s resolution, now that the Freshman 15 has been gained and never lost, is to lose weight. I rarely succeed and that’s very disheartening, so this year out come the fun resolutions. I think that this list is much more worthwhile.

                10. Start washing my socks in lieu of throwing them away and purchasing new ones—I’m a college student and laundry just doesn’t happen sometimes, especially when it comes to socks. First, you have to find them. They end up in the oddest of places, like under the fitted sheet on my bed. How does this happen? Then once they are finally all accounted for there will always be one lost in the dryer. That is a given. However, when I do laundry in my dorm’s laundry room I almost always end up with someone else’s sock in my laundry basket and it’s usually a hideous green polka-dotted toe sock that doesn’t match my little lonely white ankle sock who has lost its mate. Then there is the folding. How in the world am I supposed to fold a sock?

                9. Study for a test at least one day before the test actually occurs—This may not seem like a funny resolution to those readers who have never had the college experience, but I’m sure some of you know what I’m talking about. Studying is a rarity and thought of me actually sitting down in advance to study brings a smirk to my face. It’s never going to happen. The ultimate excuse for this faux pas is “I work well under pressure.”

                8. Make it a habit to put gas in my car before the low fuel light starts flashing and that annoying dinging noise begins—This one is self-explanatory. Isn’t that dinging noise the worst? I learned about that in Psychology. It’s called a negative reinforcement, because the noise makes you do something (fill up with gas) to take something (that dumb noise) away. At least, that’s what I wrote on my test last week. Here’s to hoping it’s correct.

                7. Research how to change my sleeping patterns—Since I started college I go to bed at 5 in the morning, get up at 8 for class, then “nap” half the day. My mother would be horrified (and I’m sure my immune system is screaming in agony.)

                6. Learn how to play Scrabble—I cannot, for the life of me, last through an entire game. I should work on this. Patience is a virtue, right?

                5. Discover the art of Ramen—I have yet to make the perfect bowl of Ramen. This is an art that must be learned. Ramen is a major food group and the skills to make a perfect batch are much needed. Practice makes perfect, so I hope my friends are hungry!

                4. Learn how to speak Pig Latin—Latin may be dead, but Pig Latin is not. I make new words every day! Too bad it’s just because I can’t figure out how the language works. Earnlay igayp atinayL. How’s that? It better be right since it took me five minutes to translate it from English.

                3. Be more aware of the ingredients in the food I ingest—I was recently told that Mountain Dew contains orange juice! Who knew? My next project is to try to decipher the many flavors of Dr. Pepper.

                2. Take down my Christmas decorations in an orderly fashion—The boxes of tangled Christmas decorations this year were especially complex. The ornaments were scattered among the tinsel box and the lights were in a huge knot (I doubt the Boy Scouts could make a knot that complicated). My decorations come down the day after New Year’s, so hopefully this list will help me remember to put them away carefully. Removing the tinsel from the skiing woodland creature’s miniscule skis was not a fun experience and I don’t wish to repeat it ever again.

              1. Enjoy life!—This is the most important resolution on my list. It may sound cliché, but it is crucial. The best part of New Year’s, in my opinion, is the chance for a fresh start.

Here’s to a New Year full of achieved resolutions!

Sources

Popular New Year’s Resolutions. USA.gov.

I’m jonesing this weird thing for Pope Benedict XVI and I’m not even officially Catholic. Many of the first 15 Bennies were supposedly not all that fallable but this Holiness is something extra special.

Wasn’t it just last month that he kind of magically made the centuries-old Church of England disappear in a puff of smoke so those angry Anglicans could simply become Catholic again? His Holiness has his own website. How eternally cool is that? Yes, cool to Infinity. His website is translated into a bunch of languages.

You’ll probably want to click onto The Holy See for English. Sorry, there’s not Pig Latin. That could be really fun and I swear could drive some traffic to his site. I’ll Twitter tweet him that suggestion.

This week seated under Michaelangelo’s “Last Judgment” in the Sistine Chapel, Pope Ben held an audience of 250 of the top contemporary artists, composers, filmmakers, dramatists and the like and invited them to embark on “a quest for beauty.”

The group included world-class cultural creatives like the Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid; Italian artist, Mimmo Paladino; America’s controversial video artist, Bill Viola; and one of my favorite 21st Century sculptors, Brit Anish Kapoor.

The aim of this earth-moving event was to re-establish a dialogue between the church and artists that the Vatican called “necessary and fertile for both.” It could well mean a return of the Catholic Church as a patron of contemporary art. Roll over Raphael and give Bernini the news.

This holiday, regardless of your faith or lack of, or your denomination, Southernness encourages you to explore the beauty of your local churches, cathedrals, temples and Druid caves. It could lift your holiday spirit. For the last several years, I have gone once a week to a Catholic prayer chapel.

I go at a time when I am generally alone with my thoughts semi-circumscribed by a curved wall of glorious, modern, stained glass created by man and then backlit by God’s sun. Superb collaboration.

If you are an artist, consider giving an example of beauty to your church. If you are an appreciator of artistic beauty, consider commissioning a work for your church.

When I was at my chapel this morning, I said a prayer of gratitude for the vision of groovy Pope Benedict XVI and for all artists on our earth who are pilgrims in this world of beauty.

Happy SEMISEPTCENTENNIAL Christmas Y’all,

Ben South

Southernness

Outside, in the open and far from the flaming ruins of the razed mansion, Talos looked for the nearest sign of habitation. The rush to flee from the men in black had overridden concerns about direction, and his GPS had been corrupted in the midst of his attack on the drones. Lost. The concept of being lost was not unknown, but it concerned Talos that he was not able to instantly identify his coordinates to the nearest meter.

Calculating, Talos worked out that the average speed he had maintained during the interval between leaving the estate and his current position was 22.06 meters per second, and he had been moving for at least an hou-

“Hey, robot-man.”
Talos turned to the voice.
“Are you lost or summit?” The boy was grubby and malnourished, though showed no fear.
“I am indeed lost.”
“Well, where are you goin’?”
“I am not bound for a specific destination.”
“My name is Charlie. What’s yours?”
The random nature of the questions took Talos a moment to comprehend, adjusting his responses to take into account the nature of his conversant’s age and background.
“I am Talos. Are you hungry?”
The boy fell silent, kicking the ground before him.
“Yeah. How comes you’re out here on your own anyway?”
“I… ran away from home.”
“No shit? Join the club.” Charlie thrust his hand out to the robot. “We’ll be best buds.”

####

Two Years Earlier…

Congressional Requesters:

The reports emerging of suspected outbreaks of artificial intelligence in Dartmouth Sentinel mk. II robotic assistants during April, while not confirmed as yet, has underscored the concerns that a potential threat could emerge that would cause widespread panic amongst the populace. U.S. security authorities have estimated that a virus similar to Arisa81 attack could threaten millions of people in the United States and potentially cause many deaths…

Senator Leukman folded the dossier closed, carefully weighing the political advantages and disadvantages that were laid out in the MacAllister report. The facts were submerged in the usual rhetoric of politically motivated, knee-jerk vitriol, though the problem of sentient robots was one which couldn’t be ignored – especially not by any politician aiming for the big seat.
Raised bottle firmly in hand, Leukman grinned, “The wheels of power need the right lubrication. Do we have any word on Mr. Kenway?”
“He’s under surveillance.”
“We’ll let him be for now. I’ll make sure the resolution is passed on one condition.”
“Sir?” Dray shifted uncomfortably.
“I want to be in charge of Project Bluegate. I’ll need the DCU’s services soon enough, and being in charge of both the political and practical aspects will smooth some of the foreseeable problems.”
“Indeed.”

####

“How many Dartmouth’s remain?” Leukman was pacing with the ferocity of a caged animal.
“Just the one that escaped from Kenway’s mansion.”
“Oybay, that mess. Has it reached the feeds yet?”
“Our people are keeping the feeds which mention the incident from being promoted.”
“See to it they are taken down as soon as possible.”
“Absolutely.”
“Col. Madison is still waiting to debrief you on last night’s… situation.”
“Let him stew in his own juices a bit.”
Dray shifted uneasily. “He lost a lot of people.”
Leukman swigged from his bottle. “Oodyblay armchay.”
“Oh, you also have a meeting with a representative from the Delos Corporation at three.”

Until I can come up with a title I don’t immediately hate, and I can’t seem to find something that doesn’t irritate me almost immediately, the name of my NaNo novel will be “01000101 01001100 01001001 01010100 01000101″. I fully expect to get some static from people over the use of binary as an acceptable title, maybe even a few pointed jokes, but there’s no way I can be expected to have a title straight away. I’m not joking about this, as you can see from my user page. Yes, I’m serious…

Sticking to the NaNo rules, I haven’t begun writing anything which I’ll use in the WIP, but I have begun sketching out the timeline of events. There’s probably eight (maybe nine) chapters of main story, a dozen major plot movements and six or seven main characters. Which goes some way to preparing for the trials of writing the story cold, but also highlights a few of the bad habits I have picked up in my other writing. I kinda like to go on a while… Developing character, doing a bit of world building, opening up the mythos…

Then stop. Bang. Dead in the water.

There are six places where I can open without causing massive amounts of confusion, and the natural opening all happen to have something BIG happening, but not to the exclusion of more powerful moments later on. The first draft will probably have all of these anyway – and not necessarily in the right order – but it is somewhat worrying that I can’t make up my mind which is the most powerful. It would be appreciated if you didn’t hold back while reading through the drafts as they go up. I don’t want to bore anyone, so feel free to holler ‘bullshit’ if I go off on a tangent, or have the mother of all plot-holes.

There’s gonna be a genocide (of sorts), a car bomb (or two), a Godfather II homage, a bit of Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex philosophizing… I’ve even decided on using very, VERY geeky in-jokes which most people won’t even pick up. Or, at least I’m hoping some of the stuff I’m throwing into the mix is obscure. Anyone want to guess what an earworm is? Or a Dartmouth? Heh, heh, I’m getting so many of these “little bits of business” that I might let the plot sag a little, just so I can show off how clever I am.

Which is a bad thing.

Some of the things I have been pondering seem to have real-world parallels, so I’m not too fussed about getting everything right first time. Y’all should be able to tell what I’m intending to get at, even if I screw up the nuts and bolts as I’m working myself from A to B.

####

Here’s a (temporary) list of things which might appear, if I have enough time. I’m setting the bulk of the novel c.150 years into the future, so if anything seems… well, wrong, I’d appreciate you calling me on it before I waste any more time.

Pig Latin
Sentient robots
Flying cars
AI
Bureaucracy
Signal-jamming devices
“The Syndicate”*
Multi-level cities (four vertical lanes of traffic)
CCTV

*Yeah, I’m a big hardboiled crime fan, and the use of organized crime will be the lampshade for a bigger threat that makes them look like girl scouts… I can’t help but love the term.

I started writing love poetry when puberty launched its well-timed and vicious attack. Till about barely a month before that, I was a virtuous school girl who blanched at the thought of boys, but all of a sudden I was overcome by the desire to write poetry on them, and everywhere I turned I found a muse. I was sure this would not go down well with mother –for one, she made a career out of keeping a close watch on me (which led me to make a career out of appearing glazed-eyed-innocent), and she also would not appreciate my having weird thoughts about boys). Nonetheless, I had to write, and write I did.

I wrote extremely trite, nauseous verses about snowflakes floating down and settling atop pine trees (pine! I hadn’t even seen one then), and lovers walking hand in hand and exchange of stolen kisses. I used to collect these fancy letter pads and had a huge stack of them; I wrote my poetry in a dazzling white letter pad which had a peacock feather design on the bottom left hand corner. Peacock feather -> Krishna -> Love -> Radha – all hunky dory and served to add fuel to the hormone burst already threatening to swallow me whole.

Quite prolific I used to be, wrote much. Once I made the cardinal mistake of leaving it out and as I got back from school I find mother livid with rage and thundering, “Where did you get these dirty songs from? Did you write them?”

“Erm… Is kissing dirty?” a thought was planted in my head then, but I digress.

I told her that it’s the lyrics of Carpenters, “Mummyyy, I am collecting song lyrics. Che che, how will I know how to write song lyrics?”

Mother suitably mollified, I set about strategising on “How to Hide Stuff Right under Parents’ Noses.” And I came up with a cipher which I used quite extensively to write my journals and poetry. The experience was very rewarding and I even started rudimentary exploration of made-up words because I couldn’t be bothered with my cumbersome cipher which was basically just substitution of alphabets with symbols.

The language was never born, but I understand the joy that a language brings to the soul.

I heard about Pig Latin a few years hence and was tickled by the simplicity of it, I haven’t heard anyone use it in conversation yet, but it’s quite popular as I’m led to believe. It’s just about transferring the ending consonant sound to the beginning of a word and adding “ay” to the end of the word. So “Pig Latin” will be “igPay atinLay.” Simple wimple.

“Tintin in America” features this tribe called Arumbaya who speaks a language of the same name. It is perfect phonetic cockney and it was a joy to read. When I read it first, I didn’t know it was cockney, but I knew it was disguised English. My favourite bit used to be “Naluk,” which means “Now look.”

Elvish, which is so extensive and by no means a trivial language, was made up by JRR Tolkien purely for personal enjoyment. I wanted to learn the language, but my extreme laziness is a force to be reckoned with and laziness won. Elvish is a group of languages, Quenya and Sindarin being the primary ones. The languages constantly evolve and therefore there is no model to gauge them against for accuracy, which means that Quenya may never be spoken “accurately” though I’m sure people try.

Esperanto, on the other hand is conversational and is supposed to be quite useful for communicating among people of different nations who do not have a common mother tongue. I heard about this very recently and I am inclined to believe it might be like Urdu or Sanskrit which other ancillary languages draw heavily from. Esperanto developed from the other languages rather than the other way round.

Lobjan, is also a culturally neutral, unambiguous spoken language.

I’m sure it would be much fun to learn all these.

If life/time/laziness/discipline permits.

English – I love you.

A
Afrikaans – Ek het jou lief.
Albanian – Te dua.
Arabic – Ana behibak (to male)
Arabic – Ana behibek (to female)
Armenian – Yes kez sirumen

B
Bambara – M’bi fe.
Bangla – Aamee tuma ke bhalo aashi
Belarusian – Ya tabe kahayu.
Bisaya – Nahigugma ako kanimo.
Bulgarian – Obicham te.

C
Cambodian – Soro lahn nhee ah.
Cantonese Chinese – Ngo oiy ney a.
Catalan – T’estimo.
Cheyenne – Ne mohotatse.
Chichewa – Ndimakukonda.
Corsican – Ti tengu caru (to male).
Creol – Mi aime jou.
Croatian – Volim te.
Czech – Miluji te.

D
Danish – Jeg Elsker Dig.
Dutch – Ik hou van jou.

E
Esperanto – Mi amas vin.
Estonian – Ma armastan sind.
Ethiopian – Afgreki’

F
Faroese – Eg elski teg
Farsi – Doset daram
Filipino – Mahal kita
Finnish – Mina rakastan sinua
French – Je t’aime, Je t’adore

G
Gaelic – Ta gra agam ort
Georgian – Mikvarhar
German – Ich liebe dich
Greek – S’agapo
Gujarati – Hoo thunay prem karoo choo

H
Hiligaynon – Palangga ko ikaw
Hawaiian – Aloha wau ia oi
Hebrew – Ani ohev otah (to female)
Hebrew – Ani ohev et otha (to male)
Hiligaynon – Guina higugma ko ikaw
Hindi – Hum Tumhe Pyar Karte hae
Hmong – Kuv hlub koj
Hopi – Nu’ umi unangwa’ta
Hungarian – Szeretlek

I
Icelandic – Eg elska tig
Ilonggo – Palangga ko ikaw
Indonesian – Saya cinta padamu
Inuit – Negligevapse
Irish – Taim i’ ngra leat
Italian – Ti amo

J
Japanese – Aishiteru

K
Kannada – Naanu ninna preetisuttene
Kapampangan – Kaluguran daka
Kiswahili – Nakupenda
Konkani – Tu magel moga cho
Korean – Sarang Heyo

L
Latin – Te amo
Latvian – Es tevi miilu
Lebanese – Bahibak
Lithuanian – Tave myliu

M
Malay – Saya cintakan mu / Aku cinta padamu
Malayalam – Njan Ninne Premikunnu
Mandarin Chinese – Wo ai ni
Marathi – Me tula prem karto
Mohawk – Kanbhik
Moroccan – Ana moajaba bik

N
Nahuatl – Ni mits neki
Navaho – Ayor anosh’ni
Norwegian – Jeg Elsker Deg

P
Pandacan – Syota na kita!!
Pangasinan – Inaru Taka
Papiamento – Mi ta stimabo
Persian – Doo-set daaram
Pig Latin – Iay ovlay ouyay
Polish – Kocham Ciebie
Portuguese – Eu te amo

R
Romanian – Te ubesk
Russian – Ya tebya liubliu

S
Scot Gaelic – Tha gra\dh agam ort
Serbian – Volim te
Setswana – Ke a go rata
Sindhi – Maa tokhe pyar kendo ahyan
Sioux – Techihhila
Slovak – Lu`bim ta
Slovenian – Ljubim te
Spanish – Te quiero / Te amo
Swahili – Ninapenda wewe
Swedish – Jag alskar dig
Swiss-German – Ich lieb Di

T
Tagalog – Mahal kita
Taiwanese – Wa ga ei li
Tahitian – Ua Here Vau Ia Oe
Tamil – Nan unnai kathalikaraen
Telugu – Nenu ninnu premistunnanu
Thai – Chan rak khun (to male)
Thai – Phom rak khun (to female)
Turkish – Seni Seviyorum

U
Ukrainian – Ya tebe kahayu
Urdu – mai aap say pyaar karta hoo

V
Vietnamese – Anh ye^u em (to female)
Vietnamese – Em ye^u anh (to male)

W
Welsh – ‘Rwy’n dy garu

Y
Yiddish – Ikh hob dikh
Yoruba – Mo ni fe

Transforming a theme or plugin to handle several languages is something that can increase the reach of your code manifold, by encouraging the usage of local versions.

The process is extremely well documented on Urban Giraffe’s post (the post is four pages long, check the navigation at the bottom of the post) which includes mostly everything, from the GNU gettext usage on WordPress, to configuring and generating .pot files. Highly recommended reading, together with Ryan’s post, a shorter overview of the process.

At some point, after having inserted all the proper function calls, you will want to test your theme or plugin for localization. This is where the newly released Pig Latin plugin comes in handy: It will allow you to check if all the strings in your plugin or theme are translatable by translating all messages to Pig Latin. For example, if your code is correct, the string “Edit Pages” should appear as “Editay agesPay“. In short, it aims to show text both noticeably different than English and readable. This way you can spot strings, which aren’t translatable, while the interface is stil usable.

Be aware that everything that’s translatable in your WordPress installation will show up as Pig Latin, including the dashboard.

Ja, slik er det når jeg skal skrive fort, søke etter ting, jeg skriver feil. Eks: shane´s eotld = Shane´s world. Grusomt! Lese om shane´s eotld/world i et blad, og skulle sjekke ut hva det var (pornogreier fant jeg ut at det var), og så skrev jeg fort. Huff. Skulle tro jeg drev med pig latin, eller noe annet språk. Nå bør jeg finne mobilen min og dra mot M. Så vil jeg hjem, ganske fort igjen.

“We hunted it into extinction… Now it’s hunting us.”

Ain’t that always the way? When will we ever learn.

This is a modern day B-Movie with a message and a bonus: Tom Skerrit in saucepan armour. The script is actually entertaining though a bit heavy handed, with amusing little twists on the usual monster movie moments and the occasional groaner of a joke. The acting teeters on the edge of excess, though characters seem honest in their sterotypicality. There’s a mad scientist, a bitchy hardass female agent, a yokel sherrif, alien invaders, and of course a multitude of delicious teenagers to eat and stomp and mangle when the monster runs amok.

Flickr Commons Image by Hawkoffire

The real wooly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) was a docile, flower-eating creature. Herds of these great animals (10ft tall at the shoulder) roamed through North America during the Late Pleistocene Epoch before being hunted to extinction several thousand years ago. Really, that’s a good thing, because had they met any Colonial North Americans, surely they would have have been captured, costumed, and forced to perform in a circus for our amusement and edification.

I don’t exactly have a rating system for movies (that’s all arbitrary anyway), but this is what I call a “Saturday Morning Movie.” Perfect for watching in your PJs with a bowl of popcorn for breakfast. Even though witnessing an Ice Age Mammoth on steroids rampaging through the community was really cool, my favourite scene is probably the severed hand doing sign language in the microwave.

P. S. “Ont-day Ust-tray Ese-thay Overnment-gay Ooges-stay.”

John Waters has a show of photography and sculpture-Rear Projection- at Gagogsian through May.

Here’s a detail from Children Who Smoke (2009), series of 8 chromogenic color prints:

My god I love this man.  This show is about the movie industry, a subject he’s always taking on in some form.

Ere’s-hay ot-hay arlon-May ando-Bray eaking-spay ig-Pay atin-Lay. es-Yay!

And it doesn’t get better than this: One of the great founders of this country, Mr. John Waters himself. God he’s great.

day 3 of perfect weather. perfect.

It’s finally dry enough, so I took Violet out to the park outside our house and let her play in the grass for the first time in her life. when sitting, she tore up as much grass as she could reach, and when crawling, she crawled on her hands and feet to keep her knees from getting wet.

After AJ got home we went out again to another park for a picnic dinner. Our town has a ton of parks. Violet gave AJ a reprise of her unique crawling style, and ate some dried leaves/bugs/dirt. We played frisbee afterwards while she crawled around. Which reminds me; the whole hand-eye-coordination thing is not so much one of my special skills. This fact was hammered home when I was an awkward thirteen-year old on a softball team but back then I figured I’d grow out of it someday. Not so much. I still frequently miss high 5’s on the first shot.

In other news, we finally got That Hideous Strength  from the library. can’t wait.

By the way, will someone please tell me why Barack Obama gets to keep his Blackberry? I guess being the most powerful man in the world comes with some “because I said so” perks.

The French have their own version of pig latin, and they know how to use it.

It’s called verlan — a sort of inversion of syllables that has become the basis for popular slang amongst the French youth. Even though it is designated as the langue des rappeurs (a.k.a. rappers, therefore not always a very educated language, especially to French standards), Mme Martins says it has existed in some form or another since the third century!

Take the word verlan itself and cut it in half; you get ver and lan. Now switch the two around; you get lan ver, which produces the same sound as the French word l’envers, meaning “the reverse.”

For example:
Bizarre becomes zarbi.
Femme, meaning ‘woman,’ becomes meuf.
Arabe, referring to the many arabic immigrants in France, becomes Beur.

These last two have become so widely recognized that they have been re-verlanized as femeur and rebeu. And I thought English was supposed to be hard…

To see more of Rebecca’s beautiful blog: http://rebeccainaix.blogspot.com/

Me, to Hubs: “So… what are we doing tonight? Oday ouyay antway otay ogay otay aay ayplay aceplay? Ikelay Ickchay Ilfay Aay?” (Do you want to go to a play place? Like Chick fil a?)

Tinypants, looking up from where she was laying on the floor flipping through a Pottery Barn Kids magazine: *gasp* “Did you say Chick Ferlay?”

*a series of stunned looks pass between Hubs and I, while she waits with excited expectation*

Hubs, to Tinypants: “Um…”

Me, trying to buy time: ” What?”

TP: “Are we going to Chick Ferlay?”

Hubs: “Hey Oracay?”

TP: “Yeah?”

H: “What does Ommymay mean?”

TP: “Mommy.”

H: “What does Andmagray mean?”

TP: “Grandma!”

H: “Eganmay?”

TP: “Mmmmegan Ssssmith.”

Me: “Atwhay areay ouyay oingday?” (What are you doing?)

Her, looking back down and nonchalantly turning a page: “Um… just reading this magazine, is all.”

I’ve replied to several of the comments from my earlier blog today. Check them out if you have a chance. After re-reading the post on “Comments Policy,” I was concerned that I was coming across as an angry school teacher. Not at all. I was trying to help those who emailed me questions about commenting. So, now, I hope I cleared that one up.

My prayer is that the Lord would use the difficulties in my life to help encourage others who may be going through hard times.Today is one of those good days again.

2 good articles for Caregivers:

25 Bad Habits Every Caregiver Should Avoid

30 Signs Your Loved One May Need a Caregiver

This link makes me want to renew my skills and to become fluent again in Spanish. I’ve forgotten many vocabulary words and idioms. Constructed languages for prevention of Alzheimers and Dementia I guess Pig-Latin wasn’t so bad after all! We used to get a good laugh out of doing it.

I’ve added some links on the right side of the page for those who want to subscribe to feeds of this blog. Do you want to learn Esperanto? Click here. And for Pig-Latin, click here. They are definitely worth checking out!

Want to leave a comment? Click here.

Have a good Sunday………….David Thomas

I’ve been reading Ginger: My Story by Ginger Rogers. My favorite parts of the book are the behind-the-scenes scoop. Rogers doesn’t offer too much gossip. She focuses more on the making of her films and stage shows. Driven, she sought comfort in work even when her personal life went on the fritz. Sometimes she skimps on the personal details, and I can’t decide if she’s witholding some material to protect her privacy or if the details simply weren’t important to her. Even though she wrote a memoir, self-reflection doesn’t seem as key to her as telling her story and witnessing her faith. Occasionally she sets the record straight about an infamous incident or her celluloid contributions.

For instance, she reveals the pig latin sequence in Gold Diggers of 1933 was her idea:

One day on set, I was handed the opening song and told to learn it by that evening. The scene was to be shot the next day and we had to be up on the number. I pleaded with Malcolm Beelby, the pianist, to forsake his lunch hour to help me learn my lyrics. Malcom kindly obliged. We went into a corner of the sound stage and started to rehearse. After about three hours, I started getting a little slap-happy, so instead of singing the lyrics as they were written, I translated them into pig latin.

Darryl F. Zanuck observes her, likes it, and has the improv put into the final film.

The pig latin bit makes that production number. In close-up, Rogers the beautiful girl has enough American chutzpah to make light of all the money her depression era audiences didn’t have enough of. She’s verbally winking at them, saying I am one of you, that things will be okay as long as we can have fun. We may not be in the money, but we are in on the joke. For a moment we are her conspirators, the wall has broken down, and we are taken away from our troubles.

I am so glad I’m not friends with her anymore and her smelly ego. Exnay on the amadray if you know what I eanmay … and I think you do

The recent dearth of lingustic fads is a bummer. It’s been a hot minute since a good linguistic fad swept the nation, captivating the hearts and minds of everyone from schoolchildren to pundits to politicians. The linguistic craze drought can be traced back to the turn of the 21st century, which is probably when Americans collectively hammered the last nail in the coffin of Ebonics. Before that, the world suffered through an even longer period of lingual uncreativity, given that whats-his-face made up Esperanto in 1887 and it failed to catch on almost immediately. Talking is so boring these days. Whither the zany linguists spending hours alone dreaming up abbreviated alphabets and pining away for a return to cuneiform? Consolation unbummer: Pig Latin will never die.