another limerick

There once was a little car Pinkerton
who wanted to move out to Beaverton
but a head gasket blew
and its days may be through
without even getting to Washington

The little car Pinkerton suffered a break down on its way from Montana. The head-gasket blew as it was going over Lola Pass, and it is currently in Lola, awaiting a decision on what to do.
So Dad was not able to come for his visit, he ended up catching a greyhound bus home to Bozeman. I was looking forward to spending some time together, but we will see each other soon, when he comes out for the wedding.

lunch out

Today a friend from first year Hebrew and I are meeting for lunch at PSU. I haven't seen much of her lately- since I went on to second year at PSU, and she went on to a semester of biblical Hebrew elsewhere. Our first year class was a nice group of people. Only two of us continued through the end of second year, Sharla and I. Sharla just got married and is moving to Louisianna to go to school there. And I am getting married in September (and on to who knows what kind of adventure;-). Everyone else moved in other directions. Laura and I have had a couple of classes together in the Linguistics department. Virginia switched to Spanish, which last I heard was working out really well for her. Ann I have seen around campus a couple of times for events, but have not had a chance to talk. Mike decided to redo first year from Shirly (she tutored us first year, and now she is teaching classes for the university) rather than take second year. Alexis didn't have time for Hebrew between Linguistics and Chemistry and everything else. and that is all that I have kept track of...

old recipe

We looked at a page from a cookbook from 1390. The spellings are strange and the instructions foreign to modern ears, and it was a bit of a puzzle to figure out what they are trying to say. There are two letters that we no longer have- one looks like a cross between a g and a 3, and the other is called a thorn, it looks like a b with the tail of a p. So I will use the letter y for the first and the combo th for the second:
33 Gees in hoggepot. Take gees and smyte hem on pecys; cast hem in a pot. Do therto half wyne and half water, and to therto a gode quantite of oynouns and erbes. Set it ouer the fyre and couere it fast. Make a layour of brede and blode & lay it therwith; do therto powdour fort and serue it fort.
bon apetit?

Another day in the sun

Today looks like another sunny day. yesterday Jody and I and two of his friends hung out for a while around Portland State University, and in wandering around discovered a very neat fountain that I had never seen before. We took some pictures around there and then went for a visit to the Saturday Market, which is always a fun adventure. There was a booth there selling scones- I got one and it was very tasty- almond and apricot- a nice combo.
In school news: there are three homework assignments due this week, and then next week is the last week of the term. We have a take-home final, which strikes me as odd, but it is good that we do not have to commit to memory all the details we have been studying.

half-time

My history of English class is half over. Two weeks down, two to go. We have been talking mostly about sound change over time, and that is fascinating. One can trace words back and see where they came from, and why they are spelled the way that they are. For example- some perfectly reasonable spellings were changed to make words look more like the Latin words they were (or were thought to be) derived from.
I think that I will do some more reading on this after the end of the term- our book has some suggested further reading, including a book on the English of Shakespear's day. Aparrently a number of his puns hinge on the rhyming of certain words.

history of English

I am signed up for one class this summer, the history of English. It is an interesting class- we are starting with the sound system of Old English and talking about how it changed over time into what we speak today as modern English. Also what factors influenced the spelling system of our language (why it is so irregular now) We have texts to look at and we were treated in class to hearing a recitation of some Old English- that was fun! The plan is to go through each factor that way- first the sound system, then later the vocab, the syntax, whatever other factors we study in this super- short term of only four weeks. We do meet four times per week, so that is good, and we have a good book to read. I may try to scan the book and put a picture of its cover on this page, it is such a pretty cover.

day after Yellowstone

Yesterday we went to Yellowstone, and had a full day seeing many sights and many woodland creatures. We also stopped by Old Faithful to see the geyser go off. I did get to see it this trip. Not only that, Jody and I wandered around on the trails and saw some even cooler geysers, like the beehive and the castle. I posted pictures of our day to the wedding blog, although none with geysers in them. This picture was taken by my father of Old Faithful.

Bozeman MT

I am enjoying a lovely visit here in Montana, spending time with family and friends. It is nice to come in June, when it is still green but not still cold. Jody and I are staying with my parents. Today we are planning a trip to Yellowstone National Park- should be a fun day. Jody has never been to Yellowstone before. The last time I was there was the summer of 2002 (I think it was 2002) when working at Clydehurst Christian Ranch as an assistant cook. Each weekend the staff was taken somewhere fun- one time it was Yellowstone. It rained alot that day, and we didn't end up seeing Old Faithful. Today, who knows?

spring term is over

I took three classes this term, and each one of them was excellent; in content, in teaching, and in the chosen readings. This term has been my favorite. I have added a link to this site to Apling Word Web, this was my final project for my applied linguistics class- and it was very fun to work on. The poetry class I took this term helped me out immesurably in the linguistics class, and I am very glad that I took it.
Not too long now, and I will be all done with my linguistics degree...

Don't worry, pray

At Southwest Bible church this last sunday, Pastor Scott preached on Philippians 4:6&7 'Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.' His message was straitforward: pray about everything, wherever life is building up nervous energy, turn that energy toward prayer. He said also, 'when we are most tempted to worry, we are least able to afford it.' And he gave five reasons to not worry, but pray instead:
1) because God said to
2) because God cares
3) because God can do something about it
4) because we can't do anything about it
5) because it glorifies God
Reason one relates to obedience, two to trust, three and four to wisdom, and five to worship. One last thought from the sermon: There was a sign on the old Alaska Highway before it was paved 'pick your rut carefully- you'll be in it the next 200 miles' Our habits are like that, and we can choose to get into the habit of fretting, or we can choose to get into the habit of praying.
This was a very encouraging message for me. If you would like to hear it yourself, go to www.swbible.org

the willamette

Hello, all! Here is a picture of my fiance, Jody, and I- taken down by the Willamette River during the AAA conference on spirituality this year. We had some good weather, and a good chance to hang out with the international speakers. Lua took this picture and e-mailed it to me from home.

class nearly over- new plans

This term is nearly over, and just over the last couple of days a new plan has emerged- to work full time over the summer and then go part time during the school year, and graduate in the spring of 07 instead of the fall 06. When the details are settled, I will drop out of summer school, and start job-hunting in a serious manner. Of course there is always the temp agency, and they did find me a job at college housing northwest when I left Safeway. That is worth looking into. This is a big change in plans, but I think that it will work out better this way.

spring term...

is nearly over, and this has been a good term. Finals approach, and today is a day to work on a major project- this one for my rhyme and meter class. I have chosen to write about Edgar Allan Poe's poem, the Raven. It is an interesting poem, and I think that the paper is going fairly well so far. On Tuesday, I will turn in a rough draft, and then have a chance to make any changes for the final project. My other major project will be more time consuming and difficult, but possibly more fun as well. That will be for applied linguistics, and it will be a synthesis of three of our weekly articles in an artistic form. Only two terms more before graduation :-)

Serbo-Croatian epic decasyllable

This meter is sung improvisationally. Each line has ten syllables, which is broken into two parts, the first with four syllables and the second with six. An important rule for this meter is that syllables three and four must belong to the same word. That word can be disyllabic or trisyllabic. The same rule applies to the nineth and tenth syllables. The use of stock phrases makes improvising with this form easier for the participants. We applied this meter to English, and wrote some verse in class:
Hasty people travel in the subway
old bums begging for change in the subway
hasty people who won't pay attention
big rats scurry around hasty people
Our topic was New York city, and our stock phrases were 'hasty people' and 'in the subway' It works out nicely to have the phrases be four syllables long, because then they can go into either the first or the second part of the line. Anyway, this was a fun meter to study. If you feel inspired to write a little in this meter, please post it as a comment- that would be fun :-)

Some Fun Quotes

That is what marraige really means: helping one anothere to reach the full status of being persons, responsible and autonomous beings who do not run away from life. -Paul Tournier

Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distincly what it loves. -Blaise Pascal

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness. -Friedrich Nietzsche

Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh. -W H Auden

Linguistical Limericks

There once was a verb from intransitive
who scoffed at the noun phrase from transitive
one day it collided
with two nouns elided
and now it is living ditransitive

A linguist without any witnesses
set down to the business of synthesis
but her words fell apart
in a scramble for art
and she ended her days in analysis

There once was a poet who tried
to study linguistics applied
when she had to read Krashen
her teeth fell to gnashin'
at the monitor model inside

These were written for my group project in applied linguistics. A very fun class, where we are encouraged to be creative. I have never had a class with a set-up like it before. We have two professors. One Linguist, and one Applied Linguist. We meet three times a week- each professor takes a day to discuss the article of the week, and then the third day a group does their presentation. I was fortunate to have my week be week 5, it made the project into a 'midterm', and now I can focus on the final project, which will take a lot more time to put together. In fact, I picked up three books from the library to read.

analogies

In applied linguistics last week, we made up some analogies for linguistics. There were five started for us, such as: linguistics is to applied linguistics as_____is to____. I came up with one good one myself: pragmatics is to grammar as je ne sait quoi is to savoir faire. Those that got it were tickled pink with this one. Meybe it wasn't fair to do one in French, but those phrases are pretty commonly borrowed into English... Some other ones brought up in class were: lie is to figure of speech as daggar is to pocket knife, and linguistics is to applied linguistics as architecture is to construction. It was a fun class! But then, this class has been one fun surprise after the next... Tomorrow, my group is presenting. I hope that goes well, and I expect that it will...

group work

Today my group in Applied Linguistics is meeting for the first time. Our presentation is a week from friday. It is not worse than the other groups are doing, but I don't like it. We only really have two projects. One of them is the final and the other is this group project. I hope that we can split up the alloted time into segments and each take a segment. I would rather do my work on my own, it would be easier with my schedule. Oh, well, we shall see how this goes. Our group has an interesting article, and that certainly helps.

family in town

My parents are in town for almost a week. They are staying with me, and hanging out in Portland. Yesterday my folks and fiance and his mother all went to lunch together in Vancouver. Then we went to the farmers market. It was a nice and sunny day. Dad made omelettes for us three this morning, and in a little while we will head downtown to go to meet Jody and go to church together. I just recently started another blog, a wedding blog, but there isn't really anything on it yet, since we don't have the date or place picked out yet. soon.

Taxes

Now is that time of the year when taxes are due, and there is some mumbling and complaining about this. However, it is a good thing to have taxes. Taxes pay for the police department, and the fire department, and many other important services. Without that kind of inferstructure society would not run at all smoothly. That is not to say that everything is perfect, just that it is a far sight better than anarchy ever could be. I used to work at PSU, as a building cleaner. Someone would occasionally paint/ draw symbols for anarchy in the elevator, and it was my job to clean up that sort of mess. It made me chuckle to think what this person would experience if there were a little anarchy in his life (I mean, if suddenly, the cleaning crew no longer cleaned up after him) Oh well, some of the best laughs come from some of the most annoying things. So if you are in the camp that is annoyed by taxes, think of something humorous about tax-day. You could even shock your co-workers with a suprise 'tax-day' party. That would be fun!