docoflove1974

Hallowe'en. Love me that awesome holiday. First, EVERY person turns into a kid. Even if you're not quite a costume-wearing person, it's the fun of dressing a bit different, of getting into the mood of candy, celebration, and letting loose for a bit. I mean, really, if you can't get into the holiday, I feel sorry for you. And I feel particularly lucky to have spent most of my life in 2 cities where people are truly into the f

This is it...pep talk ready...I can do this! We're at the end of the month, folks, which means that I made it through my Month of Hell. The Accreditation work that I've been doing is mostly done for now (and will require a lot of attention in January). The ePortfolios project is almost done, and will be ready for 3 November's presentation. The move is 90% complete, and will be done on Sunday. And I'm still alive! And well! Hurrah! Just one more weekend to get through...a big event on Saturday for work, that I'm organizing the catering and such, and then the move on Sunday. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it's not a head lamp So, to start off a mini-celebration, a blast from the past...to put you in a good mood on this Friday before All Hallow's Eve...

Yeah, 'Hotel California' is what did it for me. For whatever reason, the radio stations feel that because we live in the Golden State, we have to hear that song at least 5 times a day. bleh Then again, it only took 37 years of life for me to finally be able to put up with Robert Plant's voice enough to somewhat enjoy Led Zepplin. I know, I know...but the tone of his voice is grating to me. And it took me a long time to be able to get around his horrible wailing in order to enjoy the wonderful awesomeness that is Jimmy Page.

You could find either in a good university library. Otherwise, you might have to purchase them.

Philip Baldi's Foundations of Latin is a good place to start to read about how Latin came to be. Latin is an Italic language, which is a branch of Indo-European. Baldi also has a good book on IE languages, Introduction to the Indo-European Languages.

Well, it depends on your point of view. Most linguists don't believe that Latin died out; we believe that Latin evolved. Even the daily language of the Empire wasn't Classical Latin; it was Vulgar Latin, which was a further evolution of Classical Latin, of sorts. The modern Romance languages are just an even further evolution of that change.

*blargh* That's a common phrase among many, who in a bleary-eyed moment are trying to sum up their feelings as they shuffle toward their keyboards in the morning. It's a general feeling of fatigue, or grogginess even. This is my first, second, and perhaps even third thought this morning. I'm half-way through my Month of Hell, and for the most part I'm holding up well. I'm only slightly behind my grading, which is an awesome feat considering how many students I have this semester. Three of my projects are running smoothly, and people are pulling up their end of the bargain. The majority of the big weekends is over, and projects are getting their final run-throughs. The one huge project, however, is a mixed bag. To put it one way, I've been working until midnight twice this week. Both nights, I had a 12-hour teaching and meeting day, so it's not like I got to take a nap some time in the afternoon. And when I come home from said 12-hour days, I'm only mildly coherent in general. But both days I had to resort of a caffeinated beverage at around 4pm (Dr. Pepper, if you please), just to make sure I stayed awake. How odd is this, you ask? I don't drink caffeine...I had to give it up about 5 years ago, due to my constant drinking of black tea all day long. (The weird part was that I wasn't drinking the tea for the caffeine...I was drinking it because I love it, and it kept me from grazing all day long while working on the dissertation. Oh what I would give for a cup or two of assam tea right now...*sigh*) So, as I get moving this morning, and prepare for an 8:45am meeting, I'm a little rough. I could use a nap, and indeed one will be mandatory this afternoon, after my other big meeting today. I'm turning into the Little Engine That Could, constantly telling myself, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..." Hopefully soon the mantra will be: "I knew I could! Whew! Now, time to relax!" (PS--I hate the Eagles...but this is truly the first song title that came to mind. Stupid classic rock station....why do I always wake up to the worst songs???)

Agreed, and with Viggen. When I show people a picture of my mother and her family, no one believes that she, my grandmother, and my great-aunt are Italian. I know they are, not just because of the genealogy, but because most northern Italians don't look like the swarthy Mediterraneans that everyone thinks of. The fact that they have light skin and blue eyes throws people off...until you look at others from parts north of Tuscany. Also, as others mentioned, just thinking of the Germanic invasions and intermixing, the substratum of Celtic tribes, let alone the Slavic combinations in the northeast, and there's no question that 'Italian' isn't one sub-group, but a mixture.

LMAO GoC...so I keep hearing! When I tell people about this, the first comment I get is: "Ooh! Now you'll lose your freedom! You won't be able to go out at night and hang out with your friends!" Do what? I teach 3 nights a week, and usually use Thursday and Friday (evenings included) to get everything done, so that I have my weekends completely free. I don't think that's gonna change! As for marriage...yeah, probably There's no ring...yet...

*Shuffle into the room* *Notice tons of dust on the blog* *Pull out cleaning rag and wipe away dust* There...that's better So, uh, yeah, been a bit busy this year. Not that I have a ton of time to maintain this blog currently...and probably won't for another month. But at least I should make an effort, right? Yeah, I hope so, too. So, what and/or who has been taking up my time, you ask? Funny, that. In no particular order... Boyfriend: Ok, that one is in a particular order...yes, the same one since January. Life is truly wonderful--especially since he respects my busy schedule (a first for me). At the end of October we're moving in together, even. Accreditation: Lemme 'splain dis one, Lucy. Every academic institution, from K-12 to college, applies for accreditation. By receiving accreditation, said institution is eligible for state and federal financial aid, the degrees and learning are 'to minimum code,' to borrow a term from the building industry, and therefore will be accepted at any other academic institution. Accreditation is done by regional bodies, each of which have separate sub-bodies for various levels of education (K-12, Junior/Community Colleges, 4-year Universities). The one that my main campus falls under is known for being the most critical, and for giving out a ton of sanctions every year. So, what does this have to do with me? I'm the head writer for the campus' Self-Evaluation. Thankfully, most of the writing is done by sub-committees, and I just have to make it all one, cohesive unit. Seeing as how I was chosen because of my work on one of the sub-committees, I also have to help that group with their work. No small task. ePortfolios: On top of that, a colleague in the ESL department pulled me in to work with her on student ePortfolios. Higher ed campuses are moving to this system of keeping track of certain student work, so that the Accreditation Powers That Be will be satisfied with the sacrificial offering. (Ooops, I probably shouldn't use so much snark there...oh well, it's out there.) Anyway, I'm new to that world, too, so I'm learning what I can, trying things out, and creating the workshops for that with my colleague. Bay Honors Consortium: I got pulled into a group of Honors professors at the various community colleges in the Bay Area last academic year, and I love working with these people. We have 2 events every year: the Round Table in October (for faculty and administrators who want to pow-wow with their colleagues elsewhere in Northern California) and the Bay Honors Research Symposium in late April/early May (for students to present their research in a true academic conference). So, yeah, just a bit of work to do there. Teaching: So, on top of working a full schedule at 2 different campuses (that are 35 miles apart), my spring schedule featured 3 private groups, and a private tutoring session that I did with a businessman. Thankfully, the full schedule at 2 campuses is still in play, and should be for some time. The private stuff is down to one group, the people I started out with, and who I want to finish up in their series. I doubt I'll be taking on any more work, because of the previously-mentioned stuff. So, just a wee bit busy Crap, it's nearing 8:30am. I still need to eat breakfast and get household chores done before I start prepping for this week's mountain. (Yes, that's new Mumford & Sons...I'm kinda listening to that CD non-stop right now. Hey, it beats the drivel they're playing on the radio!)

If you look at post #3 of this thread, I have offered up links that are excellent in describing the Latin language--both the grammar and the pronunciation. I use them to this day with my students. In addition, any good Latin grammar text (such as Wheelock's Latin or Oxford Latin Course) have sections on how to pronounce Latin.

It's been interesting, and controversial on the linguistic side. It certainly has helped in the case of the Basques, proving that their linguistic uniqueness also corresponds to their genetic uniqueness. But with respect to the Americas, the controversy of their results (if I recall correctly, that there were only 3 waves of migration: Inuit, Na-Dene, and everyone else) doesn't entirely match up with what some linguistic researchers are continuously reconstructing. On the other hand, other studies have shown that the 'other' group of Americans has several linguistic similarities. I'm not sure of the research beyond that, but it is a controversial, and ever-evolving, area of linguistics. At the same time, I've been reading this NYT article more, and I agree with some of the skepticism on the part of the linguists. I'd have to delve into the original article in Science more, but as I said in my earlier posts, there is a very strong risk of using only lexical items for reconstruction, because words can be borrowed--in particular, those for technology, which is what words for 'chariot' are. It's one thing to analyze terminology for family members, the basic body parts, numerals 1-10, native flora and fauna--this is commonly used in reconstruction. But equally important is basic sentence structure and morphology--what time of affixation is used on basic words, possessive constructions, and similar core elements of a language. That's what they are missing in this study of Proto-Indo-European, and until they do include it, it's not going to convince many historical Indo-Europeanists.

Well, it's been done before, particularly with reference to the Basques and the American population from Asia--although that's admittedly using genetics. I find it interesting that they're using traditional reconstruction tactics in a different way. But as the end of the article accurately points out, using simply lexical items, even core vocabulary, isn't as strong as including the evolution of the syntax and morphology.

Thanks so much, Maty! I agree with Bryaxis, it would take a full team to update such a great and thorough reference.

I read the article, too, and thought it was a curious read. I have no doubt that Roman parents were pushy, although somehow I don't think they were quite as demanding as Spartan parents <grin> I'm curious to see if/when this is coming to the US; I'd be curious to see how she portrays the different aspects of Roman life.

I didn't mean to suggest that it *never* happens...just that we would need evidence for it. And because there is little evidence of the Britannic Celtic languages of that time, I make that hesitation again. For what it's worth, African American English is a whole other ball of wax, so to speak. The differences between it and Standard American English are frequently attributed to a creolization effect that has continued to evolve over the centuries. If you listen to, for example, , you can hear the creolization effect between the various African languages and Elizabethan English. This, and other such creoles spoken by the slaves, has evolved into what we now recognize as African American English. Yes, there are many who have postulated that English is really the result of a creolization, but I don't recall the Celtic languages being used in the argument. Instead, the Old Norse, Angle, Saxon, and Old Norman French are frequently offered as the contributing languages of the 'creole'. I don't have any sources with me right now, so I'll hold off on making stronger claims.

It is true that a language is classified into a language family based on the grammatical structure, particularly the morphology and syntax, and not on the lexicon. I'd love to see this book you mention, just to see these differences being linked to Britannic Celtic. I say that because not as much is known about the language as it was spoken at that time, and unless there has been a sudden influx of data, I don't know that one can officially link any specific change in English to Britannic Celtic. We have the most data from Old Welsh (800-1200 CE), but Old Breton would be the closest to the Britannic Celtic languages of England spoken at the time of Rome and of the time of Germanic invaders. The problem is that we have just a few toponyms of Old Breton, which is not enough data to make such claims. What is more, the Romans were not interested in documenting the languages of the peoples that they conquered, so without that contemporary data I don't know that one could say that the language of the Celtics influenced the languages of the Germanic peoples who conquered and settled in England. There is another reason why I am hesitant to say that the Britannic Celtic languages influenced the Germanic languages, thus creating Old English: are we talking phonological changes, or morphological and syntactic changes? It's not particularly common for a substratum language to influence the superstratum language, even in the Indo-European languages. There are some thoughts of phonological influence--think the Latin [f] > Iberian and Gascon [h] phenomenon--but very little on morphology or syntax. The one possible exception is the Balkan sprachbund, where there seem to be quite a few common traits among the languages of the Balkans that are not shared with the other languages of those families. However, many have refrained from saying outright that there is a substratum influence, simply because the history of these languages during Medieval times is somewhat unknown, especially for Rumanian. In addition to having a West Germanic grammatical structure, there has been influence on Old English by Old Norse--both in lexical items and object pronouns. But the greatest changes came at the time of the Norman Conquest--although it seems that the changes were already underway before 1066 CE. All one has to do is compare the Old English in Beowulf to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and note the grammatical changes, and not all of this is due to influence of the Norman French spoken in the courts of the day. Similar changes can be seen in the history of Dutch, English's closest sibling, which (as I recall) has not had much influence from French or other Romance languages. There are several books, and many that have been published or updated in the last few years, that chronicle the history of the English language. Charles Barber's The English Language is one handbook that just got updated this year, and one that I would recommend. (There are others, but I'm not as familiar with them...perhaps there are others on here that are.)

Indeed, a happy birthday! Hope you have a most wonderful day!

I'll add to the birthday wishes, too. Hope you have a most wonderful day!

Heh yeah, I agree that Van Halen isn't the end all-be all of 80s rock. I found it really funny that they were voted by the listeners of the radio station. I often wonder what would have happened to Hendrix if he had lived even 10 more years. Would he have influenced Bowie even more, thus creating a less-glam Ziggy? As for VH, most of the original lineup is back, yes. Michael Anthony refuses to play with Eddie until he's sober permanently, which ain't happening. So, Eddie's son Wolfgang is the bassist. A family affair, I guess?

Being that it's Presidents' Day Weekend, one of the local classic rock stations did a survey of its listeners, asking them to name the iconic song of each president's term from Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan. The survey was put out there by Greg Kihn, a local (and somewhat mildly nationally-recognized) guitarist and band-leader, who does the morning show on that radio station. Nixon's term was represented by Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" (appropriate for so many reasons), I forget Ford and Carter's representatives, but Reagan's was voted as....Van Halen's . This got me to thinking...was Van Halen the most representative rock band of the 80s? And what is it about "Panama" that is so cool? For me, a kid born in the mid-70s, and an MTV kid, Van Halen was one of the coolest bands ever. Their videos set the tone for much of the goofy, silly, extravagant, party-inducing videos that would come later. But that wasn't the only reason you listened to them...Eddie Van Halen is a bona fide rock god. Seriously...listen to "Panama"...or better yet, with that mind-blowing solo of Eddie's, and Michael Anthony's bass thumping in the mix. And the beginning of "Runnin With The Devil"......or ...yeah, I'm a happy girl. Sure, some of the other songs with funnier videos were iconic of the 80s, but if you took just the music...yeah, in many ways, Van Halen was truly iconic of the 80s. And even though I love me some Sammy Hagar, the band just wasn't the same without Diamond Dave wailing and growling away...videos and stage presence aside. Yes, there were many, many other acts of the 80s that could represent the decade--and for various reasons--but I can see the appeal of Van Halen being the representatives. I mean, when you think of Reagan and his crew, isn't the polar opposite Van Halen? What's sad is to see that Eddie is such an epic rock star that he can't stay dry enough to regain his greatness...Michael decided that he didn't want to put up with Eddie's antics...Diamond Dave is washed up...and does anyone care about Alex? Meh, rock n roll greats aren't meant to go on for ever and ever in the same vein. It seems like the lifestyle and the mentality will destroy the weaker individuals, and make the stronger ones go to other avenues and arenas just to survive into middle age and beyond. Thankfully we have their recordings to remind us of how great they really were.

"So, how are you, really? You sound entirely too stressed. This is not normal." Dad hit the nail on the head, as we were driving to lunch today. Let's face fact: I'm a creature of habit, as we all are. I'm just one of those creatures who likes to plan ahead, organize as much as possible, so that when the poop pops upward, I know where things are, what can be done, etc. I see it as being prepared, so that I can work a ton and then have plenty of time to relax in between responsibilities. Others consider it being anal retentive. I point to my high-fiber diet and bathroom visits to prove them wrong. No, I just get my knickers in a bunch when people don't do their jobs, which in turn sets me behind on mine. I got a call at the beginning of January to take on a class at a campus 45 minutes from home. It's a bit of a haul, sure, but the pay is good, and it gets me back into a district that I used to teach in...this, in turn, could lead to more work in the near future. Usually, if people get me in the system and give me the necessary information quickly, I can plan out a full semester course in 2-3 days. Then again, this relies on people getting me set up so that I can do all this. Instead, due to office people being sick and others not returning emails and phone calls for 2 weeks, I didn't get to plan my class until 5 days before I had to teach. Not to mention that I had to scramble around and get my employment documents done. About 5 days after I got that initial call, I received another offer to teach staff and faculty of a local high school district. I said sure, only to be put on hold for 2 weeks before I could get planning. And I'm thankful that I had my survey ready to go for the prospective students, the results of which showed that I had to do a completely different plan than the one that I was told would be necessary. So, if you're counting at home, that's 2 courses (one full semester, one an 8-week job) to plan in a span of 10 days. And it takes time to get all of my ducks in a row, to get the entire course planned for the semester, to upload the online content, yadda yadda yadda. Of course I can get this done, all while also working my other teaching assignment (that got underway mid-January), and the other things on my plate. Sure, why not? Stressed? Yeah, a bit. Then again, it'll all be over soon. Semester-long class has been fully planned and is underway. 8-week job is still in need of planning, but until the first week I can't do much--I gotta see how much work these people figure on doing, before I kick them into reality But, hey, it's all good. Between the cat and the boyfriend, I have enough goofs around to keep me laughing. Now I just need Dad to lighten up about me (hah) In the meantime, .

Oh it's true, that it takes time to build a good show. But you could see a spark of chemistry from the beginning with the UK threesome that is there now--something that still isn't there for the US version. Also, the utter lack of passion for what they do; hell, even Captain Slow obviously loves what he does, as he's testing out a new car for the program. That's the part that is completely missing from the US version: the passion for telling people what is right and wrong about the car as they put it through its paces. I think that's the part that they've forgotten about.

I warned you...TG USA has zero redeeming qualities. It's as if they took bits of the original, slapped 3 people together to host, and called it a day. Oh, and it's in the middle of season 2...ye gods!

I have no idea why, but is my absolute favorite song by Otis Redding. I mean, it's not really about San Francisco; it's really about him. Yes, I know, he was sitting on a pier that ran into the San Francisco Bay when he wrote the key line, but the rest of the song was written by Steve Cropper--and he purposely wrote it about Otis. Evidently, Otis hated writing about his life, but Steve found it full of inspiration. I guess the rhythm of the song does remind me of sitting at some of my favorite beaches along the coast--Pescadero Beach in particular. Or better still, of sitting on the pier of my great-aunt and great-uncle's place on Tomalas Bay, just north of San Francisco. They sold it in the mid-80s, when I was but a wee lass, but I still remember going fishing with my dad off that pier, and sitting on it to enjoy the sunset. I guess its purpose is to have us reconnect with some vague memory...it does with me.