Ego Vero Seek and you shall find... Ask and the door shall be opened - page 35

Here’s another puzzle piece to put on the table since I am working on the double sided 3D jigsaw puzzle of Life Or Whatever This Is.  The easiest pieces are those from the past because I know where I’ve been.  The colors, shapes and edges are distinct which makes it a little easier for me to see where they fit together.  The present pieces are somewhat more challenging.  They’re not solid – the shapes change; the outlines are fuzzy.  They might fit in anywhere – I have to keep moving them around until they lock in.  The future pieces have no form at all, however…..the spaces I need to fill are taking shape.  Will the pieces I create fit in those spaces?

Are You a Novice, or Expert?

How’s you’re puzzle coming along?

I am a big Peanuts fan and I have mixed feelings about this.  It will probably be very good or very bad.  I guess I will hope for the best, the trailer looks pretty cute.

I seem to associate Peanuts with good memories from my childhood,  One of my friends had a few paperback anthologies which were just collections of Peanuts comic strips and we would spend hours reading those.  Of course Snoopy was a favorite.  There were life lessons in those comics, very subtle, not preachy.  They could be absorbed effortlessly, almost unknowingly.  Subliminally, as it were.  I remember when the Peanuts TV specials came out and honestly at the time they seemed a little lame.  The only one I really care for today is “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, though “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” is not bad if just for the World War I Flying Ace sequence.  “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was the first of the specials made and done on a shoestring budget.  The story of how it was made is interesting in that it nearly wasn’t made at all.  TV executives wanted to cut the classic scene of Linus telling the true meaning of Christmas and Schulz was adamant about it being kept in.  Then there is the iconic theme music, the title song which is “Linus and Lucy” by jazz musician Vince Guaraldi who is coincidentally also a northern California native, hailing from San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood.  This little song has withstood the test of time and I belive it will still be heard long after I am gone.

There is a Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California that I have visited.  It is surprisingly large and as an adult you can easily spend an afternoon there.  The kids may be bored after an hour, but most kids today probably don’t even know what Peanuts is (yet).  Definitely worth a visit if you are in or going to be in northern California.  Well, here’s hoping that Peanuts in 3D! will be a classic and keep the Peanuts legacy going for a few more generations.

I confess to being a bit of a language snob.  That is, I may make a judgement of a person’s character or intelligence based on how they speak.  Even though I often habitually use language that is informal or incorrect – what would be called colloquialisms, slang or the dreaded jargon.  I actually prefer it in speaking and in writing.  I am, however, careful not to expose myself to the potential harsh judgement of other language snobs and am on My Best Behavior in situations where I am with other language snobs or unsure of the company.  Here at the blog you will frequently see me in my rhetorical underwear.  Language snobs – don’t look!

You talkin’ to me?

That’s why it was with interest that I read “In Defense of Talking Funny” by Kory Stamper at her blog Harmless Drudgery.  As a defender of talking funny she has some cred (see what I did there?) since she is a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster.  I may e-mail her and ask if she gets to carry a badge or something.  But I digress.  In reading her article she gave a name to the practice of changing how we speak in different situations.  In those instances what we are doing is changing dialects, a practice she refers to as “code-switching”.  But what is a dialect?  I will quote the lexicographer’s explanation of what makes a dialect:

To get technical, dialects are varieties of a language that have their own set of speakers with their own vocabulary, grammatical rules, and accent, and they can be regional, socioeconomic, ethnic,  tonal, and even a combination thereof. American English has eight major dialects–or 24, or hundreds, depending on who you ask and what they define as a “dialect.”

So languages are made up of dialects and English is no different, and the casual language I have adopted is a dialect.  I don’t know where it came from, I’d like to believe I invented it myself.  MikeSpeak.  Truth is it’s probably local and something I have learned.  Also, it turns out most of us don’t just speak a dialect, but switch between several depending on the situation, which frustrates language snobs everywhere who want to know why no one can speak english anymore.  Ms. Stamper tells us that Standard English, while being a dialect in and of itself, is the language used by people with power and prestige.  OK, I get that.  When I want to appear educated, influential or powerful I will break out the Standard English lest the powerful Standard English Speakers judge me.  

I am a practioner and also a victim of language snobbery.  Turns out that makes me normal.  Who would have guessed that?  Me being normal, I mean.  But it also makes me human.  It is human nature for us to judge those different from us – whether it is how we speak or how we look.  And it is human nature to try and fit in.  So we keep being human.  And if people are talkin’ funny it’s not the end of the world.  They’re just being people.  

Writing yesterday’s Saint Patrick’s Day post brought back fond memories of my 2009 trip to Ireland.  Though to be truthful the actual experience was somewhat stressful since we did not book a tour.  Rather we made our own reservations, rented cars and drove ourselves around.  So there was a fair amount of feeling a little “lost”.  At least they spoke English – sort of.  Going back through my pictures, I thought I would share a few more with you.  Again, you can click on the image to see a larger version.  If you’d like any more info, ask in the comments and I’ll answer.

Lismore Castle

Lismore Castle in County Waterford, once owned by Sir Walter Raleigh.  The site has been occupied since the 7th Century, but the current buildings were built in the mid-18th century.  We did not go inside as the grounds were closed at the time we were passing through the area.

The Town of Dungarvan in the distance

This is the view of the town of Dungarvan from one of the places we stayed in County Waterford, the Seaview B&B.  A very nice place reasonably priced – I recommend it.

A typical Irish town. I do not recall the name of this one where we made a rest stop.

Here is a main street of a typical Irish town.  I believe the pink building on the left is a pub.  There is always a pub.

Here’s a better shot

Yep..I was right.  It’s Danny O’Shea’s.  No google listing.  There is a D. O’Shea’s Hotel on google but this isn’t it.

OK, that’s all for now.  If you want to see more or know any more about the subject, please inquire in the comments.

Saint Patrick’s Day is not merely a commercial holiday designed to sell green beer, party goods and corned beef, it is a cultural and religious holiday commemorating the arrival of Christianity in Ireland.  Saint Patrick was a 5th Century Christian missionary, considered the primary Patron Saint of the island.  You may follow the links to learn more via wikipedia.  It was not my sole intention to give a history lesson, but to share my personal experience of walking some of the same ground walked by Pádraig.

I was fortunate to be able to travel to Ireland in 2009 and one of the places I visited was The Rock of Cashel, a historic site in County Tipperary.

The Rock of Cashel

The site was the traditional seat of the Kings of Munster prior to the Norman Invasion and is reputed to be where the (then current) King of Munster was converted to Christianity by Saint Patrick in the 5th Century.  The oldest buildings remaining on the site date from ca. 1100, though there is a cross there they call Saint Patrick’s Cross and it is said to date from the King’s conversion in the 5th century.

Saint Patrick’s Cross

I found this to be truly a beautiful place, and it gave me pause to think how many lives have intersected here.

Their Domain as once viewed by Great Kings.  Looking out over County Tipperary

All photos are mine.  You can click on each image to see a larger version.

And so remember all who came before us and that Saint Patrick’s Day has been a long time in the making.

Since all the new reporting on Malaysian Airways Flight 370 seems to be speculation, I am not going to post about it again until some new concrete information comes out.  All that is known for sure is that that plane is missing and presumed crashed.  The who, what , when, where and why are all unknown.

As I stated in my first post, the simplest explanation is usually correct, and that is that the plane has crashed.  Though I believe there is a strong possiblity that this was an attempt to “steal” the airliner, IMHO the likelyhood of a successful undetected landing is very slight.  What is also unknown is if the mystery will ever be solved.  And so, continuing prayers for the passengers, crew and their families.

A little night-funny…..well sorta funny anyway.  Something to take our minds off air piracy and the invasion of Crimea.  Here is a 7 minute video of close calls – some of the luckiest idiots you will ever see.  Also, Russian dashcam video is epic.

Enjoy!

This is now officially a criminal investigation, as reported in The Washington Post.  The Airliner’s ACARS system initiated periodic “handshakes”with comm satellites approximately every 30 minutes for an additional seven hours after civilian radar contact was lost.  The plane’s location could not be ascertained from the signals and it is not known whether the plane was in flight for the duration of that time or if it had landed, nor is it clear whether it crashed or was landed and shut down when the system stopped communicating.

The exact amount of fuel on board is not known, but it would  have been sufficient for the scheduled six hour flight to Beijing and common practice is to carry a minimum 1 hour reserve.  Authorities have several working theories, mainly falling along three lines.  First is that the plane was hijacked either by the crew or terrorist passengers and then crashed intentionally into the Indian Ocean as an act of either terrorism or suicide.  Another theory is that the plane was hijacked by either crew or passengers with the intent to divert and land at an unknown location, but then ran out of fuel and crashed.  The final theory is the same as the second theory except that in this scenario the plane was successfully landed at an unknown location.  This third theory is deemed the unlikeliest, since authorities believe that for this to happen, the plane would have been detected entering either Indian or Pakistani airspace and as of yet there is no indication that this occurred.

Additional information:

ABC News (autoplay video)

CNN

UK Daily Mail

All bets are off now.

Reuters reports: Radar Data Suggests Missing Malaysia Plane Deliberately Flown Way Off Course: Sources

Associated Press:  1 US Theory Is Someone Diverted Missing Plane

New York Times: Satellite Firm Says Its Data From Jet Could Offer Location

How Can An Airliner Just Disappear?  The same way your Porsche disappears from your driveway.

Someone steals it.

Yeah, I thought so.

Mummified Michigan Woman Seemingly Voted In the Afterlife, Records Show.

Nothing to see here…move along.