He or She makes They.

Following the theme from last Friday, I thought I'd mention another quirk in my language.  In this case, actually, I just tend to be wrong.  Two things: a) singular/plural pronouns, and b) subject-verb agreement.

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Singular/Plural Pronouns.
I don't claim to be a grammarian, and by no means do I know all the writing rules, but I had always been told to make sure a sentence is consistent.  I listen for consistency.  I've noticed that many people, in an effort not to give away gender when being anonymous, replace the pronoun he/she with the singular they.  For example, "I know a person who once was in debt so much that they cut up all of their credit cards."

I didn't know it was a real thing, but there is a syntactical basis for it, as recorded in this generations online encyclopedia (Wikipedia).  It's correctness is debatable, but is recognizably used for indeterminate gender and indeterminate number.

From Wikipedia, an example of indeterminate number:

There's not a man I meet but doth salute me / As if I were their well-acquainted friend — Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, Act IV, Scene 3 (1594)

and indeterminate gender:

"It can't be true what the girls at the Rectory said, that her mother was an opera-dancer—""A person can't help their birth," Rosalind replied with great liberality. — Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1848)

There's a slew of other examples.  My conclusions is that if it's good enough for Shakespeare, it's good enough for me.  I won't feel guilty about being indeterminate with my "they" anymore.

Subject-verb agreement.
  I have often gotten in trouble with my subject verb agreement when I write.  I remember as a kid my teacher would circle the verb, then draw an arrow back to the subject to indicate that they don't match.  This problem still lurks in my writings and conversations.  Particularly singular and plural verbs.

I write many emails each week, and often I use "is" with a plural subject.  Not quite as bad as "they is goin' out fer dinner," but pretty close.   Mostly "Here is my vacation plans," where plans is the subject (here and there are never subjects).   "Where is the salt and pepper?"  Gotcha!  "Salt and pepper" here is a combined unit.  But how about this one?  "Here is my email address and phone number."  I think I say it wrong.

Grammar Book guidelines.

Rule 6
As a general rule, use a plural verb with two or more subjects when they are connected by and.
Example:A car and a bike are my means of transportation.

Here's another ambiguation/disambiguiation, depending on how you look at it:

Rule 15
Collective nouns such as team and staff may be either singular or plural depending on their use in the sentence.

Examples:The staff is in a meeting.  Staff is acting as a unit here.  The staff are in disagreement about the findings.  The staff are acting as separate individuals in this example.  The sentence would read even better as:  The staff members are in disagreement about the findings. 

Most of the time, I think it's just that I slap my verb into the sentence before I really know what I'm going to say.  So I'll just have to keep my ears open and think before I speak, then occasionally getting annoyed at myself when I find an inconsistency.

Is Blake and Ian coming?

Well, is they?

Of course they IS!  (Better watch out!)  Deerfield, NH Fair, 2012

Fun with casters

Today is *almost* one of those throw-back posts where I reminisce about the awesome 80s.  Only I'm going to hone in on one specific part of that time period.

Did you ever have a Sit'n'skate?  Cause I did, and it was amazing.

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 Some people these days market it as the "Flying Turtle" by Wham-O.  The gist was that you sat on it, and as you moved the handles left and right, the toy started to move.  The more you oscillate the handles, the faster you go.  Very simple.  Yet very strange method of gaining momentum.  

I was trying to think through the mechanics of the motion, and found a few physics enthusiasts who like to write out models for things.  Well, this is the caster wheel principle, wherein the turning axis is in front of the wheel contact axis, causing a stability case where the wheel "wants" to follow the axis.  Think of a stroller or shopping cart.  The wheels will right themselves if they are pointed in the wrong direction.  Well, for this device, it is easier for the wheels to move forward when you turn the handles than for them to slide side-ways, which is the only other alternative given the torsion. Casters are taken advantage of in robotic systems, where casters give additional motion capability.

Also, there are new products on the market these days that take advantage of this mode of propulsion.  For example, there are these twisty skateboards called Ripstiks.  I saw a neighbor kid riding one a couple of years ago, and thought, "How can he be riding on two wheels?!"

A Ripstik. via.

Now a Plasma Carwhich is basically a sit'n'skate with a different posture.  The website says those wheels in front are just for stability, and don't really touch the ground.  So it's the same thing.  Caster wheels behind the axis of rotation.

 

Available at Amazon.com  You should watch the videos of the kids riding them there.  Pretty cool!

Have you ever thought back to a toy that you had as a kid that was so cool, and seen elements of it reinvented again and again? 

Who checked in with us regarding Sandy?

Last week we had a a full moon, a blizzard bearing down, and a gigantic hurricane collude together to create a fluke of a superstorm for the Northeast bring us torrents of wind and rain.  Hurricane Sandy rolled in during the wee a.m. hours of Monday, and was gone by 10 p.m.  Our neighborhood maintained all utilities throughout, and managed with only a minor disruption to our normal week when schools were closed Monday and Ian's gymnastics class was pushed to Saturday for a make-up day.

Other towns had trees down on power lines, roof-tops, and cars, causing electric outages for several days for some people, but for the most part MA was spared.

On the other hand, we see in the news pictures of NY/NJ with flood-waters running down the streets and pumps draining basements of high-rises.  I hear there are still a million customers without power a week later.  We have a large volunteer clean-up effort up and down the east coast to send workers to dig out sand, replace drywall, and dispose of ruined furniture.  We received notice that church members could have an "excused absence" to go work this Sat/Sun, with our particular congregations assignment at a project in Queens.

I thought I would just let you know that we have appreciated the outpouring of compassion and folks checking in with us.  Here's a list of some of the communication (mostly by email) of folks who have checked in on us:

People looking out for my well-being
Mother
Brother (VM)
Sister (FB)
Bishop from our LDS Ward

People who provide me daily services
Ian's Elementary school
City of Woburn

People who provide me utilities
RCN (internet, enables VOIP calling)
ATT (cell phone)
National Grid (natural gas)
NStar (electric)

Companies based in NY who had some disruption
______ Adoption Agency (from 2009)
Emigrant Direct (online bank)
Jet Blue

Presidential Candidates?  or President?
Barack Obama (rather, Jim Messina, Obama for President campaign)

Companies that I tried to log in to but couldn't.
Minuteman Library Network

Opportunists?
Tmart.com

I knew it. Someone was going to feign compassion but really be in it for the money.  Here's an image from a company in China that I bought some button cell batteries from, so they had my email.  Reading their letter, I can tell that they almost got the grammar right, and they nearly understand how to write a letter motivating me to spring back and spend some money.  Check out that graphic, too!  Awesome!

To be brave and live in hope, and please give our best regards to you, friends!

p.s. Why do you suppose they chose a watermark with candy canes and a kissing ball?

Listening while spinning

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I think having compression waves turn into electrical impulses is genius.  Whoever designed the ear really knew what He was doing.

Think of it, a way for us to say what we are thinking, and potentially have others understand in THEIR HEADS what is going on in our heads.  Amazing.  Almost as good as telepathy, but it takes effort on the part of the giver and receiver (speaker and listener).

From the website that I referenced that image, I see a list of symptoms of hearing loss.  Let's have a look:

Symptoms of Hearing Loss:

1. Hearing but not understanding
2. Turning up the volume on the TV
3. Must lip read to understand speech
4. Cannot hear environmental sounds such as game calls, traps releasing, crickets, etc.
5. Strained personal relationships, denial
6. Social withdrawal
7. Fatigue and stress

Now you ask, why do I bring this up on voting day instead of posting an "I voted" sticker like all the other bloggers today?  Have you ever noticed that some people are bent on taking a person's words and crafting it into what they want to hear?   They "listen" with a SLANT on what is really said.  I call it "Middle School Banter" because I remember playing that game where you take someone's words completely out of context and then ridicule them for it.  Middle school was rough.  I've repented of going to middle school.  I promise to never go again. Well, I was reminded of that recently when I read a blog post where the author used the word Gringa to refer to herself in a very benign way as a white girl living in Mexico, and a commenter thought the word was incindiary/hateful/inappropriate.  I thought that was a bit out of context for what the author had intended.  

In the run up to voting day, we have seen similar tactics to incite constituents to become incredulous about "the other guy's" foibles.  Honestly-- attach to spin or cast doubt on E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G the other speaker is saying?  Does someone have an over-active cochlea, and that spiral doo-hickey is just making the words SPIN on their own?  Calm down people!

Even still, I recognize that when I send a quick email, there is not always intonation or inflection for people to "hear" my voice in the written word to know what I'm intending. (Emoticons, anyone, to cure abruptness? :-)) A friend once suggested always including a compliment or praise with typed communication, because it can knock off the rough edges of poorly written emails.  I write dozens of emails every week, so I should spend more time praising.  

I know that when people are in disagreement, their brains already are trained to listen for the weak spot of the opposition, highlighting differences.  This, to me, is highly evident in the advertisements for campaigns over the last several months, and I see this in heated web conversations.  We could reprise the "Symptoms of Hearing Loss" and turn it into "Symptoms of Poor Listening" based on what we've heard this campaign season, I think:

Symptoms of Poor Listening:

1. Hearing but not responding to the moderator's or other candidate's questions.
2. Turning up the volume on your voice to speak over the other guy.
3. Giving "lip service" to people's probing questions before changing the subject to your prepared talking points.
4. Cannot process environmental context of what the speaker meant when he said something to a specific audience on a specific date.
5. Personal relationships only to initiate skepticism of the other candidate.
6. Party-specific social withdrawal, unwilling to compromise "across the aisle".
7. Fatigue and stress from defending, then attacking.

My approach is that 
1. Everyone is entitled to have a bad day now and again, and say something stupid.
2. Some people will never be eloquent, and will say things that are easily taken out of context.
3. Just because a person says something doesn't mean that it is right/true/accurate/unchangeable.
4. There are very few people in this world who are "out to get you".

So instead, consider this: what were they trying to say?  Instead of assuming the worst, assume the best in everyone.  Then everyone gets a pass and you never feel grumpy for very long.

And for the record: at the time of writing this, I still don't know who I'm going to vote for.  It's tough to see through the bickering of two people who want to be diametrically opposed sometimes.  I'd more likely vote for the person who's a centrist, wanting to bring us all together for the G.G.-- you know, the greater good.

Cell Phone Heritage

I don't pretend to be an early adopter.  Well, maybe sometimes I do.  But I'm not really an early adopter.  And I guess I don't do change very well, either.

Take our cell phone usage for example.  In the almost ten years of our marriage, I have owned exactly 3 cell phones.  Granted, the first 2 years were cell-phone-less years.   (Can you remember what it was like to be be in college/married/out-and-about without a cell phone?  Liberating thought or devastating-- you choose.)

So these three phones get a little overview here about what they were and why I liked them.

4/2005 to 4/2007
Samsung SGH-E105

This phone was TINY and I kept mine on a tether just so I could find it among all the other stuff in my pocket. Crazy, I know.  It was small in my hand, but dense.  I remember feeling trendy having a flip phone that would end a phone conversation when you clapped it closed.  I remember the screens being so nifty and enviable.  "Oooh, a screen on the outside and the inside!"  And to what end?  I didn't have a camera on it, didn't have any games to speak of, and really was for... making phone calls.  But it was novel.  And fun.  It went through the laundry once, and survived.  I dried it for a day or two, and it booted up, but the screen was black.  Then after a week, the screen was on, and I used it happily until it was time for a free upgrade.

4/2007 to 10/2008
LG CU550

Life got a little more interesting when I got this phone because it had a camera... that could swivel to be forward facing or back facing.  I could take pictures and assign them to phone book profiles.  I could do voice activated dialing (which was a cool feature, but how often did I really use it?)  It had splendid annodized metal on the casing and the keys, and was a nice solid phone.  I felt like if it wasn't heavy, it wasn't sturdy.  This phone had a microSD card slot which was a thrill, because then I could load in my .mp3 music collection and listen to it on hands-free device.  And yet.  I tried and tried and tried to get the microSD card to slot, even going to the user forums to get this wacky user code to reset and recognize the card slot, but it never really worked right.  Ultimately, the outer glass on this one cracked, and I became unenamored with it.

10/2008 to present
Sony w580i

Can it be that I've had the same slider phone for the last 4 years?  I guess it can be.  The funny thing is that I am STILL in love with this phone.  Here's why:

• It has an FM radio with L/R stereo handsfree headset... Sony headphones with great sound.
• It has a great .mp3 player built in.
• I can put all kinds of movies and shows on the phone to watch in .3gp
• I put in a couple Gb of storage on a M2 SD card, so can have hours upon hours of video/songs.  I currently have like 60 episodes of Perfect Strangers, several movies, kids shows, and a full music library on it.
• It has a decent camera.
• Its battery life... honestly, I charge it up twice a week, and its going strong.
• The speaker phone.  It recently out-performed a blackberry and iPhone in around-the-desk conference calling.  Again, leave it to Sony.
• Step counter.  How else would you feel guilty about only taking 2295 steps today?
• Games downloads, themes, and the like.  These were from pre-"Apps" days, so getting anything at all was a real treat.  But really, how cool is a customizable phone?!
• The LED lights around the case.  Yes, shwanky lights that will change colors based on who's calling.
• Bluetooth.  Easy data transfer.  And in that rental car in MN this summer, it auto-synched and I could voice-dial from the steering wheel!  With a four-year old phone, people!

Blake dropped the phone Saturday and now the sound on the earpiece is starting to buzz.  I've replaced the screen, I've re-skinned it using a relative's retired version of this phone.  Do I stick with the phone I love, or do I consider a new phone?  Consider for a minute:

• I don't text.
• Not motivated to pay a data plan, since I have internet all around me at home and work.
• Don't (think that I) need apps on the go really, since we have an iPod touch, GPS, a Kindle, a netbook, a DVR/Media PC.

Records, Compulsions, and Names.

This summer I put myself up to a new obsession after I went to a Stake youth activity as a chaperone.  The purpose of the activity was to teach the teens how to look up their family tree, record stories and other interesting information about the aforementioned tree members, or transcribe the data off old hand-written legal documents.  

So anyway, I came home, and thought, "Self, if I am going to promote this to the local teens, I'm going to need to know how this works."  So I went to familysearch.org, installed the indexing software, and downloaded my first batch.  It was enlistment records from the 1890s in Tennessee.  Pretty easy!  So I downloaded another batch, with 1940 census records from New York, then 1920s Marriage licenses from Texas, then Ship logs from Germany in 1860, then looked at the clock and it was 1am.  Sheesh!

I did that again each night that week from about 10pm to 1am, and really had a great time with it.  I indexed like 800 records that week, felt very fulfilled, and then recognized my addiction.  Wow.  But hey, I contributed several pages of Census transcriptions to the effort, and along with other addicts, we digitized at a record pace! (News item posted 8/3/2012).

How does that happen?  As discussed earlier, Jen will attest that when I get into something, I'm all in and am tough to distract from it until I get it out of my system.  So recognizing it wasn't going to be feasible to stay up that late every night as an indexer, and recognizing that I have a family, a job, and other night chores to do, I cut back to just doing the occasional batch on Sundays or evenings.  

Well, a recent Sunday batch I downloaded was a collection of marriage records from the Bahamas from the 1920s.  Sounds like a nice, tropical way to enjoy a Sunday evening, eh?

I found a very interesting phenomena in those names.  The mens' names were very standard and traditional for the most part, but the women's names?  They were... unique!  I couldn't help but write a few down:

Females:

Advilda 

Julelah 

Jerolene 

Corine 

Hazel Eloise 

Elletta 

Eldarado 

Ulena 

Manuella 

Bienziel 

Grendlin

Algertha 

I had three thoughts.
1) This reminded me of my friend Bridget's numerous blog entries about names of children that are unique, made up, or sometimes obnoxious.  If you're into that, her blog is a great reference point.
2) It makes me think that some of these names are probably unfortunate mistakes.  Like Jerolene might have been meant as Geraldine, or Eldarado seems to have been aiming at El Dorado (still, is that a name?).  Ulena might have been Elena or Alaina.  I think Grendlin was supposed to be Gwendolyn, but was lost in transcription.  Algertha?  Maybe Agatha?
3) A couple of months ago I was watched the 1967 version of Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd where a farm hand was signing on and gave his name as "Cain", with the explanation that his mom meant to name him Abel, but accidentally got the Biblical story wrong!

Whatever the case, I appreciate indexing so much more now because I get to contribute to the body of digital knowledge, and get to come across interesting information that will help others tell their family story, like when I indexed a man named Jenesis (perhaps homage to Genesis?) on one record.

Moving Day in Boston

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No we're not moving.
Well. Someday we're moving, but we haven't determined when or where.  That's not my point.

My point is that there is a day in the year that is called Moving Day here, which falls on the Saturday nearest to September 1st every year.  With Boston having like 52 colleges and universities, there are a plethora of rental units that have changes in tenancy at the end of the summer.  Summer interns leaving, new fall students arriving, people moving up in the world from one saggy old shared apartment to a saggy old apartment with some advantage over the other.

Well.  If it were just a game of "Count the Uhauls" it wouldn't be that interesting of a day worth blogging about.  But it gets better! {insert giddy laughter!}
{Now rub hands together with slightly evil chuckling!}

There's a major artery that almost everybody uses that provides direct access to much of the Boston/Cambridge areas.  It's called Storrow Drive.  Storrow Drive follows the south side of the Charles River, and has a reputation for people driving fast because there is no shoulder for cops to pull drivers over.  Furthermore, it has a reputation for having Boston Newbies who don't read the signs that say "Cars Only" and "No Trucks" tin-canning their moving truck as they are just arriving to town because Storrow Drive has a handful of bridges with very low clearance.  Every year, there's SOMEONE who thinks that sign isn't for them, and they wedge their truck under the bridge.  And now, for your viewing pleasure, here are a few links to images highlighting recent incidents.

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2007: A photo of an incident.
2011: An overview of the new #StorrowPool, a wager where the new guy always loses.
2011: A behavioral therapist assessing why people think their truck will make it when the dimensions are still obviously wrong.
2012: Sometimes it happens later than moving day, too.
2012: Hints from a Boston blog with moving tips and a warning.

p.s.  Did you notice how this post follows the image prompt from yesterday's?  Your welcome.

p.p.s.  This also reminds me of those youtube videos of people trying to follow the bus through the moving bollards in the UK.

You may not!

The other day I was working with Ian on his spelling words and reading sentences that the teacher sent home with him.  Strangely, I came across a word that is not a part of my normal vocabulary.

Cannot.  

First interesting Google image result for "cannot."  via.

Strange, eh?  It's not like the word is foreign or archaic, I just don't use it.  I wonder if Freud would have something to say about that?  My mom will tell you that as a toddler I had plenty of head-strong days where I knew that I could do anything that I decided I wanted to do.  In fact, my wife will tell you that once I have a glimmer of an idea that I should or could do something, I am tough to dissuade.  There ain't nothin I can't do.

{As an aside, do you think "can't" is a short form of "cannot" or "can not?"  Just curious.}

I think this explains why "cannot" is not a part of my lexicon:

1. Cannot indicates inability, whereas can not seems to indicate a choice to abstain.
2. In recent years, perhaps due to having children, I have found myself using the phrase "you may not" to indicate a prohibition.  Otherwise, a clever child will try to demonstrate that indeed, he can!
3. When writing, I generally tend to rephrase my thoughts to avoid contractions and unsightly phrasing.  I wonder if the subtle differences in cannot and can not-- or at least the ambiguity in useage-- has led me away from using this word?
4. I remember being a kid and asking "Can I [fill in the blank]?" and the cheeky answer being "I don't know, can you?"  Invariably I would have to ask "May I [fill in the blank]?" before getting approval.  We practice this same construct in our parenting.

So, not being sure, I did a little search, and this is what I found in a grammar help site. I find the comments the more interesting part of the discussion.  Just goes to show that occasionally I have too much time on my hands.  To grab a few quotes:

              "There seems to be a bunch of mythology about different shades of meaning between "can not" and "cannot." I checked the definition in the unabridged Merriam-Webster dictionary and “cannot” was defined as “can not.” They mean exactly the same thing."

   and 

               ""cannot" and "can not" do NOT mean the same thing, at all. 
When you say "You can not eat ice-cream for dinner," you are claiming that the option to not eat ice-cream for dinner exists. 
When you say "You cannot eat ice-cream for dinner," you are specifically claiming that eating ice-cream for dinner is NOT on option. 
This may be more clear (but is fundamentally the same) when adding a modifier to "can not." For example, "You CAN always NOT right the roller coaster if you are afraid." vs. "You CANNOT ride the roller coaster if you are afraid." The former is announcing different options, the latter is basically a rule. 



At any rate, I suspect I will carry on avoiding the ambiguity of using the word can, cannot, or can not, and lean toward "is able to" and "may" when I write.  Also, for the record: We have a tradition of eating ice cream for dinner once per summer at Kimball's.  Harumph.

A revival. NaBloPoMo.

So this is November the First, and I've been looking forward to this month all year long.  Maybe not literally, but I remembered how much fun National Blog Posting Month was in 2011 and how much introspective writing made its way onto FunghiFritti.  So this year, I've been jotting down ideas and thinking about what bits of my life might just be interesting enough to commit to the internet archives.

courtesy Bridget.

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I'd like to see November as the month when Joe springs to life, bringing vigor to his web presence where only a languishing website with sporadic posts previously existed.  Kind of like how our sourdough start sat in the fridge for 8 months completely neglected, and we had some hope of bringing it back to life.  Here's how that story goes down:

For Jen's birthday in February, she was gifted a sourdough start and a King Arthur Flour crock in which to keep it.  The sourdough start came home with us in a tupperware container, which was immediately thrown deep into the abyss of the fridge, and the crock took up residence on the counter holding our collection of ladles, whisks, a meat tenderizer, a potato masher, and our trusty ice cream scoop.

When we were in grad school, we had sourdough pancakes regularly, and were entrusted with a "secret family start" that was gifted to us with a friendship bread recipe.  It was given with great solemnity and we had accepted the responsibility to care for that branch of the family tree.  We had good success with that start for years, and even moved it across the country with us, ultimately discarding that creature after it gooed all over our fridge.

Understand that sourdough is a living, breathing organism.  Bakers and enthusiasts take great pride in cultivating their "mother."  I understand that beverage manufacturers also prize the particular flavor of their mother, as it differentiates them from their competitors.

Anyway, back to our "new" start and the crock.  After 8 months, the starter was in bad shape.  The sludge settled to the bottom, the watery sour smelling liquid was all at the top.  I was sure that the acid/yeast/bacteria levels were way out of whack.  But I was willing to nurse it back to health.  After some intense internet research (and really, is there any other kind?), I decided to clean out the crock, dump the liquid into it, and peel the pasty mass out of the suffocating tupperware and into the breathable crock.  It was more like silly putty than our previous sourdough start.  With a glimmer of hope, I poured about 3/4 cup water and 1 cup flour in the crock and stirred and stirred and stirred until the consistency was smooth.  I covered it and went to bed praying for bubbles.  Was it going to be dead?  Could it be resurrected?

Well, the next day, there were a few bubbles.  The question was, were the bubbles from life, or because when I was stirring the night before the wooden spoon punched some air into the depths of the crock?  It hadn't really grown persay, but I saw a chance of rejuvenation.  So I added another 3/4 cup water and 1 cup flour, stirring until smooth.  Surely, if there was life, I would see it soon.

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I repeated this process daily for about a week taking out a cup here or there to make bread or pancakes, and what do you know?  It now froths and bubble when I feed it and leave it over-night!  IT'S ALIVE!

So the moral of the story is this:  If you want to pick up a neglected, pasty blog and make it alive again, all you have to do is add a little flour and water (pictures and words, perhaps?) each day and it'll become a refreshed creature soon, adding some very satisfying flavor to your life.  Here's to hoping that NaBloPoMo does just that for this blog.  :)

Editor's note: It may be that the start really was dead, and I was just creating a new one from the natural yeasts and bacteria in the flour, according to this enthusiast website.  I may never know for sure, but it's nice to be back in business!

As of Late

Fall in New England is in full swing--it's our favorite time of year to spend together as a family. Here's what we've been up to over the last few weeks!

The Deerfield Fair

My latest quilt finish

(Thanks to Joe, as usual, for being my model)

Time to paint pumpkins!

Our first-born is ready to write Santa for two front teeth!

 A Saturday hike up Rag Rock

...and sometimes playing outside in the fall is fun...and sometimes it's not