#MaineLobster in a mountain state.

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Using a thorn to write

I'm not sure why, but I have a growing fascination with the letter thorn.  Maybe it comes from the fact that we have sounds in the English language that have no letter to themselves.  This is particularly strange since we used to have letters for at least some of these sounds.  In the case of sounds for th, those letters are thorn and eth.

Capital thorn: Þ

Lowercase thorn: þ

Capital eth: Ð

Lowercase eth: ð

Thorn represents the unvoiced th sound, as in the words thin, things, wither, and eighth.  Eth represents the voiced th sound, as in the words the, that, those, feather, and clothe.  When these letters were in common use, they were often used interchangeably, regardless to which th sound was actually used.  Additionally, the letter Y was often used in place of thorn since print type fonts of Medieval times didn't have the letter thorn.  This means, "Ye Olde Shoppe" was really pronounced "The Old Shop", no different than today.  In this case, the "Y" was a replacement for the letter thorn, which represented the voiced th sound of the word "the".  (Further discussion on English sounds that are missing letters.)

So, I've decided to play around with the idea of using thorn in its rightful place within the English language.  The following is a republished old article, where the letters th (representing the voiced and unvoiced th sounds) are replaced with the letter thorn.

INFAMOUS MINIATURE GOLF STORY

Ok...here's þe infamous Miniature Golf story..

Þis one time, like two years ago, I took Miriam to play Miniature Golf at a Golfland in San Jose.  She hadn't been to a Miniature Golf place in aeons.  So, we get our clubs, balls, scorecard and pencils, þen head to þe first tee.  Being þe gentleman þat I am, I let her go first.  She bends down by sticking her ass up in þe air as usual (þis being a family type place, mind you) to put þe ball on þe black mat.  It starts rolling around a bit, but finally she makes it stay in place.  While þis was going on, I'm watching her out of þe corner of my eye, just kinda waiting for her to get her ball to stop rolling around. Getting þe ball to stay in place was, of course, a pointless exercise given what she does next.

She swings. I hear a panicked "Oh!".  She's looking back at me, embarrassed, kinda laughing, kinda whimpering.  Þen I notice þe club is no longer in her hands. I briefly look around for it, confused.  Þen I realize, she's þrown þe club up in þe air during her swing!  I ask, "Where did you þrow þe club?"  Þen I realize furþer, þe club went straight up in þe air!  Worse yet, it hasn't come down yet!  Þen, my even more profound realization is þat it has now been 5 seconds, from when I was wondering why Miriam was embarrassed to þis moment (when I realized þe club was still up in þe air), and þe club was still up in þe air!  I shout at Miriam, "Get out of þe way!", while using pure instinct as to where not be when it finally decided to come back down to Earþ.  We boþ duck and run.  I turn around, worried þat þis magic club (which has now been in þe air for over 6 seconds) might land on someone else.  To my relief, it tumbles to þe ground safely, right on þe spot þat Miriam and I had just ran away from.

We laughed it off, and were relieved no one got hurt.  But to þis day, we wonder how þe hell þis club shot straight up out of her hands into þe air far enough to land in þe same spot a whole 7 seconds later!

4th Annual Taste of Downtown Marlborough (and 1st Annual Brewfest)

I was driving to a Diary Queen near downtown Marlborough yesternight when I saw a rather small and unimposing sign that advertized something called 4th Annual Taste of Downtown Marlborough. Yesterday was Sunday, so I thought I had just missed an interesting event. No so. This event was held this evening (Monday). It seems a little unusual to have an event like this on a Monday night (and bad timing to have it the same night as game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals in which the Bruins must win or lose completely), but it didn't seem to deter the crowds from coming.

I'm very new to the area, so this was the perfect event to see tons of restaurants in the Marlborough Olde Town area at one time, all for only $20. Overall, I think I was able to sample tastes from a couple dozen places. Some places I might come back to later this year. Other places I might not consider again. To each their own.

The 1st Annual Brewfest portion of this event cost an extra $5. There were a couple dozen beer vendors giving out 1oz samples of their offerings. Some of the beers just aren't suited to my taste. I had one that tasted like I was sucking on a 10 week old lemon, and not in a good way (if a good way could even be imagined). Other beers were good. I enjoyed some of the beers from Brooklyn Brewery. It was impressive that a New York company would show its face at a Massachusetts event.

There were lots of long lines to sample the various restaurants. Later in the evening, it was a little easier to get samples, but some places had run out by then.


There was also various live acts, ranging from the classic to the drum beat based. One rock group played Turning Japanese and then She Bop right after. I couldn't help but grin when I saw parents dancing with their kids to those particular songs. Sometimes you have to wonder if people know what those songs are supposedly about.


There are also some interesting old buildings.

It was interesting to see what this town of Marlborough has to offer. I have some ideas of which places to visit in the near future.

Cross-country trip - day 5 (part 2)

Western New York state is beautiful, gorgeous and simply stunning. The forests are lush and rich in color. The lakes are serene. The farms are stereotypically and wonderfully idyllic. This was entirely unexpected by me.

The drive to Binghamton, NY was long. Getting across New York state takes as much time as any other larger state, such as Kansas (though is much more interesting than Kansas). There happened to be a festival in Binghamton on the day of my arrival, called First Friday Art Walk. The event was fairly lively with a lot of friendly people. I got a hotel (that I picked myself without the help of Expedia or that Hotwire unpublished rate thing) that was right in the middle of the downtown area action, so I was able to walk around freely without having to drive anywhere. There are a few attractions that are prolly better seen during the day, but here's a couple of late evening photos anyway (to the right).

I was at one bar where there were a bunch of locals rooting for the Braves to beat the Mets. Everyone was happy when the Braves won. Huh? Even if you are a Yankees fan, I would consider it disgraceful to pull for an Atlanta team over a local team! Oh well, I wasn't going to argue the point with anyone, especially after the Bruins lost to Vancouver a few minutes later in the Hockey finals; too even greater celebration by the locals.

The next day, as I was leaving the hotel, the bellhop thought he recognized me from a late party from the last night. Of course, I was at no such party. Though I was aware of it, I didn't crash the party. ...might've been nice to be invited to the party! Where are all these dopplegangers having my fun instead of me?!

On my way out of town, I ran across this interesting place of business (photo below). I was immediately thinking that such a place would be useful to Napoleon Dynamite.

Mastication

Last night was a night of serious discussions about the importance of mastication. It all started with four of us in a SUV on the way to a sex toy shop, after dinner. Miriam was offering gum for the purpose of mastication. She's all, "Ya'no, that [masticate] is latin for `to chew'". Secretly, I knew it is actually English based on the latin word and I now know that it was derived from Greek, but I digress.

At that point, it was the word of the evening. Almost every other sentence made reference to mastication. We discussed the woes of over-mastication, including the threat of blindness. Also, the dangers of deprivation from under-mastication were brought up. Someone mentioned that mastication should be done in private, while another extolled the virtues of doing it openly in public.

Later in the evening, we relaxed at this other restaurant at an outdoors table. I'm masticating my second piece of gum for the night. I ordered Coke, and immediately realized I needed to demasticate it. The napkins where the fancy reusable ones, so I couldn't expel my gum there. Cor suggested that I demasticate it under the table, then he preceded to look under to see if others had already thought of this (and they had...yuk). In the end, the waiter brought out some restroom paper towels. I demasticated rapidly, to the amusement of both Cor and Miriam.

I can say that it was an evening filled with a healthy and open discussion regarding mastication. Someone should did a public service announcement on TV about masticating. Oh wait, they have!

Miriam's BD and such

Welp, there was some fun last week. Allie and I met up with Miriam and some of her girlfriends at PF Changs for a diner for her BD. Save for her older neighbor that joined us with this wife, I was the only guy...something that Allie made sure to point out.

Afterwards, we all headed up to SF to a club to meet up with some more people of various varieties that one might expect to meet in SF. Thangs where fun. We were at this one roof top club with a fairly ok view of the city and a large number of drunk people, and some not so drunk people too.

Allie and I headed out home around Midnight, as did several others. Miriam and several of her girls partied on and didn't get home til about 6am.

On the recent movie front, Allie and I have seen The Happening. Funny how nothing happens in a movie with that title. It was OK. Save for rental.

First time in awhile

For the first time in awhile, I went out. I met up with Miriam and some of her friends a Old Pro in downtown Palo Alto. The evening wasn't too crazy. There was some new randoms from her work place. I had trouble making it there though because I wasn't able to leave work until like 7pm. It was fun getting out for the evening. Allie, oddly enough, had separate plans for her friends, also in downtown Palo Alto on the same evening, but those fell through and then she got sick. Otherwise, she would've come too.

Bourne to miss

Dang it. I had plans with Miriam after work on Friday to go to see the Bourne movie that's still in the theaters. Well, she wanted to go get something to eat at a Mexican rest'rant she really likes near her place. The drinks there where stronger than expected. Neither of us were sober, so driving anywhere was out of the question. Dang it! Well, it was still fun. She wanted to look for toys for her new hamster, so we walked to the per supplies store next store.
Then it got crazy. We found these rubber chickens (dressed in beach wear) that made this awful noise wailing when squeezed. It was hilarious. We made a symphony of wailing rubber chickens. We got a photo video and audio recording of it on her phone, but can't figure out how to get it onto the computer yet. When we do, I'll post here.
After that, we called some friends that could pick us up and take us to the movie. Ronnie and Fern ended up coming, but headed to the wrong city at first. Anyways, by the time they got there, it was too late to go to even the evening showing, so we decided just to head back to her place. Allie came by and brought the Knocked-up DVD to watch. It was kinda funny. It ended around 12am, and we all pretty much headed home right after.
I want to see Bourne in the theater. Oh well.

Recently back!

Well, I might be getting back into rock climbing. I’ve been wanted to for awhile now. Elvis and I hit up the climbing gym Friday night for a belay lesson. I totally forgot how to make the proper knots for the climbing rope, so it was a good refresher. It seemed to click better for me this time too, for some reason. I remember before always forgetting how to do the knots, but this time, I think I have it down.

After the gym (and me going home for a shower), we meet up with some other friends at California Billiards. It’s been forever since I’ll played pool, and it’s been forever and a day since I’ve been to California Billiards.

On Saturday, I visited Miriam for her daughters birthday. It was a pretty tame crowd. I had a good time.

Pix from the Kimi, Miriam and Jenn nite

Here's a photo of Kimi, Miriam, and Jenn at Buddha Lounge a couple Fridays ago. The quality of the pix is directly related to the person holding the camera phote, and the strength of the flash on said phone. Also, in this particular case, I took the picture by accident while trying to show some drunk-ass how to take the photo for us that included all of us.

I actually made it into the next photo. :) It took forever for the fellow random bar patron to figure it out. I'm actually surprized it came out as good as it did. Below is Jenn and Miriam growling at each other. I don't think I remember any real growling, but it kinda looks like that in the photo. grrrr hehe

Actually, what was going on there? A picture says a 1000 words, but are any of the words spoken by this photo saying anything meaning full or representitive of our evening? grrr. grrr. hehe

And finally here I am. I was trying to go for a sweet smile, but I think this photo is telling in other ways. :) Special thanks to Kimi for providing this pix!

Mixed Universes

Friday night ended up being a lot of fun. I made plans with Kimi for dinner, and then invited Miriam. I picked Kimi up around 5:45pm and headed up to a Mexican rest'rant in downtown Mountain View called Fiesta del Mar Too.
Miriam showed up on her own, but a bit late, for various legit reasons. This is the first time in awhile that I've mixed my Universes between friends of different groups. It didn't take long to get thangs warmed up. Before long, Miriam starts into some infamous stories about us, and Kimi fit right into dynamics between me and Miriam.
After dinner, we end up at the Budda Lounge for some drinks. At first, both Kimi and Miriam though they where going to have an early night, but as thangs progressed, we all lost track of time. We took over a group of sofas and started up our own little party. I feel sorry for Kimi a bit cuz Miriam kept spilling her drinks over Kimi's legs.
I had called Jenn earlier in the day to see if she'd be interested in coming out too, and well, she found her way down to the club too.
There was this one random guy at the bar that started acting like Miriam's best friend. We were all, "what's up with that guy?" Anyways, it turns out he was on a short leash cuz his g/f came up and claimed him a few times. Weird.
So, when it was time to take Kimi home, I asked Miriam to get her her new "best friend" to take a group camera phone photo for us. So she goes up to the bar, talks to him and then gets another drink from some other random guy. After a fews minutes I go up to see what happened. She forgot all about the photo. lol
Finally she gets the guy to take the photo, but he can't figure out how to push the button. After a few very lame attempts, I got up to show him. He's all, "That's what I was doing!". Lame. Anyways, we finally got our photo on Kimi's phone. I just realized she's still gots to email to me. ok, anyway.
I took Kimi home and then returned to the club to fine Miriam drunk beyond belief, and Jenn getting ready to take off with some other random guy. lol I'm like thinking to my self, "what the help happened when I was gone?".
We see Jenn off, then go dancing for a little bit. I figure out that Miriam is just way to drunk, so I take her home myself, leaving her car in Mountain View. I get her home and then head home myself. Sep for the little bit of babysitting at the end it was a great night.

Newport OC

I'm visiting Newport in the OC. This is a cool like haven in LA where there's interesting people, but not too many of them. Kinda a sleepy place with like a hypersmall Conie Island area nessled in a smallass harbor. There's a rest'rant here called Newport Landing Restaurant that's got a bartender named Mike who's appeared in some show called The Real OC Desparate House Wives on Bravo...along with this girl Lindsey who appears in the scenes where the girls sit around drinking. Funny. I might try to catch it just to see this shit. I only came here on a whim and it took forever to get here from Industry, but I'm glad I did. Anudder guy Lawerance was local and was a Raiders fan, so we had a few sports stories to exchange.

As I sit out on the quiet misty evening looking on the harbor, I'm relaxed. The noises of the rest'rant are now behind me as I'm outsite in a vacant seating area. A small touring boat is sneaking around the docked boats, though I don't know why. The night air is light, damp and sprinkling me extremely lightly. Distant lights reflect serenely off the water's calm surface. It's only 11pm and this sleepy noke is almost completely shut down now. ::Breath of crisp air:: I just might come back here soon.
___
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Ol'gang

Friday night was back to the ol' instigations by Miriam, Ronie and I at Chevy's, then back at Miriam's place. It's been too long. We cracked up about all kinds of shit all night.

Cinco de Mayo

uAnother friday night spent out, for Cinco de Mayo. Yes I celebrated of the day of the great battle in which the locals mexicans pulled together a militia to take on the French, but lost, however the French were so annoyed they left on there own anyways! lol It's funny how this day has grown in popularity in the U.S., but is pretty much not even noticed in Mexico. Anyways, Miriam, Allie, Stevo and I meet up at Compadres in Palo Alto for after work drinks. It was hella crowded. After that, we tried to go to a couple of other places, but ended at St. Stevens Green in Mt. View. Later Miriam's new interest came out later and she scared him with her dancing abilities. He was a trooper though, but he did drop her on the floor once. lol
Apparently, after Stevo, Allie and I left, Miriam and her date had enough fun where she ended up barfing at some point.

The Cellar in SF

Well...it looks like I discovered a new place in SF Friday. Kimi and I meet up with her younger sister in SF and headed down to The Cellar with some other friends, to meet up with even more friends that were celebrating another friend's BD. It was a crazy night! The DJ sucked, and the music was mostly Eighties with some random Ninties thrown in from time to time, but the atmosphere was fun. For example, it's been awhile since I've watched girls making out with each other.
This picture Kimi's little sister, her b/f, and me. This is my second night out in SF within two weeks. I haven't been in a club up there in years, and now all of a sudden, it seems like I've never stopped. hehe

Zebra Lounge Friday

The Zebra Lounge in SF was great last Friday. My cuz, her b/f and her classmate, along with Allie and I meet up there around 10. My friend Maria is part of Sugarbeats which is a promotional group that threw the party that night. My cuz and her friend are seen here (the pic to the left) on stage dancing. Can you guess which one is my cuz? I'm asking cuz it ain't obvious. :) Kris (the classmate) was up on stage most of the night! Anyways, we all had a great time. BTW, the photo is deceiving. Kris is actually over six feet tall, and my cuz is under 5'6", but they look almost the same height in the pic.

I'm looking forward to getting up to SF again. Oh wait, I'm heading there tonight with some friends!

Friday, Saturday, Futurama

Allie and I met up with Miriam Friday night at Nola’s in downtown Palo Alto. Miriam’s company had a function there in the lounge area, so Allie and I showed up as it was ending, to keep the night going. That was a fun night. On Saturday, Allie and I had lunch and diner with some of her relatives. I think her cuzins like me. Even though they are a bit younger, we has some lively conversations about cars, music and even cartoons, if that isn’t a bit surprising. I found out that the makers of Futurama are currently working on 4 made for DVD new Futurama movies. I haven’t been able to confirm this, but I like the rumor.

Anudder weekend of fun :)

I enjoyed getting to spend an evening with Miriam out last Friday. We had dinner at Viva Sol in Mountain View, as we have so many times in the past. Cuz of the season, we didn’t get to dine outside though. Afterwards, we ended up a Zucca’s in downtown Mountain View and met several interesting characters. We met two owners of several other local establishments. They were very entertaining along with Zucca’s owners too, of course. Later, a regular showed up and started going on about how the U.S. is going to be beat by China. Kinda funny. He’s arguments were that of a drunk, and were a bit outdated. Anyways, Miriam and I eventually settled at a table with Zucca’s owners for awhile before calling it a night.
Allie and I meet up on Saturday to go over to her boss’s house for a wine tasting tour in the Livermore area. There was ten of us total. We had great fun at two wineries. I can’t remember the names of either of them right now, and prolly for good reason. hehe At the first place, we got a sampling of 8 wines. The winery was set in a relatively beautiful area, save for the growing city over the hill, and the trailer park at the bottom. The wine was good, but nothing that really impressed me. The second place was a smaller operation with organic fields. Are group was too big to keep in the serving area, so we eventually ended up at large a large table in the outdoors area. The afternoon waned to the likes of sheep jokes and playfully harassing the hostess (mostly with sheep jokes). This was prolly the best day I’ve had in quite some time.

Drunks

It's weird how alcohol affects everyone differently. In some bizarre way, I'm almost jealous of people that lose control when they are drunk. Then again, I have no real desire to have no control over my person, and I'm thankful that not even getting mind numbingly drunk takes that away from me. But what happens to drunks when they are out of control and blackout, especially during these out of control periods? It's as though the person's Frontal Lobe and short term memory centers shut down. (I'm not going into the particulars as to why I'm wondering about this right now, but it is being triggered by multiple separate events this weekend.) They lose the ability to properly respond to emotional impulses. This suggests a shut down of the reasoning area of the brain, the Frontal Lobe. They also have a limited ability to retain memories of when this happens, which suggests a shut down of the short term memory areas. It must be a very strange feeling to wake up and be told of your actions, but having no ability to recall the memory of those actions. I never want to experience that myself, but I am curious how others feel when they experience it.

Last Night's Party

Last night's birthday party for Kate was fairly tame as house parties go, but it was a lot of fun. This picture shows Jaime's first ever Keg Stand! Just turn your head 90 degrees to see her Keg Stand properly vertical . :) There was also a permanent batting cage in the backyard. The ball hurling machine wasn't working (or at least their drunk asses couldn't get it to work), so some of the guys switched between batting and pitching. Not smart. I watched as one line drive drove right into the ribs of the pitcher. Funny thang, and funnier that he keep pitching afterwards! lol My buddy Nate randomly meet a girl (Keg Stand Jaime, actually!) who he's only talked to through Myspace and emails before. Must be fate. lol Even with all of this going on, Miriam and I still took off by midnight. I was the double-d, though I don't think either of us had any possibility of getting too drunk.