March 3, 2006 to March 5, 2006, visited Seattle yet again in 2006 with Alice Leung, Miriam Erlichman and David Erlichman. Also, took a trip to Vancouver, BC. (Original post/backup link)
Friday, March 03, 2006
Seattle III Trip
Thursday, March 02, 2006
If you have any doubt about Bush...
Even when talking about the President, I normally don't use his name...but today I am. If you have any doubt that President Bush is negligent and is not fulfilling the duties of his job, watch this video:
http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2704463
The man needs to be removed from office on this account alone. If you support him in the face of this evident, you are as blood guilty as he is at this point. Yeah, I'm talking to you, that 34 percent of the population that still thinks he's doing a good job. You are as blood guilty as he is now. If you are still a Bush supporter and you think that somehow you are immune to this statement or that this is somehow an overreaction, you are even more blood guilty of those 1300+ deaths in the Gulf Coast. This man has no business being in the oval office any longer. He has proven without a doubt that he is willfully unwilling to fulfill his duties and oath as President of the United States of America.
http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2704463
The man needs to be removed from office on this account alone. If you support him in the face of this evident, you are as blood guilty as he is at this point. Yeah, I'm talking to you, that 34 percent of the population that still thinks he's doing a good job. You are as blood guilty as he is now. If you are still a Bush supporter and you think that somehow you are immune to this statement or that this is somehow an overreaction, you are even more blood guilty of those 1300+ deaths in the Gulf Coast. This man has no business being in the oval office any longer. He has proven without a doubt that he is willfully unwilling to fulfill his duties and oath as President of the United States of America.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Moved to Sunnyvale, CA
In March 2006, moved to Sunnyvale, CA from San Jose, CA. (Original post/backup link)
Trouble with English sounds and letters
English is a funny language. According to the American Heritage Book of English Usage,
There’s really no way to fully identify all the vowel sounds and have those recognized worldwide, especially where those sounds are combined with the r. One vowel sound that is completely without a letter though is oo (boot {long sound}, took {short sound}).
The consonant sounds are more predictable. Currently, commonly accepted consonant sounds that do not have their own letters are ch (chat), ng (long), sh (shin), th (thin), th (this), and zh (vision). The hard and soft th sounds can be given to one letter. The ng sound is really two sounds blended closely together, so it doesn’t really need its own letter. Adding these sounds as letters would give the English language a 30 letter alphabet. Adding the oo vowel puts it at 31.
But, there are sounds that aren’t commonly recognized. For example, the sound tt, as in little, is often reduced to a flick of the tongue in a way that sounds just like the Spanish r. Not many people notice they even pronounce the tt in this way. Once recognized, this will add yet another sound to the English language, putting the total alphabet at 32 (so far).
All this put together would produce an alphabet something like this:
Aa Bb Cc CHch Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss SHsh Tt THth TTtt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz ZHzh OOoo
Of course, for easier identification, it might be a good idea to give the new letters their own forms, such as joining line or even custom new shapes. We could bring back some older letters that fell into disuse for various reasons about the 14th Century. The letter thorn (Þ) would be very useful in modern writing.
Additionally, there are consonant and vowel sounds that this new alphabet does not cover. For example, there is a soft and hard y sound (yes {hard}, you {soft}). But this alphabet would at least represent all of the major sounds. Of course, if this would be ever accepted, a respelling of many English words would follow. Experience with English might suggest this would actually worsen the link between English spoken and English written language. Oh well.
“English adopted its alphabet, except for the letters j, u, and w, from the one used by the Romans to represent the sounds of Latin, and the fit was not an exact one. English is a Germanic language that has borrowed many words from French, Dutch, and other languages, and the result is a phonological mishmash in which certain letters are pronounced differently depending on the origin of the words they appear in.”That basically means that our alphabet doesn’t exactly match our spoken sounds. We have 26 letters, but over 40 sounds. Depending on the region, distinctions between vowel sounds may push the number of English sounds over 50. Anyone wanna learn an alphabet with 50 letters? No? Well, it might be easier to spell in English if we did, but then again, it might not.
There’s really no way to fully identify all the vowel sounds and have those recognized worldwide, especially where those sounds are combined with the r. One vowel sound that is completely without a letter though is oo (boot {long sound}, took {short sound}).
The consonant sounds are more predictable. Currently, commonly accepted consonant sounds that do not have their own letters are ch (chat), ng (long), sh (shin), th (thin), th (this), and zh (vision). The hard and soft th sounds can be given to one letter. The ng sound is really two sounds blended closely together, so it doesn’t really need its own letter. Adding these sounds as letters would give the English language a 30 letter alphabet. Adding the oo vowel puts it at 31.But, there are sounds that aren’t commonly recognized. For example, the sound tt, as in little, is often reduced to a flick of the tongue in a way that sounds just like the Spanish r. Not many people notice they even pronounce the tt in this way. Once recognized, this will add yet another sound to the English language, putting the total alphabet at 32 (so far).
All this put together would produce an alphabet something like this:
Aa Bb Cc CHch Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss SHsh Tt THth TTtt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz ZHzh OOoo
Of course, for easier identification, it might be a good idea to give the new letters their own forms, such as joining line or even custom new shapes. We could bring back some older letters that fell into disuse for various reasons about the 14th Century. The letter thorn (Þ) would be very useful in modern writing.
Additionally, there are consonant and vowel sounds that this new alphabet does not cover. For example, there is a soft and hard y sound (yes {hard}, you {soft}). But this alphabet would at least represent all of the major sounds. Of course, if this would be ever accepted, a respelling of many English words would follow. Experience with English might suggest this would actually worsen the link between English spoken and English written language. Oh well.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Trouble with Treo
Well, my old Treo 600 has now been replaced with a new Treo 600. I'm sync'ing all the software onto the new device. It's all hella easy. Not like trying to restore a Windows machine or anything. Just put the button, and everything is loaded on the new device in working order, same as before. Thank you PalmOne. lol
Monday, February 27, 2006
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.
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