The Film Noir Experience

Today we are going to start slowly, after the (more than likely subpar) description of mutations yesterday.

We are going to talk about the possessive, but just I and you. It is important that we covered the mutations first because they feature pretty prominantly into the "genitive".

fy (treiglad trwynol +word) i
dy (treiglad meddal+word) di
eich (word) chi

So, to say "My sweetie" you say, fy nghariad i. To say "your dog", you say dy gi di. To say, "your (y'all) fear" you say, eich ofn chi.

Posted by Kate at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Welsh has what are called "mutations" and what could best be described as institutionalized phonological changes. As a speaker of any language, I'm sure you will have had occasion to notice when things have changed slightly in speech, particularly when things are sped up. For example, if you are an American English speaker, you may have noticed that you don't say the "t" in "bottle". (There is a good chance that if you speak a variety of British English that you don't say that "t" either.) Well, Welsh has taken that and run with it by making the sounds that you would probably make anyway mandatory.

There are three kinds of mutations, a nasal mutation, an aspirate mutation and a soft mutation. Of these mutations, it would seem that the soft is the most important. At the very least, it seems to be the one that I have used the most often in the past month or so.

The nasal mutation (called treiglad trwynol)goes like this:

g- ng
c- ngh
d- n
t- nh
b- m
p- mh

So, when you say, "I live in Cardiff" in Welsh you would need to mutate Cardiff Dwi i'n byw yn Nghaerdydd. This is not such a problem. There are further uses of this mutation, as I will discuss tomorrow.

The soft mutation (called treiglad meddal) goes like this:

c- g
g- { }
d- dd
t- d
m- f
b- f
p- b

This mutation is used, as I mentioned above quite frequently. Feminine things tend to mutate; and three of the first four numbers take a soft mutation in reference to feminine things. What I like about this one is that one of the teachers taught us a device to remember them. However, I can never remember the whole device. This defeats the purpose of it.

The aspirate mutation (called treiglad llaes) is the easiest to learn thus far, but only because so few things mutate. Here it is:

c- ch
p- ph
t- th

So far it has only been applied to certain cases in the past tense.

This has been today's Welsh update. Hywl!

Posted by Kate at 06:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. There is no logical reason for this. I do not dress up for Halloween. I do not do anything in particular to celebrate it. Its mostly that I like this time of year. School is underway (and, being a huge nerd that is very important to me.) The leaves are changing. There is a crispness to the air and the hint of snow to come (or, at least there was prior to moving to Cardiff.) And, all kinds of excellent fruits and vegetables are in season. User groups are taking time out to exchange pumpkin recipes, there are caramel apples in the farmer's market. It is a spectacular time of year where it feels like things are coming to fruition. I just love autumn, I suppose, and Halloween is a celebration firmly rooted in the middle of it.

Yesterday afternoon, whilst I have been looking for jobs and seriously jonesing for a bit of home, I received an email from my Father mentioning that he and my Mother would be dressing up for Halloween at their respective jobs. My mother wears the same thing every year: she dresses in all black and wears a pointy witch's hat. I do not know what my Father will be wearing this year (as he didn't tell me, he is going to send me a picture when he is all dressed up), but I have an image in my head of him dressed up as a Christopher Lee-style Dracula. The Halloween celebrating of my parents does not stop there, though. For, you see, they have a cat.

We have had Mittens since she was a kitten and since I was seven or eight. That is not the best picture of her as it was taken with a mobile phone, but you get the point. Mittens is a venerable, old kitty who spends her days lying about the house, asking to go outside, playing with bits of string, and talking my Mother into giving bits of chicken or fish. However, this year Mittens will also be dressing up for Halloween. Under normal circumstances, I do not approve of dressing up your pets. Poor little fur babies already have on a coat, what do they need a hat and gloves for? And, as for how Mittens actually feels about being dressed up, well, just check out the look on her face.

I am not quite sure what she is supposed to be. I think it might be a bat. Or, perhaps even a dog. The only thing I can say about this photo, other than it made me smile, is that it looks like Mittens has put on a little weight. Although, it could just be the way the costume is tied around her neck.

Posted by Kate at 02:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Learning Welsh is fraught with peril. Brave knight, you will be confronted with such troubling quandries as whether to say, Mae hi'n pump munud wedi chwaer or Mae hi'n pump munud wedi chwech (The first being "It's five past sister." and the second being, "Its five past six." Its an easy mistake to make, as one of my classmates found out earlier this week.) But, you will overcome them. Oh, yes, you will.

Remember when I went on and on about aspect? Well, today is where we get into why its important. Many languages, like Welsh, make the distinction between single actions that are completed in the past ("done and dusted" to use a bit of Welsh colloquial English) and continuous actions and states. It makes sense to have such a distinction, some things that once occurred but are no longer occurring provide background for other things. But, no need to stress about this. The "Na Na Na" past tense (or the Imperfect) is just like the present tense (dw i, wyt ti, mae e/hi, dych chi, dyn ni, and dyn nhw), only its past!

So, in spoken Welsh we have:

Ro'n i, ro't ti, roedd e/hi, ro'n ni, ro'ch chi, ro'n nhw (I was, you were sing./informal, he/she was, we were, y'all/formal were, they were). Got it? Now, you just construct sentences. For example:

Ro'n i'n mynd adre. I went home. Roedd e'n y dafarn. He was in the pub. Or, rRo'n i'n y dafarn pyrd welais i Bob. I was at the pub when I saw Bob. Simple.

Now, where this is particularly important has to do with this business of "states". You can't use the simple past tense to talk about things like "feelings" and "fears". What further complicates the situation is that in order to talk about things like "fears" and "illness" you have to use a passive construction in which you say that something is "on" you instead of "you are..." something. This is similar to have, as in possession. Unfortunately, this is not where the complications end because the word for "on" declines. We will start with the declension:

I: arno i
you (sing./informal): arnot ti
he: arno fe
she: arni hi
we: arnon ni
you (pl./formal):arnoch chi
they: arnyn nhw

Are you still with me? Good. From there, its really simple because it patterns just like "have, possession". To say "I have a cold" you say Mae annwyd arno i. To say "they are afraid of the dark" you say: Mae tywyllwch arnyn nhw. Not so bad. If you want to say "He had a cough", you simply use the "Na Na Na" past tense: Roedd peswch arno fe. It should be noted that the roedd corresponds with peswch and not with fe. You would still say roedd if you were the one with the cough.

This week is half term in Welsh class, so in order to keep up with the language while I don't have class I am making it a goal to post a bit about Welsh every day this week. So, until tomorrow, Hwyl!

Posted by Kate at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm one of those people that thinks we are here to learn something, that we are meant to get something about of this experience. Someone once explained to me the philosophy of a medieval Shaivaite philosopher named Abhinavagupta as the philosophy of being completely human and completely divine. This is, for sure, a simplification. I have read twenty pages of a translation of one of the prolific Abhinavagupta's texts, so I am by no means an authority. It is doubtful that whomever informed me of this was an authority either. (Although, I believe Yoga Journal may have discussed him in a piece a few years back on Tantra.) Anyway, I've come to understand is that we are finite manifestations of the infinite, or the divine if you prefer. So, we're all in this collective graduate program with the infinite is our mysterious, elusive and somewhat unreliable (at least from our perspective) dissertation supervisor. That might be a metaphor that only works for me, but I think you get the point. Its not like we can make an appointment with the infinite, go the the infinite's office, have a seat and say, "So, I've been looking at my data set and I seem to be finding a lot of interesting things going on with aspect in relation to the context of "going to the pub". Would you have a look and comment on what I've done? It seems I'm going to be taking this in a slightly different direction from the plan." Which, as far as life goes, is pretty common, deviating from the plan.

Anyway, This has surely been the week for karmic discussions, because its been a popular subject. Waiterrant has posted a piece about not stealing tips hopefully garnering customer loyalty and the BarmaidBlog posted something about good deeds being their own reward. These things got me thinking.

We're an instant gratification society. The notion that things should happen immediately (we get to see the baddie get their comeupance at the end of the movie) is something that is very important to us. But, karma, if it is the cosmic law of cause and consequence, would have to apply at the cosmic level and not necessarily the micro level of each individual situation.

One of the things that Meditation Neal said on Tuesday was that we make the world around us. So, if you put in the time and the effort and you work really hard hoping to get a first (if you're British) or getting a 4.0, there is a good chance that this will happen. At least that is what I was told when I was little. But, to say that formula is the tried and true method that always works is wrong and there are thousand counterexamples to it. What we put into something is only one factor in determining what we get out of it. It is probably more accurate to say that there is a high correlation factor between things like hard work and getting what you want. But, if you have ever taken a stats class, you know that correlation does not prove causation.

I don't remember what my original point was. Perhaps it is that doing the right thing is one step towards making a better world. Which would make doing the right thing its own reward if you then got to live in the better world. And, in the service industry anything that brings about customer loyalty is definitely its own reward. So, to borrow a metaphor I have already used, if you want to carve pumpkins, you have to plant pumpkin seeds. I read once, again most likely in Yoga Journal, that from the right perspective we could see our lives unfold and how certain actions and intents manifested ourselves. There are ways to gain some of this sort of perspective, yoga or meditation or what have you. Its just a matter of starting to put in the work, I guess. (well, doubtful that it is just a matter of putting in the effort. Its probably more a matter of putting in the effort, your intentions about the whole process, the frequency of the effort, the temperature of the room in which the effort takes place, etc.)

What I find interesting about karma is the connection I have made to "living in the now" previously. Planning for the future seems to be at odds with living in this moment. But, I'm sure that is a discussion for another time.

Posted by Kate at 09:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"The way most people should behave is to live in the now. This transcends any dogmatic or cultural teachings and is not a question of ethics or other philosophy. You are here, so why not devote yourself to it fully? Lose yourself in the act of what you are doing. Pay attention to the details of life without getting lost in dreaming." by gitm of everything2.com

Ironically, while reading this brief opinion piece on e2 (that I happen to agree with) I was thinking about what I wanted to write. Then, I had to stop writing to take off my shoes and have a sip of wine. Clearly, concentration isn't my strong point today.

I have been thinking. I have been thinking about ethics. I have been thinking about places I could look for a suitable job. I have been thinking about Six Apart's new blogging platform I have been thinking about calling my Mama. I've been thinking about a lot of things, but mostly I've been wondering what it would be like to not think for a minute.

Meditation class did not go well this week. I had a bit of a fight with my sweetie before class and so when I should have been meditating, I was thinking about all of the things that were said and that weren't said. Then, Meditation Neal talked about Karma. I like karma, its a good concept. Its the cosmic law of cause and effect. And, what's interesting about karma is that the word itself simply means "action" (Thanks, sensei).

Of course, the doctrine of karma is a bit more complicated than that and includes one's intent along with their actions. Which, in the middle of meditation class got me back to my ethical musings. The word "ethics" has a Greek/Latin derivation and, according to The American Heritage Dictionary has its roots in the Greek word "ethos" or "character". So, while "ethics" seems to be about who you are, in a black and white code of conduct sense of the word, "karma" seems to be about "what you do". While I don't think there is much difference between these two things (at least for the purposes of my current musings) I still think this is something that is interesting and may merit further exploration (although, for right now, its a little off topic).

When I was little, and I'm sure countless of people across the world have had this experience and some other little kid on the playground was nasty to me my Ma would say, "Well, what goes around comes around." And, as a kid, I just got this mental image of a gigantic circle that had some sort of nasty energy burst that would slam into people and things. Or, that actions were boomerangs and you couldn't escape them coming back at you. The point my Mother was trying to make was that if you don't want something to happen to you, then don't set the precedent that it is okay to do that thing. I kept on thinking about boomerangs, but I guess somehow it sank in because I'm talking about it now. If you want to carve pumpkins in October, you have to plant pumpkin seeds in the beginning of summer. If you want to enjoy life, you have to learn how to stop being distracted and just live it.

I'm having tremendous trouble with this last one. I'm sure this could have been a much better entry, but I keep getting distracted by things I think I should look at on the internet.

"Living" as an action is something that so often gets pushed into the background. As human beings, as long as we are alive, it is something we are always doing. We can sleep, but we are living, we can go to work, but we are living, we could rob a convenience store, but we are still living. As an act, it is one infrequently comes to our attention. But, it is an important one. What we do while we are living has its consequences and makes its statements about who we are as people. We spend so much time buying, selling, sleeping, eating, worrying, hating, dancing, drinking, loving, laughing, fucking, shouting, driving, sitting, waiting, cooking, cleaning, watching, hearing, studying, showering.... and we spend so much time thinking about how to do those things, that, as the article I quoted earlier, we don't even bother to give them our full attention and really do or enjoy them.

Well, I would like to do more just living. Meditation is a practice of just living. I would like to build up that practice. I have decided to set a goal of introducing, at least in the beginning, ten minutes of meditation into my days. I'll let you know how that goes.

Posted by Kate at 08:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There are two ways of counting in Welsh. The newer system is based on ten and an older system that is based on twenty. You know, when you are singing an English translation of a Catalan Christmas Carol and you sing, "On December five and twenty" Or you're doing a bit of research on American history and read, "It was four score and seven years ago." Its that sort of thing. And, while the older system is on its way out in most daily actitivies, such as counting above twenty-nine, it is still very much entrenched in something all of us do at least once a day: tell the time.

So, to begin with, one needs to be able to count to twelve, which is simple enough: un (een), dau (dai), tri (tree), pedwar (pedwahr), pump (pimp), chewch (ch*ech), saith, wyth (oith), naw (now), deg (deig), un ar ddeg (een ahr dd**eig), deuddeg (deiddeg).

How cool is that, being able to count to twelve in Welsh?

Continuing on, for "after" or "past" you say "wedi" (wehdee). To say "to", you say "i" (ee).

"chawrter" (chahrter) means "quarter" and "hanner" (hahner) means half. So, to say quarter past 2 you say, "chawrter wedi dau". If you want to say half past eleven, you say, "hanner wedi un ar ddeg." (or, "hanner awr wedi un ar ddeg." in which "awr" which sounds like "hour" means, surprisingly "hour."). All of this is the cake walk. Its when you want to say twenty after, or twenty-five to, or what have you that things get hairy.

You see, in the ten system, you'd just say dau ddeg for twenty. Simple, two tens. In the old system, you say, ugain (eegain). Got it? un ar hugain, dau ar hugain, tri ar hugain...and up and onwards. Except when you are telling time. Then, before you said, "ar" (I know, your inner pirate is dying to tell time now) you say, "munud" (minid).

So, if someone asks you, "Faint o'r gloch ydy hi? (vaint or gloch yhdee hee?) And your watch is telling you 2:40, you would answer, "Mae hi'n hugain munud i tri" (my heen heegain minid ee tree). Its twenty minutes to three. Or, if it was 4:21 you would say, "Mae hi'n un munud ar hugain wedi bedwar."

Okay, so maybe time isn't all that bad.

Oh, one more thing, in the older system, everything up to 15 follows the pattern of "un ar ddeg" (except deuddeg). After fifteen, pymtheg, you add pymtheg instead of deg, so seventeen is "dau ar pymtheg". Think of it as roman numerals.

Well, then. You're set and ready to go with time.

Posted by Kate at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This afternoon the meditation centre that has been running a meditation class I've been attending went out and did some publicity to advertise the classes that are coming up. I had no plans for the afternoon, so they picked me up at the community centre and we drove into town.

Now, because Cardiff is in Wales, and Wales has a tendency to be rainy this was interesting. While I was in an organic cafe off of Queen Street (which smelled divine) the sky opened up and threw down buckets of water onto the City Centre. I darted out of the cafe to meet Neal, the meditation teacher, as people were shrieking and running for cover, as if Godzilla or some other equally scary gigantic monster were bearing down on them. It was just a little rain. Well, it was just a lot of rain. A lot of cold rain. We popped into an arcade and politely asked some more people if we could put posters up in their windows. It was a mostly successful day.

I saw a poster about this time last year and thought about going to classes. I speculate that it was this memory of the poster that inspired me to have a look online to see if they were still running classes. Well, that and the fact that and a friend of mine back home has recently started meditation and has found that it has been well worth her while.

I find the idea of volunteer publicity people to be quite interesting. Word-of-mouth seems to count for quite a lot. I know I find that when someone I trust recommends something to me, I am generally willing to give it a try. And, as for things online, I myself have gotten advance copies of CDs and DVDs in order to review them for BlogCritics. (I suppose, ethically, there may not be much difference between getting something from a publicist and being in the employ of a record label or some other corporation. It is possible that I am just a shill. However, I would like to, at this point, argue that the difference is that I am not paid for the reviews, nor am I paid for kind words. I review something because I have been given a copy of it. And, given that I'm a blogger and have been for some time, its not really much effort on my part as I would probably have written about most of the things I've written about anyway.) Its big business, publicizing things. Its big business that has come to the internet in a big way. And, you don't have to take my word for it, you just have to go to a site like rojo where you'll find stories about corporation created blogs or you can find plenty of reading material out there about the (as the article l just linked called it) "Trojan Horse" that online community sites have become. Its things like this that make me feel dirty. No one likes feeling like someone (or something) has taken advantage of them. If you were way into Lonelygirl15 and then you found out that Bree is not actually Bree but instead an actress named Jessica Rose, I'd feel a little taken for a ride. Wasn't that part of the problem people had with The Blair Witch Project? This is something I want to give some thought to, as part of my ethical ponderings.

I believe the world is not something that can be commodified and marketed, or at least that shouldn't be. Obviously,I'm in the minority on this one. What is the difference between companies publicizing things through sites like MySpace or blogs run by PR firms and me wandering around the City of Cardiff in order to spread the word about meditation classes?

I suppose the best place for me to start would be the difference expressed in the language. "Spreading the word" is a phrase that tends to be used to describe a process of dissemination of information meant for the betterment, enjoyment and safety of those around you. You spread the word about a great band you've heard or a film you've seen. The phrase is also used in religious settings such as, "The disciples set out to spread the word about Jesus." So, "spreading the word" (and, I would say "word of mouth") has this connotation of something being one trusted individual to another trusted individual. It has a sense of a goal that involves sharing something with you instead of having a goal of sharing something with as many people as possible.

To create a fake blog because or YouTube page because someone is paying you to is to take that trust that is implicit in the frame of "word of mouth" and "spreading the word" and to exploit it. Blogs are good publicity because they are virtual word of mouth. They are anonymous people chatting up and about what they do and do not like. Its like a bunch of people talking about things they like in a bar, only with a wider audience. This makes them a gold mine. However, to not dislcose that something is run by people that are paid by a company is disingenuous. But, then the goals of business, particularly under the doctrine of free-enterprise have little to gain from being open and honest.

So, it would seem that one's motivation may be just as important as what one does or says. Which is interesting, seeing as there is a long-standing debate about whether you get into heaven based on your deeds or your beliefs. I don't know if this has brought me any closer to figuring out what a "moral" is or what "ethics" are, but maybe it has. At the very least, its given me more stuff to consider. And, that's always a good thing.

Posted by Kate at 05:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Very recently I have become very interested in ethical business practices. I can say that I have always been a bit curious about the subject of ethics in general, although I've not done much reading on it. It has occurred to me that I have a lot of gut reactions to ethical things. I can tell you that something is "right" or "wrong", "acceptable" or "unacceptable" but I'm not sure I can outline what it is that makes this so.

My friend Sarah is a philosopher. One of the many things that being friends with Sarah has done for me is remind just how important it is to be able to step up a strong argument. She has an argument for everything. You think, being a linguist would make that something that comes with the territory. Yet, somehow I've missed that. Ethics have always been just things that back up the gut-wrenching feeling you get when you come across something that is wrong. And, things that are wrong, for some reason have always just been justifications in themselves. Not surprisingly, as I've grown up and moved out into the world I have developed some feelings on things that may not be the sort of black and white transparent "wrong" that wouldn't require any sort of justification. This has become a particular interest because very recently I have found myself thinking extensively about why exactly I think that things like sweat shop labor, the death penalty and secret surveillance are wrong. And, as it turns out, my argument at first is my knee-jerk reaction, which is, "because they are." Which is nsufficient.

So, I have set myself a goal of fixing this. I would like to be able to make a coherent argument and outline how I feel about these sorts of things. I think its important to know because, at the very least, it can help me not contribute to the misery of others. This is something that I have talked about before, not contributing to the misery of others. And, given that ethics have to do with what is right and what is wrong, this is probably where I'll start. Why is it important to not contribute to the suffering of others?

Also, I am taking suggestions of readings that can help me in my quest.

Posted by Kate at 04:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

When I first moved here, I wrote some spectacular emails home about the experience of having to do everyday things in a strange land. Now, I mostly just whine about it. How did it come to this? After reading some of the letters, I made a little commitment to myself to whinge less and write more about the neat things that I encounter as a foreigner (because there is still a ton of stuff that I find totally bizarre.)

The people of the island love their potato. Specifically, they love their potato cut into wedges or strips and then fried. I am, of course, referring to the "chip" or the "fry". I've come to prefer the British bit of lexis "chip" over the "fry". It just sounds more fun to me. And, since fries were always something a little naughty and fun that we ate when we were kids, I appreciate getting a little of that back in my adult life. Plus, it has lended itself so fantastically to slang term "Chippy" for the chip shop. There is nothing like chips from a chip shop. Now, maybe I'm just excited because the chip shop is "Classic British" like getting a shake at The Hamburg in is "Classic Americana".

Chip shop chips are made from actual potatoes. Cut up on site. You know, instead of from actual potatoes flash frozen in a factory in Idaho and then shipped in a freezer truck over I-80 to a supermarket near you. The chip shop that I seem to frequent most is an award-winning shop on Albany Road in Cardiff called, are you ready for this, The Albany Fish Bar. They almost always have a line. The chips come in two sizes, small and large, and they are reasonably priced. The chips are served wrapped in butcher paper, as is typical. They are AMAZING! Which I suppose is what happens when you eat fries made with actual grease alongside other foods instead of eating fries that have been seasoned with "natural flavorings". AMAZING!

But, what I really wanted to talk about is that chips go with everything here. Even things they probably shouldn't. Like, lasagne for example. That's right, you can walk into a pub and order lasagne and chips. Or, if you're Welsh fiance is making you dinner, you can sit down in your own kitchen and eat lasagne and chips. Its wrong, but its not as bad as it sounds. I've given up trying to talk him into a salad, lasagne and chips is just the way it is.

Posted by Kate at 05:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Occasionally, I do things that do not involve reading, learning, studying, or job seeking. One of those things I do is photography. I have not done it in awhile. My last big push to document Cardiff was to snap some shots of the lovely graffiti in the area. (I task that I will need to head out on again, as there is some new stuff that is interesting.) I headed over to the park today and got a few shots of the trees beginning to turn.  

None of them really turned out as I hoped, but they are at least something I can work with.  The Roath Park Rec is a gated area that has a small rose garden, tennis courts, and bowling greens.  This is where I headed in the early afternoon.  (It is right across from my flat, so that made it easier.)  I first hit the roses.

 <img alt="15oct06 017.jpg" src="http://thefilmnoirexperience.com/blog/%20021.jpg

And, then I moved on to more trees.  My favorite of all of these, cropped here for your enjoyment, contained a squirrel.

  The lighting at this point wasn't very good and my battery died right after the shot so I wasn't able to blind the poor guy with a strobe.  Also, as I got a little closer the squirrel clocked me and ran up the tree.  But, you can see the little guy in silohuette in the middle of the right bit of the V in the tree. 

After I got home, I had some fun in photoshop with some of the photos.  As it turns out, the colors are spectacular yet even though its autumn as things have just starting turning and leaves have just started falling.  To be fair, I don't remember a ton of spectacular autumn colors last year.  What I remember, mostly, is that it is cold and grey.  So, being me I'm impatient.  I wanted fall colours now.  So, here is my favourite of the ones with which I've been mucking about.

 Well, I tried, but it apparently doesn't want to show up. 

Posted by Kate at 05:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Freak Scene Dinosaur Jr
In An Operetta The Magnetic Fields
32 Flavors Ani DiFranco
Ain't Misbehavin' Duke Ellington
When You're Around Motion City Soundtrack
There's Gotta Be A Change Jonny Lang
No Missing Link Dan Bern
Fragments. Shades. Sketches. 3:09 Aaron McMullan
All I Want To Know The Magnetic Fields
Silly Goofball Pomes Juliana Hatfield
Truth Hits Everybody Motion City Soundtrack
10:45 Amsterdam Conversations Funeral For A Friend
Tiger Woods Dan Bern
Abstract Truth DJ Abandon T
What Do You Do With A B.A. In English/It Sucks To Be Me Avenue Q
Gone (Live) M83
The Modern Things Björk
Cassandra Geminni: C. Faminepulse The Mars Volta
Forty Six & 2 Tool

This one is still in test drive mode. A friend of mine's birthday was earlier this month, and I've been trying to tweak it to be perfect for her, and it just seems like its missing something. It has a double dose of both Dan Bern (whom you just have to love) and the Magnetic Fields, although I'm thinking about replacing one of the Magnetic Fields songs with a Gothic Archies tune (iffin' I can get ahold of them). It has the current requisite dose of Welsh with Funeral for a Friend I am also thinking about tossing in some New York Room (as I am currently obsessed with them.)
I know I've already said this, but its missing something. A theme? Some kind of dialogue? Maybe it just needs better sequencing...Obviously, I will have to figure this out.

Posted by Kate at 09:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So, now that we've got some vocab and we're gliding on to regular verbs in the past tense. As far as recipes go, this one is pretty easy. There are just a few simple steps and only two ingridients! You can't really beat that!

Simple Past Tense Regular Verbs

Verb Stem
Ending

To find the verb stem:
if it ends in a consonant: use the whole word as the stem
unless: it ends it "-ed" or "-eg",
then: drop the "-ed/-eg"
if it ends in a vowel: drop off the last vowel

Add ending to stem
I: -ais i
you: -aist ti
she: -odd hi
he: -odd e
we: -on ni
you formal/plural: -och chi
they: -on nhw.

So, "I spoke to John" is siaradais i â John. "He walked to work" is Cerrddodd e i'r gwaith. We ate sushi would be bwyton ni sushi. Rockinginly easy. So easy that I think I can give a short description of the mutations now.

The mutations are sound changes at the beginning of words. They are systematic and only apply to stops and a few of the nasal sounds in Welsh. They apply after a subset of grammatical words such as two of the question words (beth meaning "what" and pwy meaning who) and the preposition words, at the beginning of feminine singular words in certain environments and at the beginning of questions and negative statements. At least, this is what I have learned so far. It is quite possible that in the future, this will change as I learn more. Obviously, I will keep you updated.

Posted by Kate at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It has occurred to me that even though I have gone over the past tense and talked about how to say, "I like", that I haven't really talked a lot about vocabulary. Well, today I'm going to remedy that!

Vocabulary learning has always been the hardest part of learning any language that I've tried to learn for me. Grammatical items and structure are all very good and important to creating an effective message and being understood. However, the bulk of that message comes from the content items, the lexical items of the language. Given that any language you are learning you are going to be semi-literate in to start, you have few opportunities to pick up vocabulary from reading. I don't know about you, but much of my vocabulary in my first language I've gleaned through years of literacy. In a new language, you rely less on context to put the pieces together because you're still working out what things mean and how they work together. You have to look things up frequently. And, going to the dictionary every other word is hardly what you do in your first language, so when you have to in a new language it is very easy to get very frustrated very quickly. Now, dear reader, I wouldn't want you to get frustrated with your limited expressive powers, so here is a list of words you may find of you (and, that I've recently put on flashcards in order to facilitate committing to memory.)
In the following you will find "ll" to represent the sound described here and "dd" to represent the sound described here. and "ch" to represent what is in IPA /x/. This sound is also discussed here..

llysiau (said: llusheeai): vegetables
Gwyliau (said: gwileeai): holidays (vacation)
ddoe: (said: ddoi) yesterday
creision: (said: crayshun) crisps (American: chips)
ardderchog (said: arrdderchog) Excellent
echnos: (said: echnohs) the night before last
dechrau: (said: dechrai) to start
brechdan: (said: brehchdahn) sandwich
dŵr: (said: doo or) water
cwrw: (said: cooroo) beer
sudd: (said: seedd) juice
cinio: (saidL ceeneeoh) dinner*
oren: (said: o rehn) orange
afal: (said: avahl) apple
Cael: (said kail) to have as in get or obtain or consume
tŷ: (said: tee) house.

So, Now you can say "I like apple juice" dw i'n hoffi sudd afal. Or, I'm having a sandwich. Dw i'n cael y frechdan**. If you are ever caught in the Welsh mystery story and someone asks you where you were the night before last, you can say, Bues i yn y tŷ echnos, "I was in the house the night before last." But, as is always true in stories (and, frequently in life as well) you will have been home alone with no one to verify your alibi and Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Mark Sloane or Matlock will have to prove your innocence after you're arrested wrongly. Or, you can say Dw i ddim yn hoffi llysiau, if you don't like vegetables.

* dinner is frequently used to describe the midday meal on the island. So, "cinio" can be used for either lunch or dinner.
** Welsh has what are known as "mutations" that effect certain sounds when preceded by vowels and certain grammatical words. They have, if you will, an instutionalized way of describing the phonological processes of speech like Sanskrit's samdhi rules. "Brechdan" is a feminine word and is effected by the change.

Posted by Kate at 09:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Last night, after we had meditated and we had a little talk, we meditated a little more and then we formed little discussion groups. The topic was inner peace. One of the comments the teachers had made about perspective was that when you meet someone you don't like it is good to remember that this may just be an illusion, a perspective because that person is liked and loved by other people. One of the members of my little discussion group found that to be very moving. He brought up the Amish school shootings in Pennsylvania and told us about an article he had read. Around 30 members of the Amish community that lost six of its girls in that school shooting turned up at the killer's funeral. Now, I find that moving. Its one thing to talk about forgiveness, its a much bigger thing to be able to follow through on the talk.

I, myself, find forgiveness something that is very hard to do. I don't know why. I always have. So, it has given me a lot of food for throught and hopefully it will be something that I can meditate (hooray!) on and develop because I think the world could actually use a bit more it. We seem to use revenge and punishment with such glee and gusto that things like mercy and forgiveness are just given lip service. Like, what would really happen if, instead of sanctioning Iran, we said, "Look. We'd like you to not do this one thing. But, we understand that you have these certain needs you would like to have met. What sort of plan can we develop in order to meet both of our needs/expectations?" Are we really that afraid of tyrannical madmen that we are willing to damage innocent people and cut out working with reasonable people?

Posted by Kate at 09:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today, I went to a meditation class that was being held at the community centre down the street. I was feeling tired and had thought earlier in the day that I might not go. However, I had told Anne-Marie if she would be interested in going and she said yes, so I roped myself into it.

The class began with a short meditation in which we took our concentration through our bodies and relaxed. Then we focused on our breathing. After that, the instructor gave a little talk about inner peace. He had this style of speaking that was very conversational and he kept interrupting himself. It made me smile.

Posted by Kate at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So, we got up around 8:30 this morning. Which is sleeping in for us. I read a little, John watched the extras on the X-men 3 DVD. John went back to bed. I read some more. I think I fell asleep again. I'm getting up the energy to go out and take some pictures. John has gone to the pub because Wales is playing Slovakia today in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. Before he left he tried to talk me into taking the disposable camera instead of my real camera out and then the last thing he said to me on the way out of the door was, "Don't get mugged." I think he was a little upset that I wouldn't take his advice. However, I did not spend all that money on a digital camera to use a disposable camera. (Which I have just to take to bars.)

It feels like a Sunday and not like a Saturday. I have Welsh vocabulary to learn. Among the words I have on flash cards are such exciting things as "porridge" and the color "black". "Black" as a word in Welsh amuses me because its spelled "du" which is said "dee". Its great. The whole language is great. Thumbs up to Welsh.

I've been having a lot of really weird and very vivid dreams about such things as the Peace Corps, spiders, and castles filled with books. Its been a very tense week because the dreams have been effecting how I've been sleeping which has made me bitchy.

Coming up (hopefully) this weekend, I will post a This Week in Welsh and a music review of Mewithoutyou's new CD. So, stay tuned and such.

Posted by Kate at 01:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Cardiff is supposed to be host to gale force winds, I hear. Not first hand, of course because weather reports are for chumps. I'd much rather wish I had my umbrella with me than actually have my umbrella with me.

I received two emails today my CV. One from someone I sent it to and one from someone who saw it on Monster.com. I feel these are good signs. I will hopefully going in for at least one interview next week. It is hard to think of Cardiff as home right now, because I don't often get to see my friends and I'm not in school anymore. Also, I think its hard because my lovely boy has lived her for so long that he knows everyone. We joined the video shop today and while we were walking home we saw three people he knew. Of course, he's introduced me to them so I know them, too. Its just hard sometimes to think of them as "our friends" when they were "his friends" for so long before I even existed here in this city.

I have some hope, though. There is a weekly Welsh conversation drinking hour run by one of the teachers at a pub not far from here on Wednesdays. Which is perfect as my lovely has a night class on Wednesdays. I'm thinking about going. Also, there are meditation classes just down the road on Tuesdays starting next Tuesday and I'm definitely thinking about that. A friend of mine has recently been taking meditation back home and has met with much success. It has rekindled my interest and has got me to dig through my books and pull out the ones I have here on meditation.

I know it takes awhile to get settled and that I will adjust to the changes in my life. But, its still a lot of getting used to.

Posted by Kate at 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You have a problem when the artwork on the CD cover is more striking than the tunes on the disc. This is not to imply that I didn’t like Prepare the Masses by A Change of Pace. Its solid, if conventional rock. I was just more intrigued by the guitars with wings like fighter jets and the fists in the air that were taller than buildings.

This album races from beginning to end. All of the songs are up tempo, except the last track “Safe and Sound in Phone Lines”. And, there are some catchy guitar riffs. Instead of breaking changing things up with slower tempo songs, this album has “White Lines and lipstick” which has a heavier more metal sound to it with a wicked guitar solo in the middle. And, then there is “War in Your Bedroom” which has vocals prominently featured (and again a heavier sound). There is also the poppy “Take Care” which turned out to be infectious.

Lyrically, this album seemed very hopeful, with songs like “Take Care” and “A Song the World Can Sing Out Loud”, and I liked that. It also was pretty tied up in relationships and love. I was expecting, with a title like “Prepare the Masses” for something that would be overtly political. Track 2, “How to Rape a Country” offered some of that. For the most part, this album seemed to be about war as a metaphor for love, which is fair enough. Just not what I expected.

A Change of Pace are from Peoria, Arizona and this is their second album. While it is conventional and does not offer up any tracks that really stuck in my mind these gentlemen are talented musicians and it is worth a listen. This album is sure to be enjoyed by listeners who are already fans, but its unlikely it will win many new fans. It is solid rock and I do look forward to what this band does in the future. Some of the songs are available to listen to at A Change of Pace’s Myspace page and their official website. A Change of Pace are on Immortal Records.

Posted by Kate at 03:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

While it would seem that language, like life, is very simply divided up into past, present and future anyone that has taken a language class will tell you that it is not that simple. If you studied Spanish you remember being bogged down with whether or not to use the pretérito or the imperfecto in the past or if you were an Italian student whether to use the passato prossimo or the passato remoto. Many hours have been spent looking at and memorizing whether things are perfect or imperfect or progressive. And, it can be confusing. Very, very confusing. Theses differences are known as aspect, which is a linguistic concept that specifies how time is related to an event being discussed. Wikipedia says that aspect, "defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state." Aspect is typically considered to be part of the verb.

Why did you need to know that? Well, you didn't really. But, this M.A. isn't doing anything else for me right now, so it might as well bore you with not necessarily useful information about language.

Welsh, not surprisingly, has different past tenses that mark "temporal flow". We have started to learn the past, starting with the tense that marks completed actions in the past. This was once described to me (by Señora Kaalberg back when I was studying Spanish) as the "boom" tense. It happened. Boom! It is now over and done. And, in teaching us this, our teachers have started with two verbs. (Arguably, the two most useful verbs in any language.) "Be" and "Go".

To say "I was (over. done with. finished) in the class" you say, "Bues i yn y dosbarth." And, "bues i" is pronounced as if you were talking about Bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE. So, "BSE un uh dosbarth." And, it goes on like. Buest ti yn y dosbarth (you were in the class), Buodd hi yn y dosbarth (she was in the class), Buodd e yn y dosbarth (he was in the class), buoch chi yn y dosbarth (You (formal)/y'all were in the class), Buon ni yn y dosbarth (we were in the class) and Buon nhw yn y dosbarth (they were in the class). or the shop (siop), or in the library (llfrygell). Wicked, eh?

To say "went" is similar and pretty easy. "I" and "You" follow the same pattern, "Es i'r siop" and "Est ti'r swyddfa (said: soyddvuh. means: office). And, for the rest you have "aeth" (or aethon or aethoch) which is said like "ice" if you had a lisp. So, "We went to the restaurant," is "Aethon ni yn y dy bwyd" (said: aethon nee un uh dee boid).

This week in Welsh has been brought to you by the linguistic concept of Aspect (which, if you would like to read more my former Professors Paula Kempchinsky and Roumyana Slabakova have published a book on it. I've not read it, but I learned a lot from taking classes from both of them so I feel its only fair that I recommend something of theirs.) Hwyl Fawr!

Posted by Kate at 09:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)