The Film Noir Experience

First off, I have to begin this entry by telling you that I have no idea if any of what I'm about to share with you is right.

Why don't I know? I don't know because I'm still a student. So, we've been learning about dependency grammar in my syntax class. And, because it is good to turn in assignments that are legible, I've been experimenting with ways to do that. Today, I tried using my computer's paint program to sort out my diagrams that are due tomorrow.

I came up with this:
Pretty, right? Sure, its a little hard to read because it is so small, but you have to go with it. Here's the rub: Nothing is labeled. This is a problem. There is no point in having a diagram if nothing in it is labeled. (Also, without the label, I've not really done the assignment.) The other problem is I'm not sure if this makes it any clearer this way than if I did it by hand.

I thought I'd perhaps do one more diagram on the computer and see how that goes. If it turns out to still not be particularly clear, I'm giving up and going back to doing it by hand. Syntax isn't really my bag, but I like the idea that things are built up from relations like this. Somehow, that makes more sense to me. (Although, you shouldn't read that this is -the- way this sort of thing is done. Its more that this is what we're doing in this one class I'm taking right now.)

This sort of way of looking at syntax makes looking at languages that can have discontinuous constituents or languages in which word order is relatively free (which would make for discontinuous constituents.)

On a completely unrelated note, turkeys don't have sweat glands, so they have to pant in order to cool themselves down. Isn't that interesting?

Posted by Kate at 08:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I came home today, like the previous two days to find Cooper on my bed. I made it this morning, so he was lounging, not in a mess of blankets, but rather on the pillow. So, I did what I've done. I slowly approached the bed, speaking nicely to him. He stayed on the bed until I got to the bed, then he decided he didn't want to have head scratched, so he hopped off. I then went to feed the cats and when I came back I turned on the light in the room and sat back down on the bed. I sighed, lounged and was startled...

By a kitten shooting out from underneath the pillows.

I hadn't even known Kingsley was there. The evening has progressed from there. I had a leftover hamburger and some soup for dinner. The cats (both of them!) helped themselves to the hamburger they could get their hands on. Then they played and tried their darnedest to help themselves to the soup (with onions in it) that they were not welcome to. They hopped up on the couch and were purr-y. But, I didn't break. No Soup For Them.

In other news, they have found my houseplants. I watered my orchid today, which meant that when the kittens knocked it over, they got splashed with the water remaining in the liner tray.

Posted by Kate at 07:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've not done a lot of knitting recently, something about trying to coax kittens out from under the bed. (Although, I have been able to get a few rows of my Guyfriend scarf I've been working on. Its a great pattern that I got out of the Simple 1-2-3 Knitting that I fished out of the Bargain Section at B&N. What a great find that book has turned out to be. But, last night, while I was sleeping, the kittens discovered two things:

1. The scarf I was working on.
2. The article I was reading.

How do I know this? I know this because when I woke up this morning to find my yarn criss-crossed all over the floor. And, I know they found the article because when I went to read it a second time, I noticed tiny little kitty bite marks in the pages. My apartment is not really kitten-proof. I've known that since the beginning. However, I'm starting to think about what that means.

The plus side of this is, they are both starting to decide that I'm pretty cool. Much like yesterday, when I got home from class Cooper was again napping in my bed and he let me pet him. Unwittingly, he is helping me trick his brother into liking me by purring. He starts purring and then his brother wants to know what is so cool that he is purring.

Kingsley came out from under the bed earlier because of this purring trick. He got a treat for it. Yup, I'm still bribing them.

Posted by Kate at 08:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I came home from Syntax and a research group and I announced that I was home to the fur-babies. But, then I had to announce that I was walking back towards my bedroom because the last time I did that without announcing this, I scared Cooper into running into me and the running into me scared me.

What fun we have.

So, I announce that I am coming and I look into my bedroom and a little Cooper head popped up over the unmade covers. (This is, whether you believe it or not, actually uncommon. I've taken to making my bed.) So, I slowly approached and climbed into bed and reached out and he moved a little, but he didn't bolt and he let me pet him. Then, he got into it and started purring. The purring got his brother's attention. First I read the tell-tale sounds of claws in the furniture (Eep) and then there was the tell-tale feel of little paws and little claws scaling me. I tried to stay as perfectly still as I could. Copper went to investigate Kingsley. Kingsley realized that I had realize that he was on the bed and jumped back down. Cooper came back and let me pet him some more. Kingsley climbed back on the bed and stared at me for a minute. His brother went to investigate him. He hopped back down. Cooper stared at his brother. I assume his brother stared back.

Then, I messed it up by getting down off the bed in order to feed the kittens. They are eating now. Actually, they are playing with the lose tile on the bathroom floor.

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

Normalcy Courses Through My Veins

-- Jackie O. in The House of Yes.

It is a little disturbing, the number of times I've found the opportunity recently to reference that (wonderful, you should watch it) film.

After a busy morning and early afternoon of kitten hunting (Kingsley has taken to hiding behind the sofa or between the fridge and the wall), breakfast eating, and Hobby Lobby-going (only to remember once there that it is an establishment that is not open on Sundays), I came home, watched an episode of The Tudors and took a nap. Napping is such a luxury. Coming home on an afternoon where it is cold and windy out. When snow is softly flurrying to the ground, stretching out on the sofa and closing ones eyes. It is amazing.

I woke up and went about my business. I checked me email and I heard a sad little meow. I answered it, as has become my habit. Cooper woke up from his nap and went about his business. Then, we both did the same thing: we looked for his brother. He was behind the sofa. I found him first (and did my best not to alarm him, poor little scared thing.) Then, his brother found him. And, you'd think that would be a good thing. I don't know if it was or not. Cooper walked around the couch, sniffed around and then came back out licking his lips. Then, he attacked a couch cushion (which was on the floor because it annoyed me whilst I was napping). Kingsley has now emerged from the couch is snacking on the bacon I left him six hours ago. Cooper is knocking things over in my bedroom. Things seem to be reaching a state of normalcy.

Posted by Kate at 07:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I set the trap out this afternoon and I baited it with tuna. Around 4:30, I finally caught the second kitten. He is now scared and lost in the big wilderness of my flat. But, he's not alone and there's plenty of food and it is dry and warm.

I think these things are an improvement. (Who knows what he thinks.)

I'm not sure his brother knows that he's here, but Cooper has been playing as per usual since I brought the second one in.

I have a very exciting evening planned for the lot of us. I'm going to continue to work on my projects, make dinner and maybe we'll watch a movie later.

Don't you envy me?

Posted by Kate at 05:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've spent the better part of the day (and I'll be spending the better part of the weekend) working on my phonetics project.

And, it makes me want to share with all of you. I don't feel right actually using my data, but I do have some recordings of myself, so I'm going to show you that.

This is a spectrogram:

It is a spectrogram showing my production of the Welsh word diolch which you may remember from my little Cymraeg lessons means "Thank You".

the "d" sound is a voiced plosive or a "stop" consonant. It is made by creating a complete closure in the mouth. There are two things I'm going to point out about it. The release of the stop:

That is where I released the closure making the "d" sound. (This is an alveolar closure, for bonus points. Its made like you'd make the "d" sound in English.)

The other thing that you can see here is the "voicing bar". That is where I continued to voice even when there was no place for the air to go. This is lighter than what you can see later in the spectrogram, but you can see it anyway.

There are two vowels in "diolch". Vowels are distinguished by dark bands called formants. The first formant inversely correlates with "height" and the second formant correlates with "backness". Vowels are thought of "high" or "low", "front" or "back". This sort of, if you really think about it and make it work corresponds with what is going on in your mouth (how wide your jaw is, if there is lip rounding, whether your tongue is close to the roof of the mouth or near the bottom of the mouth.) Sort of.

So, that is the vowel. Lets look at the first part, "i". As I said, inversely correlates for height. The lower the first formant, the higher the vowel. The higher the second formant, the fronter the vowel:

So, its high because the first dark band is low and its front because the second dark band is high. The second vowel is what is normally transcribed as symbol called "open o". Now, whether or not I actually make that and not and "a" is anyone's guess as I don't tend to make "open o" when I'm speaking English. Its just not really in my dialect. (Although, in "a" the first two formants get really close and become hard to distinguish. So, if this isn't "open o" its just "o". But, that's a discussion for another day.)

so that's the "o" sound in diolch. Neat, right?

The last sound is the "ch" sound, which in the Southern Welsh dialect I was taught is a velar fricative. It is a sound made by bringing the back of your tongue close to the sound palate (but not so close that you'd make a complete closure.) You can see that dark gray band, it looks a little like white noise would look like. (I'm thinking that my recording isn't the best. I'm not sure that it should be gray all the way to the bottom.)

The last thing I want to show you is something known as a "velar pinch". Sounds that are made at the soft palate often make the second and third formants come together, as if they've been pinched. The "ch" sound is no exception.

Color me geeky, but I think that is so neat. We use our vocal cords and our mouths and teeth and tongue and cheeks and nose to make these sounds, that can be explained by physics and that create a signal that we can break down and interpret. How freaking awesome is that? I know, you're amazed, too.

Posted by Kate at 05:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)