mice are nice

The rodent drama around here never ends. I think my mom catches about 4 mice per day, in those little live-trap box things. Then she puts them in a holding cell for a few hours ("about six or eight hours" according to my brother) before releasing them back into the wild.

She doesn't actually do the releasing, she makes one of my brothers do it. And by "the wild" what I really mean is "the back yard" and by "holding cell" I actually mean "empty decorated Christmas Popcorn tin, covered by an old canvas on stretchers."

My stepfather is convinced that the same mice are coming back into the house every day, being punished in the popcorn tin, and being put outside. He is trying to convince my mom to paint the mice different colors ("just spray paint them! Or use one of those tiny-ass paint brushes you have all over the damn place. You have enough paint, if that's what you're worried about. You're not gonna run out any time soon.") so that we can see whether or not it is in fact the same mice or if
there really are that many.

I said a more fun idea would be to capture them, dress them in little outfits, and then give them to people as pets for Christmas presents.

My mom is ignoring both of us, so far.

Mighty Morpheme Power Rangers

Remember a long time ago when I said I was constantly thinking of fun but useless projects? Well I really made the one that was the cartoon of Power Rangers. And here it is! You have to click on the strips to make them big enough to read, unless you have super crazy vision powers.

Also, some of the jokes are not very funny unless you are in grad school for linguistics, like I am. But since I only really care about entertaining myself, it won't bother me too much if you don't laugh uproariously. Because I certainly am. Laughing uproariously.

d
d
d
d
d

East vs Midwest vs Wild West

Now I'm in Montana. It's cold here, but before I complain I would like to first of all take back everything I ever said about Washington having "fake" weather. The Gods of the Constitution (some would say Founding Fathers, but really let's call a spade a spade, here, folks) were not pleased. And last Thursday, it rained, and rained, and rained, and froze, and rained, and froze some more. I ruined my gloves. Or at least, they got very wet, and so did I, and it was far more unpleasant than any other weather I've experienced so far this year.

Minnesota and Montana included.

So last weekend I was in Minneapolis, where it was cold and snowy but delightfully free of humidity. And now I am in Montana where, surprisingly, it is just as cold as it was in Minnesota. But with worse roads, better traffic, and more drive-through liquor stores. Again, though, no freezing rain.

I'm in the living room with a fire in the fireplace and several piles of books and magazines to read. And none of the books or magazines have anything to do with linguistics, at all. (except for one, but I'm not reading that one because I am on vacation)

In general, everything is as you might expect it to be. My brothers are tall. The Christmas tree is fragrant. My mom's dog is endearingly neurotic. Constitution Gods, bless us every one.

Hooray!

Well, I'm all done with my schooling.

I just posted my last final end remaining essay on the fancy school bulletin board. No, you can't read it. It's private.

I'm a little punchy. And excited! Here's what I'm doing today, now that I have ZERO homework:
1. meeting my sister at a bookstore
2. meeting friends for a drink of delicious beer
3. reading a murder mystery
4. going to bed

Tomorrow I have all kinds of other exciting jobs to do. Like clean my room. And pack. And do my laundry.

Probably not in that order...

I have better things to do

It's my last week of classes so I don't have time for all this "internet" malarky.

Until I come back, here is a fun place to waste your valuable time: Ring Tone Dancer. It's a kid I went to college with. He's dancing to the tune of a ringing cell phone- "in the hall of the mountain king" according to my sister.

talk to you next week

CORRECTION: Sorry, Jocelyn, the Mountain King is wrong. It's from Swan Lake.

education is priceless

Here are 3 sentences from my homework. No I did not make them up. I'll let you know if I got an A or not.


Jim married the librarian who always wears her hair in curlers.

Put the tofu that made Jim choke in the garbage that is in the corner.

The squirrel that I saw attack a little old lady threw an acorn at me!

heavy cloud no rain

The problem is not actually the weather. The problem is my muddled psychological reaction to said weather. Regardless, about a month ago, Washington, DC turned into Portland, OR.

It's all in my head, I realize this- I'm in school again so I only notice the insanely cloudy weather. Saturday, for example, was lovely. Sunny, clear, not a cloud in the sky. That day went in one ear and out the other (I'll give a dollar to whoever can think of a better metaphor for that. It shouldn't be hard.)

Weather is like astrology; you only remember it when it fits your preconceptions.

Anyway now it's all cloudy again, the same way it was cloudy for FOUR STRAIGHT YEARS when I was an undergrad. This is my memory of college: uninterrupted dreariness. Back then I would usually go to the library or the computer lab all day every day so the weather of the outside world didn't really impact my existance. Now I do all my homework in my house, and I can tell how cloudy it is because my house has windows.

I get really irritated when it's cloudy and it doesn't rain. Minnesota spoiled me or something. In the midwest, the sky gets overcast, electric tension builds in the air, there is a tremendous thunder and lightning storm, and then it's over. When it rains, you actually need an umbrella.

Which, living in Portland made me incapable of using. Umbrellas are for wussies. Now I see people wandering around in the barely-even-drizzling Washington "winter," wrapped up in five scarves and gigantic pink overcoats and carrying umbrellas and STILL they hesitate in the doorway because their fancy Washington suit might melt if it gets a drop on it.

And since I am from Montana, I pretty much despise people who wear suits, or who live in Washington, or who allow any form of weather to have any effect on their activity.

As it turns out, I am impossible to please. Who knew?

turkey

My sister works on an organic free range buffalo farm. I mean, BISON. They also sell turkeys. Last weekend I went to see her at the farmer's market and there was a sign that said "let's talk turkey about turkey!" but when I tried, she told me "that's not how turkeys talk."

Which seems like a poor sales strategy to me. What happened to "the customer is always right"?

I guess I wasn't actually a customer. "CECILY is always right", that's how it's supposed to go.

***

Last year for Thanksgiving I had pizza. It wasn't even good pizza, it was frozen pizza from the gas station down the corner. We also had mashed potatoes and gravy, and some other more traditional fare. Then we felt embarrassed about our lack of holiday spirit so we made a pact to always refer to the pizza as "turkey."

"Would you like another slice of turkey?"
"This turkey is delicious!"
"Do we have any more pepperoni turkey?"

etc.

This year I hope to be eating actual turkey. Courtesy of my sister's boyfriend's brother's wife's cousin's father's sister's friend's coworker's son.

Just kidding. Actually it is my sister's boyfriend's brother, that's all. I'm going to their house to eat turkey and drink wine, and then my sister and her boyfriend and I are coming back to my house to sleep it off.

Mmmm. turkey.

harm, hormone derange

My favorite pasttime is doing silly things with words. I had forgotten about this particular silliness; to really experience it properly you need to read it out loud or have someone else read it out loud to you so it's not that great for the deaf population. I still laugh until I cry anyway...

My personal favorite is Ladle Rat Rotten Hut, but they're all pretty good.

you don't LOOK stupid

On Tuesday I went to see Noam Chomsky talk about language origins at Georgetown. At several points during the talk he mentioned ASL and directed everyone's attention to the interpreter and/or the "signers" in the audience.

That was fine; he was open and respectful and there was no problem. Sadly (in many ways), not everyone is Noam Chomsky. As I was making my way down the stairs after the lecture ended, I happened to be immediately behind one of the interpreters. Some boy came up and started asking the interpreter something. The interpreter turned around and (I guess) recognized me. "Are you deaf?" he asked. "yes" I said. Then we all started interviewing myself about if my internal monologue is in ASL or English.

That part was tedious and annoying but this is the best part: at the end of the conversation when I was trying to look like I had somewhere to go, the boy said this: "It's always been a dream of mine to learn to do sign language."

That's quite a dream, there, buddy. Keep your feet on the ground!

People say some weird things when they are confronted by deafness for the first time.

My main favorites are:
-Oh, I'm so sorry.
-Oh, that's great!!!!
-No, you're not.
-You don't look deaf
-When I was in 2nd grade 20 years ago there was a kid in my class with a hearing aid. We weren't really friends though. But he was cool!

One of my friends was once given a wheelchair during check-in at the airport. She doesn't use one. Several other friends have been given Braille menus or taken by the elbow and guided across the room. Or told (loudly) that they would for sure be going to Heaven, and in Heaven everyone can hear.

I understand that people are not familiar with disability in general in our culture, and with deafness in particular, and that people are just trying to be nice, and that they mean well, and they probably are actually really great people deep down, just like me.

I don't really care. Think, just a LITTLE bit, before you talk. That's all I'm asking.

Safari (by Jocelyn)

(My sister's in Africa visiting our dad. And her friend named Anne. Here is what she has to say about Tanzania):

It's raining again, and I am sitting on the balcony again, watching it rain. The rainy season in Rwanda had not quite begun, and so everything was dusty and dry and golden, with only bits of green in the wetter spots. Here, it is still like a garden; I have found each a nice contrast to the other.

It took us much longer to drive to the Serengeti than we had thought it would; instead of two leisurely partial days of driving, it took us all of the hours of daylight on our first day driving to get to Mwanza on the shores of Lake Victoria, and much of the next day to get from there to Seronera.

I thought of Stanley and Livingstone and Burton and Speke and that other one, as we approached Lake Victoria. Not too long ago, a Rwandan man showed me decisively on a map the Source-of-the-Nile-in-Rwanda. There are, of course, sources of the Nile all over the place; in fact a whole watershed full of them, I would imagine. Makes me wonder just what those guys were looking to find, when they set out on their Quests for the Source, and whether Lake Victoria was ever enough of a Holy Grail for them, or whether they always felt unsatisfied. (I'm sure there are a lot of biographies about this in my future, waiting to be read.) I imagine Livingstone's journeys cut short by an enormous summer thunderstorm in Ethiopia - "This is it!" he cries, drenched by the rain that's about to flood the river, "I've found it! The Source of the Nile!"
But I digress.

Crossing the border from Rwanda to Tanzania took a long time. It is not that the Rusumo Falls border crossing is particularly high-traffic, but there was of course the requisite amount of standing in line to fill out papers, and the early-morning line of trucks waiting to cross that we had to navigate around.

On the other side, everything was different right away.

Okay, no it wasn't. But the landscape did change quite soon. The densely-packed farms with their banana trees and living fences, villages every mile, and people everywhere pushing bicycles loaded with water jugs and bananas, the children thronging their way to school, the steep hills and narrow valleys - these all all petered out almost immediately to be replaced by scrub woodland (the sort that looks as though it's exhausted from regrowing itself too many times) with occasional farms. And then as we drove east, the land flattened and the dirt stayed red. The woodland (some places fuller and better grown than others) changed to plains with enormous trees (some of them baobabs, Adansonia digitata, some of them not); the hills were made of exposed, weathered lumps of granite. There are not so many villages along that road, and not so much traffic on it, though more than half of it is paved. It is pretty empty country, is Western Tanzania. I mean - relatively speaking.

Driving is driving, I guess; not very exciting, either while it's happening or afterwards. So we did a lot of that, and then we stayed in Mwanza, which is a biggish town, and then we went on the Serengeti.

I feel a little dumb, trying to say anything about the Serengeti. I'm sure other people have said it better.
We found Anne (who is, for those of you interested in Anne, in glowing good healthy and apparently quite happy doing fascinating good work; as beautiful and amazing and fun as ever). Anne has a lot of fantastic bones at her house; all different antelope skulls with long curly horns, big beefy cape buffalo and also giraffe legs, looking like machine parts. I covet them, of course; knowing just how illegal it would be for them to have left the park in my possession, and knowing that I would never do that, does not make me any less covetous.

So, then, we went to a lodge and stayed there and drove around looking for animals for a few days. And found some! A few cheetahs, dutifully photographed and whatnot for Anne's Scientific Information. And so many other things.

We saw a pride of lions eating a zebra in the early morning under an acacia tree, with a bunch of hyaenas circling around. The lions would growl at the hyaenas, who were stealing a leg here and a chunk of skin there, making their hyaena noises (which, in contrast to what I had imagined, they make with their noses down almost to the ground) - until finally the lions had eaten enough and gave up and left or were driven off, leaving the hyaenas to chase each other around and jackals to lick the ground. Man, oh man are hyaenas ever beautiful and fascinating.

(In case anyone was wondering, these hyaenas were the spotted variety, Crocuta crocuta - the kind that people once thought were hermaphroditic, where the females have higher testosterone levels than the males, and false scrotums.)

We saw hippos out of water in the afternoon, a little suprisingly. A mother and two young 'uns eating stuff by the banks of a scummy pond. The mother had an oxpecker-dug hole in her side (with the oxpecker still poking his beak in sometimes) that looked ouchy. Anne says that someone published a paper recently suggesting that oxpeckers do not only eat the parasites off the large herbivores; they also seem to enlarge and keep open the parasite holes, and eat the flesh of the hippos (or whatever) directly. I say in response, a wildlife researcher is a wonderful companion to have in the Serengeti.

We a saw a porcupine that had stayed awake too long, rushing all waddly for cover in the early early morning in the shortgrass plains; warthog mamas and their little piggy babies running around; gazelles and antelopes and buffalo and jackals and all manner of neat birds; and then the elephants.

The managers of the lodge we stayed at, who are friends of Anne's, are Elephant Enthusiasts. And so I saw a lot of elephants. And I loved them! All huge and beautiful and intelligent - elephants often return to the bones of dead relatives and pick them up and touch them, and elephants sometimes bury their dead.

We watched some (a few mothers and several offspring) drinking when they had broken into a well near the lodge. The older ones with the long-enough trunks would kneel to reach down and suck out water. The little ones would suck it out of the mouths of their mothers and siblings.

We saw twenty-some of them, early one morning, heading off quietly and purposefully to god-knows-where across the plains. Anne took lots of pictures; we drove in circles around them for half an hour, and they looked at us, but just kept on going.

The most amazing part of looking at the elephants, though, is when they look right back at you. We sat one evening, drinking beer in the Land Rover parked right next to some elephants eating at sunset; we looked out at the elephants and drank beer, and they looked in at us and ate grass.

I'm back in Rwanda now; we are off to look at gorillas tomorrow, and then I will return to Virginia on Tuesday.

It has stopped raining. The sun has come out. I hope that all of you are well and happy.

Surprise!

My stepdad bought a new hot air balloon. "New to him" as my mother was quick to observe. Its name is the Surprise. It is very patriotic.

We (well, he) had a hot air balloon when I was little. Its name was Bad Gravity and it was substantially more aesthetically pleasing that this new one.

If less patriotic.

I am VERY excited about this new development, lest my snotty remarks about what balloon is the prettiest of them all throw anyone off. I love the Surprise!

Anyone who wants a hot air balloon ride, come to Montana in December. I'm getting my pilot's license so watch out.

those crazy German artists

Do you have quicktime on your computer? Go look at this movie immediately



I don't know what the soundtrack is, because I can't hear it. But it probably wouldn't help anyway since the website is all in German and I don't know any German. I really don't care, though, as it turns out, because just watching the movie as a silent film is still making me all teary-eyed in love with the world.

popularity

I had a weekend of more social interaction than ever before! It was fun but exhausting.

First, Maryrose and Trisha came to town. We drank beer and ate ice cream and vegetables.


Then Joanna came to town. We drank wine and hung out in the back yard.


Then we had a Halloween Fun Party at my house. It involved wearing costumes, and then becoming intoxicated and taking parts of the costumes off and putting other costumes on and generally being kind of drunk.


Also there was some dancing around in crash helmets


Then it was time to get back to work. The fun is over.

This girl is so funny I want to cry a little bit. She says things like this:

I HATE IT WHEN JACOB FALLS ASLEEP BEFORE ME.

I GET BORED.

AND LAST NIGHT I WAS DRUNK AND BORED.

SO I CAREFULLY PLACED LITTLE PRAISE STICKERS THAT SAID THINGS LIKE 'WAY TO GO' AND 'EXCELLENT WORK' AND 'MUCH IMPROVED' ALL OVER JACOBS FACE AND ARMS.

dress-up

My favorite party that I've ever had so far was a really spur-of-the-moment event that happened one summer when I was home from college. My sister was home, too, and our old family friend Anna. Plus some other hangers-on; a number of Anna's college friends were in town for the weekend. Jocelyn and I had never met them before.

Anyway we decided to have a party. "Come over to our mom's house later" we told a couple of people "we'll hang out over there."

When I say "party" here, you should not envision a bunch of people standing around drinking drinks and making small talk. Instead, you should envision about ten 20-something college kids rummaging through a treasure chest for costume items and dancing around the living room while "Camel Walk" is on repeat, really really loud.

A newcomer showed up, straight from the airport, in the midst of all this. He was one of the ones I hadn't met but he took one look at the scene and made a beeline for the costume box. A few minutes later, he was decked out in a brown wig, a tiara, a Marvin-the-Martian neck thing, a tutu, and some cowboy boots.

Then we played Zoom Schwartz Profigliano for a while, and practiced our Fancy Walkin.

My other favorite parties were the Science Parties we had in Minnesota. Those had costume boxes, too.

There is something really great about having people show up to your house and the first thing they do is dig through a box of stuff to find a costume. I think it marks the fact that now you are at a party; you MUST be at a party because look at that crazy outfit you're wearing!

We're having a Halloween party at my house on Saturday. I am partly excited and partly sad. The excited part is because Halloween is fun! And I get to wear that big giant head costume and dance around. The sad part is because I like dressing other people up and all of my fancy costumes are in a box in Minneapolis.

I'll improvise and everything. But it won't be the same. Last year I made an Evil Tooth Fairy costume for Trisha, including a tool belt with dental picks and a necklace of bloody teeth. And a Rapunzel-in-the-tower costume with a wig made out of bright yellow yarn. And an Andy-Warhol-painting-of-Marilyn costume where your eyes looked out of the picture, just like in Scooby Doo.

Then I made a lot of costumes for the adorable elementary school play I was the boss of. Wolves and ravens and a huge horse head. Princess hats. Fur-trimmed cloaks. Etc.

Why didn't I realize I would want these things for playing dress-up? It totally would have been worth the price of shipping one more box.

Enrichment Day

We didn't have any classes at my school last Tuesday, because it was Enrichment Day. That is because there are no real holidays on Tuesdays and they have to balance out the classes. Some enriching activities (including free lunch) happened on campus, but I did not attend. I had my own private enrichment day, which included having lunch at the Sculpture Garden with my uncle, drinking coffee, and reading. My day also involved one very delicious kind of enrichment, and its name is Birthday Cake


I have made some fancy cakes before, but this one is the hands down winner so far. I think it is because I used its weight in frosting to glue it all together.

It was a cake for Julie, and she liked it.


but the best part is how deceptively pink and white the outside is. Because really, it looks like this!


That was a fun and tasty project. I love enrichment day!

language and anger management

I just read "The Linguistics Wars" which is full of smart academics saying nasty, mean things to and about each other and then being angry and offended. Plus there's some social commentary in there, too, about the 60s. The part that I like the most in this book is all of the witty examples that the rebellious Generative Semanticists use in their scholarly publications. Usually they are about Nixon, as it turns out. Often about Nixon lingering in a men's room somewhere. Oh, those wacky linguists!

Either that, or they are personal attacks on other linguists who disagree with whatever. Like Noam Chomsky for example, they all say mean things about him and then he says mean things back and then everyone does interviews in which they act like they were being totally mature the whole time and they are baffled by the reaction of the other party.

This is an issue that hit home with me, because there is some social uproar happening in my classes. I can't really tell why. Some of it is related to personal dislike, on the parts of various people and in varying degrees. Some of it is related to widely varying discourse styles. But a lot of animosity and general awkwardness seems completely inexplicable. One kid got up and left the classroom in the middle of a discussion a couple of weeks ago. There are sporadic rounds of vitriolic or defensive or apologetic emails sent all over. Meetings are had wherein students complain about each other to professors and about professors to each other and about some professors to other professors.

The whole thing is making me really nervous. Nervous and also annoyed. Maybe I'll start circulating underground revolutionary mimeographs denouncing all of the people who say stupid things. I'll do it anonymously and everyone will have to stop making offensive remarks and talking shit about each other for fear of being publicly ridiculed.

kitty kitty

kitty kitty
Originally uploaded by cecilycecily.

feline grace

My cat fell down the stairs last night. She leapt onto the bannister from the upstairs landing, in an attempt to be catlike and graceful. She really had no business being up on that bannister except to pretend like she wasn't trying hard at all and yet look, there she is, on a high narrow thing being graceful.

Sadly, though, she totally overshot. She made it up to the bannister all right, but then the whole act went south as she slid across the (very narrow) surface and tumbled over it, twisting and clawing and frantically trying to look cool as she went. During the fall I had a lot of nightmare visions about cats lying broken-backed on the stairs while I tried to call the emergency vet via relay on a hand-held wireless device.

But in fact what happened, at least from my perspective up on the landing looking down, was that the cat more or less bounced. Fell two flights straight south, hit the uncarpeted stairs, bounced, and ran off into the kitchen to recover her dignity.

She was kind of twitchy for the rest of the evening (every so often she'd suddenly bound across the room, fur standing straight on its ends, and glare at everyone wildly as though we had been making inappropriate racial slurs) but other than that, fine.

What the fuck? I can't even walk into a room without bruising myself in some ridiculous fashion. Accidentally kicking a table, running headfirst into the doorframe, etc. I am constantly covered with inexplicable wounds. Yesterday I cut myself on a plastic chair. Yes, that's right, I CUT MYSELF ON A PLASTIC CHAIR. Don't feel too bad, it's more like a paper cut than anything else. I'll live.

Maybe if I run into the kitchen real quick-like I'll find my dignity

self-portrait

morphology

One of my classes is studying morphology right now. This is my new favorite word. "morphology"- it means exactly what you would think it would mean, if your only basis for an educated guess were Saturday morning cartoons. It means studying how things (well, words, mostly) morph into other things (also mostly words).

I am spending a lot of time fantasizing about doing totally ridiculous and time-consuming projects that I know would not be widely perceived as a very good use of resources. Like for example, I'm really excited about the idea of re-captioning a Simpson's episode so that all of the dialogue shows up in phonetic notation.

And, for another example, a comic strip (or animated short?) where the Power Rangers morph in a linguistic sense, somehow, and words and inflections are used to fight the forces of evil…

Clearly, that one needs a little more thought.

when you're a stranger

My third-grade teacher didn't let us use the word "weird." She said it meant "creepy" and "spooky" and "supernatural," and that all of us third-graders really wanted to express the idea related to the word "strange." Her name was Mrs. Wiggins. She was pretty old, I thought, but then again I was only 8 so what did I know.

I still feel a little guilty whenever I describe something as "weird" when I know Mrs. Wiggins would say it was merely odd. But I'm not as convinced as she was that those are two separate things, weirdness and strangeness.

Anyway, it's pretty weird to be back in school. I spend a lot of time in my bedroom, working on things and staring out the window. When I lived in Minnesota, I used to spend a lot of time staring out the window. Way more time than I do now, in fact, but it was qualitatively different staring. I had no goals. I wasn't trying to think of a word, and I wasn't taking a break from hard cognitive labor. I was just sitting there on the couch, staring out the window.

Now when I stare out the window it's only for a few seconds at a time and I feel a very complete sense of isolation. I'm way more in an ivory tower now than I ever was as an undergraduate. Or maybe I just notice it now.

Other people are pretty weird to me, lately, too. I've had a couple of conversations about how much I suck at accurately predicting what anyone else's reaction will be to anything. Obviously, that's an exaggeration- I was able to carry on the conversations, at least. But a surprising percentage of my interactions with other people involve me being completely taken aback, baffled even, by what they say and how they say it.

Which is mostly good, because it would be really boring if I already knew what everyone was going to say all the time. But occasionally not so great, because it is a great hindrance to relationships when I never know what anyone else is talking about, or why.

note about entries from May 2005

These are all just d-links for blind readers. Descriptions of movies and images that appear in real posts. I hadn't actually started having a blog in May 2005. But I don't know how to make d-link things appear not in their own entries. If someone is smart at web accessibility and has a better idea, tell me all about it!

lyrics for Frank Zappa's "Montana"

I might be movin' to Montana soon
Just to raise me up a crop of dental floss
Raisin' it up
Waxin' it down
In a little white box
I can sell uptown
But by myself I wouldn't have no boss,
Cause I'd be raisin' my lonely dental floss
(Raisin' my lonely dental floss)
Yes it is
(Raisin' my lonely dental floss)

Well I just might grow me some bees
But I'd leave the sweet stuff
For somebody else...
ah, but then, on the other hand
I would keep the wax
And melt it down;
Pluck the floss,
and swish it around
And I would have me a crop
And it'd be on top
That's why I'm movin' to Montana.

Movin' to Montana soon
Gonna be a dental floss tycoon
Movin' to Montana soon
Gonna be a mennil-toss flykune
(I wonder what that means)

I'm gonna find me a horse
Just about this big
And ride that sucker all along the border line
With a pair of heavy-duty
Zircon-encrusted tweezers in my hand
Every other wrangler would say
I was mighty grand
But by myself I wouldn't
Have no boss
Cause I'd be raisin' my lonely dental floss
(Raisin' my lonely dental floss)
That's right
(Raisin' my lonely dental floss)

Well I might ride along the border
With my tweezers gleamin'
In the moon-lighty night
And then I would get a cuppa coffee
And give my foot a push
Just me 'n the pymgy pony
Over the dental floss bush
And then I might just
jump back on
And ride like a cowboy
Into the dawn to Montana

Movin' to Montana soon
(Yippee ty o ty ay)
Movin' to Montana soon
(Yippee ty o ty ay)

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description for photo in "This is where the term "political spectrum" is originally from"

Photograph of the DC City Council from Council Period 17 (2007-2008), in Council Chambers. There are men and women of various sizes and colors; all of the suits, shoes, and some shirts/jewelrey have been photoshopped so that the colors match the listed color names.

Standing in the back row are:
"Vincent Periwinkle" is a short, plump white man in a light blue jacket and bow tie [Jim Graham];
"Vincent Plum" is a tall black woman in a purple suit [Muriel Bowser];
"Vincent Pewter" is a tall black man in an dark gray suit [Harry Thomas Jr];
"Vincent Blue" is a tall white man with white hair in a bright blue suit [Tommy Wells];
"Vincent Red" is a medium-height black woman in a red suit [Yvette Alexander];
"Vincent Marionberry" is a dark-skinned black man in a dark purple suit [Marion Barry];
"Vincent "Michael" Brown" is a bald white man with a mustache in a brown suit [Phil Mendelson];
"Vincent Mustard" is a small white woman in a yellow suit [Mary M. Cheh].

Seated in front of them are:
"Vincent Black" is a young bald man with lightish skin wearing a black suit [David Catania];
"Vincent Kelly" is a plump white woman with dark brown hair wearing a green suit [Carol Schwartz];
"Vincent Gray" is a light-skinned black man with a mustache wearing a gray suit [Vincent C. Gray];
"Vincent Navy" is a blonde-haired white man wearing a navy blue suit [Jack Evans];
"Vincent "Kwame" Brown" is a plump, dark-skinned black man with a mustache wearing a brown suit [Kwame R. Brown].

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description for "almost"

50s-style (or 50s vintage?) drawing of a boy bending over with his right arm across his stomach. Large text says "almost"; smaller text says "Sammy is almost ready for another vodka. He is nearly ready now"

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description for "rockin it contagious"

Video shows an ASL version of the Black Eyed Peas' "Pump It".

Lyrics:

Huh huh haaa
Pump it
Huh huh haaa
And pump it (louder) [4x]

Turn up the radio
Blast your stereo
Right—

Niggers wanna hate on us (who)
Niggers be envious (who)
And I know why they hating on us (why)
Cause our style's so fabulous (what)
I'm be real on us (do)
Nobody got none on us (no)
Girls be all on us, from London back down to the US (S, S)

We rocking it (contagious), monkey business (outrageous)
Just confess, your girl admits that we da shit

F-R-E-S-H we (fresh)
D-E-F, that's right we def (rock)
We definite B-E-P, we rapping it
So, turn it up (turn it up) [2x]
Turn it up
Common baby, just

Pump it (louder) [6x]

And say, oh oh oh oh
Say, oh oh oh oh
(Yo yo)

Turn up the radio
Blast your stereo
Right now
This joint is fizzlin
It's sizzlin
Right

(Yo, check this out right here)
Dude wanna hate on us (dude)
Dude need to ease on up (dude)
Dude wanna act on up
But dude get shut like flavor shut (shut down)
Chicks say, she ain't down
But chick backstage when we in town (ha)
She like man on drunk (fool)
She wanna hit n' run (err)
Yeah, that's the speed
That's what we do
That's who we be
B-L-A-C-K -E-Y-E-D -P to the E, then the A to the S
When we play you shake your ass
(Shake it shake it) shake it girl
Make sure you don't break it, girl
(Cause we gonna)

Turn it up (turn it up) [2x]
Turn it up
Come'on baby, just
Pump it (louder) [6x]

And say, oh oh oh oh
Say, oh oh oh oh
(Yo yo)

Turn up the radio
Blast your stereo
Right now
This joint is fizzlin
It's sizzlin
Right

Damn!! (damn!!) [5x]

oooooohhh-o-ohhh!!!!!!!!!!!
oh-oh-oh-oh!

Apl. de ap. from Philippines
Live and direct rocking this scene
Breaking on down for the B-boys
And B-girls waiting to do their thing
Pump it, louder come on
Don't stop and keep it goin'
Do it lets get it on
Move it

Come on, baby, do it

La-da-di-da-da-di-die
On the ster(-e-er-e-er-e-)ereo
Let those speakers blow your mind
(Blow my mind, baby)
So let it go, let it go
Here we go
La-da-di-da-da-di-die (come on, we're there)
On the radi(-adi-adi-adi-)o
This systems got me feel so fi(-ei-ei-ei-ei-ei-ei-ei-)ne

Pump it (louder) [6x]

And say, oh oh oh oh
Say, oh oh oh oh
(Yo, yo)
Turn up the radio
Blast your stereo
Right now
This joint is fizzlin
It's sizzlin
Right

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description for video in "creepy/fascinating"

Video called "Rabbit" by artist Run Wrake.

This is an animated short film based on drawings that are reminiscent of 50s-era readers; most figures in the film appear with courier-font labels hovering near them throughout.

imdb summary:

A girl sees a rabbit running across a field. Thinking it would make an excellent muff, she pursues it with a knife. It escapes her, but her brother kills it. She slices it open, and out pops an animated idol that, when bothered by insects, turns them into feathers, bottles of ink, and jewels. Thinking of the riches of royalty, the boy and girl put the idol outside in a vat of plum jam and proceed to eviscerate various farm animals to draw hundreds of wasps and flies. The idol complies, and soon they've filled a bedroom with boxes of jewels. Off they go to town to trade the feathers and ink for more jam, but while they're gone, the idol is busy. Comeuppance may await.

While the boy and the girl are gone, the idol becomes angry because there is no more jam. It uses a carrot to entice another rabbit, who jumps through the window and becomes several cartoony spirit-rabbits. The idol turns the spirits into a tiger, who catches the tiger and eats it, just as the boy and girl return home. The boy picks up a gun and shoots the tiger, but he is too late- the tiger turns back into a rabbit and all of the jewels, feathers, and ink turn back into insects. The insects crawl over the boy and girl, who die, as the rabbit escapes back into the field. The final scene, with the rabbit running through the grass, is the same scene that opened the film.

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description for picture in "funny to certain people, maybe"

the two drawings are substantially identical.

they are ink drawings, pretty sketchy.

Two chefs in chef hats are standing next to each other.

One chef is holding a plate of some round things. He says "They're theta rolls"
The other chef (holding nothing) says "no they're not"
The first chef says "you wanna step outside and make this an external argument?"

In the first (original drawing, but posted second) version, the first chef's response is "step outside and we'll make this an external argument". Everything else is the same, except for minor details related to the two chefs' clothing, posture, etc.

it's funny if you know some very specific things about some specific linguistic theories. Otherwise, probably, not so much.

description of "signosaur v gorilla"

This is basically an animated comic strip. There are two characters, a cartoon dinosaur vaguely reminiscent of a t-rex, and a sketchy but fairly realistic gorilla. When the characters talk, they do so via thought and/or speech bubbles (there is no sound with the movie)

The dinosaur walks along (left to right; only its legs are animated) for a while, then says "God damn it I hate monkeys" and continues walking.

The shot widens, and the dinosaur approaches a gorilla who enters from the right. Both stop in the middle of the screen. The gorilla says (in sequential speech bubbles):

Gorilla: Oh hey Signosaur
Dinosaur: Grrrrr...
Gorilla: Oh DUDE! Guess what!
Gorilla: I totally just found out I can learn ASL!
Gorilla: Dude, it is so totally awesome!
Dinosaur: Grrrr....
Dinosaur: MONKEYS CANNOT LEARN SIGN LANGUAGE!
Gorilla: Dude, chill out
Gorilla: Just because you don't have opposable thumbs doesn't mean...
Dinosaur: AND STOP CALLING ME "DUDE"!!!
(neither speaks)
Gorilla: I'm a gorilla, not a monkey
(neither speaks, then gorilla turns to leave)
Gorilla: Bye, dude.

The dinosaur is left alone. He pauses, then says "fuckin monkey." The dinosaur begins walking again (this is the same clip from the beginning) and says "God damn it I hate monkeys"

but this time adds (in sequential thought bubbles)

"and gorillas"
"fuckin gorillas"
"with their stupid opposable thumbs"

The dinosaur walks for a moment, and that is the end.

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description for "That is one of his tricks"

There are five images here: each is a scanned page from a sketchbook, and involves both text and pictures that have been cut out of various children's books and glued to the pages. The text has been cut so that the lines read smoothly, with many sentences involving multiple sources. The images are of various elements from all the different source books, but for the most part are not directly related to the text.

Page 1: large, red, lower-case 'a', followed by text: "This is Adam, the first man. He lived in the garden of Eden. God brought every bird and beast to Adam, and Adam game them names."

below this is a large picture of a boy in a straw hat with a basket full of eggs on one arm, an egg in the other hand, and a chicken on a nest. Beside this picture are two text snippets:
"his name is Pete"
"his name is Spot"

below this picture is a picture of a dog, with two more text clippings:
"He does not like to wear clothes. But he likes to wear funny hats."
"That is why I call him Thumper."

Page 2: large red lower-case letter f, next to several pictures of cartoon mice surrounding a cartoon man (mice and man taken from different sources). Below this is a large picture of a bunny rabbit, next to the text (from multiple sources):
"This is baby bunny. He killed a giant, Goliath of Gath. The giant had a stout shield and armor of brass. But David's shield was the name of the Lord, and his weapons were five small mice."

Lower on the page is a picture of a girl on a swing, with glass slippers glued on top and the text "A little girl was coming out of the house next door. And on her feet were tiny glass slippers!"

At the bottom right corner of the page is a cut-off image of a fish, with the text "This pleased Baby Bunny, and he spent three days in the belly of a great fish."

Page 3: text "Bobby finds one on the fruit stand" next to a picture of a red apple.

Underneath this is a large picture of a baby sitting on the grass with a towel wrapped around it. Below this is the text:
"Joseph cooked and baked. She cleaned and scrubbed. She had no time left for parties and fun. His jealous brothers sold him into slavery. Yet because the spirit of God was in his heart, He is learning to jump over a stick. he became ruler over all Egypt."

and below this, more text: "That was all the Duke needed."

Page 4: the top of the page is a large page from the Disney book of Cinderella, featuring crying Cinderella sitting in the garden by a bench and the fairy godmother standing nearby. Below this is text:
"Bobby's grandfather tells Bobby stories about when he was Moses. The Lord chose Moses to lead His people from slavery in Egypt to homes in the Promised Land. And on Mount Sinai God never left her side, all evening long. They danced every dance. They had supper side by side. And they happily smiled into each other's Commandments"

Page 5: In the upper right corner is a cartoonish boy with dark skin and dark brown curly hair, wearing a backpack and waving. Next to this is text:
"This is Saul, a fine young man and handsome, head and shoulders taller than any other man. One day Saul went to Samuel for help. When Samuel saw him coming, the fairy godmother turned a fat pumpkin into a chariot of fire. That is one of his tricks"

Midway down the page are pictures of a gray pumpkin on the left and an orange chariot drawn by yellow horses on the right. Between these are the words:
""Salaga doola,
Menchicka boola,
Bibbity bobbety boo!" she cried."

Bottom right, under the picture of the chariot, says "Saul cried. He would not wash his face. He pouted and fussed, and finally he issued a decree. But no one would listen. So the city fell. And the children were marched away as captives to Babylon."

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description for "Valentine's Day"

Scrawly second-grade-style handwriting says

Dear Marina if you have another
Valentine's then that's O.K. I just
want to be your Love, and [illegible] don't worry about
that. Yeah so me and Julia are leaving to Hawaii so
by now I miss you.

a figure with wings and what might be a loincloth or might be tighty-whities is hovering above some clouds. He holds a bow and has an arrow sticking out from (a quiver on?) his back. A speech bubble says "be pashunt and think"

Clouds below contain the phrase "I [heart] you"

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description of "kids these days"

This is a very poor-quality video taken from someone's cell phone at a high school football game. The only thing you can see is a sort of Caucasian-flesh-colored blur running across the field. The only sound is people screaming "whooo hooo!"

I realize that this is not a very explicit description, but that's on purpose to avoid googlability for the entry. If you want to know more details email me.

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description for "accessibility"

This is a link that I think stopped working at some point, to a French commercial about accessible spaces. I don't have any idea what the sound is (was) like, but it's a series of situations where the idea of "accessibility" is turned on its head- a lone person on foot is inconvenienced by all the ramps and low wheelchair-accessible phone booths; kids in wheelchairs make fun of a guy who is not in a wheelchair, a sighted person is unable to read any of the books in the library because they're all in Braille only, etc. If I find the video again I'll put a better description up.

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description for "A short story..."

Six photographs of me with text superimposed.

1. I am looking at a book with my hand very thoughtfully on my chin. Text: "Cecily pretends"
2. I am making a despondent face and slouching. Text: "Cecily feels"
3. I am leaning over a computer and a book with a pen in my hand, as though writing. But there is no paper and the pen is a pink marker. Text: "Cecily pretends"
4. I am posed with my hands on the keyboard as though typing. Text: "Cecily pretends"
5. I am squinting in a pained manner and pushing my hair back over my forehead. Text: "Cecily feels"
6. I am lying in bed with my eyes closed and my glasses in my hand. Text: "Cecily wants"


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description for "moving on to more important things"

This post involves the invitation to a party at my house. The first image is the front of the invitation and the second image is the inside view.

Front: Three boys are at a counter in some kind of science lab, looking at microscopes. They each have a speech bubble.

Boy 1: I love science.
Boy 2: I love beer.
Boy 3: I know where we can all have fun!

Inside (left):
large red letters say "yes". Black letters say "it is time for a Science Party at Alyssa and Cecily's house!
a diagram of an octopus is in the middle of the page. At the bottom of the page is a picture of a woman looking into some kind of large, scientific contraption while a man in horn-rimmed glasses looks on. The woman is saying "I can see the science! And the beer!"

Inside (right):
A color photograph of test tubes with red, blue and green liquid in them is in the upper right corner. A diagram of something complicated is in the middle of the page. Text reads

"Saturday, April Fifteenth*
SCIENCE and beverages provided.
You bring the fun.
*Science time is 9

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description of "pride and prejudice"

This is a three-panel comic strip, Get Your War On by David Rees. The first and third panel picture a dark-haired man sitting next to a computer and talking on the phone. The second panel features a blond man with some paperwork in front of him, also on the phone.

Dark-haired man: What do you think of the White House's constitutional analysis? Did it convince you the NSA wiretaps are legal? Or were you maybe too busy wiping up Thomas Jefferson's ghost-vomit to notice?

Blond man: Here's George Bush's constitutional analysis: "I don't understand the fuckin' thing, so why should I obey it? It's written in some kind of loop-de-loop old-timey scribble-language anyway."

Dark-haired man: Oh, I think he understands the Constitution, all right. It's the pre-9/11 nail he hangs his Mr. Super President cape on.

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description of "dancing stick people"

I made this movie from a bunch of different things. It involves a lot of switching back and forth between the following:
(1) stop-action animation of the titular "stick people". These are big (6 foot high) wooden statues. In actual life, the statues do not dance. I took pictures of them from various angles and then photoshopped them into stop-motion "dancing" type animation.
(2) clips of the deaf girls at the Institut Filippo Smaldone, doing a tradtional Rwandan dance
(3) clips taken from inside the car while driving around various parts of Rwanda
(4) wildlife, including parrots, gorillas, giraffes, and hawks
(5) different statues (smaller, although the size isn't obvious from any of the clips) who do not "dance" but their hair waves wildly around.
(6) me, walking around in Zanzibar looking at things
(7) the ocean, from a boat between Zanzibar and Chumbe Island (which is nearby)

plus there are some random insertions of still pictures of various things. Me and Emily drinking beer on the balcony, for one, and some lovely landscapes, for another.

During the dancing stick people parts, mostly what happens is that either the stick people wiggle their heads around or wave their arms. Sometimes there are full body dance moves but not very many.

There is no plot or point. It is just things that I liked the look of, set to a drumbeaty song.

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description for "happy dancing skeleton day"

music video of "In the Night" by Basia Bulat

Everyone is wearing big costumes and wandering around in a fake forest. There are dancing skeletons (the skeletons are people wearing all black outfits with white bones painted on them and skull masks). If there is a theme to the rest of the costumes, I don't know what it is.

Lyrics:

All the hopes that you've been holding onto for so long
And the fires you've been chasing down now are all gone
I can tell you are a long way from the one you love
Ohh the night it takes so long to fall

ohh in the night, ohh in the night, ohh in the night
I will hide away my fortunate son
hes soon to fall but let him go
but i'll always know my life is not the only one,
no no..

ohh in the night, ohh in the night, ohh in the night
I will hide away my fortunate son
hes soon to fall but let him go
but i'll always know my life is not the only one,
no no

Storm and shadows fall to pieces
to my heart like a comet
carry so that I can
soar like and eagle
words that ya sing so
carry on your own
Ohhhhhhhhhhh no

All my life's been wandering in the fire
on the wind I made its
cold enough to hold me now
and a heart like yours should never have to hold it now
but sometimes it takes the night to fall

ohh in the night, ohh in the night, ohh in the night
I will hide away my fortunate son
hes soon to fall but let him go
but i'll always know my life is not the only one,
no no


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description for "dc turned into a block party last night"

video shot outside the White House after the election was called for Obama. Many people are happy.

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description for "the martians are coming"

Comic strip in six panels. A stick-figure person and a stick-figure alien (green, with antennae) appear in each panel.

1. Person: Gasp! An alien!
2. Alien: Not just any alien.
3. Alien: I'm a personal space invader.
4. (Alien moves closer to human)
5. (Alien moves very close to human)
6. Person: Golly. That sure is uncomfortable.

This a permanent link to the comic strip's website, www.explosm.net

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captions and description for "Prague Vlog"

Kyle signing; video is in ASL and includes some pictures which I haven't described yet. Soon! Or Later!

Caption text:


Hello! Welcome to the Prague Vlog.
See that? (picture of cathedral)
That's St. Vitus Cathedral.
It's really big.
The church is located in Prague Castle
and I got to look around and take some pictures. Let me show them to you.
(pictures)
So I bet you're wondering why I'm vlogging here.
Well, when my friends Lindsay and Cecily were in Africa recently
they produced a number of similar vlogs.
There was the frog vlog, the dog vlog - quite a few.
Just the same, I'm vlogging about Prague.
The last two days I've spent here have been quite enjoyable.
Taking in the sights, it hit me that Prague is a really nice city.
Last night, I met up with a friend for some drinks - beer especially
"pivo" is the Czech word for beer
- but it was great to hang out and observe Czech culture.
What's more, my hostel has a number of English speakers,
so we've had some nice conversations.
There are folks from Australia, New Zealand, Britain, and Ireland
- a good variety of places -
even some from America... actually, no, I'm the only one.
Anyway, I'm off to continue my sightseeing - I'll show you more later on.

(title: "Later on")

OK, so Tomas just ate a really hot pizza
from... well, it says "Mexican hell."
We think it's funny that his face has gone red
and he can't eat it.
So I thought I'd talk about that.
(picture of Tomas)

So, here I am at the conclusion of the Prague Vlog.
Let me explain what happened last night when I went to visit Tomas's university.
So of course we enjoyed some beer,
but we also tried a special Czech spirit called Becherovka.
(pulls bottle out of bag)
I bought it at the store for pretty cheap -
I think it was less than 10 dollars

It tastes a little like gingerbread,
and though some say it's like Jaegermeister, I disagree.
Really, Becherovka is better - it's smoother and sips well.
Last night while hanging out there were some students -
two guys in particular - that didn't know English.
What they did know wasn't great,
and while my friend helped with translation,
it was nice to get to listen to a lot of Czech last night.
After that, I came home and went to bed...
This morning, I went to Vyšehrad
which is another castle that Lindsay recommended I visit.
From there, you get some nice views of the south part of the city:
views of the river, and up the mountain to the other castle as well -
I took some pictures of that.

I think that's just about it. I've seen a lot of things here,
and though Prague is a nice city, I'm ready to get back to Paris,
and finally take a look around there.

So that's the end of this, the Prague Vlog.
My name is Kyle, Special Guest to Especially Messily,
Cecily's vlog, and I'm adding to her African... er... vlog.
Thanks for having me in. Perhaps I'll see you again soon. Ciao!

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description for "Mighty Morpheme Power Rangers"

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifI will write this up any moment when I have time. Sorry blind people!

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description for "verbing awesomes language"

description is for the cartoon only; the rest of the blog is text.

Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. Calvin and Hobbes are standing in the snow.

Square one:
Calvin: I like to verb words.
Hobbes: What?

Square two (closeup on Calvin)
Calvin: I take nouns and adjectives and use them as verbs. Remember when "access" was a thing? Now, it's something you do. It got verbed. Verbing weirds language.

Square three (both walk off into the snow)
Hobbes: Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding.

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description for "I may not have gotten enough sleep lately"

So, the video link is to a really silly cartoon. It's from VeggieTales. In this one, one character (a cucumber) does a very catchy song and dance number about a cebu. Other characters watch. Larry's presentation involves a slide projector. I don't know why I love it so much, but I do.

transcript:

Narrator: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Larry the Cucumber presents, in a sequential image, stereophonic, multimedia event, The Song of the Cebu!

Larry: Cebu! This is a song about a boy ... a song about a little boy and his cebus ... a song about a little boy and his three cebus ... the little boy who had a sick cebu, a sad cebu and a mute cebu. And also a hippo.

[the wrong pictures start showing up on the slide projector; Larry gets distracted by them]

Larry: Um ... um ... this is a picture of me at the airport. This is my Aunt Ruth. This is me at a bullfight. This is me fighting the bull.

Jimmy, Jerry & Junior: Ohh!

Larry: This is me and the bull.

Jimmy, Jerry & Junior: Ahh!

Larry: This is me and the bull and ... I think that's the bull's cousin. He's a cebu!

Archibald: Hold it! You call this a multimedia event? This is a slide projector and a bed sheet! And what on Earth is a cebu, anyway?

Larry: It's kind of like a cow. See?

Archibald: Yes. Well, very good. This could be interesting. Carry on!

Larry: Cebu! Sing it with me! Cebu!

Jimmy, Jerry & Junior (singing): Cebu!

Larry: Boy is riding with cebu
Jimmy, Jerry & Junior (echo): Boy is riding with cebu

Larry: Into town in his canoe
Jimmy, Jerry & Junior: Into town in his canoe

Larry: Sick cebu is rowing and sneezing. Achoo moo moo, achoo moo moo,
achoo moo moo, achoo moo moo moo moo
Jimmy, Jerry & Junior: Achoo moo moo, achoo moo moo, achoo moo moo,
achoo moo moo, achoo moo moo, achoo moo moo moo moo

Larry: Hippo chewing on bamboo
Jimmy, Jerry & Junior: Hippo chewing on bamboo

Larry: Can't see boy and three cebus
Jimmy, Jerry & Junior: Can't see boy and three cebus

Larry: Sad cebu is rowing and crying. Boo-hoo moo moo, boo-hoo moo moo, boo-hoo moo moo, boo-hoo moo moo moo moo
Jimmy, Jerry & Junior: Boo-hoo moo moo, boo-hoo moo moo, boo-hoo moo moo, boo-hoo moo moo, boo-hoo moo moo, boo-hoo moo moo moo moo

Larry: Cebu!
Jimmy, Jerry & Junior: Cebu!

Larry: Cebu!
Jimmy, Jerry & Junior: Cebu!

All: Achoo moo moo, boo-hoo moo moo, boo-hoo moo moo, achoo moo moo,
achoo moo moo, boo-hoo moo moo, cebu!

Larry: Hippo seen by mute cebu
Jimmy, Jerry & Junior: Hippo seen by mute cebu

Larry: Tries to tell the other two
Jimmy, Jerry & Junior: Tries to tell the other two

Larry: Mute cebu is waving and grunting. Mmm-hmm mmm mmm, mmm-hmm mmm
mmm, mmm-hmm mmm mmm, mmm-hmm mmm mmm mmm mmm
Jimmy, Jerry & Junior: Mmm-hmm mmm mmm, mmm-hmm mmm mmm, mmm-hmm mmm mmm, mmm-
hmm mmm mmm mmm mmm

[slide projector malfunctions: Larry fiddles with equipment during the next part. The background music continues but the next dialogue is all spoken rather than sung]

Larry: Uh-oh.

Archibald: Wait! What happens next?

Larry: Um ...

Archibald: Does the hippo see them? Is the poor mute cebu successful in communicating the imminent danger to the other passengers? Is the boy injured? Why is the sad cebu sad? Is the canoe wood or aluminum?

Larry: Oh look! There's me and Bob at Sea World! Oh, wow. Forgot about that one. There's me and that bull again.

Archibald: You can't just start a song and leave it hanging like that!
You know, I've come to expect a lot more from you. This is quite
disappointing! I'm going to have to speak to Bob about this.

[slide with picture of cebu appears on scree]
Larry: Oh look, a cebu!

[song resumes] Cebu!
Jimmy, Jerry & Junior: Cebu!
Larry (spoken): No, wait ... that's a water buffalo.

Jimmy, Jerry & Junior: No more song about cebu! Need another verse or
two! Audience is standing and leaving, bye-bye moo, bye-bye moo, bye-bye
moo, bye-bye moo moo moo moo
Jimmy (spoken): I want my money back!
Jerry (spoken): Yeah, that'd be ... that'd be good.

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description for "abstraction"

The jpeg file is a screenshot of an email from the High Desert Linguistics Society to me. The email reads,

"Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that your proposal


Ikiganza muri Amarenga y'Ikinyarwanda: Hand Configurations in Rwandan Sign Language

for the Seventh Conference of the High Desert Linguistic Society, November 9-11, has been accepted!


We will contact you soon with registration information and other details.


We received many fascinating proposals, and it promises to be an excellent gathering. We look forward to seeing you in November!


Sincerely,


Abstract Review Committe

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description for "conversation"

the goat's speech bubble just has a question mark.

the cat's says "I LOVE AS?!L"

there's also a bird overhead.



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description for A Celebration of Special-Ness

Clip from the movie "True Stories" starring and directed by David Byrne. This clip is the Fashion Show. The "fashion" outfits get more and more ridiculous, including outfits made out of astroturf, until at the end, a woman wearing a gigantic wedding cake falls off the platform.

Emcee:
Okay,
What time is it?
If everyone notices, maybe it's too much
But where would we be?
$29.95 is a pretty good price
for six outfits and as many combinations
The possibilities are endless
Shopping is a feeling
Sometimes I get a wobbly feeling
Be sexy in business
Be successful at night
Think of where you'll be each day and formate your outfits to match

Lying woman: I stole it off of a spaceship.

Emcee:
Let the children do the shopping
If the room is pink, you're in the pink
you have the right
it's all you
there ought to be a law

(song)
When you were little
You dreamed you were big
You must have been something
A real tiny kid

You wish you were me
I wish I was you
Now don't you wake up
The dream will come true

Every dream has a name
And names tell your story
This song is your dream
You're the dream operator

It's bigger than life
You know it's all me
My face is a book
But it's not what it seems

Three angels above
The whole human race
They dream us to life
They dream me a face

And every dream tells it all
And this dream is your story
You dreamed me a heart
You're the dream operator

Shake-it-up dream
Hi-di-ho dream
Fix-it-up dream
Look at me dream
I've been waiting so long
Now I am your dream

Hard to forget
Hard to go on
When you fall asleep
You're out on your own

Let go of your life
Grab on to my hand
Here in the clouds
Where we'll understand

And you dreamed it all
And this is your story
Do you know who you are?
You're the dream operator

And you dreamed it all
And this is your story
Do you know who you are?
You're the dream operator

(back)

description for Small v Superball

badly-lit video of my cat chasing a superball up and down a hallway. She does some crazy jumping moves and then chases the ball through a door. Couple seconds later, out she comes, trotting speedily away, without the ball.

bsck

description for Bonjour mon petit bureau de change

Clip from "Flight of the Conchords" season 1 episode 8: Jemaine (J) and Bret (B) are singing a song with French lyrics to impress the croissant store girl (one of whom is Felicia (F)).

J: Je voudrais une croissant
J: Je suis enchante
J: Ou est le bibliotheque?
J: Voila mon passport
J: Ah, Gerard Depardieu
B + J: Un baguette, ah ha ha, oh oh oh oh

B: Ba Ba ba-ba Bow!

B: Foux du fa fa
Foux du fa fa fa fa
Foux du fa fa
Ah ee ah
B: Foux du fa fa
Foux du fa fa fa fa
Foux du fa fa
Ah ee ah

B: Et maintenant le voyage a la supermarche!
B: Le pamplemousse (grapefruit)
B: Ananas (pineapple)
B: Jus d’orange
B: Boeuf
B: Soup du jour
B: Le camembert
B: Jacque Cousteau
B: Baguettte
J: Mais oui
J: Bon jour
F: Bon jour
J: Bon jour
F: Bon jour, monsieur
J: Bonjour mon petit bureau de change
B: Ca va?
L: Ca va.
B: Ca va?
L: Ca va.
B: Voila – le conversation a la parc.
B: Ou est le livre?
J: A la bibliotheque
B: Et le musique dance?
J: Et le discotheque.
B: Et le discotheque
J: C’est ci, baby!
J: Un, deux, trois, quatre
B: Ba ba ba-ba bow!

All: Foux du fa fa
Foux du fa fa fa fa
Foux du fa fa
Ah ee ah
Foux du fa fa
Foux du fa fa fa fa
Foux du fa fa
Ah ee ah

F: Ou est le piscine?
J: Pardon moi?
F: Ou’est le piscine?
J: …Uh…
F: Splish splash
J: …Uh…
F: Eh...
J: Je ne comprends pas.
F: Parlez-vous le francais?
J: Eh?
F: Eh? Parlez-vous le francais?
J: Uh .…No.
F: Hmmm.

B: Foux da fa fa
Foux da fa fa fa fa
Foux da fa fa
Ah ee ah
Ba ba ba-ba bow!


back

description/captions for dog vlog

(Cecily and Lindsay sit on the balcony drinking beer)

Cecily: the downstairs neighbor has a dog named Riley
Lindsay: maybe he wants to come hang out with us. He's CRAZY
Cecily: who I guess was adopted from the street? but he doesn't seem
Lindsay: no, I think from downtown
Cecily: right, but he doesn't seem like a stray dog. I mean he likes playing with people
Lindsay: yeah he's a little bit ADD though
Cecily: anyway he's always barking
Lindsay: he's sweet
Cecily: because the neighbor who owns him is gone
Lindsay: I think he's lonely
Cecily: for some long time
Lindsay: and the dog who lives here won't play with him
Cecily: yeah, my parents' dog is not a real dog

(Cecily and Lindsay call to the dog Oscar who is off camera)

Cecily: Oscar!
Lindsay: viens-toi!

(they address the camera again)

Lindsay: he does't pay attention very much either
Cecily: he likes to sit like this (leaning on one elbow, looking glum) all day.

(Lindsay stands up and reaches for the camera)

(break in film)

(Lindsay is alone on the balcony addressing the camera)

Lindsay: are we filming now? so... what we just figured out is that we were filming, right, and then I got up to show you Oscar, Cecily's parents' dog, who is sitting right over there
and when I picked up the camera it stopped filming. I don't know why. I think the camera's oversensitive. And many of you are familiar with my skills related to technology. Fine, I admit that. Anyway the last half of our vlog was not actually recorded on video. So Cecily's getting more beer now, because she has to put up with me all the time.

(Cecily sits down and hands Lindsay a glass of beer)

Lindsay: I hope that didn't happen today with our data, I was filming a lot of
the time

(Cecily makes a face. Lindsay hugs Cecily. They both laugh)

Cecily: you wanna try filming the dog again?
Lindsay: yeah let's try again

Lindsay: oh hey, but it's fine though because he's still sitting in the same
place.

Cecily: he hasn't moved

(small, fat, black Cocker-Poodle mix is sitting on an overstuffed chair)

(in English, voiceover)

Lindsay: Oscar!
Cecily: Hello!
Lindsay: (whistles) you're looking the wrong way.
Cecily: Oscar!!
Lindsay: this way. say 'hi.' But not over there!
Cecily: he only cares about Nancy.
Lindsay: well.

(Cecily and Lindsay on the balcony again)
(in ASL)

Lindsay: so, it's very beautiful. You should film over there for them
Cecily: okay
Lindsay: you're lucky

(shots of Kigali from the balcony)

Lindsay: that area that you just saw, I ran there with her dad last weekend. It was really fun
Cecily: not YOUR dad. MY dad. that was a Real Space Blend. Because I was standing over there before.
Lindsay: FYI
Lindsay: ASL is SO COMPLICATED
Cecily: okay now I really feel like that's enough for today
Cecily: see you later
Lindsay: bye

(video over the balcony of the neighbor dog rolling around on the lawn)
(voiceover, English)

Cecily: hi Riley.


back

description/captions for "grog vlog"

All dialogue is in ASL, and also captioned in English.


(Lindsay, standing on the balcony, turns to look at the camera)

Lindsay: why hello there.

(Lindsay walks to the table and hands a glass of beer to the camera)

Drink beer, Cecily.

(Lindsay and Cecily are sitting down talking to each other/to the camera)

Lindsay: it's Rwandan beer
Cecily: called Mutzig.
Lindsay: that's a German name but whatever

(Cecily shows the beer bottle to the camera)

Lindsay: it's delicious
Cecily: there's another type of beer that we found in the fridge but we haven't drunk it yet because there seemed something funny about it
Lindsay: little bit scary actually
Cecily: then we realized it was Banana Beer ... with 25% alcohol so, we decided to wait 'til my parents leave for the weekend.
Lindsay: don't tell anyone, a it's going to be so fun
Cecily: Hi Dad!
Lindsay: hi!

Cecily: Today we drove with Sam to buy beer. It went pretty well. I didn't hit anything.
Lindsay: I think all the people were waiting for you to hit something
Cecily: I know. I drove in-- this was the same place me and Emily bought all that Fanta two years ago. So you drive to this place and there are stacks and stacks of soda and beer and things
Lindsay: people too
Cecily: There were A LOT of people all over the place. Anyway two years ago it was possible to circle back to the main road but now...
Cecily: I dont know what they were doing but they were doing something, fixing or building something
Lindsay: yeah, fixing up something
Cecily: so we drove down the road and got stuck because there was a ditch in the middle of the road. So we pull up to the ditch and stop.
Lindsay: yeah, a ditch
Cecily: okay- so we just started loading beer in the back.I was like...: what should i do to get out?
Lindsay: all the people were staring as we decided how to get out
Cecily: Lindsay said to just back up down the street: Sam was like, "can you turn around?" I was like, "okay..." so I did like a few-point turn and we left the way we came. And during this whole time there were 30 to 40 people who were just standing around watching us. It was good.
Lindsay: It was AWESOME

(birds circling in the sky with birdy noises in the background)

Lindsay: :: the sea monkies have taken to the skies!!! ::