NEW TUMBLR ON THE WAY!
Internet! How ya doing? You look great! How’s the family? It’s been, like, forever.
Guess what? I’m making a comeback to this whole putting stuff online for everyone to see thing - I’m just taking my time so I know that I do it right. The goal’s to be consistent with both what I post and how often I post it.
-ALSO-
Slowly but surely I’ve been scrounging together a new tumblr that I plan on permanently transitioning to in a few weeks. Once I make the switch, I’ll be sending this old boat off to drift the Stygian parts of the Net. PI’s been good to me, but it’s time to move on.
You’ll be able to find me at pc935.tumblr.com - but I’ll be sure to say something before I jump over.
Anywho, I’m looking forward to sharing with you again soon, Internet.
Till then,
-Cheers
Let me tell you about Beverly
Mrs. Beverly Williams came shuffling up to my counter today, dressed like a lady from the fifties in clothes that didn’t quite seem to fit her diminished frame the way they used to when she was in her prime. However, she spoke with dignity and moved with a fluid grace that belied her years.
She was ordering frames for photos that must’ve been taken when she was barely a teenager. Perched high on horseback, in the center of the picture, was this tiny little thing who’s delicate face was strikingly similar to the weathered woman’s here with me today. But when Mrs. Williams scrunched up her face into a smile, she still looked exactly like the black and white little girl all the way down to the way her nose turned up ever so slightly at the end.
“I loved to ride horses,” she said thru her smile. When she was first starting to learn how to jump gates, she was almost thrown off the horse when it stopped suddenly in front of the very first, very lowest gate, then she was almost thrown a second time when it suddenly leapt from the stand still. Her instructor, a “surly old coot” walked over to her, looked at the horse, looked at her, then back to the horse, and then back at her and told her she should’ve been thrown off and broken her neck. “He said it didn’t make no sense,” then chuckled at her own bad attempt at copying his southern accent.
When I asked her if she still rode, she told me that she didn’t ride nearly as much as she used to. She wishes she could, tho.
Then she asked if I rode. “Oh, no,” I said, “I’ve been on a horse a few times in my life, but I’m terrible.” She laughed, scrunching up her face again, and told me that it was just like anything - took lots of practice - but I looked like I had more of a dancer’s body anyway. She leaned over the counter and said she was taking dancing lessons and simply loved it, said that anyone and everyone should learn to dance. As she left, she looked over her shoulder and gave me a lopsided grin, “Think you might wanna be my dance partner sometime?” I smiled so hard I could feel it in my heart.
Yeah, I think I’d love to.
Look! look! it’s a thing that I drew
He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.
“Skwerl” is a short film by Brian Fairbairn in fake Enlgish. I’m not yet exactly sure what it is about this, but there’s something here that resonates strongly with both the linguaphile and storyteller in me. Maybe I’ll figure it out if I watch it a few more times.
Yellow Ostrich - WHALE
Love this song, so I thought I’d share.
Running Thoughts, Obstacles
Turns out, running on a rolled ankle is not only painful, but can make matters much worse. So, after a week of going stir-crazy waiting for my foot to heal up, I’m finally feeling fit enough to run again.
My stamina’s such that physical exhaustion really isn’t a huge factor when running anymore, but there’s a new even more oppressive obstacle that I hit about half-way thru my ever extending runs that I hadn’t really expected: boredom. I’m actually writing most of these running thoughts in my head as I run now. It helps, but it’s rarely enough. After running close to an hour, I start getting distracted, sometimes I find myself staring at the stars and not paying attention to where I’m going (I’ve really only gotten lost once). Something new I tried tonight was telling myself stories, it worked pretty well. With any luck it’ll work again next time.
Tonight, I discovered an exciting new thing: running while it’s four degrees below freezing out. Now, in my defense, it was well near 40ºF when I started sometime around sunset, but I underestimated how quickly the temperature would drop once it was dark out. It’s a story for another time, but I don’t notice my surrounding temperature that well and it wasn’t until I realized I couldn’t open my hands and part of my face was going numb that I started to get concerned. Luckily, I was on the last leg of my route by then and was safe inside and getting warm before too long.
It was weird trying to move my fingers at their normal speed. I gave typing a shot and couldn’t get out a single sentence in less than a minute. Think I need to invest in some gloves before my next run.
We were certainly uncertain
At least, I’m pretty sure I am
En Accents
So, it’s probably because I’m a huge nerd who likes words too much, but I’ve been thinking a lot about spoken language recently. More specifically, about accents It started when I was watching a cartoon with my nephew and a character walked on screen and was speaking with a specific accent that, accurate or not, I immediately identified that person as being from somewhere specific. Then I started wondering how non-English speaking regions would have the characters in their shows (who would obviously be speaking the local language) accent their language to indicate to an audience, who would automatically recognize it, that they were from somewhere specific. What does the difference between an Irish and English accent sound like when speaking Dutch to a Dutch-speaking audience?
In my head, I can hear (according to Californian-raised ears) what I expect the accents of people from most regions of the world to sound like, but I wonder what the perception of accents is like to people of other backgrounds than mine. What does a French Japanese accent sound like? or a Spanish German? or Indian Chinese? or Scottish Swahili?
It’s a little frustrating that I’ll never really have an answer to this question (all my presumptions about what accents sound like will always be thru an American filter), but I can’t help but think it’s super fascinating.
Hey, you should check this guy out!
This here’s one of my best bro’s in the whole world. His name’s Joel, I’ve known him since we were 11, we made our first collaborative project (a totally rad ninja movie) when we were 16, and I only just recently discovered that he’s become a citizen of the tumblrs.
He’s a super-cool guy who’s a little new to this whole blogging thing, but if you like paying attention to me then you’d probably like him a lot more (not really, I’m just saying that to be nice, I’m way more interesting than he is). So share the love and help me welcome this cool cat to the scene.
