A Handful of Randomness

Thought #1-- Tuesday (either this past Tuesday or the one before it), I was on a break during my late-afternoon class (morphology) and was walking toward the restroom.  My Jackie-friend had come out of the classroom a few moments after I did and was behind me some distance in the hallway.  Apparently she called out, "Hey, Cripple!", but didn't want to do it too loudly, because she knew that much of the world would find such an exclamation to be offensive.  It reminds me of a topic discussed in another linguistics class (I warned you, I have a linguistics reference for everything!) where we talked about social marketplaces and symbolic capital, communities of practice and indexing... basically how you show that you are part of a group and perform your identity.  The fact that my Jackie-friend can call me a cripple and that I can call myself one in her presence (like the recent blog about another classmate and "cripple parking") shows the relationship we have.  (Another fantastic example of this is given in Marlita Hill's speech.  Check out the videos! #1 and #2)

Thought #2-- I had a ling test today (more linguistics.  This is why I blog.  Because my friends just can't take it anymore).  It was for LING 100: English Grammar and Syntax.  I went to the testing services (I get disability services on tests) and was, shall we say, rather amused by the amount of difficulty that was a part of taking this simple little test.  In all, it probably took me twenty minutes max to take.  But it actually took two hours.  Why?  Well, first, because of budget issues, they are grossly understaffed.  Which means there are no students to answer phones, pass out exams, etc.  So even though I was scheduled to begin at 10, it was at least five past before they began setting me up for my exam.  Then they put me in the wrong room.  See, the computer program I use for drawing sentence trees (yes, sentences grow on trees) was only installed on two computers.  And the computer they put me on wasn't one of them.  After getting on the right computer, I found that the program wasn't installed properly, since it wouldn't open.  (Of course, the other computer it was supposed to be on wouldn't boot at all.)  So after having the student at the desk look at it... and the secretary... and the disability services coordinator... a call was put in to the tech department.  Meanwhile, I did the multiple choice and then drew the trees on my white board.  (I can write on a white board a good deal longer than on paper.  But it was interesting cramming all five trees on my little white board!)  Then the tech dweebs came and tried to figure out why the program wasn't working.  Interesting fellows.  Not exactly the brightest stars in their field.  Finally the program worked.  I think there's a glitch in the program, though, because when you try to export the trees as images, the files don't work right.  On my computer, I can just tell it to open with paint or some other image editing software and it does.  Not on the DSS computer, though.  (Thankfully I know how to use print screens, though, so I managed to solve that without issue.)  Click click typety click and I was all done.  It was rather interesting to see though: the student passing off the issue to the nearest person in authority.  The secretary looking at the computer in bafflement.  The DSS coordinator getting angry at the tech department for messing up.  The tech dweebs for being totally unprepared and uninformed.  (And for it taking two to log in, reinstall, and change a setting.  Really?)  And me, watching in amusement.

Thought #3-- Oh, yes, my doctor's appointment!  I almost forgot.  Short little appointment.  My doc says I have a pinched nerve in my neck.  So we're adding Aleve for a few days and hoping that the inflammation goes away and doesn't come back.  If it does, I'm to call and get sent to a spinal specialist for another injection (this time more accurate than what they can do in the ER).  But I can move my head today!  Yay!  Almost full range of motion and very little pain.  (The skin is hypersensitive, but that may be due to the injections.)  The doc says he thinks this is a one-time thing and that once it goes away I shouldn't have persistent trouble with it.

Thought #4-- After the doc appt, I went back to campus to talk with my professor and apologize for having to leave in the middle of her class.  We had a great chat: linguistics, books, families, fieldwork... it was fabulous.  I got some great book recommendations and always enjoy picking her brain.  Good times.

Well, I have other thoughts floating around, but they are more complicated to put into the two-dimensional bloggosphere, so they shall wait and be mused upon some more.

Busy day tomorrow: Meeting with the advisor of my honor society, another appointment, and then with my second graders.

Limited Time Only: Pay More, Get LESS!!!

Today is Friday, but it's not just any Friday... it's Admin Furlough Friday (henceforth called AFF)!  This means that all (or almost all) of the administration at Cal Furlough State San Marcos was not at work.  Nor are they allowed to answer their phones or emails.  The campus was dead.

Oh, except for a few dozen credential program students who showed up for a professional development seminar.  It is mandatory that we attend three such seminars this semester, and as the majority of them are scheduled right on top of classes we must also attend, this was one of the few my cohort could go to.

Guess how many of us showed up?  Two.  Yup.  Me and one other.

But it gets WAY better.

I arrived at 16:15 (for a seminar that was scheduled to start at 16:30).  There were maybe ten people total in the room at 16:30, but no presenters.   And the room is really warm because they don't run the air conditioner on AFF's.  So we wait... and wait... and wait... until one girl mentions that she got an email telling her the room had been changed.  Huh... funny... none of us got such an email.  So said student goes across campus to check in the other building.  Yup.  Sure enough, the meeting had been moved.  Now that we were all a half hour late, we trekked across campus (well, most of them trekked.  I drove.  Perk of "cripple parking" is parking close.  Oh, and calling it "cripple parking" totally tickled my classmate).

So we get to the other building and: It's locked.  Apparently they don't unlock doors on AFF.  We did eventually get into the building to find out that they also don't run the lights in some buildings on AFF.  So the seminar was held in the hallway.  Yippie.  (And it was dull as dirt, thanks for asking.  I love repeating things I've already learnt or consider common sense for the fifty-thousandth time.  However, I did get a few more rows knitted on both the Hufflepuff scarf  I'm knitting for my smallish sister and a few on my hedgerow mitts.  And my classmate was entertained by my sarcastic running commentary.)

I was rather miffed.

Well, anyway, I ought to get some homework done--I have one hour before meeting husband, smallish sister, and ballroom dancing friends for dinner.  Off to do linguistics!  Yay, linguistics!  Something happy after such a dumb seminar.

Oh, and happy National Sarcastic Awareness Month.  This is a good time to make you aware that I am sarcastic.  And most of the post above is sarcastic.  And I'm sorry if I'm rambling... blame my painkillers.

Background!

I’m a student of linguistics, hoping to one day earn the full title LINGUIST.  At present, I’m part of a team documenting a Mayan language; we’re creating a click-and-hear dictionary online.

Tonight was one of our meetings.  That “our” means me and my Mayans (N, C, & D).  Sometimes we’re joined by a fellow ling-nut, Jax.  Tonight, our Prof JG also joined us.  (Next week our semester starts, at which point it will be the above group and possibly two more, KayL & Elsie.)

Last week, we stumbled across /blue/ in the dictionary.  When I pulled up the entry, my Mayans started talking amongst each other in Spanish (I get about every tenth word) and their Mayan language (which I get about every thirtieth word).  They asked if we could cover “blue” next week.  So today we started covering “blue.”  In actuality, we covered green and red and a bit of blue and black.

But what made it really fun was that Prof JG was there and we covered uvular fricatives and uvular trills.  We had a lot of laughs and it was excellent.

Well, that’s where we are up to this point.  This is going to be my journey through this semester while I take morphology and languages in contact.  It’s also going to track my personal project over the semester…me and my Mayans.

(Originally posted on another of my blogs: http://linguist.tumblr.com)