Ugly Hovercraft and Dinosaur Bones

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

This is the entry for my second day of sight-seeing in the Big Apple. For the day after Christmas, my sister and I decided to go visit two locations: the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History.

I wanted to visit the Intrepid Museum for two things: it has some cool aircraft, especially the Concorde, which the visitors can visit; and it was also recently renovated and the displays were revamped. In fact, back in November, I heard on the radio that President Bush was actually on the re-opening ceremony and the whole place was bustling with action.

So, with that in mind, I decided to visit that. So with my sister in tow, we walked the distance from Port Authority of New York (where our bus dropped us off) to W 46st St and 12th Avenue. There it was, the huge aircraft carrier. There were plenty of people, but it was still manageable.

One of the good things in visiting a ship museum is that one can explore the inside cabins of the ship. So I saw the sailor's quarters, the forecastle, the hangar decks, the flight deck, and the different holes and tubes that people can go inside. There was also a theater inside the ship that showed a movie about the history of the ship. I didn't realize that the ship was that old.

Anyway, after that, my sister and I strolled to this Hispanic eatery, and we had soft tacos for lunch. My sister definitely has become a New Yorker now, she knows the cheap eats of the city.

Then, we proceeded to the American Museum of Natural History. This was the rather chaotic museum of the day. There were so many children, and we arrived at around 2:30 in the afternoon, and still we haven't finished seeing all the exhibits by closing time of 5:45 PM. There were just so many things to see. And there were so many children, that I didn't like my photographs here because of the excess amounts of unneeded people in the frame. It just is so hard to get a good shot.

I know, that was selfish of me, but maybe that is the reason why I visit rather secluded areas. Climbing Machu Picchu was one example. I liked the place, but taking pictures there was more difficult than Ollantaytambo, for example. But if I compare Machu Picchu with the Natural History Museum, Machu Picchu was a piece of cake. I could simply wait a few minutes and there would be a lapse in which there are no people and I can take my perfect shot. But in the museum, every frame is just full of people.

Now, in retrospect, I ask myself, why did I visit that museum? After all, I am not so interested in seeing dinosaur bones and stuffed animals. Oh, yes. It was my sister's idea. Not that I am blaming her, but in life, one sometimes needs to think for two. If I were by myself, I would not go to a natural history museum, for the same reason that I am not too inclined in taking a tour of the African safari. Animals just don't get me off. I am not too interested in reading about the Pleistocene and the Jurassic era. Instead, I would gladly replace it with fine art, modern art, architecture, or some old house.

With this, I end 2008. See you next year!

(Theodore, from my Arlington Cemetery Series)

Upper Manhattan

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

I was leafing through my Lonely Planet New York City the other day, and it occurred to me that I more or less have visited the necessary places to visit for a tourist. Of course, I did not do it in one sitting, since my strategy for New York City is to visit a few places here and there one at a time, whenever I am in town. The fact that most of my legal affairs take place in New York (I have trekked down to New York City twice now to get a visa, one in 2006 for the Czech Republic and another last summer for Denmark and Hungary), I am in town at least once a year.

This time, while spending the holidays with my sister, I decided to visit a neighborhood that I haven't been to before: Upper Manhattan. I am talking about the area around Columbia University.

The first thing I did was walk all the way to the bank of the Hudson River and visit Grant's Tomb. This is a huge mausoleum where the body of Ulysses S. Grant is buried. They say that this is the largest tomb in the country. I was the only one there when I visited, until a lone jogger came in for a break.

After that, I headed for some lunch. I went to a cafe, and had Japanese lunch while I was reading my book.

Then, I walked across the road to Columbia University. I entered the Low Building, and admired the columns, the statues, and the architecture.

Finally, I went to visit the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. This apparently is the largest church in the country. And indeed, it is huge. The church had its full blast of Christmas decor and music. The organs were blaring, and somehow, I think that the music that was playing that time was rather avant-garde, not really your traditional organ music. There were large puppets that were being prepared for a play in the afternoon. The chapels around the altar were designed and decorated differently from each other.

After that visit, it took me to mid-afternoon, and so I decided to head back downtown, given the fact that I had to meet my sister in Greenwich Village for a show we were to watch.

(Sea of Dead, from my Arlington Cemetery Series)

Simulated Nudity and Orwellian Chairs

Monday, December 29, 2008

While in New York City this past weekend visiting my sister, I watched two shows with her. New York City is such a melting pot for shows of all kinds, and we watched two different yet very engaging productions. We watched Martha Clarke's Garden of Earthly Delights, and Edward Bond's Chair.

Garden of Earthly Delights is a multi-modal production. What I mean by that is it is mainly a dance production, but it is not all about modern interpretative dance. There is a storyline that comes with it. It is based on the painting by Hieronymus Bosch, a 15th-century surrealist painter. The dance performance was divided into three segments, where the performers portrayed different scenes derived from the painting. The first segment was Paradise, and the dancers were only wearing body suits. So for all intents and purposes, they were naked. It had a sensual feel to it, but it was definitely not intended to stimulate the audience the way pornography does. Then, the next segment was The Seven Deadly Sins, and the dancers became human and put on some clothes. One man was funny in illustrating gluttony, where he was eating potatoes one by one, without even cutting it. One woman defecated on stage, two small pieces and one big piece. There was some lust going on, and then the next segment was performed, entitled Hell. The dancers lost their clothes again. Together with a smoke machine, they depicted scenes of horror, including hanging dancers swaying to and fro across the stage. Overall, it was a great performance. I never saw anything like that before.

The other show that we watched is an off-Broadway play by Edward Bond, entitled Chair. Edward Bond is the English playwright known for advocating the removal of theatre censorship. And yes, Chair is a play in which you would either love it or hate it. I for one, loved it. Given my fond memories of reading George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, I enjoyed every bit of this play. This is about a woman, living in 2077, with a physically and mentally disabled man, who she picked up from a garbage bin as a baby about 26 years ago. Gradually, it is revealed that the woman has been watching a soldier accompanying a prisoner on a bus stop, on their way to a certain location. She figured that the soldier was waiting for a very long time, and therefore she brought down a chair for the soldier to sit. However, things go awry, and it became a basis for an inquiry by the department. I would not disclose how the play ended, but it had severe consequences for the woman.

There were five characters in the play, but most of the dialogue comes from Alice (the woman) and Billy (the disabled youth). I loved the performance of the female officer when she was interrogating Alice. The soldier had no lines, except for two groaning sounds that sounded like Aaaaarrrrggghhhhhh! Aaaaarrrrggghhhhhh! The funny thing is, during the interrogation, the officer asks Alice, What did the prisoner say to you? It may be a code. Try to recreate it for me. I am trained in enciphering. Then, Alice says, Aaaaarrrrggghhhhhh! Aaaaarrrrggghhhhhh! Then some time later, the officer says, Aaaaarrrrggghhhhhh! Aaaaarrrrggghhhhhh! and she ponders whether those two groans have some other meaning.

In short, I loved the play. Will Rogers was stellar in performing the mentally disable Billy; I specially loved the part when he started to choke and convulse when he learned that Alice would be leaving him. All in all, the play was electrifying, and reminds everyone that freedom is so easily taken away from us that it should not be taken for granted at the present.

(Open Field, from my Arlington Cemetery Series)

Back in Town

Sunday, December 28, 2008

So I am back here in Buffalo after driving back and forth to New York City. Me and two of my friends left Buffalo back in December 23, and stayed there for a couple of days, and drove back yesterday. It was about a 7-hour drive.

So, last Monday, we were doubting as to whether we would be able to go, since there were two snowstorms that just hit the Northeast. We were thinking whether the road conditions would be optimal or not. Well, I think I checked the weather for about five times last Monday, and that night, we decided that we would go ahead with our plans.

We left Buffalo at a little past 8:00 in the morning. I packed my sister's suitcase, my backpacking gear, a camera, a guidebook, a novel, and a snowshovel. I instructed my friend not to drive in front of my house, due to the fact that there were so much snow and the city hasn't plowed it yet. Instead, I asked her to park her car around the corner, where there was a street that was cleaner than mine.

Anyway, we then picked up the third person, and together we drove east. We took the Interstate 90 all the way to Syracuse, and then the small Interstate 690, which then connects to Interstate 81, and from Syracuse we drove down I-81 all the way to Pennsylvania. We stopped before Syracuse for a coffee break, and had lunch in Binghamton. After I-81, we took the Interstate 380 which brought us to Interstate 80, which was our last highway. We then took the exit for Garfield, New Jersey, where my sister lives.

Coming back to Buffalo yesterday was the same road, but in reverse. The good thing though was that the temperature was cooperative. It was around the high 50's and so the snow all melted away. I came back to my house seeing the lawn again, and I was happy. It made me feel that it was sometime around March, where the winter is over and spring is finally here. Alas, that is a pipe dream. In reality, it is just December. However, the good thing is that we already passed December 21, and so the days will be longer from now on.

(Soldier's Mausoleum, from my Arlington Cemetery Series)

Settlement Issues

Thursday, December 25, 2008

So, I am here visiting my sister in her house in New Jersey. My main goal for this visit basically is to drop her suitcase off, which I transported from my parent's house in Hungary when I went there last summer. I took it back with me from Europe, then it stayed in my apartment for 5 months, and now I delivered it to my sister. Amazing huh?

Anyway, something both my sister and I noticed is that both of us have settlement issues. What does this actually mean?

My sister's stuff is all over her room, but all in suitcases and boxes. Yes, until now, even after living here for almost a year now, with a job and everything, she still is living in a suitcase. Aside from a bed, she has no furniture. And sad to say, I am the same thing. I have furniture in my house, but only the basics. If I needed to pack my stuff, I can do it within half a day.

It's like being a turtle, you know, having your house behind your back and you're able to carry it wherever you go. Somehow, the sense of permanence is not present.

I rationalize that I am not permanently going to stay in Buffalo. In fact, I am almost done. I am more than half-way done, so why plant my roots deeply if I am moving again?

I didn't realize that my sister has the same issue in her head. Then she realized that the only remedy for this one is to buy furniture. Otherwise, she would always see herself fleeting from one place to another. It reminds me of my sentiment here, from time to time, that somehow I feel like it is time to move out of Buffalo.

Maybe it is because of the way we grew up, as kids of diplomats. We move around, internationally nonetheless, and packing things are just a piece of cake. We move to a place with the realization that we would leave after a few years. And no, I don't carry a diplomatic passport anymore, but somehow the mentality is still there.

(Here Rests, from my Arlington Cemetery Series)

Book Review: Foreign Brides by Elena Lappin

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

I suppose a snowstorm gives one an excuse to simply bundle up and grab a book to read. Maybe this was my quickest read, taking me just two days to finish.

Or, maybe, the fact that it was only about 200 pages long and had rather thick margins also contributed to the fact that it only took me a few sittings to finish this book.

Anyway, this is not a novel. This is a collection of short stories. Now, I have shied away from short stories for one reason: I want a bigger picture, not just a snapshot. When was the last time I read a short story collection? Maybe it was back in high school, when I read James Joyce's Dubliners? Sadly, I hadn't been categorizing my book review posts until recently, so I can't go back and scan my previous reads.

Anyway, back to the current book. As can be gleaned from the title, this is a collection of short stories that deal with international relationships. The pairs come from all over Europe and the Americas. It can be an Israeli woman and a British man, a Russian woman and a German man, et cetera. The stories are captivating, and could sustain interest of the reader for the 15-20 pages that each story occupies. Each has its own mini-conclusion, and aside from the first and last story, no two stories are related to each other. It is like an adult version of a bedtime story, each story is worth one night of reading.

However, given my taste for novels, I find it hard to interact with the book. I suppose I wanted a bigger picture, and the only big picture I can see with this one is that everyone rode a plane to be with their mates. Nothing significantly bigger. The moment I could picture a story happening, it would end abruptly with a sometimes smart kick in the end. It takes a few pages to appreciate a story, but once those few pages are read and the story is appreciated, it suddenly ends and the next story begins. Maybe this is the reason why I do not pick up short stories to read more often.

But still, this collection is a cute one, if I would pick an adjective to describe it. It is very appropriate for the times we live in, given that the world we live in goes smaller and smaller. I would recommend this one if you are interested.

(Guarded Unknown Soldier, from my Arlington Cemetery Series)

The Great Dig

Monday, December 22, 2008

So there were two snowstorms in a row, within three days. The first one was last Friday, where it dumped about a foot of snow, and the next one was yesterday, where it dumped quite a lot of snow again. Needless to say, it provided me with more-than-enough amounts of shoveling opportunities.

I suppose this is just surreal. Maybe, living in Buffalo qualifies me to live in Siberia, but the scenery is just bizarre. It is something that is the total opposite of the scenery in the summer, when the trees are pretty, and the sun is shining at its finest.

So yesterday, I shoveled my driveway so many times I actually lost count. I would do it every two or three hours, whenever the wind is not harsh. The thing is, I live in a two-storey house, and the house next door is of the same build, so the narrow driveway in between the two houses would be transformed into a wind tunnel of some sort, with the snow being blown in from the front of the house to the back. I noticed this wind pattern, so I avoided dumping the snow on the front yard. Instead, I dumped all the snow on the yard behind the house next door, catapulting all the snow over the fence. Hey, it's just ice, when the sun comes out, it will all melt. The question is, however, is when.

Anyway, I see my neighbors, and the piles that they have created are unbelievable. There was this one car next door, it's more like a sportscar, you know, the low-riding, sleek type, and the snow pile next to it is way higher than the car itself. I see quite a few cars getting stuck in front of my house, and in fact, most of the cars have a snow shovel in their trunk, in case they need to dig their car in order to move.

The good thing is, in a few days, the forecast for the area is a few degrees higher than freezing. That means this ice pile would hopefully melt and not be a nuisance. In fact, the forecast for this weekend is rain, not snow. Good thing, since this white matter is so annoying sometimes I really think why I chose to go to graduate school here instead of somewhere else.

(Shining Sun, from my Arlington Cemetery Series)

Book Review: America America by Ethan Canin

Sunday, December 21, 2008

I suppose it took me two weeks to finish reading this one. Well, I should say, this is one of the better books that I have read.

This is the first book that I have read written by Ethan Canin. Before America America, I haven’t heard of him. I suppose the best feature of the novel was the way things were presented to the reader. The narration is definitely non-linear: the main story happens during 1971, but the story is told through the eyes of Corey Sifter, after attending the funeral of a certain senator, in 2006. Back in 1971, Corey was just a teenage boy, but the story revolves around him. There are also some snippets of information that occurs between those two time periods.

This is not a suspense or thriller novel, but the author has successfully made the reader turn the page, at least for me. The prose is very easy on the eyes, and the revelation of information has good pace. Case in point: early on the first half of the book, it is revealed that the older Corey has a wife, and three daughters. The name of the wife is not revealed until it was needed. As the story was being developed, Corey gets to like Christian, who has a sister named Clara. When Corey goes to college, he dates Holly. However, later on it was revealed that he marries Clara instead.

I guess this is one of those novels that would make an epic movie. There were a few omissions, however, given the fact that it was set in 1971, but there were absolutely no references about the anti-war protests. As some other reviewers have said, Corey seemed to be in a bubble, his life revolving around Aberdeen West and the Metarey family. However, I think omitting those would be the perfect choice. Otherwise, the novel would have a lot of clutter. This is one example of a novel that I think, only writes what is supposed to be written. Every chapter and every character and every event has a purpose in the grand structure of things. Overall, it is a good read. A good depiction of upper-class America and the scandals that loom in the shadows of politicians.

(Half-Dome Stage, from my Arlington Cemetery Series)

Winter Storm at its Finest

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Yesterday was a winter storm day. It started at around morning, and ended at around evening. Now here was I, a hardcore nerd, who even made a pact with another friend of mine that I would wake her up in the morning and together we would go to school. When we left for school, it wasn't snowing yet. But as we were working inside our heated offices, we saw that it was really going down.

The high schools closed for the day early in the morning.

Then Lockwood Library decided to close early, due to the weather.

I didn't bring lunch that day, since I wasn't feeling enthusiastic about cooking at night, so I hoped that there was something open on campus. Around lunch time, I went out to the Commons. There was one open, the Indian place.

They said that if they didn't put the sign up that they would be open, they would have closed. Worked out well for me, but I could see that the curry they had was still piping hot and brand new. Not much eating going on I suppose.

Then around 4 PM, we decided that we should leave soon. I checked the radar, and it seems the snow would abate after another hour. And sure enough, it did. The roads were tricky though.

We were crawling, and we saw cars getting stuck left and right. We got stuck ourselves, in the parking lot, since the snow basically locked our car in, and so we shoveled the snow from the tires first, and after a few pushes, we managed to be on the road.

So yeah, that was yesterday. I spent the day today digging, at separate occasions.

Oh, and there will be another one coming up tomorrow.

(Towards the Stage, from my Arlington Cemetery Series)

Angels and Demons

Friday, December 19, 2008

Everyone have their own problems. Nobody here in this world is problem-free. With that being said, I am constantly reminded by some of my friends, that I have problems as well.

The thing is, sometimes, I have this idea that people around me think that I am problem-free. Some people think that I am such a high achiever, and that I never experience failure, and therefore I am not human. Indeed, sometimes, even I myself think that way. I rarely experience failure. Not that I wanted to brag, but looking back, it seems that I have been able to overcome the obstacles that life has given me so far. I was a valedictorian in grade school, I was in the top 10 in middle school, I got to live in different countries while growing up, and I graduated with Latin honors in college. Now, I am working on a graduate degree. And my grades and my performance are unblemished. Thus, from the eyes of the outsider, it seems that I may have the easy path.

Because of that, it is easy to be the target of everyone else. Indeed, people say that it is lonely at the top. And I do believe that due to the human nature of selfishness, people would simply hate those that are above them.

I am not saying that I have no friends. I have a few who are close to me, and who know my deepest secrets. These few know my demons, and I have quite a few of them. Sometimes, we discuss our demons, and they remark that they are in a way, glad that I have demons as well, because that makes me more human. Of course, I am not offended by this remark. After all, it still is compatible with the selfishness hypothesis. They say that if I don’t have my demons, I would not be able to relate to their struggles. But the fact that I have my own struggles makes me more capable of relating to their own battles.

Of course, not everyone around me knows this. Other people think that I am just an over-achiever, and thus, the target of animosity. Graduate school isn’t a walk in the park. Graduate school is not like college, in which there are people who care about school, and there are people who just want to party and get laid. Graduate school is where one should expect to meet other people who may not just be as good as them, but in fact, better than them. Graduate school is competitive.

Now people would ask why I am revealing my demons here. Actually, no, that is not my agenda. I don’t want to reveal my demons here, for fear that what Tennessee Williams has said might come true. If you know what my demons are, you might kill them all and my angels might die too. Sometimes, people need pain, simply in order to feel that they exist. People need pain in order to confirm their existence. Armenians need their Genocide, Jews need their Holocaust. People need a struggle, or else they won’t feel that they are alive.

I suppose I have come to realize that it is not the case that I have no obstacles which result in my being perceived as an over-achiever. It is just that I learned some skills to succeed and dodge disappointment.

I remember one morning, three years ago, my sister and I had a rather interesting discussion about this. I had already graduated from college. It was one of those days in which I was waiting for the day in which I would fly to the United States to come. My sister asked me whether I was disappointed in that I only graduated with a magna cum laude, and not a summa cum laude. It happened to be that my GPA didn’t qualify for a summa cum laude. Some of my General Education requirements were rather difficult, and I had low grades in them. I told my sister that no, I wasn’t disappointed, since I never felt that I could reach the cut-off point anyway. She then theorized that that was my defense mechanism. That I cease wanting something if I know that I will not be able to get it.

In short, I am in denial.

I guess that is true. I would not deny that I would love to get the highest honor possible. I remember calculating my grades every end of a semester, and seeing what my grades for the remaining classes are supposed to be if I wanted to get the highest Latin honor. I wanted to be the best. I wanted to be on that stage, looked upon by everybody, as one of the brightest minds the university has produced that year.

But yes, reality kicks in, and that did not happen. I suppose this is where I simply denied ever wanting it, that a magna cum laude is good enough. And I am happy. According to my sister’s theory, that is just my defense mechanism, in order to avoid the crunch of disappointment. After all, if you did not want it, then you wouldn’t be sad when you don’t get it, correct?

I am not trying to justify myself. After all, life is difficult. There are so many things that can go wrong. But this should not make each and everyone of us clam up in our own rooms, for fear of something bad happening if we decide to venture even an inch outside our doors. We need to be more pragmatic than that. We develop strategies, defense mechanisms, heuristics, and other tactics in dealing with the chaos in this world. Chaos is a huge factor in the universe, and us humans have this desire to control it, to run against it, to overpower it. We develop statistical tools of inference, such as ANOVAs, regression equations, and other tests designed to infer and predict different outcomes of what we test, using assumptions that involve normality in this world. And these tests are designed to be robust, that even when normality is violated, the tests would still hold up.

People are uncomfortable with the uncertainty that results from chaos. That’s why people want the world to be predictable, so one can learn its patterns and protect oneself. I suppose my own version of my defense mechanism is just one example of that.

So there, if my friends think that I am more human when I have demons to wrestle with, then so be it. And if outsiders think that I am an over-achieving superhuman who is worthy of their animosity, I suggest they think twice, since they are wasting their time. I really am not. I just don’t get disappointed easily.

(View from Inside, from my Arlington Cemetery Series)

Under My Belt

Thursday, December 18, 2008

So it has been three and a half years since I moved here in Buffalo. Quite a few things have happened, and yes, time is swift.

I have decided to file another application to candidacy, this time, for a master's degree. Yup, even though I am registered as a Ph.D. student, I decided to apply for a master's degree as well. I am doing this to coincide with the filing of my qualifying paper.

Usually, when a master's student graduates in my department, at least, one completes 30 credit hours and do a comprehensive exam. Sometimes, if the student is bright or otherwise exceptional, the faculty would recommend this student write a master's thesis instead.

And the fact that I am almost done with my qualifying paper makes it a substitute for the comprehensive exam.

Now why am I getting a master's degree in addition to the Ph.D. degree that I am currently working on?

Well, I figured it wouldn't hurt to get a master's degree in passing. The thing is, I am almost done with my coursework; after next semester, I will have finished my 72 credit hours required for the Ph.D. and I would only have the dissertation to work on. But the thing is, funding is a huge issue. As much as the faculty would like me to hope that I would be funded beyond the four years that I am already funded, I would like to have more options available for me. Given this economic situation, I would not be careless and not have different options available. Thus, to increase the options available, I am getting a master's degree as well, to make it official. Who knows, I might need to go back to Manila and teach there while finishing my doctorate here? Or there might be other situations.

Anyway, sometimes I feel that I have been in school for a long time, that I itch to get out of it. Not that I hate academia, I like the atmosphere, but I want to be on the other side of it. I want to be the one grading, not the one being graded. Good thing I only have two more classes to work on, and that will be over this coming semester.

(Inside, from my Arlington Cemetery Series)

Linguistic Factoid No. 2: Consonant Sounds

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Have you ever wondered why there is a divide between consonants and vowels? Is it just the case that English distinguishes between the vowels A, E, I, O, and U and the rest of the alphabet? Or do other languages have this distinction as well?

The fact is, other languages indeed have this clear distinction between consonants and vowels. This is just a category difference that seem to be cutting across the board. In Japanese, consonants have a different label than vowels, and in other languages, such as Arabic, consonants are written, but vowels are not. In short, there is a good argument that this divide has psychological reality, and not just something posited by grammarians.

But, I am not intending to talk more about psychological reality in this post, at least not today. What I want to address now is how consonants in different languages vary.

So the first question is, how many consonants is typical? Do you think that English is normal, or does English have more than the usual? What are the most usual consonant sounds?

The most usual consonant sounds are /p/, /t/, /k/, /b/, /d/, and /g/. These six sounds have something in common, and that is, they are pronounced by creating a momentary blockage of air in the oral cavity. /p/ and /b/ are produced by blocking the air at the lips, /t/ and /d/ are at the alveolar ridge, or sometimes, on the teeth, and /k/ and /g/ are on the velum, or soft palate. There are other sounds that are produced by blocking air, but these six ones are the most common.

The next question is, why are these sounds more common than others? Well, the thing is, it is very easy to produce. One only needs to close and open the mouth and oral cavity. That's it. And the reason why these three areas are most common is because they are producing the most different sounds. So perceptually, it is easier to tell that a /p/ and /t/ are different, rather than differentiating between a /t/ and a sound made by blocking the air in the palatal region, which is a /c/.

Aside from these sounds, sounds that are produced by lowering the velum to allow air to pass through the nasal cavity are also common. These are /m/, /n/, and /ng/ (I know, this is not IPA, but I don't have an IPA keyboard). Now, think what the words for "mother" are in different languages, don't they have a nasal sound in them? There is a good explanation to that, and that is, /m/ or /n/ are some of the first sounds that babies can do. It's very easy to do, just close one's mouth and open it again, and the control needed to open and close the velum in the back of the oral cavity is not mastered yet, therefore it comes out as a nasal sound.

If there are easy sounds, there are hard sounds as well. These are the fricatives and trills. The fricatives are hard to produce because it needs a good control of the speech organs. Fricatives are produced by making a constriction narrow enough to produce turbulence. If you produce a /s/, then you make your mouth narrow enough to produce that hissing sound. Make it a little wider and the sound will not be the same. Fricatives include /f/, /v/, /s/, /z/, and others. Now you know why babies named "Elizabeth" cannot pronounce their name easily when young.

Trills are the same. The /r/ sound, at least the Spanish /r/, needs the tip of the tongue to vibrate really fast, and one needs to mastery of the tongue in order to let it vibrate. The same goes for the uvular trill, found in some European languages like French and German.

Some of the most complicated sounds involve the pharyngeal region, and these sounds are made use of by the Afro-Asiatic languages, such as Arabic. These involve sounds that require a constriction made deep down in the pharynx, and second language learners of these languages find it hard to articulate.

If we turn our attention to universals now, most of the time, we find the stops in pretty much every language in the word. Fricatives are still common, but one can see languages that do not make use of them at all. Some languages only have /s/ and /h/ for fricatives, and for that reason, English is rather unusual for having quite a lot of fricative sounds. Nasal sounds are common, and most languages have at least one nasal sound. Finally, trills are not so much, and so are pharyngeal sounds, due to the complicated articulation that these sounds require.

Of course, there are other types of consonants, like ejectives, implosives, and clicks, and yes, these are rather uncommon compared to the other plain consonants. Most of these are found in a scattering of different languages around the world, but one cannot see a general trend as to where they are found. Clicks are mostly found in southern Africa, and ejectives are mostly found in the Caucasus region and in South America.

So there, that's my spiel on consonant sounds for you. I will end it here, and then think of a new topic for my linguistic factoid.

(Amphitheater Columns, from my Arlington Cemetery Series)

Monday to Friday

Sunday, December 14, 2008

I regret that I haven't been able to write an entry for the past week. Things have been busy, and even though classes have ended by last Monday, I still had plenty of things to do.

On Monday, I had a make-up class to attend. It was a 4-hour-long marathon session where all the people in the class had to present their research. I did well. Things ended well. After that, I headed straight to the Psychology department, where the lab director of the lab I am a member of bought lunch for all of us. We had good Chinese food.

On Tuesday, I was working on my paper. I was in the university's Cybrary for the whole time, given the fact that my computer didn't have SPSS installed in it, and I needed that program to do my statistics. I was running a bunch of multi-dimensional scaling analyses and so I needed to measure similarities and differences across a bunch of languages whose differences and similarities were measured numerically.

On Wednesday, I was back in my office, writing my paper. I had an earlier draft of this one, and the professor already gave me comments on that one, so I am revising it this time. The revisions took me all the way to Thursday. This was also the day in which all the graduate students had a pizza party at noon. That was fun. After that, I went back to work.

On Thursday, I was still working on my paper, but I was able to finish by mid-afternoon. Then, I went ahead and proctored an exam. Initially, I asked the professor teaching this class whether she wanted me to be there, and initially she said that she doesn't need me there, but I asked again, and told her that I have everything I have to do already done, so I can proctor the exam with her. So I did that, and she had some finger food for all. I had some Swiss cheese and cookies.

After the exam, a good friend of mine went to a theatre downtown to watch the play entitled The Seafarer, by Conor McPherson. It was a very realistic and gripping play. It consisted of four friends, connected all together by being alcoholic, uncovering their pasts on Christmas Eve. Little did they know that the Devil was in their midst, and was ready to collect their soul. They play poker, but the stakes are so high that the whole theatre just fills with suspense. I wouldn't give you the ending here, but if you find this play running in a theatre near you, I would recommend seeing it.

On Friday, I went to school and sat down with the professor I was a teaching assistant to, and graded the finals and the final papers. I graded the objective part of the exam, and she graded the essay parts. Then, I read all the papers that were submitted, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of each. I gave each paper a numerical value ranging from 15 to 24, 20 being the average okay paper. Then, the professor would then read it again, and assign a final grade to the person.

So that was my week. Busy, indeed, but I survived.

(Amphitheater Again, from my Arlington Cemetery Series)

Colder than My Freezer

Sunday, December 07, 2008

So my refrigerator is set to be around 10 degrees Celsius. My freezer on the other hand is at 0 degrees Celsius. That is the normal setting for neat home appliances that everybody have.

But apparently, the weather here can be colder than that. Today, for example, was a stunning -10 degrees Celsius. For the whole day, the whole wide expanse was just colder than my freezer.

I shoveled my driveway early this morning, which was the second time I did it this winter season. Call me crazy, but I suppose it is my substitute for exercise. I did work up a sweat early this morning, and that was good. I woke up, washed my face, donned my gloves and winter cap, socks and boots, and grabbed my shovel. After about thirty minutes, my driveway was clean.

Yesterday, I was in Dundurn Castle, in Hamilton, Ontario. Canada didn't have lake effect snow like we had last Friday, so the roads were clean, unlike here. Hamilton is closer than Toronto, just about an hour of driving, so me and two of my friends decided to go castle-hunting. One thing that we noticed was that snow is pretty in Canada. When it was falling down, I could definitely see the hexagonal shapes falling on my clothes.

Of course, the snow here in Buffalo also have the hexagonal shapes, but sometimes, snow falls so heavy here that they don't fall pellet by pellet, but rather, blob by blob.

(Dead Anchor, from my Arlington Cemetery Series)

Closure cum Lake Effect Snow

Friday, December 05, 2008

So today was the last day of classes. Yippee! Although that does not mean that I am done with all my semester-related responsibilities.

Still, the fact that classes are over is a good thing. Time indeed moves fast, and so I sure needed to move along and work and be productive. Today was a rather productive day indeed.

I turned in my neurolinguistics paper today. It was supposed to be due on December 16, but I turned it in today, more than ten days ahead of schedule. Sweet! Now, I can just focus on the other paper I am revising for this semester, which I will turn in before the end of next week. All I need to do is do some recoding, which I will probably do this weekend, rerun my multidimensional scaling analysis, and re-analyze my data a little bit.

Today also was the second day in which students who are finishing their qualifying paper research will have to present their work. I did this last year, in which afterward, there was an incident with someone else in the department. Another graduate student, who was more advanced than me, asked me a question, both in the session and after the talk. Apparently, the way I answered that person was offensive, although I didn't mean it that way. In any case, I apologized, since I did not mean to offend this person, but somehow I was told that it was not my fault at all, but it is more of a quirk of the other person.

Anyway, that wasn't the reason why I am writing about this event this time. The thing is, one of the presenters this evening was a friend of mine, so I told her that I am buying her dinner after her talk. So we went, and together with two other friends, we had dinner in the Falafel Bar. It seems that this is the post-QP talk eating place, because a year ago, after the same event, a group of friends also went to this place to have dinner on a Friday night.

So there, we had dinner, and by the time we were heading home, we encountered some heavy-duty lake effect snow. The weather forecast actually gave a heavy warning, so we decided to avoid the highways and instead drive on the side roads, and we went slowly, way slower than the speed limit. The snow was so heavy, and the clouds were so dark and thick. The good thing is that the warning is only supposed to last until 1:00 AM tomorrow morning. Good thing, meaning this wouldn't pile up, but that means I need to shovel first thing in the morning.

Oh well, that's my excuse for an exercise. Anyway, I am hoping that tomorrow is a good day, since I have plans to go castle-hunting tomorrow with two of my friends. We are planning on crossing the border again, but this time, just to Hamilton, Ontario. We're planning on visiting a few sites across the border and getting back in again.

(Amphitheater for the Dead, from my Arlington Cemetery Series)

Book Review: Harbor by Lorraine Adams

Thursday, December 04, 2008

I recently finished this book. This is a book by Lorraine Adams, entitled Harbor.

It starts by telling the story of Aziz, an Algerian stowaway, who tried for the third time to sneak into a ship heading for Boston. On the third time, he succeeds, and his adventures start there, from his health problems due to the harsh environment in the ship's bowels, to his being involved in a criminal ring in the city of Boston.

The narrative is very engaging, but if one looks at the bigger picture, the book is a little bit disappointing. First, it starts with the adventures of Aziz. Years pass, and his brother comes to the United States as well, legally this time. He and his brother get jobs, and they struggle to make ends meet, while living with fellow Algerians whose background seem dubious to begin with.

Then the book starts to shift, focusing instead on the criminal and not-so-criminal activities of the other characters of the story. Somehow, Aziz becomes involved. These roommates plot plans to depose Aziz in one way or another, but it fails. That was the second part.

The third part involves Aziz's past. Suddenly, there are flashbacks about Aziz and his military history, and his desertion. Every other chapter would be regarding his past, which is shown to be haunting his present, but otherwise unconnected to the present events. The US authorities also become involved in the story, and it turns out that every Algerian character is now under observation by the authorities who are trying to flush out a terrorist cell. The book ends by describing each predicament of the Algerians, some of them are good, some of them are not so good.

I didn't like the book. I felt like it lacked a certain internal cohesion. Of course, the characters are stable throughout the book, but it didn't feel like the story came full circle. The ending left me hanging, as if suddenly, the story was taken away from me.

Good thing I didn't buy the book, but instead simply borrowed it from the library. Therefore you guys know what I did next, I returned it, and started on a new book. This new book will be about US politics in New York State, and the lives of politicians. When I am done with it, I will review it, as usual.

(Part of a Ship, from my Arlington Cemetery Series)

Daydreaming

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

I hate myself for the fact that today is the second day that I was daydreaming. By this I meant not sitting down and doing what I was supposed to do.

Yesterday, I did the same. But then, I suppose my Monday schedule was very conducive for daydreaming, because I have multiple events delimited by one-hour breaks, and sometimes, these one-hour breaks aren't enough to be in the zone and actually provide time to work. It's just enough to check one's emails, answer them, grade a couple of papers, and then voila! The next thing in the schedule is already up.

Today, however, was not supposed to be like that. After 12:30 PM, I basically had the whole afternoon for work. But then my mind was dwelling somewhere, and the fact that my most impending work was rather not too engaging, I couldn't help but be distracted.

I am supposed to revise this one last paper for the semester. The due date for this one is sometime in the next two weeks, and I basically have everything I need to revise it, but the thing is, it isn't really in my alley with regard to the topic, which is not an excuse I know it. It's one of those things in which after I turn in the paper, I am done with it. I don't see myself doing work on it, but still, in order to be a good student, I need to learn it.

I promise myself that tomorrow would be a different day. Tomorrow, after 12:00 PM, I have the whole afternoon to work on it. I have no more appointments after that, and the next thing on my calendar will only be the UB Symphony Orchestra concert which is in the evening, in which my friend will be the harpist. So I basically have the whole afternoon to work on revising my paper.

Yesterday and today, I spent the day instead planning for trips, both factual and fictitious, itineraries of trips I have on my wishlist, like checking the weather for Egypt and Tanzania, and checking the hours and admission fees of houses in the National Register of Historic Places, and checking the map where the covered bridges in Pennsylvania are. A friend of mine told me once that I have somehow missed my calling as a travel agent. I think it is true. But what can I do? I also love my work here.

Anyway, I should have enough time to work. After this week, there is the Finals Week, but I don't have any exams to take. After revising this paper, which I hope to be done by the weekend, then all I have to do is the revision of my qualifying paper, and research for the dissertation topic. Winter Break is fast coming along, but somehow I am not looking forward to it. I do have some days in which I have allotted to take off, such as heading down to New York City to visit my sister and build her new bed, but otherwise, Winter Break means work. Of course, I have a few days in which I plan to just relax and take pictures. That means more photo albums, but I am afraid I won't be posting them here until next year. After all, I still am on my Washington DC pictures, and come to think of it, I took these photos exactly a year ago.

(Garden of the Dead, from my Arlington Cemetery Series)

Linguistic Factoid No. 1: Sound Inventories with a Focus on Vowels

Monday, December 01, 2008

I figured that I have this blog titled as Memoirs of a Linguist, and yet I rarely talk about linguistics. So I am starting a relatively semi-regular series on Linguistic Factoids. And for the opening entry, I decided I would be talking about the sounds of the world's languages.

First of all, however, let me put on a disclaimer. These factoids are not supposed to be scholarly articles. All errors are mine, however, I would appreciate it if people do not use the information that I would be presenting here as sources to their term papers. Blogs aren't really a reliable source. Cite something else, and it better not be Wikipedia!

Anyway, the world's languages have a large variation with regard to the types of sounds that people use. Some languages have a sound system that has about 25-40 sounds, although there are languages that utilize more, or less extreme. For example, Rotokas just have about 11 sounds, if I am not mistaken, and the Khoisan language !Xu has about 140 sounds all in all. And in case you are wondering, English has a larger than average sound inventory, due to the rather large amount of fricatives that English has.

Let's talk about vowels. If you have a language that only has three vowels, what would those vowels be? Most of the time, it would be /i/, /a/, and /u/. And if the language has a five vowel system, it would be /i/, /e/, /a/, /o/, and /u/. Anybody can think of why that is the case?

So why is it that this is the case, and not that a language would have /i/, /e/, and /æ/ instead?

This has something to do with perception. If you only have three vowel sounds, chances are the language wants it to be maximally distinct from one another. If the system is /i/, /e/, and /æ/, then all of these are vowels that are pronounced with the tongue pushed forward, which makes them rather perceptually similar to one another. However, if the language has /i/, /u/, and /a/, then simply by articulating these sounds, one can feel the different tongue movements that are involved in these vowels, and then you can see that there is a huge difference between the three. Both /i/ and /u/ are vowels that have the tongue rather high, but /i/ has the tongue up front, while /u/ has the tongue in the back. And in contrast to those two, /a/ has the tongue rather flat at the bottom of the mouth.

Now, I suppose you guys now know why the dentist tells you to say "Ah..." whenever the dentist wants you to open your mouth. It is because this vowel forces your lips to be wide open, and the tongue is out of the way, not blocking your oral cavity.

So there. For the next factoid, I will talk about consonants. Ah, this will get very interesting.

(Obelisk, from my Arlington Cemetery Series)