The Island Weekly » other

Sys admin

Anne — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 19:18:00 +0000

We’ve had such bizarre trouble with our landline for weeks now, with virtual repairmen who didn’t show up and left messages with the helpline hours later. My work was piling up, and my blood pressure was rising. And then the MacBook Pro had trouble with the software on the Vodafone mobile stick that I was going online with.

So push came to shove and on Saturday, with Helmut off on a business trip down South, I decided to get things fixed. I bought a “Portable WLAN Hot Spot” (TrekStor) that I can go online with. It’s essentially like the Fritzbox we would otherwise use (which ordinarily hooks up to the landline, DSL) in that it allows any laptop in the vicinity to log in, with the access code, and go online on my T-Mobile contract.

The only trouble is that the amount of data transmitted is far more limited than with the fast DSL connection we had ordered. It slows things down incredibly. I tried a few Skype calls, and you’re lucky if the conversation works. I hope it won’t be a big problem. But, for example, some downloads are just too big to go through wireless.

Still, after all the trouble we had I’m playing with the idea of getting rid of the landline alltogether. It sure would save a lot of money.

I’ve also splurged on an iPad. I’ll be teaching large college classes, and I want to be able to go online easily. At the TH Wildau they have a Moodle I’m supposed to use–, and I also want to show nice presentations. I’ll need to get my materials tidied up for the Moodle anyway, so then I can also put them into the iTunes format the iPad needs.

Anyway, I’m tickled pink to have successfully set up a local network, however weak the data stream. I’ve even sorted out my passwords. So I’m feeling quite the sys admin today!

Merry Christmas

Anne — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 15:47:42 +0000

We’re happily installed in our new nest in Berlin-Charlottenburg (thank you to Michael and Christof) and are ready to take it nice and slow for a few days. Happy holidays to all!
Here is my favorite jazzification of a venerable Christmas carol, Kommet Ihr Hirten by David Gazarov. Please excuse my copyright infringement, powers that be, and take it as a recommendation of a marvellous Christmas CD.

David Gazarov: Kommet Ihr Hirten

Office wanted

Anne — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 21:35:09 +0000

Teacher/translator, 49 (for another few days), seeks office companionship with other like-minded independents aka freelancers aka knowledge workers. Needs office accessible from street level and public transportation in Berlin, by those not willing to mount 5 stories to her new bird’s nest. Looking for a space close to the heart of things, where minds are free and hands are busy. Call me, the lines are open.

Compare and contrast

Anne — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 05:36:37 +0000

Thanks Helmut.

There’s a personal story that goes with this, as you can well imagine. My first present from my husband was a…

Blog challenge! Please join in and add two similar but different pictures to your blog!
Brad Patterson had the nice idea after I’d posted this.
Looking forward to seeing your pictures.
The following people have taken the challenge so far.

A ticket to an exhibition

Anne — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 06:48:02 +0000

Dear Bode Museum,

I’d like to place a complaint. You have an exclusive ongoing exhibition, Gesichter der Renaissance/ Faces of the Renaissance, containing all sorts of famous portraits. But vexingly enough, when I tried to get tickets online, your website was down, and I couldn’t get through to you for days. Then, when Helmut and I travelled into town to buy tickets for another day at the ticket counter, the system didn’t recognize the only credit card we had that you accept. To our deep chargrin you wouldn’t take cash for an advance sale. Now, don’t you think that is taking modern commerce just a little too far?

My last line of attack will be to come to your doors, arriving long before the museum opens some cold and rainy morning in late October, and stand in line with the other miserable art freaks, hoping you will still have a day pass left with a random exhibition entrance slot. I understand same-day passes can still be had for cash … unless you have sold the last ones to the people standing in line in front of me.

Exhibit A: Here are some of the videos you have used for publicity that have turned your tickets into merciless, evil, obscure objects of desire. J’accuse!

Sincerely,
Anne Hodgson

Ruby’s shoes, ruby shoes

Anne — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:39:02 +0000

“The Problem We All Live With” by Norman Rockwell is currently on display at the White House, just outside the president’s office. It shows Ruby Bridges, the most famous of the children who in 1960, at the age of 6, walked into an all-white school and helped desegregate the schools of New Orleans. Daddy’s brave little girl, indeed. Never forget. I’d like to believe that the Civil Rights Movement has become a part of the core of our civil religion.

Ruby’s shoes. Ruby shoes.

In the song Ruby’s Shoes by Lori Mckenna, from 2002, it seems to me her story has become almost generic. Ruby is Everygirl, just like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, whose ruby shoes in the film help her get back home to Kansas. Ruby is Everygirl, just like Anne Frank. – Ruby Bridges recollects:

Scenes from a Disney, made for TV movie. Some very nice Norman Rockwell-like scenes of the intact black community.

Ruby’s Shoes, 2002

by Lori McKenna

Ruby’s shoes would take her
A mile or so to school every day
Where the white people hated her
They’d scream and hold signs and tell her to go away

But Ruby’s will was stronger
Than the bigots with the signs could ever know
She stopped every morning on the corner
And prayed that someday the pain would go

And she’d stop and she’d pray
That all the hatred would go away
She was only six years old but she knew
Walk a mile in Ruby’s shoes

Ruby sat alone in the classroom
She never dreamed the other children wouldn’t come
They hated her for the color of her skin
Well color is such an amazing illusion

She’d stop and she’d pray
That all the hatred would go away
She was only six years old but she knew
Walk a mile in Ruby’s shoes

Now Ruby knew about Dorothy
And the ruby shoes that she wore
She wondered about Oz sometimes
Well, well no other child ever walked her shoes before

And she’d stop and she’d pray
That all the hatred would go away
She was only six years old but she knew
Walk a mile in Ruby’s shoes

Ruby, if birds can always fly
Why oh why can’t you and I?

Ruby’s shoes would take her
A mile or so to school every day
Where the white people hated her
They’d scream and hold signs and tell her to go away

And she’d stop and she’d pray
That all the hatred would go away
She’d stop and she’d pray
That no other children would be raised this way
Ruby’s shoes

If birds can fly
Then why oh why
If birds can fly then why oh why can’t I

Features of connected speech:

assimilation: when words are spoken together and the sounds at the word boundaries change
s can change to sh: this shop => thish shop or Ruby’s shoes =>rubysh shoes
t, d, n at the end assimilate to the place of articulation to become bilabial: in bed => im bed
d can change to g: good girl =>goog girl
voiced can become unvoiced: have to go => haf to go
d and y can fuse to j: how d’you do => how jou do

elision: omitting sounds, esp. d and t, between words
next please => nex please
Ruby’s shoes =>ruby shoes

vowel reduction and weak forms:
You and me => You ənd me
If birds can fly => If birds cən fly
She should əv known better. She shəd ə known I’d wait.

laison: her English => her ringlish
brother and sister => brother rən sister

intrusive r and w:
no other => no wother

Pronunciation practice for geoscientists, 1

Anne — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 06:00:18 +0000

As she heard the bird, it occurred to her that the word she had heard was “a third”, not “a turd”. (ö)
Let me roast my toast, then I’ll head for the coast. (long o)
This plot shows the cost of lost lives in a dotted line. (short o)
All fall over the clover. (short and long o)
It happened so fast, I can’t understand it. (a)
Text the taxman
Text me the next vexing question.
Japan, Berlin (ta DA, ta DA!)
analysis paralysis (ta DA da da!)
anxiety variety (ta DA da da!)
These features seem equal, they exceed the mean speed. (long ee or “I”)
The fissure is a feature. (short i vs. long I, sh vs. tsh)
We had the chance to go to Chile (tsh)
Rupture zones, seismic zones. (zz vs ss)
Mutual use (ju)
catalog a frog on a log
When Val went to Vienna he visited the valley.
Walk one way with me.
Very worried, very worried

Great sites for pronunciation:

Names, Places: http://inogolo.com/
The Sound Foundations app: http://www.soundspronapp.com/
One of many online practice sites: http://www.manythings.org/e/pronunciation.html