Thursday, June 15, 2006
American mispronunciation
It's no secret that numerous British locations are ripe for mispronunciation, especially by American visitors (much to the amusement/irritation of locals). Places like Leicester (pronounced more like "Lester"*), Birmingham, Nottingham (and plenty of other -hams which mostly are pronounced more like "Birming'm", "Notting'm" and so on), the Thames ("tems"), and the list just goes on and on. But this entry is concerned about every once in a while when it goes the other way, where for a few certain places in the US, even BBC presenters (usually excellent in their correct pronunciation of various locales) repeatedly slip up. And we're not talking obscure anomalies like Versailles, Indiana (pronounced like "ver SAILS", of course). The three I've noticed the most are the city of Houston (TX), and the states Maryland and Michigan.

Houston: The correct pronunciation is of course something like "HYOO-ston" (where the last vowel is actually our old friend the schwa, English's favorite vowel in unstressed syllables, but as I already decided not to bother with any sort of unusual transcription characters, I'm sorta stuck making asides like this. Should have just embedded schwas and been done with it). As in "Houston, we've had a problem" (NASA audio link. Named after Sam Houston, who apparently pronounced his name that way. The British pronunciation is more like "HOO-ston", perhaps this is how the name of the "original Houston" (in Scotland) is pronounced (it's a minor enough place I've never heard its name said aloud). It's not simply a pronunciation difference between US and UK English overall, as the word "huge" has the same onset as the US pronunciation of "Houston" in both languages. The UK pronunciation is also not likely to be an extension of the pronunciation from other terms beginning with "HOU": the most common ones being "HOUR, HOUSE, HOUND" all of which would suggest pronouncing Houston as "HOUSE-ton". As, in fact, is the correct pronunciation of Houston Street in New York City.

Maryland: This is a particularly obvious one, possibly related to a tendency I've noticed in British English to give equal stress to different parts of compound words or compound-like words (terms "dandruff" and "vineyard" are pronounced as "DAN-druff" and "VIN-yurd" in US English, but more like "DAN-DRUFF" and "VINE-YARD" in UK English). The US pronunciation is something like "MAR-u-lund" (gosh, a couple of schwas would be so useful, but now it's far too late), while the UK pronunciation is "MARy-LAND". Like the name Mary + "land". I guess this is a straight-up trade for the zillions of US English speakers (including myself) who just cannot manage to correctly pronounce Marylebone (in London). I'm avoiding discussion of how the first syllable of Maryland should be pronounced (like "Mary"? or like "merry"? or like "marry"?), because my particular dialect doesn't distinguish between these vowels, and no doubt I'm mispronouncing it as far as the locals are concerned.

And then we get to Michigan, the one that seems to rile me the most of the three. I'm not sure I've ever heard a UK speaker pronouncing the name of this state correctly. The correct pronunciation is "MISH-i-gan" (more schwas needed in those unstressed syllables, gah!), but the standard UK English pronunciation is "MITCH-i-gan". If anything, I would have expected UK English speakers to get this right, following the slightly greater tendency of UK English to persist with slightly French pronunciations of words of French origin (such as the nasalized vowel at the end of the word "restaurant", although maybe this is just a sign of snootiness. A speaker of US English who nasalized that vowel would no doubt be asked to leave the country). Well, maybe it has something to do with guessing the pronunciation. There are plenty of words beginning in (consonant+ICH) or (consonant cluster+ICH), but most of them are either prefixed forms beginning with "bi" or "di" (bichromate, dichotomy, dichromate), in which the (consonant+ICH) is broken across multiple syllables, or highly obscure words (cichar, fichu, kichel, lich [less obscure if you're a nerd), lichi, nichil, vichy). There are a few common names which go all over the place (Michelle, Nicholas, Michael, Richard), but perhaps the deciding factor is the only really common word on the list, "rich". Pronounced like the UK English version of "Michigan". As usual, it can all be blamed on money.

* I'm not bothering with IPA when describing correct pronunciations, hence my descriptions may not be exactly right. But I think they get the idea across.

language
Thursday, June 15, 2006 3:36:16 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [1]  | 
 Monday, June 12, 2006
What can you expect from England fans?
This weekend we had a guest in town: my sister's husband (Noblesvillain) was in London for his first stop on what looks like a punishing work trip around various parts of Europe. We decided to give him a true England experience, and (after taking a brief detour to Greenwich and the Prime Meridian) went to watch the England v. Paraguay World Cup match. We thought we'd take advantage of the nice day and join the crowds watching the match on the giant screen in Canary Wharf (instead of packing into a crowded, smoky pub). Due to a lack of time management (watching a character presentation about longitude, timekeeping and navigation at the Greenwich observatory, then wandering a few hundred feet east of the Prime Meridian to the point at which my GPS read 0 east), we arrived shortly after the first (and only) goal of the match. Watching the replays of the crowd reaction, it seemed like this was a good move: the goal happened so early in the match that many fans were equipped with full bottles/cans of beer or cider, thus their impassioned celebrations were characterized by gallons of liquids spraying in all directions.

However, our late arrival also meant that due to the crowds (estimated at 6000+) we had one of the worst spots you could imagine. We were off to the side of the square, behind a portable dumpster and somewhat in the underbrush. Our view of the match was fine except for a tree that entirely obscured the middle of the screen (most of the middle of the screen, I should say). Except for Mrs. Dunce who also had taller people standing in front of her. She couldn't see anything. Except the small group of young lads behind us who were engaged in stereotypical behavior of English youth (one was drunk enough to fall on the ground and lie there where his [also drunken] mates could take pictures of him. Until he roused himself enough to stand and vomit, not in our direction thankfully. And to throw beer on his friends [and assorted unlucky bystanders]. That was nice). At halftime we moved toward the front, still along the edge of the underbrush, and again next to a dumpster, but this time at a location where at least the Noblesvillain and I could see the screen without any obstruction. Mrs. Dunce, suffering from a height shortage, was not so lucky and chose this time to take her leave, heading for the shopping center until the game was finished.

About the middle of the second half (quite undistinguished as far as the football goes), there suddenly erupted some sort of ruckus very near us, with sudden sounds of broken glass and the sort of crowd movement that definitely indicates a fight. But unlike the sorts of sport-related fights I've seen before, it was more than two guys going at it, surrounded by a ring of onlookers, and soon to be broken up by police or security. Instead there seemed to be loads of people, throwing bottles at each other with full strength, swinging sticks (or something) at each other, and so on. Crowds of people were rushing in a panic from the scene, right in our direction, and even more concerning were the numbers of ill-tempered looking young men headed toward the fray. The trusty dumpster was suddenly very handy indeed as most of the action was on the other side of it. We decided, however, that we should amble away from the scene. Perhaps we were not running but our casual saunter out into the street had a sense of urgency about it. For a few moments the screen was shut off, displaying only a message saying something like "The live broadcast will not resume until order is restored".

But the broadcast resumed, and the Noblesvillain and I made our way back through the underbrush to a spot very near our original (non)viewing location, but where we were actually able to see the screen. This only lasted for five minutes or so, however, as the broadcast was interrupted again. Obviously the trouble was continuing in the same area (the remotely-controlled cameras were all pointing in that direction), so after a few minutes we decided to exit and find Mrs. Dunce in the shopping centre (ummm, if you decide to meet outside a Starbucks, make sure you indicate which one!). And it's a good thing we did; soon after we started walking there was a police announcement, indicating that the screening was finished and that people should make an orderly exit. As we had a head start, we were able to leave the area without incident.

It was very odd: there were no signs of police or security anywhere, until the very end when we were leaving and a few police vehicles showed up. It seems almost shocking that there would be no police presence at such a large public event, especially one involving football. News reports suggested that approximately 200 people were involved in the fighting, and that it may have stemmed from a conflict between Millwall and West Ham supporters. 16 people were injured, but no arrests were made.

Canary Wharf troubles in the news:
Sunday Life: "Mass brawls break out in London and Liverpool"
Mirror: "Home yobs face ban"
Independent: " Outdoor screenings suspended after brawl"
and the best of all, Telegraph: "Fans collect first points in the good behaviour league"

Monday, June 12, 2006 9:41:13 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [3]  | 
 Friday, June 09, 2006
World Cup finals start here!
Today the streets of London are full of cars flying St. George's flag; I saw literally hundreds on my way to work today (and I am using the term "literally" literally, not just as a run-of-the-mill intensifier). But today I was really looking out for flags representing other countries in the final. Besides England, here's how it broke down (all flag images can be seen at the Flags Of The World website)

3 Trinidad & Tobago
2 Poland (there may have been more; it's hard to distinguish Poland from England at a glance)
1 Ghana
1 USA
1 Australia
1 Brazil
1 Portugal
1 Ivory Coast (This may have been an Irish flag; they look very similar to me: Ireland; Côte dʼIvoire. Definitely orange and not red, so it wasn't Italy).

So there you have it. The flag count metric makes Trinidad & Tobago the clear winner. Place your bets now; at the moment you can get 1000-1 odds. Bet the rent money; this one is a sure thing!

Friday, June 09, 2006 11:20:17 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [1]  | 
 Thursday, June 08, 2006
Supporting my team in the World Cup
For this year's World Cup final, I decided to participate in my department's World Cup sweepstake. The way it works: each participant pays a small sum into the pot, and is randomly assigned a team (thus the number of participants is limited to 32, the number of teams in the final). The holder of the winning team wins the bulk of the pot; the runner-up wins something as well, and there is also a booby prize for the holder of the worst-performing team (decided by goal difference if there are multiple teams on 0 points, which there surely will be). And what should fate deal me, particularly as a new British citizen?


Yes indeedy. By the luck of the draw, I have been forced to throw all of my football-supporting energy behind the U!!S!!A!!, perhaps negating all of this citizenship/naturalisation rigamarole. I'd better get on the ball at supporting my favorite players too then. As I am wont to do, I have chosen my favorites by randomly selecting from the roster. First of all my very favorite of favorites is Eddie Lewis, currently playing in England for the much-beloved Leeds United (How beloved? Google search for "hate Leeds" only gives 949 hits [comparable to the number of hits for "hate puppies", vs 71,700 for "love Leeds"). My second favorite player is Damarcus Beasley, a midfielder for much-beloved PSV Eindhoven. And finally, another defender, Oguchi Onyewu, currently playing for Standard Liege of Belgium.

Is one of my new favorites likely to score a goal in the World Cup? They have a total of 141 games of international experience, scoring 21 goals (0.15 per game). If we assume that the three of them all play in each match, scoring at a rate of 0.15 goals/match rate (not at all a given as the World Cup finals include stronger opposition), and that the US makes it through the group stage before exiting at the first round of the knockout stage (ie, playing 4 matches), (and a number of statistical assumptions that are totally violated anyway so you might think "why bother"), binomial calculations come up with a 47.8% chance that one (or more) of them will score.

Anyway, who cares if my new favorite players score as long as my designated favorite team wins it all. USA! USA! USA! Chant it with me! USA!!

Thursday, June 08, 2006 2:42:36 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [0]  | 
 Wednesday, June 07, 2006
A strange song to sell ice cream with

The other evening I was biking home and heard something I could have sworn was the song "Hava Nagila", played on the traditionally somewhat out-of-tune sound system of an ice cream truck*. I figured this must have been an auditory hallucination or something; perhaps an ice cream truck was playing a song that vaguely resembled Hava Nagila in some way, and the presence of numerous Orthodox folks going about their afternoon business may have been enough to cause this illusory conclusion. Sort of like a summertime McGurk Effect where you hear one thing, see another, and the visual input biases what you end up hearing.

In any event, I am pleased to discover (thanks entirely to yesterday's post by Quink) that it was not a hallucination or illusion but was in fact an ice cream truck playing "Hava Nagila". Uncle Doovy's kosher ice cream van** to be precise. I guess I live just a tiny bit too far from the most concentrated Orthodox neighborhoods to have seen him before. Or perhaps the one (non kosher) ice cream truck controls our street with an iron fist, and Uncle Doovy doesn't want to get whacked.

* For an interesting article about ice cream truck sound sytems, check out D.T. Neely's article "Soft Serve: Charting the aural promise of ice cream truck music", PDF link.

** How many boxes in the "wacky headline" checklist does the linked article tick?
Mister Softee's Kosher Kin Gets Warm Welcome
Feeling Peckish? London's Kosher Snack Mobile Minds the Gaps Between Meals
consume
Wednesday, June 07, 2006 10:22:18 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [1]  | 
 Monday, June 05, 2006
World Cup fever
Supporting my World Cup team(s?) There are once again great hopes for England in the World Cup (starting on Friday in case you're living under a rock or in many parts of the USA). Besides the inevitable media onslaught (Google News search for "Wayne Rooney" gives 9000 results at the moment) this is definitely reflected in the massive increase in the number of St. George flags on display


For example, when I ride my bike to work outside of World Cup season, depending on my exact route I typically see anywhere from zero to zero England flags. Today I saw them in more than 40 different places, ranging from the windows of council flats (typically the most heavily England-decorated), to white vans (as expected, the majority of vehicles flying the colours), to one snarling pitbull wearing an England bandanna. And no doubt there were more I didn't notice as my flag-spotting tendencies were somewhat curtailed by the need to watch traffic so that I could stay alive another day. Needless to say this boom in England flag-waving has not gone unnoticed by the handwringing brigade, mostly because the flag has been appropriated by certain groups as a sort of white power symbol (sorta like the Confederate flag, only in this case the St. George flag remains the official flag of England). Yawn.

My own allegiances are highly divided, especially with my recent naturalisation as a British citizen. Or at least you'd think so. But the truth is, I'm not sure whether my British citizenship entitles me to support England. I'm British but am I English? I suppose this really depends on the answer to the question "Were I fit enough to make the team, would I now qualify to play for England in the World Cup?" Concerning eligibility FIFA article 15 (Statutes in PDF) says this:

1. Any person holding the nationality of a country is eligible to play for the representative teams of the Association of his country. The Executive Committee shall decide on the conditions of eligibility for any Player who assumes a new nationality and for whom par. 3 of this article does not apply, or for any Player who would, in principle, be eligible to play for the teams of more than one Association due to his nationality.
2. As a general rule, any Player who has already represented one Association (either in full or in part) in an official competition of any category may not play an international match with another Association team.
3. If a Player has more than one nationality, or if a Player acquires a new nationality, or if the Player is eligible to play for several Association teams due to his nationality, the following exceptions apply:
(a) Up to his 21st birthday, a player may only once request changing the Association for which he is eligible to play international matches. A Player may exercise this right to change Associations only if he has not played at "A" international level for his current Association and if at the time of his first full or partial appearance in an international match in an official competition of any other category, he already had such nationalities. Changing Associations is not permitted during the preliminary competition of a FIFA competition, continental championship or Olympic Tournaments if a player has already been fielded in a match of one of these competitions.
(b) Any Player who has already acquired eligibility to play for one Association but has another nationality imposed upon him by a government authority, is also entitled to change associations. This provision is not subject to any age limits.

 Quite clear then. I hold US and UK nationality, am over the age of 21 and and have not played for any Association, thus I am entitled to play for either the US or the UK at this time. However, it's a bit more complicated than this as the UK does not have a unified team in the World Cup. Fortunately some clarifying information is available at the England Football Online site (linky):

The national teams of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are, however, a special case because these four "home countries" are part of one national state, the United Kingdom. There is no such thing as English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish citizenship.

The associations of these four countries entered an agreement regarding international eligibility in 1993 which provides that a player holding a British passport is eligible to play for the country of his birth, the country of the birth of either of his natural parents or the country of birth of any of his natural grandparents. If the player, his natural parents and his natural grandparents were born outside the U.K., he may play for the home country of his choice. Our understanding is that once a player has played for one of the home countries, even if it is only a friendly match, the 1993 agreement precludes him playing for another home country.

This is very interesting indeed -- it seems that at the moment I am very much a free agent, entitled to play for any of five national teams. Do I choose the long-established glory of England, the only World Cup winner among the five (but with perhaps more stringent selection standards)? Or do I go with official FIFA world rankings:

#5 USA (tied with Spain)
#10 England
#59 Scotland
#74 Wales (tied with Kuwait)
#96 Northern Ireland

Only the USA and England are in the World Cup final this year (current betting odds decisively differ from rankings: USA are currently 80-1 to win it all; England are second favorite at 7-1). Or maybe I go in the other direction, taking into consideration my poor level of world-class football fitness, and try and qualify for Northern Ireland, the lowest ranked team I qualify to play for. Or I could always rule out those countries I've never set foot in, leaving only Wales among the lower tier.

In any event, since I definitely qualify to play for England at the moment, there's no reason I cannot officially support them as well. So be prepared to deal with a drunken, lairy Dunce starting about 10am on the days of England games (10 June, 15 June, 20 June for sure), and when they finally (inevitably) crash out in the elimination rounds, be ready to console me (and/or fight me).

Monday, June 05, 2006 12:56:13 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [4]  | 
 Sunday, June 04, 2006
Special import Coca Cola

It's not unusual to find strange international products in London shops, but what about strange international versions of familiar products? I must admit I'm an occasional consumer of Coca-Cola products, and quite often our local shops stock an import version rather than the readily-available British products. I quite frequently find bottles from Poland, which does make some sense as there have been loads and loads of new Polish shops opening around London. But more curious are the bottles from Georgia (not the US state), all written in that distinctive Georgian script, except for a UK import sticker. It's amazing to consider that someone could profit from transporting a product thousands of miles to sell it in the UK when that same product is readily available here already (thoughts of ice cubes and Eskimos come to mind).

I'm by no means the first person to notice this; see the following posts from Anders Jacobsen a couple years back: 1; 2. But it's still quite unclear to me how this could work. Perhaps the answer's out there already; it's just quite hard to sort out anything relevant from the masses of information about Coca-Cola and (US state) Georgia.

consume
Sunday, June 04, 2006 11:02:46 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [2]  | 
 Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Blogging for the obsessive-compulsive sort
One of my real difficulties with blogging is the extent to which it outright encourages obsessive-compulsive behavior on my part. Under ordinary circumstances I already score quite highly on whatever OCD scale is thrown at me. Although I no longer count continuously as I did as a youngster (counting under my breath simply for the sake of counting to a high number: 12,000 on one long family trip as I vaguely recall), I do occasionally fall into the number trap. The most recent example, determining which of the various local bus stops is actually closest to our front door:

414 paces: bus stop on Seven Sisters road serving routes 259/279 towards Manor House (and its counterpart headed toward Seven Sisters station and beyond just across the street, and approximately 50 paces further). Not very useful for my own journey to work, though. Hence,
588 paces: bus stop at Stamford Hill rail station, serving routes 253/254 (both directions approximately equidistant). However, on the way home it's slightly faster to get off a couple of stops earlier, getting home a little faster despite the added walking length of
614 paces: bus stop on Amhurst Park serving routes 253/254 towards Stamford Hill and Hackney. The best bet for minimizing the time waiting for a bus toward London, however, is a few steps further,
756 paces: bus stop on Seven Sisters Road, all four routes (253,254,259,279) converging. As Mrs. Dunce's commute can involve any of 253,254,259, this is her best bet (and often my own as well). Although sometimes a 259 may pass by while we trek the 342 steps between the nearest stop and this one.

I should note that there remain a few nearby bus stops not listed here: the 67 goes fairly close, along St. Ann's Road, but we seldom have occasion to take this bus. Another pair of 253/254 stops (between the two noted above) is closer to our house as the crow flies, but not on foot.

Anyway, erm, this is all to say that I occasionally fall into the trap of obsessive-compulsive behaviour, and that this is exacerbated by blogging as I occasionally feel additionally compelled to document these sorts of records rather than tracking for the short term, and then discarding them forever. As a frightening illustration of meta-obsessive-compulsive behavior here's a short list of my obsessive-compulsive topics, only covering my first six months of blogging (frankly, because even I have a limit, and I had no idea there were so many. Thus I haven't even reached what are in my mind the most egregious examples)....

What color is the new black?. In which I do a bit of Googling to try and decide which color (of many) is "the new black"
Saarbruecken. Saints of July 18, ranked in order of "saintliness"
Pub misery. Searching pub review sites to find the most miserable in North London.
London by Routemaster. First in a series of maps depicting the shrinking coverage of London's Routemaster buses.
Tip of the tongue. Documenting in slightly painful detail my long-running tip-of-the-tongue experience for the name "George Formby"
Could Do. Describing the tendency in UK English to use expressions like "Well, I might do."
Meal Time. Various English terms for meal times used in different parts of the world.
Recent speechifying. A shockingly dull breakdown of word frequency in a couple of speeches by George Bush and Tony Blair.
Beer festival. Box-ticking and ratings of beers consumed at a festival.
Eatin' vittles. Variation in the terms "vittles" and "victuals".
Not so obligatory plurals. Terms like "spectacles" and whether they should remain plural in phrases like "Spectacle wrangling".
Lady Marmalade. A bit too much on the origin of the term "marmalade"
London by Routemaster II. Another map depicting the further-shrinking coverage of London's Routemaster buses.
Breaking the Law, Breaking the Law. One of three sequential entries describing my attempt to cycle to work, strictly observing the rules and guidelines of the Highway Code. Sadly, based on a strict interpretation beyond the Highway Code itself.
Travel Games. Happy memories of childhood obsessions.
The Next Day. Overly detailed description of my journey to work through various roadblocks that remained in place a day after the London bombings of 7 July 2005.
Olympic Fever. My random selection of badminton as the sport I will pursue in the 2012 Olympics. At least now I can compete for Britain.
Of Nerds, Spazzes, Wonks and Dweebs. Etymology of various terms related to geekery.
Traffic Calming. A bit too much on the various devices and systems used for traffic calming. Here's where you find the difference between speed cushions and speed bumps.
More Ideal US Locations. Learning a little more about the cities that appear high on the list of "Your ideal US locations" generated by findyourspot.com
Route Planning. Fine details of minor variants in my commute.
Absorbubbles. Why does the nasty marketing term "absorbubbles" sound so bad?
Slug Bugs Gone Wild. Detailed rules for our own variant of the "Slug Bug" game.
meta
Wednesday, May 31, 2006 12:35:19 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [0]  | 
 Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Party favo(u)rs
On Saturday we had our long-awaited "Becoming British" party to celebrate our naturalisation as British citizens. The British theme was provided by some British flag bunting, and a boot-load of tasty real ale from the Milton Brewery. Much to our suprise, many of the guests arrived with gifts in the British theme, welcoming us into the fold with traditional offerings of all kinds. Including:

drinks: numerous bottled real ales; gin & tonic; a bottle of Pimm's; and one of Babycham. Not to mention quite a few lagers "brewed under license in the UK".
foods: salt & vinegar crisps; Marmite; a truly dire-looking tin of Fray Bentos steak and kidney pie (you can order one for a knockdown price of $19.97 here, or maybe a little cheaper here, although in either case I doubt the tin will be as dusty as ours was). Perhaps most appropriately a tin of SPAM, a product originating in the U!!S!!A!! but which has been enthusiastically adopted by the British (just like us new citizens).
cloth goods: a high quality necktie depicting a stylized version of St. George's Cross; a bow tie depicting same; a one-size-(almost)-fits-all Union Jack t-shirt; a lovely tea towel honoring the Queen on her 80th birthday. All of which I ended up wearing at some point in the evening.
How can I leave out the miscellany? A packet of British-themed beer mats which may or may not be for real products or establishments; a small US-English/English-US dictionary; a small hand-held "England fan" which is a battery powered fan, in the shape of an England fan (as in football supporter) with the fan blade where his face should be. And I'm pretty sure there are plenty of other things I haven't thought of at the moment.

We set up the beer dispensing station just outside the back door, and various nibbles around the lounge, dining room and kitchen. The density of partygoers per room seemed very well matched with the ease of floor cleaning: a critical mass in the kitchen (stone floor tiles), significant numbers outdoors (pavement slabs) and in the dining room (wood), with the living room totally unused for the duration. The Milton beers went down a treat; it seemed like my preference ("Sparta") was slightly preferred over Mrs. Dunce's ("Nero") but this might also reflect the generally higher popularity of golden ales over (stronger) stouts. And the party continued into the wee hours.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006 1:52:20 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [2]  | 
 Friday, May 26, 2006
Impending assessment
In two weeks' time, I'll receive my first formal assessment in British Sign Language... taking the test for CACDP (Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People) Level 1 certification. The test criteria (taken from the CACDP's website) are whether the person is able to:

identify and use simple, commonly used expressions, question forms and conventions associated with BSL/ISL*;
request and provide information appropriate to the context;
express themselves in the language clearly enough so that a sympathetic native user of the language would understand questions and contributions.

*ISL = Irish Sign Language; CACDP certification is available in either.

The test is conducted face-to-face with a fluent signer, and takes about 10 minutes, with three components: basic conversation (what's your name, what do you do for a living, etc.), question and answer, and storytelling (take a minute or so to tell a story based on a series of pictures). Everyone seems fairly confident that I will breeze through it, mainly because I get a lot more practice than the others in my class (I share an office with three fluent signers, and the informal rule is that I should try to use BSL first in office conversations, particularly those of a social nature). But that doesn't help when it comes to the examination jitters -- the assessment was arranged yesterday and I've already had my first "Level 1 assessment nightmare". I swear this blog isn't going to turn into a dream journal, but here goes anyway:

The format of the Level 1 exam was a little different than specified above: it was a panel interview in a large auditorium. The content was a bit different as well: I was asked to describe my Ph.D. thesis research in BSL and answer questions of a technical nature. I had of course not prepared for this type of examination, instead rehearsing things like "I grew up in America, now I live in north London. I work as a language researcher and I have a wife and a cat." Needless to say this was not suitable to deal with (signed) questions like "how can you justify making a distinction between conceptual, nonlinguistic representations and semantic representations that are strictly verbal in nature?". The only thing missing (or not missing as the case may be) was that I was fully clothed.

language
Friday, May 26, 2006 11:37:24 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [1]  | 
 Tuesday, May 23, 2006
online sheep market

A while back there was an interesting "HIT" on Amazon's Mechanical Turk. The instructions were to draw a sheep (facing left) using a simple mouse-based drawing interface. Artists (including me!) were paid the princely sum of two US cents for creating a sheep of sufficient quality (presumably, anything that vaguely looks like a sheep. The requirement that it be facing left is clearly not a strict one; see sheep #7653 for example). Now the project is complete, and the creators have unveiled The Sheep Market ("10000 sheep created by online workers"). A chosen sheep can be sent for free by email, or you can also shell out $20 for a "one of a kind plate block of lickable adhesive stamps... complete with a certificate of authenticity in a collectable package." That's $1 per sheep, which seems like a hefty markup indeed as the professional artists' services were obtained for a mere $200. Now, one of those sheep is mine. If you can guess which one it is, you'll receive a special prize. One guess per person, offer subject to additional restrictions not specified here.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006 2:05:11 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [2]  | 
 Friday, May 19, 2006
And now it's done!
And now it's happened. Just before noon today, the Dunces gathered at the Civic Centre in Wood Green, where we were naturalised as British citizens, along with about 25 others (none of whom seemed to be from North America or western Europe). It was a group ceremony of the "repeat after me" variety ("I, state your name"... "I, state your name" and so on). Although they dodged the "your name here" bit by asking each person to state his or her name before the actual swearing/pledging allegiance to the queen. Despite this, responses were nowhere near unison; one gentleman in particular seemed inclined to try and say his bit faster than anyone else (much like a young Dunce might have done), while others didn't quite catch on to the concept, reading the card along with the Registrar instead of with the rest of the group. The mayor of Haringey (our local council) said a few words about diversity, tolerance and respect (the only detail I remember is that he claimed that a mere 190 languages are spoken in Haringey). The national anthem (instrumental version) was played as we stood reverently, and then we were called up to shake the Mayor's hand and receive our certificate of citizenship and a Haringey council goodie bag (contents: 1 pen, 1 keychain, letter of welcome from (ex)Home Secretary Charles Clarke [bearing a replica signature], information sheet re: dual citizenship and right of abode, information sheet and application for British passport, a voter registration form, a list of local councillors' contact information, a Haringey streetmap, and a voucher good for a free exercise class, swim, or steam/sauna at local leisure centres). Once we were finished, we were given the chance to pose for photos with the Mayor (and a picture of the Queen). How could we not? And then it was over; everyone disappeared in a matter of seconds it seemed. Getting on with being British, I suppose.


The Mayor, the Queen and Mrs. Dunce


The Mayor, the Queen and Mr. Dunce

Friday, May 19, 2006 2:38:51 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [3]  | 
 Thursday, May 18, 2006
Becoming British!


Dear friends

It is our pleasure to announce the normalisation of our place in this fine country. On Friday the 19th of May at 11:30am we will publicly affirm our allegiance to the Queen and take our place among you as upstanding British citizens.

Then a week later on Saturday the 27th May at 8pm we would like to invite you to our home to demonstrate that we can still party like hooligan immigrants. We will be serving a couple of fine real ales from the Milton Brewery (Sparta and Nero) and some nibbles, please bring anything else you would like. If you don't already know our address please drop me a line (EMAIL).

consume
Thursday, May 18, 2006 3:09:44 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [5]  | 
 Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Terror on the high seas
This past weekend we joined some friends of ours at sea, on an attempt at a sailing journey. Seven of us were involved, of whom only the Captain had significant sailing experience. He's recently moved his boat (BUGLE) from the very inconveniently located Isle of Wight to the much more accessible (from London, anyway) Chichester, a small city in West Sussex perhaps best known for its cathedral. Last summer Mrs. Dunce and I took a very relaxing and enjoyable sailing journey on this same vessel, under the same command (see here), although several of the other guests had experienced less delightful conditions (a Channel crossing featuring copious vomiting; hanging up on a sandbar on choppy seas, again featuring copious vomiting). The Captain had warned us in advance that we should not underestimate just how cold it would be out there, and to bring a variety of waterproofs we don't actually own. Fortunately there were a number of extras, and once we were outfitted and some safety instructions were given, we set out.

Bugle's mooring is at Chichester Marina, which as you can see from its location at the very top of this map is quite some distance into the harbor. So we had plenty of time motoring along the narrow channel (we'll get back to the channel soon) eagerly anticipating the excitement when we would finally set sail. Not without a bit of dread, however. The winds had kicked up to force 4-5, reaching 6, a scale which is fairly meaningless to me, but indicates that they're 15-20 knots, possibly into the mid 20s. Again fairly meaningless to me; even conversion into good ol' mph (15-25 or a little higher) doesn't actually tell me anything. A lot more informative were the subtle clues, like the significant number of small sailboats in the harbor resting on their sides while wet folks struggled to right them. Or the mayday call on the radio while we were being shown how to use it (just in case).

It took us the better part of an hour to make it to the mouth of the harbor, where we approached Chichester Bar. Unbeknownst to most of us (all of us?) this area might offer some interesting seas. The navigation report says "Mariners should be aware that ebb tides in the entrance to the harbour can attain a rate of up to 6 knots on springs. When falling tides coincide with strong winds from a southerly sector a dangerous sea may be encountered.". This local website puts it in perhaps more comprehensible terms: "Spectacular seas can sometimes be seen at the entrance to the Harbour at times of high winds from the south combined with spring ebb tides which reach their fastest around 3 hours after high water. If the conditions are right, the sea state over Chichester Bar (an area of shallower water) can be very exciting. You will not see many boats around as their skippers will hopefully have anticipated these conditions.". Well, it seems we were approaching the Bar under near-optimal conditions for seeing spectacular seas. It was already getting a bit exciting, especially as the depth gauge was indicating shallower and shallower water, as the boat's rising and falling increased dramatically. Fortunately for all involved, a quick decision was made to turn back, and we negotiated the channel back to the marina.

Or we would have, but for the particular shallowness of the low spring tide. Despite moving right along the channel, it was just not possible to get all the way to the marina, so after quite a few failed attempts a few feet apart from each other, we decided to tie up and wait out the tide with a picnic. Eventually the tide came back in, and we followed another boat of similar size through the (still quite shallow) channel, into the lock and back to the mooring. And from there it was off to dinner, than back below decks for the night.

There's definitely a lot going on in the area, so many mishaps that can involve boats. Maybe I shouldn't have read last year's report from the Chichester Harbour Patrol (pdf), or the local lifeboat launch summary. Perhaps I'm only a fair weather sailor after all.

travel
Tuesday, May 16, 2006 12:53:00 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [4]  | 
 Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Capital adventures

There's been another temporary outage at Confederacy of a Dunce, this time because we took a long weekend in Washington DC. I figured I'd be able to write a little bit while we were there, but you know how that goes. We chose to spend a few extra quid to take Virgin Atlantic in order to take advantage of their impressive in-flight entertainment. You might laugh, but despite our desperate viewing from start to finish of both flights, we didn't even come close to watching everything that interested us. We did manage to get through Syriana, Junebug, The Constant Gardener and Murderball (three of which were disappointing), plus highlights of the Japanese program "Masquerade" (perhaps best known for the "Matrix Ping-pong" video clip that circulated widely a while back), a Chinese action game show "Challenge 321". Mrs. Dunce also saw Transamerica while I chose lowbrow comedy (Green Wing, Arrested Development, the American version of The Office). Of course this meant we didn't sleep on the return flight; thanks to that yesterday was a complete blur, and our 8:30 bedtime took forever to arrive.

We were graciously hosted by Mrs. Dunce's oldest friend who took time out of her busy schedule at the Peace Corps (especially busy as she has some responsibilities for East Timor) to hang out with us. And her boyfriend (although I heard her use the F-word on one occasion) who drives their apartment's only blog. Our main purpose for attending was the wedding of another of Mrs. Dunce's old friends, but we also managed to cruise through an impressive assortment of activities in our short visit.

I have to start with food, mainly because I'm a serial eater. Bring on those American-sized portions, that's my cry. We started on the eve of Cinco de Mayo at a Mexican restaurant; even though we now have a decent option in London, good Mexican is our first choice elsewhere as well. Mrs. Dunce and I are so closely tuned to each other that we ordered exactly the same thing, gigantic crab enchilada and a margarita (rocks, salt). Um about those American-sized portions, maybe not such a great idea for someone who's just eaten an airplane breakfast. The next morning we got in the car and headed for Bethesda, where Matuba Sushi awaited us. They offer a lunch special: all the sushi you can eat for a mere $11.95. From the "only rotary sushi bar in the DC metro area". Needless to say this was problematic for anyone lacking in willpower (that's me); the only solution was an afternoon nap. After which we headed out to the home of another of Mrs. Dunce's old friends (the capital area seems to be crawling with them) where we somehow managed to eat yet again.

It's starting to sound like our visit was only about eating, but we did some museuming as well. Like the new National Museum of the American Indian. I liked the approach of their displays, taking a central theme (e.g. history, cosmology, contemporary identity) and putting together parallel displays on that theme from different tribes from different parts of the Americas. And, (whoops, here I go back to food again) the museum restaurant was truly amazing. Our hosts had already mentioned how good it was, but I had no idea. The cafe is called Mitsitam, which means "Let's eat" in a local Indian language, and features a whole range of indigenous foods, grouped geographically (Northern Woodlands, South American, Meso America, the Great Plains, and the Northwest Coast and Columbia Plateau). I had an excellent black bean tamale; Mrs. Dunce a crab salad sandwich. Other choices included buffalo, venison, salmon, plus a whole variety of side dishes also generally representing the various locales (here are a couple of reviews).

Well, I've come to the end of my allotted time today, and I haven't even mentioned baseball or street numbering/naming conventions. I guess I need to threaten another DC entry next time.
consume | travel
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 4:08:03 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [0]  |