An observation

First, an observation. This is the 31st post in July. Therefore, I have posted every day, thus achieving a perfect month. I thought I would feel better by achieving this feat, which is unique for me. But instead I’m so burned out from posting that I wonder how some people can do it so frequently. Just give me a day or two to recharge. I now know that when it comes to blogging, it’s about what you say, not how often you say it.

Now that I’ve finished “Teach Yourself Esperanto” (the ending was sad), I’ve started reading one of the Esperanto books I recently got. “Gerda Malaperis!” is a short book that takes the reader from basic to advanced Esperanto, while introducing new words along the way. What I plan to do while reading this book and others is to write down new words and then, after I look them up, write their definitions. That way I have a list of words to study. Pretty clever, huh?

Another observation: I’ve noticed that I get at least one comment for most of my entries, but whenever I write about Esperanto, nobody comments. Jeez, people, you act like you don’t ca — no, wait…

Kids can’t draw. This is not just an observation, but a fact. They have terrible coordination and no knowledge of the world. But what if a professional artist helped them out? Dave Devries does just that. He produces high-quality artwork based closely on children’s drawings. After seeing his versions, the originals actually look good.

An awesome country

While I’m on vacation, my friend Kevin is guest posting today.

Well, since Jordon is out in Gainesville, I’m taking over The World of Stuff for a few days …or maybe just for this post. To his viewers from all over the world, I tell you that you must all comment below. Or, I’ll put it this way, in more of a poll-type thing: IF YOU’RE READING THIS, PLEASE COMMENT, regardless of what you have to say, put a comma, if you want, I don’t care, I just want to see how many people really do read this.

Okay, anyways. Let’s see what to talk about… Well I just came back from a three and a half week vacation over in Honduras. My mother is Honduran and all my family is there, so we visit them every summer and sometimes Christmas and Easter. Spanish is spoken there and it’s partially due to our trips there that I’ve learned to master Spanish. Sí, yo puedo hablar español. It’s a nice country, with rich traditions and history (but I guess that applies to anywhere really), and the food is good. My family’s from a city called Comayagua, but lately we’ve been staying in the country’s two largest cities: San Pedro Sula and the capital Tegucigalpa. Okay, I’m definetly boring people, so I need to talk about something more interesting.

Well I don’t really know how to sum up a country and its culture in one post without boring you, so I’ll just say that it’s an awesome country. There’s mountains, volcanoes, beaches (Atlantic & Pacific), Mayan ruins, jungles, islands, surfing, scuba diving, old cathedrals, etcetera. Jeez, I really wanted to make this post be great but it sounds crappy, oh jeez, sorry. Peut être depuis (that’s French for ‘maybe later’).

-kevin

P.S. If I had a website, this is where I’d plug it.

To Happy Valley

Today my family is going to my aunt’s house near High Springs, Florida. You normally don’t think of Florida as a Southern state unless you’re speaking geographically. But High Springs is Southern in all senses of the word. It’s a typical small, rural town. In fact, it’s kind of backward in its ruralness. As my dad would say, they roll up the sidewalks at night. Take the town movie theater, for example. It’s called the Priest Theater: One screen. Three nights a week. One showing per night, 8:00. Chaperone in the back. Dress code to get in. (I think guys have to wear a tie.)

Actually, my aunt is only “in” High Springs because that’s her mailing address. In reality, she lives several miles up the road, across the Santa Fe River in Columbia County. She lives on U.S. 441, where it’s a two-lane road, across from a tree farm. We’ve nicknamed her home “Happy Valley,” because that’s the name of a nearby street which I think isn’t paved.

We should have a fun time.

Here’s an Ask Jordon question we hope you’ll really like.

Sean: Greg, Brad, Chip, Katherine or Jeff?

Tough one… I’d have to say Greg. He’s so funny it’s weird, and so weird that it’s funny. But all of them make the show great (to varying degrees). Whose Line Is It Anyway? has to be my favorite TV show.

What’s Shiny, Pointy, & Tall? It’s a blog by a guy who takes pictures of people taking pictures of the Chrysler Building in New York. Truly weird.

Back in the USA

My friend Kevin, a frequent commenter on the site, has just returned from several weeks in Honduras, where he has family. As usual, he had a good time, and we were amazed when he told us that he didn’t speak a word of English the whole time (being fluent in Spanish and all).

As you may (not) recall, my sister and I were invited to come along, but the parents, who didn’t like the idea, put off their decision until it was too late for us to get passports. (“What?” exclaimed Kevin, world traveler. “You don’t have passports?!”)

Anyway, he said he had a good time and that our invitation was still good for their trip next year. Hopefully by then we’ll be able and allowed to go. And I actually wasn’t too keen on going this summer because I have homework for AP European History. I’m about 80% through with it, but summer vacation is also almost over.

Well, tomorrow I’m going to do some traveling myself. But fear not: the blogging shall not cease… much.

Random live webcams from the Net! Apparently you can use Google to find these — some are webcams, and others appear to be security cameras. Here’s one in a computer lab at Florida State University. And here’s a chicken coop in the UK. If you find any good ones, post a comment.

Dust storm?

I guess that Saharan dust storm passed by unnoticed or didn’t come at all. I thought the air seemed… sandy… on Monday night, but I might have just been imagining it. It was supposed to cause some great sunsets, but I didn’t look.

I’m almost done with “Teach Yourself Esperanto,” the book which I’ve been using to teach myself Esperanto since the end of May. It’s a good thing, too: pages are falling out left and right. I’m going to have to tape them back in, because I’m sure I’ll continue to use the book as a reference.

Answering Ask Jordon:

Stephen Mead: I have a 1996 courtesy $100.00. Crisp Gem and well centered signed by both Withrow and Rubin. Any ideas on value?

It can be hard to put a price on courtesy autographs, but just to throw a number into the air, I’d say roughly $200. A Withrow-Rubin autographed $1 can go for $100, so that’s how I base my estimate.

For the first time in nearly two and a half years, the Space Shuttle is back in flight. Here are some tables to show you when the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle can be seen overhead in your city (or enter your own location to get exact times). And here’s a real-time map tracking the two.

Happy birthday, Esperanto

I couldn’t think of anything to post today, so I was just browsing the Wikipedia home page. Reading the Selected Anniversaries, it reminded me what I had been planning to write today.

As a boy growing up in what is now Poland, L.L. Zamenhof saw that the language barrier was responsible for misunderstanding and hatred among people. As a young man he considered his International Language complete, only to have his plans burned by his father while he was away. Zamenhof saw this as an opportunity to start anew, and his International Language was completed in 1885. After difficulties in finding a publisher, his new father-in-law agreed to publish his work. So 118 years ago today, on July 26, 1887, the Unua Libro (“First Book”) rolled off the presses carrying an outline of the language in Russian. (Hebrew, French, Polish, German, and English editions followed.) Zamenhof used the pseudonym Dr. Esperanto, meaning “one who hopes.” Needless to say, this was catchier than “Lingvo Internacia” and stuck as the name of the language.

It is truly amazing that a language spoken by one man in 1887 has 1 to 2 million speakers today. Although it can hardly be said that Esperanto has fulfilled its goal of being a universal second language, there is no doubt that it facilitates communication across boundaries. If that were not true, then Esperanto speakers from different countries would not meet, fall in love, and produce native Esperanto speakers. And yet they do. If Esperanto were not a solution for the language problem, then thousands of people from dozens of countries would not be meeting right now in Lithuania, chatting with as much ease as (or more ease than) their respective native languages.

In order for Esperanto to go further, people have to swallow their national pride and learn it. Supposedly English is the universal language, but I daresay that the only people who think this are English speakers, who comprise about one-tenth of the world’s population. The other 90% don’t know English, and many, for political reasons, will not learn. I’m getting all choked up now thinking that Esperanto has such a long way to go and faces so much resistance from ignorant people. Such a long way, but the only way. I’m determined to work for it.

This is an interesting instrument: the electro-theremin. They’re custom-made. You can buy one, apparently, but they’re a little expensive for me ($400 US). Listen to the sound samples, though.

Dust storm

The other day my dad showed me an article in the paper. It read:

And so on, and so forth.

I had to laugh. The whole thing seems ridiculous. So this enormous cloud of sand should be coming any time now. Actually, I’d be more concerned about the tropical wave that’s carrying the sand here — tropical waves, of course, can develop into hurricanes — but I guess that isn’t a problem.

Hey, I wonder… you know when the sunset causes everything to turn yellow? Is that because of sand in the air? I’ll have to see the sunset tonight.

It’s been ten days since I posted about the sudden appearance of wine-related stuff all over the house. Now yesterday this thing showed up in the dining room (a.k.a. the computer room when it’s not serving its formal function). Actually, according to the plans for the house, it’s the living room, and what we use as the living room is the family room. And the original dining room is now my dad’s office. But I digress. Yesterday I found in this room this thing:

I’ll give you two guesses as to what it’s for, but you’re only going to need one. (Since the picture was taken, the shelves have been installed, and there are glasses on some of them already.) My parents have this habit of getting things without telling me first. Not that I need to give them approval, but I’d still like to be in the know. Some “surprises” have included the hottub, the dog, painting one of the walls blue, this thingy, redoing the patio floor, many of my haircuts, and yanking loose teeth out of my mouth.

I think my parents are preparing a hobby for when I leave home. That explains the wine stuff. You know, for every cork I see in the so called “corkboard” (that is, a board of corks; see above-linked post), I can imagine a blow to the liver. All those have to add up eventually. (Note: This opinion will change when I become [legally] old enough to consume alcohol, and I’ll be a drinker just like everybody else. It’s only cool because it’s forbidden. On July 13, 2010, I’m drinking my brains out.)

Logogle is a Google logo maker tool. In other words, it turns the text you enter into a Google-style logo on a Google-style page. Of course, it’s not affiliated with Google, so I thought I’d post it right away before they bring it down.

World Congress of Esperanto

Yesterday the 90th Universala Kongreso de Esperanto (usually translated as World Congress of Esperanto) began in Vilnius, Lithuania. 2005 is the 100th anniversary of the first World Congress, and it has been held every year since then, except during the World Wars.

The World Congresses typically attract several thousand Esperantists from around the world. This year 2,228 people are participating. Because Esperanto has never been very popular in North America, the few Congresses that have taken place here have attracted relatively few people (923 in Portland, Oregon, in 1972; 802 in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1984). Some recent Congresses have been held in Beijing (2004), Tel Aviv (2000), Berlin (1999), and Adelaide (1997). Most, however, are in Europe, which has the most Esperantists.

I hope to attend a Congress someday, when my Esperanto is better and I’m free to travel. Maybe I could stay with another Esperanto speaker using the Pasporta Servo (Passport Service). There are all sorts of things to do at one. You get to meet a lot of people from around the world, and “crocodiling” is discouraged. (“Crocodiling” refers to speaking your native tongue when using Esperanto would be more appropriate. A crocodile, of course, has a big mouth and a small brain. You can’t make this stuff up!)

I can feel myself getting better at Esperanto every day. Now that I’ve studied it a bit, some phrases are slowly coming into my mind naturally, and when I see, hear, or say something, an equivalent Esperanto phrase may pop into my head. I guess that’s what you’d call fluency! (Or the beginning of it, anyway.)

In the interest of those who don’t care about what’s happening in my head, let’s move on…

What are the odds of dying? The odds of you being killed are 1 in 23. The odds of you being killed this year are 1 in 1,755.

Did your mom ever tell you not to play with fireworks? Tell her to relax; your odds of dying of a firework-related accident this year are 1 in 57,588,244. Contact with venomous snakes and lizards this year? 1 in 95,980,407. Hey, and don’t worry about getting into that streetcar. The odds of you being killed by one this year are 1 in 71,985,305.

How about lightning? The odds of being killed by lightning are 1 in 56,439. The odds of being killed by lightning this year are 1 in 4,362,746.

Summers in Summer

Today I received something unexpected in the mail. That’s always fun, isn’t it?

On December 27, 2004, I sent out requests for autographs of former Treasurers and Secretaries of the Treasury. The idea was that I would have them sign dollar bills that have their signatures already printed on them; these are called courtesy autographs by collectors.

After a month or two, there were a few I still hadn’t gotten back, but I gave up. Around this time my interest in courtesy autographs, and currency collecting in general, waned. But today, as if it simply got lost for seven months, was another bill back.

This one was from Lawrence H. Summers, who is currently the President of Harvard University. (He made headlines about six months ago for making sexist comments.)

So, what took him so long? Here is the body of the accompanying letter, written by one of his henchmen and dated July 20, 2005:

I should save that letter. It’s the last I’m ever going to get from Harvard.

The bill itself is stuck in another envelope for the time being. Inspired by the feeling of getting a courtesy autograph in the mail, I’m set to finish the job I started in December. This time I’m sending out bills (such as the one I got today) to other signers, in order to attain coveted double courtesy autographs. I’ll also be sending out some $2 bills (of all 3 recent Series: 1976, 1995, and 2003) to the Treasurers whose signatures appear on them.

And hopefully it won’t take seven months this time!

While we’re on the subject, I’ll answer this Ask Jordon question.

Alext: I have a misprinted 1dollar bill. The Fed Reserve stamp is printed on top of the pyramid the Dept of Treasury stamp is on top of the eagle. worth?

Your error — third print on reverse — is one of the most striking errors on paper money. You’re lucky to have it. (For those not in the know, here’s what such an error looks like.) Anyway, a bill is only worth as much as what someone will pay for it. I’d say an error like that on a bill in good condition would be worth hundreds of dollars. As always, I should note that dealers buy low to sell high; if you intend to sell the bill, you may do better with an interested collector.

Wikipedia has a list of people known as the father or mother of something. There’s more than you think.

Mischief managed

I finished “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” today. Surely you remember that one, it came out a long time ago and everybody read it… Yeah, that’s the one. I wasn’t too shocked by the ending, although my sister cried the two times she read it. But I won’t give any spoilers for the sake of the two people who are still reading the book.

Overall, I thought it was good. I think it’s going to be a good movie if they have a good director (although the series appears to be going down the drain, as each new movie will have a different director).

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001), directed by Chris Columbus
2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), directed by Chris Columbus
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), directed by Alfonso Cuarón
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), directed by Mike Newell
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), directed by David Yates
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2008), director TBA

If there’s any sort of pattern going on here, then the seventh and last Harry Potter movie will be released in 2010 by yet another director and it will stink. As for the next book, that’s a little less predictable.

And a random thought: What’s the opposite of mischief? Just “chief”?

This is the only Ask Jordon question I’ve gotten in weeks.

Sean: What do you think of Weezer‘s new stuff compared to their old stuff?

I haven’t really heard their new stuff, so I can’t really say. But I do like their older stuff. I dig the analog tape sound.

Wikipedia has a list of Adages named after people: Murphy’s Law, Godwin’s Law, Cole’s Law, etc.