The Happy News thread

[Linda]

Languages are interesting! I remember in Spanish class, that it wasn't long before I was spelling words better in Spanish than in my native English. Spanish spelling seemed to follow the spelling rules better and there are so many exceptions to the spelling rules in English. Then as to conjugation, in Ojibwe we have "I, you, we - inclusive, we - exclusive, and he/she". The 'we - inclusive" includes you, the people with you, including the person(s) you are speaking to. The "we - exclusive" is you, the people with you, but not the person(s) you are speaking to. It sure is interesting to speculate about how that language rule came about!

[Elessar]

Wow! Interesting language!

I was reading a bit about it... says you all use the Latin alphabet... similar to Finnish... apparently one of the intriguing things to linguists is the vowel that looks like the "Ram's Horns"... It says it's pronounced similar to the ы in Russian, which sounds like "yeri" or "teri" with a weird mixture of the "y" and "t" sounds for the first consonant. I'm still trying to figure it out, I think foreigners just have to make up their own similar sound for some of these alien-sounding vowels

[Emberchyld]

Ember, how many does Portuguese have?

Eek... I'd have to think about that... I've never had a formal lesson (like some kids went to Portuguese school), so everything's just been from native speaking. It would be similar to other latin based languages, like Spanish, French, and Italian. I'm learning French through immersion, so I dunno if they'll formally teach me that, either.

But you and our other Russian speakers will find this interesting: Russian speakers who immigrate to Portugal have the best ability to blend in and pick up the language because our accents are almost identical even though the languages are so different! Portuguese shares more words with Spanish and French, etc (which is why it's so easy for me to understand those languages and pick them up), but the Spanish have a REALLY hard time picking up the language and all of them have a wicked accent.

(I'm also currently learning at least Russian numbers and curse words through immersion, as my skating coach is Russian and slips sometimes!)

And T'Poptarts... when there's chocolate in the world, who needs love?

[TPoptarts]

Kay. I'm hungry now.

[Distracted]

The hurricane missed us! Yay!

The sun's finally coming out and the rain has stopped! Double yay!!

[Linda]

That is great news, Distracted!

[evcake]

A gallery owner has expressed an interest in carrying some of my jewelry. We'll see...

[Linda]

What kind of jewelry do you make, Evcake? Have you already told us and I missed it?

[evcake]

What kind of jewelry do you make, Evcake? Have you already told us and I missed it?

I make necklaces, earrings and bracelets from beads. Silver, glass, semiprecious stone, that sort of thing. I think I mentioned in the What Are You thread once that I was staying up really late to make 36 pairs of earrings to meet a deadline.
I've been in a couple of galleries in the past, but my only current venue is the gift shop in the library where I work.

[Linda]

Hey, do you have photos of your jewelry? That would be cool. Maybe we could have a thread here for crafts that some of us make.

[evcake]

Sounds like a plan! I keep trying, but it's hard to photograph jewelry artfully. If we have such a thread, I will post some of the photos I do have.

[JadziaKathryn]

Happy news: I got a better on-campus job than I thought I would! I'm a Bakery Assistant. I have to get up early, but they pay me significantly more for it and my schedule won't change week to week. Since they didn't have any history-related jobs, I guess working with baked goods is the next best thing. Besides, I'm seriously broke and need a paycheck coming in. Yay!

[Distracted]

So you have to get up to make the donuts? Don't they do that at like 4 am?

[Bether6074]

I was offered a raise if I would go to another store to train employees there. I turned it down. I like working with my hubby. He's incredibly goofy at work. The other day he went over to Dunkin' Donuts and started working the drive-thru just for fun. And they don't actually make the donuts there. Someone brings them in on a truck at about 5 AM.

Oh, and my brother and his wife are bringing the new baby to visit this weekend! 5 kids in the house all at once. I can't wait!

[JadziaKathryn]

So you have to get up to make the donuts? Don't they do that at like 4 am?

The baker gets there at 3 am. I'm working 7-11 am. I'll have to get up at 5:45 am 5 days a week, but I'll live. It's better money this way. Senior year in high school I had to get up early to get to school and then I opened at McDonald's on weekends. This is sleeping in compared to that.

Bether, have fun with all the kids! Was it your brother who was in the process of adopting a baby or am I mixing people up?