Please, if you stitch any of these letters, send me a picture - I'll happily post it!

Without further ado - The Monkey Alphabet - W X Y Z:

The kid always starts with a forceful, vertical stroke, looks at what dad (?) is doing, and then tries to imitate him by adding an embelishment or two - usually in the wrong direction. He's a lucky one though, 'cause he's got a great example of assertive and beautiful handwriting to learn from.

Lots of "aww" moments in there. It's pretty cute. There, I said it. Cute.

Anyway I googled 'spanish sayings', copied the first one in the list and used it as the title for this blog. Hopefully, one day, I will be able not only to understand but pronounce this phrase (don't ruin the surprise people).

So, where to begin? I think it has to be the alphabet. Off to google 'spanish alphabet'.

And I'm back. Bloody hell - excuse my French - in seconds my thought that this could be easy as I know French has been trampled by a herd of elephants. And there are extra letters! WTF?

http://www.spanishspanish.com/alfabeto_ipower.html

A B C CH D E F G H I J K L LL M N Ñ O P Q R RR S T U V W X Y Z

A - ay

B - bay

C - say

CH - chay

D - day

E - ay

F - ehfay

G - hay

H - ahchay

I - ee

J - hotah

K- kah

L - el

LL - ellay

M - emay

N - enay

Ñ - enyay

O - oh

P - peh

Q - ku

R - ere

RR - erre (rolling here as far as I can tell...)

S - esay

T - teh

U - oo

V - beh

W - doh-bleh-beh

X - ehkeys

Y - eegreeaygah

Z - saytah

Right, off to learn. Will update soon, although am going on holiday on Thursday so don't hold your breath

Rhema is a picky, faddy eater (understatement of the year).

She has 3 food lists: Obsession, Toleration and Detestation.
1) Obsession: I’m obsessed with you, ______ (fill in the blank food). I will eat you morning, noon, night and snack time.
2) Toleration: I tolerate you, ______ (fill in the blank food), if the moon and stars are all aligned.
3) Detestation: I despise you, ______ (fill in the blank food). Do not dare come near me. Any green food or vegetable is on this list.

Foods on her list can, without warning, move from the Obsession list to the Toleration list and back again. There are never more than four or five food items on either the Obsession or Toleration List at any one time. Occasionally foods may drop suddenly from the Obsession list all the way down to the Detestation list, never to rise again.

Currently, gluten-free fries are on Rhema’s Toleration List.

So I eagerly snatched up all the bags of Alphabet fries (they’re actually called “Alphatots”), because any one who has a child with feeding issues knows that when there is something your child will eat, you must stock up on it. You must never run out.

This is great, I thought. Here is a GFCF food she can eat, and it can even be a learning tool! Maybe I’ll spell her name out on her plate tonight. Maybe I can give her the letter A, wait and see if I can get her to ask for B, then C, then D! Or maybe we can sing the ABC’s before we eat. In the future, maybe I’ll only give her vowels and then later work on consonants. My mind was racing with the possibilities. I could hardly wait.

For dinner that night, I set her plate before her with a random assortment of letters. Hope also got a plate of alphabet fries. Hope happily shouted, “ABC’s!” and consumed her fries within minutes.

Rhema refused to touch hers.

I was confused. It’s new to her, I thought. She just needs a little time, a little coaxing.

“Rhema, look! It’s the letter W! Yummm. Taste it. It’s so good.”

No response. I picked up one of her fries and wagged it in front of her. “Eat, Rhema!”

Then she started the squirmy dance in her chair. Then the escalating whines of protest. I could suddenly hear the alarm signals going off.

Meltdown Pending.

“O.K., O.K., Rhema.” Sigh. I’m backing off now. Let’s give you something to eat from the Obsession List.

I looked at my daughter, waiting for her to look at me. When she did, I suddenly understood. If she could talk, she would have said,

“Silly woman. We can say the alphabet. We can sing the alphabet. We can even do the alphabet puzzle. But we never, ever eat the alphabet.”

• [Nutek] L'Icann a ouvert, en plus des extensions personalisables à l'infini, la possibilité d'adresses et d'extensions en alphabets non-latins, peut-on lire sur ZdNet. Il est vrai que la domination de l'alphabet latin est problématique pour des noms en alphabet arabe ou cyrillique, et plus encore dans le cas d'écritures sans racine commune comme le chinois ou le japonais, car on ne peut pas tout transcrire en latin.
• [Sochol] Ce qui fait du bruit actuellement : la bonne vieille délation, toujours à la mode comme le relate Maître Eolas sur son blog. Ses explications complémentaires ici avec les reprises médiatiques dans le Monde, par l'AFP... Pour la première fois, remarque Narvic, un blog donne le 'la' des médias et devient source fiable et reconnue.
• [Hitek] Selon une enquête de la Commission Européenne relayée par L'Expansion, un ménage européen sur quatre n'a plus de téléphone fixe.
• [Imedjiz] Bill Gates quitte Microsoft, quelques images pour se rappeler de lui et des parodies qu'il a générées.
• [Toudoto] Un excellent panorama historique de la Twittersphere tricolore sur Twitter Facts.
• [Politix] Olivier Besancenot lance le Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste. Avant, NPA ça évoquait Gildas, de Caunes et le Guignols.  Comme je m'y perds, le mieux pour faire le point c'est Le Point.
• [Feun] Un joli ballet de bandeaux noirs de censure dans ce clip, trouvé grâce à Génération MP3. Et ici une analyse du langage des patrons, en tout cas de leurs textes publics.

BTW, the slight delay in posting this week is because I have been caring for my MIL following her total knee replacement.   The surgery went well, but she went home too early (her choice) and didn't tell us she had no one to come stay with her during her at-home convalescence. She ended up hospitalized again with pneumonia.  She's an 83-year-old in generally good health, but stubborn does not begin to describe her!  DH and I practically kidnapped her when she was released on the 24th, so that we can help her get back on her feet.  We hope to have her back in her own home shortly.  We take her to the doctor's tomorrow for an x-ray to check on her recovery from pneumonia and to her surgeon later in the week to have her knee checked, and then we will see.  Do pray for all of us, please!

Some bimbo at my work sends me queries on order numbers. Typical example below....

"Hey Jenn,

Please give me the consignment number for SOP 58943

Hugs

Chelle"

My response;
 
"Hey Chelle,

That's not a valid SOP. All SOPs start with "19..." and contain 6 digits. Can't help you, sorry hun!

Jenn"

Her Reply

"Oh ok.... how about SOP 56732?"
ROFLMAO!!
Mind you I can't talk. While sending out a quote for a pallet delivery...I suddenly thought "I wonder who decided which order the letters should go in the Alphabet?" Doing my usual trick, I voiced this general wondering before thinking. Had I thought before opening my mouth I would have realised what a blonde thing to say it actually was. There then ensued 10 minutes of people laughing so hard they were crying, general teasing and comments such as "You should have been born blonde Jenn" and my older colleagues saying "you're adorable hun, you really are!"

Actually, it's a fairly sensible question really. I am not questioning where the english language came from - I know that the Romans stole it from the Greeks and basically it comes from the Egyptian Heiroglyphics and since then it's been chopped and changed around a lot with the invasion of the Angles, Celts etc etc. That's not what I'm interested in. What I want to know is how someone came up with the order of it, who decided what order it went in and why. Just out of sheer curiosity I did some digging on the net and found the following article which is the closest I found to answering the question.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_numerals 

So that's why then. Each letter represents a number and they go in chronological order. The closest name I found for who was responsible for the most confusing language in the world is a Phoenician named Cadmus.

All Hail Cadmus - The guy who to this day makes little English children all across the world go "what the....?" when taught the rather illogical and stupid alphabet. I mean come on, why teach children the phoenetical alphabet then confuse them by teaching them something totally different called "the names of the letters"? Why not just call a spade a spade and the letters by the sounds they make. CRAZY.

If you hadn't guessed, I'm big on ancient history. My love of history extends right up to the first world war. I love the Jazz and rat pack era the best (Chicago is one of my favourite musicals/films). But second in line comes the tudor and stuart eras (I adore Phillipa Gregory books and studied History A-level) and then the ancient greek/roman eras (love movies like Troy, Gladiator etc). LOVE IT ALL. Once studied an AS-level in Classical Civilisations which was all about Greek and Roman empires and I got to read "Odyseus" and "The Iliad" by Homer. Got very engrossed in all of it. Never finished it though. Might go back and start studying again. 

Anyway, I feel like my grey matter has expanded somewhat today and I actually really enjoyed learning all about this stuff. I may seem like a brunette that really should have been born blonde with the general ponderings I come out with, but I actually have a very enquiring mind. I was the kind of kid that drives parents bonkers because I wanted to know everything. I remember vividly once asking my Dad why there were Cats in the middle of the road and what they did. He then bought me home my very own cat's eye (which he'd blagged off a road worker) and explained to me about the light from the cars lights bouncing off the mirrors inside. I also remember asking him to explain to me how the gears of a car worked and enjoyed sitting in the passenger seat, waiting for him to tell me when to change the gear. I used to follow him around, watching how he worked on the cars (so I do know a lot about them and how to fix one) and how he did the DIY. He taught me how to use a computer at the age of 6 (I remember the BBC computer we had and I remember playing Lemmings on the home PC after that one and slowly typing a little story I came up with on it as well). My thirst for knowledge comes from him, he fostered that in me and nurtured my intellect from a very young age. I was a year ahead of myself in primary school and my teachers often thought the sun shone out of my behind. It was all ruined though when I lost my confidence, my world as I knew it was destroyed and I started hating my parents. That's another story though...

To this day though, I absorb information like a sponge, I find the process of learning fascinating and enjoy learning for the sake of learning. I'm not someone that won't stick their hand in the air and ask when I don't understand something. I love trying new things, learning about everything. Some may find my constant quest for knowledge (not just academic, I have a desire to try everything and find out what it feels like to do that or what this food tastes like) more than slightly annoying as I don't like to be sat still for too long. I hate routine, can't stand the drudgery of everyday living, which is where my arty streak comes from. I love being random, flighty, unpredictable. It makes me happy.

You know, I'm one of the very few people I think these days who can hold their head up and walk along and say "you know what? I may have my flaws, I may get things wrong, I may hurt people sometimes but actually.....I'm ok. I like me." It's taken me a hell of a long time to get here. I used to be suicidal, I used to hate myself. I genuinely believed the world would be a better place without me in it. That wasn't true though, it was just the messages I'd been sent from a very early age. Now...now I'm at peace with myself. I like who I am and the bits I don't....I'm working on. I'm not perfect, I never will be. I don't know a lot about a lot of things, but for me...life is a journey, a quest. One that will never be complete but then for me, that's not the point. Nobody who told me "you're great etc etc" actually was ever believed. Because the negative messages were too deeply engrained. It became easier to believe them than try to fight my way back. What actually changed was that I started to realise nobody was going to going to give me a free meal ticket, if I didn't like something crying about it wouldn't solve it. In fact it was one person more than all the counsellors/shrinks/psychologists etc who taught me that. A lass called Michelle Lee, my psych tutor at LGS. She was very ballsy, very strong and she encouraged me to change my life. So, what I decided to do was allow myself some time to get upset about something, but limit it then after that I forced myself to work on improving the situation. That in turn led to the realisation I could be whoever I wanted. So I started working on myself. That then led to me actually liking who I was.

Phew! How on earth did I go from debating the finer points of the English language to a full on philosophical debate about life?!! LOL! Oh well, I guess it needed to come out!!

Such is life. 

[B]-

[C]-

[D]-

[E]-

[F]-

[G]-

[H]-

[I]-

[J]-

[K]-

[L]-

[M]-

[N]-

[O]-

[P]-

[Q]-

[R]-

[S]-

[T]-

[U]-

[V]-

[W]-

[X]-

[Y]-

[Z]-

WHAT’S YOUR BEST MEMORY OF C :

WOULD YOU EVER HOOK UP WITH J :

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST IMPRESSION OF R :

WHAT IS L’S FAVORITE THING TO DRINK :

WOULD S AND G EVER DATE :

WHAT IS THE WORD M SAYS THE MOST :

WHAT IS B’S SHOE SIZE :

DO YOU KNOW ANY SECRETS ABOUT P?:

WHO IS W’S BEST FRIEND?:

WOULD YOU TRUST F WITH A SECRET?:

DO YOU HAVE E’S PHONE NUMBER?:

WHAT WAS THE MOST AWKWARD SITUATION YOU FOUND YOURSELF IN WITH O?:

WHAT’S H’S STYLE LIKE?:

IF YOU COULD CHANGE ANYTHING ABOUT D, WHAT WOULD IT BE?:

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CALLED K?:

THE BEST THING ABOUT YOUR FRIENDSHIP WITH A IS :

WHAT’S THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN D AND J?:

DOES U HAVE ANY SIBLINGS?:

B’S FAVORITE COLOR IS :

HAVE YOU EVER GOTTEN INTO A FIGHT WITH Y?:

ARE G AND T FRIENDS?:

DOES V PLAY AN INSTRUMENT?:

WHAT IS K’S MIDDLE NAME?:

HAVE YOU BEEN TO Z’S HOUSE BEFORE ?:

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SAW A MOVIE WITH R?:

WHATS THE BEST THING ABOUT C?:

WHEN’S THE NEXT TIME YOU’LL SEE F?:

WHAT DO YOU AND B TALK ABOUT THE MOST?:

HAVE YOU EVER GOTTEN INTO TROUBLE WITH X?:

WHAT WOULD K AND T BE LIKE AS A COUPLE?:

THE MOST FRUSTRATING THING ABOUT J IS :

BEST MEMORY WITH H?:

HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN C?:

HOW DID YOU MEET S?:

DOES A HAVE A BF/GF?:

DO YOU LIVE CLOSE TO G?:

WHAT DID YOU AND I FIGHT ABOUT LAST?:

WHAT IS Q’S FAVORITE FOOD?:

DO YOU HAVE ANY REGRETS WITH N?:

HOW DID YOU AND K MEET? :

WHEN IS THE NEXT TIME YOU WILL SEE D?:

---- OUT OF THE ALPHABET, WHICH ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS.. -------

IS THE LOUDEST?:

LIVES THE FURTHEST AWAY?:

COULD YOU TRUST WITH YOUR LIFE WITH?:

IS THE QUIETEST?:

KNOWS YOU THE BEST?:

MAKES YOU LAUGH THE MOST? :

WAS YOUR FRIEND FIRST:

IS THE SMARTEST?:

   We use many words every day and the words that we use in our daily speaking come from the alphabet that we learned as children.  We would sing the ABC song many different times to memorize them, trace the letters in order to be experts in writing them, and put them together to formulate words.  The letters became more than just letters, they became tools for communication.

   And even if writing sentences wasn't enough, we came up with books and journals, the list is endless.  "Can you imagine the number of words it took to write a thirty-volume set of the Encyclopedia Britannica?  It must be an awesome number, but an even more amazing thing is that even these books only took using the twenty-six different letters" that we learned as children to formulate the words.  "The authors did not have to go outside of the alphabet to assemble that massive collection of knowledge.  It provided them everything they needed for this one task."

   And just as important as the alphabet is to formulating words in an Encyclopedia, Jesus Christ is "God's everything" for all situations.  He is the Alpha and the Omega, and we do not have to go outside of Him for anything that we need." (Robinson)

Quote of the day:  St. Bonaventure

"In all your deeds and words, you should look on Jesus as your model, whether you are keeping silence or speaking, whether you are alone or with others."

Bible verse of the day:  Revelation 1:8

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come the Almighty."

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank You for being Everything I need in this life.  And just as the words in an Encyclopedia are countless, You and the things You do for me are more than a set amount of words contained in a book.  The words that I use are gifts from You and I pray that I measure my words carefully so that I might be a good source of encouragement to those around me and those that I have yet to meet.  I thank You for this day!

In Jesus Name I pray,

Amen

As I mentioned on Monday, I was not very happy at the start of this week.  Nearly two hours before I wrote that post I found out that I was "fired" from my position at my school job via email.  I was very unhappy because I was not let in on the decision and told nearly a month late.  Everyone told me that I was not told right away because Doc did not want to "ruin my summer" and knew I wouldn't take it well.  I would have been fine had I been told before the others on staff - then it would have been more of a situation where everyone agreed with the decision.  I lost the right to step down, I guess, and that hurt my pride.  My friends agree with me on that matter.  It shouldn't have happened the way it did.  So, when we get back to school we're going to say it was a group decision.  It's not lying!  My friends defended me when they talked with Doc PLUS I agree with the decision, even though it was dealt with poorly.

Still, I was more upset because someone found out (that shouldn't have) before me.  Monday night I got to talk to Andrew (the person that took my place) and he helped me feel better about the whole situation and explained what happened.  Anyway, long story short, I still have my job but I am no longer in charge because I get "so stressed out" during the school year.  I say whatever to stress.  >:| <--face, haha

HAPPIER TOPIC!

I got to work a ton this week!  Wait... that's not happy...  Well, yes it is.  I get money for working AND I get to experience lunch time at day care tomorrow - woot!  The bad part is that most of my day is spent working and I have little morning free time.  Welcome to the real world, I guess, haha.

Another thing that happened this week is that my friend, Casey, went to my favorite summer place EVER: LSM (Lutheran Summer Music - there's a link on my personal blog).  It's a month long music camp and you are surrounded by other nerds and it's a wonderful time.  I miss it pretty bad.  This is my second year of not going.  Last year was much worse - I was a weepy mess the whole weekend before it started.  This time I only teared up once and it was a happy memory.  So, I am very happy that she is having a good time but very sad I cannot be there.  I am seriously thinking of applying to be a counselor or intern there next summer.  I wanted to this summer but my parents held me back for various reasons.  I wish they hadn't and I wish I had the guts to go for it.  Next summer I will be more independent.  I will pay for a plane ticket if I must (and that might be the easiest/cheapest bet, lol).

Money is so annoying.  I wish we could still barter and trade.  I would be like,

"Hey, flute man - if you cut the price of that new flute I want in half I will give you the reduced price plus my two old flutes, my guitar, my piano AND my trombone for it."

"Sure, Megan!  Nice trade!  I've always wanted a beat up trombone with a leak!"

Except... it wouldn't be a nice trade.  I would be paying and giving much less than the actual price.  But his love for that crusty trombone would be worth so much more to him...  If only.  This would also work for paying for college, food, anything you want.  I try not to be too materialistic but I REALLY want a new flute.  No joke.  The one I have now is... oh gosh, it's almost seven years old.  :(  It's clanky and...  I want a new SHINY flute!

• What was your best or worst family vacation ever?  Why?
  My best BIG family vacation ever was when my entire family (around 20 people) went to Branson, MO (it doesn't get more exciting than that...) and stayed for a long weekend.  That was with my entire paternal side.
  With just my parents and I, I suppose it would be Disney World when I was seven (in... 1995?)  We stayed at the awesome Disney All-Star resort and the housekeepers organized my stuffed animals on my bed and it made me really happy - I left them a note.  But we got to go to Blizzard Beach and I got sick from the water but it was still a lot of fun.  Good times with my parents...
• What is your favorite glue and why?
  I thought about it and I decided GLUE STICK is my favorite glue.  Versatile - used for construction paper, cards, letters, etc... And it dries clear! ;)

Here's my video!!!  It includes two challenges, questions, and Ian's challenge for me...

You can all decide if my second go at Ian's challenge counts or not.  I think it should.  ;)
aaaaaand sorry about the glare on my glasses - I didn't feel like changing into contacts!

Uhm....  I'm not typing out the Would You Rathers so try and pay attention!!!

I'll see you all on SUNDAY when I cover for Katie (who is in the UK...So lucky...)

LOVES!

~Megan/Thursday

PS:  When we get to school I have a horrible feeling it will be harder to find time to video edit.  It would be like, theory homework OR video editing... hmm...  I wonder which would win?

We have not really spent much time reading through the alphabet books, his knowledge of letters has come more from reading objects in front of u s(like the weet-bix box). But i think we will spend more time learning to recognise letters and whole words in the coming months.

I might get some letter magnets for the fridge so they are seen frequently through the day.

Children have a lot more respect for the alphabet than adults do.  They instinctively recognize how beautiful it is and how useful.  They let themselves be charmed by it, as they let themselves be charmed by so many things.  They have a natural artistic sense, an appreciation for putting things into places, for ordering and rearranging, for lending fantasy to small gestures.

Sometime when I wasn't looking my kid made this picture using the computer paint program.  It has much in common with the image previously posted, so I thought they should be displayed in sequence.  However, notwithstanding the chronology, I'm not really sure who influenced whom.

[Top of the post:  Untitled by the author's kid.]

The standard American-English alphabet is composed of 26 letters.  We put them together to make words, which are then put together to make statements, which are used to convey thoughts and ideas to both ourselves, and others.  There are, of course, other forms of communication, but by and large, the alphabet is utilized most frequently and most powerfully toward this end.  Without the conversion to words and statements, the English alphabet is of little use.  The letters that compose it are merely building blocks for the ideas that we create by putting them together.  And these ideas, constructed by our internal selves, form the blue prints for our external realities.

א ב ג ד ה ו ז ח ט י כ ל מ נ ס ע פ צ ק ר ש ת

The Hebrew alphabet, the language the bible was written in, operates differently.  Indeed, the Hebrew alphabet serves the same function as its English counterpart, however, the Hebrew goes far deeper.  Within the Hebrew alphabet  one finds the inner workings of a mathematical language, and further the very letters themselves carry profound meaning and depth.  Hebrew words are constructed of a mathematical, three letter root system--the additions and permutations of which assert new meanings as well as subtle connotations.

Each Hebrew letter possesses its own unique characteristics, each has a life unto itself.  Each letter is carefully and mathematically woven into the text of the Bible.  For centuries, scholars and mystics have endeavored to extrapolate upon these meanings and nuances.  Great distance has been made in unlocking these secrets, however, their totality may never be completely or accurately realized.

As a self-proclaimed mystic, I too am utterly fascinated with the inner-workings and hidden meanings contained in the biblical texts.  This, however, is not something on which to build a life.  Nor is it a fully developed philosophical method of living.  In fact the truth could not be more different.

The real value of such endeavours, is not the secrets of G-d that can be ascertained (because those are mysteries that will forever elude humanity).  Instead it is the metaphysical engagement of our minds in an effort to gain knowledge and wisdom.  It is the process whose goal is to come closer to the eternal that is important.

Like all such things, the value is in the doing.  Life is the same way--there is value in the doing of it.  There may indeed be secrets to unlock, but these secrets are not about G-d.  They are about the awareness of study, of growth, and of the consciousness of life.  The real secret is to lean new ways and to be come deeper engaged in the awareness and living of life itself.  This is the real secret and the real gift of the Eternal.

Along with these two tracks, we practiced Gamma, which nearly wasn't going to make the album, but after a couple of new ideas it's now one of the best tracks we've ever come up with. It's modern metal up front, but under the hood there's a huge chorus full of despair (and not just pretty vocals) and a middle section that's truly hypnotic.

Last but not least, we're going to be polishing a true gem: Delta. We haven't played this one in ages, so it's going to take some practice to get it flowing again. A pretty epic track all in all, with great melodies to boot and an atmosphere hard to beat.

Tomorrow morning, I'm off to a luthier with 2 electric guitars, 1 acoustic and a bass in the trunk. By the end of this week, we'll hopefully have all the songs in perfect working order, instruments fine-tuned to perfection and a relaxing and inspirational weekend ahead of us.

Unsurprisingly,
Jari / Embreach

this was the task where we were given the word half cut and could do whatever we wanted with it, so i literally cut in half helvetica neue, in UPPER and lower case and fused them together;

Here is the new and improved 2008 version:

Plato would take a big red pen to most modern editions of his Republic. Even the untranslated versions: the spelling used in most latter-day representations of ancient Greek is a slightly more modern version of the Greek alphabet, with a full complement of lowercase letters and accents which would have been unfamiliar to Plato, and some letters which were adopted by the Athenians in Plato's lifetime.

Greek has seventeen consonants and seven vowels: twenty-four letters total. The order (and the shapes and sounds of the letters, to be honest: this is not the alphabet you're used to. Unless you're an ancient Greek, in which case, call me) is different from that of our alphabet:

Uppercase: ΑΒΓΔΕΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠΡΣΤΥΦΧΨΩ
Lowercase: αβγδεζηθικλμνξοπρστυφχψω

Consonants

Ββ Γγ Δδ Ζζ Θθ Κκ Λλ Μμ Νν Ξξ Ππ Ρρ Σσς Ττ Φφ Χχ Ψψ

β, δ and γ are like the English b, d and g, respectively, but γ is always a hard g sound, as in "get".

π, τ and κ are like English p, t and k, but do not have the extra puff of air (aspiration) that accompanies the sounds at the start of English words. If you're not clear about this, hold a piece of loosely in front of your mouth and say "pop, tat, cook" and pay attention to how the paper flutters at the first consonant in each word, but not the second.

φ, θ and χ are English p, t and k with aspiration. People unaccustomed to distinguishing between those sounds (like most English speakers) pronounce these letters like philosoph, theatre and loch; inaccurate but much easier to say. Also, the people who can rightly correct you on your pronunciation are all dead. Go nuts.

λ, μ, ν and ρ: l, m, n and r.

σ is an English s. That's not enough to get it its own paragraph, but this is: at the end of a word, just to trip you up, a lowercase σ is written ς: Σωκρατης (or Socrates, as we like to call him). In uppercase letters there's only the one version: ΣΩΚΡΑΤΗΣ.

ξ and ψ are ks (like English x) and ps respectively.

ζ is some combination of s and d: most people say sd, some people say ds.

Watchlist: ρ = r, not p. χ = kh, not x. ν = n, not v.

Vowels

Αα Εε Ηη Ιι Οο Υυ Ωω

Slightly oddly, Greek has only five vowel sounds and seven vowel letters.

A sound: like in father. Written α for both short and long variants.

E sound: like in bet. Written ε for the short variant and η for the long.

I sound: like in machine. Written ι for both short and long variants.

O sound: like in hot. Written ο for the short variant and ω for the long.

U sound: like in the French word lune or German über. Written υ for both short and long variants.

Watchlist: η and ω are vowels, not consonants like their English impersonators h and w.

Já faz um bom tempo que eu não escrevo um artigo aqui, mais precisamente há um mês.

Acho que realmente é esse tem se tornado o intervalo para a minha publicação de artigos.

A dinamicidade do meu dia-a-dia está interrompendo o meu desafio de escrever. Sendo positivo, pelo menos tenho um certo tempo para pensar em um bom tema para o artigo, "I guess". 

Voltando ao artigo, como já havia anunciado no último artigo, esse vou falar sobre "Mashups". Aposto que todos já provaram desse condimento, caso não, esse é o momento para entender alguma coisa sobre essa técnica que acompanha nossa sopa de letrinhas do mundo TI, e por que não dizer TIC.

Bem, vamos ao que interessa, o que é esse cara com nome de ingrediente de hamburguer? Vou contar uma pequena historinha a respeito, aliás, essa parte pode ser encontrada no Wiki.

Em 2004, o termo Web 2.0 foi cunhado em uma conferência da O’Reilly Media, referindo-se a uma assim chamada “segunda geração” de aplicações web, caracterizadas por um grau maior de interação e colaboração entre usuários.

De lá para cá, o termo passou a ser constantemente utilizado pelo mercado, na esteira do rápido crescimento de um número significativo de blogs, comunidades virtuais, wikis e outras aplicações.

Em "What is the Web 2.0" (http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html), Tim O’Reilly menciona que o conceito da Web 2.0 não possui fronteiras rígidas.
Mas, de uma forma geral, pode-se entendê-la como um conjunto de princípios e práticas.

Alguns desses princípios são:

• Web como plataforma (de serviços): O’Reilly menciona duas aplicações surgidas antes da criação do termo Web 2.0, como exemplos de utilização da web como uma plataforma de serviços: DoubleClick (propaganda) e Akamai (serviços de caching de informação).
• Oferta de serviços e não pacotes de software.
• Arquitetura focada em participação.
• Escalabilidade.
• Mistura de fontes de dados e de transformação de dados.
• Software utilizável em vários tipos de dispositivos.
• Aplicações que atuam como potencializadores da inteligência coletiva.

É neste contexto em que os mashups se inserem, pois podem ser considerados um dos tipos de aplicação da chamada Web 2.0. E não seria exagero dizer que eles sejam, talvez, o tipo que mais se adere aos princípios da Web 2.0.

A seguir, seguem alguns exemplos de empresas que disponibilizam ferramentas mashups que me aventurei a um simples uso (nada muito rebuscado, ou complexo): 

Esse amigo nosso é o projeto da Yahoo! para prover o serviço de Mashup. Veja o que o "About Pipes" de Pipes diz a respeito (propaganda é a alma do negócio!).

"Pipes is a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web."

A ferramenta é sensacional. O seu uso não é tão trivial. Você precisaria garimpar informação a respeito de pipes para extrair o que a ferramenta tem de melhor.

O interessante na ferramenta é que a comunidade compartilha o mashup criado, permitindo assim uma biblioteca de Mashups extensa. Essa é a idéia da web 2.0, "compartilhar o pão'!

Outra particularidade que me dei conta foi que o serviço ganhou bastante adeptos na comunidade web, forçando o Yahoo! a melhorar a documentação. Se você possuir uma conta no Yahoo!, o serviço tá lá te esperando.

Vou mostrar para vocês como funciona, ou pelo menos tentar.

O Pipes funciona como se você estive montando o encanamento de uma casa. Como assim, bem, Rs, eu vi dessa maneira, onde você pega partes de serviços e vai juntando a outro serviço ou parte de resultado almejado. A interface é amigável, e fiz testes tanto no IE7 quanto no Firefox 1.5+.

Segue abaixo os "screenshots" de uma pequena brincadeira que fiz no pipes.

 [gallery]

A Microsoft lançou o Popfly. Serviço que permite a criação de mashups. O Popfly, foi desenvolvido por uma galera da M$ responsável pelo desenvolvimento das ferramentas Visual Studio, Expression Studio.

Esse também fiz alguns testes e achei muito legal. Vale a pena dar uma passadinha para experimentar.

Mundo Corporativo e Mashups

Bem, e quanto ao mundo corporativo? Onde podemos encaixar esse novo brinquedo?

Em pesquisa de janeiro de 2007 feita pela McKinsey perguntou-se a clientes corporativos qual o nível de adoção das tecnologias de Web 2.0. Como seria de se esperar, muitos deles investiram ou estavam planejando investir em uma ou mais tecnologias de Web 2.0. Para nós, a parte surpreendente da pesquisa foi que os mashups estavam em uso ou sendo considerados para uso por 21% dos entrevistados e a maioria deles, 54%, sequer pensavam em adotá-los.

A baixa aceitação dos mashups na empresa deve-se à relativa inovação da tecnologia comparada a outras incluídas na pesquisa (como Web services, podcasts e "feeds" RSS). O fato de que as ferramentas para a construção de mashups estão apenas começando a surgir também faz a diferença (no momento em que escrevemos este artigo, muitas das mencionadas neste artigo estão nos estágios beta e alfa). Estamos certos de que as técnicas serão mais comuns e as ferramentas amadurecerão. Conceitos como o do barramento de serviços para a Internet devem facilitar a construção desses mashups corporativos, tornando-os mais úteis.

Enfim, acho que esse condimento dará um sabor especial no final das contas para nossa sopa de letras.

Essa prática de escrita misturando pesquisa me faz muito bem, preciso torná-la de certa forma indispensável ao meu dia-a-dia.

Espero vê-los "as soon as possible"!

Referências:

“Consumerization Gains Momentum: The IT Civil War,” Gartner Special Report, 2007 (resumo)http://www.gartner.com/it/products/research/consumerization_it/consumerization.jsp

“How Businesses are Using Web 2.0: A McKinsey Global Survey,” The McKinsey Quarterly, Agosto, 2007
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_abstract_visitor.aspx?ar=1913

Mashup (Web application hybrid), Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashup_%28web_application_hybrid%29

“Web 2.0 na empresa”, Michael Platt, The Architecture Journal,
http://zillow.com

The first site I will mention has been developed for native speakers of English, but it might  well workfor EFL teachers and students, as far as they make a good choice of  places to visit and consider integrating their practice into their own curriculum. It is FUNBRAIN.COM. There are a few pages with some quizzes or rules for language practice which could as well work with students whose mother tongue is not English. Check these interesting sections and have fun while you learn:

• Grammar Gorillas is a secion where students need to identify parts of speech. If you click on the right word in the sentence, our friends the gorillas get a banana. There are some quizzes for beginner students (nouns and verbs only) and also for advance students. On  you will get the door to all the quizzes they have developed some flash games to do some reading and writing practice. The section contains the
• Spell Check: Spelling exercises
• Translator Alligator: Translation exercises. Easy. Spanish-English
• Scramble-Saurus
• Spellaroo: Spelling for beginner and intermediate
• What's the Word: Reading and vocabulary for beginners (match pictures and words (alphabet, animals, fruit, tools, machines, shapes)
• Sign the Alphabet
• Word Confusion
• Word Turtle This is a custom seek and find word search game
• 2Bee or Nottoobee Present and past verbs to commplete sentences
• Rooting Out Words
• Stay Afloat
• The Plural Girls

1] Your name?
---- .

A joint [marijuana cigarette]

2] How old are you?
13.

Thirteen stands for M, the thirteenth letter of the alphabet. M is for Mexican Mafia. Any real Mexican gang that lives in S. California starting from Bakersfield and down all the way to San Diego should be affiliated with 13.

3] One of your friends?
[sugar].

A named based on the biblical name J. Used as a name for children who are blessed with a large brain and/or penis. Also used as a replacement for "perfect".

4] Favorite food?
Fairies.

Generally of UK southern origin, a fairy is someone who lives in the London catchment area or within an hour's drive, thus gaining a Mockney (mock Cockney) accent. Usually can be found ordering a shandy in any bar or pub and being generally offensive to any surrounding patrons in the public area. Renowned for replacing U's in swear words with A's, or vice versa.

5] Hometown?
New York.

In reference to the city, let's just say that you know you're from there if any of the following apply to you:

a] You say "the city" and expect everyone to know that this means Manhattan.
b] You have never been to the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building.
c] You can get into a four-hour argument about how to get from Columbus Circle to Battery Park at 3:30 on the Friday before a long weekend, but can't find Wisconsin on a map.
d] Hookers and the homeless are invisible.
e] The subway makes sense.
f] You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language makes you multi-lingual.
g] You've considered stabbing someone just for saying "The Big Apple".
h] The most frequently used part of your car is the horn.
i] You call an 8' x 10' plot of patchy grass a yard.
j] You consider Westchester "upstate".
k] You think Central Park is "nature."
l] You see nothing odd about the speed of an auctioneer's speaking.
m] You're paying $1,200 for a studio the size of a walk-in closet and you think it's a "steal."
n] You've been to New Jersey twice and got hopelessly lost both times.
o] You pay more each month to park your car than most people in the U.S. pay in rent.
p] You haven't seen more than twelve stars in the night sky since you went away to camp as a kid.
q] You go to dinner at 9 and head out to the clubs when most Americans are heading to bed.
r] Your closet is filled with black clothes.
s] You haven't heard the sound of true absolute silence since the 80s, and when you did, it terrified you.
t] You pay $5 without blinking for a beer that cost the bar 28 cents.
u] You take fashion seriously.
v] Being truly alone makes you nervous.
w] You have 27 different menus next to your telephone.
x] Going to Brooklyn is considered a "road trip."
y] America west of the Hudson is still theoretical to you.
z] You've gotten jaywalking down to an art form.

6] Can you drive?
Element.

People within a community or members of a social strata that bring a negative image to that group as a whole. Individuals a person would especially wish to avoid because of their reputation or intent. Also used for people you do not know who look shady or intimidating.
Plural: Element

7] Last person you talked to on the phone?
[furry].

A performance of multiple sexual acts on one or more men in a single evening. Events are usually accompanied by intoxication and partial or full nudity.