In white-out conditions~
phonetics n. - the science or study of speech sounds and then production, transmission and reception, and their analysis, classification, and transcription
Today was the beginning Phonetics lecture for 101. I've found, over the years, that Ling101 TAs are not so fond of this lecture. It's a LOT to throw at the kids--lots of new terms all at once, most of them Latinate and a little scary. So I decided to make them focus on the IPA chart as their source. But that's kinda scary, too, with all its weird symbols (not that many on the English side, actually, but one long S can freak a student out.) So I decided to scaffold them into it by having them do a map reading exercise first, then introducing the IPA chart as a map of the mouth. We'll see how well it sticks. Lots really like the map reading, though, so that at least seems to be a good lead-in.
I was really excited to do this lecture, and it sorta resulted in being a little scattered. I'll have a better handle on it Wednesday, and may have to chalk up Mondays to continual scatteredness. Not so good when this is generally how I start new topics. More things to work on.
snow n. - a precipitation in the form of ice crystals, mainly of intricately branched, hexagonal form and often agglomerated into snowflowers, formed directly from the freezing of the water vapor in the air. [Middle English, from Old English snāw; see sneigwh- in Indo-European roots.]
It was snowing this morning when E and I walked over to class, but in a light dusting, nothing notable. It kept up its breezy lightness until the afternoon, when teeny flakes suddenly became larger flakes. Root, who hates snow, met us at the ashtray to complain about it. Aguas and I asserted our snow background and pointed out that it wouldn't stick.
teamwork n. - cooperative or coordinated effort on the part of a group of persons acting together as a team or in the interests of a common cause
We had a really good Project meeting tonight. All of us gathered in the grad lab with a sheet of notes from the last meeting and ticked through the items. We settled on a meeting time for the next meeting and talked about a lunch this Saturday, and GWN was like, "Oh hey, we're done!"
Then I asked about something else and we rolled back into meeting form again. But it was a loose, relaxed form, as setting times and talking lunch plans was just a warm-up. We covered a lot of good stuff about the dictionary and the coming archive. Having a laptop to work on and a printer by us was a good thing--lists were made, printed, distributed, right there! We drew up a plan for the archive homepage, and hoo boy, do I need to brush up on some webdesigning skills. CSS, um...*gulp*
I also got GWN's keys an determined none worked on the Sign door. I'm going to take care of that though, damnit.
white-out v. - lose daylight visibility in heavy fog, snow, or rain
I volunteered to take E up to get his car back. By this time, the snow had fallen and stuck, and was still falling. I was quite nonchalant about it, though; I've done the driving snow/snow driving thing before. No worries, right?
Ha ha ha. I am such a silly goose.
I do finally understand why Albuquerque has such a schizophrenic system for calling delays, though. In the university area, visibility wasn't too bad. On the freeway, it was reduced, but driveable. Up on Paseo? It wasn't a white-out, but visibility was poor, and the flakes were falling, falling, falling. In the dark, it almost looked--in a way--like someone was shooting silly string or confetti continually at the car. E was amazed that no matter which way we turned, the snow looked like it was falling into the windshield. And street lights? Oh man, I never understood streetlights until I was driving through fast falling snow in the dark. Those orange lights help a ton.
But I got him up there, and got myself back safe to the "city proper," where the snow was down to a light sprinkling again. I'm interested to see what they do tomorrow.
bladder n. - the organ in my body that shrinks every time the temperature drops
Then it was back to the Lab--ah, bathrooms!--to finish off some e-mailing and check GWN's keys. And be an idiot, but a fairly lucky one. I figured out the GWN key, and also got e-mails off to my family and Former Job, which would like me to go back to work for them. Yay!
Now home home home, and writing to do, though am v. tired. But I've put it off for long enough as it is.
Today was the beginning Phonetics lecture for 101. I've found, over the years, that Ling101 TAs are not so fond of this lecture. It's a LOT to throw at the kids--lots of new terms all at once, most of them Latinate and a little scary. So I decided to make them focus on the IPA chart as their source. But that's kinda scary, too, with all its weird symbols (not that many on the English side, actually, but one long S can freak a student out.) So I decided to scaffold them into it by having them do a map reading exercise first, then introducing the IPA chart as a map of the mouth. We'll see how well it sticks. Lots really like the map reading, though, so that at least seems to be a good lead-in.
I was really excited to do this lecture, and it sorta resulted in being a little scattered. I'll have a better handle on it Wednesday, and may have to chalk up Mondays to continual scatteredness. Not so good when this is generally how I start new topics. More things to work on.
snow n. - a precipitation in the form of ice crystals, mainly of intricately branched, hexagonal form and often agglomerated into snowflowers, formed directly from the freezing of the water vapor in the air. [Middle English, from Old English snāw; see sneigwh- in Indo-European roots.]
It was snowing this morning when E and I walked over to class, but in a light dusting, nothing notable. It kept up its breezy lightness until the afternoon, when teeny flakes suddenly became larger flakes. Root, who hates snow, met us at the ashtray to complain about it. Aguas and I asserted our snow background and pointed out that it wouldn't stick.
teamwork n. - cooperative or coordinated effort on the part of a group of persons acting together as a team or in the interests of a common cause
We had a really good Project meeting tonight. All of us gathered in the grad lab with a sheet of notes from the last meeting and ticked through the items. We settled on a meeting time for the next meeting and talked about a lunch this Saturday, and GWN was like, "Oh hey, we're done!"
Then I asked about something else and we rolled back into meeting form again. But it was a loose, relaxed form, as setting times and talking lunch plans was just a warm-up. We covered a lot of good stuff about the dictionary and the coming archive. Having a laptop to work on and a printer by us was a good thing--lists were made, printed, distributed, right there! We drew up a plan for the archive homepage, and hoo boy, do I need to brush up on some webdesigning skills. CSS, um...*gulp*
I also got GWN's keys an determined none worked on the Sign door. I'm going to take care of that though, damnit.
white-out v. - lose daylight visibility in heavy fog, snow, or rain
I volunteered to take E up to get his car back. By this time, the snow had fallen and stuck, and was still falling. I was quite nonchalant about it, though; I've done the driving snow/snow driving thing before. No worries, right?
Ha ha ha. I am such a silly goose.
I do finally understand why Albuquerque has such a schizophrenic system for calling delays, though. In the university area, visibility wasn't too bad. On the freeway, it was reduced, but driveable. Up on Paseo? It wasn't a white-out, but visibility was poor, and the flakes were falling, falling, falling. In the dark, it almost looked--in a way--like someone was shooting silly string or confetti continually at the car. E was amazed that no matter which way we turned, the snow looked like it was falling into the windshield. And street lights? Oh man, I never understood streetlights until I was driving through fast falling snow in the dark. Those orange lights help a ton.
But I got him up there, and got myself back safe to the "city proper," where the snow was down to a light sprinkling again. I'm interested to see what they do tomorrow.
bladder n. - the organ in my body that shrinks every time the temperature drops
Then it was back to the Lab--ah, bathrooms!--to finish off some e-mailing and check GWN's keys. And be an idiot, but a fairly lucky one. I figured out the GWN key, and also got e-mails off to my family and Former Job, which would like me to go back to work for them. Yay!
Now home home home, and writing to do, though am v. tired. But I've put it off for long enough as it is.