Visitor

I just had a very nice visitor who stopped by to ask if I knew where my polling place was. He also asked whether or not I knew anyone who was unable to physically make it to the polls. The democratic party has an arrangement with taxi companies to provide transportation to anyone who needs it. I actually do not know anyone who is incapable, and I live within walking distance of my polling place. But I think it’s an awesome service. I also proudly let him know who I was voting for, and he circled the little #1 for me on his sheet. God Bless America.

Standard Deviants School: Advanced Spanish Program 2: Irregular Verbs

This is a titillating, 26-minute, Netflix wonder!

Right.

Let’s start by noting that Netflix documents having shipped this to me on 8/27. Movie watchage does slow down during the summer, but every once in a while, you get stuck on some oddball selection, or rather, it gets stuck in your home, probably sitting somewhere in the vicinity of the television. People, I’ve been stuck on 26 minutes of Standard Deviants, but tonight, tonight…

The Deviant actors are the most non-Hispanic possible. Of course, their white-bred lingo turns to stunning Spanish accents. The video had too many random graphics bouncing around, but then, one has to imagine the potential audience (myself excluded of course). To me, it struck closest to a teenager who’s struggling in Spanish class. Note the conversational reenactments – eeks!

Now the content. I figured out right away that they were only going to work in the present tense, which isn’t really what I need to study anymore. But one would be surprised what you can learn again by going back to the basics. I shame to admit that some of the white-bred connections made sense to me. Oh wait, I am white-bred.

They broke irregular verbs into three categories: yo verbs, stem-changing verbs, and bizarro verbs. Yes, bizarro.

Some of the actors said “yo” too short and a bit scary. Here they talked about the random “g” that wanders into the yo form: salgo, valgo, and hago. Other than the random g in the yo form, they conjugate regularly. As stupid as it is, I don’t think I will forget the graphic of the little g wandering into random irregular yo verbs. It helps.

Stem-changing verbs are also called boot verbs because when you draw lines around the four changing words of the six-word conjugation, it looks like a boot. (Nosotros and vosotros never change. Sorry, I know this is elemental. I’m just saying so you can remember the picture in your head.) Querer (e>ie), pedir (e>i), dormir (o>ue), jugar (u>ue). On multi-syllable verbs, it’s in the second syllable that changes. I’m guessing I knew that at one point, but I hadn’t thought of it in a while.

The last group of verbs are “totally unpredictable.” In fact, they are “weird, unnatural, and bizarro.” There’s “no rhyme or reason to its different forms, but like most bizarro words, its one of the most used.” And finally, perhaps it has a “complex conjugation because it doesn’t have a stem; its all ending.” You guessed it, ser and ir. Yawn.

Do I dare look into Program 3? Are present tense irregular verbs really advanced? Is past tense, like, genius level? Am I a god if I can do irregular imperative, past perfect, or conditional?

Get Out of Debt Tips

I have already shared this article with some of my friends, but I thought it was worth posting here as well. The link has some awesome tips for getting out of debt, but if you don’t have debt, don’t pass up the good reading. It also has a lot of suggestions for frugal living, which equals savings. I LOVE SAVINGS!

A co-worker actually suggested to me that I start blogging on my own frugal suggestions. I need to get on that. Gosh knows we all need it these days!

Local Politics

It’s time to get serious about educating myself regarding the state and local candidates that will be on my ballot in 15 days.

Also, I know some people serious about voting NO to both presidential candidates. Apparently, you can do so while still counting as a voting citizen.

The Creeps

Funky video of a song I like.

401-What? Plan

A funny forward I just got:  

We could all use a little financial advice during these difficult economic times!

Retirement Plan Investment Tip…
If you had purchased $1000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00.
With Enron, you would have $16.50 left of the original $1000.
With WorldCom, you would have less than $5.00 left.
If you had purchased $1000.00 of Delta Air Lines stock you would have $49.00 left.
If you had purchased United Airlines, you would have nothing left.
 
But, if you had purchased $1000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling refund you would have $214.00. Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.

This is called the 401-Keg Plan.

Fender Bender

I’m so totally mortified. This morning, I hit my downstairs neighbor at an intersection a few blocks away. It was a pretty typical bender. The light turned green, he let up off his brakes, my mind clearly shut down, and I started to go. His car looks absolutely fine. The one thing that could have been a scratch rubbed right off. He has a nice car too! I didn’t even look at mine. The additional irony (the first being that he lives downstairs) is that I was on my way to get my license plates renewed. Thank God there was no damage and the cops weren’t called. Dang.

I’m so mortified though. I know I already said that, and trust me, I will repeat it over and over to myself all day. It takes me a long time to get over these types of embarrassment. The guy was in a hurry too and said he would look over it better tonight. It was raining. I was like, well you know where I live, and I have my insurance card in the car. Again… I had all my paperwork in the car as I was headed to the stupid DMV.

Ugh. I’m so mortified.