Como se Dice?

Does anyone know what this means?

Уважаемый автор, а вы случайно не из Москвы?

It is a question posed to me on my guestbook. I'd like to answer it, but no hablo.

And while we're looking at it, I'm leaning towards Russian, but is it?

NOTE: I just looked it up at a great site that translates languages for you. I think it doesn't always translate with any kind of understanding of what is trying to be said however...

It is Russian and this is what the translation is:

Distinguished author and you do not accidentally from Moscow?

So, I think that may mean, "Hey, I think you're a great writer. Are you perchance from Moscow?"

I love languages and people trying to talk to one another. Thank you my new Russian friend. No, I'm not from Russia, nor have I ever been there. I am, however, grateful that you like my writing.

Visit again!

Our Election From Your View

Peters Projection World Map

Hello overseas visitors! I'm glad to see you coming here, visiting and reading.

I thought that since a number of you visitors to this blog are from countries other than the United States, perhaps you could all lend some perspective on what you see happening here in the States during this election.

What is your take on it all? Who do you want to win--why? What do you think of our nominees' campaigns? What does your media say about it? What are your reporters asking?

What is unbelievable to you? What is shocking? What is surprising to you?

What is reaffirming to you? What makes you think it will all be OK here in the United States? Do you think it will all be OK?

Is this election a part of daily conversation where you are? Are people talking about it? What do your family and friends think about it all?

Takk, Terima Kasih, Xie Xie, Do je, Hvala, gracias, grazie, merci, tak, obrigada, ta, cheers, danke, kiitos, aitäh, dank u, ahsante, ευχαριστία, благодарственное письмо, gracias, tack, ありがとうございます。 (arigatou gozaimasu), ‏(الاسم) شكرا ل, (dhanyavaad), /dhan-vahd/, /Shuk-riyah /, תודה, 감사합니다 (gamsahamnida), dziękuję, pronounced [ʥɛ̃ˈkujɛ], diolch, Ca'm on, A (shaynem) dank, na gode, and thank you, I appreciate any answers you have for me.

Nervous About the Vote Today

I can't stand it. I am so nervous for Barack Obama. I really want him to win in Texas and Ohio and Rhode Island and Vermont. I want Hillary to stop all of the scare mongering too--who would you want to answer the phone at the White House at 3:00 in the morning? Ick. Way to appeal to people's better selves. Way to take the high road. Desperate?

In the greenroom at my son's play that I mentioned the other day, I overheard three dads talking to one another. One said to another, "How's your man Obama doing?" I overheard and thought, Fantastic! More Obama supporters--what fun! No. They were not. I just stood there eavesdropping on their conversation taking place 5 feet away from me--I didn't have to strain too hard and didn't feel bad about doing it either, until I realized the magnitude of their contempt for Obama, their ignorance in general and their love of Rush Limbaugh! It was like they were from a different planet...or I was. I couldn't believe the lies that they believed. And they didn't just half heartedly believe these falsehoods, they believed them with energy and vigor.

They think that Obama is Muslim, which he is not. My son has responded to that idea previously by saying, "So what if he was?! What does it matter?!" Out of the mouths of babes. They know that Obama is pro choice, but then they went on to defend Bush and his policies. Here's a question: how many men, women and children have been killed in Iraq by his misguided war policy? Do the number of abortions even reach that? Are those Iraqi deaths OK somehow? Are those people not God's children by their own beliefs? Isn't one of Jesus' monikers the King of Peace? What am I missing here?! Are Bush's abstinence only programs helping poor people around the world, or are there all sorts of STDs and more births in abject poverty. Is a full quiver really a good thing in that situation? Wouldn't condoms and myth busting about the spread of AIDS and respect for the culture and the mores be more helpful in this situation?

I couldn't believe the stuff that they were spewing. Just offhand comments to one another, said as if absolute truth that they got from their man Limbaugh. I still can't believe it. The ignorance was astounding to me. The fact that they feel they are devout Christians and then they listen religiously to a hate monger--really, it boggles my mind. I guess hate is OK if it's directed at gay people, or Jews, or Muslims or foreigners or atheists (sorry overseas visitors--God help you if you happen to be a Gay, Jewish overseas visitor from Belgium or somewhere, or even worse FRANCE!!!).

More of us in this country believe in the principles of this country than those who do not. We believe in freedom of religion--believe whatever you want. We believe in freedom of speech, and right to free assembly and freedom of the press. We believe in the pursuit of happiness. We believe in our right to our own lives making decisions for our bodies and our families. This is the land of the free, which means we have the right to disagree. We have the right to dissent. As Thomas Jefferson said, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." Patriotism requires people standing up and saying NO! No to 100 years in Iraq. No to tax breaks for the rich. No to pollution and disregard for world treaties trying to limit damage to the earth. No to erosion of our personal liberties. No to allowing the government to take our phone records or to tap our phones or to arrest us without charge or right to counsel. No to torture.

No, no, no, no, no! No.

Take that you ditto heads--you yes sayers, you Limbaugh fans. Want to go to war? Yes! Want to unlawfully tap people's phones? Yes! Want to torture people held without charge? Yes! Yes to whatever Limbaugh says. Ditto, ditto, ditto.

NO! A lot of us are saying no. No more war. No more pollution. No more torture.

Go Obama! A lot of us are voting for you because we know we can say no. We know that you have stood up and said No! And because of that, we know that, Yes We Can.

Who's Sick of Winter?

Raise your hand if you're sick of winter! Me. I'm raising my hand! Oooooh! Oooooh! *raises hand like Arnold Horschack*

Isn't the picture of the snowdrop at the top there pretty? I am ready to see that all over the ground. I want the snow to melt.

Here's an excerpt from botanical.com about snowdrops,

Snowdrop, usually spoken of as the first flower of our year, though the Winter Aconite has perhaps a better title to be so considered, has never been of much account in physic, and has never been recognized. Gerard says 'nothing is set down hereof by the ancient Writers, nor anything observed by the moderne.' He calls it the Bulbous Violet, but adds that some call it the Snowdrop, the earliest mention of it by this name, and it was known to all the old botanists as a bulbous violet.

The generic name, Galanthus, is Greek in its origin and signifies Milkflower. Nivalis is a Latin adjective, meaning relating to or resembling snow.

I'm in the Chicago area in Very-republican-Town, Illinois, and we don't have anything blooming here now. I noticed a visitor from Vietnam the other day. What is blooming there now? Is there a blooming season? Do flowers bloom year round, or in cycles? What about you visitors from Turkey, England, Romania, Estonia, Malaysia, the Faroe Islands or Nicaragua? What flowers do you see now? What will you see, when the flowers bloom?

French Translation. Bon jour France!

I looked at my stat counter the other day, and noticed that someone from Ile-de-france, Paris, France clicked on my blog after a google search for Cheap Trick at Budokan. They then had it translated into French by google!

Look:




I feel like I should be more sophisticated than I am. I feel like this should be no big deal...but, I can't help it!! It's a HUGE deal!!! THIS IS SO COOL!!

I'm not buying anything new, so I have to amuse myself with life instead. Not that cyber space IS life, because it isn't. But, I am sitting here typing away and the kids are playing behind me with battling robots that they built from a k-nex set and that they're having invade a doll house. Since they are children that IS life. It works for us.

All I know is that I feel like Steve Martin in The Jerk. He yelled excitedly that he was famous after seeing himself in print in the phone directory.

"I've been translated!! I've been translated!!"

Pitiful, ne trouves-tu pas?

Hola Nicaragua! Hej Sweden!

Hello overseas visitors!

Como esta usted Nicargua? Estoy muy bien, gracias!

Hur star det till Sweden? Trevligt att rakas.

Hasta luego! Hej da, Adjo!

Merhaba Turkey!

Merhaba Turkey! Adim Laura.

Tani, stz-gzmzza memnun oldum. Nasilsin? Iyi?

Ben iyi!

Gule gule,
Arkada Laura

The Cyber Side of the Street

My Dad is now finally hooked up to the internet. For a long time, he had a little mail station which was a device that allowed him to send and receive e-mail, but would not allow for attachments or for navigating the internet. He is just starting out on his round-the-world discovery of cyber space. How exciting!

And speaking of round-the-world, I mentioned in a previous post that I can see where my visitors come from with the stat counter that is associated with this blog. It's not really big brotherish, but sorta, kinda. I can know if you've come here from say Boise, Idaho, and how long you stayed and if you've come here before and if you came here from a google search looking for a specific subject. Kinda big brotherish, but with the anonymity of the internet in that I don't know who is driving the computer that sent you here through cyber space and dropped you off in We Don't Buy It land.

LOTS of people have come to my blog looking to read about kefir. There seems to be a worldwide subculture of grain heads who are into kefir. (I'm one of them, but I didn't realize how many more there were out there. I speak curd...)

Some people, it seems, were wanting to find out about yurts in Connecticut and instead ended up at my blog at this post. My post which drew comparisons between yurts, and our house model, the Connecticut. If they read it, it might have amused them, but it didn't inform them about seeing yurts in Connecticut, or buying yurts in Connecticut, or building codes about yurts in Connecticut--to say nothing of zoning regulations... Try putting up a yurt in New Canaan or Greenwich and see how that flies. I bet it doesn't!

A couple of days ago a person from Berlin, Germany tried to find out about cakes. They did a search that said, "Birthday Cake to Buy in London". Someone is going to have a birthday in London some time and this nice Berliner is looking into finding out where to get a cake. How very nice. How thoughtful to be doing this kind of research for a friend, a lover, or a family member! Was this poor, kind soul directed to a number of bakeries in London, maybe in Kensington, or Covent Garden? No. They were instead diverted to my blog where they read a post titled, "Floam birthday cake...Yum!" Helpful, huh?!

All this to say that although the internet can open up the world to you with instant and varied information, it can also fling you across continents and oceans where you end up in a suburb of Chicago looking for a place to buy a birthday cake in London.

Watch yourself, Dad. Look both ways before you cross the cyber street.

Guten Tag Deutchland!

Guten tag Deutchland!

Wie geht's? Ich heisse Laura. Ich bin gut.

Ich bin eine Illinoiser. Wo winst du? Danke.

Auf Wiedersehen,
Laura

Hola Mexico!

Hola Mexico! Como esta usted? Muy bien o asi asi?

Yo estoy muy bien. Tengo mucho frio aqui en Illinois. Pero, es Enero, no? Si, por supeusta!

Adios, hasta luego!

Tu amiga,
Laura

Buon giorno, Italy!

Buon giorno, Italy!

Mi chiamo Laura. Come stai oggi? Di dove sei?

Arrivederci!

Mi sono divertito,
Laura

Konichiwa Japan!

Konichiwa Japan!

Watakushi-wa Laura, desu.

O hayou gozaimasu. O-genki desu ka?

Sayounara,
Tomadachi--Laura

Goede dag, Nederlands!

Goede dag, Nederlands! Hallo.

Hoe gaat het ermee? Glad to have you here!

Goede morgen!

Laura

Bonjour Paris!

Bonjour Paris! Je m'appelle Laura. Comment allez vous? Ca va?

Bien. Bonne Nuit!

Au revoir,
Laura

Shalom Israel! Zdravstvuite Russia!

Good Morning and shalom Israel! Glad to see you here stateside. Zdravstvuite Moscow! Nice to see you here!

Still need North Dakota to check in...

Hello--redux

sa-bai-dee Lao People's Democratic Republic!

Welcome to my blog.

Hello to South America and Good Morning to Europe and and Australia and New Zealand. Ola, Hallo, Dia duit, Salut, Hello, Hello eh, How's it goin' mate, Tena Koutou to all of you!

Hello New Mexico--glad to see you too!

Hello et.al.

Most of my readers are from the United States. How do I know this? My spidey senses, my mother's intuition, my second sight, my freaky mind meld ability, my ESP, my common sense, my wild hunches, my educated guesses, my feelings all tell me so. That, and my stat counter. Ha!

That's right--I'm completely plugged in here.

You know what else my stat counter has magically revealed to me? People from overseas are reading this right along with you guys from : Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, New York, Idaho, Utah, California, Washington, Minnesota, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Texas, Georgia, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Missouri, Colorado, Maryland, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Tennessee, Oregon, Arizona, Kansas, Idaho, Alaska, Indiana, North Dakota, District of Columbia, West Virginia, Rhode Island, Alabama, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Kentucky.

So I would like to say Good Morning and Hello to all my overseas visitors. In no particular order:

Ola Brazil, Hallo Germany, Dia duit Ireland, Hello United Kingdom, Salut Romania, Hola Chile, Hello eh, Canada, How's it goin' mate Australia, Tena koutou New Zealand! I'm glad you're all here. Welcome!

And if Brazil, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Romania, Chile, Canada, Australia and New Zealand can check in, maybe someone can give a shout out to New Mexico and Mississippi and South Dakota and have them check in too.

Oooooo! My spidey senses are tingling!!