Engrish

Ok, before you think I'm being rude, this is the official name of the type of English some native Chinese speak, and I do mean some because I know that some natives speak beautiful English. I was watching a very funny British talk show last night and I found out that the Chinese are making a concerted effort to change the signage in the country so that the English is better because of the Olympics. I'm sure you have all seen some of the funny pictures from tourists with very funny translations. Many of them have been passed around via emails. Well, this show told me of a website engrish.com which has a whole lot of pictures. SO, I went. This is a sampling of what you might find there. Some of these, seriously, had me crying. There are others there that many of you will find very funny that I deemed inappropriate for this family friendly page; even though they are just silly, innocent mistakes ;)!

I decided to let the signs do the talking and I left my humor out of it (maybe in an effort to show respect for others' mistakes), but please feel free to make your own punchlines.

Ok, I did it...and I admit it!

I got up this morning, went for a short run, ate breakfast and then went to the 1030 showing of Wall-e. Yes, I am old enough to be taking children to the show but I stood in line with parents surrounded by their little ones and their little ones' friends at the first showing of the day. I have been totally excited for this for a while now. I won't say anything about it, because I bet the less you know the better it will be. I would, however, suggest it to all on that hot day, or the humid day, or the rainy day (kind of like today here); just pick up the kids and enjoy the air-conditioning.

I will say: I can't wait for the DVD! :)

Don't mess with mother nature

Alright! I finally got this to work! So one night a few weeks ago, we were warned that a really big storm was a-comin'. It was to hit us about midnight (which it did). Well, I couldn't get to sleep, who could with the knowledge that the biggest storm of the season was coming. So, I got online and looked up one of my favorite weather sites and found this moving at us at about 55mph. (I am about where the "e" is in Pittsfield.)

Then I got my camera out...(turn up the volume, it sounds cool!). I like this one because you will see a big flash and a CRACK very quickly after...then you see the camera shake and you hear me laugh. I'm laughing because I was really startled by it and it was funny to me (at midnight remember!)



This vid is a bit longer and has a good one at the beginning at one at the end. And you can see that I have gotten used to the CRACKS...the camera doesn't flinch. You will also hear that the wind picked up quite a bit.

This storm lasted a bit over an hour. We have since then had several storms (in fact, yesterday was the only one in the last ten during which we had NO rain! Now, to me, that is weird, whereas when these videos were taken, it was exciting.)

Well...

I have no idea who this is, but I thought the picture was priceless! (because of the dog, of course.)

I've put up a few posts recently, but people, NOT MY TOTALLY COOL FRIENDS, random, rude people have put up comments that were not appreciated. SO, I had to delete them. Since then I have found a great way to screen my comments, so only my friends can make their presence known! So keep 'm coming.


But what that means is that I'm back on line...woo hoo. I actually did make two posts that haven't made it because I had some videos to post of my experiences that were too big and they wouldn't load. I've been trying to make them smaller, but that was just taking up too much of my time, so I figured the posts weren't necessary. But this one is...yes, it is the return of the crime update in my area. This one is for the animal lovers out there...

Tuesday June 10th, 6:28am
A black bear seen on Wildflower drive was eating from a bird feeder. At 5:08 om, Teaberry lane residents reported bear cubs in the trees and trying to get at bird feeders. Residents were advised to remove the food source. (and how about staying inside?)

How about some traffic?
The railroad crossing signals on Main street were activated, though no train was coming. (Sounds like a great opening line for a scary movie or book!)

A vehicle parked on the sidewalk on South Prospect street checked out OK. (what does that mean? Yep, four tires, a steering wheel, all windows intact...yep, looks like a car to me Sarge!)

A man crawling in the middle of south pleasant street was gone when the police got there. Three an a half hours later he was located and warned about his activity. (WOW, he must have been a really fast crawler, 3.5 hours later they caught up with him! And what did they warn him about...you know, if you crawl across the street cars won't be able to see you, mister. No really? Or was it about the holes he would get in his pants if he kept doing that and how is mom would get mad having to patch them up again!)

A hole that formed next to a storm drain on Blossom lane didn't appear to be a traffic hazard (you should see the roads out here. I'm sure they say that about all the holes, but motorists may beg to differ! Besides, there are so many, how could they just be worried about THIS ONE!)

Ok how about some disturbances:

lots of people got in fights and were warned to keep it down or they were not found. Many were told at 10:02pm to keep the music down. But this one is my favorite:

Sunday June 15, 11:57pm
A verbal warning was issued by police to Gary Street residents yelling while watching the NBA FINALS! (I have nothing more to say here to make this any funnier!)

Suspicious Activity:
There were a lot of teenagers in places where they shouldn't have been (school's out), but this one is good...
Police warned a woman dropping water balloons onto her friends from and apartment above Ben and Jerry's to stop the activity. (Woah now, we must stop these childish behaviors. I bet her "friends" called her in because they just couldn't reach her with their water balloons.)

ok, here's another good one:
11:34 pm A person playing basketball at wildwood school was gone when police got there. (ok, I think people around here have too much time on their hands...reporting someone playing basketball. Now I know, it can be the first step to drug use, look at the NBA, and that it is late, but come on.)

This place is certainly not void of entertainment. Enjoy!

Adventures in bicycling

Well, yes, another biking story. (I figure they are better than...so there I was, in my office reading an article. Then I spend a half an hour reworking just one sentence of my IRB proposal. SEE, not so exciting!) So...today I decided to add a bit of newness to a ride I have done several times this spring already. I looked on google maps and found my "path." Well, true to google map form in New England; it was wrong. The road that was such a wonderful plan turned out to NOT have a bridge that crossed over RR tracks. In the yellow circle is where the adventure was. So, being the silly person I am, I passed through the barriers saying the ROAD ENDED, rode to the END of the road, and looked across to the other END OF THE ROAD. Noticing there was a very well worn path down the embankment on my side and up the other, I picked up my road bike, scurried across the double railroad tracks and up the other side. Funny thing: I noticed SEVERAL other road bike tracks in the dirt just as the trail met the road. :)

I wanted to show you guys...

So we started Mountain BIKE Mondays today. Today was only two of us, but we are hoping to get more involved (one guy said he was coming then said he got hurt this weekend...so maybe next week we'll have three!). But we left from school and took off on our mountain bikes and I just wanted to show you where we went in relationship to my office and my house. It was 12+ miles of which only about 3 were on the pavement. 3334 ft of climbing, GREAT downhills and typically easternly technical! VERY FUN! Oh and it was 77 degrees with a slight 10-13 mph wind...perfect day! Sorry no pictures...maybe next time. Oh and there was this gnarly hike-a-bike section that was on a cliff with major boulders we had to climb over. GOOD TIMES!