A Quotation

This is an awesome quotation from "The Rise and Fall of Languages" by R.M.W. Dixon

There is one major myth in modern linguistics which is responsible more than anything else for the discipline losing contact with its subject matter, the study of languages. It goes as follows. There are essentially two types of linguist. The descriptivists, who do field work and write grammars. And the 'theoreticians' (i.e. the formalists, people working on non-basic theories) who do not gather data themselves but rather interpret it, from the point of view of their chosen formalism. The myth is that the work done by the 'theoreticians' is more difficult, more important, more intellectual, altogether on a higher plane than the basic work undertaken by the descriptivists.

This is wrong, from every angle. First of all, every person who describes a languages is also a theoretician; they have to be, to make any analytic deductions. Every point in a grammatical description is a theoretical statement, and must be justified by appropriate argumentation.

Books of the Year 2010

Once again it is time to put forth the list of all the books I read in the last year. If I don't write them down, I forget and then I wonder what I did all year. So, here it is. Title, author and date I finished it. Also there is a 'k' next to ones that I read on my kindle.

1. Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny 1/2
2. Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny 1/4
3. Sign of the Unicorn by Roger Zelazny 1/9
4. The Hand of Oberon by Roger Zelazny 1/11
5. Wicked: Memorias de una bruja mala by Gregory Maguire 1/15
6. The Courts of Chaos by Roger Zelazny 1/15
7. Trumps of Doom by Roger Zelazny 1/22
8. The Zoroastrian Faith: Tradition and Modern Research by S.A. Nigosian 1/30
9. Blood of Amber by Roger Zelazny 2/6
10. Sign of Chaos by Roger Zelazny 2/14
11. Infoquake by David Louis Edleman 2/22 k
    
12. Knight of Shadows by Roger Zelazny 3/1
13. Prince of Chaos by Roger Zelazny 3/8
14. Multireal by David Louis Edleman 3/19 k
    
15. Geosynchron by David Louis Edleman 4/16 k
    
16. Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb 4/21 k
    
17. Fool by Christopher Moore 4/28 k
    
18. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde 5/3 k
    
19. Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb 5/25 k
    
20. A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore 6/15 k
    
21. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum 6/15 k
    
22. Hijo de bruja by Gregory Maguire 6/19
23. The Sparrow: a Novelby Maria Russell 7/15 k
    
24. Palace Walk by Negeib Mahfouz 7/19
    
25. Breve historia de la literature espanola 7/27
26. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday 7/29 k
    
27. Introduccion a la linguistica hispanica 8/11
28. Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality by Christopher Ryan 8/21 k
    
29. The History of Latin America: Collision of Cultures by Marshall C. Eakin 8/25
    
30. Shaman's Crossing by Robin Hobb 8/25 k
    
31. Forest Mage by Robin Hobb 9/1 k
    
32. Renegade's Magic by Robin Hobb 9/16 k
    
33. Classroom Management for Middle and High School Teachers by Emmer 9/17
34. Classroom Instruction that Works by Marzano 9/19
35. Modern Arabic Literature by Paul Starkey 9/25
36. How Languages are Learned by Lightbrown and Spada 10/2
37. Supporting the Literacy Development of English Learners by Young and Hadaway 10/14
38. Introduccion a la literatura latinoamericana 10/18
39. The Venture of Islam Volume 1: The Classical Age of Islam by Hodgson 10/24
40. El Espejo Enterrado by Carlos Fuentes 11/2
41. Machine of Death by North, et al. 11/3
42. Shadowmarch by Tad Williams 11/11
43. Shawodplay by Tad Williams 11/19
44. Shadowrise by Tad Williams 11/28
45. La breve y maravillosa vida de Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz 12/4
46. Shadowheart by Tad Williams 12/10
47. Perdido Street Station by China Melville 12/15 k
    
48. Girl Power: the 90s Revolution in Music by Marisa Meltzer 12/16 k
    
49. Bite Me: A Love Story by Christopher Moore 12/21 k
    
50. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick 12/25
51. What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy by Gregory Maguire 12/26 k
    

Summaries:

• 7 books in Spanish
• 14 non-fiction
• a fuckton of sci-fi and fantasy
• 19 books read via kindle
  

Goals for 2011:
I'd like to keep up with reading books in Spanish. I think 9 is a good goal (this year's goal was 6, so goal surpassed). Also, especially with my Arabic CSET coming up, I'd like to read at least a couple books in Arabic. Inspired by io9's Blogging the Hugos series, I want to start reading through novels that have won the Hugo Award because I think that will be an interesting exercise in being well-read in sci-fi.

State of the Madness, Books of the Year

I haven't consulted a doctor or anything, but I may be dying from boredom. The last two months have reminded me why I don't like being in Redlands. There isn't really anything to do, not really any people in the 20-30 set (for the most part) and I pretty much have no friends. There hasn't been any circus practice to entertain me for the last couple weeks and I am snapping from the boredom and restlessnes.

Otherwise, I have applied to be a language analyst at the NSA, and I hope they get back to me soon. This would involve moving to Maryland, which I am, at this point, pretty okay with. To this end, i've been brushing up on Persian; I claimed to know it (they have a scale for self-reporting, but I still said I know some), so I don't want to make a total fool of myself. And I've made a head start on learning some more media arabic vocab.

I really wish I had some New Year's plans, but I don't. I know I want to drink myself into oblivion, to symbolicly obliterate the shithole that this past year has been. My current conundrum: wine or vodka? I'll have to decide soon, in any case.

And the moment you have all been waiting for, the list of Books I Read in 2009. I'm assuming I won't read anymore between now and the New Year. (listed is the title, author and date that I finished it)

1. Lost in a Good Book - Jasper Fforde
2. The Well of Lost Plots - Jasper Fforde 1/11
3. Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman 1/18
4. Islamic Historiagraphy - Chase Robinson 1/18
5. Something Rotten - Jasper Fforde 1/30
6. First Among Sequels - Jasper Fforde 2/9
7. Coraline - Neil Gaiman 2/11
8. New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish 2/26
9. The Princess Bride - WIlliam Goldman 2/27
10. The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin3/9
11. A Room with a View - E.M. Forster 3/14
12. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest -Ken Kesey 3/22
13. The Golden Trade of the Moors - E.W. Bovil 4/5
14. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood 4/7
15. The Scandals of Translation: Towards and Ethics of Difference - Lawrence Venuti 4/19
16. Malinche (Spanish edition) -Laura Esquivel 5/11
17. Stardust (Spanish edition) -Neil Gaiman 5/27
18. Empires of the World: a Language History of the World -Nicholas Ostler 5/28
19. This Side of Paradise -F. Scott Fitzgerald 5/31
20. The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women -Jessica Valenti 6/1
21. The Robber Bride - Margaret Atwood 6/7
22. Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement -Kathyrn Joyce 6/22
23. Anansi Boys: A novel -Neil Gaimna 6/25
24. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Ston (Arabic edition) 6/25
25. American Gods -Neil Gaiman 7/11
26. Female Chauvinist Pigs -Ariel Levy 7/15
27. Assassin's Apprentice -Robin Hobb 7/22
28. Royal Assassin -Robin Hobb 7/30
29. Assassin's Quest -Robin Hob 8/9
30. The Mystery of Edwin Drood -Charles Dickens 8/13
31. Ship of Magic -Robin Hobb 8/31
32. Mad Ship -Robin Hobb 9/16
33. El Laberinto de la Soledad y Otras Obras -Octavio Paz 9/22
34. Ship of Destiny -Robin Hobb 9/27
35. The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power -Jeff Sharlet 10/3
36. Fool's Errand -Robin Hobb 10/17
37. Golden Fool -Robin Hobb 10/24
38. Fool's Fate -Robin Hobb 10/27
39. The Magicians -Lev Grossman 11/16
40. From Eve to Dawn, a History of Women in the World Volume I: Origins: from Prehistory to the First Millennium -Marilyn French 11/7
41. Lost Boy -Brent Jeffs 11/8
42. Favorite Wife -Susan Ray Schmidt 11/14
43. Interworld -Neil Gaiman 11/16
44. Year of the Flood: A Novel -Margaret Atwood 11/21
45. Shattered Dreams -Irene Spencer 11/24
46. A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind -Michael Axworthy 12/7
47. The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future -Vali Nasr 12/12
48. Harry Potter and the chamber of Secrets (Arabic Editionh) 12/14
49. Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic -Ray Takeyh 12/21
50. The Blind Assassin: A Novel -Margaret Atwood 12/28
    

So these were the goals I set at the beginning of the year:
* 5 books in Spanish
* 4 banned books
* 4 books in Arabic
* 3 linguistics books
* 3 history books
* Read fiction from 3 authors that I haven't read before

In the end, I read 3 books in Spanish (and I'm halfway through Wicked: Memorias de una Bruja Mala), 2 in Arabic, I think one or two banned books, 2--arguably 3--linguistics books and 3 (4 depending on how you count) history books. That is better than I thought I did compared to my goals, so yay.

Trends: There was a lot of fantasy, largely in thanks to the Realm of the Elderlings series (all that Robin hobb). That is a testament to great marketing. I downloaded the first book for my Kindle because it was free, and then I bought EIGHT MORE books. So, good job, publishing house. I also took a pretty big interest in feminism, which is pretty new. A lot of books about fringe religious shit, both from a journalistic/research standpoint and in memoirs (FLDS memoirs, got kind of on a streak there).

Goals for 2010

I am aware that there are still two weeks left for 2009, but I am pretty ready to put this year behind me and I already have thoughts about next year. I am going to refer to my intentions for next year as "goals" rather than "resolutions" because when people set resolutions, they tend to not be serious, and New Year's resolutions have the connotation of something that you don't actually do. Without further ado, my goals for 2010. (oh-ten? twenty ten? ten? one-oh? How will we call this year?)

• Arabic. I need to keep up on what I already know plus I want to work on reading faster and learning more words for reading the news. This will probably mean reading several books, keeping up on the news and possibly memorizing all the words in "1000 words of media arabic"
• Spanish. Generally keeping up on it, and I want to expand my vocabulary.
• Farsi. If I feel like I'm keeping up on my Arabic and Spanish, I need to get that party started again.
  
• Juggling. By the end of the year, I intend to be able to juggle 5 balls. Maybe more. Like 7.
• Unicycling. Firstly, get my skills back up to where they were. After that, work on wheel walking and expand my jump roping into double dutch, assuming I can get some competent assistants.
  
• Reading. I think I'm going to set my goal at 50 books again for this year, since that seems like the amount I can read without reading to the exclusion of other activities (I'll post how this year's reading has gone soon). Also, 4 books in Arabic, 6 in Spanish and I'm not going to make any genre specific numbers because I never know which way my reading tastes will go over the year.
  
• Apply to grad school. Even if I'm not totally sure I want to go, I at least need to get in some apps so I have the option. This would be applying to start fall 2011.
  
• Get a real job. Seriously, I need a proper job.
  

What It Is

So I've been in California sunshine-land for a week now, which is pretty weird since it seems like I've done kind of a lot for it just being a week. One of the first things I did was paint my room; it's now a honeydew green sort of color. I have been meaning to take a picture, but I have to do it at night, otherwise my room is backlit like so much amateur photography.

I went to circus practice all week and I was surprised by the number of people who remembered me. Juggling has been the most fun so far, but I've also been to teeterboard, which has been overrun by young people. When I was in teeterboard, it was mostly adults, so I don't really know what happened, but it's one of many things letting me know that I am now old (in circus at least). Also, the kids in teeterboard keep texting and shit between turns, which I find objectionable. You can't tell me texting is more interesting than fucking teeterboard. I've also been showing up to cradle, but have so far been unable to do much. I lack the strength to even climb up to the damn thing, so I've mostly just been spotting.

On Friday I went to a cake decorating class. It's a four week class, but this first one was pretty boring. It had an infomercial-like quality to it, since you have to get all of your own decorating tools. This explained why it was so cheap to sign up for the class (only $22!). Naturally, I decided that I should just go all out and I bought the biggest, most absurd cake decorating kit I could find. So now I have about 18 tips, a number of bags, spatulas and more fondant tools than I know what to do with, but I figure now I'm set for a lifetime of decorating. For each of the other 3 classes, it's a bring-your-own-cake (BYOC) affair. You have to bring your own icing as well. Fortunately, I fucking love baking cakes, and have already picked out a bunch of recipies I want to do. I think this week I'll be starting with a sour cream poppy seed cake with white chocolate buttercream. I'll hopefully post a picture of it one I decorate it.

Being unemployed as I am, I've been reading a lot. This week I read The Magicians by Lev Grossman, which is about a 17 year old boy who ends up going to a 5 year magic college and then he and his friends find the secret to travelling between worlds and end up in Narnia Fillory. I read a few reviews about it after the fact and there seems to be some contention about whether Grossman was lampooning the genre or what. I, however, doubt that is was necessarily satirical. At this point, it's basically impossible to write a fantasy book without taking some cues from current fantasy lit, so I think he's just providing a nod to the exisiting works. I'd also argue that it's a more adult take on some of those themes. I just started reading Lost Boy by Brent Jeffs, to feed my voyeuristic obsession with the FLDS. I have like 5 books on my Amazon wishlist that are FLDS memoirs, and I'm not really sure why it's so fascinating, but it is.

books for 2009

Rather than make a new year's resolution, I'm making new year's reading goals.

• 5 books in Spanish
• 4 banned books
• 4 books in Arabic
• 3 linguistics books
• 3 history books
• Read 50 books total
• Read fiction from 3 authors that I haven't read before

And because I can, here is a list of all the books I readin 2008.
1. The End of Faith - Sam Harris
2. Lamb - Christopher Moore
3. The Yacoubian Building - al-Aswany
4. The Republican War on Science - Christopher Moony
5. No God But God: Egypt and the Triumph of Islam - Genivie Abdo
6. A New Introduction to Islam - Daniel Brown
7. What Went Wrong - Bernard Lewis
8. Neuromancer - William Gibson
9. Mirror Mirror - Gregory Maguire
10. Count Zero - William Gibson
11. Shadowplay - Tad Williams
12. Shadowmarch - Tad Williams
13. Bloodsucking Fiends - Christopher Moore
14. The Stupidest Angel - Christopher Moore
15. Mona Lisa Overdrive - William Gibson
16. You Suck - Christopher Moore
17. Stardust - Niel Gaiman
18. Island of the Sequined Love Nun - Christopher Moore
19. Freedom for the Thought that We Hate - Lewis
20. Fluke - Christopher Moore
21. The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove - Christopher Moore
22. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - Corey Doctorow
23. Practical Demonkeeping - Christopher Moore
24. A Game of Thrones - George RR Martin
25. A Clash of Kings - George RR Martin
26. A Storm of Swords - George RR Martin
27. The Translator's Handbook - Sofer
28. A Feast for Crows - George RR Martin
30. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers - Mary Roach
31. Sock - Penn Jillette
32. Wicked - Gregory Maguire
33. Son of a Witch - Gregory Maguire
34. A Lion Among Men - Gregory Maguire
35. The Age of American Unreason - Susan Jacoby
36. Letter to a Christian Nation - Sam Harris
37. The Professor and the Madman - Simon Winchester
38. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
39. What's the Matter with Kansas - Thomas Frank
40. The Dragon in the Sea - Frank Herbert
41. The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
42. Bonk: The curious coupling of science and sex - Mary Roach

A list of (previously) banned books that I want to read:

• 1001 Arabian Nights
• Catcher in the Rye (despite having read a bunch of salinger, i haven't read this one
• The Satanic Verses
• As I Lay Dying
• Doctor Zhivago
• Lady Chatterley's Lover
  

I think part of my reading goals for next year is going to read some banned books. Mostly for the sake of awesomeness. Looking at some banned book lists, it turns out I've read a lot of such books already