April 20 Photo: On Your Mind

"On your mind:  Phrenology model

Ever since I learned that my great great grandfather, David Mulholland, had a phrenology skull reading done, I have been curious about the history of this pseudo-science of Victorian neurologists.

Here's some context of phrenology in Utah at the turn of the 20th century.  Taken from the article, Phrenology among the Mormons. 

In 1904, David Mulholland was one of the many visiting Nephi Schofield for analysis.  If you want to read his profile, the document is available here. You can learn about his practical nature, tendency towards benevolence to his own disadvantage and his unsuitability for business or commercial enterprise. Schofield concluded:

"Your mistakes in life will be mistakes of the head and not of the heart; and Christianity being true, your greatest reward will be reserved for a future life."

( I know this is late. I had the picture a week ago and posted on Instagram but I wanted to include the document and that held up the whole process.  The dam is now broken. Here come the last week's photos!)

Flickr Friday: Three of my favourite people

Three of my favourite people, originally uploaded by whistlepunch.

A month from now and these three will be together again. These are my sister`s kids and we all were touring around Chicago when this was taken.  It was great to be included in their family vacation  which included a trip to Nauvoo after some time in the windy city!

Actually the picture I wanted to share was one I just noticed as I've been sorting out my own digital files and that is this picture of my niece. I told my mom I would share it so here it is. Look at that - two pictures in a row without her pulling a silly face. (The girl loves to ham it up for the camera) She is now hobbling around with a fractured ankle so I won't get to go watch her play rugby. Too bad!!




My cousin is celebrating her 400th post on her blog. Go check it out here (but don`t bother to enter to win chocolates because I am going to win them this time.) But it got me thinking. This is my 276 post on this blog but if you add ALL my blogs together, it adds up to this being my 400TH POST!! She has been blogging more consistently than I have so mine are rather spread out over a longer time period. And if you read it carefully, she hit the target yesterday so the announcement post makes it 401. We didn`t tie after all.  Congrats to you, cuz!!

April 19 Photo: Button

The theme today is Button and while I was at Staples, I saw the easy button. They still sell this! Granted, it is worked, I would want to buy one. The idea is that when you have a problem, you press the easy button and the solution will appear. Presumably a stationary or office supply solution. If only it were real.

Here are the ads that inspired the actual product.  They get progressively weirder.









So if you want to buy your own easy button, you can at Staples. And this is what it will do for you.






Actually, do you know what is easy? Well, not pie! When some English as a Second Language students were asked to fill in a worksheet that included the line,

"As easy as ________________________________"

pie was not the number one answer.

My favourite answer? Spaghetti! Spaghetti is easy! Pie is not easy! So the next time you are tempted to say, "That was as easy as pie"... finish with a more appropriate response.

"That was as easy as spaghetti!"

It now seems like today's word was "easy". It was not. It was button...which is a noun. You should not say "as button as". So don't. The grammar lesson is now over.

April 18 Photo: Hello!

Hello, Jambo, Buenos dias, Aloha, Zdravei, Hola, Annyeong haseyeo!

This board is located in the reception area of the International Education office at Mount Royal University and represents the diversity of students we have had come through our department. Do you know all of these languages?  Greetings seem so simple but it isn't always what it seems to be. In the same way that the question, "How are you?' doesn't always signal a desire to hear the real answer, every language will present its own  cultural expressions that require more than a literal translation to navigate.

When I had just arrived in Korea and was just getting a basic conversational level of the language, I remember trying to respond with full explanations to the question "Have you eaten your rice today?"
"No, I usually start my day with tofu patties or cereal".
"No, I will be eating later after a few more appointments."
"Yes, I just finished having lunch. We had rice and panchan"
None of these were the appropriate answer to this greeting. It has a similar purpose to our questioning "How are you?" and the only appropriate response is "Yes, I have. Have you?"

(And when you do eat your rice, don't forget your kimchi!)

April 17 Photo: Busy

The classes may be empty but it doesn't mean the students aren't busy. The study areas are packed, every computer in the library is occupied and breaks during exam week may involve a visit to the puppy room, some bouncing in the bouncy castle, or hunting down the exam stress relief snack cart.

But mostly, they are somewhere squirrelled away -busy working.

My good friend has gone back to school (brave girl!) and she was busy - stayed late at work to be on her computer preparing her research paper to hand in tomorrow.

For my nephew, he was busy with his two partners preparing for their final class presentation worth 30% of their grade. Busy until very very late.

And being the amazing aunt that I am  :-) , to help him out,  I picked him up from the train station just minutes before midnight in case he had missed the final bus, brought him back to my place to shower (his bathroom is getting some repairs and so it is out of commission) and dropped him off at home for a few hours of sleep before he heads out very early tomorrow for last minute prep before the presentations begin. I remember late nights like his when I was finishing projects and know that any little bit of help makes the process easier.

Four more exams and he will be done with school. He's worked hard and I'm looking forward to see where his journey will take him!

Dropping off the clean boy at home sometime around 1:00 a.m.

April 16 Photo: Your Favourite Colour

I like bold, saturated colours. The main colours in my home are orange, red, and green. I was tired of living with renter's white for so long.  But now it feels a little like I live inside a circus tent. And I'm ready for some blue.  I've been talking about painting for a very long time. But painting is a project that I haven't had the time or energy to follow through on. One day. Maybe next week. (No, not really, I just fell into the Blondie lyrics)  

The only colour you probably won't see either on me or on my walls is yellow. Never. Not yellow. 

April 15 Photo: Alone

I have the word "alone" on a magnet at my desk at work. I bought a selection of magnets about books, English, and teaching from the Etsy shop 'Beanforest' for Christmas. So many fun magnets! The selection changes frequently.  I shared them with my workmates and have a selection for myself. The magnet below was wishful thinking. I probably volunteer less frequently these days but that is simply because I'm already juggling a full schedule with my professional organization and my condo board on top of work, teaching and church commitments.

That's it for today.

Replay

So after spending one night this weekend hanging out with one of my nieces, I got a text message Saturday from another niece asking what I was doing. She was bored (or so I took it from her next text which declared: "IM DOING NOTHING") and I seemed like her best option to change the situation. I'll take it! But then it was quite a back and forth to negotiate what the plan for the evening would be.

I didn't particularly feel like getting myself up and out in the snow, so I gave her the option to come over and then spend the night so she wouldn't have to drive home later. That seemed like a better plan than doing NOTHING and since it now included one of our traditions, making French Toast Raphael (from the Best of Bridge cookbook or online here) for breakfast the next morning, she was ready to come. The roads were becoming more and more treacherous and so her Dad graciously agreed to drive her over and pick her up for church the next morning rather than make her cancel her plans.

I managed to locate a few treats to round out the evening's movie snacks including the homemade chocolates from Christmas that were lost in the freezer, a happy surprise.

We attempted to watch a movie on Netflix, but when we were almost an hour in and had only seen 20 minutes because of constant buffering (although the Roger and Ebert style analysis between clips was entertaining) , we gave up on the wifi connection to the BluRay player and moved upstairs to the office to watch the rest on my computer.

Breakfast was a hit in the morning. The key is to make sure the dish puffs up and to cook until the middle has set.  Next time though - we can't forget the bacon!!

A fun weekend of time with two of my nieces.  I could do this every weekend!

April 14 Photo: Water

Another lack of inspiration for the theme so I am pulling something out of archives once again.

Sunset over the Mediterranean Sea - taken when returning to Alanya from the ruins in Perge, Turkey. 

Birthplace of Aphrodite, Pafos, Cyprus

In the foreground, you can see the Saracen Rock and in the background, Petra tou Romiou or Rock of the Greek. This is where legend tells that Aphrodite arose from the sea.

Last year, we had a challenge for "cold" on April 10 and I obviously didn't have the cooperation that the weather would have been today because I ended up with a picture of a glass of ice water, which you can revisit here. The only other water around here today was frozen into snowflakes so I hope these pictures make you think warm thoughts!