Speech Communities and Cultures

Speech communities are tied to different cultures. I belong to a few different communities just as I belong to different cultures. For instance, I am a Southern California girl who says "like" and "I was all..." in place for more standard English. I also say um a lot. I can go between more formal ways of speaking, and I can talk in "supermarket lingo" as well as science talk. I can switch between all without having to think. I can analyze where I am and who I am with to decide what is appropriate, but sometimes there is slippage. Usually I get looks like, "What are you talking about?" Sometimes I even get told to not talk that way because it's like I am trying to sound smart (usually my mom when talking about science). She sees this as me trying to assert my knowledge that she does not possess over her to make her feel less than I am, which is not the case. I am not trying to sound smart. I just forget the different communities sometimes and have trouble keeping them separate in a way that is neutral to others.

So I guess I am not always neutral as I could be.

All of this is acquired, and all of this is arbitrary. I can say I am facing an aisle, and while I mean I am pulling product forward to make it look nice and full, to someone who has no insight into this language, I am speaking Latin to a Japanese citizen. The word face has so many meanings. It can be the face of a person or part of a geometric figure. I did not know what face meant in this context until I worked for a grocery store, and even then it only came after I was promoted to a GM clerk who stocked shelves. I learned this from what people said. I was able to pick up on the meaning just as I was able to discern the terms power panel and u-boat. This is all very specific to a culture and something I picked up and now use on a semi-daily basis.

Isn't it cool when school ties in with real life?

An Unfortunate Difference

The difference between being a science major and being a social science major, for me, sucks. Reading and getting info and being able to apply it is nice and all, but give me adventures in the field over papers and notes. In populations biology, we went camping twice and hiked into a canyon for five weeks. We got wet and dirty (and some of us sunburned). Hands on is just so much better. The nature of the social sciences, though, is different, I understand that. I just miss it. Guess I have to try and remedy that myself. Just because I don't have classes that go into nature and observe doesn't mean I can't for fun.

So that's where it stands, I guess.

Collide

--Howie Day

The dawn is breaking
A light shining through
You're barely waking
And I'm tangled up in you

I'm open, your closed
Where I'll follow you'll go
I worry I won't see your face
Light up again

Even the best fall down sometimes
Even the wrong words seem to rhyme
Out of the doubt that fills my mind
I somehow find you and I collide

I'm quiet you know
You make a first impression
I've found I'm scared to know
I'm always on your mind

Even the best fall down sometimes
Even the stars refuse to shine
Out of the back you fall in time
Somehow find you and I collide

Don't stop here
I lost my place
I'm close behind

Even the best fall down sometimes
Even the wrong words seem to rhyme
Out of the doubt that fills your mind
You finally find you and I collide

Euprymna scolopes

What is your favorite marine animal??


Euprymna scolopes is a small (to just 35 mm ml) sepiolid squid endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. While nocturnal like other sepiolids, it is unusual in that it ranges into very shallow water just 2-4 cm deep. Most other sepiolids are found in relatively deep water.

E. scolopes can be found at night nearshore over sand flats by wading with a light or lantern or snorkeling with a dive light. During the day it buries itself in the sand. When it emerges from the sand it keeps a "sand coat" on its dorsal surface which is presumed to give it camouflage when attacking prey. The sepiolid is relatively short-lived, just 3-10 months from egg to its semelparous death. Eggs are 2.0 mm in diameter and laid on the undersides of coral ledges in shallow water. Paralarvae grow very fast; Hanlon et al. (1997) found E. scolopes to breed and lay eggs in the laboratory just 2 months after hatching from the egg. Juveniles are frequently found with adults in shallow water. Adults are sometimes trawled offshore in mid-water in depths to 138 fathoms. They have been reared in the laboratory on live shrimp in Hawaii and on mysids at Woods Hole.

It has been proposed that E. scolopes can become an easily-reared cephalopod for laboratory research projects. Numerous laboratory studies have been done researching its symbiotic bacterium Vibrio fischeri which lives in the sepiolid's light organ to produce a weak light under the body of the animal. This gives it counter-shading and camouflage from predators.

Some of the things I love about the original Pokemon

-Dexter
-The randomness
-The Japanese culture references
-Misty (sans Togepi)
-actually seeing Ash learn and become better
-Team Rocket not being annoying and repetitive
-the original Team Rocket motto
-the original VA cast
-Misty vs. Ash
-Ash and Gary’s rivalry
-“Whose that Pokémon?” (original version)
-Pikachu’s Jukebox
-the original 151 (plus the next 100)