jajaja A’ight, well I’m sure that title got you more excited about what I’m going to say than you actually will be once you read it - sorry :P

Aaaanyway… Due to unforseen circumstances, I had to create a new tumblr in place of this one (mainly email address issues…. )and yadda yadda yadda… it’s the same as this one (same name, same posts), but it’s at a different url…. 

So if you wouldn’t mind, I can haz teh followsies?? :)

www.randomnesscubed.tumblr.com 

:)

kthnxbai

Hey! :) Thanks for following!! 

I don’t normally come across many other LCMS peeps anyway, so that’s awesome that you are too!! :D - Thanks, I appreciate that you’re willing to take the time to read through some of my posts whenever I get around to actually posting things! :D jaja I’m very glad to have you as a follower! :) and I think I may just have to follow you back as well jaja

For all of you who don’t know already, I’m obsessed with languages, and the Spanish language pretty much riding at the top of my favorite languages list.  

Anyway, that’s what brings me to this issue… I like to follow the news from many news organizations in spanish, and I tend to see the typical: fights, cops, murder, fire, cats stuck in trees, etc etc etc.  But I came across something that really caught my eye the other day…

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/i/griega/llamara/ye/elpepucul/20101105elpepucul_9/Tes

This article goes into describing how the Spanish language is undergoing some changes.  But not in an evolutionary sense like a development of a language overall, but rather immediate changes that will be taking effect soon.

The RAE (Real Academia Española - The Royal Spanish Academy) is an entity that is in charge of preserving and taking note of the development of the Spanish Language.  Pretty amazing, right?

Well, the RAE has decided recently that a few changes will be made to the Spanish language…. 

- You know that lovable little letter “Y”? Well it has been called “i-griega” (Greek “i”) for quite some time… Well now, it is called “ye”, as in the actual sound it makes instead of just a random title… Makes sense

- “Ch” and “Ll” aren’t letters anymore in the alphabet. :( - I can see where they’re coming from though… I mean… all that “Ch” is is just a “C” and an “H” and “Ll” is just two “L”s anyway…

so first “Y” changes name, now two letters are gone? My alphabet song I learned in Spanish 1 is no good now I guess… sigh…. 

- pronouns such as: este/éste, esta/ésta, estos/éstos, estas/éstas, solo/sólo, etc will no longer have accented and non-accented counterparts… they will only be without accent marks (i.e. éste/este —> este)

- some other words won’t have accent marks anymore either… guión, huí, riáis, Sión, truhán, fié will all drop their accent marks - that hiatus of a couple vowels that used to sit in the middle of a single syllable word will now drop their accent marks…

- The accent over “o” (or) between numbers (i.e. 4 ó 5)  will no longer be necessary… Honestly, I never put an accent mark over the “o” ever before anyway… so this doesn’t really affect me…

- And as if you thought the fun would never end, here’s one more change - The letter “Q” may now only be used to have a “K” sound when before “-ue” or “-ui”… Anytime else (i.e. before “a” or even “ua”) you must use a “C” or a “K”.   So now words like: “Iraq”, “Qatar”and “quórum” will be written as: “Irak”, “Catar” and “cuórum”. 

There you have it… These minor changes to the language apparently are taking effect right now as we speak, and are the sign of the new proper Spanish to use.  If you don’t use these new rules, the RAE will be all over your butt making sure you use it right the next time. jajaja :P

I know that title seems a little strange - but let me describe my need for such a title…

Ok so… This year I’m almost completely burnt on Christmas already… Well… (Commercial) Christmas… As sad as that may sound, hear me out…

Normally, stores stock the shelves with Christmas decorations just after Halloween, the radio starts playing Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving, and Christmas goodies are sold anywhere from the start of November until Christmas day.  

This year, however, shelves were stocked with decorations in late-July, Christmas music started playing a full week and a half before Thanksgiving, and Christmas gifts and the like were being sold everywhere from the start of October.  As great as Christmas is, I’m almost already over it… Afterall, it’s been Christmas-time for over a month already apparently!!

I enjoy driving around and looking at Christmas decorations.  However, without trying to spot them out, I’ve been seeing them now for the last half a month practically.  And the number of decorated houses has been steadily increasing every day for the past week.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it just seems soo early for me… and it wasn’t even Christmas-time yet.  Heck! Thanksgiving hadn’t even come by the time I saw all these houses.

Typically, I love listening to Christmas music.  It’s always so happy, cheerful, gives me the warm fuzzies, and the usual associated with such music.  Since the music started early this year, my mind wasn’t in the right mindset from the beginning (or rather, I wasn’t necessarily mentally prepared to hear the same 10 songs over and over in the 17 versions that exist of each).  So, I just haven’t had the chance to set myself up to be in the mood.  I was just bombarded with it all at once. (And it doesn’t help that I was stuck in a car for 3 hours the Saturday before Thanksgiving where the only music heard was Christmas music…)

I hate that I’m feeling this way, but I can’t help it - Christmas-time is normally only 1 month anyway (after Thanksgiving until Dec. 25th), so obviously this year it’s been here for quite some time already…  and it’ll still be here for another month!

Yeah… granted, this may just be how I’m feeling right now, and this may very well change over the coming weeks… but this Christmas cheer thing is getting on my nerves already - there’s only so much a pessimist/cynic can take before going crazy (even though I normally break out from those titles around the holidays because, let’s face it, this time of year is great! normally….)

Oh well… 

In the end, none of this really matter… The real reason for Christmas is what should be celebrated and enjoyed anyway.  Even though I’m burnt on all the things associated with Christmas, I’m still focused and joyous in the birth of my Lord, Jesus Christ.  Since I am Christian, I believe He is my Lord, and this day is a day to be celebrated.  Anyway… I’ll stop wasting your time with all of this… :P Have a happy and joyous Christmas season! :) (Commercial and/or otherwise)

So you can understand where I’m coming from for this blog, here’s a little bit about me with respect to the 3 foci of this blog:

Language: I’m basically a linguistics and language nerd - I’m pretty much obsessed with languages.  I can speak English (1st language), Spanish (learned in school), Portuguese and Italian (taught myself both).  I’m currently re-teaching myself Esperanto, and will soon re-start Russian.  One day, I’ll learn at least one Native American language, German, Arabic, Farsi, and possibly languages like Swedish, Dutch, Japanese and the like… (maybe even Na’vi ;) )  Some say I’m a little too ambitious when it comes to learning languages, but I say you can never know too many!! jajaja :P  I am also a linguistics nerd, specifically with respect to phonetics and phonology.  I don’t fully understand my obsession, but all I can say is that I love it. 

Politics: Here’s where it becomes a little polarizing… I am Conservative.  End of story.  I may be a registered Republican, but that doesn’t even serve to describe my political affiliations much anymore… The Tea Partiers seem to align more with how I think and feel sometimes than others normally associated with the GOP.  Aaanyway… I’m socially and fiscally Conservative.  Liberals tend to set me on edge and make me want to grind my teeth (*cough Obama cough*).  However, this does not mean I totally ignore the other side at all.  I much prefer to listen to what they have to say, so as to understand their position.  All I ask in return is that they do the same.  In any case, any political posts will contain my opinion (mine and mine alone!!!) so it is natural that you may or may not agree with me to whatever varying degrees.  We may even start a discussion or a debate on issues if there seems a need or an interest to do so. :)  Bring it! It’s on! :P 

Randomness: Exactly what it means… Randomness… Other things I’ll post or discuss will not have much (if anything) to do with the above two topics… so therefore, they shall be deemed random.  And besides, I am a fairly random person as it is - just ask anyone that knows me… Heck! Just ask anyone that has ever met me! They can all attest to this!  Anyway, I’m random, and a bit weird, so I just might post some random stuff here for all to enjoy!

Welcome to my blog, Randomness Cubed (R³).

Hello, I’m Jimmy! Nice to meet you. :)

Before I go on to start this thing… first, here’s a little about who I am:

I’m a 2nd year Spanish Lit major and Linguistics minor at UC Irvine.  I: love languages (if you can’t already tell from my major/minor….), enjoy messing around in Photoshop (a little guilty pleasure), am Lutheran (LCMS - Lutheran Church Missouri Synod to be exact), politically lean to the Right (quite Conservative if I do say so myself), and am fairly crazy/strange/random/nuts/etc. jaja :P  That’s me in a nutshell… kinda…

Back to business now.

Here you will find random posts (hmm… go figure) concerning Language (and Linguistics), Politics, or just random discussion of things that crop up in my life or mind (3 categories… cubed… 3… get it?…. ok, that was lame…) jaja :P

But yeah… anyway - Enjoy! I’m hoping I will enjoy this as well considering this is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this.  Let’s just consider this an experiment and see where it takes us… yes? Ok. Good. :)