Interesting piece of research. Dialect Map of American English. It lays out what we have all known for awhile. That folks in other parts of the country aren*t speaking exactly the same language as you. But they take it a step further by outlining the influences on English in various parts of the country.

Three things are needed for a new dialect to develop: a group of people living in close proximity to each other; this group living in isolation (either geographically or socially) from other groups; and the passage of time. Given enough time, a dialect may evolve to the point that it becomes a different language from the one it started as. English began existence as a Germanic dialect called Anglo Saxon that was brought to England by invaders from Germany. The Anglo Saxon peoples in England were now geographically isolated from their cousins in Germany which allowed the dialects to evolve in different directions. Other invaders would also influence the development of English with their languages until the modern English we speak today has become so different from the modern German spoken in Germany that a speaker of one cannot understand a speaker of the other. Thus English and German are considered to be two different, though related, languages. The other modern languages in this family are Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic.

Scott Andrew poses a great idea today.

I wonder if there*s a market for a CD of Tuning Songs, where the tracks are just the artist tuning and the crowd reaction to whatever excuse pops out of the artist*s mouth at the time.

Now, I*ve seen enough live acts to know that there has to be a market for this. In fact, I would pay money just to hear a compilation of Stu*s best tuning moments.

I know, its been done to death. But Sun Tzu*s Art of War is a remarkable work and the basis for a large number of philosophical, military, logical, and other works. So here, in gloriously unadorned HTML is Art of War.

Read it and know that your enemies will tremble.

Every week about this time Gregg Easterbrook puts out Tuesday Morning Quater Back which gives an overly analytical and sarcastic look at the week*s performances in the NFL. I*m all for over analyzing and sarcasm so I never miss it.

errorwear offers a great selection of t-shirts for the digitally inclined on you shopping list. Really, these are just brilliant.

So last night in one of those late night TV binges that I undertake several times per week I saw something I don*t think I*ve ever seen before. An ad for the DVD box set of the first season of 21 Jump Street. Now, I am conflicted enough about this all by itself. Jump Street was a fun show to watch when I was in high school. I thought it was really cool actually. But its not something that ages particularly well. And seeing a young Johhny Depp doing TV schlock is a bit hard to take since I consider him the best actor of his generation.

But all of that was forgotten at the end of the commercial when, instead of a tag line, I was hit with “Promotional consideration provided by *insert local Harley dealership here*.”

What? Since when did commercials need their own sponsorship? And how low rent must the distributors on this thing be if they can*t even buy thier own spots?

Be afraid, be very afraid.

(By the By if you want the DVDs, they are available on Amazon)

So this weekend we went to see Sideways and thoughroughly enjoyed it. Not your typical buddy flick. This one hurts sometimes and stretches credibility a bit towards the end. But I laughed out loud several times and there are a few exceptionally well done scenes that really convey a lot without having to hit you over the head with it.

Thomas Hayden Church (yes, that guy from Wings) takes a great turn as the womanizing part time actor and Paul Giamatti proves once again that angst ridden balding middle aged men can be interesting.

Don*t go expecting to feel good for the whole movie. Depending on your opinion of the characters, the ending will leave you feeling good but I wouldn*t say its a guarantee. It should also be noted that my fiance mentioned that the characters reminded her of extreme versions of Jason and I. Not the most flattering comparison ever made.

All in all, worth the trip to the theater.

I am almost ready to add the RSS feeds for the blog and blog comments. Should have them in place this weekend along with a new homepage that will have sort of a site summary instead of the blog entries.

Other things I am working on for the site include
-getting my music section back up in some form
-prettying up the gallery some more
-adding a countdown clock for upcoming events.

Anyway, these are my goals. Who knows what may actually happen.

After years (nay, decades) of waiting, the Hitchhiker*s Guide to the Galaxy is coming to a theater near you May 6 2005. See the preview. Visit the site. Mark your calendars. This may be important enough for me to add a countdown clock to the site.

First Lord of the Rings and now this. It is good to be a geek in the 21st Century.

Fun little page from Birthday Alarm which tells you how popular your name has been over the last several decades. How popular are you? Looks like *Levi* is making a big comeback which means that there are a lot of little boys with my name and almost noone my own age.