Thursday, July 20, 2006

The Freaky Inn

Wow, I just woke up and here I am trying to make the dream I had make sense.
There were some dead kids in it and... it was like a (whatelse is new) like a movie. It was a bit like those scary movies in which a bunch of people get themselves in trouble, but it was smarter, bc there was actually some mystery that had to be solved.

Ok, Dean, and I, and Jim, my aunt Lea, Marcus, and my little brother JP, who is 9.

I wonder why such a crazy crew got put together. Dean is my boyfriend. Jim is one of the best friends I have here in the U.S. . Auntie Lea is my favorite aunt. JP, I miss him more than life. But how did Marcus get in the story? Maybe bc he's been posting idiotic messages in the e-group; the guy is smart , can't deny that, but lately he's been a pain (in case you are reading this blog , Marcus, gee, sorry, man, but , but, but your emails are really sounding a little annoying, and I honestly got tired of arguing since you don't ever seem to see my point).

Anyway, it was the day before Brazilian independence day. We had to go in this really old house. Apparently it was my idea. It was kind of an inn, and we had to spend the night there before Independence Day. I remember going into everyone's room to see what they had and I did not. (that sounds like me , doesn't it? "Why do you have a brand new air conditioner here and I don't?" "Why does your bedding feels nicer than mine?" Why is it that the grass is always greener on the other side, eh! )

But the inn was quite freaky. And someone pointed out that this was the same inn where, years ago, some kids had died, 2 boys and a girl around 10 to 12 years old. And it seems like the girl's body was missing. No one ever found out why.
"Let's find it out." I said. "Let's go see the children."
Well, the way to the basement was blocked, but we did find our way down there, and found the two boys. We began to put the pieces of the puzzle together and found out how the kids got killed. Now, in my dream it made perfect sense... just that i do not remember it anymore. But the story was so freaky. Some crazy man, some sort of revenge or madness... Gee I really really do not remember. Some wild animal...? ... Now I am losing the thread.

But I was so upset because the girl's body was missing. "We have to find her, so she can rest in piece."

We went around the house getting clues and getting into traps, and we did find the girl's body, which I wanted to bury, but the rest of the gang said it wasn't right. I think my aunt said that. She had to be put with the other boys. "They all died together, they have to all stay together in death," something creepy like that. It made sense to me though. "Let's do it, guys!"

See, there was something about this girl that I really identified with. I think it was the fact that she was the only girl in a group of boys. That was always the case with me - it was always the boys and I. I remember my grandma complaining about that when I was little; she kept saying how I did not behave like a young lady. Gee, me - young lady? Let's face it... uh... no, never been one, always a tomboy.

So, to me she was a little version of me, and the more we found out about their tragic adventure, the more I thought how similar that was to the bunches of adventures my friends and I had wanted to get ourselves into. I sort of wanted her not to be dead. When we did find her body, I was heartbroken. That was not fair. And yes, there was some weird link between the two of us, bc I felt and saw weird things that led to our understanding their death.

"Let's get this over with."
We took the little girl to the basement and put her with the 2 litte boys, and I remember saying, "no child should have to die like that. They did not even know what killed them."

I started crying and Dean hugged me, and I think Marcus said we should get out of there asap, so no one would know we had gone there. No one? No one dead or alive? I think there was some haunting twist to the story, cuz I remember sort of feeling these cold shivers and we would be like, "what was that?" and sort of hoping that there was no curse related to it, or that their killer would not come after us... something crazy like that.

We ended up going to Jim's room... or JP's room? Whatever. We sat there and ate treats till we fell asleep. My guess is that we were all too scared to leave the room, bc I remember we were all talking about what would happen from then on, and how we should leave as soon as the sun was up, and all the time we were like "where's JP?" "Did you hear that?", and making nervous jokes, and, in the morning, when I opened my eyes, the lights were all on. Everybody had fallen asleep in the exact same position they were since the moment we walked into the room, no one had dared to move a muscle.

I woke up and saw that outside there was bright sunshine.

"Come on, people, come on, it is time to go! We will miss the parade!"

My aunt, Jp, Marcus and I grabbed a bunch of BRazilian flags and left the Inn. We took my car. I remember my aunt commenting on what a cute little car I had. Dean and Jim did not come... of course... Brazilian independence day. I don't know where they went, but we would meet them later somewhere else.

I guess that was it.

Friday, July 07, 2006

Simplified Spelling?

I was just readingthis article about the puch for simplified spelling. Tha article talks about the pros and cons of a more phonetic spelling, and about the movement in favor of a reform in English ilogical spelling.

It is an amazing topic to discuss, and I believe there are many advantages to a simpler spelling,but I have to agree with one of its opponents when he says that it is too much trouble for what it is worth. It is too much trouble because you cannot simply push a spelling reform down a people's throat. That would end up consfusing everyone's mind. Spelling changes happen naturally and gradually.

Radical changes only confuse the learners who are working hard to understand and solidify the rules they learned and are getting used to them, and the speakers of the language who already have an established idea of how sounds and letter combinations work. For instance donut instead of doughnut, thru instead of through. These changes were not imposed by a reform, some people just started using them and today they are pretty much accepted. They are not official spellings yet, but they are accepted and easy to understand at a first glance. They usually start entering dictionaries when they start being accepted in the academic world and used by writers.

A radical reform would confuse because it would simply disrupt the way people are used to reading and thus make the act of readig anything a task of decyphering phonetic sounds. Just pay attention to what happens when a child who is learning how to spell brings the grown up a piece of paper with a few letter jotted down - we have a hard time figuring out the words, because our eyes will look for the system we have in our minds.

Besides, pronounce changes from place to place, from state to state, from north to south, we all know that. The kids that are learning how to spell, will often spell using their region common pronounce. Which pronounce would be the offically chosen one massacrating and terminating all others in a very unfair elitism?

Language is something that belongs to the people, and it changes with the people. It can not be legislated upon by a small group, changed as pleased, and then announced as the "new way". CHanges happen, since the natural tendency of all of us humans is to simplify our language. it is the case with internet lingo (u, bc, r), it is the case with words that are not used anymore for being too long or too clumsy, it is the case with certain irregular past tenses and plurals. That happens in any language, as we have a lot of this in Brazil too. Just like spoken language changes, so does written language, but in a slower pace, keeping track of the past. Written language is language's way to save its history.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060705/ap_on_re_us/simpl_wurdz