Foundation for Endangered Languages

Another weird fact about me that I'd like to sprinkle upon you: 
I am studying Welsh!
Don't even ask why! Though, as a child, I smashed into a wall while biking resulting in a lovely scar on my forehead, which might be the cause for all my weirdness. I just find it highly interesting that the demise of rare languages is partly due to globalisation and the need for people to speak mainstream languages in order to work or travel. Discussions about general topics such as politics, sports or economics don't interest me much. Boring as hell. I'd rather have a firm discussion about saving the world's endangered languages. But is it worth keeping alive dialects that are sometimes only spoken by a handful of people?

I've already mastered the beginnings of the Finnish language so I was in need for another language. My conditions were that the new language must meet certain requirements. It had to be a language that sounded like the Elvish language from Lord of the Rings. It had to be spoken by less than a million people. And it had to be spoken in or close to Europe. Preferably a Celtic language. The chosen language: Welsh!

I guess it just has to do with my love for England and the British humor. Since I've already mastered the English language to some degree, I started to expand my knowledge with Welsh.
Welsh/Cymraeg is a Celtic language, pronounced as [kəmˈrɑːɨɡ] which sounds very magical and fairy-like, I think! Welsh is spoken by approximately 500.000 people of the 3 million inhabitants of Wales, so about 20% speaks Welsh.
But I am not gonna bore you with facts that can be found on Wikipedia. The British comedian Jimmy Carr can tell you much better how the Welsh language exactly is originated anyway.
Jimmy Carr on Welsh language

My first lesson in Welsh was telling time: Chwech o'r gloch (it is six o'clock). Than I learnt how to introduce myself: Yr wyf yn tylwyth teg Cymraeg. (I am a Welsh fairy). Are you a cat or a dog person? Ci or cath?

Languages are beautiful!
Learning a new language takes patience, a lot of patience and perseverance. It takes time and effort to become a "skilled language user." But you have to start somewhere if you are going to get anywhere. Ask me how much 7 x 8 is and I fail. Ask me how much these tomatoes costs and I will tell you! Knowing a foreign tongue and applying it tastefully is undeniably attractive. It implies education, good taste, and refinement. And it will certainly make you standout against the competition!

In life you meet foreign people who speak weirdness, until you understand their weirdness! I have been influenced and taught by different boyfriends from different countries and cultures. I have had an Italian man and we shared this secret Italian language. No, they were not corny Italian pickup lines. He taught me standard phrases that we used when speaking to each other. But I never understood anything else that an Italian friend of his said.
Than came along this South African boy where I spoke Afrikaans with. Afrikaans is such a sweet and poetic language. Heerlik!
And ofcourse I know Finnish, due to many Finnish friends and lovers.

"Jykevää on rakkaus... ja elämä on hauras."
"Sydämeni on rikki, taas.
Ironista kyllä​​, se on kokonaan minun syytäni."
"Tuuli tuule sinne missä muruseni on
Leiki hetki hänen hiuksillaan
Kerro rakkauteni, kerro kuinka ikävöin
Kerro, häntä ootan yhä vaan"

So, learning a language doesn't only increase your global understanding, it also makes you appreciate your native language more. Learning a language gives you a variety of learning skills which can enhance your ability to function in other areas such as mental flexibility, creativity, reasoning and other important life skills.
To my opinion it is also effective to handle new situations which is a pro to adapt and cope in this rapidly changing world which globalises tightly. You learn to deal with unfamiliar cultural ideas, that leads to tolerance of divers lifestyles and customs. It improves the learner's ability to understand and communicate with people from different parts of life. And it creates travel opportunities!

My next language study will be: sign language.

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An orange colored orange

Fruit is the best among the different food types. Fruit is fruity!
Fruit is extremely healthy and nutricious. Fruit is handy and it can be eaten everywhere at any time. In the morning, as an in-between snack, in the car, at work, as lunch or as a dessert. It can be eaten directly, without the trouble of cooking it or whatever, after you washed off the creepy bugs. Sometimes you have to peel off the skin and occasionally you'll have to use a knife to get to the juicy flesh.
Another positive side of fruit is that it is tasty, colorful and the variety is endless. There is this perfect sort of fruit for every man to his taste.

I am a fruit junkie. I like all types, tastes and structures. I cut the fruit into dice, eat them straight up or mix it in the blender with yoghurt.
Personally I dislike apples and I really don't like avocado's. Everything else I eat in major quantities. But my true hate is towards oranges. I do love and eat oranges, but there is just something really tedious about oranges. They are unreliable, annoying and odd looking. And I will tell you why.

First of all you never know if an orange is ripe or rotten. After a couple of days banana's start to show brown spots, to tell you that they really should be eaten as soon as possible. Apple's get this greasy texture. Grapes start to show aging wrinkles, as do peaches and cherries. Kiwi's become soft and you can tell when a melon is ripe when it has this sweet smell. But with an orange you never know!

Oranges just really don't care, they don't! They are selfish and unreliable. An orange doesn't change, they stay the same with their annoying orange color.
The quality and taste of an orange is inconsistent as well. With the other fruits the taste is consistent, but with an orange you never know how they taste. They can be sweet and juicy or completely dry and tasteless or sour as hell.
Another annoyance is that ridiculous orange color. Most likely I started to dislike the color orange due to the fact that every Queens Day the whole country turns orange. Same as with the european and world championship of football. Everyone is orange. Objects are orange. Whole streets are decorated in orange plastic things. Frankly it is quite scaring. Like some people have childhood fears from the clown It, I have horrors from the color orange. And lets be honest here, try on an orange t-shirt, it is massively unflattering. Unless you are an overweight beer drinking football fan who hasn't showered in three days.

But seriously, an orange doesn't do anything. It just sits there in the fruit basket all day. Fooling you. With it's hidious orange color. Seducing you. Making you want an orange but never know what to expect from it.
They all look luscious, and you are hopeful when you pick on up thinking "oh, this orange is fruity and looks good", but they can shatter your hopes by being dry and sour.

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Deletion syndrome

On October 13th I posted the following poem on my Facebook profile:

Websites he bookmarked: DELETE
Old photo's: DELETE
Facebook page: DELETE
Emails in Hotmail: DELETE
Mobile number: DELETE
His stuff in my house: DELETE
If only he could be so easily deleted out of my heart.

The first "like" came from my roommate. Jeeey someone likes my poem! I was euphoric. A comment followed from my best friend which I commented back on, but this comment made me suspect he meant something else. Then, two weeks ago I was at another good friend's place. A man who I was involved with a couple of years ago and still remain good friends, because he is a writer and he helps with writing and with life. He reads everything I write. Even the shitty drafts and scribblings to help me along with an idea or structure of the text. He even fixes my grammar! It would be needless to say that of course he also read this specific poem. And it is needless to say that he thought it was about him.

This triggered my mind to connect a few dots, so now, here comes the fun part and pay close attention:

My friend thought it was about my beloved one who died four years ago. My roommate thought it was about another roommate, where I was sexually involved with, who recently moved out of the flat. And my ex-lover slash editor thought it was about himself.

Now here comes the meaning of this poem which will clarify all and eliminate (DELETE) any other theories: This is a poem that is about me cleaning up my computer!!!

On October the 12th I was cleaning up my computer and my external hard disk. When I wanted to empty the recycle bin it said: "Are you sure you want to permanently delete all of these items?" The number of items was 5317(!). I was fascinated by the high number. Did I really had so much old junk on my computer? Apparently so, yes. And I still was not done. The second cleaning spree consisted of 780 items. Currenlty the recycle bin holds 635 items awaiting to be deleted.

I mostly threw out old photo's, music, documents and bookmarked websites. Then I started thinking what else can you delete? Or is it better to use the word "remove". No, it has to be delete because deleting is permanent, whether removing is just placing it to another side of the room, or store it in the basement. I also had the sentence "Dust in my house: DELETE". But that is just not possible, now is it! You can not delete dust, it will always come back. Like headaches. You can take an aspirin but eventually you suffer from headache again. If I had chosen the word "remove" I could've used it, though.

Then I started thinking what else can you delete? Your email inbox, contacts in your mobile phone, Facebook "friends" etc... And then I accidentally linked it to the relationship context. 90% of songs, poems and tales are always about love and all it's misery and heartaches.

In the end it is just how you interpret the stories and songs and how you put your own experience and feelings into them.

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Ain't no bitch for you to fuck

Personally I am greatly defined/controlled/inspired by music. It can change my mood rigorously and completely.
Everyone has their favorite all time song. And I'm sure we all have a theme song for our life. A song for periods you shared with certain people, or which reminds you of a specific place such as a sunny holiday or event. Or certain people, such as a boy or girlfriend. Or just a song that always gets played while you are in the club with your friends.
When a song instantly reminds you of something or someone you will cherish that song for ever and always. Or, if it was a bad person or awful experience, you will ultimately hate that song to it's core.
But what if a song gives you a feeling that still has yet to come? A song which will inspire you and gives you strength to start a new period in your life? Those songs will become your theme song.

Somewhat a week ago I was at my parents house, located in a quiet suburbian area just outside of a bigger city. It was a fine day, I just got back from an intensive run and I had decided to become more cheerful, after being gloomy for a while. Just when I had made that decision I heard a song on the radio.
The 1983 song Break My Stride by Matthew Wilder.
I grew up with the version from Blue Lagoon , so I prefer to listen to that version. It has this nice reggae mellow mood to it. But anyhow, the lyrics are spot on.

The Blue Lagoon version begins with the words:
"This one is dedicated to the heartbroken lovers"
Now, those words are not entirely true for me. Ofcourse I am heartbroken.
Ain't we all? Ain't we all the same? Ain't we all got shit to short out?
If not and you are still with your high shool sweetheart than you haven't lived your life to the fullest. At least i screamed, i bled, i fought, i made love, i lived!
But anyway, I'm striding off topic...

I like to interpret my stride as in my work, my creativity, my friends, my family, strangers I meet... whatever else that can break you... I ain't having it no more!
I WILL LET NO ONE OR NOTHING BREAK MY STRIDE!

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride
Nobody's gonna slow me down
I'm running and I won't touch ground
Oh no, oh no, I've got to keep on movin'

Never let another guy like you, work me over
Never let another guy like you, drag me under
If I meet another guy like you, I will tell him
Never want another guy like you

So the entire week I have been singing this loudly and dancing to it in my room. Until today. Today I heard a song. A song which has completely blown me away. Break My Stride is dear to my heart because it has sentimental memories from my teenager years. But this new song is from now. The era I live in now. The emotions I am going through now. New words. New melody. New emotions. New possibilities!

The specific song I am talking about is called Taking My Life Back by Chris Crocker.
Okei his voice is a bit out of key and the vocals need to be cleaned up, right now it sounds like it is recorded with a bad mic, but fuck that, it has an angry beat, a catchy melody and the lyrics are super glue strong! This song has amazing relatable lyrics.

Now I know I'm worth so much more
I'm taking my life back
I'm on the right track
Feeling sorry for you - not again
You weren't all that
I'm stating all the facts
I'm sick of you and all of your friends
'Cause I need somebody
I'll find somebody
Who will love me for who I am
All those times we had - I'm taking it back
All of the times that we had
I swear they're stuck in the past

Second To None however was spot on! (another song from Chris Crocker which I also heard today.)

Threw me way to far away
Ain't no stupid boomerang
Ain't no bitch for you to fuck
Well now you're all shit out of luck

Cause he don't kiss the way I kiss
And he don't rock the way I rock
He sure don't fuck the way I fuck
Cause you know I'm the one number one
I'm second to none

Little baby did I leave a big scar?
How you gonna replace first place with last place bitch?
See if you're gonna try replace me

Now, both of these songs will be my theme song. Who says you can only have one theme song? If I want two theme songs I will just mix them together!

"I Am Taking My Life Back Because I Am Second To None"

No girl ain't bitch me.
No man ain't cheat me.

What is your theme song?

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