The Little Clinic

Today, I tried to go to an urgent care facility near my house.

Here's the background: I don't have insurance, but I do have an ear infection.

So, I went to the Big Run Urgent Care facility. I said, Hi I'd like some medical treatment. She said, And who's your insurance carrier. I said, I don't have any. I'll be paying. She said, That'll be $182.

I was shocked. I expected to pay $80 max. I told her I'd think about it and I did think about it. I knew that I'd get a prescription for an antibiotic and I could therefore expect to spend over $200 on my ear infection. It hurt really badly, so I considered it carefully.

I went home having decided to wait to see a real doctor tomorrow.

At home Sis said "What about that clinic at Kroger?"

That clinic is called the Little Clinic.

I paid $59 for the visit and $8 for amoxicillin and some numbing ear drops.

The Little Clinic gets the 13Months Seal of Approval.

Down for the Count

If you are a regular reader of Nila's blog, then you know she's been sick for the past few days.

Two days ago, she passed it on to me. Yesterday, Sis and I took Matt and Hannah to see Wall-E and then to lunch at Raising Cane's. The cold had me feeling sluggish, so I skipped the pool activities which followed and Angie went in my stead.

In the evening, I went to Com Fest with Sis and Nikki. We had dinner at Barley's and then walked the festival. It was hot and, after maybe 20 minutes, I was done with it.

Sis stayed to party with some friends and Nikki and I headed out. We went to IntaJuice and then made a swing by Barnes and Noble.

Exciting, right? Well, that's how I roll.

By the time I got to Barnes and Noble, I was dead. I couldn't breathe and it was a struggle to keep my eyes open. For a while, I wandered around stubbornly trying to be interested in books, finish my smoothie and breathe all at the same time.

I eventually went to the music section, sat on a stool and tried to stay awake while listening to snippets of new music.

Nikki found me there and took me home. I got home and into bed by 11:00.

I woke up today at 3:00 pm.

I've been awake for a whole 8 hours now and I'm thinking about going back to bed. It's been a long time since I've been wiped out so completely by a cold.

In review:

Wall-E: So boring. I think Pixar forgot the plot in all the message. It was certainly well-made, but a snooze fest nonetheless.

Raising Cane's: Always 5 star. I love their special sauce!

ComFest: I am too old for this crap. Pseudo-Hippies smoking pot and painting their ugly, saggy breasts coupled with oppressive heat and oppressive liberalism isn't as much fun as it once was. On the up side, there was a large tent for bike parking and it was full. On the down side, everyone else had to pay $10 to park.

Barley's: I should mention that this weekend Columbus also hosted some sort of gaming convention. As Barley's is right across from the convention center, it was full of nerds. I don't blame Barley's, though. The food was good, the atmosphere was pleasant and, if I weren't ill, I would have dogged* on some ice-cream sandwiches.

IntaJuice: If you like smoothies - and who doesn't - this is the place. I used to like Surf City Squeeze at City Center, but that went out of business ages ago. Our fine city has been fairly smoothie-shopless since. We have Planet Smoothie, but I hate Planet Smoothie, so it doesn't count. Enter IntaJuice. It's in the South Campus Gateway and very good.

Barnes and Noble: It's Barnes and Noble. Corporate booking at it's finest, I guess. My only complaints are that there aren't more chairs and they've stopped allowing me to listen to whole songs in the music village.

A Scene From a Pool

I went to my apartment complex swimming pool for the first time this summer. Sis and I only stayed a couple of hours, but I got a little it of sun. It was a nice time.

As we were leaving, I overheard the following conversation between three 13-year-old boys.

Boy #1: Dude, are you gonna get in the pool?

Boy #2: I don't know, dude.

Boy #3: He's gonna do like Jesse did, dude. He's gonna sit down.

That's all I heard, but don't assume that this snippet is taken out of context. If there's one thing I know about Jesse, I know that he sits. It's sort of his thing.

Bulletin

Free Chipotle burrito tonight from 5-8 in the Columbus area.

More here.

Matt and Hannah Celebrate Together

On Sunday, Vanessa had a combined birthday party for Hannah and Matthew. Matt turned 5 earlier this month and Hannah will be 8 on Friday.

The party was a lot of fun as usual and there was no shortage of pool-related water fun including waer gun and water balloon fights.

Hannah helps Nila swim. Nila seems angry, but she loved it.

Matthew goes Indiana Jones on us.

A fun time was had by all.

Getting Off his bus Like a New Emotion

It turns out these fine ladies are a hoax.

But I don't care!!!

Children on Trial

The following article can be found at Amnesty International.

I read the article first on two great blogs which address the Kurdish issues in Turkey:

Rastibini and Hevallo

Turkey: Three children on trial in case over freedom of expression

Tomorrow, 19 June, three boys, aged 15, 15 and 17 at the time that the alleged offence was committed, will go on trial in Diyarbakır in the south east of Turkey accused of violating Article 7/2 of the anti-terror law that criminalizes “making propaganda for a terrorist organisation or its aims”. The article carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment.

The prosecution was brought after the children, who are all members of the Diyarbakır Yenişehir Municipality Children’s Choir, sang a Kurdish language anthem Ey Raqip (Hey Enemy) at a world music festival in San Francisco in October 2007. The choir sang songs in a total of nine different languages including a Turkish patriotic song (Çanakkale Marşı). Six other members of the choir who are under 15 years of age are being prosecuted for the same offence at a Children’s Court.

While international human rights law permits states to impose certain limitations on freedom of expression, these can only be such as are necessary and proportionate for certain purposes - protecting the rights and freedoms of others, public health or morals, or national security or public order. The singing of Ey Raqıp, a historical anthem, cannot be regarded as a threat to public order, and the prosecution threatens the right to freedom of expression.If these children are convicted and imprisoned, Amnesty International would consider them to be prisoners of conscience.

Amnesty International is also concerned that those between the ages of 15 and 17 are being tried in an adult court. Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which applies to everyone under 18, states should aim to establish laws, procedures, authorities and institutions specifically applicable to children accused of infringing the penal law. The UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice ("The Beijing Rules"), adopted by the UN General Assembly in November 1985, stipulate in particular that proceedings for children should be conducive to the best interests of the child and shall be conducted in an atmosphere of understanding allowing them to participate and to express themselves freely, and that the well-being of the child should be the guiding factor in the consideration of the case.

When I was in San Diego for training last October, we saw this group of kids perform. It's crazy to believe that these children are now on trial for performing traditional songs in San Fransisco!

Kurdish Lesson 05 - Notes on Pronunciation

This post is for Mo.

First, I should apologize for deleting your comment on this. It was just too long. Sorry.

But let that be a lesson for the rest of you!

Just kidding...

Ok. Her comment was a plea for clarification on the pronunciation of the Kurdish words I've listed here with these Kurdish lessons. This is one of the reasons I was somewhat hesitant to try to teach anything to do with language.

As you may know, Kurdish is not written with a latinate alphabet. They use an Arabic script. It should be noted, however, that it is not the same script used to write Arabic; there are many differences between the two. In Kurdish each letter makes one consistent sound.

English is not written with an Arabic alphabet. We use the Latin alphabet, or at least we use parts of it.

I am sure you've noticed, though, that the English alphabet is not consistent when it comes to sound. Most of the consonants are fairly consistent, but the vowels are all over the place.

Kurdish can be written with the latin alphabet.

There is an alphabet called Latini which is used uncommonly for written Sorani Kurdish. In Latini each Kurdish letter equals one latin letter; each letter equals one and only one sound. There are letters in this alphabet that don't appear in English. For instance the ' represents a sound. There are also different letters for the short and long "a" sounds as another example.

That presents me with two problems. 1) I can't use the Latini alphabet because some of the letters don't appear on my keyboard and 2) I would have to teach a new alphabet to everyone and I don't think anyone wants that.

You can see more on the alphabets here. Pay special attention to Latin 1 (that's closest to English) and Latin 2 (that's the Latini used in Kurdistan).

Kurdish script in action! Plus Angie in fancy sunglasses!

Having said all of that, I will try to help with the words I've already listed:

I, me = min (like the English word men)
you = to (pronounced like toe)
he/him/she/her/it = ew (Similar to the ou in ouch, but short)
we, us = ayme (long a + the mu in mug)
you plural = aywe (long a + what - t)
they, them = ewan (uh like you're thinking + Juan)

hello/ how are you: chony? bashy? (chony means how are you, but is used as hello. bashy literally means "are you good?" The two are usually used together.) (chony rhymes with phony and bashy sounds like gnosh + long e)

I'm good. Thanks: Bashim. Supas (pronounced closer to spas) (the a is pronounced like ah)

And how are you: To chony?

Good bye: Xwa hafis (The sound of X does not appear in English. It's like the German "ch" in Bach. Hafis is like ha+fee+ the s sound in hiss)

See you later: Dwai etbeenimewe (dw+ the word eye, then et + bean + um + uh + wuh)

Halabja (all the a's are like "ah" and everything else sounds like you expect.)

I hope that helps!

My First Father's Day

Or is it Fathers' Day? I don't really know and, regardless, it was still my first one as a dad.

Honestly, it's the first one I've had reason to celebrate in fourteen years. Not to be sentimental (heaven forbid), but since my dad died back in 1994, there hasn't been much reason to celebrate the day. It had gotten to the point where I blocked out the holiday altogether and was often surprised when someone mentioned it.

"Oh, how quaint. You still celebrate that?" Like it was Boxing Day or Decoration Day.

My first venture back into the land of Father's Day was nice. Mom and Grandma Kay cooked up a hearty lunch - of my choosing - and we plus Angie, Nila and Sis ate it on Grandma Kay's newly well-appointed patio.

Later in the day we went to a little ice cream shop on Hard Rd. called Mardi Gras. Given the French name, you might be surprised by it's Indian heritage. We didn't try any of the subcontinent's frozen treats opting instead for something called Butterscotch Crunch which tasted like a pudding pop. Remember those?

I think it's fair to say that we all ate too much ice cream.

It was a good first time out. I look forward to many more Father's Days to come.

Kurdish Lesson 04 - Pronouns*

With these lessons, I want to teach language along with culture. This lesson is back to language again.

Let's start with the pronouns.

I, me = min
you = to (pronounced like toe)
he/him/she/her/it = ew
we, us = ayme
you plural = aywe
they, them = ewan

You'll notice that there is only one word for he, she and it. It makes things easier and more complicated at the same time. It's similar to English only having one word for you and you plural. We have to use context to define what we mean.

Sorani does have a plural you. When I was learning, I would use the German plural you as a place holder. Learning German was my first experience with the plural you. Before this I had no idea it was missing in English!

Also making things easier, is the fact that the pronouns are the same as subject and object. For example, in English we would say I ate the chicken or the chicken at me. In Kurdish it's min mirishikim xward and mirishikeke mini xward. Same word in both positions.

I don't actually know the Kurdish word for owl, but this bird is huge! And could probably eat me.

I know grammar is boring for most people, so I'll leave off there. I think the next time we get a language lesson, I'll teach you how to use the verb have - it's easy to use.

But, before I stop I'll give you a few useful phrases.

hello/ how are you: chony? bashy? (chony means how are you, but is used as hello. bashy literally means "are you good?" The two are usually used together.

I'm good. Thanks: Bashim. Supas (pronounced closer to spas)

And how are you: To chony?

Good bye: Xwa hafis

See you later: Dwai etbeenimewe

I think next time we'll learn about Halabja.

* all language lessons are Sorani Kurdish as spoken in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq (Southern Kurdistan). All spellings are an attempt to simplify pronunciation.