A Little Greek

 Today will be sunny and cool.  Outside, the temperature is sitting at a brisk 30 (F). The high is expected to be in the upper 40s (F).  In fact, right now there isn't a cloud in the sky.  I am starting to yearn for spring.  My daffodils are in full bloom.  Tulips are be sprouting every where out front.  All the rose buses are in full bud.  

I ordered a new backpack for my trip to Greece.  This one is bigger than the one I already own, large enough to carry one of my laptops.  Yes, I'm taking one along with me.  My current pack is a "laptop" pack, unfortunately I bought it 15 years ago and laptops have gotten bigger since then.  Well, at least my laptops have gotten bigger.  I was going to order a battery to go with it, but instead opted for a plug adapter with 2 USB ports.  Since my old pack is practically brand new, I'll give it away.

Retail was slow yesterday.  I did manage to get a measure in, that will please management somewhat, but nothing is every going to make them completely happy.  I realized this a long time ago.  That is one of the reasons I got out.  Telling people who are doing well that the need to push a little harder is not for me.  Give credit where credit is due no longer seems to be a valid motto.  As a result, when I do hit my goals for the week I will inform management, and then say, "since I've hit my goals you should let me go home."  No one will ever meet their expectations because greed is good for corporate America.

I pulled this out of the Greek file in my desk.  Maybe I can pick up a few words before August.  You will notice that I didn't say I wanted to pick up a little Greek.

And tomorrow's a big day for the Orange Anus.  If he doesn't shell out the half billion he owes in fines, his properties will begin to be taken.  I understand that "vacate the premises" letters have already been sent to several properties.  I should check, since I don't know, but do these evictions also pertain to his two spawn, Donnie the cokehead, and Eric the dumb, since they, too, were part of the Trump crime family.  Or are these properties that were held by the Trump organization?  I find this somewhat interesting, that someone would have their company own their home.  I guess, if you desperately feel the need to leverage the value of the real estate that might make sense.  Of course, the Orange Anus didn't leverage, he lied.  I saw where he'd valued that little shack of his in upstate New York at $290 million, and it's actual appraised value is only $30 million.  This is probably the main reason he's not an actual billionaire.

Simply put, Rosetta Stone is pretty damn difficult

A long, long time ago, when I was going to Lebanon Valley College, I had to take a foreign language.  Notice, I said take, not learn since you were not really expected to become fluent in that tongue unless, of course, you were a language major.  In high school I had tried Spanish and didn't like it so I chose French and liked it.  When I graduated I was three credits short of it being a double major.  A few years ago, after I was laid off by xpedx so they could out source my job to Poland, I took part of my severance package and went to France.  To my surprise the French I thought I remembered quite well didn't quite jive with what the locals were speaking.  I thought about this for a long time, I mean, how could I be so bad at something I had enjoyed so much.  Then I saw one of the many commercials for Rosetta Stone.

For those of you who don't know, this is what the real Rosetta stone looks like.  What did it do?  It allowed archaeologists to translate Egyptian hieroglyphs into other languages they had already translated.  This rock allowed them to understand just what the ancient Egyptians were painting on the walls of their tombs and carving into their statuary.  However, this is not what I ended up buying.

I bought this instead.  Most people have seen their commercials on television and they do make it seem like a foreign language is easy to learn.  They are, however a bit misleading.  Rosetta Stone works on the immersion theory where if you immerse yourself in, say French, comprehension will be simple.  Wrong.  For myself, I didn't find it that difficult but then I have a background.  For an individual who is starting from scratch it may be overwhelming.  They don't tell you that you should set up a class schedule or that if you're doing less then three or four hours a week you're going to fail.  There is a lot of memorization which needs to take place.  You don't hear something three times and repeat it three times and remember it forever.  The program does work.  They do, however, need to stop implying you can learn a new language in a couple of weeks simply by sitting in front of your computer.  They need to tell the unsuspecting public that if they want to immerse themselves it has to be more then an hour or so a week.  People spend a lot of money on this program with out understanding just how much work is involved.  That's a flaw for Rosetta Stone which should be fixed.