New Laptop!

at 02/17/10 1:51AM *

I bought a new laptop online Sunday night, and I think it's going to arrive today. So excited!

I'm going to name it Penryn after the Intel codename for it's processor. Penryn is replacing Coppermine, and if you compare the specs of the two, you can see what an improvement that is. I was tempted to buy an Arrandale, but decided to spend 30% less money and settle for "much, much better" instead of "much, much, much, much better". Hopefully it won't be too long before we can replace the trusty old Northwood in the living room with a Clarksfield or something like that.

This segue serves as a smooth transition from one topic to the next.

We all know that the word "you" is perfectly capable of being plural all by itself, right? And some of our southern cultured friends use the term "y'all" to reference a plurality, which is fine, I guess, but not my style. And I've even heard tales of "y'all" being used to address one single individual! (please excuse my redundancy... "single" was not a comment on their marital status) But have you ever heard of "you'ns"? It's a contraction of "you" and "ones". You ones. Youones. You'ns. It's sometimes pronounced "youns" (one syllable) and sometimes "you-ins" (two syllables). They even conjugate it into "we'ns" and "us'ns"! It boggles my mind. But even more mind-boggley is what I heard someone say the other day... a contraction of contractions... a pluralized plurality... they said "you'ns'all". You ones all. I don't know how that could possibly NOT mean every single person in the entire world.

All y'all you'ns'all have a good night.

Ok. Bye.

2-21 of 21 comments « prev 1 2 next »

I grew up in southern Indiana. I had one aunt that said "you'ns" and her kids picked it up. She also grew up in the area, so I guess it she picked it up from her parents.

by mtnest at 02/17/10 6:58AM
You should teach! Your students would love your style and humor, it's contagious. :)

by 7laughinghardmans at 02/17/10 7:46AM
I'm talking about a public educator. College professor, perhaps?

by 7laughinghardmans at 02/17/10 9:25AM
And then there's yous-guys, pronounced "yoose-guys", in the Missouri and surrounding areas.

by aleta at 02/17/10 9:58AM
Putting that little tax credit of yours to good use I see.

by mattmanua at 02/17/10 10:00AM
Nice all-purpose segue -- may I borrow the technique? And by borrow, I mean "steal, but ask first, then go ahead whether permission is granted or not."

by technologicalsophomore at 02/17/10 10:07AM
No names, but I know someone who has been heard to use the term "you'ns guys" - which kind of sounds PA Dutch by way of Brooklyn, but far as I know, he's never even been to New York state, let alone Brooklyn.

by technologicalsophomore at 02/17/10 10:10AM
Have you ever heard someone say, "Done did"? As in, "He done did his homework..." Do they mean that he did it & now he's "done", or that he already did it? Or are they being "re'DONE'dant" for emphasis, or perhaps reDONE DIDant? :)

Enjoy your new laptop!

by leaflady at 02/17/10 12:30PM
How about yous?

by holly_ann at 02/17/10 12:33PM
This post made me laugh! It made me think of one of the characters in the book "Christy" who was named "Little Guy" but in the movie they called him "Least'un" :)

by lromanic at 02/17/10 12:43PM
bahaha! this is hilarious!
i must admit, i've always been strongly against "you'ns". it makes me sad.
that contraction of contractions reminds me of some other startlingly redundant phrases people use...such as "Best BFFs forever!"

by humankumquat at 02/17/10 2:29PM
Too funny.

by crysnrob at 02/18/10 12:28AM
Missy's favorite expression (because it drives all you E. Tn'ians nuts) is "fixin' to". You'all know that means "I am gonna do it or gettin' ready to do something. I agree that you should be a teacher. It would have to be high school because the younger ones would never know what you were talking about!

by tjmeadows at 02/18/10 11:14AM
I love those kinds of cultural friendly-isms. When I was younger, the GRAMMAR lady in me couldn't stomach it, but the older I get, the more I embrace it. It's not only fun, but an education in the diversity of culture we Americans share! Love this post!

by schmidtkins at 02/18/10 10:20PM
I love to use y'all for a less formal address but I ALWAYS mean a plurality. What I can't believe is how you even understood what the speaker was saying... almost sounds like a foreign language! =D

by tweedledee at 02/19/10 9:44AM
my laptop has two names

Female: Adel (lol)

Male: Robert (idk... i kinda like the name... reminds me of "Raymond")

by remark_93 at 02/25/10 9:59AM
yeah, people where my parents live (somerset KY) all say that "you'ns. "

by shadders05 at 02/25/10 6:04PM
I say "you guys." :)

by mjintexas at 03/01/10 6:01PM
Clearly not a southerner.
Female name for when it's good, male name for when it has behavior problems?

by mayflower at 03/02/10 9:29AM
Ha! :)

by sarahphim at 03/07/10 9:52PM

I Promised These A While Ago...

at 02/06/10 11:28AM

Leila Plays the Kalimba: ABCs from dbcooper on Vimeo.

Leila plays the kalimba while singing the ABCs.

She accidentally says M twice and that throws her off a bit, so she's a little unsure of herself going into O. After R she takes a detour and says A instead of S, then she tries T, but changes her mind, then tries W and changes her mind again. After experimenting with "IGRER" she re-discovers T and wraps it up from there.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leila Plays the Kalimba: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Starr from dbcooper on Vimeo.

Leila plays the kalimba while singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

I unfortunately ruined this video by singing along, but she was forgetting the words...

Ok. Bye.

Love the "T!" moment!

by laurar209 at 02/06/10 12:00PM
She's getting so big! It seems so recently that we saw her at the reunion. Wish we could see her again!

by cbonk at 02/06/10 2:02PM
That was so cute! It had us all laughing!

by thewifeofbud at 02/06/10 2:27PM
Aw - we enjoyed these.

by raifhaus at 02/06/10 2:31PM
So cute! Made me smile!

by onelittlecandle at 02/06/10 2:32PM
That was very sweet!

by comade at 02/06/10 2:48PM
she is so cute!

by frappachino_girl at 02/06/10 2:56PM
twinkle twinkle twinkle twinkle twinkle star.
nice.
i like this rendition :)

by chooselove at 02/06/10 3:35PM
sHE IS ADORABLE! OOHPS, CAPS

by _sylviaanne_ at 02/06/10 3:44PM
This is precious. She's a lovely Starr!

by aleta at 02/06/10 7:46PM
Awww~ thanks for sharing! Sweetness!

by jaydon at 02/06/10 8:40PM
So cute, so sweet, & so smart! And I'm not just saying this because she's my grand-niece! :)

by leaflady at 02/06/10 8:48PM
That was so cute!

by missy at 02/06/10 9:36PM
Absolutely adorable!!!!

by snickers63 at 02/06/10 11:47PM
She is so cute!

by video_nana at 02/07/10 12:17PM
Sean liked this!

by jody at 02/09/10 1:09PM
You have an adorable little girl :) I'm SO 'xcited to be her Aunt! :)

by autumn_rain at 02/09/10 4:48PM
: ) precious

by mamalady at 02/11/10 7:36AM
Awwww... I love it! How adorable!!

by tweedledee at 02/11/10 11:40AM
Ha! I like her alphabet.

by mjintexas at 02/16/10 1:56PM

Fonetic Alfabet

at 01/30/10 1:06AM *

I know I said that my next post would contain videos of Leila, but I haven't uploaded them yet. So until I do, please enjoy the following:

If I remember the story correctly, Andy had a job years ago answering phones for Camping World, and he often had to ask the callers for their SRC number. This would very often have to be phonetic-ed to be understood over the phone... you know, S as in Submarine, R as in Robot, C as in Cookie, etc. I remember Andy joking about saying "S as in sea, R like a pirate, C as in czar..." just to mess with the customers. I don't think he ever did it, but it's still funny. Anyway, I'm trying to create a complete alphabet using the same confusing methodology. Here's what I have so far, maybe you can help me with the rest (and feel free to make suggestions if you have other ideas for the ones already filled in):

A - as in are
B - as in bdellium or bee
C - as in czar
D - as in djambi
E - as in eye or ewe
F -
G - as in gnu or gnat or gnome
H - as in hour or heir
I -
J - as in junta or jalapeno
K - as in knight or kewpie
L -
M - as in mnemonic
N -
O - as in opossum or ouiga
P - as in pneumatic or pneumonia or pterodactyl
Q - as in queue
R - like a pirate
S - as in sea
T - as in tsunami
U - as in urn? (sounds like earn)
V -
W - as in why or Wagner
X - as in Xanax
Y - as in you
Z -

What about numbers? Do you ever say "1 as in 17, 2 as in 289, 3 as in pi..."?

Opposum knight. Bdellium you eye.

8-27 of 27 comments « prev 1 2 next »

J as in junta

by dr_worm at 01/30/10 1:51AM
^^ or as in jalapeno. E as in Excuse. K as is kewpie would work. W as in Wagner.

by tweedledee at 01/30/10 2:36AM
you're hilarious.

by weekendsongservice at 01/30/10 9:06AM
My favorite is P as in pterodactyl. ^_^

by stranger_yet at 01/30/10 10:57AM
I think Q is in quack, because it sounds like kwak...

I wish I could come up with something original here but you guys are too smart for me on a saturday.

by rachel at 01/30/10 11:20AM
I cheated by googling

you could also do p as in psalm

by rachel at 01/30/10 11:23AM
b as in bee would also be funny.

Mainly because it would sound like you were saying the same thing.

by rachel at 01/30/10 11:24AM
http://www.fluther.com/disc/14964/words-that-start-with-silent-letters/

wracked wrestle heir herbal ( i thought of herbal on my own. yay me!)

kneel Eureka urine

by rachel at 01/30/10 11:32AM
N as in Knife (or Knee...), X as in exam... Ah, foniks! : ) People sometimes laugh because I often spell out our last name with "as ins." Not that its such a difficult spelling, but people just can't believe it's actually Bonk.

by cbonk at 01/30/10 12:11PM
F as in phonics

by kristine at 01/30/10 5:23PM
I as in Eye

by scrappyhappymama at 01/30/10 6:14PM
this is a fun post! :) I haven't come up with any clever ones, but I'm enjoying reading what everyone else wrote!

by heatheronthehill at 01/31/10 5:32PM
F as in Effingham (town in Illinois :))

I as in aisle

L as in elephant

N as in endoscopy

U as in Europe

V as in TV

Z as in bizarre

by curlie at 01/31/10 6:03PM
look up "crazy abc's" lyrics. golden.

by benb at 01/31/10 6:28PM
i've got one ... n as in know ... oh, that was probably already mentioned. i did not read this entire list. :)

by marmee at 01/31/10 7:56PM
Very funny :)

by mjintexas at 02/01/10 11:31AM
well, i'm not going to name my little one "Cannondale" ... at least, Heather won't let me.
Mr. Wikipedia says "The name of the company was taken from the Cannondale Metro North train station in Wilton, Connecticut." supposedly where the company started.

also, this post is one of the funniest ever.

by weekendsongservice at 02/01/10 9:31PM
Note to self: go watch stop motion video on James' blog.

by timstarr at 02/03/10 7:56AM
i don't think "opposum" counts because you say the "o".

by jody at 02/05/10 1:58PM
Maybe I as in Iago?

by jody at 02/05/10 7:25PM

Stuff and Things

at 01/21/10 4:48PM

I read this on Twitter: New bumper sticker: "I'd rather ride in Scott Brown's truck than Ted Kennedy's car."

So, yeah, I'm trying out Twitter. It's like facebook but without all the clutter, the distractions, the deluge of invitations, and the animal-petting, farm-growing, or mob-whacking games. So in truth, it's not really like facebook at all. I think I'll stay with Twitter for all the reasons I left FB. If I ever have more than 10 words to say, though, I'll be right here on pleo.

The difference between the words "heard" and "read" is a combination of a) letter sequence and b) the letter h. In my opinion, this places significant importance on the letter h.

(I don't think the internet will realize its full potential until somebody discovers a proper way to digitally transmit a dry sense of humor. Sometimes a colon and a close-parentheses just don't cut it.) :) See?

April and I got new glasses recently. Last time I got new glasses, I was in high school. Way back in the 90s. Fashion, and my prescription, have changed noticeably. Not that I'm anywhere near mainstream fashion... but anyway, I feel like I've upgraded my entire life to HD. It's pretty nice.

Tune in next time to see Leila play the kalimba while singing the ABCs and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Seriously... she did a good job. You'll see...

Ok. Bye.

I want to see pictures of you in your new updated glasses. And I personally think we need to hear from you a little more. I love your updates. : ) - hopefully this smile translates "REAL BIG!"

by jaydon at 01/21/10 5:12PM
I'm not on Twitter, but I could definitely stand less of the animal petting and such on Facebook.

I concur on the glasses photo.

by mjintexas at 01/21/10 6:34PM
LOL! My husband is on twitter but not FB. I do FB but I do not play all of those silly games.

by comade at 01/21/10 8:12PM
I want to see the new glasses too! I'm getting new glasses myself - they should be ready in about a week. I've heard of Twitter, but I don't know the first thing about it. Do you do it with your phone?

I would love for you to make a video someday of Leila singing that song about God. I think that was about the cutest thing I've ever seen! :)

by leaflady at 01/22/10 1:26AM
My Facebook experience improved greatly after Amy pointed out the "Ignore all" button.

Glad you got new glasses. I can't believe you've managed to go that long! I've gotten new ones about every 5 years so far. I'm definitely due for a new scrip soon.

The telegraph comment made me laugh (stop). Did you also try walkie-talkie? Over.

by jody at 01/22/10 1:26AM
Did you get little glasses? I got new glasses, probably for the first time since you were in high school, last summer and chose small rectangularish frames and realized within weeks that bigger frames are becoming the new trend. That's how I end up participating in most fashions, I find.

by lori_in_pa at 01/22/10 8:03AM
haha, I get tired of all the invitations and farmville stuff on facebook, too. I ought to try out the ignore all button, too. :-)

by onelittlecandle at 01/22/10 8:12AM
new glasses! awesome.
i love glasses.

by weekendsongservice at 01/22/10 9:08AM
i have always thought that the letter h held great significance. i'm glad to have proof.

by holly_ann at 01/22/10 12:14PM
Ah, new glasses. Nice.

by slave_of_jesus_jdb at 01/23/10 3:28PM
i must admit, i despise twitter primarily because of its name, and also because there is a verb to refer specifically to the act of using twitter ("tweeting").
irrational dislike? perhaps!
but yeah, those facebook games and apps are super annoying.
now they also have a bunch of fake apps that look like something normal, like a comment or a photo, but if you enable it it spams everyone.

by humankumquat at 01/25/10 9:21AM

Anagrams

at 12/29/09 2:17PM

Timothy Haven Starr =

Earthman History TV (interesting, but I don't think I'd watch that channel too much)

Ten-Rhythm Aviators (I would definitely wear these)

A Shy Math Introvert (Oh, hi. That's me.)

Be koy=
Ok. Bye.

P.S. I know coy is spelled with a 'c'... I used a little blogetic license.

I'm assuming that kid is your daughter, because she looks just like you. Wow.

by kerrigan at 12/29/09 3:15PM
cute picture! Cute little girl! Happy New Year from our house to yours!

by tjmeadows at 12/29/09 4:47PM
brilliant picture.

by weekendsongservice at 12/29/09 5:25PM
Love this post. Can you do something with my name? Kristine Marie Whipple. Love the picture! I love her big blue eyes!

by kristine at 12/29/09 9:30PM
The picture is awesome. She's so cute.

by scbrewer at 12/29/09 9:59PM
haha! She does look just like you! Do you think she would be interested in seeing some Midwestern snow this winter? Just wondering...

by cbonk at 12/30/09 12:39AM
:) So cute!

by ewalker at 12/30/09 1:16AM
I would have been impressed by just ONE of those anagrams! But the fact that you came up with THREE is REALLY impressive!

by leaflady at 12/30/09 3:03AM
Ah, the emperor's face. I think in the original trilogy they said it was an old woman superimposed on a monkey, or something like that.

by planethead at 01/01/10 9:59AM
ha. I love this post. Also I like your reference to 'that wife' of yours.

by riyankery at 01/01/10 4:59PM
i thought anagrams always had to be backwards and forwards...shows what i know

by chooselove at 01/01/10 11:56PM
I can't even believe that your name can do that. After the 17 thing, and how you always win games of chance, this puts you over the edge. I think you're a superhero. Are you a superhero?

by jody at 01/02/10 10:39PM
Is Leila holding something under her nose or did you photoshop something there?

by jody at 01/02/10 10:40PM
awesome photo

by spike427 at 01/11/10 6:53PM
That last one worked out well!!

by mjintexas at 01/13/10 11:48AM
thinking it safe to assume that you're aware of the Massachusetts Senate race, i think you'll enjoy THIS.

by dbsmelser at 01/16/10 11:53AM
...and the schilling quote at the end of the article is not to be missed.

by dbsmelser at 01/16/10 11:55AM

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