Your Speech is in Your Roots

 Santa Rosa, Modesto, and Reno.  Those are the cities that represent my dialect.

The "hot spots" are places my speech is most similar, and vice-versa.  I got this map from a really fun, introspective quiz called "How Y'all, Youse and You Guys Talk."  It's on the Sunday Review page, and was making it's rounds on FaceBook last Christmas.

This quiz is based on the results of the Harvard Dialect Survey back in 2002, which only has 25 questions.  The original Harvard Dialect Survey had a total of 122 questions.  You can go to the page and click on each question to see full, illustrated results.  It's a lot of fun poking around, comparing answers to locations. 

Here's one of the questions: "What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?"  I've Honestly never heard of this phenomenon having a word.  I've always looked outside and admired how beautiful it is, opening the door and running into the rain to go rainbow chasing.  Some places call this a "Sunshower," "Pineapple Rain," or "Liquid Sun."  I like liquid sun.  That's what I'll call it from now on.

Also, thanks to this quiz, I've finally figured out the difference between a Highway and a Freeway.  Yes, I'm 31 and I've seen the light.  I realized it's because I grew up in Porterville, which is far from major Freeways.  Highways connect everything there, the major Highway, the All American City Highway, connecting Linday, Porterville, and Bakersfield, received this name after 1995 when Lindsay earned the award. Porterville earned the All-American-City award a year earlier in 1994.  It was a HUGE deal.  Anyways, where I grew up all the cities connected via Highway, wrapping around agriculture and cow farms.

I thought it would be fun to have my family take this quiz.

The three cities my Mom got: Reno, Santa Rosa, and Oceanside.

My Dad: Stockton, Fresno, and Modesto.

Steven, like me: Santa Rosa, Reno, and Modesto.

Robbie: San Jose, Corona, and Denver.  (I'm still trying to figure this out.)

Michael: Santa Rosa, Salt Lake, and some place back East (probably because he served his mission in South Chicago.)

I can't remember everywhere my Sister-in-law Krista got, but Salt Lake was one, as was a city in Idaho where her Grandfather is from.  Krista's Sister, Erin, got Salt Lake, Fresno, and Bakersfield, which I find particularly amusing because she's never been to central California, and I grew up between those last two cities.

So if you're curious, and have some time on your hands, I recommend taking the How Y'all, Youse and You Guys Talk quiz.  It's pretty fun.

BYU Beyond Stone-Cold Sober

(A picture of a Picture, but this is me as a BYU graduate)

Everyone knows BYU (Brigham Young University) always gets the top spot as the Stone-Cold Sober school in the Nation.  You can thank our strict honor code for that, but College Magazine now has BYU under two new categories, and it actually gave me quite a laugh, and cringe a little at the same time.  It's true though, even if I fall out of one of the categories.

BYU is ranked #2 as the Best Place to Find a Husband.  I guess it's a kind of merit that I managed to graduate single?  That I put studies and long hours in the Library over . . . yeah.  I tranfered into the school at 21, when most guys get home from their missions.  Maybe I was in the wrong program.  I probably would have met more guys if I spent more time around the computer science building or business school . . . why didn't I do that?  

In the Music Program all the guys that I met were married, and those that weren't married, two guys (I can only remember two guys who were single) were too busy dating 19 year-old's.  I'm not bitter.  And when I transferred I had finished all my general education classes, save a couple.  Nah, I should have spent more time with the French Club.  I actually went to a few meetings.  Could have met a cute guy who spoke French!  Sexy! 

West Point, the U.S. Military Academy, beat us out at #1.  Interesting.  Who doesn't like a man in uniform?  Makes me think of Pride and Prejudice. 

and BYU ranked #4 as most stressful school.  This I believe!!!!  I've attended four colleges: Porterville College, College of the Sequoias, Utah Valley State College (now Utah Valley University), and Brigham Young University.  So I can say I've experienced a bit of an upper education spectrum.  PC, COS, and UVSC were easy fits for me.  I studied hard, the classes were tough, but I was relaxed.  There was an ease in the air.

 

Then I transferred to BYU.  There is stress in the air!  It's true, and you can feel it.  All the students are over achievers with high morals, and freak outs come often.  I'll never forget the time, hanging out with other music students in the HFAC, when one of the voice majors came over eating an ice-cream sundae.  She was going at it, and all our eyes bulged.  She then went on to explain that she just failed a test and needed some solace.  We all had a good laugh then, and suddenly I realized I needed ice-cream too.

 

And we all have that one moment where we crack.  That time came my second year there.  Everyone knows how stressful finals week is.  This one week trumped even that!  5 tests in 4 days amongst a full class schedule, packed with homework, quizzes, and essays.  I didn't think I would survive!  I almost didn't.

 

The testing center is a monstrous room packed with desks going in straight lines and then around the perimeter.  I would like to know the dimensions of that room; I only know I felt overwhelmed each time I entered.  Of course that could be because of the test I was about to take.

 

The testing center is upstairs, and when coming out of the room there is a smaller room where you give your test to someone to scan.  By the time you're down the stairs there's a set of computer screens, and on it you search for your student number to read the score.  This was at the end of the week, having taken other tests I failed.  Then I saw my score: 55%.  I lost it!  On the spot I just started laughing!  And I kept laughing as I walked out of the door, sunset, walking the long trek to my car.  Laughing is good for the soul.

 

MIT ranked #3 and Harvard was #5.  Sandwiched between MIT and Harvard!!!