Sunset Symphony

I went to an event called Sunset Symphony at the Dixon here in Memphis. It was a lot nicer than I would have anticipated. I really enjoyed it. I ran into a lot of people that I know and I had a really good time. Here are some photos I took while walking around the gardens there:

At the zoo

Freedom Sold Here

City Court

Count the ants

Sustantivos en español – Nouns in Spanish

PRIMERO

• A noun is a word used to identify people, animals, places, things, or ideas.
• Unlike English, all Spanish nouns, even those that refer to nonliving things, have gender. They are considered either masculine or feminine.
• As in English, nouns in Spanish also have number, meaning that they are either singular or plural.

Nouns that refer to living things

Masculine Nouns

el hombre the man

ending in –o

el chico the boy

el pasajero the (male) passenger

ending in –or     

el conductor the (male) driver

el profesor the (male) professor

ending in –ista     

el turista the (male) tourist

el dentista the (male) dentist

Feminine Nouns

la mujer the woman

ending in –a     

la chica the girl

la pasajera the (female) passenger

ending in –ora     

la conductora the (female) driver

la profesora the (female) professor

ending in –ista     

la turista the (female) tourist

la dentista the (female) dentist

• Nouns that refer to males, like el hombre, are generally masculine.
• Nouns that refer to females, like la mujer, are generally feminine.
• Many nouns that refer to male beings end in
  –o or –or.
• Their corresponding feminine forms end in
  –a and –ora, respectively.

Either/Or Nouns

• The masculine and feminine forms of nouns that end in –ista, like turista, are the same, so gender is indicated by the article el (masculine) or la (feminine).
• Some other nouns have identical masculine and feminine forms.

el joven	la joven
the youth; the young man	the youth; the young woman
el estudiante	la estudiante
the (male) student	the (female) student

Nouns that refer to nonliving things

Masculine Nouns

ending in –o

el cuaderno the notebook

el diario the diary

el diccionario the dictionary

el número the number

ending in –ma     

el problema the problem

el programa the program

ending in –s
                    el autobús the bus

el país the country

Feminine Nouns

ending in –a

la cosa the thing

la escuela the school

la grabadora the tape recorder

la palabra the word

ending in –ción     

la lección the lesson

la conversación the conversation

ending in –dad

la nacionalidad the nationality

la comunidad the community

• Certain noun endings are strongly associated with a specific gender, so you can use them to determine if a noun is masculine or feminine.
• Because the gender of nouns that refer to non-living things cannot be determined by foolproof rules, you should memorize the gender of each noun you learn. 
      
• It is helpful to memorize each noun with its corresponding article, el for masculine and la for feminine.
• Another reason to memorize the gender of every noun is that there are common exceptions to the rules of gender.
  Masculine noun ending in –a
  el mapa (map)
  Feminine noun ending in –o
  la mano (hand)

Plural of nouns

Nouns that end in a vowel form the plural by adding –s.

el chico ® los chicos

el diario ® los diarios

la palabra ® las palabras

el problema ® los problemas

Nouns that end in a consonant add –es.

el país ® los países

el profesor ® los profesores

Nouns that end in –z change the –z to –c, then add –es.

el lápiz ® los lápices 
 

• You use the masculine plural form of the noun to refer to a group that includes both males and females.
  1 pasajero + 2 pasajeras = 3 pasajeros
  2 chicos + 2 chicas = 4 chicos

¡OJO!

• When a singular noun has an accent mark on the last syllable, the accent is dropped from the plural form.
  la lección à las lecciones
  el autobús à los autobuses

Spanish articles

PRIMERO

• As you know, English often uses definite articles (the) and indefinite articles (a, an) before nouns.
• Spanish also has definite and indefinite articles.
• Unlike English, Spanish articles vary in form because they agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify.  

Definite articles

• Spanish has four forms that are equivalent to the English definite article the. You use definite articles to refer to specific nouns.
     

Feminine	Masculine
Singular	Singular
la computadora	el diccionario
the computer	the dictionary
Plural	Plural
las computadoras	los diccionarios
the computers	the dictionaries

Indefinite articles

Spanish has four forms that are equivalent to the English indefinite article, which according to context may mean a, an, or some. You use indefinite articles to refer to unspecified persons or things.

Feminine	Masculine
Singular	Singular
una fotografía	un pasajero
a (one) photograph	a (one) passenger
Plural	Plural
unas fotografías	unos pasajeros
some photographs	some passengers

¡HÁZLO!

Provide a definite article for each noun in the first column and an indefinite article for each noun in the second column.

¿el, la, los o las?	¿un, una, unos o unas?
_____ chico	_____ autobús
_____ chica	_____ escuela
_____ maleta	_____ computadora
_____ cuadernos	_____ hombre
_____ lápiz	_____ señoras
_____ mujeres	_____ lápices

Wordpress is better

than blogger.

Through the screen

Skype

Gabe is so awesome. He has such a huge personality. Maybe you can see some of that in these screen shots from tonight's Skype. Miss him.

Summer Reading, etc.

I was recently hired at an all-boys high school and next month I will begin teaching teenagers. I will continue teaching at the University two nights a week. I have been spending the most of July in Arizona visiting family (including Gabe for a week JJ) but while I was out here I also got a call from a school I applied at months ago and I went in and interviewed last Thursday. I am hoping to hear back this week.

While on vacation this summer I have finished a few books – mostly nonfiction stuff, mostly things that I wanted to read for personal or professional development, probably not that interesting to other people but it has been interesting to me.

Here is a short list of the last two weeks reading:

 

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus

How to Answer Hard Interview Questions

The First-Time Manager (which was awesome)

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes (also a very enjoyable read-listen (I use a text to speech program called Natural Reader – makes reading a lot easier for a slow reader like me))

 

I also downloaded a series of Love & Logic seminars and I have been listening to those. Very helpful stuff.

I have started a book by Thich Nhat Hanh called Anger, Wisdom for Cooling the Flames

 

I guess that that is about it on the reading end of things.

Other things:

I have been able to watch this season of True Blood

I went to the newest Harry Potter with my sister. It was ok. I don’t think my son would like it and I don’t think that the battle scenes were nearly as interesting as they could [should] have been. The book was just better.

Hmmmmm….. What else?

 

I guess that that is good enough for now. Things are not bad. I wish I had Gabe all the time. It has been good seeing family. I feel like I am learning a lot. Nothing to complain about. Except my foot – my foot hurts. J There now I even complained. Life is good.

 

Mesquite

Sent from my HTC Touch Pro2 on the Now Network from Sprint®.

Camp Verde, AZ

Sent from my HTC Touch Pro2 on the Now Network from Sprint®.

Unable to sleep

Spent three hours getting oral surgery done today. Last night I couldn’t sleep well because of pain and tonight I just can’t sleep. I think that it is the pain-killers I am on.  L
In other news, I am in Phoenix. Been spending the week with Gabe and my family. I feel very blessed. I know that I am going to miss him so much next week.

 

Dinner

I don't cook much.

More Rack Pulls : 777

Same as the other one. But heavier.