Author: Jonathan Blundell

I'm a husband, father of three, blogger, podcaster, author and media geek who is hoping to live a simple life and follow The Way.

Euro-English

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English
will be the official language of the European Union rather than German,
which was the other very strong possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that
English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a
5-year phase-in plan that would become known as “Euro-English”.
In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will
make the sivil servants jump with joy.
The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of “k”. This should klear up
konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the
troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f”. This will make words like
fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted
to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have
always ben a deterent to akurate speling.
Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent “e” in the languag
is disgrasful and it should go away.
By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing “th”
with “z” and “w” with “v”.
During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining
“ou” and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl
riten styl.
Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu
understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in
ze forst plas.

Dancing till the break of dawn

So I just returned from the UMHB Welcome Week Dance. It was a lot of fun. I would estimate there were nearly 600 people at the dance, which is a lot for UMHB. I was there DJing but was able to get a dance in with Kelly “belly” Mitchell — my good friend Bobby’s fiance’. Good thing he lives and works in Oklahoma. 🙂

Some were calling it the best dance they remember at UMHB. I doubt that, but I’ll take the compliment. I haven’t DJ’ed there since 2003 (when I graduated) so I don’t have any idea what the dances have been like since then. And I also never went to a dance there unless I was DJing. So – we’ll have to check the blogosphere tomorrow and see what the word is on the net.

Update on my truck…

I also just found out that the light board on my rear left hand side is out. I replaced the right one a while back. I’ve had the break light out for a while now and finally stopped on the way home to buy a new bulb – which by the way, the Wal-Mart bulb selector for a 98 Chevy truck is wrong. And when I came home I took the cover off, only to discover that all three bulbs were fine – so looks like I have to replace another board.

Whew – another $40 down the tube.

I need to find a job and house where I don’t have to own a vehicle, don’t have to pay electric bills or water bills or cell-phone bills.

Sounds like either the mission field or bumming off my parents.

I’ll go with the first – but avoid the second.

Well, time to shower and hit the hay. I’ve got a long week ahead of me.

Oh one more thing – I got reamed at 8 a.m. this morning by my boss because he “just found out” something I told him the first of August.

Oh well – made church that much more enjoyable once I got there.

[]Deace.

Toobing the Lampassas River

Well my sister Kara just left town. She came down for the night and day before heading back to school tomorrow. I gave her a couple tours of UMHB so she’d realize how much better it was once she got back to Ouchita.
We spent about an hour-and-a-half hiking along the Lampassas river this morning. It was a fun hike, and I’m glad we finished it when we did. I was almost blown up by the time we got back.
I wish I could trace our exact route, but the best I could find was satellite imagery of the area.
If you look around the center of the map, you can see the river rushing out of the dam from Stillhouse Hollow Lake. I estimate we travelled down the river (the dark green line) around the bend of the river and about half-way to I-35 (in the lower right hand corner of the image.
It was a great trip. I really had no idea what we’d find – even though I’ve lived in the area since 2000.
There was the beautiful chalk Falls and a number of improvements the Corps of Engineers had made in the area, including a fun suspension bridge.
I think I’ve convinced Allman we need to tube or kayak or something down the river, from the dam to I-35.
I think we’ll do it Labor Day weekend – so if anyone is interested in joining us – holla.

Here’s a better view of the area.
I think we ended up about in the center of this map.

A work in progress

Sunshine on my shoulder

I’ve started it.

After debating and thinking, I finally decided “forget it…” I’m going to start a book.

I’ll post updates online as I go. Check it out, give you input.

And remember it’s a work in progress.

UPDATE: This book didn’t quite make the cut. It stalled after the 2nd chapter. Perhaps I’ll go back to it sometime in the future. However – I did finally finish a full novel just over 4 years later: St. Peter’s Brewery. You can find out more about the novel and order copies for your entire family at StPetersBrewery.info.

DJing

Sweet – my alma mater, UMHB calls about once a semester when a DJ falls through for various dances and I’m usually not able to do the jobs, but they have a dance going on Sunday night that I can actually work – and I’ll be in town. Rock on.
Yesterday I wasn’t sure how my bills would be taken care of after my alternator incident – but God will provide.
And I’ll let him handle the details.