Jack's House

Quote from: Emlyn Morgan on December 02, 2025, 02:14:58 pm

Young Ahmed, whom I help improve his English, is convinced it's correct to say such as firs' an' las' or eatin' an' drinkin', because that's what he hears, even on the BBC.

While young Ahmed may be copying what he hears, there is a possibility that he is not copying what is actually being said. What a person hears can be strongly influenced by the sounds of his native language. In this respect, neither Standard Arabic nor Moroccan Arabic has the nasal sound which comes at the end of "thing" while they do have the sound which comes at the end of "thin". If you say these two words noting the position of the tongue for the final consonant you will find it is a little further back for "ng" than "n". These two sounds are clearly distinguishable by native English speakers, but may sound the same to a speaker of a language which does not have any words which require the sounds to be distinguished - such as "thin" and "thing". The consonant "t" is a plosive, a sound which, though short, consists of three phases: approach, hold and release. In English, when a plosive is not followed by a vowel the release, the point where the air leaves the mouth, is often missing. So, when a "t" follows an "s" it can get a bit lost and appear to merge with the "s" giving the impression that there is only an "s".

Plag never ceases to amaze me with his knowledge of language.

It is more of the same, which in this case is a GOOD thing.

My condolences.

Jack, right now your emotions are probably spinning out of control at times.  You might feel things that causes guilt or deep depression or any number of other things.  Being a caregiver of someone on Hospice means you see them daily, every minute of the day and watch their decline.  Mostly you have to hold back your own emotions to help them through their end-of-life emotions.  That buildup of emotions in you takes its toll.  Know, that every emotion you are now feeling most people who take care of someone on Hospice also feels once the stress of the care giving is over.  Take time to relax.  Take time to de-compress.  Give yourself time to get back on your feet.  Don't rush anything.

Having already did the end-of-life experience with both of my parents, I have some understanding how you are feeling.  It is not new with you.  We all go through those emotions.

Now that you are free of the caregiver mode, go out and pamper yourself.  Watch a movie, go to a spa if you are into that sort of thing.  DO NOT let yourself feel guilty of doing things just for you.  You earned it and deserve it, but most importantly you NEED it.

That is about as much help I can give from this distance away.

Best of everything to you.

Zing

David, I loved the story.

Z, aren't 4H livestock always raised to be sold for slaughter to the highest bidder?  That makes them not really pets, but something else, making their raising and sale traumatic for some, perhaps many, 4H kids.  A former farmer acquaintance's 10 year old was devastated when his 4H project, a lamb, became family dinner.

You are correct that most animals in 4-H are bid on or sold outright.  Usually, to be meat for a home or store.  Not all of course.  No absolutes on anything.  But unless the kid is new to 4-H, they know the end to their animal.  Heck, even just animals they raise on the farm get eaten at some point.  Now, kids being kids, they still make the animals pets and care for them as pets.  It's life on a farm.  Raise and eat.

I do believe that Jack believes this is his best work.  I totally understand why he would believe that.  Jack put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this story.  At times it was an emotional drain on him which I do think at times made him physically sick.  Especially the Summer Chapter or as I call it the Heartbreak Summer chapter.  It emotionally drained me just reading it, so it had to have sucked everything out of Jack writing it.

Jack:  Feel free to put one of those spoiler things on that paragraph if you want.

Now as good as that story is, I still count it as number two.  Number one is and forever shall be, Family Business.

It is absolutely my kind of story.  Love the ever-changing emotions both with Noah and his dad.  It is long, but it is well worth reading.  It needed to be that long to get the entire story told.  Howl didn't leave anything out.  It is all there.  In reading this story I discovered I like the style of not giving all the information at once, but revealing things slowly throughout the story, piece by piece.  You will understand what I mean when you read it.

I loved it.  You don't write "spanking stories"--you write beautifully written character studies that happen to have spankings in them.  I can't wait for the next chapter.

Mr. Afinch you don't know just how true your statement is.  After Jack writes his chapters, he then thinks of where a spanking would fit in.   So, it is a story of the life of Caleb first, with spankings added to round it out.

Actually, Salah, for that is his name, was wearing longish shorts.

Longish shorts to swim in?  Someone should tell him that is a good way to drown.  Least is best when swimming.  Think safety first, over modesty, tradition, religion and culture.