Coffee Klatch

Looking for some good coffee that’s not too expensive? I would recommend Paramount Coffee to you. They used to be just a supplier of restaurants, etc., but now they’ve got a retail store online. Shipping’s pretty cheap and the coffees are GOOD! I recommend trying the Diner’s Choice, the German Blend, or the Kona Blend. Prices for 12-oz. bags are mostly between $5.89 and $6.49, which is cheaper than most that you’d buy in the stores (unless you buy the CANS of coffee–shudder!).

Current music: Swing 39, by Django Reinhardt

This is the title of a book originally written in 1855 by a Portuguese guy named Pedro Carolino. The goal was to make a Portuguese-to-English phrasebook, but the problem was twofold: he didn’t speak English and he didn’t have a Portuguese-English dictionary. What he did have was a Portuguese-French dictionary (by José da Fonseca) and a French-English dictionary. The result, English as She is Spoke (EASIS), has become one of the English language’s funniest examples of good intentions going awry. Click the picture to find out more about the book on Amazon.

Here are some examples of their “translations:”

Original: Barriga cheia, cara alegre.
Proper: A full stomach makes for a content face.
EASIS: After the paunch comes the dance.

Original: Este lago parece-me bem piscoso. Vamos pescar para nos divertirmos.
Proper: This lake looks full of fish to me. Let’s have some fun fishing.
EASIS: That pond it seems me many multiplied of fishes. Let us amuse rather to the fishing.

Original: Já não sei como me hei-de haver com esta casta de gente.
Proper: I don’t know what to do any more with this sort of people.
EASIS: I don’t know more what I won’t with they servants.

Original: Vamos mais depressa. Nunca vi pior besta. Não quer andar, nem para diante, nem para trás.
Proper: Let’s go faster. I never saw a worse animal. It doesn’t want to go either forward or backward.
EASIS: Go us more fast never i was seen a so much bad beast; she will not nor to bring forward neither put back.

Original: A cavalo dado não se lhe olha para o dente.
Proper: Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
EASIS: A horse bared don’t look him the tooth.

Current music: Midnight Groove: The Art of Smooth Jazz

Okay, here’s one more fun game. But this one’s not little or short, though it IS addicting. It’s called Alter Ego. It’s a chance to see where your life might have gone if you’d made different choices. Well, sort of. It starts you in “The Womb” and progresses through seven (I think) stages of life. Choices you make affect your future options, including your personality, relationships, education, financial status, and career. If you do well, you can progress all the way through a long life and die in old age. If you do poorly, you can die early (or earlier).

It can be a very long game, but if you just close the window, the game will remember where you were when you go back to the site (along with remembering all the choices you made, good or bad).

The only drawback I’ve seen is that the game focuses on the physical and psychological, ignoring the spiritual, which is a large part of life for many people.