Yearly Acer celebrations

The thing I love about the Acer community is the free flowing creativity. Everyone has an idea and many Acers try to bring these ideas to life. It makes for an exciting and innovative atmosphere. Take the new AOB Wikipedia page created by Y&P for example. Or how about the Ace News site that Tino began a little while back? There is a new archive site Story Meant to Last , courtesy of Swan and Mary. And let's not forget to thank Anja and Jessi for the new Jenny Berggren Source website. New ideas are constantly bubbling up and being realized on the message boards as well. How about the weekly Acer Interviews at TAB? And recently at THB, Mona suggested a calendar with Jenny-isms and André wanted to revive the March Madness competition from a few years back.

André's post made me wonder why we don't have many events or happenings that take place every year in the community? Other fan families have days they use to mark and celebrate the passing of each year. Why shouldn't we have a few ourselves? We already have the Secret Santa game during the Christmas season. We had March Madness before, which can be revived with a little bit of work. How about some other events? Any suggestions Acers?

Fun with word origins

I buy reference books like there's no tomorrow and I picked up a word history book today for the low, low price of $2.25. Being an Acer, of course, Ace and Base have to be the first words I look up.

Ace: Came into use during Middle English. An 'ace' denoted the one on dice in Middle English; it comes via Old French from Latin as 'unity, a unit'. It is often ranked as the highest value in a suit of playing cards, and the associated worth and 'excellence' are transferred to many uses and contexts, e.g: he served an ace, a motorcycle ace, Ace! You've done it! it wasn't our intention to ace Phil out of a job (North American sense of 'outdo').

Can we ace Lasse out of a job?

Base: Came into use during Middle English. Base as the bottom or foundation of something comes from Old French, itself via Latin basis 'base, pedestal' from Greek. In English in the late 16th centure basis denoted a base or pedestal, reflecting the Latin. The Greek root means, literally 'stepping', therefore giving a notion of 'something on which one steps or stands'. Base is also an element of the adjective basic 'forming an essential foundation'.

We better thank the French for picking these words up from Latin, huh? Then, we'd have to thank the Normans for invading England and winning the Battle of Hastings. See, history is important. Without the influence, AOB could still be called CAD. The members would then be known as Cads and we'd be Caddies or Cadets. I think I'll stick with Ace and Acer. Thank you France! ;o)

Party tricks and odd dreams

Well, only two final exams left and good riddance to this semester. I picked linguistics as my major last semester and hated it but it's growing on me. Why? Because I can fake a great Swedish accent now! Isn't that what every mother dreams for their child, being able to fake a Swedish accent? All that phonology really comes in handy. Don't laugh. Linguists make good money in Hollywood teaching actors foreign accents for movie roles. (Hollywood movie "New World"). There's a job they didn't tell you about in high school.

Not only do I have a great party trick that'll bore my guests to sleep, I can also figure out why AOB pronounce words as they do. You know, "eyes" pronounced as "ice" and "consequence" as "conseqvence". Fascinating informa..zzzzzzzz.

Speaking of sleep, I had a dream last night that a friend was going to interview Roxette but he fell asleep and didn't make it to the interview in time. So, I had to interview them. But, I didn't know it until they arrived at my house. My house was not so tidy and the interview room was full of AOB posters. No Roxette merchandise to be found anywhere. Anyway, I interviewed them and didn't record it or write down any answers. They left and my friend asked me for the interview info and I couldn't even remember anything I asked them. Maybe that means I should lay off the Swedish music for a day or two. NAHHHH!