Happy New Year’s
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“Happy New Year! I just got back from Utah visiting with my family at my brother’s home. I had so much fun and enjoyed being with the family. I was also able to see my three beautiful nieces. I am sure that you will agree when you see the pictures of them.
This is my niece Hannah (Eye winks). The reason I gave her the name sign “Eye Winks” is because when she was a baby, she would open one eye at a time to see what was around her and then quickly close her eye again when waking up.
My second niece is Mia (Beautiful). She is very pretty as you can see.
This is my third niece, Charlotte (rotated C). That is her name sign because she has very intense eyes that will probably be blue, or even green. My brother in law is the one that gave her the name sign. I think that it is cute. They are all cute. Take a look at them again.
Well, I hope that you had a good New Year. I enjoyed mine. Nice and peaceful. Ok. I will talk to you later. Bye.”
Thanks Gerard
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“Gerard, I wanted to thank you for commenting about my blog. I wanted to be able to write my blog in both languages because I know not everyone has the ability to understand English and ASL, and I wanted both groups to know what it was I was saying. I hope that in the future I can add SignWriting to the list as I am working on it right now. It has been taking a little bit more work because I have to pretty much invent it myself. I am making progress though. I also like the features that I have since commenters can record themselves signing, write their comments in English, or when I get it done, in ASL with SignWriting.
To my readers who are wondering what I am talking about, Gerard commented about my blog. His blog address is ultimategerardm.blogspot.com with his post title being ‘Modern Technology‘. I will post the link to it. I just wanted to say thanks to Gerard. 
Ok, that’s all for now, bye.”
To Classifier or not to Classifier first
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“Well, I remember one of the other things that I wanted to talk about, which is related to one of the tests that I just took. It wasn’t a final exam because I didn’t take the class. It was actually a challenge exam, or a “test out” exam, to challenge a class. I did that because I already knew all the information that would be taught in that class that is required to get my degree, so there was no reason to take the class. And the class was … ASL 3. No surprise that I surpass that class and could easily pass it.
So I meet with the teacher and took the exam. After the exam, the teacher said that I passed with flying color. Her only comment to me was that I have a tendency to use the classifier before its noun reference. The example that she gave me was that I used a classifier for bed followed by BED where it should have been BED followed by the classifier. I didn’t really think anything of it at the time because I know that is what students are taught in ASL 3 to do. But as I got thinking about it, I started wondering if she meant that I was wrong grammatically in placing the classifier before the noun. So I started thinking how it would be said in English if I had said it in English. “The flat surface over there is the bed.” And if I had signed it the way the teacher had said it, I would have said, “The bed is the flat surface over there.” The two statements are basically the same, but the first it too finesse to be understood at an ASL 3 level, which is why you won’t often see it at that level. On the flip side, the latter statement is simpler and easier to explain. I can understand that.
So was the teacher saying that I was wrong, or was she just commenting on what should be known at that level of ASL? She never said that I was wrong. She was just making a comment. She wasn’t even critiquing me either. So I think that she knows that it is a valid sentence too. Now, none of this really mattered for the test anyway. It was just something that I was thinking about that I thought that was interesting. Now maybe I will remember some of the other things that I wanted to talk about. I guess we’ll see. Bye for now.”
The Holiday Spirit?
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“I know that I haven’t posted a blog for … a long time. That is because I have had been studying for my final exams and working. I have just been so busy that I haven’t had time to do anything else. So now I have a lot to get off my chest!
So now the first thing that I want to get off my chest. It is the holiday season, right? People are supposed to have that holiday spirit about them. There is one thing that I am annoyed about. I know that it has been happening every holiday season for a while. Maybe it just seems to be more so now since I have been so busy with other things that I haven’t noticed the holiday spirit from people. It just seems that there is a lot of emphasis on commercialism. It could partially be because of the recent decline in the economy. I honestly can’t say because I haven’t been up on the news being busy and all. So there’s that which has been bugging me.
Uhh … Well, I have been — It is obvious that I have just finished my finals because I am brain dead. I can’t remember what else I wanted to say. … Oh well. I know that it will come to me later, but I just can’t remember it now. That ok because I will just write up a blog when I find out what it was. Bye.”
What is “It”?
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“I’ve had some people ask me what “it” is in my by title of this site, “It Begins Here”. “It” is very complex. I know. Bad joke. 
So what is “it”? Well, the simplest way I can put it is the creativity of the human mind. So does that mean “here” is my website? Am I saying that creativity starts on my website and only my website? In a word, absolutely not! “Here” is actually the mind. So basically, my by title means that your creativity begins in your head.
Now, in keeping with that theme, I have been wanting to place inspiring quotes that appear at random on my website. I have a place set aside for that and I have the tools to make it work. So what is stopping me? I’m not that good at finding good quotes. I know quotes aren’t exactly found. But as I don’t have the benefit of hearing them by word of mouth and I have a horrible memory for that sort of thing, I am going to ask you this. Please send my way some of your favorite inspirational quotes. Maybe you will see it on this website one of the times you visit. “
