Sharkbait's local spot

Bridge Construction, Phase Ii

2009-10-30T23:33:00.000-07:00

Bridge Construction, Phase I

2009-10-30T22:34:00.000-07:00

Healy Hall at entrance to Georgetown

2009-10-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

Favorite pic of the year thus far

2009-10-07T17:34:00.001-07:00

Originally uploaded by thegirlinthecurl

It's the beginning of the end...

2009-10-04T14:47:00.000-07:00

Brought to you by Starbucks.

What does it mean?!?!

2009-09-22T15:03:00.000-07:00

This cracker looks scarily like my cat's head:

Free market America, with strings firmly attached

2009-08-30T22:04:00.000-07:00

Mark and I have really been looking forward to seeing Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince. However, we haven't really had the time or money to go see a 2.5+ hour film in San Francisco. The availability of this one has been quite difficult to work around as well. We finally settled on date night, this Sunday evening. We justified the higher price of the IMAX 3D experience by deciding to forgo any alcohol purchases for a week. A good deal all around.

The fridge is almost empty, so we left a little early to grab some light fare at the Metreon. We drove there, being that a BART ride was going to be $6 per person, and take forever since it's Sunday. We parked at the 5th and Mission garage, place with a sordid past for me. Fool me twice...

We bought our tickets first, at $17 apiece. The cashier happily and wordlessly took our money, giving no allusion to the shortchanging we were in for. Wish an hour and a half to spare, we then wandered around the Metreon, looking for best food options.

There was a 'farmer's market' going on. I use quotes because I really, really doubt that any of those people were actual farmers, but rather middle-man vendors with overpriced goodies and faux-homemade packaging. They were all also repeatedly engaging us with hard-sell tactics, which is closer to timeshare than cropshare.

I passed on the $6 for a 12oz. cup of orange juices and the pita plus hummus for a Hamilton. Instead, we wandered through what was left of the expensive fast-food options. Only a few remain standing since the recession. We settled on Firewood, because they were advertising 3 Korean BBQ tacos for $7. Or so we thought.

Turns out that if you actually want some meat in those tacos, its gonna cost you a bit more. And if you want some chips and salsa with that, be prepared to pay (too much) for it. With our cups of free water, our total was $14.

It also turned out that there was nothing Korean or BBQ about our tacos. This is my surprised face.

Wandered some more, and couldn't resist the candy machine spewing runts. Except that is not accurate at all. For 50¢, you get approximately TEN pieces of candy. This on a machine that advertised "BIGGER PORTIONS!" Whatever. I should have bought a gumball, FOR A DOLLAR.

Next we took our supremely awesome 3D glasses and waited for the film to start. A voice came over the theater speakers and mumbled something about when to take our glasses on and off, and then ended it with an ominous caveat of "If you want a refund for this movie, you must do so now." Huh?

But, 12 minutes into the film, it became apparent why this warning was given. Turns out that, unbeknown to us, the film is only 3D for the initial opening scenes. If you don't know this (because you weren't told by anyone at any point along your journey) it becomes an abrupt awakening, akin to "HEEEEEEY, I just got screwed!" coupled with a feeling of being torn between enjoying a movie you've just committed to, and being stuck holding a bag 'o bitter.

I tried to forget that all of this just happened and lose myself in the film. This was hard since I had no place to put my ridiculously oversized glasses. Also, the sound was deafeningly loud. Why? No seriously, WHY ARE MOVIE THEATERS SO GODDAMN LOUD?!

Nonetheless, I mostly enjoyed the film. I forgot about the ending, which was another bummer however. Harry Potter himself was less of an insufferable asshole as he was previously, which was nice. Hermione got ridiculously hot, and seeing the director's attempts at playing this down while keeping her current and relevant was pretty amusing. She's got a great body and great clothes and there's just no way for her to wear them without it being somewhat sexualized. It made some of the male character's lack of interest in her seem farcical. Especially paired with her woe-is-me narrative of rejection. She just isn't a forlorn nerdy undesirable anymore. I think they were just downright forced to drop the precocious, know-it-all schtick she had going on – nobody was going to buy it. It was over even before the 3D was.

That wasn't all though. The night topped off with a $17.50 parking tab. We reluctantly paid it and cursed ourselves all the way home.

In spite of all this, Mark and I had a great time. We seem to weather these things really well together, especially when situations get pear shaped for whatever reason. It sucks, but we don't get bent. We laugh. What else is there, really?

But next week we are avoiding people, franchises and anything requiring sticking bills, coins or cards into stupid little machines. A walk in the woods will do us good.

My response to John Mackey

2009-08-14T11:20:00.000-07:00

georg_cantor from Metafilter made a great front page post about the WSJ Op-Ed piece by John Mackey the other day. The discussion on this topic has been quite lively on the Whole Foods Forums, MeFi, Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere. I have been voicing my opinion on this when and where I can, because I think its the most important issue there is right now, and I fear for the health and safety of all Americans if this good-will plan gets sabotaged by greedy corporate mobs.

Here is my comment from the Metafilter thread, re-posted here. It pretty much sums up my stance. Feel free to comment, copy, and repurpose as you see fit.

Mackey: "Many promoters of health-care reform believe that people have an intrinsic ethical right to health care—to equal access to doctors, medicines and hospitals."

Why don't I have a right to health care? Just what would I have to do to earn the right to basic care from another human being? What do I have to prove, to be worthy of equal treatment? Or even access to equal treatment?

Put another way, if my house is on fire, the Fire Dept. comes and puts it out. If I'm being robbed, raped, harassed, or otherwise harmed, the police come and help. They don't stop and ask me if I'm covered for these things. They don't half-assed put the fire out or refuse treatment based on some third-party contract I've signed. They just fucking do it, because their job is to ensure personal safety and well-being of the citizens of this country. Why the hell does my physical and mental health not fall into this category? Why is access to all direct pathways to my well-being intercepted by a profit driven industry? How can I expect that my health will be their number one priority? And I don't understand why anti-health-reformers care soooo much about the possibility that this will bankrupt the country. It's as if they're more concerned about the economic health of this country than the actual health of its citizens. As if that idea was the most noble expression of their patriotism and capitalist altruism, all bundled up in this strong symbol of freedom called America. Don't they realize that America is made of people?

Also, I'm really sick and tired of 'government' being a dirty fucking word.
posted by iamkimiam at 10:31 PM on August 12

Night life

2009-08-13T22:33:00.000-07:00

Mark and I met some friends at Cal Academy of Science's Nightlife event earlier this evening. It was a great way to unwind and celebrate the end of the LSA. Also, Nightlife is a friggin' DEAL. $10 for museum access, plus some of the best animal watching you can get. The Academy makes a killing on overpriced drinks, and everybody is happy.

They had the viewing room bustling, with three labcoat workers fervently dissecting various birds and placing them on display tables. There were several magenta-necked birds, full of pins, like some sort of voodoo revenge. Then the bigger ones were displayed in a manner that Mark appropriated as 'birds on sticks'. It was a strange sight. There's also something weird about a bunch of dolled up humans, with drinks in hand, laughing and gawking at the animals on the other side of the glass. And since the birds were all dead, the specimens on display display had to be the human ones. Or maybe it was truly us.

We then got in line for the rainforest exhibit. We spend some time staring at a particular glass cube, waiting for the surprise of 'oh there it is!' or 'wow, a walking stick!' or 'I thought that was a rock, but its a giant toad!' That's just how shit goes down at the museum. But yet again, it was our own behavior that proved most fascinating. For all our searching, we didn't see the big orange sign on the glass that read "This exhibit is currently being updated."

The orb spider / little orange frog exhibit was very cool. I tend to like spiders the bigger they are. And they provoke reactions in others that are all too entertaining. I could have watched that for hours. At least until one of the spiders ate one of the frogs. Then its time to move on.

I got to visit the penguins again, as well as the albino croc (gator?) on the rock. The lemur booth reminds me of brain. The pendulum time thingy is hypnotic. Fish are pretty.

I do think there's something fundamentally wrong with the idea of having live cephalopods downstairs, and then serving their breaded brethren upstairs. I ordered french fries instead. And that concludes my night at the museum!

Boots, Bridges and Bags of ??

2009-07-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

I had a bad feeling about driving today. And before I launch into this, I should state that I do, to a certain extent, believe in premonitions. The confirmation biasing, self-fulfilling kind, if you must. Anyways, I can only reliably claim responsibility for 1 of the 5 driving terrors I experienced today. This was my accidental misunderstanding of curb location as I unsuccessfully backed out of a driveway. Wheels intact, I rolled on.

Two of the remaining four were most definitely not my doing. One was a horrific accident I crawled upon, blocking the 3 left lanes of the bay bridge as I commuted to class. The other was a near-matching accident on the return, so this time on the upper deck, naturally.

Just prior to that were the two that I could have probably done something about. The first damn near killed me. Here's what happened.

So today I wore my hiking boots. That's ominous, huh? A driving horror story that starts with, "So today I wore my hiking boots." This will be very relevant soon. So these boots have bootstraps, as boots do, in the form of little fabric loops at the back of the heel. They should solely (ha!) serve the purpose of leveraging foot into boot, but this is not always the case.

Today as I'm crossing the bridge and talking on my new cell phone (3G, woot!), traffic before me slows. Having just come off the toll both a minute prior, I had waded through a few gears and my left foot was in a relaxed position on the floor, its work done for the moment. So you could imagine my surprise when I attempted to move said foot-in-boot towards clutch, and it was mysteriously pinned to my seat. Jerking my foot revealed that the foot-in-boot was now negatively correlated with the lever controlling the position of my seat. Being a 4'11" girl perched at the very front of the rails of reachability, any seat adjustments would have serious consequences. Besides, I had a slowing traffic problem to contend with.

Remarkably, I did what I needed to do, in the order I needed to do it. I used my right foot to throw in the clutch and go neutral, whilst telling my phonemate (now potential witness to my demise) of the current moment's news. Then I proceeded to slow down, driveshaft disengaged, for all kinds of potential gambling fun in the occasion that things not go as planned.

But panicking, as traffic is bound to pick back up, and I not with it. I cannot unloop my shoe on the seat slide lever, nor yank it free for fear of unwanted adjustments. So I reach down and one-handedly quickly untie my double-knotted left hiking boot! I release my foot and put the clutch in, just in time to flow with my fellow drivers...as if nothing happened at all!

Dorothy, my phonemate at the time of doom, can corroborate all of this. And please do, as I'm curious what I said during that brief insanity.

And if that weren't enough, not one minute later, some asshole with his garbage not strapped down in his old beige pickup, leaves me a flying-and-landing obstacle to dodge...ON THE FUCKING BRIDGE. It was one of those times that you half run over something, telling yourself, "Good God, I hope this is FLUUFFFYYY."

And that was all. Drive safe, people.

Also, Happy 10th Birthday Metafilter!

2009-07-14T22:03:00.000-07:00

Metafilter: community weblog.
The best of the web, x10.

Using my words

2009-07-14T21:25:00.000-07:00

I'm in week 2 of the Linguistic Institute at UC Berkeley. This has been inspiring, intimidating, and ultimately, nerd heaven. Linguists don't shut up. Competition is high. Everybody is doing amazing research.

I've had some serious highs and lows. I've learned tons. I should probably be reading right now, but I can't do this 100% of the time. Even this, right now, is linguistics-related. At least I'm thinking of it that way. I can't help myself.

I'm living at my friend's house in Berkeley during the week. It's very weird to be back at Cal. It's like I get a big, fat do-over of my undergrad experience. Oh the things I would have done differently.

I made a friend who is a PhD candidate over at Stanford. She's amazing. And she just turned 23 last weekend. That was 8 years ago for me. I didn't even know what linguistics was back then. Unbelievable.

The competition around here is ridiculous. Not unlike surfing, where people start with "Where do you go?" and "What kind of board do you ride?" the general M.O. is "Where do you study?" and "What have you done?" I feel below the radar on this one, and therefore unaffected by it. Sadly, SF State doesn't have the cachet of these other places...it's almost like linguistics has a caste system, and I'm so low that I'm not even in it. The only narrative option here is a 'rags to riches' one. I fully embrace it. I'm fully determined to make the most out of my experiences, regardless of whatever happens with my school (outlook not so good). We'll see. I'm making connections and pitching my research ideas. It's unbelievable how accessible everybody is! These are heavies in the field. These are my celebrities. And I can just walk right into their backstage dressing room and have myself a little chat.

Speaking of celebrity worship, I need to go finish reading the book "You know my steez: An ethnographic and sociolinguistic study of styleshifting in a black American speech community"...the author is coming to visit and lecture on Thursday!

So many other things to say...must stop now...can't. stop. gah!

Google Squared's answer to Sarah Palin

2009-07-03T23:05:00.000-07:00

I should have posted this a while ago, but its somewhat timely again now, so here goes. Google Squared is part of Google Labs, where they work out new stuff, ready for us to play with. It's pretty cool to check out their list of apps, and opt-in on whatever suits your fancy. I find the Gmail email 'unsend'* feature to be a neat offering, although I hope to never need it.

Anyways, Google Squared: takes a category and creates a starter 'square' of information, automatically fetching and organizing facts from across the web. Here's what it had to say about Sarah Palin:

*For the 'unsend' feature, and other opt-in fun stuff, find the 'Labs' tab in your Gmail Settings window.

Sometimes things just go your way.

2009-06-29T13:55:00.001-07:00

Avocados
Originally uploaded by thegirlinthecurl

Even on a Monday.

Organic Dirt

2009-06-29T13:54:00.001-07:00

Organic Dirt
Originally uploaded by thegirlinthecurl

There is something inherently funny about this. And really sad that its a very hard thing to find. Anywhere.

Letting them stack up, then clearing the rows

2009-06-15T22:29:00.000-07:00

I thought summer would allow me freedom to clear my mind, to experience a slow, calming, emptiness of thought. Ha!

Apparently, I just spend free time creating new stuff to take on.

I've got several work projects going, which is a little bit stressful since I am trying to leave town for 5 days. Also, when I get back I have a job interview for a part-time work study position on campus, starting in the fall.

School is keeping me busy too...even though I'm not going, and I haven't started the summer Linguistics Institute yet, there's still lots to do: writing my abstract and submitting it for the LSA conference in Baltimore (Jan. 2010), revising/rewriting the corresponding paper, keeping the student organization blog alive with at least the bare minimum of content, reorganizing the entire semester's formatted and scanned History of English files so I can pass that off and be done with it, writing a letter to the Student Grievance Officer (SF State doesn't have an Ombudsman, wth?!) about our erroneously canceled field research, and researching the GRE and PhD programs.

And while we're still on school stuff, here are the books I'm currently reading (yes, I'm reading all of them):
Homegirls: Language and Cultural Practice Among Latina Youth Gangs (Mendoza-Denton)
Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (Diamond)
You Know My Steez: An Ethnographic and Sociolinguistic Study of Styleshifting in a Black American Speech Community (Alim)
Style: Language Variation and Identity (Coupland)
Complete Idiot's Guide to Unix
Statistics for Dummies
From Molecule to Metaphor (Feldman)
Harry Potter y la cámara secreta

I know, right?

I've also been trying to keep up on socializing. Some of my friendships were pretty neglected during this last semester, so I'm making the rounds and trying to catch up. The no-school, anti-Twitter, un-MeFi, and offline folk are the hardest to keep up with. Technology really does make my life easier in some ways, and I really miss out in others. Y'all shall be hearing, seeing, or receiving written word from me soon.

And speaking of technology, I must admit that a(n) (un)fair amount of time gets devoted to it. There's an endless world out there, full of interesting links, videos, games, and other stuff to keep the brain exercised. I. Can't. Stop. Myself. A few of my recent favorites, for your enjoyment:

Monsieur Cok: A delightfully dystopian French animation short. Also of similar genre, an animation noir flashgame with catchy music and stunning visuals: Little Wheel.
Fantastic post on Metafilter about the Iranian election. Full of insightful commentary and hundreds of links to leapfrog about the internet.
Hilarious just desserts in joholland's comment: a response to Tanya Gold's condescending rant about weddings and dinner parties.
The computer upstairs is running the 'motion' library for linux. As soon as it detects something moving on camera, it starts recording frames. While it is saving frames, it also initiates another Perl script I wrote that sends an X10 command to turn on the blender and strobe, wait 3 seconds, then turn them off. After the script is done detecting motion, it then splices all the JPG frames together using ffmpeg and saves the resulting movie as a SWF file, which you can see above. Finally, after it saves the movie, I have it set up to email me a link to the movie so I can see the results from where ever I'm at (remotely by using my phone). Or, How to keep the cat off the counter.
From NPR: Dear Pixar, please make a movie about a girl who is not a princess. 500 comments and counting on MeFi.

Hmm. That's probably enough for now. If you want more, you can hop around my delicious links here.

Well, I should get to bed. I've got to get up early, finish some work, go to a dermatology appt., buy a wedding card and present, buy 2 graduation gifts, call my grandma, meet with the catsitter, pick up steroids for my cat (her asthma) and pack for a roadtrip.

It's like the beginning of the internet, again

2009-05-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

Data.gov is live! Not only is it a top-level decision to provide transparency to this country's widest-reaching institution, but (I believe) it has the power and potential to radically transform how we do business, how we research and who we research with, and what we can accomplish.

Think about it. With more data sets, people across all disciplines will be able to share and apply their data with infinitely wider scope. I wonder how an artist, engineer, biologist, linguist, statistician, economist, teacher, and realtor would approach the Active Mines and Mineral Plants in the US set. Or what thousands of seismologists across the world looking at things from different perspectives can discover about earthquakes.

Also, the effect of this on intellectual property, licensing and rights, open source software, and other things like the Right to Repair Act will be dramatic. This is not only a shift of policy, but one of ideas and information, down to meta levels of how we even think about, look at, and access that information.

How this can't help but phenomenally change society forever is what I'm trying to wrap my head around.

Congratulations! No, Edit+Undo. Wait, Edit+Redo. Congratulations!

2009-05-20T12:29:00.000-07:00

I received an email this morning from a Graduate Studies Coordinator at a very prominent school for my field. It was a quasi-mass-mailer, congratulating me on a recent scholarship accomplishment (which did not apply to me) and noting that I was discovered through the Graduate Student Research Showcase I had recently participated in.

I followed up on the email with a thank you, a clarification, and my expression of interest in their graduate program. About thirty minutes later I received the following email:

"____ would like to recall the message, "Congratulations from ___"."

Huh? Was my inquiry no longer welcome? Were the 'Congratulations' recalled as well? How should I regard this school moving forward? It was all a rather strange violation of social practices.

But not to fear...about 30 minutes after that, I received the original email, again. This time it congratulated me, just for being me – no scholarship accolades required!

Heh.

Ode to Portland

2009-05-19T21:54:00.000-07:00

This is just to say,
I have eaten from your local, organic, sustainable, zine-supporting, hipster CSA outlet. Which you are probably going to turn into a vegan microbrewery next week.

Forgive me, I couldn't resist. You are just so white, so librul.

Watch the Gap! Have a safe trip!

2009-05-19T21:03:00.001-07:00

Watch the Gap!
Originally uploaded by thegirlinthecurl

Is this supposed to be ironic? The worn seats from the 70's...the happy go-lucky slogan (have a safe trip, get it, get it?)...the old style font...the outdated women's fashionwear. Is advertising these days that hard up that they can't pull a poster more recent than '73? Or has BART gone hipster?

This little piggy goes to Mexico?

2009-04-28T23:29:00.001-07:00

I've been avidly watching, reading, and Twittering about H1N1, a.k.a. The Swine Flu. Cue panic music.

The reason for my interest is not your typical voyeuristic what's-the-latest socio-political drama. I actually have a LOT riding on the next weeks' turn of events.

For the last year, I have been planning and preparing for a once-in-a-lifetime language documentation project in Oaxaca, Mexico. This is an opportunity to do actual field research, and work with the Zapotecas — also known as the Cloud People, one of the oldest tribes of Meso-America. Their ancient language is rapidly becoming extinct, pushed out by other languages of socioeconomic power in today's modern world. Namely, this would be Spanish. And ironically, as the language of power, it is necessary that all our research and elicitations be done en Español. So I have been on the Big Cram, severely ramped up in the last five months, to learn Spanish like a muchacha en Oaxaca.

I have invested literally thousands of $$ in this trip already. Every minute has been spent listening to Spanish music, reading Spanish books, taking Spanish lessons, studying Zapotec, and generally getting ready to spend the month of June in a small little place called Teotitlán de Valle. My non-refundable tickets have been booked for quite some time.

Sadly, as is customary for June, I will be missing some really special events back home. The wedding of a very close friend tops that list. I have been working out a way to make it up to my friend Spike, but it is now seeming I won't have to.

And that's the thing. As much as I want and am ready to go to Mexico, I am ok with staying too. Life rolls.

However, staying unfurls a whole different timeline of events. While I will be thrilled to go to SoCal for a very special union, I won't be in Mexico earning the 3 units towards my Masters program at SFSU. It will delay my graduation plan by an entire semester.

There are the immediate things too. The current small fortune I'm spending on private tutoring in Spanish. The change of airfare. The Summer Linguistic Institute, commencing the day after I am destined to return from Oaxaca...or not. Signing up for Fall classes tomorrow. Do I pick classes based on whether I went to Oaxaca, or whether I didn't?

My fate rests with H1N1. And what the State Department has to say about travel.

It's the quiet ones you gotta watch...

2009-01-26T09:56:00.001-08:00

Great advice found on Zen Habits blog regarding food.
Click here for entire post about Keeping Eating Simple.
(It should also be noted that this was a guest post written by Scott of the Modern Forager blog.)

How To Simplify Eating

I really don’t think it’s all that difficult to figure out what to eat, however. It’s as simple as “Eat Real Food”. So what do I mean by Real Food? Simple…I mean foods that are in, or very near to, their natural state. Here’s a short list of guidelines to lead us to real foods:

Food grows and dies. It isn’t created.
Food rots, wilts, and becomes generally unappetizing, typically rather quickly.
Food doesn’t need an ingredient label (and probably isn’t in a package either).
Food doesn’t have celebrity endorsements.
Food doesn’t make health claims.

Pocky, sake, and FIRE!

2009-01-26T06:46:00.000-08:00

I'm skipping bootcamp this morning because I desperately need a day to myself before the semester starts (tomorrow)! This post will be brief, list-stylie.

Random things from last week:

I did 100 pushups, with breaks, but without knees. I'm really getting in shape and feeling pretty good about myself. Go me.
Locked myself out of the house wearing only cords, t-shirt, no shoes. In the rain. My left neighbors are lame, but the right ones are AWESOME. Then Mark showed up with wine and flowers. My drama turned into a very fun evening.
Got out for a very fun but ridiculous session. A good workout, as I rode whitewater (that's all there was!) for an hour.
Got bit by a dog. A friend's dog. Lovable thing, but desperately needs Cesar Milan, pronto!
Mark and I went to the asian grocery store and bought all sorts of goodies, including "Pocky Chocolate Crush." I can't help but wonder if they don't mean "Chocolate Crunch" not "crush." But it's basically a straight pretzel dipped in chocolate, then pretzel bits, then chocolate again. Yes, it's crush-on-a-stick.
Also accidentally bought a $20 bottle of sake. Oops. $5 or $10 would have been fine, but noooo, I had to find the most expensive thing and throw it in the cart. I gotta watch myself.
Went to the movies last weekend. Saw "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." Very, very long movie. Seriously long. 3.5 hours I believe. Our movie theater caught on fire, due to an overzealous popcorn machine. What a cliché. The best part? The theater is filling up with smoke and people are STANDING (not moving) on the 1-person-wide escalator!
Also watched Margot at the Wedding, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Thomas Crowne Affair, and Appoloosa. Maybe I'll do some reviews later if there's time.
Sent out invites to our Housewarming/Oscars party. The theme is Academy Awards Rejects. Dress up as anybody who isn't nominated for an Oscar this year. I'm thinking of being Juno, but I can't get Mark to wear those running shorts for the Michael Cera character (do you blame him?) With his beard, it seems more fitting he go as Chuck Norris.
The cats are 80% toilet trained. That's the people toilet. No more litter. Yay. Belly gets the concept entirely. Brain doesn't always know where her poop should go.

That's a good a place as any to end. Off to other things. Enjoy the day!

Additional thoughts on Oath-taking

2009-01-21T10:48:00.000-08:00

As a follow-up on my previous post about the Obama/Roberts blunder yesterday, and in response to this question on Ask.Metafilter, I have a couple of additional thoughts about the validity of the swearing-in ceremony that took place yesterday.

This post was copied and adapted from my comment over at Ask.Metafilter.com.
---
Under Austin/Searle's Speech Act Theory, there are certain phrases, or Speech Acts, that actually perform actions when uttering. These types of Speech Acts are called constatives, and oaths and promises fall into this category (usually). Examples of constative Speech Acts: If I say, "I agree," or "I promise," or "I hereby state...," etc. The things that those words represent become "true" once the words are uttered. But, this only works unless certain criteria are met, called Felicity Conditions. These Conditions require that the person performing the Speech Act has the right to perform that act (has the authority to perform), is heard by others (that authority is recognized by others), the participants follow proper procedures/rituals required for that Act, etc.

A good example of this, and not unlike taking an oath, is found in wedding vows. If the Felicity Conditions are met, but the actual wording gets botched (the bride or groom says "I will" by accident, we can assume that the marriage is still good and valid. It is the intent that matters. Of course, wedding vows are trickier, as we see when we get into the Felicity Conditions regarding authority (who can marry; who recognizes it, etc.).

Another example of "botched wording" in common Speech Acts is saying "I'm sorry" when you really mean "I apologize." However, what makes this work is that "I'm sorry" has become socially conventionalized to mean the constative "I apologize."

Taking the Oath of Office is a formally conventionalized procedure. The intent to take office is recognized by the state and the people. The persons participating in the Speech Act have the authority to do so. The only thing 'wrong' here is that the Felicity Conditions required for performing the ritual perfectly, well, didn't go so perfectly. However, the meaning of what was uttered is exactly the same. And a syntactician could easily argue that the underlying representations of the two sentences ("...faithfully execute..." and "...execute...faithfully") are identical, as well as the surface semantic interpretations. So I would say, unless there's a specific clause that states that the whole procedure is null and void unless both the Chief Justice and the office taker recite their roles verbatim according to the constitution, the conditions are met and we have ourselves a sworn in President.

Caveat: I am a linguist, but I am not fully versed in Constitutional law, oath-taking, etc. It is possible that there is some catch, qualification, etc. that I am not aware of. But I'm always curious, so do share if there's anybody out there that can add to the collective pool of knowledge.
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Constitution vs. Cooperation. The case of syntax and Oath of Office.

2009-01-20T14:05:00.000-08:00

[Reposted from my other, more professional blog]
I originally wrote and posted this over at the Linguistics Graduate Student Association blog I run for school. But I like this post, and I don't want to directly link the two blogs together. So I am reposting it here.
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Interesting linguistic phenomenon during Barack Obama's swearing-in this morning. A few blunders (including one later in Obama's Inaugural Speech, where he states that 44 people have taken this oath previously – actually, only 43 have, since Grover Cleveland was president twice, in non-consecutive terms). This post is about the the interesting exchange between the two participants in this 43rd delivery of the Speech Act we call "Oath of Office."

The official 35-word oath is written in Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution as follows:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Here is a shallow transcription of the oath, as stated this morning (delivered by Chief Justice John Roberts to Barack Hussein Obama at 12:00 pm, January 20th, 2009):

Roberts: I, Barack Hussein Obama [do solemnly swear]
Obama: [I, Barack]
Obama: I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear.
Roberts: That I will..execute the office of President of to the United States faithfully.
Obama: That I will execute... (nods to Roberts)
Roberts: the off– faithfully the Pres– office of President [of the United States.]
Obama: [the office of President] of the United States faithfully.
Roberts: And will to the best of my ability.
Obama: I will to the best of my ability.
Roberts: Preserve, protect, and defend, the constitution of the United States.
Obama: Preserve, protect, and defend, the constitution of the United States.
Roberts: So help you God?
Obama: So help me God.
Roberts: Congratulations Mr. President.

*Brackets "[ ]" represent overlapping speech. Parenthesis represent paralinguistic cues. Periods "." represent pauses. Hyphens "–" represent truncated speech. Text in red represents a change made to the transcription (after the original post timestamp).*

The last 4 words "So help me God" are not part of the constitutional oath, and therefore optional. I find this interesting because this is also signaled with a change in deixis by Roberts. He asks Obama "So help you God," rather than "So help me God," a change in style in which Roberts is no longer requesting Obama to repeat his words, but rather asking him a direct question.

Also, more noticeable, is the syntactic fumbles by Roberts in delivering the words for Obama to repeat. The constitutional oath is worded as "faithfully execute the office..." (adverb+VP), not "execute the office of President of the United States faithfully" (VP + adverb). Both are understandable and grammatically allowable in English, but have slightly different connotations, especially when delivered in this social context. The former is expected; the latter is marked.

The delivery of the "unconstitutional" word ordering prompted Obama to momentarily pause immediately after repeating "That I will execute." He nods to Roberts, now providing him with both linguistic and paralinguistic cues to perform a repair. Roberts initially misinterprets these cues as a repair request from Obama to hear the next words as he (Roberts) initially delivered them. We see this in line #6, starting with "the off–." However, Roberts immediately realizes his (second) error, and now understands that "faithfully" was what was requested, not the remaining sentence as he had previously stated it in line #4. However, he errs again in his attempt to deliver the proper constitutional ordering. Instead of giving Obama the proper words to repeat, "faithfully execute the office of...," he misspeaks by saying, "faithfully the Pres–." He realizes this and stops himself. We're on error number three now, for those keeping track. His final repair attempt results in the end of line #6, where Roberts skips the troubling adverb+verb combo, and supplies the proper end of the sentence, sans "faithfully."

Roberts' efforts are not in vain however. Even though his repairs were further botched in the surface representations, the intent to repair was conveyed to Barack Obama.

It is not actually required by the Speech Act of oath-giving that the words are repeated verbatim, or the conversational exchange go smoothly, for the oath to be considered valid. This happens at weddings all the time, and the show does go on. The intent is understood, and the Speech Act is honored as accomplishing what it intended to accomplish.

It is important however that Obama say the oath, regardless if it was delivered to him correctly. Interestingly, he has a choice now in the manner in which to say it. He can go with the constitutional version (adverb + verb phrase), or with Roberts' version (verb phrase + adverb). The former is correct, the latter is most cooperative. He can't have both.

It is interesting to see that even at the most basic level of simple conversational exchange, we see three traits emerge in our new President: leadership, cooperation, and quick thinking under pressure. Obama understood Roberts' error and allowed him to gracefully correct himself. But when he heard Roberts' repeated failed attempts to provide the proper words, Obama took charge of the situation and spoke the necessary phrase to continue with the Speech Act. That the Speech Act go on could easily be considered the priority at this point. It is important to note that, for whatever reason, Obama carried on in a way that was the most cooperative, choosing the phrasing that would align himself with Roberts, rather than slighting him.

There are a few other interesting phenomenon going on in this simple dialogue, but I am ready to enjoy the day.

If you need more wholesome oathy goodness, here is the latest at the Inuagural Blog, from the office of our new President, Barack Obama. Also, change.gov is closing up shop and coming to the whitehouse. Dot gov.

(My sincere apologies for all the bad puns in the previous paragraph.)

There is a lot to look at here and we welcome any and all comments on this post. Thanks!
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keywords not in post: critical discourse analysis, CDA, Austin, Searle, speech act theory, blunder, screwup, mistake, swear, swearing, politics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, constatives, perlocutionary, pledge, promise, amendment, felicity conditions, conversational turn, syntax, adverbial, clause, inauguration.
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*Update: Jan. 21, 2009, 11:25 am. Upon listening to the audio again this morning, I realize that my initial transcription of the swearing-in ceremony contained an error. In line #4, Roberts actually says "to" instead of the proper word "of". I have corrected this in the transcription portion of this post, and noted the change in the reference key below it.