No mic :(

So, my microphone didn't want to work with Forvo any more, and I thought it was because I had left it on for several days and the battery was flat.

But replacing it didn't help, either; when I record, I can't hear anything in the subsequent playback.

But I do hear other sounds on Forvo, when playing back other's sounds... and the microphone appears to work with Audacity (except for the first half second or so, bzuh?). So I don't know what's wrong.

Pity, because recording words for Forvo was fun.

ASL / baby sign

I've kind of decided to try to learn some basic ASL signs to use with babysign, since one of Stella's day-care children is 4 months and the other is 2 and just starting to speak... and since I'll be speaking English to both of them, ASL kind of makes more sense than DGS, especially since I won't be signing in complete sentences to them anyway (I expect) so it doesn't matter so much if I don't have a proper handle on the grammar. (Though that's a weak justification; based on what I speak to them, BSL would be even more appropriate, if anything. But ASL seems to have the best available Internet resources.)

So far, I've found SigningSavvy as a sign dictionary.

Amy can already recognise a few signs (at least eat, drink, cat, baby) I showed her.

I think I need a signing userpic; perhaps me fingerspelling my name or something. And I wonder whether to use "duck" as a namesign based on my Martin userpic, which I use nearly everywhere one can upload one's own avatar. (He's my Gravatar, for example, and I think also my Facebook profile picture.)

Birthday party for Amy

Amy went to her kindergarten friend Nea's birthday party this afternoon (she turned four), and I went with her.

Besides Amy, Nea had invited another child from kindergarten as well as a girl and a boy, children of one of her mother's good friends.

On the whole, I think a good time was had by all, though most of the food prepared for the children ended up eaten by adults since the children were busy with other things than eating.

I was glad that Amy seemed to play well with the others, after an initial quarter of an hour or so of sticking around me.

Man proposes to lady he met on the bus

This blog entry on The Old New Thing reminded me of my own "bus girl".

(Though I didn't propose to her; she faded out of my life after our office moved and I no longer took the same bus. Though by that time I had at least worked up the courage to talk to her.)

Visit #15000, coming up soon

Apparently, I have visited Gmail before today. In fact, "Yes, 14.945 times" according to Firefox.