Romansh and Maltese

In La Quotidiana, they have a regular feature right now where they publish installments of Notiztgas dalla Sizilia by Linard Candreia (in Surmiran). (Is that the right word? Where they take a text and publish it a bit at a time, day by day?)

The other day, I was reading part 31, and came across this bit:

Chegl tgi fò smarvagler ad en Rumantsch an Sicilia è la preschientscha da pleds sicilians tgi sumeglian fitg (u èn schizont identics) cugl sursilvan! Cunchegl tg’ia na sung betg igl om digl fatg per sclareir tals misteris linguistics, surlascha l’explicaziun digl fenomen gist numno alla fantascheia digl singul lectour…

Which I understand as:

What makes a Romansh person in Sicily marvel is the presence of Sicilian words which strongly resemble (or are even identical to) Sursilvan! Since I’m not the kind of expert who can explain such linguistic mysteries, I’ll leave the explanation of the phenomenon I just mentioned to the imagination of each reader….

That bit reminded me of what I had experienced occasionally, where I would recognise a Romansh word here or there as one I had first come across in the context of Maltese (whose Romance word-stock, of course, comes mainly via Sicilian).

State of the Marek; Sign language; Amy’s photographs

Marek has been waking up at two o’clock in the morning for a while now, and since Stella wants to get him to sleep through the night, she tried to feed him at ten in the evening and wouldn’t feed him until at least four o’clock—so he’d often stay awake for an hour or so until he’d finally fall back asleep.

The other day, Stella said she thought that might be because of a growth spurt; she remembered from when Amy was small that whenever she had a developmental burst, that was preceded by a time of exceptional crankiness, though she’d only recognise such phases in retrospect when she saw the development.

What Marek can do now is turn around from his back onto his side: he’ll grab hold of his feet and then roll over onto his side. If you help him, he can also turn all the way around onto his tummy, but he can’t (yet) do it all the way by himself.

---

In related news, I try to use some sign language with Marek, and I’ve decided to use basically ASL for that. I got a trial membership at Signing Savvy and use the videos there to learn.

And Amy has taken to that like a fish to water; she’s really good at remembering signs I’ve showed her, even some time ago, and I’ve seen her use the occasional sign to me or to him, too. She seems to treat it as a game, but I still find it interesting.

I imagine she must have inherited my talent for languages.

---

For a project in kindergarten, all children were supposed to take some pictures: of their home, their favourite food, their family, that sort of thing. So Amy did, too, and they turned out surprisingly well considering that that was the first time she had held a camera in her hands.

New computer: recommendations?

So, I’ve been considering getting a new computer sometimes this year. (Stella just got a new laptop a couple of weeks ago to replace her previous computer.)

Most of the time, I use my computer to browse the web, so I don’t need too much horsepower, but some better graphics than I have now would be nice so that I can play The Sims 3 with a bit more graphical effects. Plus I definitely want more RAM; my current non-expandable 2 GB under Vista feels a bit little and I’m usually running around 65% with just my normal complement of windows open, even before starting, say, The Sims 3. Another factor is that the computer should last me at least two years, perhaps three, before our family’s Chancellor of the Exchequer (Minister of Finance; Treasury Secretary) will OK funds for another computer.

So I’m currently considering an ATI Radeon HD 5750 or 5770 (which apparently have quite lower power consumption than comparable nVidia chips such as the GT 240, and decent power consumption under low load, which will be most of the time); an Intel i5-5xx; and 4 GB RAM (preferably 6 or even 8).

Unfortunately, I have no real idea where to look for computers; there are surely hundreds of places that offer pre-built computer systems for sale. A co-worker had said that there had been a test of some systems in a recent issue of c’t and that the Medion computer had looked decent; I looked it up at home and it did seem fairly good, perhaps even a bit over-powered. Unfortunately, I can’t find it on Medion’s web site. In the same issue of c’t, there was also a list of components for a recommended, quiet configuration, but I’m not sure I want to assemble a computer myself.

Also unfortunately, the machines I’ve found so far that match the specs I had above cost between 700 and 1000 euros (including Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit; the high end when I look at 8 GB RAM as opposed to 4 GB and perhaps a couple of component upgrades such as better(?) fans compared to the base system or a second hard and/or optical drive); Stella had said I could look at spending on the order of 600.

Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations? Though I’m afraid that experiences from people in other countries might not be easily transferrable here, especially recommendations for online shops—for example, I’ve heard newegg.com recommended occasionally for people shopping for parts, but I don’t know whether they’d ship to Germany or whether the postage would make it worthwhile even if they did. So I might well be on my own, unless one of my German readers has any thoughts?

Still, perhaps there could be recommendations for components to prefer or avoid. Or things to look out for in, say, CPU and case fans. I really have no idea what to look out for there. Ditto with motherboards.

Again, if I had to summarise my profile, it would probably be "office/Internet, some light gaming". So, I don’t need the latest and greatest graphics card and processor, but a pre-built machine with an nVidia GT 210 would probably not make me happy, either. Built-in flash card reader (at least SD and CF) would be nice, too.