Last week in Japan, June 18th, rundown:
(1) "The Tokyo High Court dismissed a lawsuit demanding that ex-executives of the Tokyo Electric Power Company pay damages over the Fukushima nuclear accident.#japannews #japanexpats #explorejapan #日本好きな人と繋がりたい #おしえてさかまた #expatinjapan #americaninjapan #英語学習 #ニュース #英語勉強 #learnenglishdaily #tepcon #highcourt #electriccompany #福島 #nuclear #lawsuit

The Tokyo High Court dismissed a lawsuit demanding that ex-executives of the Tokyo Electric Power Company pay damages over the Fukushima nuclear accident.

Learn more with the link in bio.

#japannews #japanexpats #japanpolitics #explorejapan #日本好きな人と繋がりたい #フォロバ #おしえてさかまた #expatinjapan #americaninjapan #tepcon #highcourt #electriccompany #福島 #nuclear #lawsuit

Consonants Need Vowels?

I remember being told that consonants need vowels by one of my elementary school teachers. I remember repeating this to my oldest sister, Lynda, after she had a kid or two.

Lynda said no you don’t need a vowel sound to make a consonant sound. You can just say Boo [as in book] or Foo [as in foot], for the B and F sounds. Notice that I had to use vowels to illustrate my point. But I never caught on to that at the time.

So I remember pre talking with her babies and using what I thought were just consonant sounds to get them to the point where they could almost speak. A couple months later they were speaking.

The short oo sound is the “invisible” vowel in English. It is the u in pull and bull. And the vowel that is between the T and L in cattle and bottle. It may seem invisible at first, but it is definitely there. I don’t blame my sister or me for not realizing it was a vowel, because shows like Electric Company would use this “invisible” vowel to sound out words.

For instance they would say Boo A Doo when sounding out the word Bad. Then they would say the three letter names closer and closer together until magically the oo sound disappeared and they said Bad.

When I realized this, I thought for years that what I was originally told was correct. Consonants need vowels.

That is until I saw mmmm written out one day and I forced myself to think about this. So it became consonants need vowels except m.

Then I thought of a few more. Ssss doesn’t need a vowel. Neither does zzzz. There are also Shhhh and Zhhhh. (If you’re wondering what sound zh is, it’s the g in mirage, the s in leisure. In school I was taught that it was the soft g sound.)

Anyhow, that’s five exceptions to the consonants need vowels rule. Do you have any more?

#consonants #consonantsNeedVowels #ElectricCompany #elementarySchool #invisibleVowel #mmm #preTalking #shhh #shortOoShound #softG #speaking #sss #vowels #zhhh #zzz

Making #christmas cookies, laid out on the cooling racks in rows of three.

“How many do we have?”

3 6 9,
12 15 18,
21 24 27,
30…

Man, the #electricCompany energy is still strong 45+ years later.

#iykyk #pbs #learnToCount

Bloody hell. I enroll with auto-pay with the electric company, but for some unfathomable reason they don't put my first payment on auto-pay.

So now I owe more than $500. At first, I panicked, but then I realized that this has the deposit for my new electrical service. (I moved in May.)

I tried calling to ask... but... haha... how naive I was! "We are experiencing a higher volume than normal..." Yeah, keep cutting in your workforce, and now it is always a "higher volume." I hung up.

I was tipped when I got a call from a number that was ostensibly their customer service line, but they told me to call a number that is not listed anywhere with this company.

😕

I suppose they never heard of SIM spoofing, right? Of course, I did not call that number since it did not seem to be tied to the electric company.

#billing #AutoPay #ShittyCompanies #ElectricCompany #deposit #ActuallyAutistic #CSR #SIMSwap

No doubt lemongrass ginger and lavender would hit the spot about now
What to do maybe wintergreen and grapefruit
#water #atomizer #essential #oils #ginger #lavender #mint #spearmint #winter #green #wintergreen #lemon #grass #lemongrass #grape #fruit #grapefruit #electric #company #electriccompany
This song has been stuck in my head for decades but only today did I learn the vocals are by the Pointer Sisters #genx #electriccompany https://youtu.be/HUL4T8WcFdA
Sesame Street - Pinball Number Count

YouTube

#ArtAdventCalendar day 18

Serious Electric Company vibes on this one, for those USAnian GenXers familiar with the show. (Yes, my inner seven year old acts as my art director 90% of the time. )

#MastoArt #Wizardry #Collage #ElectricCompany #seventies #RuralMidwest

Tom Lehrer fans: Lehrer put all his music -- including recordings and sheet music -- in the public domain, and online, years ago.

Everything is at https://tomlehrersongs.com/ which now warns that it may be shut down soon, so download anything you wan,t soon.Then have fun: performance and translation rights are also in the public domain. "Help yourselves, and don't send me any money."

#lehrer #ElectricCompany #parodies #PublicDomain #Silent_E

Songs and Lyrics by Tom Lehrer

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Tom Lehrer Songs