Ancient Times?

I didn't think we would be sacrificing children while all the brothers were together...

LouTube up and running!!

jigga wha?? Heres the link to my new blog! UHH ClickHereOrDie

All By Myself...Don't Wanna Be... All By Myself...

Chris's greatest nightmare: being stuck in New York City on his own. Having to walk around alone, eat alone, and even go to beddy-bye all alone. Can he handle it? See the poll in the sidebar.

Mom makes it to the small screen

Check out the video website http://www.kpvi.com/Global/story.asp?S=6819669

Quote of the day

Quote of the day

I'm gonna slap you baldless boy!

Quote of the day

"I love my mother because she understands that I am not a normal child and punishes me more than fair."

Farming

I am torn on the farm question. I do not know how to post on Nancy's blog so I will say here that in fact, it is Chris not Nancy that comes from a farm family. The Clarks' owned and farmed a great deal around the Milltown, New Brunswick, North Brunswick, and Spotswood areas. However, (sorry Nancy) although your family are not farmers it sounds like you lived on a farm to me.

What ever happened to "quote of the day"

Here's one for you guys to guess. "Sons! You must pay the rent!"
Who said it to whom?

Double feature

Some of you may be aware of the infamous spin kick incident between Jason and Tom. During one of their usual tiffs Jason claims Tom attempted a ridiculous kung-fu spin kick on him. Tom denies any such thing and says he simply went to unleash a normal soccer style straight forward kick. I have through eye witness accounts been able to piece together the events as they actually took place. As a bonus today I have included a family mystery kept hidden up until now. This mystery combines one of Mom's classic threats with Tom's present condition. Keep in mind that these re-creations are very low budget and therefore they will look somewhat cheesy, but do not let that take away from the facts that are presented.

The True Story of Sure Buddy

As official Clark historian I feel it is important to present the truth behind many of the stories, myths, and legends constantly being brought up in family discussions. As an historian my first priority is accuracy and integrity. I know that many will argue and disagree with my findings, but rest assured that I have tirelessly and extensively researched these stories and found the actual truth. I will be presenting my findings on the blog for all to see. Please feel free to suggest future topics for my research, but please be patient and give me time to thoroughly research before I present my findings. This first installment is the true story of the legendary sure buddy that Mike created.

Hope for Baldemort

I have been searching long and hard to find a source of relief for our dear brother, Baldemort. I was searching known medical illnesses on the internet and came across something that I think will really help. I found this on wikipedia, I have included a link that will take you directly to the page. Fear not Baldemort help is on the way. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cactaprimatus.JPG

Life as a lab rat

This past week I spent 2 days 3 nights in a research clinic so they could test a new drug that is supposed to kill bad bacteria (no I dont remeber the name of the bacteria, the drug, or anything important) I do remeber how much im supposed to get paid and that is exactly 1,718!!
This place was so boring and strict, I couldn't take it anymore so I ran out onto the balcony and past other offices. I saw a meeting going on and figured what a perfect opporutnity to make one of them chuckle while big dumb serious goon was giving his speech, that way when he sees pencil-neck brown-noser laughing he can be like, "what do you think your laughing at?!" major suck up can be like, "there was some girl making disturbing faces at me from the window." Important tyrant turns around and I vanish! Meanwhile brown-nosing weasel gets fired, re-evaulates his life, discovers he hated his job anyway and then goes sailing off into the sunset. The uptight fruity doctor didn't like too much that I was trying to make some stiffwads life better and made me come back inside, telling me "What do you think your doing? You need to come inside right away for your dosing..running around like that. This isn't a playground, does it look like one to you?" "Yes it does, like a very poor peoples playground." This guy really needed to loosen up and have a belly laugh so while all 4 doctors and nurses eagerly crowed around my bed after my "dosing" blankly starting at me like a zoo animal I pretended to have a seizure. They all gasped and I even saw one of the nurses quickly side shuffle to one of the machines. "meh ha! just kidding this stuff running through my veins is just cold." The other nurses laughed and told me I "gave them a fright" while the doctor that pulled me inside turned an interesting shade of red and just walked off. I'm hoping he too discovered he hated his job and A walked off the balcony or B joined former pencil pushing nerd into the sunset, I think they'd make a beautiful couple.

Just after my tramatic episode

He's Back!

I was wondering how Tom was going to adjust being back in NJ, and I got my answer today. After 7 hours of sleep I decided to try to get Tom up at 8:00 a.m. He told me to go away and mumbled something else under his breath. Later, at 8:30, I told him if he did not get up that I would have to go to the gym by myself, so he crawled out of bed and splashed water on his face in the bathroom, then he ate a good breakfast. We hung out until 9:30 and then went to the gym. We started working out at 9:45. At 9:55 he said, "Are you serious? When do we get a break?" I kept working out while he took breaks and lay down on the bench in the gym. (I have a pic on my phone) He then disappeared for a while, and when I went down stairs to look for him, he was pale with a green tint to his skin. His eyelids were red and his eyes - blood shot. I asked if he throw up and he responded that he did. He barely made it to the bathroom and had to throw up in the trash can while people looked on in horror. He then claimed he was feeling better and we finished our work out.
After just a few days, Tom has reverted back to his previous state. The natural man (or in Tom’s case “the creepy man”) has taken over. He does not like his slumber interrupted. He sleeps and throws up while doing physical activity and he eats too much junk food and then complains that we are trying to poison him.
It’s been great having Tom back as Tom. (I missed the good old days) I must admit, I have laughed more in the last 48 hours than the last two years. Tom is definitely the official creep. The creepiness is too creepy to put on the blog, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Living with Tom is much like living in Tooonville, where he is Mayor Creep.

Braces

Never Fear, Mother's Here

Okay boys and girls, I have finally signed up on this blog. That means it's time to start watching your words. I don't want to have to wash anyone's mouth out with soap now, do I? What mother wants to see her children calling each other creeps, after all?

I'm sorry I'm late getting started, and I probably won't be able to contribute much because I don't have a lot of time. But that's no reason not to be nice to each other. I like the pictures; keep them coming. I'll post some of K & Q's latest competitions soon.

Don't you wish you were in Utah?

We miss Lindsey!

See more about our holiday here

I Have Been Vilified

After being away from my computer for one day I was astonished to see that Tom and Brittany’s “Right and Wrong Pronunciation Debate” has caused so many postings. First, if I knew my comments would be attacked in such a vicious manner, I would not have posted them. I also did not know the debate would transform into expressions beyond opinion of the subject matter and delve into personal injury.

I think maybe my comment was misunderstood by everyone. Let me try to make it clearer here:

I did some research on phonics relating to the continuing debate.

There are standard/nonstandard, formal/informal, and proper/improper ways to pronounce words in the English language. The standard, formal, or proper way to say a word depends on the dominant culture of where it is being said. If you pronounce a word while speaking, you may not be pronouncing it the nonstandard, informal, or improper way. For example, if you are talking to the Queen and pronounce something that goes against received pronunciation, and then you are pronouncing that word in the nonstandard, informal, or improper way.

For the right and wrong aspect of it I feel that many are misunderstanding the definitions of certain words.

Wrong: 1. not proper or usual; not in accordance with requirements or recommended practice: the wrong way to hold a golf club.

2. Unacceptable or undesirable according to social convention.

3. Not in accord with established usage, method, or procedure.

Right: 1. in conformity with fact, reason, truth, or some standard or principle

2. socially approved, desirable, or influential

3. properly or fittingly

Now that these definitions are understood, let me make my case even more clear, yet again. First, if you can say a word wrong then you must be able to say a word right. 1. So, if I was to pronounce a word in the English language that was not pronounced that way in any dialect, accent, or by any other human, then I would be pronouncing that word “wrong” because it was against and unacceptable with all social conventions. (Many ESL people and people with speech disorders struggle with this, which is why they have speech therapists) 2. There are four ways to say almond in America that are socially and culturally accepted, so if I pronounced almond another way then it would not be right, it would be improper or unusual and would not fit the recommended practice. 3. My last point is that if you follow the International Phonetic Alphabet the world uses and is socially accepted worldwide, you are speaking “right,” and if you do not, you are speaking “wrong.” If you take this point a step further and are talking about other languages, such as French or Spanish, there are absolute right and wrong ways to say words; so if you are using examples of some ethnic words being arbitrary in their pronunciation, you are sorely mistaken.

Penultimate Conclusion: Since we have normative ways to pronounce words in the English language in social and cultural aspects, there are “right” and “wrong” ways to say words. Since, I am now a master teacher, it has been my pleasure to educate all of you.
Conclusion: Often a teacher's job is not to tell students what to think but how to think by questioning opinions posed and to consider different perspectives on an issue by using various sources, not only one. This type of synthesis and evaluation influences children to develop higher order thinking and the ability to navigate a variety of texts in more than one way.

How to identify a creep

On the donkey's blog there is a poll to designate the official creep. There are a couple of problems with the poll, the biggest is that the donkey himself is not included. The second problem is that some people may not understand how to properly identify a creep. If saying outrageously inappropriate things was the only consideration then I think we all know who would win. But when considering the word creep an image comes to mind, scraggly, shady, unkempt, and as weird al once said an eddie veder like wild eyed stare. I like to think of it this way, if you put all the candidates in a line-up and brought in a random person that doesn't know any of them and said, one of these people was apprehended skulking around the alley who do you think it was. That is how to identify a creep. Given this description there is really only one choice. You've played where's waldo, here's a game called where's the creep?

Comment-Checking Got Ya Down?

I just added a new feature to the sidebar that will list the last 5 comments people wrote on this blog, so you can easily see what's new.

For those of you who really want to stay on top of things, I can add you to a distribution list that will send you all posts and comments via email. Let me know if you are interested.

Any other comments or suggestions about the blog?

STOP! This is a Rebuttal. Read Tom's Argument First.

Firstly, kudos to Tom for reproducing my argument rather accurately. Secondly, I would like to clear up that I was joking when I “corrected” Ryan’s pronunciation of ridiculous because we were both saying it the same way. It seems now that there is only one point of disagreement on this issue: Tom believes in “right’s” and “wrong’s” and I do not. It is his choice and opinion to feel there are “right” and “wrong” ways to say things, while mine is that there is standard (formal, informal, general) English, and nonstandard English. At one point Tom felt I was getting too into semantics, and then I reminded him that’s what the issue has been about all along. As I understand the argument, Tom feels that people can pronounce words in several ways, but not names. There is a flaw in his argument because Americans commonly have several pronunciation for names, regardless of how it is typically pronounced. For example, the name Michelangelo is pronounced two different ways (the American way is to add an a to make it sounds like Michael). Neither pronunciation is “right” or “wrong,” but rather one is more correct or standard if you are in Europe and the other more correct or standard in America. Now, Tom might say, well that’s different because you are talking about another country, but it is the same. The names we have in America come from all around the world, so there are no strictly “American” names. When a group of people decide to say a word or name a particular way it becomes the most “correct” or standard pronunciation for their in-group. Yes there are national standards or more acceptable or recognized pronunciations, but that doesn’t mean there are no alternative pronunciations. As for Tom’s examples, his points might be more valid if he used more applicable examples. Larissa’s hometown affected a close pronunciation to Reese’s by saying Reesie’s. To make his point, Tom continually uses example that are too absurd because they don’t follow the rules of the English language. It is absurd that he would pronounce ridiculous as recockulous because the di sound is never replaced with the co sound. Whereas Larissa’s neighborhood substituted the short e sound at the end of Resse for the long e sound. This has and does happen. Tom needs to clean up his examples and make them more applicable for me to consider them part of his argument. Yes we follow rules; the English language is structured and this is what keeps our language intelligible. Yet, to try and stop relatively logical changes from occurring, like the alternate pronunciation of Reese’s, is preposterous. Changes will happen and they aren’t right or wrong, they just are.

There's no wrong way to say a Reese's?

So many of you have heard about this debate already. Let me catch the others up to speed. People in Larissa's home town pronounce Reese's, Reesie's. It's something I used to tease her about and she mentioned it to Brittany and Ryan. Brittany said, "So what." I said "Larissa is saying it wrong, it should be said Reese's." This started a long and heated debate. Brittany said you can't say wrong or right, only standard or not standard-common or uncommon. Let me back up, to
The ironic begining: The Reese's debate began because Brittany and Ryan had been discussing the proper (more common) way to say tyrannical and asked our oppinion.
I agree that some words have more than one way for pronunciation. And sometimes there is a more common way to say a word but both ways are correct. Brittany said because this town in Ohio all say Reesie's that is right for them (colloqualism) and therefore I cannot say they are saying it wrong. In that area that's how it is said and it doesn't change the meaning. Good point but I must disagree. First let me say I understand Brittany's studies are in this area and she is more knowledgeable about some grammatical topics than myself and others. Let's put that aside considering this topic isn't of such great depth that others can't have an opinion or say on the subject. Please in your comments make a more valid point other than saying Tom is stupid and Brittany is the expert in this area, I know this may be a tempting argument for say Chris or Phil. Ok, as stated before I agree that langauge changes over time and we have to be sensitive to the different accents and or dialects of our fellow countrymen. We are not discussing other langauges or the english language in 50 years. The debate is, can you say someone is pronouncing a word wrong or right. On a philisophical level it is probably true that nothing is definite or wrong or right. But such arguments are seriously missing the mark. During this debate much has been argued and talked about, I will try to present my argument with two main points.
1) The candy is named after the man called Reese:
Do we have the liberty to change this man's last name because it's applied to a candy? Or does the pronunciation of his name stay in tact because the candy is named after him? I submitt that we cannot decide to say his name however we choose (well I guess we can do what ever we want) it is his name and we don't tell him how to say it. Are we to believe our simple brothers and sisters from Ohio will call this man H. Reesie? Of course not. Why does his name change because we add 'S to Reese. If our name was spelled with an "E" and we made a Clarke bar (I know Clark bar already exist) called Clarke's bar would anyone say Clarkie's bar? Some people probably, but would it not be incorrect if our name is not pronounced Clarkie?
2) The 'S show a possessive quality. IE, if you were to say "Look, there is Mr. Reese's car." Almost nobody would say Reesie's car. Larissa readily admitts she would say Reese's not Reesie's car. What's the difference between his car and his, shall we say buttrecups or pieces?
There are other points to debate and argue but this entry is already long. I know we've hardly scratched the surface, but tell me what you think. Is there no wrong or right way to say any word? Can we say words however we want but not last names? Do we not follow rules when speaking and writing (I know I don't when typing, please no comments)? What would things truly be like if everyone pronounced words however they felt like and we accepted that as correct english rather than accepting these words or phrases as colloqualisms?
An ironic end: Brittany said Ryan spelled ridiculous incorrectly (rediculous). Ryan a usually good speller said "No way you say it rediculous." Brittany chided him with a correction, "Ryan it's pronounced, ridiculous." But to me this whole debate his recockulous because that's just how decide I say it.

Wounded in battle by Portegeuse man-of-war!

It was a beautiful sunny day. I didn't have much of an agenda, the world was mine for the taking. "What should we do today?" stupid Janie asked. I gave it some deep thought before I responded, "Lets boogey board out to goat island." Goat island is a large mass out in the pacific sea where surfers and kite boarders trek to, to catch "the ultimate wave." It takes about an hour to swim thru choppy waters to this deserted island, there are also said to be reef sharks near the island...did this stop me? NEVER. I arrived at the beach and dove right into the water anxious for my quest. Swimming thru the rough waters would be hard for most chumps but not for lindsey freaking clark, I sliced thru those waves like butter. Than Janie opened her stupid foreshadowing mouth and said, "oh man I hope we dont get like bit or anything." No sooner had she closed her mouth, when I opened mine to yell out in pain. I had been hit!! The man-of-war jellyfish wrapped it's filthy tentical from my left arm, around my neck and down to my right arm. I had to rip it off of me while severing my flesh in the process. I couldn't go on anymore, it was the most excrustiating pain Ive ever experience! My arm started to swell disabling me from paddling, but I pushed forward. Once out of the water the wind was whipping about all over my swollen arm. My arm was bright red and about twice the size it should be. I screamed out and kicked stuff. There were no medics in sight, I had no one full of pee to ask to relieve themselves on my arm, and trust me I wouldn't have cared it hurt that bad. Finally I just ran to the bus stop, went home and dumped baking soda all over my body. I was almost neutralized by the enemy but I fought on. I am asking the clark army come out here and cook the filthy swine that attacked me. I have a feeling he was sent out by the dreaded Applebees, this battle is now a war.