Assorted Bits

People often complain about how difficult it is to get things done in Argentina. Well, Santa Cruz, CA is far from a efficient environment to do business in. Today we found out that a recent largish money transfer was miss handled by our local bank. Seems it was missing information and improperly formated. I knew I shouldn't have allowed the 22 year old new-hire to process my order. Oh, well. Not his fault.

It's 2 AM in the morning and I can't sleep. Time to study some spanish...
My tongue is in a rut and subsequently I can't trill my "R"s to save my life. It's as if I have some sort of proprioceptive disorder or something. I just can't get my tongue to trill those bloody "R"s. Time to look for help....

The technical term for this feat of the mouth is called a alveolar trill and the trick is to develop toungue strenght:

How to roll your "R"s?
It is the strength in your tongue and your ability to shape your inner mouth that make the trill possible.

The sound is made because of the Bernoulli's principle, an aspect of physics which defines the movement of fluids and gas over different shapes, and one of the principles of flight. In other words, the shape of your tongue will partially resemble an airplane wing, with the exhaled air passing over the top of the stiff, shaped lower tongue and vibrating the tip against the ridge like the flaps on an airplane wing.

At least I'm not alone.