Snow near Adriatic sea...

[Rianna]

Hi, axy!

Thank you! So much fun. I didn't really think his wife would have let him type any bad words.

The difference between Croatian and Macedonian language is quite big: one can claim that the difference is like the one between cockney British and langauage spoken in Louisiana.

Yes, that IS a big difference! Wow! I am glad you were able to understand then.

When I think of Macedonia, I usually think of Greece for some reason. I will look at my globe again. I will see Macedonia and Rijeka and Zagreb.

Hmm...so you say Pozdrav bratko is like "Hello, bro". I am thinking that "pozdravljam te" looks similar. But I'm not sure it is a greeting since it is at the end of a sentence. Maybe Hello and Goodbye are similar?

See:
Pozdrav bratko
pozdravljam te

[axy]

"pozdrav" is a noun ("greeting"), "pozdravljam" is a verb, first person singular ("I greet thee")

[TechGuy]

This is a late response to a comment made earlier about California. most people have this image that California is always this warms and sunny place were we live on the beach and don't need a coat because it is always 80F/27C outside. I live near Sacramento, the state capital in northern California. I scooted to work yesterday and it was 38F/3C and heavy fog.

When the fog burned off I could see the mountains where the snow is pack is currently at a depth of 12 feet/2 meters. The ski resorts have reported that over 28 feet (8.5 meters) of snow has fallen since October. These mountains are about 50 miles (80 km) from where I work. I also work about 80 miles (125 km) from the ocean near San Francisco where the water is about 50 F / 11.6 C and the air temps are about the same.

Southern California (Los Angeles/San Diego) the temperatures will stay warmer during the winter , near the coast and the temp will range in the 60s and 70s F.  Further from the coast, there is a mountain range and a high desert where the temperatures are similar to Sacramento and lower. Snow and frost are common.

To make a long story short.  California has a wide range in the winter from the coldest to some of the warmest in the nation. It also has areas with the deepest snow fall in the nation to areas of high desert that see frost but no snow and areas that never see frost to areas that fog over for more than a month at a time and don't see the sun  (sacramento) during the winter days.

[Rianna]

Thank you, TechGuy, for that great explanation and wonderful reminder. I have not been to California for many years. I sometimes forget about the beautiful, varying scenery it has to offer. I do remember travelling once on a beautiful, but very cold, trip on Donner's Pass (I hope I recalled the correct reindeer's name there) up into the mountains when it was covered with snow. I also remember the first time I saw a desert there. The heat was incredible that day and there was concern that the big truck would overheat, but it was an awesome view that made me want to immediately take out the cell phone to call friends back east and tell them about it. I had forgotten about the need for adding or removing layers of clothes several times over the course of a day while travelling the whole of the state making pick-ups and deliveries.

Sometimes I only remember the dang fruit inspectors stopping every truck, the terminal in Fontana near Riverside, City of Industry's warehouse district, the dreaded weigh station on the way out of the state heading back east, the near incident at Edward's Air Force Base or the sensation of Los Angeles morning rush hour traffic when I had been up for close to 24 hours by the time the sunrise happened.

Thank you for bringing back some good memories of your beautiful state.

[axy]

This is a late response to a comment made earlier about California. most people have this image that California is always this warms and sunny place were we live on the beach and don't need a coat because it is always 80F/27C outside. I live near Sacramento, the state capital in northern California. I scooted to work yesterday and it was 38F/3C and heavy fog.

When the fog burned off I could see the mountains where the snow is pack is currently at a depth of 12 feet/2 meters. The ski resorts have reported that over 28 feet (8.5 meters) of snow has fallen since October. These mountains are about 50 miles (80 km) from where I work. I also work about 80 miles (125 km) from the ocean near San Francisco where the water is about 50 F / 11.6 C and the air temps are about the same.

Southern California (Los Angeles/San Diego) the temperatures will stay warmer during the winter , near the coast and the temp will range in the 60s and 70s F.  Further from the coast, there is a mountain range and a high desert where the temperatures are similar to Sacramento and lower. Snow and frost are common.

To make a long story short.  California has a wide range in the winter from the coldest to some of the warmest in the nation. It also has areas with the deepest snow fall in the nation to areas of high desert that see frost but no snow and areas that never see frost to areas that fog over for more than a month at a time and don't see the sun  (sacramento) during the winter days.

I live in an area that is generally regarded as very warm and sunny, especially by people that live in continental Europe.
However, we have just as many rainy days as in London, that is notorious for being damp and rainy city and almost THREE TIMES the volume of rain compared to London.
It is interesting that this area is favorite destination for retired people from Austria, Italy and Germany that come to spend their winter holidays, only to be reminded that being close to the sea does not always translate into tropical climate.

Also, we have a lot of microclimate differences. For example, I live 12 kms from the center of the city, that is on the sea shore. Just 12 kms, and my altitute is 350 m. However, the temperature difference is between 4 and 9 C which is A LOT.

[Rianna]

Hi, axy.

I'm wondering if you can help me with something. My friends told me about a tragedy that occurred with some people I know of over there somewhere. It happened a few years ago (maybe 3 or 4 years) at a place where people go to wade in the water either to take refreshment or maybe for health reasons because the water is good?? I am thinking this may be something like a natural spring?? Do you know what they are speaking of? I don't know what it's called or how to look it up to see if I can search for an article or information about what happened. I just don't understand enough of what they have told me about these places.

Thanks!

Wow, axy. I have read some about the history of your country on Wikipedia. It is difficult to read and understand it all at once. There has been much division, fighting and struggling in the past 20 years involving several countries. Were you living there in the 90's? On a lighter note, I love the beautiful pictures on Wikipedia of your country. Are you waters there really that clear and blue?

[axy]

Hi, axy.

I'm wondering if you can help me with something. My friends told me about a tragedy that occurred with some people I know of over there somewhere. It happened a few years ago (maybe 3 or 4 years) at a place where people go to wade in the water either to take refreshment or maybe for health reasons because the water is good?? I am thinking this may be something like a natural spring?? Do you know what they are speaking of? I don't know what it's called or how to look it up to see if I can search for an article or information about what happened. I just don't understand enough of what they have told me about these places.

Thanks!

Wow, axy. I have read some about the history of your country on Wikipedia. It is difficult to read and understand it all at once. There has been much division, fighting and struggling in the past 20 years involving several countries. Were you living there in the 90's? On a lighter note, I love the beautiful pictures on Wikipedia of your country. Are you waters there really that clear and blue?

History stuff: it can be confusing to foreigners, but it could be explained easily in oral form, not written though. Generally, dissolutions of countries can lead to wars and disputes and that is what happened here, especially when many different nations are involved. Yes, I have been living here all my life but my city was out of any war zone and life was, suprisingly, completely normal.

Tragedy stuff: the only such occurence I can think of was a tragedy in the National park of Kornati - http://www.kornati.hr/eng/index.asp  three years ago.
There was an eruptive fire that killed 13 firefighters and only one of them survived.
Here you can find some more info in English:

http://secretdalmatia.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/kornati-tragedy-death-in-paradise/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Croatian_coast_fires (look for Kornati tragedy paragraph).

[Rianna]

Thank you very much, axy. It was in 2007 and this looks like it might be what I was looking for. The pictures of this National park look like what was described to me. I'm not 100% certain because I thought they mentioned females taken to the hospital as well and I'm assuming the firefighters were males. This could have been a mistake on my part though. I may have misunderstood the gender or a familial term. I appreciate you taking the time to look those up and post the links for me and wanted to make a quick post to say thank you.

[axy]

To educate you and others on the forum and provide some fresh info if you play trivia game or go to Who wants to be a millionaire, here are a few things you probably did not know:

1. Nikola Tesla, the inventor of many things (among them, system for long range transport of AC electricity used throughout the world, and alternator used also in our scoots) was Croatian, from a village maybe 100 kms away from my city. He was of Serbian origin but was born in Croatia and later moved to USA.

2. Parachute was invented by a Croatian from city Dubrovnik (that is very popular tourist destination for many celebrities that are all over the media when they spend their holidays here - John Malkovich, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Sir Roger Moore and Mickey Rourkey are regular there). This guy was crazy enough to jump off the tower in Venice in 16th century to prove that it works. He survived...

3. Necktie was invented by Croatian mercenaries who used to wear it during their tenure in Thirty Years' War in 17th century. French used to call it "cravate", mercenaries were therefore called "Croates", English word for us now is "Croats" and Croatian word for necktie is "kravata". Interesting?

3. Springfield XD is very popular gun (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/c/cc/20100924150200!SpringfieldXd45acp.jpg) that is a weapon of choice for FBI, CIA, American S.W.A.T. teams and many special forces around the world. It is a product of Croatian factory (here it is called HS2000 where 2000 is the year when it was introduced and HS are initial letters of Croatian words "Croatian Gun").

4. If you saw mineral water in your shopping centers called Jana (http://www.janawater.com/), it is a Croatian product exported to USA. It was an official water of the Super Bowl, I think a year or two ago. Croatia has second largest reserves of drinking water in Europe and in every town and village we usually drink water from the tap because it is chemically and bacteriologically *more pure* than bottled water. Btw. Jana is a derivative of old female Croatian name. (not pronounced like Jane, but "Yanna").

5. Double Entry Bookkeeping as a basis of every modern accounting was invented in 15th century in Croatia (in the same city where the guy had invented a parachute!

6. Forensic investigation principles are invented by a Croatian in early 20th century (his name was Eduard Miloslavic - all his principles are used even today - for example, I work as a forensic investigator and still use and teach principles that are more than 100 years old). Later he went to USA.

7. Fingerprint technology was invented also in early 20th century by a Croatian named Vucetic. He also moved to USA.

8. Finally, airships ("Zeppelins") were invented by a Croatian Jew Schwartz, and the invention was stolen by Count Zeppelin. The same guy invented also dural aluminum (also called Schwartz Aluminum), used extensively in aeronautic industry.


Well, that's it, not too shabby for an unknown Slavic tribe.

p.s. Obviously, I have nothing better to do now!



There you go.

[Rianna]

Ha! I love it! Thank you, axy!    A gal like me can never have too much trivial knowledge.

I'd reciprocate and give you some from Virginia, but I'm afraid my memory is lacking so mine would consist totally of information received from Wikipedia and Google.

I did know many of these. I have not seen this mineral water here, though. I will look for it the next time I go to the store.

The one I would be most curious about, though, is this Eduard Miloslavic. It surprises me that I did not recognize his name as this is a subject that interests me.

He survived...

I'm so glad he did!

Wow, I haven't seen Mickey Rourke in ages...

Have a great day, axy!

p.s.
Is that a fox in your picture? It looks much bigger than our fox here.

[axy]

Ha! I love it! Thank you, axy!   A gal like me can never have too much trivial knowledge.

I'd reciprocate and give you some from Virginia, but I'm afraid my memory is lacking so mine would consist totally of information received from Wikipedia and Google.

I did know many of these. I have not seen this mineral water here, though. I will look for it the next time I go to the store.

The one I would be most curious about, though, is this Eduard Miloslavic. It surprises me that I did not recognize his name as this is a subject that interests me.

He survived...

I'm so glad he did!

Wow, I haven't seen Mickey Rourke in ages...

Have a great day, axy!

p.s.
Is that a fox in your picture? It looks much bigger than our fox here.

Yes, it is. Our forest critters tend to be well fed and taken care of.
Take a look at http://www.kuterevo-medvjedi.hr/ , it is a local shelter for bears.
"medvjed" is a bear in Croatian and it roughly means "the one who eats honey".
Russians and us have somewhat similar languages. You probably know that their president is Mr. Medvjedev. It would translate like "the one of the bear" or "the one whose father was a bear". So much for the trivia stuf...

Virginia is somewhat familiar to me: it has 50 % more inhabitants and covers double the area of my country. Of course, I am familiar with its capital, Richmond and know that a few big companies have HQ there (Philip Morris and Capital One,for example). Philip Morris tried hostile takeover of our biggest national tobacco company a few years ago and failed: they are still trying to achieve monopoly on Croatian cigarette market.

However, to a regular TV viewer, Virginia is famous because of Langley where HQ of CIA is. In pretty much every thriller or action movie you can see the agents calling back to Langley when they have a problem.

[Rianna]

Hi, axy! You do continue to surprise and entertain me. And I do love trivia as well as that Who game you mentioned in an earlier post. I fear I would never become the winner of that million without the occasional lifeline or call of a friend though. I would be able to see the clues in the answers posted on that little screen and still miss them. Those clues come so fast and are easy to miss. And when I play that Trivial Pursuit game I seem to always be missing that last piece of the pie.

Wow, languages, animals, places and movies...Such interesting subjects! Is that your language on the page from that link, axy? I see structure and familiarity when I look at it. And those little things above some of the letters. So adorable! My favorite animal is the ocelot. You can only see one here if you visit a zoo though.

Oh, yes, I do love Richmond with its museums and theatres. I used to take mini vacations in Petersburg (or maybe it was Chester?) when my son was small. It would be a day of Museums and a movie at the Imax Dome, and then an evening of roller skating on one side of the hotel and a friendly ice cream cone on the other side of the hotel before collapsing from exhaustion.

You are correct about the movies and Virginia. I remember one named The Recruit with Colin Farrell and Al Pacino. They mentioned and showed Langley, Quantico and CIA headquarters in Virginia numerous times in that movie. (I once owned a vehicle that was purchased at an auction in Quantico. The owners were from Charlottesville, though, and I had to wonder why they did not just sell it at the auto auction there?? I suppose when you have a car, or means to travel, distance is nothing.) There is a newer movie with Mark Wahlberg and Danny Glover named Shooter, though, axy. They show a beautiful view of a farm that I believe sits at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. I believe it is shown about 2/3 of the way through the movie when they show the large white or yellow letters on the screen. It was a beautiful view in Virginia that is a bit far from Langley. There is an older movie with Sharon Stone in it named Basic Instinct that shows some incredible car chases out west in California somewhere. I believe it is somewhere south of Oakland/Concord/Stockton which I was a bit familiar with at that time. But...she also had another movie that was less popular. This one was filmed in a couple different places, one of them being on the east coast of the U.S. Some of the film is in black and white and some is in color. There is one brief scene in which she enters a small local family owned pharmacy in a somewhat dirty little economically depressed coal mining town in a state to the north of Virginia. Most movie goers will not recognize that state or the town though when playing the movie trivia games. End of movie trivia...

Have a great night and day, axy!

[axy]

Hi, axy! You do continue to surprise and entertain me. And I do love trivia as well as that Who game you mentioned in an earlier post. I fear I would never become the winner of that million without the occasional lifeline or call of a friend though. I would be able to see the clues in the answers posted on that little screen and still miss them. Those clues come so fast and are easy to miss. And when I play that Trivial Pursuit game I seem to always be missing that last piece of the pie.

Wow, languages, animals, places and movies...Such interesting subjects! Is that your language on the page from that link, axy? I see structure and familiarity when I look at it. And those little things above some of the letters. So adorable! My favorite animal is the ocelot. You can only see one here if you visit a zoo though.

<...snip...>

Have a great night and day, axy!

I watched all three movies you mentioned in your post (Shooter, Recruit, Basic instinct). I am your average movie fan.

Yes, that is my language. There are "things" above letters because our alphabet does not use a few letters present in English (q, x, w, y) but we have 5-6 extra letters with "things" above letters, so our alphabet has 30 letters instead of English 26.

[Rianna]

I must apologize to you, axy, and to other movie fans that may read this thread. It appears that I have misquoted facts about the fourth movie whose name I did not mention (according to IMDB anyway, which states it was actually filmed farther north of the location I mentioned). Apparently I remember things wrong and post silly things at 3AM when I can't sleep, especially when I'm up late trying to crack my own passcode for my cell phone voicemail because I was too stupid to write it down in the first place!

One day I will live in a place that isn't underground in the woods like a cave where a cell phone actually rings indoors. Oh well, perhaps I will get some sleep and be more rested up for the next round.

Thank you for the explanation of your alphabet though. I did see it on Wikipedia and began reading about the digraphs and such. Perhaps I will look at it more later.

[Rianna]

Hi, axy!

This globe/marble/atlas thing I have is great. I especially love that when I type in the name of a place and hover over it with the mouse it will give me the longitude and latitude coordinates. And I most especially like that I can then click on it and it will open up a Wikipedia page full of facts for that area.

I couldn't find any good maps, but I found some old faded dollar store type maps (the georgefcram .com kind) in a drawer and I put them up on the wall. They are not so special, but each country on the World Map and each state on the U.S. map is color coded.

It's amazing how this big world seems smaller when I can envision the whole of it and how the big picture then becomes clearer. Now I only need a supply of pushpins to decorate them with.

I have also found a Rand Mcnally and an AAA map book, but these road maps  are terrbily outdated and they are not the laminated type that I can write on with a grease pencil.

I do see now that your country is near the Moscow side of Russia to explain some of the similarity in languages. 18 hours of sleep over 6 nights instead of 48 hours has prevented me from understanding the things I see on Wikipedia about your language though. But I do believe I could learn a bit about it since I loved the alphabet.

Also, before I forget, I wanted to tell you that my friends were supposed to come for a visit on Thursday, but they were delayed due to some unavoidable business. I did tell them of your message so I expect, if time permits, that they will type in another short message this week when they arrive.

Do you have newspapers there, axy? I am hoping to ask them to bring me a current newspaper. Would they be able to do that? I know there are places here to buy newspapers from around the world, but not in my city.

Have a great day, axy!