César Lasso

says

something witty says

Hi Cesar,
Thanks for the nice wishes, and you are absolutely correct on your guess on my profile picture. You've been there, I take it? It's an amazing place.

posted 2 weeks ago. ( send a note )

az says

Hmmm, so this one is the new "you" :)
It's long I haven't been reading anywhere outside!

posted 3 weeks ago. ( send a note )

az says

I like your new pic :)

posted 3 weeks ago. ( send a note )

Angelus says

Thankz César, RJ

posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )

vila Zvoncica says

Hello César!

I'm not sure how it goes with private messages but I hope you received mine. ;)
Lijep pozdrav iz Hrvatske,
Zvonka

P.S. I'm just enjoying Pancham Se Gara ;-)))

posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )

José Leon Machado says

Caro Lasso, os meus estudos académicos publicados em livro vêm com o meu nome do BI, ou seja José Barbosa Machado. A Amazon deve ter mais de 10 obras com este nome (o meu). Assino José Leon Machado apenas as obras literárias. Temos alguns casos assim em Portugal: António Gedeão (pseudónimo de Rómulo de Carvalho), que publicou obras com os dois nomes; Miguel Torga, Júlio Dinis, etc.

posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )

José Leon Machado says

Caro Lasso (Por favor, não me trate por prof.; apenas Machado. Só os alunos me tratam assim). Realmente é surreal. Um dos casos que tive com a Amazon tem a ver com um dos meus livrinhos infantis, "A bruxa e o Caldeirão". O livro corria na Internet gratuito e qualquer um podia fazer o download. Mas uns espertinhos do Brasil decidiram colocá-lo à venda na Amazon sem minha autorização. Havia pois duas edições diferentes da mesma obra, e nenhuma delas autorizadas. Como o livrinho é muito conhecido, devem ter ganho algum dinheiro com o negócio. Quando eu descobri protestei e nem imagine as confusões que isso deu. Os idiotas da Amazon, em vez de retirarem imediatamente essas edições piratas, exigiram de mim documentos comprovativos de que era eu o autor. Eu perguntei-me estupefacto que documentos poderia eu enviar. Não há documentos para provar uma coida dessas. Se o autor diz que aquele livro é uma versão ilegal, eles só têm de acatar e fazer o que o autor exige, acho eu. Esses tipos só vêm dinheiro e qualquer bicho careta pode publicar e republicar na livraria, pois o controlo, ou não existe, ou quase nunca funciona devidamente. O mesmo já não acontece na Apple ou na Kobo. E estas duas, sobretudo a última, estão a retirar muito do mercado de livros digitais da Amazon. Cumprimentos, JLM.

posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )

José Leon Machado says

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Essa está muito boa, Lasso! Esses tipos da Amazon são mesmo uns idiotas. Eu já lhe enviei o meu protesto. Ainda não disseram nada. O mais certo é pedirem-me para provar que eu próprio sou o autor. Como se não fosse óbvio. Um pirata qualquer rouba um livro, publica-o e ninguém lhe pergunta nada. mas se for o próprio autor, inventam mil e um procedimentos. Grato pelo esforço.

posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )

José Leon Machado says

Prezado Lasso, grato pelo seu trabalho. Reparei, para meu espanto, que um dos meus livros, A MARGEM, tem uma versão pirata. A única autorizada é a das Edições Vercial. Acabei de protestar para a Amazon e espero que a retirem. Já não é a primeira vez, infelizmente, que alguém republica as minhas obras na Amazon. Não entendo como é possível que os editores da Amazon permitem tal coisa. Desculpe falar-lhe do problema e mais uma vez obrigado. JLM.

posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )

José Leon Machado says

Prezado Lasso: grato pelas alterações. O livro não é propriamente erótico, embora tenha algumas cenas que se poderiam considerar eróticas. Qual é o livro que hoje em dia não tem uma cena dessas?

posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )

José Leon Machado says

Caro César Lasso

Grato pela chamada de atenção. Realmente o livro nada tem a ver com o nosso ditador. Não sei onde foram buscar isso. Agradeço o envio da nota, pois não sei como isso de faz. Cumprimentos e boas leituras! jlm.

posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )

bismarckfairy says

Thanks for letting me know, César. I will try to keep that in mind for the future.

posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )

Mary Okeke Reviews says

Thank you for suggesting I am already following. That was so kind of you.

Cheers.

posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )

Gary Goldstein says

You are very welcome, César.

Have a great night.

Gary

posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )

Gary Goldstein says

Hello Cesar..

I would like to invite you to take a look at my book,"Jew in Jail."

http://www.jewinjail.com/

http://ning.it/Lk20hZ

Thanks, and have a great day!

posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )

vila Zvoncica says

Hi César!

How are you? As you can see, I'm still internetless ;-)) But I hope it will change in next few days...
Do you celebrate Easter? If you do, I wish you happy Easter!

Zvonka
;D

posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )

vila Zvoncica says

Hi César!

(Now it is me away from the internet for a week.)
:(

(I'm at the seaside…)
Me too! But I am at Adriatic Sea!

(… on the Spanish side of the Spanish-Portuguese border…)
Yes, I found you! ;) I was once at your seaside, but at the other side, in Lloret de Mar. ;)

I still do not have real access to Internet so I just came to say you hello. ;)
I hope you enjoy!

Zvonka
;)

posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )

vila Zvoncica says

Dobra večer, César!

I suppose I will not be near Internet this week so now I will try to write you briefly all what I want.

(I guess that -č- is read as in English and Spanish -ch- in "chocolate"...)
You guess it right. ;) You probably noticed we have two letters (and then two voices): č (as in večer) and ć (as in Gundulić or noć). They both are read almost the same.

(I noticed you are editing the contributor (Ivan Gundulić) for single editions of "Djela". This is unnecessary, since I guess you will later on send all those editions for combine.)
Is there any fast way to combine books which are not listed on same page? For example, it was written "Gunduli" (without ć) wrote "Djela" How can I combine this book with some Gundulić's (with ć!) book? I created my own list (as community list) so if I add books there, then they are on same page and I can do with them whatever I want ;) but it takes too long... And actually I will not send request for combine this time, at least not soon. „Djela“ means „Works“ and I do not know which his works are in this book! (I don't like when some book on shelfari is called „Djela“!) But I just want to know for future.

(Now, the following is not a rule, but just an advice for the following months: if you send editions for combine before linking them to the author first, it might be faster processed. I can see the contributor change queue is going to be slowly treated for the immediate future, and combines seem to be treated faster.)
;D I knew it was good to have librarian as a friend! ;D Thank you!!!
I've just noticed: except you nobody approves my edits!!

(So I made you so familiar that I was unconsciously following my Spanish writing rules ;))
It's ok. It looks nice actually. ;D

(Opsss... I'll have to check that! I thought the link you posted me was a version in Latin, not Italian ;P)
I wrote two links:
„Except Croatian edition I could only find LATIN (http://books.google.hr/books?id=xNNDAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Ivan+Gunduli%C4%87%22&hl=hr&sa=X&ei=RK1EUc_BNM_54QTWnIGQBQ&ved=0CC4Q6AEwATha#v=onepage&q&f=false)
and ITALIAN (http://books.google.hr/books?id=cKxPAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=hr&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false).“
But I understand there were too many letters in this sentence so you probably didn't read it whole. ;))

(Wow, there are many tihings to reply yet, but I'm thinking of reading a little bit (I have not read yet today) and go to bed!)
And what are you reading now? All 19 books which are listed on your reading-shelf? ;D

( I'm sending you two youtube links to pieces in Spanish. The first one is a young woman reciting a very famous poem by Pablo Neruda. )
I can just say this one is magnificent! I like it!!! I usually do not like poems but Neruda is one of a few poets I like!
And Sabina's Magdalena - oh yes, even in my non Spanish ears it sounds beautiful! I like your taste. ;D

We've got another non-Indo-European language in Spain: Basque (they call it euskera or euskara).
You have a lot of languages! ;) And this is interesting. I knew Basque is not Indo-European but I thought it belongs to some languages (as Hungarian belongs to Uralic languages) so I didn't know it is unrelated to all languages. Do you speak it also??? How many languages do you know?

(Languages such as Turkish and Japanese place the verb at the end of the sentence. If the sentences are very long, a simultaneous interpreter would go crazy because they have to wait for the end of the sentence to start translating, while the speaker is going on a new sentence. )
Hehehe, I believe this! In German verb could also be placed at the end of the sentence. Did you read maybe Mark Twain's „The Awful German language“? He describes very funny their grammar! He wrote something like: in German newspaper verb is always on the next page. ;D

(No matter how different most European languages are, they have a similar structure. Compare:
(Spanish) (Yo) tengo un libro.
(English) I have a book
(German) Ich habe ein buch
(Croatian) (Ja) imam knjigu
Now, this would be the translation of Arabic to express the same idea:
Over-me book)
Exactly the same I wanted to say! Of course without Arabic sentence. ;D I wanted to show the same with Hungarian but than I realized I can not write any Hungarian sentence for which I'm sure is correct. ;D

(The funny things is when I decipher Persian from the Iranian editors. .. I find there a funny mixture of Latin and Germanic, all written in Arabic script. Compare words and structures:
(English) My daughter is a doctor.
(Persian) Dokhter-e man yak doktor ast (Daughter-of mine one doctor is))
;D

(Well, I'm not sure I understood this. Which Cyrillic X? Serbian Cyrillic X, for example, is pronounced the same as Croatian H…)
Upsss... Now I'm lost!)
Finally! ;D

(I was referring to Bulgarian Cyrillic. Does it help to compare Spanish J to German -ch- in "machen" or "acht"?)
German is much more familiar to me than Bulgarian! I am not fluent in German as you are fluent in your languages but it is the only language, besides Croatian, in which I can read books. Not poetry and high literature but I've read some short stories, a children book and a love novel. I think I can evaluate books in German very well: a writer has a very poor and limited vocabulary if I can understand his books in German. ;D

I just looked on your book shelves. „Osman“ looks very nice there. ;D

It was not so briefly. ;D

Lijep pozdrav,
Zvonka
;D

posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )

vila Zvoncica says

Hi César!

(Hi Zvonca!)
It's second time you called me Zvonca. Is this a Spanish version of my name or you just forgot my name is Zvonka? ;)

(I am beginning to laugh whenever I read you. That is not too bad - it just means I like you! ;-D)
I like you too. ;D

(What kind of school did you go to??? Was it public system or private acknowledged by the Ministery?)
It was a public school. I think there are not private elementary schools in Croatia, just a few (really a few!) private high schools in whole Croatia.
Hungarian was an elective school subject and I can not remember why I choose it. ;) I also do not remember words I was learning. :)

(Well, Hungarian must really be devilish.)
Yes, it is! :)

(It is not even Indo-European.)
If I never learnt it I would always think all languages have same structure as our have.

(Do Spanish nouns change endings according to cases?)
(No, Latin had noun cases but all Latin languages lost it. )
That's a good news! ;)

(Do you have strict pronunciation rules like in Italian or it is more like in English?)
It's really like Italian. The reading rules are 95 or 96 % exactly the same in Italian and Spanish.
A second good news! :)

(Spanish, besides, has a unique sound among the other Latin languages: J is read as -kh-, the same as in Cyrillic X.)
Well, I'm not sure I understood this. Which Cyrillic X? Serbian Cyrillic X, for example, is pronounced the same as Croatian H…


(Well, here you have a nice book from archive.org:
http://archive.org/details/iquattropoetiita01dant)
Somehow, I got the book thanks to you; … now, you get the book thanks to me. )

You maybe have the book thanks to me but I am afraid I will disappoint you. This book is nice but it is in Italian! And my Italian is, hm… how to say it nice … just a little bit better than my Spanish. ;D I know just some bacic words, as porta, libro or nove. ;) I could also guess what some words mean… I have some Italian course for self-learning and I made few lessons; really not enough for reading Dante! ;-)

(Your school system is (or was, in case it was not the Croatian but the Yugoslavian) really good!)
It is Croatian school system (I was born in 1979) but I'm sure it was the same in Yugoslavia, at least when we are talking about world literature.

(The Catalans have Spanish nationality, but many young Catalans will know less than you about Lope, Góngora and Calderón. )
Do not think those authors are so well-known for me. I could say a few sentences about „Life is a Dream“ but all I know about others is they were Spanish writers in Baroque or before. ;)

(They will know about Ausiàs March because he wrote in Catalano-Valencian, but they will know little about Castilian (Spanish) literature and nothing, for example, about French literature.)
Are you saying they do not read French literature in school AT ALL?
No Madame Bovary, no Father Goriot, no Therese Raquin…? I don't know why, but I thought all schools are like ours.
If you are interested in our school programm you can have a look on our every-pupil-must-read list (http://www.lektire.hr/lektire-po-razredima/). Books are divided after classes (eight classes in elementary school and four classes in high school). All those books should be read completely. There are also many books from which we read just some chapter. Maybe it sounds very good but our system is actually too extensive. So, if some book is on a every-pupil-must-read list that doesn't mean every pupil actually read it. ;D

(There are many "Romanceros". )
I didn't know that, I thought there is only one!
I just found my old school book for a literature and I saw we were reading „Romanca o grofu Arnaldu“ (I know you can translate it!) and a second one was some poem about „Fonte frida“. Are they famous? (This becomes really funny! „Fonte“ is the same as Italian „fontana“ and „frida“ as Italian „freddo“?)

(Usually one or two proper names and two surnames: first the father's first surname, and second the mother's first surname. …)
And what about women? I mean, when they marry, which husband's surname do they take, just first or both? Do they keep their own surname(s)?

(My full name is César Ángel Lasso Ariño. )
Well, now it sounds as a real Spanish name! ;D
Now I stupid question. What does „y“ in name or in surname mean? Like in Luis de Góngora y Argote?

(Laku noćica!
(that's my attempt to make a diminutive. Google translate is unable to do that)
:p)
It's not only an attempt! This is a miracle. ;D
Wikipedija says the form "noćica" was never recorded (I think the reason is not linguistic: who would like to make diminutive of "noć"? It is anyway always too short!) but it is formed according to our language rules.
Did you know „noć“ is a femininum??
Well, I am astonished!!
Just one small correction; it should be „Laka noćica“ (as nominativ) or „Laku noćicu“ (as accusativ).

So, laka noćica! ;-D
Zvonka

posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )

vila Zvoncica says

Dobra večer, César! :)

(Eureka! I found it! - Versione libera dell'Osmanide, published in 1827 by a Venetian who had lived in Ragusa for 20 years.)
I'm glad you did!!!! Where did you find it? On your shelf at home? ;D
This is in Italian, wright? Because, if you are talking, you found it in Internet, than I do not understand why is this edition so much better than this one I linked you in my last post… But you are a linguist, I must believe you… ;D

(Now, in future, I could make a reading plan: 1) The Lusiads by Camões (1572); 2) La Gerusalemme Liberata by Tasso (1581); L'Osmanide by "Gianfrancesco Gondola" (162???).)

The plan sounds so good! ;D
I would say Osman was written 1638. Gundulić started to write Osman 1621 but he was writing it till he died (1638).
Could I say „hasta pronto“?
;D
Zvonka
;D

posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )