Learning? While not in school? WTF?
Two weekends ago I was in Chapters and bought an instructional book for Japanese. I was spurred on by the disappointment that I probably won't be able to take the next Japanese class this term since it had filled up before my enrollment period had even started. There's still a small chance that I can get in by talking to the teacher before classes start, which I absolutely will do, but just in case I've now got this book.
I've been reading and rereading it quite a bit, and using the invaluable Japanese flash card program that Tyler helped me stumble upon. My goal last week was to memorize katakana (the japanese syllabic alphabet (there's a better word for it) for foreign words, sound effects, emphasis, etc), which with lots of drilling I'm confident that I've managed. Now I have just about all of the knowledge to about chapter 12 or so of the book, but there are 40 chapters (in a nice meaty 500 pages) in there so there's lots more material there for me. This is becoming a bit of an obsession for me...
Last Tuesday I took my first ever sick day at work after a miserable, sleepless night of headache and nausea. Tons and tons of sleep helped, but by about Friday a stupid cold hit me and I'm still feeling the effects a week later: sore throat, coughing, stuffed up, blegh.
Got a new microphone last weekend for Skype and the like. Traditionally I've used a headset, but after a bunch of recommendations that I go with a cheap tabletop mic, I bought a $10 Koss thing at Wal Mart that's actually turned out to be way better than anything I've had before. Much clearer and no ear-blowing P's and B's since it's not right near your mouth, plus it's a fair bit more sensitive so I can talk from pretty far away from the mic and it's still fine.
I think that deals with most everything before this weekend, anyway, heh.
I've been reading and rereading it quite a bit, and using the invaluable Japanese flash card program that Tyler helped me stumble upon. My goal last week was to memorize katakana (the japanese syllabic alphabet (there's a better word for it) for foreign words, sound effects, emphasis, etc), which with lots of drilling I'm confident that I've managed. Now I have just about all of the knowledge to about chapter 12 or so of the book, but there are 40 chapters (in a nice meaty 500 pages) in there so there's lots more material there for me. This is becoming a bit of an obsession for me...
Last Tuesday I took my first ever sick day at work after a miserable, sleepless night of headache and nausea. Tons and tons of sleep helped, but by about Friday a stupid cold hit me and I'm still feeling the effects a week later: sore throat, coughing, stuffed up, blegh.
Got a new microphone last weekend for Skype and the like. Traditionally I've used a headset, but after a bunch of recommendations that I go with a cheap tabletop mic, I bought a $10 Koss thing at Wal Mart that's actually turned out to be way better than anything I've had before. Much clearer and no ear-blowing P's and B's since it's not right near your mouth, plus it's a fair bit more sensitive so I can talk from pretty far away from the mic and it's still fine.
I think that deals with most everything before this weekend, anyway, heh.