Basement: Difficult issue to talk about. The basement isn't just "the basement". Just like the house isn't just "the house". They represent certain situations, and those situations have become hard for me to watch. Living at home causes one to see what one can't see at all when living somewhere else.
Theater: Rehearsals began this week. I'll be there every night except tonight. Tonight I am going to see Sarah's show up at Weber. And bring her some GIGANTIC Reeses I found at Target. It's funny, one used to only be able to buy candybars this big at places like F.A.O. Schwartz. Now...their at freakin Target. I saw a Snickers bar so big, part of their advertising said "cut into SLICES with your friends!".....Come on. Consumer size & consumer portions are getting ridiculous.
Mandarin: Still working away. Love my co-workers, they are all awesome.
Japanese: I was SOOOO happy when Yuko called me this morning and said we needed to cancel til next week. I mean, I was sad because it was due to her being sick (I hope you get better soon Yuko!), but I was relieved because I would love nothing more than more time to study for this Gigantic Mega Huge Test. We just finished the last batch of 2nd grade symbols last week, so now I'm prepping for a test on all 160. As well as the previous 80 from first grade. Here's an example of studying one symbol.
Example:
船 = Boat; Ship
ふね；ふな；せん
fune ; funa ; sen
Stroke Order:
11 画 (strokes)
風船 (fuu sen - literal translation - wind ship) = Balloon
船に乗る(fune ni no ru - "boat in ride") = I ride in a boat
So I memorize the symbol's basic meaning (boat), the different forms it can take (fune, funa, sen), the correct stroke order for when writing it down, and 5 - 6 words or phrases with the symbol in it （風船；船に乗る）
It's funny, when I first started to memorize kanji, writing it and memorizing the 3-4 forms was the easiest part, and memorizing the words was the hard part. But now it's the other way around. The words are the easy part, because more and more I find myself combining symbols I know, and they make a word I understand easily enough.
Like
風船 = "wind" "ship" = balloon
花火 = "flower" "fire" = firework
鈴虫 = "bell" "bug" = cricket
The part that occasionally throws me off is the SLIGHT differences in a symbol, causing it to mean something completely different. Or a symbol having so many strokes that I mix it up with another symbol that has too many strokes.
線、絵、顔、頭、新、園、後、弟、数、教、強
...just a few. I mean, I've got them down now, but I'll have to keep writing them over and over if I want to be able to remember them
And then those ones that throw you off with the slight change in the symbol.
太、犬、大、木、本 西、四 石、右 牛、午
fat, dog, big, tree, book west, four rock, right cow, a.m/p.m.
内、肉 矢、天 人、入 父、交、文
inside, meat arrow, heaven person; enter Dad, Exchange; Sentence
And there are always the words that make no sense as to their origin.
親切 = "parents" "cut" = kindness
家内 = "house" "inside" = wife (heh heh...one of those insights on japanese culture I suppose)
Anywho. Sorry. I could go on forever about Japanese. Luckily I am proud to say that everything I just wrote down came out of my head, I didn't have to go look any of it up. So at least there's hope that some of this is sticking. It's not easy, but you get what you put into it.
School: Studying for my world civ II class. I just finished the difficult task of memorizing enlightenment leaders of thought, some of their famous works, and what some of those famous works were about. Difficult stuff, that. Luckily the rest of the stuff seems to cover historical battles, strategies to increase power of state, struggles with monarchy & other methods of rule, things like that. I need to hurry and finish this cause I have 2 more subjects I need to finish before January, when I enroll for 3 more classes.
Family: Jack is doing fantastic in school, he kicked my trash in chess a week ago, and kicked everyone's trash in monopoly on Sunday. He is a fabulous fella. Mike is moving out on Friday. Ha. I'll just leave it at that. Sarah is happy off at Weber, I'm excited to see her show tonight. She's doing well I hear, though we don't talk that much. Tash is getting ready to move here, and Dewy's getting ready to move to Germany. I hope we can skype often with that chap. And I'm thrilled that "Daena, get to the chopper" has stuck with Tucker this long. Hill and Tyler are in California right now. I can't wait to hear if Maddie actually rode some rides this time around. I hope Emily has a blast, I know she'll try to ride every ride possible. We played a hillarious game of Taboo on skype on Sunday. I was trying to describe the word "Wife" to Hillary at one point. I said "You are Tyler's....?" After she got it right, Emily said, "Oh. I thought the word was Slave." HA HA HA HA HA!!! What a hoot. Mom got me hooked to Tim Minchin. Mom's been taking a much needed vacation from work, and we've been hanging out a little bit. Pop and I have been working on the garage.
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