I have some other semi-fun and maybe even interesting things that I should be posting, but this post is just because it's already 11:30, Japanese grammar is driving me crazy, and I have to give this up and get to sleep already.

spacealien_vamp , you DID say that I could post with any questions I had...

So I've been going over the grammar part of the practice test I did poorly on the other day. (FWIW, this particular grammar fill in the blank section was insane -- usually the questions are fairly straightforward if you know the weird little archaic never-used formulae they want you to memorize, but this one had six straight questions in a row that asked about weird archaic formulae that aren't on the list at all. Let's hope the test this year isn't like that.)

Most of them I've figured out by googling and looking in my reference books, but this one has me stumped.

彼女はここ一ヵ月＿＿＿＿＿授業を休んでいる。

Clearly, some expression along the lines of "She hasn't been to class for A WHOLE MONTH now" is needed, but according to the answer key, the correct answer is というもの。 I know several usages for "to iu mono," but this doesn't match any of the examples that I have or can find listed anywhere. Is this a normal usage of the phrase? Any comments on why it would be the best fill-in here?

Usages for というもの that I do understand, for the record:

"The thing called..."
これがいわゆる「天ぷら」というものです。
kore ga iwayuru "tenpura" to iu mono desu.
This is what's called tempura.

Emotional emphasis:
本当に困ったときにこそ助け合うのが友達というものだ。
hontou ni komotta toki ni koso tasukeau no ga, tomodachi to iu mono da.
Helping one another out just when you need it most (just when you're really in trouble), that's what I call a friend. (that's true friendship, that's what friends do)

But what is "that thing called one month"? Help!

( First, the despair... )

Oh well, I can but gambare. I'm going to try to concentrate on practicing actual 1kyuu listening tests and reading passages from now until the test, since those are clearly my weakest areas. I have to somehow pick up 20 points from where I am now, or I'm sunk.

Does anyone have an icon of Sawako from Kimi ni Todoke doing her "Gambaru!" face?

Speaking of which, if you're not watching the new Kimi ni Todoke anime, RUN. DO NOT WALK. SO ADORABLE. Oh hey, there should be a new episode to torrent tonight. It's like someone remade Bukiyou na Silent as a shoujo anime starring Sadako from the Ring. With the sweetest boyfriend ever. It's utterly brilliant. I need to get my hands on the manga, like, yesterday.

Now for something completely different: ( apples! )

I spent much of the day cleaning as wrenwyn was supposed to come over and watch videos, but alas, in the end she wasn't feeling well and was unable to come over. Feel better, girl! Anyway, my house is a lot cleaner, which feels good.

I decided to go ahead and make macaroni & cheese, which was on the menu for the evening. I had stocked up some candy just in case, and sure enough the doorbell started ringing even before I turned the lights on, so I was glad I had supplies on hand. Even if I turn on the lights, I don't get many kids in my neighborhood, but there are some. And then there's lots of candy left over at the end of the evening... I've learned to only buy supplies I'm willing to eat.

I've been watching the original Night of the Living Dead on AMC. I never really thought about where modern zombie mythology came from, so it's been interesting, though by today's standards it seems ridiculously cheezy. (Not to mention sexist, but let's not go there... it may be satirical and subversive, but it was still the sixties, after all. I was rooting for the zombies to eat the totally useless heroine after the first ten minutes.) If it's true (as George Romero claims) that the casting of a black actor as a hero was an accident, a product of the talent available to them and not a social-satirical choice, that has to be the luckiest break in film casting history. The ending wouldn't have half the impact if the heroic leader-figure and sole almost-survivor of the apocalypse had been white. (If you've seen the ending of the film, you know what I mean.)

Hmm, wonder what I should watch next? My VCR tape of the Exorcist, maybe? (So antiquated, it's scary!)

(PS: I heard a really funny interview with George Romero on NPR this morning. He was talking about how he doesn't really like the fact that zombies in more recent movies can race around at high speeds, because, you know, they're dead, and their ankle bones would probably snap if they tried to run. At which point the host reasonably pointed out that maybe the issue of whether the living dead can run or not maybe isn't the most pertinent scientific question to be asking. This made watching Romero's zombies stagger about in the movie about ten times funnier, because I kept imagining them trying to run and suffering from tragic hip fractures.)

In honor of Halloween rapidly approaching, I've been watching Japanese horror movies.

This was partly sparked when I went to visit hezziwig for the first time in over a year (I am so embarrassed it's been so long!) and we watched a number of new anime and j-drama episodes, most of which seemed to be parodying J-horror movies. (Notably episode 3 of the live-action jdrama of Otomen, which was a ghost story, and several episodes of Kimi no Todoke, in which Sawako is repeatedly compared to Ringu's Sadako.) I was laughing a lot harder than H was, probably because I've seen about thirty minutes of the end of the English version of the Grudge (which nearly scared me into my grave, thankyouverymuch), and it was like watching Scream and knowing what's being parodied. It was hilarious.

Anyway, besides reminding me that I need to watch a lot more dramas without subtitles, this inspired me to go on a binge of the Japanese horror classics I've never dared to watch.

( In which I ramble on at far too great length about American and Japanese horror movies. )

Oh dear. Apparently I have not updated in, er, forever.

Guest status: collarnojutsu came two weekends ago; we went down to NYC and had great fun. Much money was spent, rats were spotted and enjoyed at Decibel, I got to bed at 3 am on Sunday night Monday morning and had to teach the next day, all was as it ought to be when guests visit. (Ptolemy has a new favorite aunt!)

Con status: Went to NYAF this past weekend, spending the entire weekend with gaminette . The con mostly sucked (OK, the anime music videos weren't entirely lame), spending the weekend in NYC with my hostess was awesome as always. As reported in her journal, we spent far more money at Kinokuniya than at the con. Er. Considering that I had been to NYC already twice that month... why do I do these things to my budget?

Bed status: I have my new bed! Sleepnumber bed and I are still getting used to each other, but it is definitely a huge improvement over what I had. I'm sleeping better, needing to nap in the day less, and back/hip/neck pain is much reduced, though I'm still trying to find the setting that will consistently make it go 100% away. (Losing 30 pounds would probably take care of that... er, let's mess with the settings some more instead.) It is interesting to find that I seem to need a very firm setting now, compared to a few years ago when I preferred a much softer bed. I weighed less then, too...

Manga status: not good. I have been awfully busy at work, and when I do have an hour in the evening, I've been studying for the JLPT instead of reading manga. (I'm officially taking the JLPT in Washington DC, boo.) Manga reports will hopefully resume soon. I'm waiting for the last of my Garakuta (Itsuki Kaname, Wagamama) doujinshi to arrive from Japan, at which point I plan to do a Wagamama-exclusive report. (As this suggests, I've finally succeeded in extorting too-expensive copies of all of Itsuki Kaname's Wagamama DJ from yahoo_japan, but have still not managed to snag a copy of Yoneda Kou's After 9 Hours for a price I'm willing to pay. Hmph.)

Japanese conversation status: I have finally succeeded in discovering a Japanese conversation tutor, for free, no less! A couple of would-be advanced Japanese students made a deal with a visiting assistant professor from Japan to trade English conversation practice for Japanese conversation practice, and my colleague who deals with critical languages (inclulding Japanese) hooked me up with them. We're going to meet weekly on Friday afternoons at two. The first session was yesterday, and as expected, my ability to produce conversation is utterly pitiful, but on the good side, I can understand a lot of what's said, and I seem to be a good match for the other students (they can speak better than I can, but I know more vocabulary and can keep up with what they're saying, so we work well together). I am excited.

This is my first weekend at home in three weeks. I'm being a slug and occasionally taking a poke at Japanese.

Inspired by our conversations this past weekend, gaminette has started a Japanese journal on LJ, and I've done the same. (srj_faith , for anyone who wants to follow along. The name is my yahoo_japan id, born of desperation when yahoo rejected all my alternatives. Exactly how many tanaquils are there in Japan??) The plan is to post regular, very simple diary entries and try to correct and help each other. I have yet to post my first entry: possibly my next task for tonight? Maybe it'll also inspire me to, uh, post more often than once a month in my own language.

Quick update on various matters...

Labor Day weekend was lovely. And supremely unproductive.

I did, however, get down to NYC on Sunday for a study date with gaminette , and shocked her with how little I bought. (ONE manga at Asahiya! NO books at BookOff! ONE Japanese study book at Kinokuniya!) We had a lot of fun hanging out, and, uh, at least one hour of actual productive study time in Bryant Park (it was a lovely day). She very patiently submitted to being dragged to Decibel, but I may never get her there again after we glimpsed a little family of mice outside in the (let me emphasize, OUTDOOR) emergency stairwell. (But they were such cute rats!)

Monday the firesign10 household hosted their annual Labor Day picnic, at much there was much good food and wrenwyn got to show off her new iphone. That was lovely and relaxing.

Other than that, there was... uh, a lot of napping. (I seem to have kicked the back of jetlag; now I'm just back to my regular napping schedule.)

I made my first purchase on Yahoo!Auctions via Crescent-Shop. (Wagamama doujinshi, #4 and #5.5.) As deputy services go, they're... less extortionate than most. I fear it's a long, downhill slide from here.

Cross-pimping not only manga but LJs:

S_vamp's Trip Report
W_10_00's Trip Report

I have shamelessly linked to wednesday_10_00's many updates and photographs posted during the trip. She's a much better blogger than I am.

( No mothers were killed in the writing of this report, only many innocent electrons )

When can we go back, again?

It occurs to me that, since I somehow never got around to writing up a full trip report last time, I've never done a full report on Otome Road on this journal, even though this is now the second trip I've made when I did almost nothing but march up and down the same strip of shops. So, this is probably old hat to most folks on my flist, but bear with me. You never know when a baby fangirl might be making her very first trip to Ikebukuro.

( A tour of the neighborhood... )

Now, on to the actual trip report!

Jet lag report: I was doing really well the first day (got my books unpacked and photos taken and everything!). Second day was rough; I didn't get much done all day, and from 4 pm to 8 pm it was torture just to stay awake until I could go to bed and fall asleep at a not-impossible hour. I ended up sleeping from 8 to 12 and 4 to 7 this morning, so I figured I was doing pretty well.

Today I've been getting stuff done, but slowly, lying down to rest at intervals. I lay down for one of my little rests at 4. I just woke up, and I had to peer at my watch for a couple of minutes trying to figure out if it said 9 am or 9 pm. I am so doomed.

On the upside, I've been reading a lot of manga...? The first Seven Days of Manga report is well along.

I'm preparing to head down to NYC again from Tuesday through Thursday, then to Otakon from Friday to Sunday, and in DC to visit my parents for a couple of days, Sunday through Wednesday (?). Of course, NYC (potentially the last trip before Japan? though I could always be persuaded otherwise... ) and Otakon mean shopping, so I've been revising my manga catalogs in preparation for the inevitable point where I'm standing in front of the shelf going "Don't I already own this...?"

My dream is to have a perfect catalog on my computer, capable of handling Japanese flawlessly, perfectly coordinated with a catalog online, and a perfect iphone app that doesn't require internet access for searching (ideally, one could update/synch the database by going online, and then use the resulting database offline). My dream, it does not exist. We live in an imperfect world.

( I thought it might be interesting to revisit the already much-discussed topic of databases. )

What's your cataloging poison of choice? Do you keep everything in a cataloging app, online, in Excel, or what?

... oh god, I still have to catalog my doujinshi...

Argh, I've been promising myself I would be better about posting. Not doing so well too far.

Yesterday: went to see the new Star Trek, finally. (I cannot tell you how many geek cred points I have now lost by not going to see it sooner. Heck, I dropped several levels by not seeing it opening night.) It was full of wonderful; I had high expectations and it exceeded them all. Thumbs up.

Today: have hit the six-week point in the egg study, so it was time for the vampires to draw lots of blood. (Wait, six weeks of the summer gone already?) I go back for more bloodletting on Friday. Also more eggs.

Re: Japanese study:

I decided to resubscribe to JapanesePod101.com, premium  level this time. I first checked them out back in 2006, when they were just doing their first podcasts and they hadn't really hit prime time yet. Then I was a basic member for a long time, but never found time to listen to the podcasts, and finally I unsubscribed. The beginning lessons were PAIN-FUL-LY SLO-W; the Lower Intermediate were a little too fast (not that bad, really, but I frustrate easily). Plus, at the time, the Premium tools weren't that great. Well, I've been checking them out again, and discovered that the Beginner Lessons past about #30 aren't that bad, and the Lower Intermediate are at a good level for me now, plus the Premium tools have gotten a lot more useful, so I'm giving them another whirl for the summer. It's helping, I think. I'll probably unsubscribe again when school starts (no time), but it depends on how helpful it is in the meantime.

It was on their forum that I came across a reference to the book I linked in my last post, Shadowing. I've been trying it out for the last two or three days. It's a little early to tell, but I think it's incredibly helpful. I feel like my pronuniciation is already getting better. Plus I find myself repeating after other things as well, like the slower parts of the Jpod podcasts. Well, we'll see. Consistency is key, so I'd like to see if I can keep up with these lessons on a regular basis for the next several weeks.

In other Japanese study news, holy crap, Anki keeps getting better and better. The author is issuing new updates practically weekly, or even faster. It now tracks the cards you have an especially difficult time learning (ie you keep getting them wrong over and over again), which in poetic SRS (spaced repetition system) terminology are known as "leeches," because they suck all the energy and time out of your deck. I have many, many leeches. (Well, maybe 10% of my vocab cards are leech-like, but when you have 7000 to keep up with, that's a lot!)

I already took a nap today... can it possibly be bedtime already??

This is the first day I've had in quite a while to catch my breath. Mainly working on dishes, laundry, opening piled-up mail, and dealing with my overloaded inbox.

Yesterday the students at my university (the classics club) talked me into joining them in NY at the last minute. I didn't end up going to the Met with them (I am a BAD teacher) because we got to NYC late enough that I knew there wouldn't be enough time to hit the bookstores too, and they only wanted me to come along to be social anyway. I did get to show a few of them my favorite Japanese bookstore spots briefly after they were done at the Met, and that was fun, since several of them are interested in manga and/or Japanese. Anyway, I did my usual over-shopping and will have to post soon about my finds.

But, the main point of this post: a colleague in Comp Lit/Film Studies has asked for lists of films that we'd like the library to acquire for our courses. I'd like to teach a course on anime at some point, and when I asked him whether I should submit a list, he thought it was a great idea.

So, drawing on the collective wisdom of the list: if you were going to teach a course on Japanese animation/film studies/comp lit, what would you consider required "reading"? The tricky part is that it's hard to ask the library to acquire series, because of the investment involved. So standalone films should probably come at the top of the list.

( Follow me under the cut if you have thoughts/suggestions... )

Thoughts are welcome!

PS Before anyone suggests it, I would definitely think it would be interesting to include Avatar as an example of a western work that has been deeply influenced by a range of cultural models. But again, it runs into the series-acquisition problem.

I guess I ought to do more research on how courses on Japanese animation are taught elsewhere.

On a lighter note: if you've read the Aeneid, this is just about the funniest thing ever. (Click on the tiny image to make it readable.)

I never thought I'd be copying a link to a video I saw on Facebook... but this is effing brilliant.

The bowing! The hands-over-mouth feminine giggle! The karaoke!

I don't quite get how they made this thing for SNL, and I couldn't catch all the (painfully slowly enunciated) Japanese (what a surprise), but what I could catch sounded spot on. I suspect it would be even funnier if I had ever seen more than 1 1/2 episodes of the American version of the Office.

This meme is really easy if you've only posted like two entries each month.

2008: The Year in Review

January
... I'm home! Got in late last night. I want to do a full trip report, but I don't seem to have the brain cells tonight.
Wow, Japan Trip 2008 feels like a world away already. Can we go back tomorrow please?

February
For the record -- I KNEW it was a bad idea to get into video gaming. ^_~
The beginning of the Phoenix Wright obsession phase. Unfortunately I got bogged down somewhere along the way. I really need to get back and finish games two, three and four before Edgeworth: Prosecutor AWESOME comes out in Japan. *headdesk*

March
It's official: I have now memorized (on a good day, when the moon is in some favorable house or other) all of the elementary school level kanji.
It cannot have escaped anyone's attention that my journal this year was all about the Japanese.

April
Spring has been late coming in New England, but after a few false starts, it is porch weather again!
What, no cat pictures?

May
So I'm forging on through SGA (OK, so I didn't quite make it to season 4 by Sunday).
And then there was the SGA obsession. (Even my hobbies are backlogged right now. I have 8 unwatched SGA eps on my DVR, and the latest fan rumblings aren't exactly encouraging me to jump in and get caught up.)

June
Back from the beach, currently in DC for a few days before going off to grade Latin exams starting this weekend.
My life, she is so predictable.

July
Well, so far this summer is shaping up to be one my most unproductive *ever*. And I can't even blame poison ivy this time. >.<
See above comment.

August
It's been over a month since I posted, and I can't say I've had any real excuse. Moving on.
You know what's really sad? This, the first post of August, was posted on August 30 -- and consisted of a list of bullet points of things I wouldn't be getting around to blogging about.

September
I made a schedule of what I need to learn between now and December 7 to even have a prayer of covering all the stuff that's on JLPT 1.
The All JLPT, All The Time channel.

October
This post was originally written up two years ago (October 2006), but I ended up deciding that it was absurdly navel-gazing and never posted it. But it’s October again, and I’m feeling nostalgic and in a mood to share. So, what the heck.
The manga nostalgia post. I'm pretty sure it says something about my journal productivity this year that one of these meme spots is occupied by an unposted entry from TWO YEARS AGO.

November
After listening to media organizations (read: NPR) for days on end, I went to my polling place armed with Starbucks coffee and my laptop to stand in line for as long as it took.
At least the tanking economy didn't make it into the meme. Oops, there it is.

December
1kyuu is DONE! I felt like the kanji/vocab and grammar sections went pretty well, but the listening section was an utter disaster as expected, so it all boils down to whether I managed to do well enough on the other sections to balance out the 30% I probably got on listening.
In retrospect, this was probably my biggest personal life achievement over the past year. Will be kind of ironic if I end up FAILING it.

Hereby resolved: I resolve to be a better blogger in 2008.

I have a feeling that was one of my resolutions last year, too...

1kyuu is DONE! I felt like the kanji/vocab and grammar sections went pretty well, but the listening section was an utter disaster as expected, so it all boils down to whether I managed to do well enough on the other sections to balance out the 30% I probably got on listening. (Not an exaggeration. I was totally filling out bubbles at random, I had no idea what was going on with most of the dialogues.) We'll see. Anyway, DONE DONE DONE!

Apart from the test, I had a great weekend in NYC. I took the train down mid-day on Saturday, hit my usual bookstores (only found a few new manga, but now that I'm out of test-cramming mode, I can spend more time reading the manga I've already got), and then hooked up with gaminette, who was putting me up for the weekend. We went shopping for yarn for a hat and scarf, and then got more okonomiyaki, takoyaki and yakisoba than the human body can handle before settling down to watch Japanese movies. Sharkskin Man and Peach Pit Girl was so surreal that we both gave up on it after fifteen minutes, but The Taste of Tea was adorable and, bonus, somewhat easy to understand. (I don't know how I could do so poorly on the listening section of the JLPT when I know my listening skills have gotten at least moderately better this year... but let us not dwell.)

On the day of the test, we gorged ourselves on breakfast brunch (lots of eggs and potatoes for me), fortified ourselves with enormous coffees at Starbucks, and got to Columbia an hour before the test. We found a warm spot in the hallway to hang out just under a big and rather garish painting of Vergil, which I felt was a moderately promising omen. After the test (my test didn't finish until after 5 pm), we got together again for dinner at my favorite British pub, and then it was on the train home, so I could get up at 8 am this morning to give my students an exam.

Now the students' exam is over, and I came back home to cocoon and grade for the rest of the day. It is BITTER cold here. I'm under an electric blanket on the sofa, and after a brief period of suspicion, Ptolemy deigned to join me. (He is very aggrieved over all the travelling I've been doing.) Soon, there will be more coffee.

It is so good to be done with the exam so I can relax and study at my own pace. It was definitely worth all the studying, whether I passed or not, since the pressure forced me to cover a lot more material than last year when I blew the exam off. But it's even better to have it OVER with.

Maybe next year I can do my post-exam bulletin from the train with my iPhone like everyone else. =P For now -- back to grading!

After listening to media organizations (read: NPR) for days on end, I went to my polling place armed with Starbucks coffee and my laptop to stand in line for as long as it took. (Note: I have rarely ever seen more than three voters in my polling place at one time.) I was in and out so fast I didn't even have time to sip my coffee. I was sort of disappointed it didn't take longer.

Turnout was definitely on the high side for my sleepy little polling station. I live in what I would describe as a blue collar/middle class suburb with a lot of ethnic minorities (there are three Indian groceries within walking distance of my house). Usually I see a lot of stodgy-looking retirees at the polling place (retired Catholics are big in my area), but I saw a much more diverse crowd today.

Honestly, I can't remember the last time I was this excited to vote. I vote with scrupulous civic duty in every election (well, I might have missed a school board vote or two), but I usually go in with a resigned sense of futility that (a) the old white guy I vote for will probably win [fill in my state of residence at the time], but lose the country and (b) even if by some miracle the old white guy I vote for gets in, he won't do much that I actually like -- he just won't do as much permanent damage as the other guy. Democrats these days seem inclined to talk about (Bill) Clinton with wistful tears in their eyes, but honestly, I never liked him that much (and I grew to despise his personal morals). He was smart as heck, did a decent-ish job and presided over a prosperous time; that's about the best I could say for him. I've been voting since the Reagan years, and that's the best I have to show for my representatives in politics.

This time I have just a little hope that my guy might win, and if he does, that I'll be proud and excited to have him in office. I was one of those wishing and hoping that Obama would run for years before he actually did. I know he probably won't be able to do half of what he promises (no politician could), but I'm impressed every time I hear him speak. Like every other Democrat in the country, I hope I'm not just setting myself up for the crushing political disappointment of a lifetime.

Cross your fingers, everyone. And get out there and VOTE.

I just spent the last four hours listening to bumping, crashing, clanking and swearing, while Ptolemy alternately clung to me and hid under the nearest large fixed object. I gave up getting much done on midterm grading after a while, and just tried to do Japanese flashcards.

( Home maintenance moaning cut to spare the innocent )

In other news: am off this weekend for a conference in Chicago. Am behind on work. Am behind on Japanese. Am not packed. *panic*

In other other news: life has been so hectic lately, I never got a chance to post on my Japanese anniversary! Better late than never. (The official anniversary is October 24; see the recent nostalgia-fest for the explanation of that date.)

I started studying Japanese five years ago, in October 2003 (see here and here for previous anniversary posts -- apparently I only got around to commemorating the first and third year).

Right then, statistics ahoy! (Numbers are as of last Saturday the 25th; since I'm keeping a record in excel at the moment, I can do the numbers without fudging.)

Kanji learned: 1947 (JOUYOU KANJI MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!)
Vocab learned: 6335 (only 1844 to go for 1kyuu, God help me...)
JLPT level: taking 1kyuu in (checks) 38 days (HAIL MARY FULL OF GRACE)

I really need to get kicking on grammar points. I've technically "learned" all the 2kyuu points (and I think 95% are finally sticking, how many years did that take?), but I've only learned a dozen or so 1kyuu points. Fortunately, there are only about 100 1kyuu items, compared to 200 2kyuu items, and I seem to be learning grammar more easily these days.

I worked extra hard to finish the 常用 kanji in time for my anniversary. I still have a lot of work to do to really consolidate them, but it feels very weird to know that any truly unfamiliar kanji now is in the non-jouyou category. (For those who haven't been following along at home... the jouyou are the approximately 2000, actually 1945, characters designated as required for adult literacy in Japan. Other kanji are in regular use, but newspapers and such are supposed to gloss them, on the assumption that most people might not know how to read them. Of course, the ever-popular wacky place and people names don't count, but let's not discuss those.)

I started reading Asahi (the Japanese newspaper) online the other day, initially filtering it through Rikai.com (which helps gloss unfamiliar words) and weirdly, my reaction was "Huh? This can't be a real newspaper article. It's way too easy." But I went to the real Asahi.com site, and sure enough, it was the real thing. (Is Asahi an easy paper or something?) OK, I was reading the science and literature sections, not the politics and economics sections, but apart from stumbling over all the names, and needing a little help with "fluorescent reagent" and "infrared radiation" (but I knew the kanji!), seriously, the articles were really easy. Not to mention way cool. (Did you know they just discovered the oldest known manuscript of the Genji Monogatari?)

I still read horribly slowly, though. I have a feeling that's going to be a big problem on 1kyuu.

As one of my favorite posters on the Fool used to say at the end of each of her posts -- Onward!

The deed is done -- I signed up for JLPT 1kyuu.

Studying according to my little study schedule (I literally made an excel sheet of where I have to be every day between now and December 7, and update it daily) is going surprisingly well. Of course, it's only been a week. The amounts of kanji/vocab memorization I've set myself are time-consuming and tiring but, so far, manageable. I'll see how I feel in a few weeks.

I guess if I despair between now and Sept 26 (the deadline), I can drop down to 2kyuu and try to ace that level... but challenging myself to the higher level is more fun. (I'm a sick, sick person.)

My current book of choice is the Kanzen Master 1kyuu kanji/vocabulary book. The 2kyuu and kyuu grammar books are also excellent. Kanzen Master has pretty much replaced Unicom as my study guide of choice at this point, though I still consult the Unicom books as well.

Here goes nothing!

I made a schedule of what I need to learn between now and December 7 to even have a prayer of covering all the stuff that's on JLPT 1. The good news: day by day, it's not completely impossible. The bad news: my chances of learning 6 new kanji and 50 new vocab words on any given day, quite good. My chances of doing this every single day between now and December 7? FAIL.

I can but gambare.

I just noticed that they're advertising that there will be limited seating in New York this year (first time I've ever seen that). Uh. Maybe they'll run out of seats before I get my act together to register? (Notice me not running out to register immediately. Deadline is Sept. 26. Stay tuned.)

As always, I remain torn between feeling encouraged at the progress I'm making and in despair over the progress I'm not making.

Today in the car I listened to a CD for the 3kyuu listening test. I understood, er... MOST of it. Almost four years after I supposedly passed 3kyuu. Yay?

My icon doesn't haven enough tears for this post.

Positive achievements for the day: put in the long-delayed textbook order for the new course I'll be teaching in the fall. (I already ordered books for my other courses, but I had to spend more time pondering the new course.) I have a lot more work to do on developing the new course (on the Hellenistic World), but it's a start.

Above-mentioned disappointment: I was supposed to have Dish TV installed today. I was really looking forward to it, as it was going to allow me to have digital service comparable to what I have now from cable, on two TVs, with DVR service available on both, for less than I'm now paying for cable TV. Alas, it turns out that the honking big tree in my front yard is smack in the line of sight from every angle. Unless I get a tree service out to hack off about a third of the tree, I'm not going to be able to get a clear satellite signal. So, no satellite TV for me. I suppose I could try DirectTV and see if they're any better, but at this point I'm too frustrated to go through the whole process of changing services again with yet another company.

I tried calling Comcast to see if they might have a better offer than what I'm getting now. They were singularly unhelpful.

So, since I was most disappointed about the DVR part, I'm looking into Tivo, which involves more of an upfront cost, but would give me more DVR flexibility. Comcast's price for having DVR available in two rooms is just outrageous, and it doesn't have a good option for transferring recorded programming to a computer or ipod, which Tivo does.

Either way, it seems like I'm stuck paying too much for cable TV when my package deal expires next month. Meh. This calls for a drink.

So I was getting ready to post about the fact that I haven't accomplished jack lately, but at least I joined a gym again today, because they were running a cheap monthly membership deal. I desperately need to get back into a regular workout routine.

But now I just need to post in order to share this, which I found via a link on another website (randomly, the Motley Fool, given that the clip has nothing whatsoever to do with finance).

The Website is Down

It starts off slow, but by the end I was wheezing from laughter. Don't give up on it before you get to the Sales Guy's desktop. (Could be considered NSFW, I guess, which is kind of ironic and meta.)

*wipes streaming eyes*

Back from the beach, currently in DC for a few days before going off to grade Latin exams starting this weekend. Considering that this is supposed to be vacation time, I feel like I'm having a surprisingly hard time getting caught up on, well, anything.

Case in point: I just went through my user info page and realized that a whole bunch of people had friended me I-have-no-idea-how-long-ago, mostly through the BL/yaoi/scanlation connection, I think. I did a wholesale friendback thing, so if by any chance anyone's been out there wondering why I was snubbing you, uh, it wasn't on purpose. ^_^;;

I'm also vainly trying to get caught up on LJ, because on top of being at the beach, where I wasn't logging in often enough to keep up with comments, this past weekend was my 20th college reunion, so I had to leave the beach early and drive up to Pennsylvania for the weekend. I had a wonderful time (the reunion deserves a post of its own), but I just realized I missed the entire discussion about registering for Yaoicon. (More thoughts on that forthcoming.)

Meanwhile, having attended my college reunion, I'm trying to lure a bunch of old college friends onto LJ (which is why I was poking around updating my user info page). Does anyone else have those moments where you look back over your journal and wonder if it would make any sense to anyone but the people who are currently reading it? Or is that just me? I don't think I'm a very good blogger.

Projects, oh god, so many projects. I've whittled away at a few of them, hoping to get some more done today. Maybe I should go do that now, because this post seems to be getting less coherent by the moment.

I'm a little distressed by the workout this icon has been getting, lately.

Yikes... over a week at the beach already?

Weather has been absolutely gorgeous, which is why I haven't been online much. As with last year, we signed up for wireless access, but the signal is only decent in two rooms, both of which are on the shady land side -- not really where one wants to be on a beautiful sunny day at the beach. I've been trying to keep up with checking email and reading the flist, but haven't managed more than that.

I should have been updating more often, but every day would pretty much look the same:

Drink coffee.
Sit out in the sun.
Practice kanji.
Sit in the sun and practice kanji while drinking more coffee.
Nap when the sun gets too high.
Practice kanji and/or read a novel (being at the beach always makes me want to reread Michael Crichton thrillers).
Lounge in the sun for the rest of the afternoon. Take a walk if I'm feeling energetic.
Toward dinnertime, have a beer and practice more kanji.
After dinner, watch whatever people feel like watching on DVD. (I managed to get my parents semi-hooked on SGA. Score!)
Stay up too late reading SGA fanfic, if I can manage to hold an internet connection long enough.
Oversleep. Wake up next morning and repeat.

Went swimming yesterday. That'll probably be my one time in the water for this year (I do not come to the beach for the swimming).

I'm doing a lot of kanji practice because it's easy to use flashcards and/or the Nintendo DS outside, even in bright sun. The poor kanji had been neglected for a few weeks during the SGA marathon, so they need the practice. I'm determined to attempt 1kyuu this year, fail or no fail (at least it will be a less abysmal fail than last year would have been).

Until yesterday it was just me and my parents; my older sister and BIL arrived last night. BIL is still recovering from the cancer that was diagnosed last year around this time, but is doing well. Cancer is gone (so far so good), but there are lingering effects from the radiation treatment. My younger sister comes up this evening.

I've moved into the smaller bedroom, which gets better internet access, so perhaps I'll be online more (unless I'm too busy reading SGA fanfic).

Trying to think of other news to report... nope, I got nothing. It's almost time for my nap.