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.

So I'm forging on through SGA (OK, so I didn't quite make it to season 4 by Sunday). I saw McKay and Mrs Miller, and it was awesome, and there was The Tao of Rodney and The Game, and that was even MORE awesome (how much do I love that they're gamers in their spare time!), and then I got to the last disk of season 3, and I'm just going to sit in the corner and bawl for a while. Jeez. You guys couldn't have WARNED me?

Am about to embark on season 4. This had better be really, really slashy to make up for *spoiler*, that's all I'm saying. *glares*

Spring has been late coming in New England, but after a few false starts, it is porch weather again! I've been able to sit out on the porch morning and evening for the last three days. (Porch gets morning sun, so the first stage of porch weather is being able to go out when there's full sun warming it up -- being warm enough in the afternoon/evening when the porch is in full shade is the next step. Right now it's 81 degrees. Woo hoo!

I seriously spend my entire winter waiting for this day to come, so I'm happy right now.

I last waxed lyrical about the porch in this space back in August 2006... post links to some pictures, for the curious.

(No way! The truck with the annoying ice cream music just came down the street. Now I know it's almost summer.)

I'm thinking of making a run to Boston later this afternoon to pick up my latest issue of BeBoy. I'd rather go to New York, but darn it, I don't really have enough on my shopping list to justify the extra expense.

Wow, has it really been almost a MONTH since I posted anything? Posting tonight not because I particularly have anything to say, but because I feel like I have to start somewhere.

Spring break has come and gone at school (I managed to get a little bit caught up on my to-do list, not nearly as much as I wanted), but there's no sign of spring here in New England. We've had a number of sunny days that look pretty from inside, but the temperatures have barely gotten above 40, let alone 50. Cold affects me almost as much as lack of sunlight does, so the ongoing effects of winter depression have made me practically narcoleptic. Seriously, the sleeping is out of control. I can routinely take naps of 3-5 hours every day that I'm not working, and that's on top of 7-10 hours of sleep a night. I lay down on the couch with a book after lunch today and woke up at 5 pm. It's hard to get much done when all my body wants to do is be unconscious.

On the upside, it appears I spend less money when I'm unconscious. The budget is limping along.

Hmm, what else? I've taken to practicing kanji with flashcards during commercials when I watch Law & Order, which has resulted in a major jump in kanji productivity. Up to over 1300 kanji now. (With my Greek flashcards, once upon a time, the TV program of choice was ST:TNG. My language learning moves by television cycles.)

I installed a gutter downspout diverter, and my basement hasn't flooded in nearly a week! Then again, it hasn't rained much this week. My joy may be premature.

I gave up reading BL for Lent. It was an interesting experiment. I found I devoted a bit more time to actual Japanese language study when I didn't have the excuse of just picking up a manga for "practice." I was glad when Easter came though. Maybe I can get back to doing some manga reports now.

Hmm, it's past seven pm... my body announces that this means it's time to wash up the dishes, change into pajamas, and crawl into bed to watch Law & Order (flashcard enhanced). Another productive weekend! /feeble yay.

Aren't you glad I haven't been posting more often?

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. I plugged the last sixth grade batch into Stackz and learned them over the last few days.

The last batch went startlingly fast, because I gathered up flashcards for all the last of the sixth grade kanji and spent an evening flipping through them while watching TV, and before I knew it, I had most of them down. Truthfully, most of these were kanji I'd been seeing in my reading for ages, and just never got around to officially learning. Still, I think it's the first time I've ever learned 40-odd kanji in one sitting.

Now begins the long, dreadful slog which is Kanji Marked Level 8 (i.e. general use beyond elementary). I've already started listing the next batch to learn... alas, these do not look nearly so familiar as that last sixth grade batch did.

Kanji currently known according to Stackz: 1223. Only 800-odd to go. Hoo boy.

(Let's not talk about how long it's taken me to learn the last 200 or so, OK?)

Hmm, I vowed I was going to be better about posting about things other than Phoenix Wright, but the days keep getting away from me. I really hate February. At least, I'm determined to blame February for the fact that I keep coming home from work and going to bed at seven, because any other explanation just boils down to me being pathetic.

Random thoughts on random topics:

( Boston, Be-Boy and Bukiyou na Silent )

( Phoenix Wright report )

( Kanji? What kanji? )

( I blame Flylady for this )

Now, do I practice kanji flashcards, or play some more Phoenix Wright? Hmmm...

Apparently, I'm on track to do these cases at the rate of one a WEEK instead of one a day. *sob*

Spoiler alert: I have SO MUCH LOVE for the osananajimi storyline of this chapter. Those who haven't played the game (yet), beware! Spoilers lurk within.

( Mitsurugiiiiiii... )

I'm not even sure when I'll get the next one done, because... arrgh. Those of you who have played, remember how annoying the lunch lady and the patrolman who thinks he's a cowboy are? (Well, they annoyed the living heck out of me, anyway.) In Japanese, they're a million times worse. I can't understand a word they're saying, and when I play through the same segment in English to try to figure it out, it's apparent to me from the little I do understand that the English translation is totally changing whatever it was they originally said. *sigh* I'm afraid I'm going to have to play through the whole game with dictionary in hand just to figure out what's going on. Stay tuned.

Day 3 was supposed to be Monday...? Uh, yeah. I finished it last night.

Between the samurai jokes and the fanboy jokes, doing this one in Japanese killed me, but I found a lot of interesting stuff (interesting to me, that is. And maybe, like, 1/2 other person in the universe). So, this is long.

Without further ado!

( PW 1.3: The Warrior of Little Edo )

7:41 PM: The exact moment at which I decide that two and a half straight hours of no one actually knowing who won the Super Tuesday primaries, but talking non-stop about it nevertheless, was ENOUGH. Even if they are moderately smart NPR commentators. (My heart sank when they came on at 7 and said "We'll be with you for the next nine (!!&!) hours.")

It's day 4 of the Phoenix Wright challenge, and already I'm hopelessly behind. I'm only maybe 1/3 of the way through chapter 3. Playing Japanese just takes way too much time. Oh well, I'll take wednesday_10_00's advice, and just work through it at my own pace. I have too many stressful items on my to-do list to be stressing out over a game.

PS THANK YOU to everyone who commented with suggestions for video games to play! I definitely intend to store those suggestions up for when I've played through what I have on hand.

This one took a LOT longer to play through. Trying to do this in Japanese and English is going to be a killer. Still, I will gambare!

( Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Chapter 2 )

In response to the challenge on gyakuten_saiban, I'm going to try to play all the games through in Japanese and English, blogging about the differences as I go. All entries will be public, so people can visit from the PW community if they want.

I'll quote a lot of things in Japanese, but I'll try to transliterate and explain for the benefit of my friends (and maybe outside readers) who don't speak Japanese. If you're a non-Japanese reader keeping up with this, comment once in a while and let me know... otherwise I might get lazy, since it seems silly to explain everything to my friends who are fluent in Japanese but have only played the game in English (or not at all).

I'll try to avoid or spoiler-tag protect significant spoilers, like things that give away the solution to the case or reveal major background spoilers on the characters, but eventually it'll be impossible to avoid talking in detail about spoilery stuff. If you haven't played the game yet, click on cut tags with caution.

To new readers: if you've played past the middle of PW2, do me a favor and protect me from major spoilers for the end of games 2 and 3? I know a lot of spoilers because I can't seem to stay away from fan groups and fan fiction, but I'd rather not know any more than I already do. I'm hoping to get closer to the end of PW3 in the next few weeks, but I play really slowly when I'm going through a game for the first time.

On with the blog!

Today's case is Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Chapter 1. ( Er, were these questions supposed to be HARD? )

Well, playing through that one in an evening wasn't too hard... let's see how the next few chapters go!

For the record -- I KNEW it was a bad idea to get into video gaming. ^_~

I mentioned earlier that my obsession with Phoenix Wright (the first real "game," not counting kanji games, that I've enjoyed playing since... Myst? In 1995? And the last one before that was Rogue in 1988, and Zork in 1983...) finally prompted me to do what I've been thinking about doing for a long time, and buy a PS2. Since then I've been feeling the steady pull of all these games I've been ignoring for years because I didn't see any way to dip my foot in without committing more money than I was willing to spend.

So far I only own a Nintendo DS and a PS2, but I'm really tempted to get a GameCube so I can play Zelda. (I just don't see spending the money on a Wii, yet, and they're a pain to find anyway.) ( Is that a giant sucking sound I hear? )

So, gamers on my list, hit me. What games should I be playing (someday, maybe, when I finish Phoenix Wright and FFVII)? I want to play the Zelda games, especially Ocarina of Time. I'd like to give Super Mario Bros another shot (I gave up on it back when I had a Nintendo GBA and couldn't see the non-backlit screen for crap). I'll probably get some old arcade games at some point (ah, Ms. PacMan and Galaga). Generally speaking, I like adventure and puzzle-solving games and dislike first person shooter or fighting games, though I haven't played that many games overall, so who knows? I FEAR the life-sucking power of WoW, so I'm staying away from that for now. I don't think my manga backlog would ever recover if I went down that road.

Recommendations for Japanese-only games also welcome (I have SwapMagic for the PS2, and of course the DS is cross platform). Playing PW in Japanese is really helping my Japanese quite a lot.

Speaking of Phoenix Wright, I'm going to try to tackle the challenge posted on gyakuten_saiban: play through all three Phoenix Wright games between today and 2/19, when the English version of PW4 is due to ship. I don't know how long I can keep it up, but I'm going to try to play in Japanese and English and blog about the differences between the two.

Peevish aside: I am so DONE with jet lag. I'm getting almost-normal amounts of sleep now (waking up too early, is all), but my brain is mush and the simplest tasks overwhelm me. I have stuff to do, darn it.</peevish>

I started on the Comiket post, but it's turning into a monster. I need to edit it a bit and maybe add some more pictures when my brain is working again. In the meantime, I will report on one of the few things my jet-lag-addled brain seems to be able to handle: playing Phoenix Wright 24/7.

( OBJECTION! This game is sucking my brain! )

Speaking of the stupid puns, the humor and cultural references make the game a bit of a challenge to translate, and Capcom has done a really impressive job, in spite of the occasional lame joke (well, the original was pretty lame, in most cases), typo or translation error. At its best, the rendering of the humor of the original into an American idiom is inspired. It reminds me of the utterly hilarious dubs of Shinesman. ("I think she's one OAV short of a series.")

( Non-spoilery PW quotelist, or, BAILIFF!! Bring in the parrot! )

But this one has to be the best quote (it took me a couple of re-reads to get the joke):

( No, Maya, that is SPARDA. )

I thought it was interesting that all the reviews I've seen of the game explicitly mention its similarity to the old Zork text adventures, which were always my favorite type of game, too. I really hope the success of this game means there'll be more of the same coming from Nintendo soon.

Edgeworth: Objection! Verily...I say. Ergo!

Back in CT! Actually I've been back since Sunday, but couldn't work up the energy to post. I have about two good hours every morning; after that I'm completely shot. Nothing at all gets done after lunch. Right now? It's 9 am.

Since coming back I've been working on unpacking, sorting through mail, making sure I'm caught up on financial stuff, keeping appointments, etc. At some point I have to revise/write my syllabi for the beginning of classes next week. I really, really hope I'm feeling a lot better before then.

In the meantime, here is the long-delayed picture of the main bulk of the scary haul. It includes books, magazines, doujinshi and other media like CDs and DS games, but not the cute goods (I need to summon a whole new batch of energy to upload the next batch of photos).

This photo was taken down in DC. I don't know how soon I'll be able to actually unpack this lot in CT... I need to reorganize my whole shelving system. In the meantime, they're boxed up in six boxes neatly labeled things like "Aqua-Dear+". Hopefully I can find things when I want to read them.

The picture is a medium size thumbnail, but to see the full horror, click, click and click again. 0_0

Japan 2008 haul

Soon, I hope, I will manage more catching up -- some trip reportage (maybe?), manga reports, and the sad tale of my Phoenix Wright addiction. I blame reppu.

ETA: pictures of goods now in the gallery. It's the same goods pictured from two different views. I really ought to do a picture-by-picture show of the cute stuff, but argh... see jet leg, above.

... 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. The short version: I had a great time, all my manga made it home without destroying any suitcases (yay!), and I'm already mentally forming shopping lists for next time. Best uninterrupted twelve-day shopping orgy EVER, in spite of rampaging illness that laid low one of our party after another.

I'm taking pictures of the haul now, and will upload them when some of my brain cells regenerate. (I got three hours of sleep last night, which was three more hours than I was expecting. Then I took a nap this afternoon, which may prove to have been a Serious Mistake. I didn't mean to fall asleep when I crawled into bed and pulled the covers over my head.) My parents can't believe I got all this stuff into three suitcases and a backpack. Neither can I.

If I missed anything on LJ in the last two weeks, please forgive. I managed to check my email for emergency messages a couple of times but nothing more, no LJ reading, no chance to log into an account I could send messages from. My email inbox is a bottomless pit of horror. I'm trying to catch up a bit at a time.

I hope all my travel-mates spacealien_vamp, wednesday_10_00 and mangaroo made it home safely and well and are even now tucking their tired manga into the bookshelves for some well-earned rest. HUGS! I miss the manga pimping already!

Leaving for Japan today EEEEEEE! Back on Jan 8. (I am the worst blogger in the world. Did I even mention this upcoming trip in this space? I resolve to be a better blogger in 2008.)

Apologies in advance if I'm not responsive to email in the next couple of weeks. I may have intermittent email access, but possibly not until the New Year.

Hugs and a belated Merry Xmas to all. I am pretty organized in preparation for this trip, but not for anything else... I was writing recommendations (for students) at 11 pm on Christmas. 0__0

Happy New Year in advance!

Because I'm leaving for NY directly after work today, and I'm not finished packing, and I'm already running late... I am, of course, surfing the internet, came across this, and felt compelled to share.

As a bonus to certain persons on the flist, it's from a knitting blog... but has nothing whatsoever to do with knitting.

How long does it take YOU to get dressed in the morning?

http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2007/12/06/how_it_goes.html

Heh! OK, I admit it, I couldn't resist this meme.

I originally scored a 4 (The Romantic), but when I went back and clicked on the other answer that I was fifty-fifty on, I got a profile that I thought was much more on target... what do you guys think?

( Meme Spam Here )

So, the deadline for signing up for the JLPT is 8 pm eastern time tonight. That's three hours away.

I had just about decided not to sign up, since I haven't been studying hardly at all, but I'm having second thoughts.

I have really been slacking on studying -- I'm not even doing my daily kanji practice, except occasionally playing with the Nintendo for a few minutes. I think part of the reason I'm slacking is that I haven't been focusing on an exam goal. I really don't feel excited about the prospect of taking 2kyuu yet again, even if I could improve my performance (I was still only getting a C last time around). It would be more fun to sign up for 1kyuu, but I would fail. I mean, that's not a pessimistic statement; I would completely, utterly fail. I'd be filling out Christmas tree patterns on the answer sheet. I tried opening a practice test last night, and I couldn't answer a single question on the first page. And the kanji section is usually the EASY section for me.

OTOH, I'm afraid if I don't do anything, I will continue to slack and my Japanese will die on the vine.

The clock is ticking, folks. Poll time!

Poll #1066657 JLPT
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

What should I do?

(WTH... I have to vote in my own poll in order to be able to see the results without clicking through? OK, Other it is. Keep those votes coming!)

Oh man, I know I'm way overdue for a real update, and I hope to get to that soon, but this was too funny not to share right away.

I'm in the office this afternoon taking care of some administrative tasks and sorting through mail, and I started reading my student evaluations from the spring. You know, the forms that students fill out about what they liked and disliked about the course.

Most of it was as expected, but from one of the evaluations from the advanced Greek class:

Q. What was the most positive aspect of the way in which this instructor taught this course?
A. You weren't kidnapped by pirates.

To understand this, you have to realize that we were reading Acts (from the NT) and Chariton (ancient Greek novel), and pretty much every five pages, someone got carried off by pirates. We had pirate jokes going on all semester. I'm threatening to show both Pirates of the Caribbean and The Princess Bride to my ancient fictions class in the fall.

Some days, teaching is awesome.

Abandon all coherent syntax, ye who enter here. (The middle part is the worst.)

( KKM, Prologue (Part 2) )

Pardon me while I go back to scratching all the skin off my fingers. (The poison ivy seemed miraculously to fade from my arms after a couple of hot showers, but it seems to have reappeared in small patches all over my body, which is infinitely preferable to what I had two years ago, but is still an awful lot like being devoured by a horde of evil mosquitos. It no sooner stops itching in one spot than it pops up in another. I haven't had enough alcohol yet tonight. T_T)

KKM is back! Although CERTAIN mangaroos are falling behind... ^_~

I'm going to split the prologue up into two bits. (It was originally going to be three, but what was going to be the third bit turned out to be easier than I remembered.

The first bit mostly seems to make sense; let me know if I've made any mistakes, or not explained anything clearly enough. The second bit is where things get weird. (I thought I remembered the end being the worse, but it's actually the middle I really don't get -- next post!)

The prologue seems to be all Yuuri's mother speaking, but filtered through Yuuri's memory of what his mother always used to say to him growing up about how he got the name "Yuuri."

( KKM Vol 1, Prologue, Part 1 )