rat & I both woke up with headaches this morning...
It's raining outside, probably the barometric pressure is not helping our heads.
Wednesday sensei went over all the translations for us and most of us stayed a half-hour after class to get them all. We will have to translate 10 English statements to Japanese so we were desperate to get them. I wrote them all in romaji since it is quicker for me to write that way, and now I will need to convert everything to actual Japanese. We have been told the questions for the final will be taken from this translation study sheet (10 questions) and the particle study sheet (five questions).
Funny story from last night: I had sent both senseis some Japanese about what I will be doing this summer, hoping the sentence structure and words were correct. It is the last question on the oral quiz. I also attached some of my latest drawings (Serenade, Shelter, Things Happen, Surprise, Again).
Wednesday sensei pounced on me as soon as I got to class last night. He asked if I had done the artwork, and I said yes. He told me they were very good. Then he said his wife and daughter liked them a lot too. I thanked him. Then he said they had told him the subject matter was homosexual and he said it was not true. I blushed and told him that yes, it was shounen-ai. He looked at me, shook his head, laughed a little and said, they were right, again! I broke up, laughing. He continued, smiling, shaking his head again, saying they had told him that but he hadn't believed it, and commented once again about how the women had known and he hadn't known. Still blushing, I told him it was Gravitation. I was laughing so much I was bending over. The rest of the class looked at us so funny.
At break I told him I would email him information on the anime/manga if his wife and daughter were interested and he said yes, to do so.
EDIT ADDITION:
One thing I CAN say, while sensei was writing the sentences on the board in hiragana (with a little katakana and kanji thrown in) I WAS able to READ what he was writing. If anything, I do have that skill now. At times I may not know all the words but I can sound out the syllables.
I finished the oral quiz Tuesday except for one question, and it gave me a headache so badly I could not go on the the next phase of study I had planned for that night. Looks like I will have to do this in dribs and drabs, which means less overall study time.
I definitely will not be around much in the evenings this week/weekend, until this final exam is done with next Monday night. I have so much studying to do, and lots of homework to fill out and not enough time to do it.
I may pop out during a breather at work, but no guarantee. More deadlines have popped up for this week and it's going to be crazy.
I might be able to check things in the morning before work.
I got a 64 on the last quiz, as I suspected, and she gave everyone 20 points across the board. So I passed because of the curve.
I just spent two and a half hours in the language lab, attempting to transcribe the questions to the quiz into romaji so I can read them. wtf is that word? And that word? Ah hell....
Got part of the homework done tonight, after moving into the bedroom to do it - change 12 masu verbs to n desu verbs and change 14 mashita verbs to n desu verbs.
Still need to study the fucking verb chart.
Didn't get the website updated tonight, but very much enjoyed discussing plot elements for her next mega-fic installment with the amazing new Gravi writer, imayb1 over at gravi_muse_meet .
Joules and Lutra, I think you would like imayb1's work. She puts a lot of research into her work to get details down and she has kept the boys in character. Plus, she puts out a chapter a day! Reminds me of you, Joules!
If you are interested, I will point the way.
I must admit, I am quite chuffed my community is doing so well after such a short amount of time in existence.
Have to get up early tomorrow for the Saturday from hell.
Book Info
Two texts in one. One text, Remembering the Hiragana features a complete course on how to learn the Japanese syllabary in three hours of self-study. The other text, Remembering the Katakana, is designed for those who have learned to read and write the hiragana. Softcover.
I still have a headache, but it has slacked off some.
I left work at 1:30pm today because my headache was slamming me around.
So, no, I did not get to the language lab tonight... *sigh*
So Saturday morning I have to go to the Asian Heritage Festival at Northlake College and be a sponsor presence for the Anime Club for a few hours. Then I have to leave and go to the language lab back at Richland to start work on the oral exam.
I need to remember to take my club teeshirt home tomorrow so I can wear it Saturday.
I have also been officially signed on to be the anime club sponsor to go to A-Kon in June. I am one of two sponsors for the club. We are talking about having everything paid for, including the professional leave (getting off on Friday), to go to the con as the club sponsor. That's all well and good, but I have already paid for my ticket...
After talking about it to him, it looks like rat will take off a Saturday and use my pass Saturday and Sunday.
I need to check and see if the cell painting class is happening again this year. *checks* Yep, looks like it is happening. rat and I will definitely do that one again!
Looks like some of the Funimation voice actors will be around again this year. If you didn't already know it, Funimation is a local company here. After listening to one of their forums I have a better understanding as to why they mangle things.
Got an email from Monday sensei 10 minutes before I left for class. She has put together an ORAL makeup quiz. We have to go listen to a tape in the lab and write down the answers to the 19 questions in hiragana. She did say we will probably not know some of the words but she will be grading on listening comprehension ... Huh? If we don't know the words, how are we supposed to comprehend? Ah to hell with it.
So I will be in the lab for too many hours tomorrow night and Saturday. This means we will not be seeing our best friends this weekend, since I will concentrating, yet again on a buttload of Japanese homework and the quiz.
The quiz is due the day of the final exam. She only made four tapes so it will probably be a hysterical mass in the lab as two classes fight for the tapes.
Again, I will be relatively absent this weekend and next weekend because of the quiz and the final.
I have only gotten a few hours' sleep per night the past four or five nights. I am about to fall over.
Well, I failed the quiz, as did most of the class. What she told us to study, and what was on the quiz were two different things entirely.
I think she will be giving us a makeup quiz next week because not only did our class fumble it, the day class did as well.
*counts the days*
rat says I need to write this test issue up if a performance evaluation happens at the end of the semester.
Part of it is a different teaching style. It does not help our class is taught by two instructors, one on Monday and the other on Wednesday. They keep in contact about what to go over but still, it is two separate teaching styles, which is totally different from the usual instructor who had to take a sabatical because his father is dying. And it is difficult for the Monday instructor to remember what she told us and what she told the day class she meets MWF.
I like this semester's instructors, who are both Japanese. I would like to take a beginning class with them and see how THEY would teach a first semester class.
Japanese instructors teach differently than non-Japanese instructors. The regular instructor is French, believe it or not. He lived in Japan for a decade and teaches us the basics to get around in Japan, not the hard-core grammar the native Japanese instructors teach.
If I can make a 70, I have passed and I get my Continuing Education certificate. No, I am NOT taking this for credit! The course is taught concurrently with both credit and CE students in the same class. Our Multimedia classes are done the same way.
When I have it all nailed, I will retake the courses for credit and go for those "A" grades.
rat's training job is now giving them a half-day off on Some Fridays, so he is going to J's funeral. He said I did not need to come along. I don't know if he doesn't feel he needs my support, or if he feels the situation will freak me and doesn't want to put me through it, even if he really does want me there. Since C is wicca I am actually curious as to how the funeral will be conducted.
Joules - I am up to manga 7 and have found two explosions so far. One was deliberate to make some kind of potion and it really is more of a bang over a bunsen burner. Another is definitely an explosion, with blackened bodies and singed feathers. I will get you scans late next week, after the quiz.
You can see another S birthday pic at the oekaki site:
http://members.lycos.co.uk/darkestlynk/oekaki/index.php
I will be here Friday, but in and out this weekend. Gotta study hard for the Japanese quiz on Monday.
So I will be mostly quiet, popping out every once in a while, but I REALLY need to stay away from the computer and study.
rat will be going to the funeral of his best friend J tomorrow. I cannot get away from work to go since I will be taking Monday off to study.
J died of congestive heart failure. No one knew about it and he had not been to the doctor. Just last week, he and his wife C were in the mountains and C had J promise her he would not die before her (sound familiar?). He agreed.
It is hitting me more and more now. I don't know how C can deal with this.
Two weeks ago, the 18-year-old brother of one of my workers went in to get a grapefruit sized cancerous tumour under his arm removed. He did not survive the operation.
Talked to our best friends earlier this evening. His father died last week because of illness complications.
A few hours ago, rat got a phone call, saying his best friend from high school had a heart attack and died.
I am going to work on the gravi lj community some more before I reveal it. I need to do something creative right now.
Another quiz will occur next Monday, as predicted.
Sensei said, since everyone did so well on the true/false last time she will be doing it again, using the tape as reference material. So I will go to the lab and listen to it, plus watch it again this weekend at home (I check out a copy and make a copy of it for home). More particles, again. She considers 'kara' and 'made' (sp) particles, which I don't because they are not single syllables like ni, wa, de, etc. Oh well. Plus, only need to recognize three (!) new kanji verbs. I suspect she will throw in past kanji verbs like iku.
She thought the week after was the first week in May and the final week of classes but she skipped a week. She was happy, we were happy, one week of review before the final.
I did tell her how overwhelmed we felt about all the kanji we were getting and another student spoke up about how he thought having two teachers had actually made him feel like he learned less, which was a valid statement. Having two specific teaching styles and covering different things HAS been an interesting experience. I was able to talk about how adjunct faculty can only carry a certain load per semester, a class and a half in our area, and that's why our class had to be divided up the way it was. If they had been able to find a third Japanese teacher, or had been able to get an extra service contract approved (unlikely-then they would have had to pay full-time rates which they hate to do) it would have been different.
Sensei said the teaching style that was set for them to follow was different than how they would have taught it. In the Japanese style of teaching we probably would not have touched kanji for a while. We would be learning to speak, which is much easier than attempting to learn to write and read it. She thinks we are doing well, considering all we are trying to assimilate at once.
At one point she was talking about the masu form and saying it would not be heard on the street in general conversation. I piped up and said, 'At least we will be polite!' and she and the class laughed. Americans are considered rude, you know. Things are in the process of changing, since the younger generation of Japanese are so Internationally 'wired' into the world. Both senseis comment on how young people use words and phrases that would have never been considered being uttered when they were that age. And anime Japanese is another beast entirely.
Since the quiz will happen next Monday, I will not be going with rat to Abilene for the Paul Williams concert his parents invited us to on Saturday. I would lose a total of eight hours studying just in the drive alone because I cannot read in the car. It's about three and half hours one way to Abilene, a mere drop in the pan for a traveling Texan. Then, as rat said, I would be miserable the whole time, stressing about the quiz and how I was not being able to study for it because I would need to be 'social'. I hate being forced to be social. And his folks would find it utterly boring listening to me spout Japanese. rat's brother and sister-in-law may find it amusing for about five minutes. So rat will go alone, I will stay at home and we will keep in contact via cell throughout the day. I don't like him driving that alone because he could fall asleep at any time. My job is to keep him awake anyway, whenever we travel. So now that we have the cells (courtesy of my mother's husband because he doesn't want anyone to ever get stranded without a way to contact someone), rat calls me when he is feeling noddy and I talk to him. I guess I need to get him one of those ear pieces like I have so he doesn't have to hold the phone.
Scarborough was great last weekend, very cool (55), cloudy, quiet and no rain. We had to move to shelter sometimes when the breeze would blow through, but for the most part, we stayed warm. I had on many layers and rat was in shirtsleeves, as usual, the human oven that he is. We did not see our friends in the parade because many of them are court and were participating in the Easter service so they did not march. The joust was great. We cheered when the Queen of Scotland was announced (Janna) and when she easily saw us (hardly anyone was there) she waved so big I swear she almost fell out of the viewing box over the arena! Both Kate and Roy were in the lists fighting and Kate smiled big and dipped her flag at us when she rode by. We did not go backstage because we figured they were busy, since it was the first weekend. rat wants to wait and visit when my mother is with us.
We will be off to Scarborough in a few hours. There's a threat of rain and the high temp is supposed to be only 55. I must admit, we have NEVER been or done the faire with temps that low, so we are looking forward to it. I am going to bundle up and be happy. I love cool weather. For a fleeting second we considered wearing costumes but we nixed that idea pretty quickly.
Since it's damp, I doubt the joust will occur. Don't want the horses to slip and fall. We shall see. We will at least knock on the back stage door and see if we can visit with our jousting friends. If they are busy, we won't take up their time.
Definitely going to be looking for a thin silver guard ring today. I am really tired of having my diamond ring falling off my finger because I have lost weight.
The plan is to show up before the parade (1pm), find a good place to stand, wave and hug our friends marching by, grab a Rogue sandwich (rat's agenda for the day), then walk across to check out the joust (2pm). After the joust, we look for a ring at the jewelry places we usually frequent, then we go home.
It was SO fun talking with Talon Saturday. Got those creative juices flowing again, huh, sweetie? Any time you want to talk details about in-progress stories, you know where to find me!
Oh, THANKS for telling me about the translated Saiyuki, Talon! I picked it up last night and finished it this morning. A lot more boobies in the manga. rat hasn't seen it yet. When he does I probably will not see the manga for a while. He still hasn't returned Fake 1 and I think he has misplaced it somewhere. It would be a hoot if he left it at my folks house!
Didn't realize this weekend was the first weekend of Scarborough Faire. http://scarboroughrenfest.com/
Oops...
It used to begin the last weekend in April, but since the heat gets so bad after eight weeks, the first weekend has slowly moved to earlier in the month. I think this is the earliest yet.
Well, we had thought we would go the first day to say hello to everyone still doing the show, but since it is tomorrow it ain't gonna happen. rat needs to gather some funds and I definitely need to dye my roots. So we are going Sunday for a while. I don't know what time we will get there. Probably about 'death march' time so we can catch as many familiar faces at one time as possible. Then off to the early afternoon joust to see our jousting friends. Probably leave after that.
Gonna need to get most of the Japanese homework done on Saturday. rat brought home an anime parody called Puni Puni Poemy (looks like a magical girl parody) and Spirited Away. That's right, we haven't seen Spirited Away yet. I cannot get any real work done when I have to read subtitles.
Anyway, rat has dropped in the DVD so I am off. Oh look, you can get English with weird subtitles as an option with PPP. We may have to try that one later.
And I still bloody-ass tired...
Oh, Talon, I read over what you have of the latest chibi tale. Will be sending it back to you later this evening. I have a few tiny ideas for you to play around with.
Must be in my age group, must not beat me, must not run around on me, and must still be a great lover in bed! All applicants must apply in person.
On the second day of the ad she heard the doorbell ring. Much to her dismay, when she opened the door, there sat a man in a wheelchair. He had no arms or legs. She asked sarcastically, "You're not expecting me to consider you, are you? Just look at you-you have no legs!"
The old man smiled, "Therefore I will not run around on you!" She snorted, "You have no arms either!"
Again the old man smiled and said, "Nor will I beat you!" The old lady raised her eyebrows and gazed at him intensely. "Are you still great in bed?" she asked.
The old man smirked and said, "I rang the doorbell didn't I?"
I know, it's really Thursday, but I get the day off Friday and my exhausted body craves the extra sleep.
Got handed another sheet of kanji last night and was told to learn both the kunyobi and the onyobi. Gah, I memorize one thing for the next class and when they hand me something new my brain does a data dump of what I sweated over so I can fill my one and half brain cells with the new information.
Tonight I go to the language lab to get the second part of the video tape logged. This weekend I need to get the vocabulary of this chapter put onto flashcards, look up the kanji so I know the stroke order and make flashcards of those as well. Probably should add the ta form to my verb cards but I definitely need some creative time this long weekend.
Tallness? Me, the stumpy one?
Dry eyes? Sure - have had them for years. It's from being on antihistamines forever.
Extremely orange vomit? I thought I dreamed I ate Shu-chan's orange hoodie...
Yellow skin? I have always had sallow skin, so there!
The next round of the Fall 2004 schedule is due tomorrow, and what we got back is totally screwed. They completely left off all the online courses in both our section and the online section, they put some of the classes in different areas than ours, they left off some face-to-face courses and the intern classes are missing.
We were in a major panic for a while - it is due tomorrow (Tuesday) at 4:30pm - and it just cannot be checked over with a fine-toothed comb in that timeframe, especially since everyone will be busy with the Computer Arts Festival for the next two days. Also, the big boss will be out for two days because her spouse is having day surgery.
Finally, after being in mega-stress mode about it, I threw up my hands and said let's just not worry about getting it in on time. Surprisingly, everyone agreed immediately. So we will be late and no longer sweat it.
I still have to go to class tonight, in about 45 minutes, whoopie!
I have had, at the most, one hour of sleep. Don't know why, especially since I did not sleep in yesterday.
rat starts his month-long training for his new position. He has to go in five days a week, 8am-5pm. This means he will have weekends off for April and we will be able to go to the opening day of Scarborough together. Last year at this time he had no job.
Have to go to the doc for the one-month checkup on my lumps this morning. Yep, doc, the lumps are still there. Get to let go of another $30 for that visit.
Have to get timesheets done when I get to work.
Final prep for the Computer Arts Festival at the office today as well. Wonder what kind of entries we will get for the Flash competition this year. I know I will not be able to go to any events, either because the lab will be crazy or it will be quiet so I will stay in my office and get work done instead.
I actually entered the Flash contest in 2002, not expecting to win, of course, but just to do it for the hell of it. My piece is pretty lame compared to the others.
I am having to hold myself back from flaming the latest Gravi 'so-called' fanfic out at ff.net.
I want to tell these no-talents to stop writing because I want to throw up. The stuff is utter dreck. Crappy spelling, no punctuation, text-message speak spelling, author notes stuck at the end of sentences throughout, sucky grammar, not knowing when to capitalize words, stereo-typical and tired storylines - you name it, the crap is there.
The only thing that keeps me from doing it is the bad review I received for "Kokigami".
I reserve Friday's half-hour lunch for creativity now, not for Japanese. It helps keep my sanity.
I don't even bring the Japanese pile-o-shit with me. Today I brought the printout of the fic that will not end.
Sometimes I bring the craptop and watch some anime while eating.
Sometimes I have my drawing materials and do something.
It's only a half-hour, but it does help, especially since I go home on Fridays and start up on the Japanese again. Tonight I start making new flashcards.
I am still so utterly tired. Next week is the Computer Arts Festival so the lab will be hopping.
The drop and withdrawal dates for summer are screwed so I had to go look up every single one of the listings and write them down. I am in the process of compiling the list for the division assistant so these can be fixed prior to registration the following week.
Thanks: --> to Lia, my sensei, who has inspired me to draw again. I
wouldn't be doing this without your support, Domo Arigato!
--> to Talon, for sending me her fabulous fics, inspiring me with her writing to draw my first
illustration for a story and actually liking what I drew.
--> to Dasia, for her words of encouragement when drawing her original chara.
--> to Joules, a wonderful epic fic writer, for liking my art enough to want to post them with Talon's
and her own stories.
--> to Lutra, the other half of the epic team, for being so supportive.
--> to Jacque' & Becca Raddittzu, we met on eBay as bidder and sellers and now we are face-to-face
friends. You showed us the real DBZ with your fansubs. It's all your fault the house is full of
doujinshi! *LOL*
:: welcome to bakayaro onna's mindless ramblings, rants & raves :: 
