already wednesday bits

 

Three Worlds to Conquer, by Poul Anderson, 1964.  There is a pdf file of it floating around the internet for free - I found it by searching the words Aurora Space Traffic Control (which is a real thing) Moonship 17 and Jupiter Ganymede all inclusive words.  I have a real 60 year old copy of it that my cat was sitting on in a pile the other day and I told him No, by which he knocked that one to the floor and I said 'Oh, Poul Anderson?  Thanks for the recommendation!  I haven't read this one...'

I read a few chapters this morning, after I got back from town.

I didn't entirely fall off the wagon with Japanese - I just did a little bit of Spanish first.  I told Esme that I was in section 3 of Spanish, because she said she was in section 2.  Actually, I saw I'm in section 4... and I don't remember getting there.  So I did a few lessons in that this morning before the Japanese.

I went out and got the minimum groceries on the list, before the day heated up.  We were due for another scorcher today.  We should be okay for a bit, and I am waiting to see 1.) paycheck (the website that is supposed to show us barely ever works, so I just have to wait) 2.) still haven't heard about the little car from the mechanic, and I should send him a note to make sure he knows we're still interested.

The truck battery read 12.85 when I parked it today after getting the groceries from the nearest town.  I know that is within the range of averages I was posting yesterday - so I'm not worried about getting to work on Saturday, and Sunday, and Monday (packages for those two holidays).. but I will continue testing because it didn't come up 12.9 like I thought it should and it is still losing a lot of power on the hills.  I had taken the backup battery with me just in case, and after I unloaded the groceries, I brought it back into the house to keep it at a more stable temperature until I have to go out again.  Plus, it may rain on Friday, and the back of the truck topper leaks.

As I am putting the groceries away Daphne is sitting with her tail like this between the countertop/sink and she is facing the refrigerator (not shown) - and I had to trip around her several times.  She is pretty heavy, 75 lbs +, and when she 'parks' she is hard to get around especially with the straight out tail vulnerable in the walkway.  I saw a cartoon about cats lying right in the middle of the floor, so I drew a quick ten minute sketch just because.

I've played a little Stardew valley, and gotten through the green rain and built the chicken coop - I need to get back on doing a bit more of the Japanese routine now.  At least I haven't fallen over for a nap, yet.

(I need a list today)

Japanese routine :

Duolingo profile at level 20 : done

Clozemaster (Japanese then Chinese, 10 sentences each)  : done

BaltoSlav Japanese words and pictures : at least 25 cards up to ? : done

Babadum Japanese at least 50 cards :done to 75

Duolingo profile at level 11 : done + equal amount of Chinese

Spanish : Duolingo profile at level 23 : did 50 xp of this as well, just because I was discussing the parts of grammar that are still hard with Esme this morning.  She has her Spanish class beginning next semester.

I haven't done any French this week unless you count the game and seeing a thing here or there on the Internet.  It feels a little weird that the other language I dipped into was Spanish, instead.

 I made a version of 'Hong Kong Porkchop' yesterday, but next time we get some leftover actual meaty porkchop I will try it again 'for reals'. 

 I put the tomato and onion in the pan, then started the omelette on the side, and added brown jasmine rice that was precooked, and pulled pork barbeque that Mark had made last week to that, and then served it with the omelet.  

 the tomatoes had started to wrinkle, it was freeze or use time...

The actual recipe that I found that had all those same ingredients did minced cooked porkchop, cooked with tomato and onions and precooked rice and flavored with soy sauce into a sort of flat 'meatloaf', slathered with ketchup, and served with a sunny-side up fried egg on top.  The tastes were very similar, except I didn't do the soy sauce as I wasn't sure what Esme would think of that with the tomato.  She said she's willing to try it next time.

tuesday catch up study

Tuesday, and I do not have big plans.  But I want to catch up on my language lessons because I pretty much fell asleep early last night and slept most of the night - which doesn't happen too often.  But yesterday was a long day, on the end of three other active days.

I went ahead and did Clozemaster Japanese and Chinese in the morning, because I skipped them last night.  I make notes on several things, but I'm getting 7 or 8 out of 10 right on the Japanese, less on the Chinese, but the Chinese characters really inform my kanji learning.

I also did a full 50 xp on Duolingo at Japanese level 20.  I've finally reached that a few days ago and it is getting into new territory for me.  There are still a lot that I already know, but a few of the 'new words' are actually new words for me.

Did Baltoslav tools, words and pictures in Japanese, and paid attention to the kanji as well as the hiragana / katakana - trying to pronounce even words I don't know, and translate from the kanji as a help tool.  The kanji often gives clues to what the word will mean - if it has to do with plants, people, structures etc etc...  The little that I know of kanji is actually helpful with this.

'is that a brain or ground hamburger?'

'don't know, let's pour some coffee on it and see if it responds'

'simpler, do you want to study kanji today?'

'(*sobbing*)   OK, it's a brain'

 

Ate onigiri (rice balls) that were in the fridge from before the weekend.  Laundry, dishes, poking around a bit here and there returning again and again to meme stuff because that is what showed up in my feed and I needed a brain break to absorb what I had just learned. Drank much much coffee, talked with Mark for a good while.  I feel I have missed out on being nose-to-the-ground in studies before, high school, college.... tangled up feelings with what society wants me to study and know and what I actually want to learn and chase down.

Went ahead and listened to a few anime conversations in Japanese, because they came up in my feed.  Then found NHK Lessons on the Japanese broadcasting site through poking around looking for an empty N5 Kanji chart.  I have one somewhere, but I may have to erase all the answers on it and then come back later when I don't have them memorized.

I can do the level 11 Japanese on my phone after a bit.  I keep walking by it, thinking my phone is in my case on my desk - picking it up, finding it empty, and then saying I'll go to the charger and get my phone later.  Later comes, I've drank  more coffee, and walked right by it another three times.

Then I have babadum I can do for a bit, and decide if I want to slide into another language or pick up a few more Japanese lessons on DL or switch to Chinese there (L9 vs L6 on pc and phone). 

Later, when my brain has had enough, I'll let it slide into French by playing a few game-days on Stardew valley or taking a nap until it is time to make supper and feed animals.

//interesting note - I'm finding myself putting my fingers to my lips while looking at the balto-slav hiragana and trying to sound out the word - I'm not speaking, often, except in my head, but even when I take my finger away when I began thinking again about how the word sounds, it snaps right back there  

these little involuntary things are interesting to me... I have not found myself doing that with latvian or even russian(cyrillic writing)... but Japanese, I'm doing that

bit :

went out into the yard to check the chicken's water since it is supposed to be 101 degrees today... luckily, at this time of the season, the big cedar tree shades their water area in the afternoon - so they are all sitting in the shadow of that big tree, by their water dish, enjoying themselves  

We keep our air conditioning set at 87 - which keeps the basement of this half-underground house a little cooler than that, because of the concrete flooring and concrete in-ground walls.  I came in from outside and thought boy, the house, even the upstairs, is noticeably cooler than outside!  Check, and the weather site says this - 107 right now.  OK, that could explain that.  The dogs all wanted in from outside, but Loki cat says 'tscha' and is stretched out in the shade under the trees in the yard.  I saw Mama cat Minion and Lyffan earlier today but haven't seen them for a while - probably show up in another few hours from wherever they have been hiding in the shade.  Esme came home off the school bus and the driver had been posting how very hot like an oven the bus was.  Esme says 'really, it's THAT hot?  I really don't even notice the temperature.'  This she says while wearing a long-sleeve sweatshirt hoodie and jeans.  Which, she almost always does, even when it is 0 degrees I have a hard time getting her to put a coat on at the bus stop for that time we are up there.

anyway, recorded for posterity  I brought the backup battery in from the back of my truck, but will probably bring it with again when I get groceries.  It is at 12.5 volts, which it was a few days ago.  When the truck was having an issue and the light first came on, it was registering 11.9 and dropping.  Then the mechanic fixed a few things quickly, replaced a fuse and I'm not sure what the other thing was - but the running voltage went from 11.9 to 13.86, and now it is 14.2 while running.  So, it wasn't charging the battery, he replaced some small quick parts and now it is.  When I got home from that it was then at 13.1, and 13.0 the next day, but the warning light was still on.  The other day I stopped once on the way home and the regular truck battery was 12.9 when I got home.  Then the next day I didn't stop, and it was 12.99.  I stopped on the way to work for gas and tested when I parked it at the office and it was 13.1 after a very short drive (which is why I was worried, no time to charge it between the two).  I didn't test it this last time I parked it but so far I'm at a loss as to why that light is still on.

language clock

 

 

this is one of the things I do sometimes to get an idea of how I am using my time in languages, and spaced repetition (golden time, as they call it, in several language learning platforms)   Even before I really figured out what that was - I noticed I WAS using that method, of separating things out by 6, 12 or 24 hours  I really do much better spacing it out like that than trying to go all one language or in really large blocks - sometimes 5 to 10 minutes is enough to 'make my ears smoke' - especially in Spanish and Catalan, and other times I can work for a half hour or more and not feel overwhelmed

so when they say I could really be fluent if I focused on just one language?  No, I don't think so.. I think I'd get so overwhelmed and swimming with multiple things in the one language that I would stop and not go back to it for days - which, I do sometimes... but since I'm rotating through 10 to 15 languages, I'm never static or frustrated for very long - I just go to other content, and then bounce back when I feel I'm ready, whether that is 6 hours later, or three days, or even a few months  And other languages REALLY help me understand more - I was studying Romanian when I tried to learn Spanish, (and already A2 in French) and it was so VERY hard... and then I tried to learn some Portuguese, and bounced in a little Italian, and dove deep into Catalan, and then came back to Spanish and said 'Oh - there's MORE room for this, in the right places now, in my head - and it's not mixing with the French so badly I can't keep them separate'  That is definitely a synesthete thing

 

of course, languages isn't the only thing I do all day - although, looking at that clock, you'd wonder maybe?  I've gotten little girl off to school, worked driving postal route a few hours, came home and did some laundry, cooked dinner etc.. but this is a good example of how I smatter / scatter languages throughout the day and make progress over time, and this is three years into my 'goal' so it is not a passing fad.  I continue to recognize more and more in many foreign languages when I watch videos, television and movies.

I also did an audio test in French during that larger block, and came out with 80% recognition of the words.  I watched a children's video in Latvian, and did some more clozemaster in Bulgarian - all the rest was on my two Duolingo profiles (one mobile)

 

Catalan meses : Surface practice with sound, DuoLingo learning from Spanish

gener

febrero

març

abril

maig

juny

juliol 

agost

setembre

octubre

novembre

desembre

I'm in that 6:30 pm block right now doing Czech grammar on the whiteboard - mostly just writing down sentences from Duolingo for reinforcement of the grammar topics I know I'm weak on - then I can look at them all together

Languages

November 2023, vs July 2023, vs December 2022 

Since they initiated the hearts system on me I haven't been advancing very fast - but I know that Japanese has gone from level 10 to 'level 19' in that time, so their original system is not working there...

old crown numbers here because that is what I was keeping track in before they changed THAT system last year... to levels, and now they've changed it yet again to 'sections and units'  //roll eyes, just pick something and stick with it!

DuoLingo:

French           475 /  464  / 417

Welsh            376 /  370  / 360

Spanish         309 /  294  / 243

Czech           169 /   169  / 160

Romanian     149 /  149  / 144

Portuguese     111 / 111  / 89

Italian             91  /  91  / 83

Japanese       77 ??  /   77  / 65 (not right, I've advanced 9 levels)

Greek             74  /  72  / 61

German       80 /  79  / 60

Finnish       71 /   70  / 62

Norwegian   67 /   67  / 47

Swedish       43 /  43  / 43

Irish             51 / 51  /  51

Turkish         39 / 39  / 38

Catalan        38 /  34  / 23 * (learning via Spanish language)

Polish         30/    30  / 30

Hungarian    26 / 26  / 21

Ukrainian    19 /  19   / 0 (began April)

Guarani         7 / 6  / 0 (began April) * (learning via Spanish language)

Chinese         11 / 4  / 0 (began July)

 

external : Latvian, working on just a little of it here and there

Language geek

I did a few of these charts last year or more ago, just to see how often I return to the activities / switch the activities over the day and was just as surprised then how much I switch all through the day in almost spirals.  They say this 'spaced repetition' is all the rage, but I've been doing it for years.

Typical language geeking while off from post office today, did my Japanese Kanji reviews and a bit of DuoLingo in Japanese and Spanish first thing in the morning. I also took some time to browse and read hiragana and kanji and look up things on signs and advertisements and images that I could not read at first. I took some French tests, Japanese and Spanish review sessions and then played Stardew Valley for an hour in French... and a bit more here and there waiting for things over the day.  I was playing it in Japanese here and there, as well, a few weeks ago.

 

We took Esme out for her birthday dinner after school and also picked up the truck from the mechanic.  It still doesn't feel 100%, but we'll still have to see.  Then I finished the laundry and crashed when we got home, because it is cold and it felt like it had been a long day already.

 

As usual, when the animals wake me up in the night I spend a little time on some language waiting for them to cycle in and out of the house and getting ready to fall back asleep.  I don't do this on my phone, but at the computer desk.

 

Friday : a non-work day : it is now 1:45 am on Saturday (at update)

 

 

Saturday and Sunday will both be 'work' days... we'll see how that goes