Mush, mush! Flog this blog back to life!
In May, I will be visiting Boston for my first ever Harry Potter conference. After years of following the fandom, I will be able to actively participate with actual people. I mean, they’re not real if you only email them. And thankfully, this May I will be able to prove that a good chunk of them are not just constructions of my imagination. Nifty!
And now, I’m just going to rattle off sentences that summarize the other things going on: Jimmy joined the army, he leaves on Thursday. I really wish I knew how to play the fiddle. My ass is being kicked five ways to Sunday over psycholinguistics. I apparently like real coconuts, though I still hate fake coconut. Open mic nights aren’t always as lame as I thought, though they are still kinda lame, if only because they alternately make you feel like a talentless idiot or morally superior (that is a direct result of the bad spoken-word poetry). I’ve been generally drinking and smoking too much, and am making a conscious effort to cut back.
I miss looking at fossils. Dollhouse is not as funny as Joss Whedon’s other shows, but since only two episodes have aired, I am reserving final judgement – I still love it. I really enjoy moderately priced wines, and I’m begining to hate beer more and more. I have had some fantastic meals over the past month a half; a result of living with people who actually enjoying cooking and know how to make new and interesting meals. Also, I’ve learned to use chopsticks without my hand cramping up. Its really quite fun. I have supernova 2 now, but don’t often play because none of the cool songs are unlocked yet. Yes, I know, thats circular. They will never get unlocked unless I play, but why bother when I can play Max 2?
I am less confident that I made the right choice this August, and often very much gloomy because of it. Mostly, I’m really tired a lot. I miss reading.
For the first time in much longer than I would like to admit, I went an entire day without a cigarette. It wasn’t actually that hard, and at the same time it was kinda excruciating. I figure that must mean I’m not just giving into anti-smoking peer pressure, but rather doing something that obviously needs to be done. I still don’t think I will quit, but smoking every day isn’t necessary.
There have been very few adventures of late. For this first time in my life I am extremely focused in my work (all three jobs) and I’ve come to the conclusion that being so focused is really lame. I’m kind of tired of it. And yet, there is very little I can change about that because I literally have nothing better to do. What happened? When did achieving my so-called life dreams get so tedious and insipid?
Oh right, I know exactly what happened.
I don’t know if its just me, but it seems like many half remembered classmates are just popping out of the woodwork and finding me through that nefarious tool, Facebook. Particularly junior high and high school mates. And frankly, these people are lucky if they are even half remembered, most of them I haven’t the foggiest idea who they are- though if i squint my eyes and turn my head slightly to the right, I can almost imagine that their names look familiar. Maybe?
It makes me feel guilty, because obviously these people remember me (I don’t think there are any strangers out there zealous enough in their desire to know me that they would research my background in order to chummy up with stories of Mr. Key and Ms. Clause. And if there are, well then, I think their hard work has earned them the right to a little stalking. But anway…). Somehow, in some way, I made some kind of lasting impression on these people. That, my memory is simply very sub par.
Anyway, the worst part of finding old classmates is when you realize that they are probably leading a more fulfilling life than you are. Or when they’re obviously healthier and happier (and skinnier) than you are. Thankfully, this hasn’t happened very often to me. Well, I mean, there’s a lot of people who ended up skinnier than me, but in general I am not embarrassed for people to see my profile and know that I live in Hawaii and that I am getting my Masters in Linguistics. Yeah, a few people ended up going to some cooler places than I did for school or other reasons. And yeah, a few people look very happily married and all. But man, I’m pretty glad I’m me. ‘Cause a lot more people went nowhere.
But I’m not only glad because of their misfortunes. I’m glad in general. I guess I’m where I should be.
I’ve known about RSS for a long time. In fact, I had several feeds Livebookmarked in Firefox. What I didn’t realize, is how much cooler and superawesome RSS feeds can be when you have a proper reader. Last night, in lieu of drinking at the bars, or enjoying a good soaking by the Hawaiian monsoons, I dicked around on the computer and found dozens of blogs, feeds, words of the day, and pointless time fillers that could all be aggregated into my RSS reader.
I now have even more ways to procrastinate my real work. Speaking of which… generally goin’ pretty well. I’m pretty exhausted by the whirlwind of it all, not to mention moving (by the way, don’t EVER decide to move right during finals. pretty damn dumb). And there is still much to do. But I’ll go do it later.
This is going to be an interesting holiday season. Many good things to look forward to. A depressing amount of work that needs to be done. Yes, I’m losing my motivation even as I type… so I am outta here.
I am no longer bored, but the things that are occupying my time are not very pleasant.
Today was a bitch. It whined, it groaned, it forced me to grab it by the wrist and drag it along down the aisles of cereal until we finally got to the checkout line. And then it begged me for a Hershey Bar. I got one, but I ate it all. None for you, October 20th! And finally it died the horrible painful death it deserved.
Yes, it is still technically October 20th for me right now. In fact, its only 9:00pm. But I have officially declared it over. Which means I will do nothing more demanding tonight except curl up with a cruddy fantasy novel, possibly have a cigarrette, possibly have a cup of tea. It’s 75 degrees out, and in Hawaii thats cold enough to warm yourself with tea.
A part of me would like to divulge the reasons why this day was so damn long, but most of me is just too tired at this point to care. And to write about it would mean to relive it again in my head, and no thank you bub. For those of you who (possibly) read this and (possibly) know to what I may be referring, rest assured that it was no single item of the day that made it sucky. School, Life, Activites, they all collided. And besides, day is over now. I could go watch some Buffy and eat some Popcorn.
But first, I’m going to pimp things that I like:
This movie looks suprisingly awesome. Giles is in it. How is that not a good thing? I sugest you check it out at: http://www.repo-opera.com/flash_home.html.
Days go by and I’ve reached a point where I’m like: uh…. now what? And since I don’t really have an answer, I distract myself with tv shows, video games, reading, and more time than I would like to admit spent on Facebook.
I’m not so sure I’m cut out for this graduate school shit. I mean, its not going to stop me, I’ve done plenty of stuff that I am not cut out for. And also, uh, too late now. But still, the end of days come and I’m kinda left feeling… purposeless. I felt this way a lot most of last year. I figured it was the symptoms of an uninteresting job, and that graduate school would be the cure. Well, guess I was wrong.
Not that I don’t love linguistics. I do. Well, love is a strong word, I really really like linguistics like bff style. I can tell because back in my undergrad days, I would spend 95% of class time doodling, making lists of books I wanted to read, or writing my own book in the third section of all of my three subject notebooks (At the end of the semester, I always would rip out the third section and keep it, throw the class notes away). But now, my third subject section remains crisp, clean and blank. It’s satisfying in a studious sort of way, but dissapointing in a “what happened to your creative soul?” kind of way (Ah, lets face it. I never had a creative soul. Its just more fun to pretend you do).
Still… emptiness reigns. Its snaggle-toothed maw mocking me.
Hi Sarah.
Guess what I just ate? I just ate octopus ink curry. It was black. It looked a lot tar, especially since it had cheese in it, and it apparently stained my teeth black as well. It tasted like… curry. Honestly, nothing special. Except, uh, octopus ink. Sarah, you would sat there and said multiple times “that looks like nasty shit.” Because boy oh, it did. Tasted pretty normal though. And now I can add the octopus ink curry badge onto my sash of reckless-food-tasting.
Because the wheather does not change, EVER, I’ve completely lost track of time. I get really confused on the month. I keep thinking its August. I was so confused that I complteley missed Bilbo and Frodo’s birthday, and I have it written on my calendar! I enjoy paying tribute to the Long Expected party, especially now that I’m in this novel and freaky enviroment. The mountains here are gorgeous. But they aren’t proper mountains. They’ve got crazy crap like bamboo, and geckos. And gorgeous little chirping tropical birds! I miss sparrows. Oh, and they are completely devoid of squirrels and rabitts, whilst wild house cats roam free. And the rain is a snivelling imitation of a full-blooded thunderstorm.
I’ve gotten a little off track here. I guess I meant that there is hardly anything, in my mind, more quintessentially autumn than September 22nd. And because I miss autumn, I wanted to relish the memory of September 22. But now I’ve gone and missed it. Bah!
God I love Buffy. I just finished watching Surprise, from Season 2. Yep, that’s the soul-losing sex episode. And while it wasn’t the very first episode I ever saw, its up there. I’m pretty sure Innocence was the third episode I ever saw, though I am not certain: the days when I did not know every detail of every episode of Buffy were long ago, and I can no longer recall orienting my life without it. Weird. It was only like 6 months ago, 7 at most.
Watching Buffy brings back warm fuzzy comforting memories of Oak Park. Sigh. Not that Hawaii isn’t great. Sure, they don’t know how to do rain properly here (it drizzles, or rather mists pleasantly, while the sun is still fully out and forty million rainbows spring out to mock you. Meanwhile Japanese girls run for the shade and whip out their umbrellas, huddled in fear of the moisture), but there are so many stars, even smack in the middle of Honolulu. And flowers on every tree. And funny chirpy finches. And mountains in the background!
Its weird how quickly you grow accustomed to seeing mountains around you. Weird for me anyway, since I’m Ms. O’ the Flat Flat lands of Illinois.
But I don’t laugh as much here. My roommates look askance when I tell them I’m going to “shit in their beds.” And whenever I say anything that can be interpreted as surprising, since they’re from California, I get a hearty response of “Shut Up!” which kind of offended me at first. Apparently it means something like “yeah, right” or “no way.” Downright unsettling though. I will. NEVER. say. that.
Do most people feel like this? Like people just don’t “get” them. Yeah yeah, culture shock. But honestly, I think its just lack of Gary, Sarah, and Hoople shock- which is quite different. Maybe I just got really bad luck with my roommates. The other linguistic grad students seem much much cooler, by far. Instead of looking bewildered and grossed out, they laugh when I tell them to suck my dick. Well some of them do, anyway.
I definitely seem to have both less and more time here. Heaps and heaps of time, that I whittle away downloading movies and tv shows (the subsequently watching said movies and tv shows) or dicking around on the internet, or reading, or writing, or grooming. And then I wonder why I have to stay up until 12:30 to finish analyzing grammatical relationships in Korean. I am both super motivated, and totally listless, depending on… hell I don’t know what it even depends on. Its a back and forth thing.
I think I must be stuck in some sort of mental time warp. Thus, Buffy watching! Ah Buffy, you soothe the confused soul.
hi sarah
Tokowaru ngā tamariki o Matt rāua ko Charie. Tokorima ngā tamariki wahine. Tokotoru ngā tamariki tane. Ko Matt taku matua. He pai te peta pikitia ki a ia. Ko Charie taku whaea. Kei te nēhi ia. Tokowhā aku tēina. Ko Randi rātou ko Aileen, ko Hannah, ko Sarah ngā aku tēina. He whāngai a Randi. Ko Hannah rāua ko Sarah he māhanga. Tokutoru aku tungāne. Ko Jimmy rātou ko Charlie, ko John Paul ngā aku tungāne. Kei te purei kēmu-rorohiko rātou a te Rāhoroi. Kāore ōku tuākana. Ko au te mātamua. Ko Jim rāua ko Charlie ngā tuākana o John Paul. Ko John Paul te potiki. He tauira mātou katoa. Ko Randi rāua ko Aileen he tauira ki te whare wānanga o Plattsburg, New York. Nō New York rātou.
Kei te noho aku tīpuna ki te kāinga. Ko David rāua ko Loretta ngā mātua a Matt. Ko Jim te matua o Charie. He pai te tuhituhi pukapuka ki a ia. Ko Shirley te whaea o Charie. Kei te pānui ana pukapuka.
Tēnā koutou, e hoa mā. Or more likely, Tēnā koe, Sarah, since I think she is probably the only person who checks this. Still even more likely is: tēnā au. Hello me.
Before I enrolled in Māori, or rather right after I enrolled, I did a thorough search for online materials, specifically podcasts, that could help me out. I came up with basically nil. I’m not sure if that’s a reflection on my web research skills, or if there is simply less available because its not a language in popular demand. Either way, I found nothing. Taku kaiako (My teacher), however, directed us to a few. Since wordpress includes excellent tagging and search engine optimizational features, I figure I’ll just tag the hell out of this entry in hopes that a wandering googler may find this.
So, if you are like me, and you enjoy learning random languages, here are some resources I have found for learning Māori:
Te Whanake – This seems to be the main place for online materials. You can find a lot here: an online (free) dictionary, podcasts, animations, and a forum for language learners. The podcasts (which are not in the iTunes store, but can easily be subscribed to through iTunes) and all of the materials are actually specific to their textbooks. Which means you can’t make much progress without using their books. Te Whanake seems to be the top place for Māori language learning resources, so if you’re at all serious about learning it (or if you are enrolled in a class) you probably are using these books and podcasts anyway.
He Kupo o te Rā - Word of the Day website allows you to subscribe through email or through RSS. There are also some basic grammar lessons as well, although there is no audio or visual materials. They provide some helpful tips on getting your keyboard set up type the macrons (e.g. ā, ē, ī, ō, ū) over vowels. They also provide a good set of links, one of which is:
Kōrero Māori - You can hear some good material on pronunciation and conversation. They also have some basic lessons, as well as a lot of cultural information such as myths, protocols, history and songs.
However, even with these sites, I was unable to find a regularly updated podcast like so many other languages have. A shame.
Kia ora, word wide web. Since I’ve begun with my Māori classes, I’ve decided to start typing up some thoughts on the learning process. Boring, yes. Unoriginal, aslo yes. Helpful, well it is for me anyway. The class itself has only three people in, including myself. This essentially means that I have my own (very expensive) private tutor. When I first found out it was just the three people, I felt shocked, curious, a little hungry, a little guilty, and then several other things. But mostly I was just thinking about how if I were still in undergrad, I would’ve HATED having only three people in a class. For one, I am a notorious skipper of classes, for another… I just didn’t care is much.
I actually want to learn Māori, though, and I want to learn it very well. I dont want to learn a couple words and then forget about it six weeks after I’m done with classes. I’ve been there, done that, with several other languages (Spanish, German, Hindi) and it just ends up being a waste of time and money. I want to get good enough that I could theoretically go over to New Zealand and teach it.
So the private tutelage is hugely cool thing for me. And if you can’t get an 4.0 in grad school, then you shouldn’t be in grad school. So they say.
Yeah, I’m in it. Or on it. Or there.
And its strange. Because I’m here, and not in Chicago. It’s really too early for me to posting about Hawaii. Classes have not even started. I haven’t even been here a week yet.
The rain is funny here. It mists.
