Freak Basketball Accident in Australia

A boy in Perth was playing basketball on a board mounted on a brick wall and as he slam dunked the wall collapsed on him and severed both his hands and his right foot. All the headlines I've seen say something along the lines of "Boy loses three limbs in basketball accident." I found this rather misleading. When I think of limbs, I think of arms and legs. They reattached his hands and feet and he is expected to recover fully. Crazy stuff.

Gambling - Flaming Pillars of Death - Beer Tasting?

Well the drinking evening on Sunday went quite well. The day started earlier than expected because we all forgot that today was the day to set back the clocks one hour. We went to a lounge near Flinders station and had a few jugs there before moving on to Robot Sushi. Upon discovering that RS is closed on Sundays, I suggested we go to Chinatown. I had a strong suspicion that even though it was Easter and most things were closed, Chinatown is always bumping. We found this very reasonably priced Chinese-run Italian place and we stayed there until around 9.

Next we went to the Crown Casino. I couldn't find any blackjack tables with a minimum under $25, so I figured I'd better win 50 bucks or so before trying my hand there. I was up $27 before the others wanted to leave. It was good to stop at that point anyways. I got my drinking money for the evening back. I think I may head back there soon however. I got the itch.

As we left Crown, along the Yarra river (outside the casino) there are these pillars every 25 meters or so. They began eruptuing huge balls of flame in sequence at first, but then they would do it seemingly at random so you wouldn't know which one was going to shoot next. I don't know how often they do it, but it was pretty cool.

There is some major problems with the internet at IH lately. It is driving me crazy as I have lots of work I can't do. It just came after having been down for five days or. Ridiculous. This stuff doesn't even happen in Thailand.

Passive Speakin's in Japanese

Speaking in the passive - All passives conjugate into the into the dictionary form as group 2 verbs. 書かれる、かかれて、かかれない。

Group 1 かかれます (kakaremasu)

Group 2 ほめられます　(homeraremasu)

Group 3 されます　(saremasu)
　　　　　こられます (koraremasu)

Passive form is when the verb is done TO the subject rather than BY the subject. Consider the following:

1. My friend broke my ipod.
友達が僕のIpodを壊しました。
{tomodachi ga boku no Ipod wo kowashimashita.}

2. I had my ipod broken by my brother.
僕は友達にIpodを壊されました。
{boku ha tomodachi ni Ipod wo kowasaremashita.}

In the first sentence,

-friend[subject] myIpod broke-

whereas in the second sentence,

-me[subject] に [ni - particle to show direction] =
-to me[subject] friend [did the action of] broke myIpod

As there are always exceptions to any grammatical structure I suppose it is rather important to note that you shouldn't use this form if someone offers a gift-like action to you (the subject). In such cases you should use the ～て　もらいます　form.
ิ

僕は友達にIpodを修理してもらいました。
I had my Ipod repaired by my brother.
{boku ha tomodachi ni Ipod wo shuuri shite moraimashita.}　

As always, I suggest you work out some sentences that amuse your, or pick them up from alc.co.jp like I usually do and memorize them to help you solidify the pattern in your head. Nobody needs to memorize grammar anyways. However, its good to read it over on occasion so you have some clue as to why things are set up the way they are.

私は怪物に足首を噛まれました。
I had my ankle bitten by the monster.
{watashi ha kaibutsu ni ashikubi wo kamaremashita.}

Next time, I will go into considerably more useful passive patterns.

お酒は米から造られます。
Sake is made from rice.
{o sake ha kome kara tsukuraremasu.}

Wine Be Good

Well, I think we went through 6 bottles or and plenty of food. 3 Japanese, 3 Korean, 2 Australian and myself. It was a lot of fun and we had lots of good discussions. Tomorrow is beer-tasting night!! Also, we are hoping to find a reasonably priced karaoke joint as I've been itchin to sing lately.

Thats all for tonight I'm afraid. Jo, as always thanks for the encouraging message. I feel much better today. Life goes on as usual.

Wine Tasting - Cambodian Revenge Model

My housemates have left on their vacations. Its nice to have the house to myself for a bit. I'm going into the city today for a wine tasting.

Last night I watched the Killing Fields, which I had had never seen before. It was an interesting movie about the genocide that took place in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 in which 20% of the Cambodian population perished. Watching it made me think about some of the research I did last semester for my Foundations of SE Asian Culture class. We spent a while on Cambodia and read some things that implied that this genocide was brought about by the Khmer Rouge (a rather small political party that incited the rural peoples to slaughter the urbanites). It is theorized that they incited a "class grudge" based on a cultural model of disproportionate revenge. Rather than explain what thats about, I think the famous tale of Tum Teav sums it up quite nicely. As I don't have the time to go into that right now, you can search for it online or I'll tell you later! Time for wine.

Despair

Today was a bad day. I am depressed. The real official kind. The kind that doesn't make any sense in my head. Sure there are some things that might bum me out a bit, but the way I feel about them is magnified beyond anything I can fathom when its not there. My stomach slips, my body tightens up, I feel so empty. Despair is on the right track, but its not strong enough to describe how I feel tonight. I drank a couple glasses of wine and one beer. I suspect that contributed for the worse this time. I've been having an increasing number of anxiety attacks since I ran out of Zoloft. It was ok for a little while, but I'm feeling pretty screwed now. I've asked a number of people to send me some, but I no longer believe that will happen. One of the big issues is how unreliable almost everyone I encounter in my life is. I am so protective of who I trust and who I offer any respect because I must be. People don't think like I do and I am also at least partially aware that my expectations of people are a bit high. But I can't help this. I try so hard, but I always lose. If I tell someone I'm going to do something, I must do it because if I don't it will eat away at me. Sometimes of course, I promise to do something thinking I can best my anxiety and it doesn't work out. In these cases I feel like scum and don't know how to explain myself to the promisee.

When I first left the States, I had an idea that I would be forgotten on some level. Even though I was loved and accepted in that particular scene of my life, once you step out of the picture, you become just a fleeting memory to most. I know this, but I don't necessarily agree with it. I don't forget anybody. I'm not great at contacting people, but a lot of that is from anxiety. I do get around to contacting most of the people whom I should. One of the most important things in my existence is that I matter to others. I often despise this weak pattern of thought and wish I could rid myself of it. However, I also recognize it as an occasional strength. I don't give my trust easily.

I've been sick more than half of the time I've been here. Fatigued, fevers, headaches. I feel like I've been hit with an avalanche in the past 10 days or so. I am at a loss for what to do. I'm on vacation now. I try to study, but its much harder when I'm in this state of mind. Everyone goes away and I will hide in my room for most of the time. I don't even feel a loss at not travelling like everyone else because I KNOW that it would be more painful for me to put myself in any of those situations. So perhaps I'm not just hiding for my own sake, but for the sake of the handful of people here that I am fond of.

I could go on. I wish I could enlighten some of you as to what its like to be me. These are just words. If you've never had a mango and I try to describe it to you, at best you will have an abstract idea of what it tastes like. Ah well.

I hope someday in my lifetime we will achieve a better understanding of how the brain works. It can be such a curse sometimes. Its been so long since I've sunk this low. Help me.

Boring Update and New-Old Picture

Well I woke up at 7 am again today. I studied a bit and did some homework as well as watching 3 hours of The Sopranos. I got some stuff done, but I didn't feel like it was very productive. I did add in a bunch of new sentences in program for Indonesian.

There is an international club bbq or something at school tonight. I'm gonna go check it out, though I'm not a member. Also, this evening there is some sort of costume/kegger party at the International House. I don't know much about that, but we'll see what happens.

They might harrass me for putting up this picture, but I kind of like it. This was from that Mystery Bus Tour a while back.

Jada, me, Ayuu 

Stuff that Goes On

I've had a few days of bloggers-block, but I'm going to try to squeeze out a few sentences today.

First up, my doctors appointment was cancelled. I skipped two classes today so I could get things done before it and that turned out to be a bad idea. Apparantly, they called me numerous times and left me voice mails. I certainly didn't receive any voice mails else I probably wouldn't have shown up for the appointment. Right?

Being that I am sort of hooked on the idea of the free stuff now and I am also dying for a digital camera, I have decided to put a link up to one of the free camera offers I'm trying for also. Free Camera and of course while I'm at it, I should probably put up the free ipod shuffle link. As for the status on that one, I have 1 sign-up under me and three referrals so far. I need 3 sign ups.

I am drunk. There isn't any getting around it. I went outside to go to the gym for exercise and there was a crowd of people getting ready for the weekly Wed at Einstein's (campus bar) which is usually open until midnight on Wednesdays. It was fun. On the way there I saw a creature that I was unable to identify climb a tree not unlike a squirrel. But it was huge! I have absolutely no idea what it was, but it was bigger than a cat and its head was very small. Any suggestions? It moved like a squirrel, but I've never seen anything like it. Anyways, there was karaoke at the cmapus bar and I was quite tempted, but it didn't happen. The singers were really bad for the most part. We took a few pics when we got back, but since everyone is going away (I'm off of school for 13 days), I probably won't get a hold of those pictures anytime soon. I'll try though.

There is a guy from Norway here who has lent me an obscent amount of DVDs to tide me over during the break. I have in tow, the first 4 seasons of The Sopranos, 1 and 2 of The Simposons, 1 and 2 of The X-files (14 dvds), as well as the following movies: Donnie Darko, 28th Hour, Big Trouble in Little China (a classic!), Lolita, The Killing Fields, Blood Work, Rabbit Proof Fence, Akira, and The Bridge on the River Kwai. Also, Max Payne 1 and 2 and Medal of Honor. These should keep me busy for the holiday! Thanks Morton!!

I have a bunch of new pictures, but I'm too bombed to put them up along with any interesting comments. Tomorrow should work out better.

Free Ipod Shuffle Reminder - Movie Bash - Haircut - Langauge Stuff

First off, I will remind everyone about the fairly good chance of me getting a free ipod shuffle. I've had one sign-up already. That leaves two more. I'd appreciated if you guys would at least check out the offers to see if there isn't something you would at least consider signing up for to help me out. Not all of them require any cash.

I went to the city last night. It wasn't very fun and I don't see any reason to complain past that (surprised?). I've managed to spend $80 in two days and I haven't really done anything. Only $7 was for beer! I did get my first Australian haircut. When I got back from the mall, there were balloons everywhere as well as a big "congratulations" banner. I asked what it was about and it seems that one of my house mates, Dan, proposed to his girlfriend while they were away this weekend. Congratulations is in order as she said yes. I am very much out of the loop with the Americans here hehe. Ah well, they are missing out.

I saw Be Cool today. Being the sequel to Get Shorty, I guess I wasn't expecting very much. Thats probably for the best because it wasn't very good. It was one of those movies where you pay a bunch of famous people to hang out with each other and acting stupid for a month or two. Waste of money. Even more annoying than Oceans 12. It did have a few funny parts, but they weren't worth the pile of crap that they surfaced from.


fugacious - adjective:
-Lasting but a short time; fleeting.
Fugacious is derived from a Latin root, some of which you are likely familliar. The words it was used for in Latin relate to fleeing, or one who flees. In English we use fugitive and fugue (a musical 'flight')

I don't know where to apply for the job of "Wordator", but I think I could do better than fugacious. How about fugalicious? fugarific? fugatorium?

I may have found another Japanese club which involves pubs rather than a meeting room. I think this would be considerably more helpful considering my anxiety problems. Speaking of which, I was considering elaborating on the specifics of my condition. Would anybody be interested in this?

Ok, as most of you probably don't know, I use a program called V-Train for learning vocabulary and sentence structures. Basically, its flashcard software that gives you almost complete freedom in how you want to set it up while taking care of some of the more complicated aspects. It tracks the scheduling. All you gotta do is put in the cards. This is of course quite a bit of work in the beginning. If anyone gets interested in this and wants to use some of my flashcard decks, do let me know. I'd be happy to save you some work. In my decks, I have translation of sentences going both ways, kanji reading, writing, Thai spelling, romanized Chinese to Chinese charactars, German phrases, Indonesian, romanized Arabic (since I can't really type yet), and much more. I have about 1600 cards split among various decks with around 1200 of those considered 'learned' are very close to being learned. I've been kind of lazy about it lately, but tonight I put in a pile of Eng to Jap translations for me to learn. Heres a few examples of how I set it up.

I'll have a sentence on the left (visible) side of the card. Such as, "It looks cold outside." Then on the other side I'd have the Japanese (or whatever language) translation of this(外は寒そうです）. Usually I stick to the general idea or thought that I want to express rather than a literal translation. Sometimes I'll use literal words as hints for me to remember the format in the other language. I find this pattern very useful for helping me subconciously sort out the differences between intransitive and transitive verbs in Japanese. Rather than memorize both forms of all the words, I find it much more effective to learn them through use. And by forcing myself to learn how to translate them fairly quickly, once I've used it once or twice, it sticks without having to translate it again. This is one of my many language-learning tricks. Memorization is boring. And reading something than trying to use it in conversation is ninja-monkey difficult. The trick with this stuff is to just do it 5-10 minutes twice a day. And if your so stressed/tired/lazy/bored/whatever that you can't handle that(somedays I can't process information so well so I can't even last 5 min), 2-3 minutes twice a day will still take you far. Thats all I can go into for now. Jeez, if I had the time and money I would buy this damn software company and beef up their software so its perfect! I'd hire native speakers of both sexes so that you could record sound files spoken by native speakers to all the words and phrases (you can record sound files or add pictures as it stands now, but good luck trying to find native speakers of 8 languages who are willing to sit around and record 1600 words/phrases for you)into a delightful mix of learning. One of the problems I had with pimsleur is that its only one or two people speaking everything. If you had the same word/phrase recorded by 10 or so people and the particular voice you heard changed all the time, you'd never get attached to any particular accent or intonation (for some languages) and it would give you a better chance of absorbing the listening ability for a wider variety of situations. I think I'm getting a bit complicated and I don't want to make any of my posts too hard to read, so I will stop there. Or rather I will post a funny picture next to lighten things up. Good luck!


I'll never understand golf. 

Productivity is Good -- |<@$]-[ /\/\(){\}£¥ !! -- Japanese Stuff

Yes, cash money indeed. I've finally made a profit off my blog. Heres my current tally. I may need to hire some underlings to keep track of my finances.

Google Adsense
Date March 7th - March 18th
Page impressions 903
Clicks 7
Clickthrough rate 0.8%
Total Earnings $0.03

My Japanese group was decent enough yesterday. Not quite as much Japanese as I'd like, but its better than nothing! Afterwards I headed back and grabbed a few beers to drink on the way over to the Traffic Light party on campus. I didn't spend much money there and had a good time. I got fairly drunk and babbled on about anxiety and language study.

I woke up fairly early today and watched the rest of the first season of The Simpsons as well as 2 more episodes of The Sopranos while I studied. I covered everything, but Thai today so I might do a bit of Thai later.

Well, I was just invited to go out with a bunch of girls, so the Japanese lesson I had planned during my quiet evening in will need to be postponed. I really need to learn to say no to drinking or something. Ah well.

Kittens and Stuff

My Indonesian class is bothering me again. I took my first quiz yesterday. I don't understand how these people think they can test on things that aren't explained in our text book, nor were we every taught them. Now I have learned quite a bit of Indonesian, but I don't know any grammatical rules or sentence patterns beyond the exact ones we need to learn each week. The quiz wasn't that difficult, but it is online and this is pretty strange for me. I did alright, but I suppose I can't expect to get perfect scores on things I have never learned.

A friend of mine here made me an appointment with one of the doctors on campus. Hopefully I can get a prescription for some Zoloft so I don't have any problems when (if?) I get some sent to me.

I've watched the first 7 episodes of the Sopranos on dvd. Addictive stuff.

Japanese club is tonight. After that there is a Traffic Light party on campus. Your supposed to wear red if your single or something and green if you wanna score and yellow if you are somewhere in the middle. I think I will wear blue.

I realize I haven't been very good about language lessons lately. I have started writing the first Arabic lesson, but its turning out to be harder (see:slower) to type than I had hoped. I'll put it up when I can. In the meantime, here is some other language stuff for all you loyal fans.


รักษา -(rak-saa)-[rak is a high tone, while saa is pronounced with a rising tone] to keep, to look after (a sick person, a pet) to care for (as in the moral idea). I can't say I use this word very often in speech and its not so commonly spoken, but it is very important in writing.

คล่อง -(klawng)-[falling tone] agile, fluent (this is the word you want to hear in language compliments after you graduate from speaking "ชัด" (which means clearly). I've also read that it can be used to indicate freedom of movement or situation, but I can't say for sure if this is correct as I've never heard/read it in that context.

熟練した暗殺者　(jyuku_ren_shita) an-satsu-sha)
--a skilled assassin

熟 - implies a strong ability at ~~
練 - a skill or discipline

暗 - darkness
+
殺 - kill or murder
+
者 - person
=
暗殺者 - a person who kills in the dark!

C'mon people, its easy!


Certain jobs just aren't appropriate for the ninja monkeys.  

Free Crap -- Ipod Shuffle

Free Ipod Shuffle
Ok so if you know me, you know I'm a big fan of crap. Erm, I mean free crap anyways.
For quite a while now there have been a couple companies that offer you free stuff in exchange for signing up for various offers. Some of these offers are occasionally useful. I myself signed up for a 1-year membership to cheaptrips.com (a discount travel agent) this time because I was a member of them a few years back so I know they sometimes are useful for me. This membership cost $20 plus 15 shipping for the package. This deal is a bit more expensive then some of the rest. If you want to help me out and give this stuff a try then certainly search for a cheaper deal if it suits you.

So I obviously can't be sure if this stuff works, but according to these sites it does. And thats enough for me to give it a shot. I could really use some of this stuff and since the ipod shuffle requires the least amount of referral sign-ups (that I know of), I will give that one a shot. Again here is my link to a free ipod shuffle If you could be so kind as to do it through me so that I can get credit for it, I would be grateful. If it doesn't work its only three people whos trust I'll need to regain! The big (see:expensive) stuff takes more referrals. Hopefully we shall get to that stuff later.

Here are some reference articles for those of you who don't know/trust me! I'm not very familiar with the bottom three sites, but Wired is certainly legit.
Wired
NYU News
Boston.com
Geek

Sushi Jam -- Easter Break

Vegan Sushi 

I had a small sushi party last night. I was assisted by Tina on my right (German) and Nicole on my left (Mexican). I spent nearly two hours preparing and considerably longer rolling and eating. Various experimental ingredients were used: tofu, cucumber, eggplant, ginger, bean sprouts, apple, tomato, banana, baby corn, chilis, etc. It was very good and there is so much left over that I will need to have another sushi party tonight!

I have a week off for Easter which begins in two weeks. Most people are going away. I'm not sure if I will do anything. I've been invited for two road trips, one to Queensland and one to Brisbun, but I'm still undecided.

I borrowed the 1st season dvds of Sopranos and The Simpsons. I imagine this will help minimize study stress for the week.

Chinese class is still crap. I'm going to need to start typing Arabic right away, so I will start teaching the Alphabet tomorrow I imagine. I also have my first Indonesian quiz which I need to take by Friday. Hope I don't forget!

Ben Folds and REM in Melbourne !! -- Movie Marathon

Yes its true. I was very excited to discover that Ben Folds has a show in Melbourne next month. I was not so excited to discover that he is only doing one show and it is already sold out! I bet that bastard Ben Lee put him up to the old one-show trick! On an equally depressing note. REM is playing next month (also one show) and its slightly (read:completely) out of my price range. Crap.

I went into the city last night and went to some crappy lounge where I had to wait outside in a line to get in. It was rather lame. A posh-wanna-be nightclub thats full of a beat crowd. Also overpriced like everything else in this country.

I studied today while watching a number of movies: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Last Starfighter, Japanese Story. Afterwards a bunch of girls came over and we did Chinese caligraphy for a while. I also watched Finding Neverland this evening and I thought it was a really good movie.

Things have been rough for me the past few days. I've been having a good time to some extent, but I'm not in control enough of the time. It comes and goes. I haven't bought any beer in a few days and I don't know how long I can hold out. I will need something to cope with this. Coming here without planning a way to get Zoloft wasn't a terribly good idea. I'm stressing all the time about things that haven't seriously bothered me in months. I can't study as efficiently as I could two weeks ago. I fear I may be slipping. I am not sure what to do.

AAA - The Sound of Beer - Brett and the Chocolate Factory

So I had my first Australian anxiety attack last night. It was during the party. It was too crowded outside and there were around 100 or so people. Nobody was talking to me for all of 30 seconds and I started getting very uncomfortable. I went in and out a few times. I stayed in and made myself dinner. There wasn't really any options for me at the bbq. A few people were like "Oh, but theres salad." WTF? I don't want salad. Vegans don't live off of salads. Jeez. I ended up asking my roommate if I could tap into his bourbon to solve my worries. It certainly helped. After a couple b&cokes things picked up. I met a whole mess of really nice girls from Hong Kong who were of course dazzled by the handful of things I can say in Cantonese. I also met a Japanese girl who pleased me greatly by only speaking Japanese to me. After 3 or 4 drinks, Traci made me a rather strong Vodka and Orange which I had to down rather quickly so we could goto the campus bar for study abroad night. I was pretty blasted and drank a number of beers. It was mostly girls and I had a really good time. Sometimes its ok to drown your anxiety. But I really wish I had some ('ahem) Zoloft so I didn't have to! When I got back to the international house I went over to Rebecca's place for a while and she fed me some peanut butter and jelly. Haven't had one of those in eons. As I stumbled home out of there I came across a number of people outside. One girl was very drunk and rolling around on the picnic table. Meanwhile people were pouring beer all over her. In her eyes, ears, clothes, etc. It was funny, but kind of pitiful at the same time.

Today I went to the this "chocolate factory" in the city with my Japanese club and a few girls from the IH. It turned out to not be a factory at all, but a shop that sells choclate. Not terribly interesting as I don't eat such things. After that we went to a couple wine-tastings and had lunch before a bit of shopping. It was pretty fun and I made a few Korean friends.

There is a some sort of Vietnamese party going outside at the moment and I'd like to join, but I don't really know any of them. I'll get out there shortly.

Today's pic is of Andrew, Stephen, Dave and myself in London. My hair is getting kind of shaggy and I'm debating going back to the shaved style.

London 

What does go on? Barbecue Jam?

Yea so there is some barbecue on the compound tonight. There will be promotional videos being filmed so they can lure other unsuspecting foreigners into their evil clutches! I will be sure to use subterfuge to avoid the camera catching me enjoying myself.

I'm still sick it seems. Flu-like pains hit me again yesterday. Its been nearly two weeks. Will I ever shake this?

Yesterday I went and bought a ton of crap for making sushi. Got a few people together for vegetarian sushi night on Monday. I'm psyched!

I've made 3 cents so far from banner clicks. If some of you would be so kind to click the banners on occasion, perhaps someday I can afford to buy a digital camera! Then I could offer pictures related to what I babble about. Ah, what magical times that would bring. Thanks for your support!

Time to go eat, study and exercise! Here is todays picture. Please contain your excitement. Well it is kinda funny.


I got this from Rob a while back.  

ِ

What goes on?

Alright so I really can't stand having housemates. I also can't stand that everyone here calls housemates sharemates. It almost makes me feel less certain about my continuous agitated state which is at least partially due to the fact that I am the only person that has bought dish soap, toilet paper, paper towels, salt, pepper, garlic, and garbage bags. I'm not sure if its written somewhere that these things are supposed to be communal items or not and I certainly don't mind if they are, but perhaps we could communally pay for them or something? Blaargh!! Ants! Somebody isn't cleaning up after themselves. If I wasn't already crazy, these things would surely drive me insane!

Ok onto friendlier topics. I forced Kilian and Tina (Germans living within the compound) to watch Star Wars IV last night. I was appalled to discover that they had in fact never seen any of the original SW movies. What kind of deprived childhood they must have had growing up deep inside the rainforests of Germany. Next, I think they may need a burst of Indiana Jones! After I've reeducated them to my way of thinking (as far as necessary movies go), perhaps I will give them a few dabs of Yojimbo or something interesting. Finally, I'll release them back into the wild so they can spread there newfound knowledge and abilities.

As I am writing this post I am going back and forth with an email to Pop, the most recent target of my affections. Writing letters in other langauges is a rather time-consuming task for one as anxious as myself. It would also help if I could concentrate on one thing for more than 3 minutes. Although as far as studying multiple subjects goes, that works brilliantly! But it does really make it difficult to write an email to someone. I can't always express what I want to say and I either need to say something easier, or I need to take a shot at saying something wrong. While I recognize that making mistakes is commonly believed to be necessary in learning a language, I prefer not to make any. Well thats not entirely true. It might be more accurate to say that it is extremely difficult for me to allow myself to say anything with even the smallest chance of being wrong. [Where is my Zoooooloft Jenny!! Mwahaha.] Here is a moving letter I wrote to my Latvian love of ages past. Its page 1 of 2 mind you. If anybody really wants to see the rest, just leave a comment and I'll give you the next page.


Letter to Polina - Page 1 

Thats all of my ramblings for the moment. I think its almost time for me to start posting Arabic lessons. I will do it from the absolute basics (as soon as I can figure out how to type it) if anyone wants to learn how to read/write. It doesn't seem that difficult actually.

Polyglot Indeed -- Misc Picture Post - Gmail

What the hell were they doing? 

Perhaps I won't drop Indonesian after all. My tutorials for Arabic and Indo went quite well. I was worried about the time necessary to keep up, but pulled it off very smoothly. Chinese class was boring as hell. I sat next to this one guy who is fluent in Chinese and taking it for easy credits. On the other side of me was a Chinese-Indonesian who can read and write fairly well and speaks far better then I do. She seems pretty cool though. She was impressed with my Indonesian of course.

I suppose I can probably handle this workload. I put in my application for my work visa. Hopefully it won't take too long. I be needin 'da K@$4.

I don't know if its this way for everyone these days, but I have a seemingly unlimited supply of Gmail invites. If anybody needs an account just give me a holler.

Speaking of Indonesian, (well I was earlier) why don't I give you a run down of what I'm supposed to be able to use fluently tomorrow. Both sides of the following conversation. I have to be able to mix expressions/words with similar meanings and not just memorize the text. Here goes.

Ani - Selamat siang, Bu Indah. Mau ke mana?

Indah - Mau belanja. Ani juga belanja di sini?

Ani - Ya, rumah saya dekat sini.

Indah - Di mana?

Ani - Di Jalan Nuri. Dekat kantor pos. Rumah Ibu di mana, ya?

Indah - Ruma saya di Jalan Meltati. Dekat rumah Pak Budi.

Ani - O begitu... Permisi dulu, Bu. Saya mau ke rumah.

Indah - Mau ikut ke pasar?

Ani - Terima kasih, Bu. Saya mau ke rumah.

Indah - Mari. Sampai bertemu lagi.

Nice eh?

Langauge Woes - New Digs - Family Matters

My music class kicks ass. Its like honours kindergarten. Its nice to see teachers that actually know how to efficiently pass on information.

Well I have an hour and seven minutes until I have my first Indonesian tutorial. I haven't learning anything in class yet I am supposed to be fluent. The odds aren't so good. I'll let you know what happens.

As you can see there are some new things on the site. I put a search bar, feed link (so you can just subscribe to see when I update rather then waste your time checking manually) and a few text ads. I'm like to do some major renovations on the whole site layout by hand, but I don't know when/if I'll have time to do that. Please leave a comment if you feel the site is starting to get too cluttered or anything. Color suggestions are also welcomed.

On Somethingawful.com for March 7th, there was a post about Jamie Foxxworth, the youngest daughter from Family Matters who mysteriously vanished from the show after the fourth season. Seems she ended up in porn after that. Nice!

In related SA news, March 7ths Awful Link of the Day is to Minimac, some kid who draws comics. While the art isn't terribly impressive, I thought the most recent one was pretty funny. Watcha think??

What kind of country is this?

Along with Jada, one of the girls from Singapore, I waited for the bus today for nearly 45 minutes before giving up and returning home. I looked online and discovered that there aren't friggin buses on Sundays. During the week supermarkets all close by 5:30. I wonder how people with full time jobs ever find time to go shopping?

My workload is quite impressive. I've been at it every day and I'm still not ready for Indonesian. I think I'm ok for the rest, but I don't feel terribly strong in anything other than Chinese. We'll see how week 2 goes.

I got this cool composer software for music class so I shall being working on my first symphony today. I'm also shopping for keyboards as I need something to bang on in my free time. I only brought a harmonica.

Last night I watched Twister, SW Episode I (While most people despised J-J, I could never stand that kid and his horrible acting), and Ni Lev(Nine Lives), a 'famous' Norwegian movie about some soldier who has many brushes with death, blindness, amputation and insanity as he is helped on his way to safety. The problem with the plot is that you never have any clue why everybody is helping this guy and why it is so imporant that everybody risks their lives to help him. There are some scenes where the conversation might well have been where the Matrix got lots of its lines from ("Is he the one?", "What if he's not the one?", "We will risk everything because he must be the one.(even though we can't be sure)", etc. Well I guess it was the best Norwegian movie I've ever seen(or will see for that matter).

Swimming in an Endless Sea of Women

Well not really, but we did go to the beach and the female to male ratio was unlike anything I've ever seen outside of Sligo, Ireland. I was invited out to the city with a pre-game session at the beach beginning early last night. Myself and six girls went to Flinders station where I was informed where we had to meet up with a few other friends. Four more girls(denmarkians!, or Danish if you prefer). From there we bought some beer and got on the tram heading towards the beach. On the way there, the only girl at the International House that has managed to truly incur my ire was surprisingly less annoying then the last time I found myself trapped and forced to converse with her. We made it to the beach and this particular girl made a bit of a scene. But enough about pitiful people. We hung out on the beach and I told some of my stories to the seemingly eager crowd and I'm fairly sure I was entertaining. I told of the time when I lived in my car for a few months and became very good at picking up girls at bars and sleeping at their place(water with lemon?). I also told them a few of my more amusing run-ins with the law. Following this we went into this bar called the Espy. It was decent. I hung out for a while, but I didn't drink much more as I had already had my fill. The smoke began to get to me after a short while and I went outside with a couple people. After a bit I headed back to catch the last tram. I wasn't up for taking a cab and I'm glad I got out when I did. I woke up with a few packs of smokes stuck inside my face and lungs. It will take all day just to flush out the worst of it. Blech. Stop smoking all you bastards! You're killing me.

Today's unrelated picture:

Hamilton Applebees - A few days before I left the US. 

Vinyl Shuriken and TITS

So after another night of very little sleep and bizarre dreams I sit in front of my two evil computers offering you yet another wonderful episode of my incessant babbling. It is quite nice to get some of those crazy words outside of my head now and then. I thought I had to reduce my vocab to a humbler level in Thailand, but I am under the distinct impression that people in this country aren't much better off in that category. Although I impressed with how many Australians can speak non-European foreign languages.

As I sit here listening to Peter Gabriel and not working on mastering the conversations that I will need to be fluent in for Indonesian class by Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, I have been attempting to divert my nonproductive mood into a source of shame and amusement that may kick-start me later today. I have decided to put a Google PageRank Checker on my page. Basically you can compare my rank on a scale of 1-10 with any other page. Alright so its not that exciting.

I want - no rather I must attain the final book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Aptly titled The Dark Tower, this book has been out far to long for me not to have it. I saw it in a bookstore here for some obscene amount of money and had no trouble not buying it (I didn't have enough!). If only this dog-shaped rock had Amazon!!

暗殺　- (an-satsu) assassination - the first character means dark and the second means to kill. Nice 'eh?

満足する　- (man-zoku) to settle for (something) - man means to be full while zoku in this instance has to do with having enough of something.

理解する　－　(ri-kai suru) to figure out

恐ろしい　－　(oso-roshii) frightening

Languor

I am blasted. I just haven't slept much this week. I managed to fix my laptop after much pain. I haven't gone through anything this maddening since I camped out for around 40 hours to get my Journeyman's Boots in Everquest a number of years back. Of course this wait was considerably less rewarding. It turned out to be some stupid worm virus.

I went to the Japanese consulate today in the city. It was fairly interesting. They had lots of nice books, but sadly only teachers are allowed to borrow the language books. The two Japanese girls that study with me at Deakin joined me at the Japanese Club tonight. It was pretty fun.

Aside from being very tired, I've been sick since Monday. The smokers cough seems to have left me alone for a bit while my sinuses are a faucet of phlegm. I've gone through nearly the entire box of this crappy cold/flu medicine I bought two days ago and I haven't really gotten any better.

I made vegan sushi for the first time last night. I was a bit drunk and I sliced my finger open rather deep. The sushi was good though! I made it again today and it was much tastier without all the blood...

I'm considering dropping one of my classes as I am wondering if its even remotely possible for me to handle the workload of the classes here along with my other studies.

Just two days after I requested some improvements to the gym here and they bought all the things I suggested and fixed 1 of the three broken machines. Thats a good start I'd say.

Time for sleep I think. So much work to do tomorrow.

Class Report - Ill - Language Stuff

Had my first six-hour marathon of classes today. Starting off with one hour of Indonesian. There are cameras setup as the lecture is broadcasted to another campus closer to the ocean as well. There were many problems and interruptions. Hopefully that won't always happen. I didn't learn very much Indonesian today, but heres some basic stuff.

Good morning - Selamat pagi.
How are you? - Apa kabar?
Fine (lit. good news) - Kabar baik.
How (are you?)? - Bagaimana?
Fine - Baik-baik saja.
Where are you going? - Anda mau ke mana?

After Indonesia was my two-hour Arabic lecture. I liked the teacher there. He should be good. I learned a handful of Arabic characters and how to say a few things, but until I know the entire alphabet I won't attempt to type it.

Music class was pretty cool, but I think it will be too much work. I'm a bit too advanced for the lessons, but its kind of nice to have music theory explained to me. I've read quite a bit about it, but have never been formally taught music. The teacher is pretty interesting. Her instructional methods are somewhat similar to my own. I was impressed ;-).

The crappy part of today was that nobody turned on the AC in any of the classes and it was friggin hot! I was a sweaty mess by the time I got home. I think I also managed to come down with the flu. I'm cracked out on painkillers and cold medicine at the moment. Hopefully I'll feel better upon waking.

I'm dying for Zoloft people. Can somebody please send me some? My life is so much easier when I'm taking that stuff. I've been out for nearly 2 weeks and its like I fell into a ditch or something. Zooooloffft!