I'm going to try blogging again.
My life really isn't that interesting, but I want to be a writer, and blogging could help me improve my writing.
I'm on Spring Break right now, and the semester's half complete, so I have plenty of time to write, study languages, listen to music, visit the www.how-to-learn-any-language.com forums, and do other stuff I like.
Oh, and I started going to the gym recently to lose weight. It's going well so far. I'm also using www.myfitnesspal.com, which is helping me manage my calorie intake and usage.
I dropped Medical Assisting in favor of Technical Communications, and I might graduate by the end of the year. I'm not suited to working in healthcare, at least not working directly with patients.
I have an interview for a customer service position with a publisher on Monday. I hope I get the job, because it would be a good way to earn money and kill some time.
I'm volunteering at Project Learn in the advanced ESL class on Thursday nights and at Mercy Medical Center in Canton on Friday mornings. I enjoy volunteering and hope I can do it for as long as possible.
Right now I'm studying Esperanto and Spanish. I'm using the correspondance courses on www.lernu.net to study Esperanto and because I want to learn how to read Spanish I'm using Karl Sandberg's "Spanish for Reading."
That's about all I have going on. Like I said, I'm not very interesting.
Showing posts with label extraneous BS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label extraneous BS. Show all posts
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Happy St. Patrick's Day
No, I'm not Irish, and I don't drink (because of medicine I'm taking), so the holiday really has no significance for me, but anyways, it may have significance for others, and I'm hoping the significance is in being Irish, not drinking green beer (not that there's anything wrong with that).
It reminds me of being back in French II class during my senior year of high school. Unfortunately we never changed seats, so I sat next to this racially mixed, loud-mouthed girl who was always playing the race card. One time she asked me if I liked her, I didn't say or do anything, and she took this to mean I didn't like her, and of course she attributed this to her being black, not to the fact that she always talked during class, had a sucky attitude, sucked at French, and I'm pretty sure was talking about the size of her boyfriend's penis a few days before she asked my whether I liked her or not.
Anyway, besides being black, she was also Irish. And on St. Patrick's Day everything about being black and how no one could judge her or understand her because of that was gone, and in its place she wore a "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" t-shirt.
Go figure.
It reminds me of being back in French II class during my senior year of high school. Unfortunately we never changed seats, so I sat next to this racially mixed, loud-mouthed girl who was always playing the race card. One time she asked me if I liked her, I didn't say or do anything, and she took this to mean I didn't like her, and of course she attributed this to her being black, not to the fact that she always talked during class, had a sucky attitude, sucked at French, and I'm pretty sure was talking about the size of her boyfriend's penis a few days before she asked my whether I liked her or not.
Anyway, besides being black, she was also Irish. And on St. Patrick's Day everything about being black and how no one could judge her or understand her because of that was gone, and in its place she wore a "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" t-shirt.
Go figure.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Uses for Rice
A friend of mine wanted help with a problem she had with her laptop.
She posted on FaceBook that her mother spilled coffee on it.
D'OH!
I was the first to respond, by suggesting what I had seen on YouTube: use a little rice to absorb the liquid.
Another of our mutual friends posted that her husband had dried out a phone that he dropped in a pool with rice and then put it on the heat register, and it was just fine.
Unfortunately, she had no rice, so she just used a hair dryer.
Probably a good move, since rice may have made it worse. Of course I wouldn't have though to use a hair dryer, since I haven't used one since I was a little kid when I took showers at 9 PM at night on Saturdays before church in the morning. Don't ask why I didn't take a shower earlier as a kid. It would have saved me from the humiliation of using my mom's hair dryer.
I just wish I were bald, then I could have tried to make a funny remark about not thinking about using a hair dryer.
She posted on FaceBook that her mother spilled coffee on it.
D'OH!
I was the first to respond, by suggesting what I had seen on YouTube: use a little rice to absorb the liquid.
Another of our mutual friends posted that her husband had dried out a phone that he dropped in a pool with rice and then put it on the heat register, and it was just fine.
Unfortunately, she had no rice, so she just used a hair dryer.
Probably a good move, since rice may have made it worse. Of course I wouldn't have though to use a hair dryer, since I haven't used one since I was a little kid when I took showers at 9 PM at night on Saturdays before church in the morning. Don't ask why I didn't take a shower earlier as a kid. It would have saved me from the humiliation of using my mom's hair dryer.
I just wish I were bald, then I could have tried to make a funny remark about not thinking about using a hair dryer.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
New Developments
I'm only taking one class in college this semester, Gerontology. I've decided to go for Medical Assisting instead of Physical Therapy Assisting or Occupational Therapy Assisting because there is a three year waiting period on those areas while with MA I can start this fall. So far I like the class, especially since we learn a little bit by doing instead of just reading the book and taking notes during lecture. I'm going to see what I'll be doing in the fall. I'm thinking about getting a certificate in dental assisting too since it could help my chances of employment, and it might be interesting, although I don't know if I have the manual dexterity to do the job. I'm pretty clumsy.
I'm going to start focusing on Spanish again. I found a great site that has tons of links to Spanish websites. It is the site of Jim Becker, a professor emeritus from the University of Northern Iowa. It is at http://www.uni.edu/becker/ and there are 13 other languages, so I guess the good professor was a language instructor, but I don't know how many of the 14 he taught and how many he merely knew.
I found a Spanish group that meets at the same Panera that the game group meets at. It meets at 11 in the morning on Saturdays, so when I get a job I should still be able to go to the meetings. Definitely a motivator.
More adventures in language wanderlust. I've decided that I want to study Spanish, French, German, and Italian. Italian caught my eye this week, and I don't think it would be any more difficult then Spanish. I tried the course on ikindalikelanguages and liked it, kind of like when I tried Afrikaans and Dutch on Christmas Eve. I've decided to let Dutch and Mandarin go for now, maybe I'll try them later. Needless to say, I can't study a bunch of languages at the same time. My puny brain can only handle one a day, and I know myself that I won't learn 8 or more languages during my lifetime. I want to focus on Spanish and German this year, with maybe a little French. Ugh, my poor brain is going to explode, even with a lot of free time this year.
I applied to Cedar Point, and since my brother knows someone in the food department, I might be working there. Definitely a step up from being cooped up in a warehouse all day, but not as good as having a supervisor rank, like my brother has.
Chez is back on YouTube. It appears he started uploading videos at 3 PM today, or earlier. I think I'm just going to leave him alone, although I thought about sending him a PM, since he friended me, but I really don't know what to say to him. If he's just after attention, that's probably the best thing for us both that I don't contact him. If he really is out to meet fellow language enthusiasts and doesn't know how to properly interact with people, I can accept that and maybe help him a little. All I was going to do was suggest he go on meetup and find a language group so he could find a language practice partner in real life instead of just interacting on the Internet. But I think I'm just going to let it go.
OK, till next time.
I'm going to start focusing on Spanish again. I found a great site that has tons of links to Spanish websites. It is the site of Jim Becker, a professor emeritus from the University of Northern Iowa. It is at http://www.uni.edu/becker/ and there are 13 other languages, so I guess the good professor was a language instructor, but I don't know how many of the 14 he taught and how many he merely knew.
I found a Spanish group that meets at the same Panera that the game group meets at. It meets at 11 in the morning on Saturdays, so when I get a job I should still be able to go to the meetings. Definitely a motivator.
More adventures in language wanderlust. I've decided that I want to study Spanish, French, German, and Italian. Italian caught my eye this week, and I don't think it would be any more difficult then Spanish. I tried the course on ikindalikelanguages and liked it, kind of like when I tried Afrikaans and Dutch on Christmas Eve. I've decided to let Dutch and Mandarin go for now, maybe I'll try them later. Needless to say, I can't study a bunch of languages at the same time. My puny brain can only handle one a day, and I know myself that I won't learn 8 or more languages during my lifetime. I want to focus on Spanish and German this year, with maybe a little French. Ugh, my poor brain is going to explode, even with a lot of free time this year.
I applied to Cedar Point, and since my brother knows someone in the food department, I might be working there. Definitely a step up from being cooped up in a warehouse all day, but not as good as having a supervisor rank, like my brother has.
Chez is back on YouTube. It appears he started uploading videos at 3 PM today, or earlier. I think I'm just going to leave him alone, although I thought about sending him a PM, since he friended me, but I really don't know what to say to him. If he's just after attention, that's probably the best thing for us both that I don't contact him. If he really is out to meet fellow language enthusiasts and doesn't know how to properly interact with people, I can accept that and maybe help him a little. All I was going to do was suggest he go on meetup and find a language group so he could find a language practice partner in real life instead of just interacting on the Internet. But I think I'm just going to let it go.
OK, till next time.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Chez Drama
First of all, I need to talk about the YouTube polyglot community. As you can see, there are a group of YouTubers who make videos of themselves on YouTube speaking foreign languages. Some of the more famous ones are Luca, Glossika, Laoshu, and Loki. Of course, there are many more. I am subscribed to all of these (although I rarely watch Luca's videos) and really enjoy there submissions. They all have the passion and commitment to learn multiple languages. I'm thinking about becoming part of this community in the future, although I will not show my face for fear of my appearance or weight being made fun of.
There is another YouTuber, NaomiChambers, who has a series titled "Anyone Can Be a Polyglot" in which she, a graduate of George Mason University with a degree in French Studies, encourages other people to try to learn a language, or even several languages. I also like her videos and tried to help her with new material for her blog when she asked on the HTLAL forum (her blog is thepolyglotexperience.blogspot.com) by suggesting she interact with two other bloggers who I like, pagef30.com & thejoyoflanguages.blogspot.com. Both bloggers deal with IALs (international auxiliary languages) although they are also learning or know natural languages. I think she liked the idea, since my post received a vote.
Enter chezrocksall. He's an 18-year-old autistic from Canada who claims to speak 59 languages and can learn a language in a day. Needless to say, I don't believe him, and think he exemplifies the worst parts of the YT polyglot community: that languages are incredibly easy and we should make videos trying to entertain others. Unfortunately, that is where the drama comes into play. Since he's autistic, it's difficult for him to interact appropriately with others, he's preoccupied with himself, has anxiety, and (I guess) can be obsessive about a few activities (for him, music & languages). Needless to say, on a highly interactive form of media like YT, this is a recipe for disaster.
Honestly, with him being the way he is, I thought there would be a breakdown eventually. I thought it had come in a video he titled "Do I Suck?" where he appeared depressed and wondered if he was a fake, like some people thought. I was going to comment that he should take time off from YouTube, but I didn't do it and in a later video said he wouldn't do it. He may have been a little down, but he kept doing what he usually did: uploading 30 second videos to prove he speaks a langauge. I usually rarely just ignored these types of videos (I subbed him and accepted his friend request, before I knew who he was) and honestly found him annoying. I thought about unsubbing and defriending him a few times since I thought I was mislead (in one video, he made a claim that he could be fluent after finishing a Teach Yourself book).
Unfortunately, some of his activity, although I think some of it was inadvertant, could be considered trolling, spamming, and even e-stalking. For example, he asked everyone who subbed him, as well as others in the polyglot community, to make videos about him. He apologized and things seemed to return to normal. Things finally reached a head when he did this to Naomi's channel & kept commenting on it when she wanted to be left alone, and he even found her e-mail address and sent her an e-mail! His interactions with Naomi and another YouTuber eventually lead him to make a video saying he would leave YouTube for a while and only watch videos.
Anyway, Naomi, after Chez made his video, made a video outlining his activities and demanded to be left alone. I thought the video was fair, although I thought some of the video comments weren't. He DOES have a serious psychiatric problem and his activities and interactions with others should be monitored. I was moved when someone who only called himself or herself "an advocate" used Chez's account to make comments talking about his struggles with autism and making Chez seem more human and not just a troll. I commented that I was glad there was someone like advocate in Chez's life and that his Internet usage must be monitored to make sure this would not happen again.
I don't know what will happen to Chez's account in the future, but I hope he learns a lot from this experience. Yes, his interpersonal and group entry skills suck, but that what happens when you have autism. I think he was just trying to be part of a group that would accept him, but he mistreated people and paid a price for it.
I don't know what I can do to help him, and it is probably impossible to monitor everything he does on the Internet. I do think he has potential, but he can't just claim to know a high number of languages to impress people. I don't know what to say to him that he will listen to, but I think I should try.
That is the reason I stay subbed to him: to help him after the breakdown.
There is another YouTuber, NaomiChambers, who has a series titled "Anyone Can Be a Polyglot" in which she, a graduate of George Mason University with a degree in French Studies, encourages other people to try to learn a language, or even several languages. I also like her videos and tried to help her with new material for her blog when she asked on the HTLAL forum (her blog is thepolyglotexperience.blogspot.com) by suggesting she interact with two other bloggers who I like, pagef30.com & thejoyoflanguages.blogspot.com. Both bloggers deal with IALs (international auxiliary languages) although they are also learning or know natural languages. I think she liked the idea, since my post received a vote.
Enter chezrocksall. He's an 18-year-old autistic from Canada who claims to speak 59 languages and can learn a language in a day. Needless to say, I don't believe him, and think he exemplifies the worst parts of the YT polyglot community: that languages are incredibly easy and we should make videos trying to entertain others. Unfortunately, that is where the drama comes into play. Since he's autistic, it's difficult for him to interact appropriately with others, he's preoccupied with himself, has anxiety, and (I guess) can be obsessive about a few activities (for him, music & languages). Needless to say, on a highly interactive form of media like YT, this is a recipe for disaster.
Honestly, with him being the way he is, I thought there would be a breakdown eventually. I thought it had come in a video he titled "Do I Suck?" where he appeared depressed and wondered if he was a fake, like some people thought. I was going to comment that he should take time off from YouTube, but I didn't do it and in a later video said he wouldn't do it. He may have been a little down, but he kept doing what he usually did: uploading 30 second videos to prove he speaks a langauge. I usually rarely just ignored these types of videos (I subbed him and accepted his friend request, before I knew who he was) and honestly found him annoying. I thought about unsubbing and defriending him a few times since I thought I was mislead (in one video, he made a claim that he could be fluent after finishing a Teach Yourself book).
Unfortunately, some of his activity, although I think some of it was inadvertant, could be considered trolling, spamming, and even e-stalking. For example, he asked everyone who subbed him, as well as others in the polyglot community, to make videos about him. He apologized and things seemed to return to normal. Things finally reached a head when he did this to Naomi's channel & kept commenting on it when she wanted to be left alone, and he even found her e-mail address and sent her an e-mail! His interactions with Naomi and another YouTuber eventually lead him to make a video saying he would leave YouTube for a while and only watch videos.
Anyway, Naomi, after Chez made his video, made a video outlining his activities and demanded to be left alone. I thought the video was fair, although I thought some of the video comments weren't. He DOES have a serious psychiatric problem and his activities and interactions with others should be monitored. I was moved when someone who only called himself or herself "an advocate" used Chez's account to make comments talking about his struggles with autism and making Chez seem more human and not just a troll. I commented that I was glad there was someone like advocate in Chez's life and that his Internet usage must be monitored to make sure this would not happen again.
I don't know what will happen to Chez's account in the future, but I hope he learns a lot from this experience. Yes, his interpersonal and group entry skills suck, but that what happens when you have autism. I think he was just trying to be part of a group that would accept him, but he mistreated people and paid a price for it.
I don't know what I can do to help him, and it is probably impossible to monitor everything he does on the Internet. I do think he has potential, but he can't just claim to know a high number of languages to impress people. I don't know what to say to him that he will listen to, but I think I should try.
That is the reason I stay subbed to him: to help him after the breakdown.
Back to School, Lots of Free Time
Well, yesterday was my first day of school. I only have one class this semester, a 2 hour, 50 minute class on Friday. Yes, my spring break this semester will be missing one class. I've decided I'll major in Medical Assisting, which I hope I can earn enough money in to provide for myself.
Needless to say, since I have no job right now, I have more free time than I know what to do with. I've been trying to think what I want to do. I found a group on meetup.com that plays board and card games twice a month, one on Monday and one on Wednesday. I'll be going to the Monday meetings for as long as I can.
I've been thinking of getting a membership to the YMCA so I can go swimming regularly. As I mentioned on my last post, I've got to lose weight, and I really enjoy swimming. Plus swimming is supposed to be one of the best activities you can do for your body, since it works the entire body.
I've also been thinking of going hiking, since I like taking walks and being in the woods. I found a few state parks in the area that allow fishing & archery and have hiking trails, so I'll be sure to visit them regularly during the summer when I have time. I've liked fishing since I first did it in sixth grade, but I've never had a license and only fished in campgrounds. This year I'll look into getting a license and accompanying experienced anglers to learn more before setting out on my own. I've never filleted a fish, and I'm really clumsy so I'll have to wear a protective glove when I do it and hope I won't make a mess of the fish, but I think it will be OK. I first tried archery in seventh grade at summer camp, and would like to try it again. The only problem is bows seem really expensive.
I've also thought about coin and stamp collecting. If I collect coins, I want to collect silver, and collect 1/10th ounce eagles yearly. I don't think buying one silver coin once a month will be too hard once I get a regular job, since you can save about $30-35 a month easliy by brownbagging your lunch and taking your own coffee. Stamp collecting to me seems much more interesting since you can get a lot of stamps for $30 if you know what you're doing (for example, 500 worldwide stamps from kenmorestamp.com costs $8, and you can buy some stamps for 15 cents).
Well, the world's a big place, and there are plenty of activities out there that I can do to keep from getting bored, so I'll try to do some of them.
Needless to say, since I have no job right now, I have more free time than I know what to do with. I've been trying to think what I want to do. I found a group on meetup.com that plays board and card games twice a month, one on Monday and one on Wednesday. I'll be going to the Monday meetings for as long as I can.
I've been thinking of getting a membership to the YMCA so I can go swimming regularly. As I mentioned on my last post, I've got to lose weight, and I really enjoy swimming. Plus swimming is supposed to be one of the best activities you can do for your body, since it works the entire body.
I've also been thinking of going hiking, since I like taking walks and being in the woods. I found a few state parks in the area that allow fishing & archery and have hiking trails, so I'll be sure to visit them regularly during the summer when I have time. I've liked fishing since I first did it in sixth grade, but I've never had a license and only fished in campgrounds. This year I'll look into getting a license and accompanying experienced anglers to learn more before setting out on my own. I've never filleted a fish, and I'm really clumsy so I'll have to wear a protective glove when I do it and hope I won't make a mess of the fish, but I think it will be OK. I first tried archery in seventh grade at summer camp, and would like to try it again. The only problem is bows seem really expensive.
I've also thought about coin and stamp collecting. If I collect coins, I want to collect silver, and collect 1/10th ounce eagles yearly. I don't think buying one silver coin once a month will be too hard once I get a regular job, since you can save about $30-35 a month easliy by brownbagging your lunch and taking your own coffee. Stamp collecting to me seems much more interesting since you can get a lot of stamps for $30 if you know what you're doing (for example, 500 worldwide stamps from kenmorestamp.com costs $8, and you can buy some stamps for 15 cents).
Well, the world's a big place, and there are plenty of activities out there that I can do to keep from getting bored, so I'll try to do some of them.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Happy New Year! and Christian News Parodies
I found a really funny site last night, kind of like a Christian evangelical version of The Onion (well, a poor imitation of The Onion if it were evangelical, at least). It's a faux news site called Lark News. Unfortunately, they haven't been updated since December 2008.
Here are some of my favorites:
The first two have to do how Europeans see American evangelical culture.
The French think Jesse Duplantis is a comedian!
http://www.larknews.com/january_2007/3.php
Evangelical phrasebook for German tourists. Why could I see something like this actually happening? I like the part about an evangelical-speaking club in Germany. Hint: you better not ever tell a German "it's all under the blood" because they might think it has something to do with the World Wars.
http://www.larknews.com/august1_2003/5.php
TBN mock-a-thon! I always thought some preachers should have a laugh track . . .
http://www.larknews.com/august15_2003/2.php
Agnostic enjoys church evangelism freebies. Why can I relate to this in a strange way, LOL? I like how he thinks Baptists backed him into the corner and argued with him. Sounds familiar, LOL. The Lutherans and Methodists sound cool, though.
http://www.larknews.com/november_2004/6.php
OK, enough of that.
Happy New Years, everyone.
I really don't have any resolutions, except things I would try to do anyway, whether a new year were coming or not.
Lose weight, since I'm a fatty, but because of medicine I used to take. I lost about 10 pounds in the last few weeks since stopping the medicine.
Study a couple of languages. I'm really into German right now, but the excitement is starting to wear off. Need to get back into Spanish, since it's my best language. Thinking about Mandarin, but often wonder, "What am I thinking!" Esperanto might be fun, too, but I don't know if I want o learn it. French & Dutch I'll probably just peruse. And of course, stop buying every freakin' language book that catches my eye (*cough* Teach Yourself Norwegian *cough*).
Get A's in all my courses. A lofty goal, yes, but it's something to shoot for.
Find a job. Very important.
Get into birding and find some experienced birders to show me the ropes.
See, told you I'm dull.
Happy New Year.
Here are some of my favorites:
The first two have to do how Europeans see American evangelical culture.
The French think Jesse Duplantis is a comedian!
http://www.larknews.com/january_2007/3.php
Evangelical phrasebook for German tourists. Why could I see something like this actually happening? I like the part about an evangelical-speaking club in Germany. Hint: you better not ever tell a German "it's all under the blood" because they might think it has something to do with the World Wars.
http://www.larknews.com/august1_2003/5.php
TBN mock-a-thon! I always thought some preachers should have a laugh track . . .
http://www.larknews.com/august15_2003/2.php
Agnostic enjoys church evangelism freebies. Why can I relate to this in a strange way, LOL? I like how he thinks Baptists backed him into the corner and argued with him. Sounds familiar, LOL. The Lutherans and Methodists sound cool, though.
http://www.larknews.com/november_2004/6.php
OK, enough of that.
Happy New Years, everyone.
I really don't have any resolutions, except things I would try to do anyway, whether a new year were coming or not.
Lose weight, since I'm a fatty, but because of medicine I used to take. I lost about 10 pounds in the last few weeks since stopping the medicine.
Study a couple of languages. I'm really into German right now, but the excitement is starting to wear off. Need to get back into Spanish, since it's my best language. Thinking about Mandarin, but often wonder, "What am I thinking!" Esperanto might be fun, too, but I don't know if I want o learn it. French & Dutch I'll probably just peruse. And of course, stop buying every freakin' language book that catches my eye (*cough* Teach Yourself Norwegian *cough*).
Get A's in all my courses. A lofty goal, yes, but it's something to shoot for.
Find a job. Very important.
Get into birding and find some experienced birders to show me the ropes.
See, told you I'm dull.
Happy New Year.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Something of Myself
Like I promised, here is a little more about me.
I live in Ohio, and have lived here for my entire life, the past 25 years. The depressing thing is I may live here for the rest of my life, LOL. Honestly, it's not that bad of a place to live.
I have a degree from the University of Akron in Business Administration. I attended UA from 2004 to 2009, but skipped 2008. I am currently enrolled at Stark State College as a health care student. I'm still not 100% sure what I want to do, but I'm thinking about Occupational Therapist Assistant, but it has a 3 year waiting period.
My main interest, and what I spend most my free time doing, is foreign languages. I'm currently interested in Spanish, French, German, Esperanto, and Mandarin, but really have been focusing on German. I really like German, and have been studying it for the past month or so. I would like to get into Mandarin since I have had some experience with the language and enjoyed it, it is different from the other languages I'm interested in, and think it could be useful in the future. I am interested in many other languages, mostly Romance and Germanic languages, but I don't want to list them because it will seem very unrealistic. There may be YouTube polyglots who say they've studied 40-50 languages, but I know myself. I'm not going to study a dozen languages, much less have any proficiency in any of them.
I've been studying Spanish off and on since early 2009, so it's been about 20 months. My progress in Spanish is embarrassingly slow, and have little to show for my efforts in the past. I took 2 years of Spanish in high school, and, like my math skills, my skills from high school Spanish wasted away to almost nothing. I bought and used Practice Makes Perfect: Basic Spanish in March of 2009 as preparation for taking college Spanish. I then took 2 Spanish classes in college and enjoyed them but took the classes as an elective, not as a requirement. I started self-studying Spanish seriously when I started Elementary Spanish II in June of 2009. After my college classes, I studied it off and on, studying seriously for a few months and then putting it aside for a month or two. I have not seriously spent time with Spanish since July of 2010, but would like to get back into studying it, as I like the language and think it can be very useful, especially since I'm thinking about going into health care. Pathetic as it is, I have yet to complete a beginner's book in Spanish yet. Very embarrassing.
I also studied French for 2 years in high school and, just like my math and Spanish skills, they have diminished. The good thing is it does seem familiar to me when I read some French in one of my beginner's books. I really like French, maybe even more than Spanish, but I don't intend to study French anytime soon, as I think it interferes a little with my Spanish.
It is a bit difficult to explain to people why you would want to study Esperanto. It doesn't seem to get the same respect as other languages of its size (about 2 million speakers) and even some language lovers on my favorite language forum, how-to-learn-any-language.com, don't seem to think it is a "real" language. The good thing is that you can learn Esperanto for free on lernu.com, a popular Esperanto site. You can also sign up for a free correspondance course, which I've signed up for last year at about this time but have yet to complete a lesson, since my interest in Esperanto waxes and wanes like the moon. I even bought some books for learning Esperanto, but really haven't gone over them. I don't want to argue about whether we need an international auxiliary language (IAL) or if Esperanto is the best IAL. I think some very interesting people know Esperanto, and you can learn one language and chat online with these interesting people in several different countries in one common language.
Well, enough about languages. I'll discuss other things I like.
One of my favorite classes in school, both high school and college, was history. I am particularly interested in military history and Medieval history. I'm not sure why, I just find that aspect of history interesting. The only problem is I read my last military history book (it was about the Battle of Stalingrad) in the summer of 2008 and I haven't read a book about Medieval history in a long time. I am changing this now, as I've borrowed books from the library about the Battle of Marathon and a rather large book on Medieval history. I have a break from school until the 18th of January and intend to use this time to the best of my ability.
One activity that I would like to get into is birding, or bird watching. I decided this would be a good hobby because I took an online survey and bird watching was the top match, which I somewhat agree with, since social aspect, researching, and a hobby that can be done inside and outside were my most important aspects in a hobby. I've always enjoyed watching birds, especially as a kid, when I was the family's self-proclaimed bird expert (well, as much of an expert as a kid with an identification guide could be). There are two Audubon Societies near me, one in Akron and one in Canton, and I might try to go to one or the other, or possibly even both if one meets at a more convenient time and the other has more field trips. I guess I should find a more experienced birder to show me the ropes and teach me the proper technique, as well as show me good locations. I hope to go to an Audubon meeting soon.
I am also interested in music, both as a musician and as a listener. I've learned to play the cello, recorder, trombone, and violin, the first three in elementary school and the violin I took my first lesson in May 2009. The trombone is the only instrument I feel comfortable playing in public, and I hope to start playing the violin more, but I don't think the violin is a very good instrument for me, as I need to use my hands. I don't have good manual dexterity. Oh well, at least it isn't the piano. As far as listening to music, I've come a long way from only wanting to listen to classical and hymns, since my religious leaders wanted me to think everything else was evil. I don't know what I really like, although I still like classical. Whatever sounds good, I guess.
Since this is a blog, I guess I should talk about religion and politics, as they seem to be a popular subjects to blog about. I have to say, I feel really uncomfortable about writing this. I really hate talking about religion and politics, as they are subjects that good people demonize other good people for not having the same values they do. I was raised Baptist, first GARBC and then independent. I really have a dislike for the fundamentalist Christianity I was raised with, for a variety of reasons. I'm not really sure what my religious orientation is, but I don't think I'm completely ready to give up on Christianity, just to find a less fundamentalist variety. My politics were very conservative and I considered myself a member of the Religious Right for a time. Now I am much less conservative and really dislike the major conservative pundits - like Hannity, Beck, Coulter, Limbaugh, and Pat Robertson - as much as I dislike the major liberal pundits, so I guess I'm a moderate on most issues. What I once considered major issues that I thought God would judge America on, such as abortion and gay rights, I now think is really none of my business. Ah, one religious fundamentalist ultraconservative American down, a few million more to go.
My favorite saying for religion and politics is:
If it's stupid, but it works, it isn't stupid.
Oh well, that's enough about myself. I'm not a very good writer. Thanks to anyone who's read this far.
See you later.
I live in Ohio, and have lived here for my entire life, the past 25 years. The depressing thing is I may live here for the rest of my life, LOL. Honestly, it's not that bad of a place to live.
I have a degree from the University of Akron in Business Administration. I attended UA from 2004 to 2009, but skipped 2008. I am currently enrolled at Stark State College as a health care student. I'm still not 100% sure what I want to do, but I'm thinking about Occupational Therapist Assistant, but it has a 3 year waiting period.
My main interest, and what I spend most my free time doing, is foreign languages. I'm currently interested in Spanish, French, German, Esperanto, and Mandarin, but really have been focusing on German. I really like German, and have been studying it for the past month or so. I would like to get into Mandarin since I have had some experience with the language and enjoyed it, it is different from the other languages I'm interested in, and think it could be useful in the future. I am interested in many other languages, mostly Romance and Germanic languages, but I don't want to list them because it will seem very unrealistic. There may be YouTube polyglots who say they've studied 40-50 languages, but I know myself. I'm not going to study a dozen languages, much less have any proficiency in any of them.
I've been studying Spanish off and on since early 2009, so it's been about 20 months. My progress in Spanish is embarrassingly slow, and have little to show for my efforts in the past. I took 2 years of Spanish in high school, and, like my math skills, my skills from high school Spanish wasted away to almost nothing. I bought and used Practice Makes Perfect: Basic Spanish in March of 2009 as preparation for taking college Spanish. I then took 2 Spanish classes in college and enjoyed them but took the classes as an elective, not as a requirement. I started self-studying Spanish seriously when I started Elementary Spanish II in June of 2009. After my college classes, I studied it off and on, studying seriously for a few months and then putting it aside for a month or two. I have not seriously spent time with Spanish since July of 2010, but would like to get back into studying it, as I like the language and think it can be very useful, especially since I'm thinking about going into health care. Pathetic as it is, I have yet to complete a beginner's book in Spanish yet. Very embarrassing.
I also studied French for 2 years in high school and, just like my math and Spanish skills, they have diminished. The good thing is it does seem familiar to me when I read some French in one of my beginner's books. I really like French, maybe even more than Spanish, but I don't intend to study French anytime soon, as I think it interferes a little with my Spanish.
It is a bit difficult to explain to people why you would want to study Esperanto. It doesn't seem to get the same respect as other languages of its size (about 2 million speakers) and even some language lovers on my favorite language forum, how-to-learn-any-language.com, don't seem to think it is a "real" language. The good thing is that you can learn Esperanto for free on lernu.com, a popular Esperanto site. You can also sign up for a free correspondance course, which I've signed up for last year at about this time but have yet to complete a lesson, since my interest in Esperanto waxes and wanes like the moon. I even bought some books for learning Esperanto, but really haven't gone over them. I don't want to argue about whether we need an international auxiliary language (IAL) or if Esperanto is the best IAL. I think some very interesting people know Esperanto, and you can learn one language and chat online with these interesting people in several different countries in one common language.
Well, enough about languages. I'll discuss other things I like.
One of my favorite classes in school, both high school and college, was history. I am particularly interested in military history and Medieval history. I'm not sure why, I just find that aspect of history interesting. The only problem is I read my last military history book (it was about the Battle of Stalingrad) in the summer of 2008 and I haven't read a book about Medieval history in a long time. I am changing this now, as I've borrowed books from the library about the Battle of Marathon and a rather large book on Medieval history. I have a break from school until the 18th of January and intend to use this time to the best of my ability.
One activity that I would like to get into is birding, or bird watching. I decided this would be a good hobby because I took an online survey and bird watching was the top match, which I somewhat agree with, since social aspect, researching, and a hobby that can be done inside and outside were my most important aspects in a hobby. I've always enjoyed watching birds, especially as a kid, when I was the family's self-proclaimed bird expert (well, as much of an expert as a kid with an identification guide could be). There are two Audubon Societies near me, one in Akron and one in Canton, and I might try to go to one or the other, or possibly even both if one meets at a more convenient time and the other has more field trips. I guess I should find a more experienced birder to show me the ropes and teach me the proper technique, as well as show me good locations. I hope to go to an Audubon meeting soon.
I am also interested in music, both as a musician and as a listener. I've learned to play the cello, recorder, trombone, and violin, the first three in elementary school and the violin I took my first lesson in May 2009. The trombone is the only instrument I feel comfortable playing in public, and I hope to start playing the violin more, but I don't think the violin is a very good instrument for me, as I need to use my hands. I don't have good manual dexterity. Oh well, at least it isn't the piano. As far as listening to music, I've come a long way from only wanting to listen to classical and hymns, since my religious leaders wanted me to think everything else was evil. I don't know what I really like, although I still like classical. Whatever sounds good, I guess.
Since this is a blog, I guess I should talk about religion and politics, as they seem to be a popular subjects to blog about. I have to say, I feel really uncomfortable about writing this. I really hate talking about religion and politics, as they are subjects that good people demonize other good people for not having the same values they do. I was raised Baptist, first GARBC and then independent. I really have a dislike for the fundamentalist Christianity I was raised with, for a variety of reasons. I'm not really sure what my religious orientation is, but I don't think I'm completely ready to give up on Christianity, just to find a less fundamentalist variety. My politics were very conservative and I considered myself a member of the Religious Right for a time. Now I am much less conservative and really dislike the major conservative pundits - like Hannity, Beck, Coulter, Limbaugh, and Pat Robertson - as much as I dislike the major liberal pundits, so I guess I'm a moderate on most issues. What I once considered major issues that I thought God would judge America on, such as abortion and gay rights, I now think is really none of my business. Ah, one religious fundamentalist ultraconservative American down, a few million more to go.
My favorite saying for religion and politics is:
If it's stupid, but it works, it isn't stupid.
Oh well, that's enough about myself. I'm not a very good writer. Thanks to anyone who's read this far.
See you later.
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