Sorting out a huge SRS backlog

By putting a temporary freeze on new additions to my SRS, I was finally able to bring my backlog of reps to a manageable number. This morning, for example, I only had 27 reps to do, quickly gotten out of the way. And when you have a nice small number you can take your time and write out most, if not all of them, perhaps even read a few out loud.

 So I just finished all that this morning and decided to get some more listening practice in. I remembered picking up a link to a podcast with some girls talking, probably from AJATT somewhere, so I went through my bookmarks and dug it up: Mariemo podcast.

Three schoolgirls from Hokkaido spend 10-30 episodes talking about nothing much. It’s…not very interesting and like all the other Japnese podcasts/radio programs it soon put me to sleep. But I shall persevere. I need listening practice badly because, not to boast or
anything, but my reading ability is nearly “there” while my speaking ability lags pitifully behind. Still, I don’t think Mariemo is the way for me.
I think there was some mention of Bakushou Mondai or something a while back, maybe that might be a more viable alternative.

Why backsliding is dangerous

That week I took off took a bigger toll on me than I had expected. You see, when you work behind a computer everyday, you kinda get into a groove, you know? First this site, then that site, then let’s see what X site has to say, and I mustn’t forget Dear Abby, and while I’m at it gotta check that site… force of habit is stronger than you think. Before I went AJATT I had a large number of English blogs and news sites I used to visit every morning before settling down to work. I thought I had them conquered, but in just one week they took over my computer again! And to be honest, I’m not sure I want to stop… but I must persevere!

I found a direct download site for Raw Manga so I’ve been downloading like crazy the last couple of days, but apart from flipping through a few ones, I haven’t really settled down to read anything. Kenritsu Chikyuu Boueigun (Prefectural Earth Defence Force) looks the most interesting so far. I’ve always been more interested in older manga that in the newer, posher stuff anyway. It seems to me like manga back then contained less “fluff” and “eye wash” than manga today, but that’s probably just me.

I’m still studying Japanese!!

Just because I haven’t posted anything in a few days doesn’t mean I’ve been spending my time reading Dear Prudence archives or anything like that <_< >_>…yeah. I finally got my M3 Lite to overcome the dreaded “Write PSRAM fail! System wil be shut down!” problem (more on that some other time) so I’m happily continuing with Fire Emblem DS and Rune Factory.

Today I’m super happy about the news that my favourite anime, Hajime no Ippo, will be getting another season next year. So I’m spending the day reading articles about the series, starting with the wiki entries! Yay!

And I’d post more for today but my head is full of Dempsey Rolls.

Slacking on Japanese

I haven’t posted in a while because I haven’t studied Japanese in a while. I read a bit of manga last week and I’ve been keeping up with my SRS reps, but apart from that it’s been English media all week. I could blame it all on the lack of decent coverage of the US elections by the Japanese media, but I’ll just be honest and say I was lazy. Still the week off has given me a bit of fresh perspective …who am I kidding? I took the week off Japanese and now I’m back, end of story.

Mort was good, though. It was the only Discworld book I hadn’t read (apart from the two most recent ones, which I don’t particularly want to read). It made me pretty nostalgic, really. Right now I’m strongly, strongly resisting the temptation to read Small Gods again.

Ponyo on the Cliff

I had a bit of time on my hands over the weeked, so I finally got round to watching that cam of Ponyo on the Cliff I uh, obtained a while ago. As expected, someone in the cinema got up and walked across the screen halfway through the show (I think it’s obligatory, really), but apart from that it was an excellent-quality cam.

The movie itself was okay. Very childish, but I’m obviously not the intended audience. My adult brain wouldn’t stop screaming at me that while it was very pretty to see a whale swimming across a road, a tsunami huge enough to turn a cliff into an island would be extremely disastrous and would result in an extremely large amount of extremely dead people. Not to mention all the stranded, dead and rotten fish in people’s houses once the waters finally receded. And just think about all the destroyed goods and boats and personal effects and books and money and clothes. They’d better have been insured or they’re in for a world of financial hurt.

Still, even if I was the intended audience, I don’t think this is one movie I would watch more than once. Growing up, the favorite movies in my house were those with lots of tension and nail-biting moments in them. Disney’s Aladdin was one of those. And Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which we watched until the tape tore, then patched together with sellotape and kept on watching. Ponyo on the Cliff has very lovely animation and stirring music (Wagner called, he wants his royalties), but there’s never any doubt that everything was going to come right in the end. You can tell by the way the characters take the time to chow down on ramen and ham then snuggle down on the couch while the world goes to hell around them.

Did it help my Japanese ability any? Not really. The script was written for 5-year-old kids = very easy to understand. And the art and actions are expressive enough that they needed even have bothered with any dialogue at all. It was fun though, definitely worth at least one watch. Next on my to-watch list is Laputa: Castle in the Sky. And that’s all for today.