Blogger Tag!

Post your name and I will do each of the following:

1. I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll tell you which song or movie you remind me of.
3. I'll pick a color I feel suits you.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
(if possible. If not, I'll say something that only makes sense to me.)
5. I'll tell you my first memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something I've always wondered about you.
8. I'll tell you my favorite thing about you.
9. I'll tell you my least favorite thing about you.
10. If you play, you MUST post this on yours

Holiday knitting check list!

No time to talk! Much holiday knitting/gifting to finish! Here's a list!

Green= On needles

Red= Done

Turn-a-square Hat

Chomp Chain Hat- 

Super NES Question Block Plastic Canvas Tissue box cover

Basic Cable

Organic Cotton Hat

Felted Yoga Mat bag

Cable/Seed Stitch Hat

Scarf for Mom

2 Hats for Dads

10 or so knitted christmas balls (4.5 down)

Pikachu Scarf (for DH!!) - Frogged, Im going to re work this for after the holiday! Sorry DH!!

Updated 11/25/08- 1 month left!

That Pikachu scarf will be the death of me, I swear! Ive been working on it for 2 years now, It just keeps going back into the UFO bag. Im certain DH has given up on ever getting it. Maybe Ill show him this year!

Hopefully my ravely progress bars will keep me in check with all these projects!

Wish me luck!

Omnivore's 100: No. 65 Durian

On my break today I went to check my email and facebook. When I went to facebook I found this message from my friend Christy:

hey lauri are u free tmr? i bought u durian, the no. 65 on the omnivore's hundred:)

I immediately left her back a message and texted her to get the durian. My mind was racing, how bad would it smell, would I hurl? Would people run away from me after I ate it? Christy had to get the durian from her friends car, where it had been hiding for the day. 1 Min. before my next class I see Christy calling and I run out and there she is with my Durian. Wrapped up in a bag. It smells she tells me. She also lets me know that I can freeze it if I dont finish it and want to save it. And that if I get it on my hands they will smell for a bit. Just as I was walking back to class with the Durian I saw my friend Cynthia. Poor Cynthia, little did she know when she woke up today she would be peer pressured into eating the stinky fruit. But she was in! We had a plan. After class we were going to get forks and sit outside and try this. We also thought of over places we could put the Durian to freak people out by the smell. We parked it on a picnic table outside and started. We opened the bags and the smell started to hit us. Once we opened the plastic and the box it came in it was'nt that bad. We each took a forkful and counted to three. I also held my nose, just in case. Not bad we decided. We tried to figure it out. Mangos for sure. Very creamy/custardy like. We tasted something else out couldn't put out fingers on it. Then Cynthia figured that it was mango+shrimp shumai= durian. Overall not bad. We discussed ways we could cook it and make it better. Cheesecake, pudding, a sweet bread. After I saw my friend Haruka called her over to try the Durian. As she was walking over she stopped about three yards away. She said she could smell it. She tried it, we all liked it, but not loved it. 

After we left I texted Christy and asked what I could make with it. She said ice cream , put it on cake, make pancakes with it. And creme puffs. Creme Puffs. Mhhh. So the Durian is in the freezer awaiting it's fate in the form of creme puffs. 

The future and a sweater.

   There is only 1 month of school left for me. I cannot believe it is over already. This is going to be a long month. Things that I know I will have to involve reading 2 whole novels, writing a 6-8 page paper, and 3 short papers, plus finals. That is not me leaving things till the last min, that is the assignments are on the syllabus but just I just don't have details yet. Im going to start one of the books this week, probably tomorrow. Im also reading this book called "Does Accent Matter?" by John Honey. It was referenced in an essay i read yesterday for class and it got me into learning about Received Pronunciation (think British Oxford English accent). I also need to go get permission tomorrow so that I can register for 23 credits for the spring. Im not really crazy, but I will be taking 16 credits of regular classes, then I will be Teacher Assisting which I get 3 credits for, but does not really count towards my degree per say, and then there is an Classical Indian (South Asian) Dance class offered that I really want to take but again would not count for anything I need, so I want to take that as pass/no credit but I need to overload my credits to do all this. 23 credits sounds impressive though I suppose.

   I am also in the middle of a internal debate with myself about whether or not I should apply to do the summer program in Mishima, Japan this summer. I was all gung-ho about it but then was thinking maybe not. I dont know. I want to go but i'm not sure. I dont want to apply and be accepted and then not go, and apply for the next year. If I take summer classes this summer and dont go I can graduate in May '10. Which brought up the topic of grad school with Matt. I really want to go to school in CA, to maybe UC Berkeley or Stanford for my MA and PHD. But Matt did not seem very receptive/happy about that move. Mainly because of his bands here. Which I can understand but I feel like he should be a bit more supportive of this. Maybe the band will move to CA with us if we go. I just feel like if I am going to continue with Asian Studies the schools in CA have more to offer me than here. Plus I need a change of pace/scenery.

    I feel like I finally have a moment to relax a bit! I started my job at the hospital last week, which involved working more hours than I will normally and two very early days. Plus Friday and Saturday which are going to be my regular days to work. Its going to kill most of my weekend. Sunday Matt and I slept a bit late and then we needed to clean out the gardens for the season. Then laundry, laying in bed and dinner at his parents. I spent almost 4 hours there studying Japanese. My neck actually hurts from reading for so long straight. All my nails are chewed off down to nothing and they really hurt. Grrr.

   Tomorrow is the first night of the knitting club I started at school. I hope a lot of people show up. I will probably get to teach some new people but I decided to start a new knitting project anyway! I really love ravelry and how easy it is to find patterns. I wanted to make a sweater with yarn I already have. So I started this sweater that I found. It will be all green when its done. I hope it comes out lovely. 

Vote 2008!

I voted today! I really hope you did too! (Otherwise you can't complain for the next 4 years!) 6:30 am I walked in and out. Less than 10 min. It was the easiest thing I did all day! And I got free Starbucks for it too! I won't get into politics but I cant wait to find out who wins tonight!

On Learning Japanese

This semester I started learning Japanese! Its very exciting, and is acctually an easy language to learn. I know I know what your thinking about that. But linguisticly speaking Japanese is an easy language compared to well, English. Ive also been studing SLA or second language acqusition too and it has been particually helpful in learning Japanese. So while Japanese may not seem like an easy language to learn there are some things to consider to making it easier!

1. Tell your English to shut up while you are activley learning Japanese. Your knowledge of English interefers with what you are learning in japanese. Exaample, when learning sentace structure.
English is SVO (Subject Verb Object): Lauri(S) bought(V) beer(O).
Japanese is SOV (Subject Object Verb): Lauri(S) beer(O) bought(V).
It seems ass backwards but there will be alot of things that go against what you know about langauge. Just deal! (Japanese uses this SOV structure to force politeness of the listener. By placing the verb at the end the listerner MUST listen to the whole sentance to get the meaning. If you dont hear that verb you would be wondering what I did with that beer. Did I buy it, drink it, steal it? Cleaver huh?)
2. Don't try to translate word for word into English. It doesnt work that way. There are many markers and particles that have no translation. There are also many interejection words that dont translate well either. Some like じゃ (jya) can be used a bunch of different ways and in a bunch of different contexts. These are things you need to learn to feel out the usage on. Also Japanese has about 40 odd sounds, so this creates many homonyms. Pretty much everything seems to have several meanings.
3. Embrace ambiguity. This is soooo important. It pretty much sums up the previous two things. Just be realxed and chill when learning another language (Especially English to Japanese) Just go with the flow and accept the unknown to you. You will figure it out and it will all come into context. Plus when you are relaxed and less anxious you have an easier time learning. You will get more out of your class sessions and the imput around you. Linguistically this is called and affective filter.
4. Practice/Absorb!! not just by yourself, if you can find a language buddy who speaks your language all the better, you will get more imput and learn more that way. Also watching movies in Japanese helps big time with figuring out the ambiguities of the language. Cruncyroll.com has a lot of good Japanese dramas to watch with English subtitles. You will hear words in different native voices and pronunciations which is good for you.

All of this will work when learning any language really.