Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
User avatar
Systematiker
Blue Belt
Posts: 823
Joined: Tue May 10, 2016 6:09 pm
Languages: ENG (N); DEU (C2+) // SWG (~C1); BAR (~C1); SPA (4/3); FRA (~C1); SCO (~C1); NLD (~B2*); LAT (Latinum Bavaricum); GRC (Graecum Bavaricum); CAT (~B2*); POR (~B2*); SWE (~B2*); HBO (Hebraicum); DAN (~B1*); RUS (~A2); KOR (~A1); FAS (still a raw beginner)
*Averaged for high receptive skill
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7332
x 2070

Re: Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby Systematiker » Thu Mar 09, 2017 5:31 pm

Brun Ugle wrote:
Snow wrote:
Brun Ugle wrote:Also, when I'm finished with FSI, I'm starting GdUdE book C. Then we can "race" through that. Cavesa can join in too, if she's ready. I'm planning on taking about a year to get through it though, so that one will be a very slow race on my part.


Are you girls open to starting a GdUdE C friendly challenge like the one for Assimil Finnish?^^


I hadn't thought of that, but why not? It's always just been an informal thing between Cavesa and me before, but the more the merrier. I think Cavesa said she expected to be ready around the end of March, and it looks like I will too, so how about April Fool's Day as our official start? It seems appropriate somehow. Do we need a separate thread for this, or should we keep it informal? If we do need an official challenge thread, we should probably do it in Spanish as an extra challenge.

(And I think Systematiker might be a boy.)


Last time I checked, yes... :lol: :lol: :lol:
4 x

Snow
Orange Belt
Posts: 120
Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2016 7:23 am
Languages: Tagalog (native), English (advanced), Spanish (intermediate), Korean (upper beginner)
x 119

Re: Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby Snow » Thu Mar 09, 2017 6:40 pm

Brun Ugle wrote:I hadn't thought of that, but why not? It's always just been an informal thing between Cavesa and me before, but the more the merrier. I think Cavesa said she expected to be ready around the end of March, and it looks like I will too, so how about April Fool's Day as our official start? It seems appropriate somehow. Do we need a separate thread for this, or should we keep it informal? If we do need an official challenge thread, we should probably do it in Spanish as an extra challenge.

(And I think Systematiker might be a boy.)


April 1st sounds good. Anything is fine with me! I just like the idea of working through this book with others as I've been putting it off since last year. Though an official challenge thread in Spanish sounds like a fantastic idea. We'll get to apply the things we'll learn.
2 x

User avatar
Systematiker
Blue Belt
Posts: 823
Joined: Tue May 10, 2016 6:09 pm
Languages: ENG (N); DEU (C2+) // SWG (~C1); BAR (~C1); SPA (4/3); FRA (~C1); SCO (~C1); NLD (~B2*); LAT (Latinum Bavaricum); GRC (Graecum Bavaricum); CAT (~B2*); POR (~B2*); SWE (~B2*); HBO (Hebraicum); DAN (~B1*); RUS (~A2); KOR (~A1); FAS (still a raw beginner)
*Averaged for high receptive skill
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7332
x 2070

Re: Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby Systematiker » Fri Mar 10, 2017 1:03 am

Y'all also better not bet on the dog if we're starting April 1, Easter happens in there and that's not likely to be a week where much of anything gets done language-wise...
1 x

User avatar
Brun Ugle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2273
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 12:48 pm
Location: Steinkjer, Norway
Languages: English (N), Norwegian (~C1/C2), Spanish (B1/B2), German (A2/B1?), Japanese (very rusty)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=11484
x 5821
Contact:

Re: Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby Brun Ugle » Fri Mar 10, 2017 6:40 am

Systematiker wrote:Y'all also better not bet on the dog if we're starting April 1, Easter happens in there and that's not likely to be a week where much of anything gets done language-wise...


Don't worry, the tortoise is planning to take a year to finish the book. I want to have lots of time to let everything sink in. I'm more concerned with learning Spanish than finishing first.
2 x

User avatar
Brun Ugle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2273
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 12:48 pm
Location: Steinkjer, Norway
Languages: English (N), Norwegian (~C1/C2), Spanish (B1/B2), German (A2/B1?), Japanese (very rusty)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=11484
x 5821
Contact:

Re: Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby Brun Ugle » Sun Mar 19, 2017 8:39 am

I’ve been a bit lazy (and sick) for the past week. I didn’t even feel like updating my log last weekend, but I thought maybe I should write a short update this weekend. I was planning to take it easy for a few days after the 6WC ended, but I actually started slacking a little before the end. Maybe I was getting a bit burned out, or maybe it was because I knew I had a slightly stressful week ahead, or maybe it was because I had finished what I’d been reading and started reading something I’d picked up at the library which turned out to be a little too interesting.

Up until last weekend, I was making good progress and so, my break hasn’t done too much damage as long as I get back on track relatively soon. I’m up to lesson 50 in FSI Spanish, but I’ve done almost nothing with it the past few days because I’ve had a cold and my voice has been too squeaky for doing drills. Although, it did make me sound a bit more like the munchkin/chipmunk voices on some of the recordings. I’ve really been slacking on Assimil Finnish. I think I’ve only done four or five lessons in the past two weeks, instead of my intended five a week. And I’ve barely touched my other languages.

Outside of languages though, I’ve gotten a little bit done, so I’m pleased with that. I did a bunch of paperwork that I’d ignored during the 6WC. I had my last therapy session, which is a bit weird and sad because I’ve gone to her since 2011. Usually therapy doesn’t last that long, but I was extremely bad when I started and she had to help me with a lot of practical matters as well as just regular therapy. We’d become almost like friends over the years, so it was a little bit of a shock to be at the end even though we’d cut down to every other month lately.

I also went to the doctor to find out about my lungs. My allergy tests all came back negative and I had to blow into a machine to check my lung capacity or something because he thought I might have asthma since I’ve been complaining about difficulty breathing. I wasn’t sure if it was worth taking the test now because the workmen came back AGAIN to paint and saw some more, just as I was starting to feel a little better, plus I caught a cold. But they had me do the test anyway. After all my complaining about my lungs hurting and feeling heavy, the doctor was a little surprised to find out my lungs function at about 120% of the average for my height, weight, age and gender. I was a little surprised too, because if this is 120%, how do regular people survive?! Anyway, he asked me if I work out a lot and I told him about that time I jogged for three whole minutes back in October or November or whenever it was. I hated every minute of it, but I guess it paid off. That must be it, because I’ve barely managed any real exercise this year. So, no allergies, no asthma. He says I seem to just have some sort of hypersensitivity, so he gave me some nose spray to get rid of my constant post-nasal drip and an inhaler for when I breathe in something my lungs don’t like and I get that stabbing, prickling sensation.

I’m starting to sound like my Mom, talking about all my trips to the doctor. Back to languages. I’m no longer sure that I will be able to finish FSI Spanish Basic before the end of March. It depends how fast I get back to it and how easy the last chapters are. (Don’t worry though; I’ll still start GdUdE in April.) I’m starting to think that while the beginning of FSI Basic is harder than FSI Programmatic, the end of the Basic is easier than the end of the Programmatic course. I’m on lesson 50 of 55, so I suppose they could still sock me with something unexpected, but so far, it’s surprisingly easy. The munchkin voices make it a little hard though. I downloaded the recordings years ago, so there might be better ones available now, but I haven’t felt like checking. I kind of just want to get done with it as quickly as possible.

Mostly this past week I’ve been watching TV, reading and doing stuff not related to languages. The book I mentioned in the beginning of this post was a Spanish translation of a Ruth Rendell novel that I found at the library. I got sucked right into it. After that, I read a free story that I found on iBooks, El perro negro by Mikel Santiago. It was a kind of creepy, supernatural story. It reminded me of when I was a kid, hiding in the basement reading my brother’s old Mystery Comics Digests. It was just spooky enough to be hard to put down, but not so scary as to keep me from sleeping. I might try some more of his stories later.
4 x

User avatar
blaurebell
Blue Belt
Posts: 840
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2016 1:24 pm
Location: Spain
Languages: German (N), English (C2), Spanish (B2-C1), French (B2+ passive), Italian (A2), Russian (Beginner)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3235
x 2240

Re: Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby blaurebell » Sun Mar 19, 2017 9:18 am

Brun Ugle wrote:I was a little surprised too, because if this is 120%, how do regular people survive?!


Actually you should have your back checked! Even some slight inflammation can press on the wrong nerve and the pain might register as "lung" when really it's the back. Took me ages to figure that one out for my own back!

Brun Ugle wrote:I’m starting to sound like my Mom, talking about all my trips to the doctor.


In German we call this "rentnern" i.e. turn Rentner - pensioner - into a verb that doesn't really exist :D Interestingly it's more common as a communal activity, so when two young people exchange doctor stories, one might say "Genug rumgerentnert für heute!" as a joke to change the topic. See, it's all relevant to language learning 8-)
3 x
: 20 / 100 Дэвид Эддингс - В поисках камня
: 14325 / 35000 LWT Known

: 17 / 55 FSI Spanish Basic
: 100 / 116 GdUdE B
: 8 / 72 Duolingo reverse Spanish -> German

DaveBee
Blue Belt
Posts: 952
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2016 8:49 pm
Location: UK
Languages: English (native). French (studying).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7466
x 1386

Re: Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby DaveBee » Sun Mar 19, 2017 9:47 am

Brun Ugle wrote: It was just spooky enough to be hard to put down, but not so scary as to keep me from sleeping. I might try some more of his stories later.
For some time after listening to a radio series of Day of the Triffids, I felt slightly nervous when cycling near hedges. :-)
3 x

User avatar
Brun Ugle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2273
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 12:48 pm
Location: Steinkjer, Norway
Languages: English (N), Norwegian (~C1/C2), Spanish (B1/B2), German (A2/B1?), Japanese (very rusty)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=11484
x 5821
Contact:

Re: Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby Brun Ugle » Sun Mar 19, 2017 10:32 am

blaurebell wrote:
Brun Ugle wrote:I was a little surprised too, because if this is 120%, how do regular people survive?!


Actually you should have your back checked! Even some slight inflammation can press on the wrong nerve and the pain might register as "lung" when really it's the back. Took me ages to figure that one out for my own back!

I do think some of my problems are related to my back, but not this one. I do have a lot of back problems and I just had some x-rays sent over to my doctor so he can send me to a physical therapist. I have three crooked vertebrae, topmost, bottommost, and one somewhere in the middle, the bottommost disk is almost worn completely away, and I have some kind of nerve thing that makes me feel like I'm having a heart attack sometimes when I lift my arms up. I know that sometimes that nerve makes my chest feel tight, but this is a different problem, related to the massive amounts of mucus dripping into my lungs all night. And once my sinuses and lungs start to get irritated, then they react to everything. One day recently, I went for a walk and someone was cutting down trees and I started getting a prickly sensation in my lungs when I walked past. I'm very sensitive to certain kinds of sawdust. Once when I worked on farms, I had my face swell up and start to crack because of the sawdust we used under the cows, but the allergy tests were negative that time too.

Anyway, thanks for the advice, and I will be getting some therapy for my back once I get my sinuses under control.

blaurebell wrote:
Brun Ugle wrote:I’m starting to sound like my Mom, talking about all my trips to the doctor.


In German we call this "rentnern" i.e. turn Rentner - pensioner - into a verb that doesn't really exist :D Interestingly it's more common as a communal activity, so when two young people exchange doctor stories, one might say "Genug rumgerentnert für heute!" as a joke to change the topic. See, it's all relevant to language learning 8-)

Well, at least I learned a new expression. Too bad my mom doesn't know German, I could've used it on her. She's always telling me how horrible it is to get old, and then she wonders why no one wants to visit her.
2 x

User avatar
Brun Ugle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2273
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 12:48 pm
Location: Steinkjer, Norway
Languages: English (N), Norwegian (~C1/C2), Spanish (B1/B2), German (A2/B1?), Japanese (very rusty)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=11484
x 5821
Contact:

Re: Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby Brun Ugle » Sun Mar 19, 2017 10:40 am

DaveBee wrote:
Brun Ugle wrote: It was just spooky enough to be hard to put down, but not so scary as to keep me from sleeping. I might try some more of his stories later.
For some time after listening to a radio series of Day of the Triffids, I felt slightly nervous when cycling near hedges. :-)

I have too good of an imagination to read really scary things, but one of the good things about Norway is that it stays light pretty much all the time in the summer, so I save my spooky stories for spring and summer.
4 x

User avatar
blaurebell
Blue Belt
Posts: 840
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2016 1:24 pm
Location: Spain
Languages: German (N), English (C2), Spanish (B2-C1), French (B2+ passive), Italian (A2), Russian (Beginner)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3235
x 2240

Re: Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby blaurebell » Sun Mar 19, 2017 11:53 am

Brun Ugle wrote:Anyway, thanks for the advice, and I will be getting some therapy for my back once I get my sinuses under control.


Makes sense. Well, sinuses and unspecific allergies are the worst. I've got a few of those too. Doctors are usually lost with those and the tests say next to nothing. My tests came back saying that I'm allergic to everything because my immune system is shot :roll: A couple of things that might or might not have an influence: dairy products esp. cheese and histamine. Do you get motion sickness easily? Then reducing histamine could help. Histamine is what causes allergic reactions and if you eat a lot of histamine too during allergy season, it makes things worse. And dairy is the devil anyway. My sinus problems went half away after stopping the dairy, along with a whole bunch of other stuff that got better. The sinuses aren't really perfect - I've got more allergies still, but at least it's somewhat better. Always worse during allergy season or in certain regions. Eating local honey can also help to reduce pollen allergies, but well, that takes like a year to show any effect if at all. Eating honey isn't exactly torture, but quitting dairy I found super hard. Genug rumgerentnert? ;)

Brun Ugle wrote:Well, at least I learned a new expression. Too bad my mom doesn't know German, I could've used it on her. She's always telling me how horrible it is to get old, and then she wonders why no one wants to visit her.


Almost as fun as my mum complaining about her work for hours. Usually I get her out of it after repeating "Let's talk about something nice instead" a few times. We'll all be happier when she finally retires in a couple years! My husband's parents always talk about the dog which drives him crazy ... they all have their subjects! Only consolation is that we'll be just as much fun for our children one day :lol:
0 x
: 20 / 100 Дэвид Эддингс - В поисках камня
: 14325 / 35000 LWT Known

: 17 / 55 FSI Spanish Basic
: 100 / 116 GdUdE B
: 8 / 72 Duolingo reverse Spanish -> German


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests