Expug's 2018 Log - Sustainable Dabbling

[Expugnator]

Part of yesterday's procrastination was a Whatsapp discussion with my syster about politics and spirituality. Today we had another interesting one, so half an hour was gone again. They are a bit exhausting mentally, so I decided to just listen to the Mandarin audio and read in Portuguese, ignoring the Mandarin text and Pera-pera. After all, the chapter I was going to read had long descriptive passages. To my surprise, I understand way more than I thought, easily relating audio ZH and text PT-BR and even filling in the gap for the entirely new words, that is, I actually managed to isolate them and hear clearly how they are pronounced. This can be quite encouraging.

Another trilogy finished: Evna! I thought the time would never come. I might have started reading it as an early B1, and now my reading skills are starting to hit the C range, though still far. Now I'm resuming other YA Fantasy trilogy, Vindeltorn. I'm on book 2. Time to say goodbye to some reais that will turn into euros then dollars then reais again within real's freefall and norwegian crowns' raise.

Resumed listening to Grand Bien Vous Fasse, while writing these very lines. There was an excerpt from a film I had watched, and I managed to recognize it when I heard it.

Today was close. I finished Hebrew at the final minutes, benefitted from the fact I was doing a very short lesson. But then if we count the half hour in the morning, plus an appointment I had after lunch which took me more than one hour, it was rather productive. I particularly enjoyed the Greek listening-reading, where I noticed an improvement on my overall comprehension; the Hebrew lessons, where the past starts to make sense; and the Indonesian lesson which was an excerpt from Indonesia's National Anthem. Syntax was difficult but not impossible.

[Expugnator]

Finished "Wild Born", by Mull Brandon, which I was reading in Georgian. It's part of a series where each book has been written by a different author. Just for a change, the second volume isn't available in Georgian. Actually I've only found it in English. I'll add this to my on-hold series list, and start another YA fantasy which I had already bought, by Shannon Hale.

German was the most likely candidate for a language I'd drop, but right now I'm reading a book I'm enjoying a lot and I'm noticing some progress.

Finished In The Name of Peopl, regarded as the Chinese House of Cards. I liked it, thought it was not quite as useful for my Chinese given the rather bookish way of speaking the characters had most of the time. Now I want to fully enjoy Viki's learning mode and watch very light comedy and romance series, which also happen to be shorter.

Estonian is also a candidate for a dropped language, but I've been improving steadily. Actually I'm noticing progress in all my languages (with the exception of Russian, maybe...or maybe not), and that makesit hard to drop any of them. It had been easier in the past times when I was plateauing for the weaker ones. Now I actually know how to deal with the situation so I don't think I can use being stuck in a plateau as an excuse anymore. What lesson can be learned, though, is that the languages I consider dropping tend to be the same, so I have an idea of what I like better, even if I seem to enjoy them all.

Another long Hebrew lesson, one hour spent on it. My schedule will probably only reach the ideal rhythm when I finish Routledge Hebrew. Ic can't complain, it's the one that's been helping me the most.

Today there was indeed some time left, so I read the first pages from Proyecto Nocilla. Looks promising.

[Expugnator]

My home computer is almost back into normal. again. I'll probably let go of old bookmarks and open sessions, as I can't restore them the way I'm used to. It's astonishing how faster it is now with the system installed on an SSD. Other than that, I only got 1 audiobook and no other gathering material. I have yet to save the new songs in my playlist into my phone.

Today was an atypical day. I had classes in the morning, the computer here crashed when starting, making me lose over 10 minutes. Then it was the day for paying most bills, and I spent some time discussing them with kona mi and then paying the bills themselves. I left later to pick the girls, dropped by the bank for withdrawing money, got stuck in line while most ATMs were out of order; arrived at the school, the secretary was on the phone with a serious issue, I had to wait longer for the girls to arrive. After lunch, I left home again half an hour later than usual, was blocked by a truck parked the other side of the street and a car too close to the exit of my garage, blocked the traffic while trying to pass, had to get back into the garage and wait for all the traffic to pass and then drive back partially in the wrong way to be able to steer the whell and pass between the truck and the car; got stuck in the traffic while driving the car to the repairshop; left the car there, got stuck in a bus on my way to work; came here over 1 hour later then usual, but I'm leaving soon for the eye doctor. Delay, delay and more delay. And I didn't even manage to read the 20 pages in non-fiction Italian, given how tired I got.

Started my new Georgian reading, YA fiction by Shannon Hale. The book seems harder, but all of them start like this. What confuses me a bit is how different the Portuguese translation looks from the Georgian one. The Portuguese one seems more lyrics, with several indirect sentences. I'll see if it gets any better, I might stick to the original in English for my L1 reference.

I was so excited about starting the learning mode on Viki, and today it was blocked here. So I have to watch on my phone, which only has 1 subtitle, no learning mode. This is utterly depressing. Well, there's always the option of watching on YT with hardcoded subtitles plus downloading the Portuguese subtitles separately. Still, I'm frustrated that an awesome tool won't work for me again. Once it's available on mobile, I'll probably start bringing the new tablet here all for once.

I managed to do Russian, both cartoon and listening-reading. No Georgian series or Estonian reading; no Modern Greek, Indonesian or Hebrew. So this is how the week starts. Not a success, but not a big failure either.

[Expugnator]

Got a good deal of Hebrew resources in Portuguese. I'm impressed with the overall quality. I got an interlinear Bible and, even though it's Biblical Hebrew, I manage to learn quite a lot from reading it. All my upcoming languages seem to have plenty of textbooks, even if I'm unsure about audiobooks and series with subtitles, my preferred resources for the early intermediate range. I don't believe in 'readers', they tend to be much harder than YA fiction in parallel reading.

Starting to tune in to Maretorn. Ten pages correspond to roughly the same audiobook time as in the Odinsbarn series. No surprise, as I'm using the same font size on an epub.

NO Jeg er ferdig med å se på serien Unge Lovende, sesong 3 og alt. Jeg likte den godt, og jeg la merke på at jeg begynner å forstå forskjellige aksenter og dialekter mye bedre nå, til og med gjenkjenne noen av dem. I morgen begynner jeg med Kampen for tilværelsen, som jeg ikke har sett på ennå. Jeg planlager å se på Oslo Zoo. Naturligvis setter jeg pris på at seriene jeg likte godt får nye sesonger, som f.eks. Side om side og Nesten voksen.

Watching the Taiwanese series in my old method, Youtube with hard subs + Portuguese subtitles on the notepad. I think I'm going to keep watching on Viki while at home as much as I can (well, realistically, it has to be on the computer so I can enjoy the double subtitles, and I don't even watch those series I had start on Netflix on the tablet). Anyway, the series being from Taiwan, the hardcoded subs are traditional characters. I think the exposure will be good, as the audio and the Portuguese subs give away so much that I can even figure out which characters correspond to the simplified one. It will be like a crash course. Not to self: I'll keep returning to Viki to check for recommendations, so I have to remember to do it while at home.

I managed to find the Italian podcast on Castbox as well...Now comes the question: How do I keep one episode of each podcast rady to be played? When I scrolled through the list of the Italian podcast and played the one I'm going to listen to next, I had to scroll down through all the episodes on Grand Bien Vous Fasse in order to reach the one I was playing. Is there a way to always open the podcast page at the last one played instead of the most recent?

DSo the day wasn't of full completion. Ten minutes to six pm and I decided not to start Routledge Hebrew's long lesson, as I didn't foresee finishing it within 15-20 minutes. So I stopped at Indonesian. No Spanish reading either, no more Clozemaster besides Mandarin and Norwegian. I'm not having my headstart in the morning, and the non-fiction reading is taking a lot of time. Yet today I only lost some 20 minutes in activities away from the office, as the time I'd spent with driving to pick the girls I went to pick my car at the repairshop. So there is indeed a decrease in productivity, influenced by arriving here later and so spending a lot of time preparing the computer for work, to the extent that I don't get much done in the morning. Well, I did have more work than usual today. All these factors are to be taken into consideration before I decide to do any major changes in my schedule.

[Mista]

NO Jeg er ferdig med å se på serien Unge Lovende, sesong 3 og alt. Jeg likte den godt, og jeg la merke på til at jeg begynner å forstå forskjellige aksenter og dialekter mye bedre nå, til og med gjenkjenne noen av dem. I morgen begynner jeg med Kampen for tilværelsen, som jeg ikke har sett på ennå. Jeg planlager planlegger å se på Oslo Zoo. Naturligvis setter jeg pris på at seriene jeg likte godt får nye sesonger, som f.eks. Side om side og Nesten voksen.

Og du skriver bra også

[Expugnator]

@Mista: Tusen takk for støttelsen, det var så oppmuntrende!

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Started watching Kampen for tilværelsen. It's good for some change. I heard some Polish.

Managed to download the Taiwanese series. Next step is downloading it in its entirety. Will try to add the L1 subtitles the way I did with In The Name of People; even if it doesn't work, I can already follow it well enough with the series on a player and the L1 subtitles on Notepad. That's already more practical than placing the Notepad over Youtube. No way I'll keep relying on streaming for something I am supposed to be able to watch for free.

First time I managed to finish the long Routledge Hebrew lesson after the changes in my routine. I finished it a bit later than expected and I had to resort to OCR-ing most of the exercises. Still, the lessons remain useful. No steep learning curve as in the pod101 lessons.

[Expugnator]

Yesterday I tried hard to finish Routledge Hebrew on time. As a result, I got tired and decided not to listen to Soumission on my way home. Then I ended up listened to it when coming back from a class in the evening. At that time, we have official programs on the radio, instead of music. It's nice to have alternatives.

Mandarin L/R is starting to become actually easy. I don't have to worry about losing track of the page, I can easily find myself in the text. Meanwhile, I can follow the story just from the audio.

I need a page turner for Georgian. My curent book is supposed to be easy but sounds rather fussy and flowery. I never thought Georgian would be a struggle and German a relief, but that's the way it is right now, with the resources I'm currently using.

Italian non-fiction reading is taking a good deal of time, but it's worth it, as the book is rather good.

Finished book 4 of A series of unfortunate events; proceeding to book 5. Still 9 books to go, and this might be the final one with a Russian audiobook. I'll read the next ones in whatever language is available as audio, apart from English and Portuguese.

Another typical day. I'm trying harder and harder with Routledge Hebrew, but I'm already noticing some improvements, even if I'm neglecting some new words. No Spanish reading at all, though.

[Expugnator]

I'm starting to enjoy Kampen for tilværelsen. Hope they cut down on Polish in the next episodes. I'm looking up some words in Norwegian.

Starting to read better in Georgian, at the current novel. It doesn't have plenty of dialogues but I'm forcing myself to pay attention to the longer sentences.

The issues with Mandarin seem to have gone. I mean, the technical issues. I managed to download the full episode right here. Then it's just a matter of making sure the separate L1 subtitles will sync. The issue now is linguistical, as sometimes I get lost not only in the traditional characters but in the different ways Mandarin in Taiwan rephrase some very commonplace things.

I had to interrupt my activities for doing an ultrasound scan. Same region where I underwent a surgery, roughly three years ago. I hope it's nothing serious, because the pain is excruciating and I won't manage to walk home. The doctor suspects it's an infection but I'm doing the image exam to see if there are any internal injuries.

Today I only went up to Chinese series. The past days have been pretty complicated, and I was meant to get back on track today, but the medical issue is nothing to be neglected. Anyway, I'll keep monitoring my activities next week to see how I can make a better use of my time, now that I'm busier overall. You know what? Maybe I should start ranting all over the place so I can get the awesome advice PeterMollenburg receives in his log

[rdearman]

Wishing you good health! Hope it isn't anything serious.

[Expugnator]

Thank you admin.

Looks like it's more on the lines of an infection, so three weeks of antibiotics it is. Probably a minor injury preceded it, but no significant injuries so that's the most important now.