Ani's 2018 Log

[IronMike]

We used to have moose come up and rub themselves against our mobile home. Really too close for comfort. One night we were bringing the dogs back from a long run and a moose was in our front yard. Right by the door. We had small dogs (basenjis). We thought we could each grab a dog and run into the house quick but as soon as one of us opened the car door, out ran the dogs. They got within about 5 feet of the moose and he flicked his leg, as if annoyed by a mosquito, and both dogs went tumbling. They both got up, shook themselves, and immediately ran up to the front door, refusing to look back at the moose.

Alaska was (is) fun.

[Neurotip]

Viltu Læra Íslandku #2 ís about going to the dentist I don't think I can watch it as much as the first.

Yeah, the whole 'oh I appear to have lost a filling' thing is a particularly choice piece of overacting. Also for some reason neither patient nor dentist can quite keep a straight face during the consultation...

I did it twice but I think I'm going to move on to the 3rd tout de suite.

In which Olafur appears not to understand that the number written on a banknote is a clue to how much it's worth. Deep breaths now.

[Ani]

Viltu Læra Íslandku #2 ís about going to the dentist I don't think I can watch it as much as the first.

Yeah, the whole 'oh I appear to have lost a filling' thing is a particularly choice piece of overacting. Also for some reason neither patient nor dentist can quite keep a straight face during the consultation...

I did it twice but I think I'm going to move on to the 3rd tout de suite.

In which Olafur appears not to understand that the number written on a banknote is a clue to how much it's worth. Deep breaths now.

Hehe, the over acting is keeping me entertained. I'm not far in, but I'm making a note to bring 30+ year old black and white photos to Iceland with me. Evidently Icelanders of all ages are fascinated by such family relics and love to discuss comparative hair and eyes color.

[Ani]

Kids got me sick, and they are still very sick. Spent mother's day in bed watching Lava Field in Icelandic, some movies in Russian, and some of that new space show on Netflix.. Lost in Space, I think it's called? In French.

Nothing that requires real thinking for another day or two.

[Ani]

Lost In Space is overwhelmingly terrible but Imma keep watching it (in French) because I've always wanted a friendly robot alien It's going to be a freeking miracle if Will survives another episode. His father seems to be out to put him in the most dangerous situation possible at every turn and no one even remembers to check in with him. I have no idea how closely or not it is supposed to ressemble the '60's show outside of character names and catch phrases (spoiler alert: it only takes until E3 for "Danger, Will Robinson" to appear".)

My kwiziq membership expires in two days. I don't think I'm going to renew. It was fun, but I also learned why we don't typically learn by doing test after test. It def. felt draining after a while and I wasn't doing much of it. I'll going to try and get as much done in the next two days as I can and then just use the 10 kwizes a month for a while. I want to try and do the microkwiz on every subject but there are almost 500 so I'm just do what I can for now. I probably did 50+ today. I could totally see myself going back for test prep of I actually decide to/get the chance to take a CEFR test one day.

It's kind of lonely being sick. I miss adult conversation. I called my mom 3 times today lol. Shame we don't have some kind of llorg video game server to play on together.. My kids' online classes have a Minecraft server they can all hang out on when they're not in class.. Be fun if we had a grown up version of that.

[rdearman]

Lost In Space is overwhelmingly terrible but Imma keep watching it (in French) because I've always wanted a friendly robot alien It's going to be a freeking miracle if Will survives another episode. His father seems to be out to put him in the most dangerous situation possible at every turn and no one even remembers to check in with him. I have no idea how closely or not it is supposed to ressemble the '60's show outside of character names and catch phrases (spoiler alert: it only takes until E3 for "Danger, Will Robinson" to appear".)

My kwiziq membership expires in two days. I don't think I'm going to renew. It was fun, but I also learned why we don't typically learn by doing test after test. It def. felt draining after a while and I wasn't doing much of it. I'll going to try and get as much done in the next two days as I can and then just use the 10 kwizes a month for a while. I want to try and do the microkwiz on every subject but there are almost 500 so I'm just do what I can for now. I probably did 50+ today. I could totally see myself going back for test prep of I actually decide to/get the chance to take a CEFR test one day.

It's kind of lonely being sick. I miss adult conversation. I called my mom 3 times today lol. Shame we don't have some kind of llorg video game server to play on together.. My kids' online classes have a Minecraft server they can all hang out on when they're not in class.. Be fun if we had a grown up version of that.

Someone was going to setup a Discord server for people to chat on. Of course that isn't likely to be an officially supported LLORG thing, since moderation would be a pain, and it would invariably kick-off discussions best avoided.

[Ani]

Someone was going to setup a Discord server for people to chat on. Of course that isn't likely to be an officially supported LLORG thing, since moderation would be a pain, and it would invariably kick-off discussions best avoided.

That would be really fun. I wonder if we have minimum numbers to keep it sort of populated and active. Although I don't really know how discord works so maybe it has some features the overcome the empty IRC channel feeling? Either way it would be worth a try.

[Ani]

It's been a week and I'm finally on the mend. Now I only have Birch allergies to contend with :-p
Back to studying. I'm feeling really unhappy with my French. I did a huge run through kwiziq before my membership expired and tried to green as many sections as possible. If I had done that just once a month while I had the membership I would have greened my whole tree, but no, I couldn't motivate myself to use the app without the looming deadline Iol.. I took approx. 135 quizzes in 2 days. It was nice getting a really big grammar over view so quickly. Nothing was surprising really in what I know vs. don't know. I could use more study of the type of grammar that covers "verb tense used in x type of expression". I have developed a feel for most of them through exposure but without knowing the exact rule I tend to second guess myself and make mistakes on the quiz along the lines of "maybe this takes the subjunctive too.. "or "maybe there's the one that doesn't take the subjective" especially in cases where you'd often use an -er verb and not hear the subjective always. I was able to finish all the grammar in A0, A1, A2 And C1. I did about half of B2 and 20% of B1.

I think I should actually commit to grammar studying again and this time stick to one resource until it's done. Revolutionary idea right? I don't really know how to hold myself accountable for that though. I feel like my studying is more like a game of whack-a-mole than a serious effort. Smallwhite was talking the other day about managing your studies on Carmody's post and I thought I'd probably do a lot better if I had someone managing my studies (granted, it might not be as much fun.. but I'd be pretty happy to be at a higher level).

If I had to pick one course and stick with it.. maybe finally doing the Mauger blue books? Reineke has never lead me astray I know I have books 1&2 on my shelf. I honestly can't remember if I bought the 3rd book. I just found the 4th book for a good price and ordered it.

[PeterMollenburg]

It's been a week and I'm finally on the mend. Now I only have Birch allergies to contend with :-p
Back to studying. I'm feeling really unhappy with my French. I did a huge run through kwiziq before my membership expired and tried to green as many sections as possible. If I had done that just once a month while I had the membership I would have greened my whole tree, but no, I couldn't motivate myself to use the app without the looming deadline Iol.. I took approx. 135 quizzes in 2 days. It was nice getting a really big grammar over view so quickly. Nothing was surprising really in what I know vs. don't know. I could use more study of the type of grammar that covers "verb tense used in x type of expression". I have developed a feel for most of them through exposure but without knowing the exact rule I tend to second guess myself and make mistakes on the quiz along the lines of "maybe this takes the subjunctive too.. "or "maybe there's the one that doesn't take the subjective" especially in cases where you'd often use an -er verb and not hear the subjective always. I was able to finish all the grammar in A0, A1, A2 And C1. I did about half of B2 and 20% of B1.

I think I should actually commit to grammar studying again and this time stick to one resource until it's done. Revolutionary idea right? I don't really know how to hold myself accountable for that though. I feel like my studying is more like a game of whack-a-mole than a serious effort. Smallwhite was talking the other day about managing your studies on Carmody's post and I thought I'd probably do a lot better if I had someone managing my studies (granted, it might not be as much fun.. but I'd be pretty happy to be at a higher level).

If I had to pick one course and stick with it.. maybe finally doing the Mauger blue books? Reineke has never lead me astray I know I have books 1&2 on my shelf. I honestly can't remember if I bought the 3rd book. I just found the 4th book for a good price and ordered it.

I bet your French is bloody awesome! I like your revolutionary idea, and I'd like to join you, but I quit on you once before, so I won't run that risk again.... and I have too many resources!!! It's insanse! I tell you now if I had my time over I'd save myself a lot of money and buy resources as I need them dammit! Yeah Mauger sounds good... after FIA and FSI, Assimil and the Progressif/ Progressive series... what? The Big Five? Is that what you said????

(PM starts running madly -in circles while pulling hair out -of other peoples heads- wouldn't want to lose his own hair, can't run that risk! and shouting at them "do the &*^%%$& courses for me! #### do the courses now dammit!!). Ahem (clears throat) yes, why I believe that would be an incredibly wise decision, to complete all the Mauger Cours de Langue et Civilisation Francaises.... why wouldn't you? (quietly, secretly, i'm very envious, since there's no room in my bloody schedule!!!). Good luck Ani!

[Ani]

I bet your French is bloody awesome! I like your revolutionary idea, and I'd like to join you, but I quit on you once before, so I won't run that risk again.... and I have too many resources!!! It's insanse! I tell you now if I had my time over I'd save myself a lot of money and buy resources as I need them dammit! Yeah Mauger sounds good... after FIA and FSI, Assimil and the Progressif/ Progressive series... what? The Big Five? Is that what you said????

(PM starts running madly -in circles while pulling hair out -of other peoples heads- wouldn't want to lose his own hair, can't run that risk! and shouting at them "do the &*^%%$& courses for me! #### do the courses now dammit!!). Ahem (clears throat) yes, why I believe that would be an incredibly wise decision, to complete all the Mauger Cours de Langue et Civilisation Francaises.... why wouldn't you? (quietly, secretly, i'm very envious, since there's no room in my bloody schedule!!!). Good luck Ani!

Lol. You know I have no resentment the you quit. That plan was somewhere between overly ambitious and stupid but it sure was fun while it lasted
I really can't figure out what actually you have in your schedule, but no, you cannot go back and be finishing Mauger's volume 1 right now. I get to do it because my French is not bloody awesome. I found three words I didn't know in the preface to the first book, and since I don't really know IPA, I can take the time to learn it while I do the first exercises. I'm so sick of being dependant on Linguee to check phrases, googling how to spell this conjugation of this word I want to use. I feel like a huge cheater. I want to be able to sit down with a pen and write decent French that matches my education level. Also, while I do know a bajillion nouns and have a decent vocabulary, so much is limited to crap you say to kids, that when I try to express more complex ideas or talk about adult subjects I either get tongue tied on more nuanced ideas, or don't have the vocab for other subjects.
These are times I regret not still being in college when I could have sat down on a couch with a couple of Frenchie girlfriends and a couple bottles of wine and talked all night and sorted out all my linguistic problems. Double regret because I did that so many times without learning French and now that I'm ready, the opportunity is passed. It's not so easy to make French speaking friends these days.. at least I have no idea how to do it.
Er uhm.. sorry to get a little emotional there. Betcha didn't expect to walk into that one .