Miscellania is good

This, about Star Wars, is very true. People don't write fanfic about fantastic series/books/movies. They don't because besides missing scenes - they don't need too. But series that have good ideas that are badly executed, or maybe just executed in one potential way that many disagree with - those are the ones people write about because in fanfic, we can fix things.

Typing the above paragraph, I just realized that every Harry Potter fic I've ever written was either a "fix" canon fic, or a fix/mock "fanfic" fic, with the possible exception of Identity Crisis, which I just like to blame fyrie and siriaeve for and leave it at that;)

I taught The Beatles - Let it Be in uni class today. I explained the concept of Mother Mary to them, and one girl translated it a few different ways before finally settling on the fact that Mary was "Kurisuto no haha" クリストの母　which has to be the most informal and brilliant way I've heard Mary ever be referred to. (I couldn't help laughing at her translation.) I'm now also picturing Jesus calling Mary, "はは". (For those who don't speak Japanese, haha is a really informal way of saying mother, like mom or mum.)

I was really happy and bubbly yesterday. This usually means my period is coming. It's good to know my pessimism was justified.

We went bowling last night, and afterwards I tried one of those punching machine games as one of my students requested. Didn't like it much since you don't get any resistance to your punch which seems a weird way to measure your strength. 87 kgs (I think it was kgs...) was kinda disappointing as well, though I have nothing to measure it against anyway. Oh well.

Tried natto (fermented soybeans) for the first time today. I had hopes it wouldn't be as bad as everyone said it was, and while the smell wasn't, the taste certainly was. Oh well, at least I can answer now when random people ask me if I like it.

Nearly fell asleep twice in the car on the way home from the uni today (which is bad cause I was driving). Period sapped my energy so skipped kickboxing and a pool (ie billards) night. Am running low on Green & Black's chocolate though and I only have one bag of Maltsers left. Woe.

There are days when I feel as if I'm translating everything I do between so many various cultures. It's both brilliant and tedious.

I just killed a mosquito and now it's dead body is stuck under the keys of my keyboard. Yuck. Also, why is there a mosquito alive and in my apartment when I haven't even seen or been bitten by one in over a month? Hmm?

I sometimes wonder if my students realize how weird it is I can answer all their obscure questions about word origins. Do they know that the average American would never be able to explain the origins of the phrase "many happy returns" much less know it's proper context?

My confirmation form for the JLPT finally arrived. I now have to decide if I want to wake up at a ridiculously early hour and take the train to Fukuoka or spend the night there instead. Spending the night will cost more seeing as the cheaper hotels are already booked, but it could, or could not save me sleep seeing as I cannot, for the life of me, figure out where the hell the testing site actually is besides being on a university campus.

Am also mildly panicking because no matter how hard I study, I will never be ready for this test. I was thinking about this today and it's just a matter of fact that I learn languages really slowly. I can only learn between 1-3 new words/kanji etc a day that will sink in. The good thing is that once I do, it's mine forever (while I've never been able to speak fluent French, I have every confidence that I'll be able to fluently read French many years from now just as I was able to pick up reading it again 3-4 years after I had ever studied it) the bad news is of course that I need to learn a lot more words than I'm going to to pass this test... or start/finish my PhD for that matter. It's such a depressing thought, and I really need to study.

Wow, it's late. G'nite.

Miscellania is good

This, about Star Wars, is very true. People don't write fanfic about fantastic series/books/movies. They don't because besides missing scenes - they don't need too. But series that have good ideas that are badly executed, or maybe just executed in one potential way that many disagree with - those are the ones people write about because in fanfic, we can fix things.

Typing the above paragraph, I just realized that every Harry Potter fic I've ever written was either a "fix" canon fic, or a fix/mock "fanfic" fic, with the possible exception of Identity Crisis, which I just like to blame fyrie and siriaeve for and leave it at that;)

I taught The Beatles - Let it Be in uni class today. I explained the concept of Mother Mary to them, and one girl translated it a few different ways before finally settling on the fact that Mary was "Kurisuto no haha" クリストの母　which has to be the most informal and brilliant way I've heard Mary ever be referred to. (I couldn't help laughing at her translation.) I'm now also picturing Jesus calling Mary, "はは". (For those who don't speak Japanese, haha is a really informal way of saying mother, like mom or mum.)

I was really happy and bubbly yesterday. This usually means my period is coming. It's good to know my pessimism was justified.

We went bowling last night, and afterwards I tried one of those punching machine games as one of my students requested. Didn't like it much since you don't get any resistance to your punch which seems a weird way to measure your strength. 87 kgs (I think it was kgs...) was kinda disappointing as well, though I have nothing to measure it against anyway. Oh well.

Tried natto (fermented soybeans) for the first time today. I had hopes it wouldn't be as bad as everyone said it was, and while the smell wasn't, the taste certainly was. Oh well, at least I can answer now when random people ask me if I like it.

Nearly fell asleep twice in the car on the way home from the uni today (which is bad cause I was driving). Period sapped my energy so skipped kickboxing and a pool (ie billards) night. Am running low on Green & Black's chocolate though and I only have one bag of Maltsers left. Woe.

There are days when I feel as if I'm translating everything I do between so many various cultures. It's both brilliant and tedious.

I just killed a mosquito and now it's dead body is stuck under the keys of my keyboard. Yuck. Also, why is there a mosquito alive and in my apartment when I haven't even seen or been bitten by one in over a month? Hmm?

I sometimes wonder if my students realize how weird it is I can answer all their obscure questions about word origins. Do they know that the average American would never be able to explain the origins of the phrase "many happy returns" much less know it's proper context?

My confirmation form for the JLPT finally arrived. I now have to decide if I want to wake up at a ridiculously early hour and take the train to Fukuoka or spend the night there instead. Spending the night will cost more seeing as the cheaper hotels are already booked, but it could, or could not save me sleep seeing as I cannot, for the life of me, figure out where the hell the testing site actually is besides being on a university campus.

Am also mildly panicking because no matter how hard I study, I will never be ready for this test. I was thinking about this today and it's just a matter of fact that I learn languages really slowly. I can only learn between 1-3 new words/kanji etc a day that will sink in. The good thing is that once I do, it's mine forever (while I've never been able to speak fluent French, I have every confidence that I'll be able to fluently read French many years from now just as I was able to pick up reading it again 3-4 years after I had ever studied it) the bad news is of course that I need to learn a lot more words than I'm going to to pass this test... or start/finish my PhD for that matter. It's such a depressing thought, and I really need to study.

Wow, it's late. G'nite.