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rigelmejo · 3 years ago

Text

Some September 1st Updates

the READING SPEED difference of a novel at my level! I read the first chapter of 撒野 yesterday and this author is at exactly my reading level right now. I hit 0-2 new words each pleco page, which is usually the sweet spot to either guess the word or if I look it up I can pretty quickly adapt to recognizing it in context. Its also the sweet spot where if I only rely on guessing for new word meanings, on a second pass through I can fairly well guess the meaning quickly.

It was a 32 page chapter in pleco and I read it in 20 minutes. Compared to the 20 pleco page per chapter pingxie fic i just finished (like 124k characters! WOW I read and FINISHED that much!), which was taking 30-40 minutes per chapter (mainly because of number of new vocabulary per chapter being a bit higher). If I’d wanted to speed read saye I could have, I’d have missed some small details but I could have tried if I wanted.

Then I did a second pass later in the day with the audiobook just following along with the text. Realized 1. I knew most words in the audiobook and did not follow as well as i thought - but those first listen throughs without having seen the chapter I did manage to figure out the main character just broke up, just travelled somewhere, ran into a girl and somehow the girls brother showed and the two guys interacted a little and someone was being somewhat helpful, then the main guy met his father trying to ‘pick him up.’ Which is a true but very rough summary of what happens in the first chapter. By reading I could confirm the words I thought were names AS names, figured out WHY the girl was interacting with the main guy and that there were actually two girls in chapter 1, and figure out who helped who and who was the girl’s brother. Also somehow before I looked at the chapter text I never caught that the audiobook mentions a motorcycle despite me knowing that word and it SOUNDING like mota-che/motorche! it sounds like the word and i knew it and didn’t hear it! Then later following the audiobook with the text I realized another issue I had, is I’m not used to listening to soft voices with such faint pronunciations of the final sounds. I’m much more used to deeper crisper pronunciations and being able to rely clearly on initials and finals AS much as tones to recognize the words, whereas this particular audiobook i needed to mainly rely on tones and initials to figure out what word was what - that probably threw me off a bit. It’s probably good for me to get practice listening to such a different voice to what I’m used to. I have definitely learned the deeper the voice, the more I have a far easier time figuring out what’s being said. Also standard accent more like beijing but without a huge amount of ‘er’s just some, and taiwan accent are the easiest for me to hear when i’m not pa

For anyone curious, here is the audiobook for SaYe I’m listening to: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2w27tfjeeaySbMK272NpXwUtsBc-e3YN

Also here’s a chinese audiobook youtube I found: https://www.youtube.com/c/%E6%9C%89%E5%A3%B0%E5%B0%8F%E8%AF%B4%E5%90%AC%E4%B9%A6%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8Cyoushengxiaoshuo/playlists

Which includes The King’s Avatar: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTJaWZoVPdT1ZhIQIKxVci7fVEHr-oX6k

And ErHa: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsxEOGKlBMaFa6CS6Hf5ndy6qTtUL0Au_

Anyway, its a great book right now for reading practice. It’s very much around my level. I will probably stick with this author for a little while and solidify what I know/my base reading level.

IN OTHER NEWS:

I am apparently living proof listening-reading, heavy emphasis on re-listening a TON in the background as you work or type or walk/drive whatever, works for learning new words.

I re-listened to guardian chapter 1 audiobook at least 20-30 times by now, just a tremendous amount. Chapters 1-10 I’ve listened to at least 5 times by now random chapters at random days, and some probably also 20 times.

I have listened to these chapters enough, that I can officially follow so much that I know nearly every freaking word I hear, I know it immediately on hearing in at least 3 different audiobooks, and the few ‘less familiar’ words I recognize a second after hearing (like hearing ‘audacious’ or ‘glum’ in english it just takes me a second to re-remember), and the very few still forgotten words/specific details I learn From those words I can actually pick up from the context of listening.

I hear ‘powei’ and somehow forgot it AGAIN? Oh it means ‘rather’ in this context. ‘anli’ well i always hear ‘anlishuo’ as in ‘people say/generally speaking’ so ‘anli’ in this context must mean ‘generally/generally speaking.’ chuanghu? can’t remember it because i was just typing this JUST now and only hearing a few words from the audiobook in the background - well in context its obviously window, but out of context my brain said window and i just couldn’t remember if it was window or curtain but felt curtain had something more complex than ‘hu’ as the second half - just looked it up and my guess was right, even with no context which i’d have had if i’d been listening better and it had been clear it’s window, it still made me think ‘window’ immediately just hearing the sound. ‘xiang yi ge ren’ sounds like ‘looks like a person’ which is the next phrase i just randomly heard. ‘hua le yao ming’ shouted for their life/in awful terror? or that would be ‘huo’, so maybe ‘streaking toward him to take his life’? would make sense in context of a horror scene - i just looked it up and 划了要命 would be the second one. even IF i heard the wrong line, both of those are pretty close to a good guess in context and hua is the only unknown because without context i can’t place if it was hua or huo. i still confuse the words wu and wo for hold etc, but in context i can tell which one it is (wo is hold a hand, hold a face, etc).

I’m genuinely at a point where I can just completely follow the plot through at least the first 20 chapters from listening. And for most scenes, follow every detail too including stuff like guo changcheng spending half a year not working at home after he graduated, being so afraid of the phone, da qing being fawning to shen wei when they meet and rubbing against his leg, the specific conversation details when da qing runs across zhao yunlan’s car in chapter 2, what zhao yunlan’s room exactly looks like, etc. Its super cool to be able to follow the audiobook so well I can follow the story and details even when I don’t have time to read! It’s so fun! And it was not very hard!

It took 40 minutes of upfront study where you set time aside to focus: 20 minutes to have a program read the chapter aloud while you either see unknown word definitions pop up (like in Pleco) or look them up with some click dictionary as you listen. 20 minutes to go through and listen to the audiobook as you follow along with the text. Then after that, just play the audiobook chapters you’ve done this with whenever you want, either paying attention like when going to bed soon or walking, or in the background like when cleaning or doing busy work or driving. Since background listening can be done easily whenever all you have to do is remember to click play when you want something to listen to.

I’m honestly blown away by how much 3 months of studying mainly like this (which is quite fun and only requires me to carve out a small amount of actual study focused time) has improved my listening skills. I can now also listen to the 2ha audiobook okay and follow along (provided its a chapter I’ve read before so I have at least some prior context to help me out) - at least so far as that’s what I’m listening to right now. Basically, I can tell Guardian has both upped my vocabulary significantly and also improved my automatic recognition of many words I half-knew and learned since.

I recently found a new Guardian audiobook read by a deep voice and its lovely (and utilizes music and echo for effects, its lovely to listen to) I hope the poster keeps updating: https://fm.qq.com/show/rd002ED4aN0mYz2L__

I’ve been listening to it lately.

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Also! Directions for using Pleco Android for screen reader:

1. To get any page bookmarked online:

Open a page in your mobile web browser you want to read. Click the menu, click share, click Pleco Reader (or ‘more’ or ‘...’ then Pleco Reader).

Go to Clipboard Reader. Now when you click text, dictate text megaphone will be an option.

*Since Clipboard Reader is free, you can do this to read in Pleco and have things spoken aloud with no money spent. (Though I find the Reader tool worth the money and add ons).

2. To have any text ‘dictated aloud’:

Go to Pleco’s menu, Settings, Audio, click ‘use TTS if no recording,’ then for Sentence Audio section area System TTS Setting click Speech Services by Google (you can also experiment by clicking other options I am just stating what worked for me, it didn’t work at first I had to make that my default TTS in my Accessibility-Talkback Settings menu on my main phone first and restart my phone before all this).

Then click the area right below to mess with speed and sound of the TTS voice.

(Note, to test if TTS is working you can go to any dictionary entry sentence, click the speaker next to the sentence and see if it plays audio. If it does not, you will get an error message and directions on what to change in your phone settings. That is what initially happened to me: I had to go to phone Settings, Accessibility, Talkback, TTS Engine, TTS Engine voice and settings. Pleco recommended I choose Speech Services by Google, and uninstall then reinstall the Chinese voice. Then restart the phone. That worked for me. An additional note: I have Talkback setting on ‘on’ and just have it in my toolbar to use if desired but am not actively using it. If you turn Talkback setting ‘off’ in the actual Settings area of Accessibility, I am not sure if it will affect Pleco’s ability to dictate).

3. How to put it together:

Now go to Clipboard Reader and read the page from the internet you wanted or text you pasted, or go to Document Reader and open the document you wish to read.

Click a word as a place to start. Now you should see both the loudspeaker (for pronouncing the single word) and the Megaphone next to it to start dictating all text. (If your phone is weird like me, you may need to press the megaphone a couple times before the audio works).

If you wish to change dictation reading speed, simply hold down the megaphone and select the speed desired.

Now that I’ve figured this out I really want to take pictures of my print book, make a pdf, and listen to all the changes.

(Now I just have to fix my weird dictionary in Idiom app and I’m all set on the new phone!)

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All I’ve been doing the past august study wise is just reading pingxie fic and finishing, and listening to audiobooks. It’s been a busy time for me ToT

I do think it proved you can be lazy and still make some improvements though:

1. Reading in Pleco (or click-dictionary tool of your choice): pick something and read a chapter a day (that’s what I did, obviously the easier this is the less time you’ll need, but aim for around 30 minutes a day and reading material closer to your level if you don’t want to read too long)

2. Listening-Reading Method something above your reading level that you enjoy. Should take 40 minutes a couple times a week to several times a week to hours a week, depending on how intense you want to get with it and how much you’re going to alternate/include the reading portion. I did like 1-2 chapters a week so I was only spending 40 minutes to 1.5 hours a week doing this, or 3 hours one week no time another week. This is definitely something where you can do 6-12 hours one month then coast on it for another month just repeating older material’s audio/re-reading sections (which is what I did with guardian, doing 22 chapters then switching to just listening to audio a lot).

Once you’ve done a little L-R steps 2 and 3 (in either order, whatever works for you - and doing step 1 if you want more context prior to steps 2 and 3), then just make time during your days to play the audiobook chapters you’ve studied. You don’t need to be focusing every single time (although focusing on actually trying to follow the audio the first time you listen without text to aid you will probably speed up your comprehension a lot by giving you a lot of basic-context to help you comprehend more later). Aim to listen whenever you’ve got down time! Or time where you’d play music or some background youtube video or podcast - walks, exercise, drives, when cleaning, when browsing the web goofing off, when working if you have times when you’d listen to music with lyrics or a podcast in the background without issues, times when you don’t need to focus 100% on listening just putting it on to hear in the background).

That’s all I’ve done for study since May. It takes me about 30 minutes 5 days a week, plus 1-2 hours listening-reading actively a week. So 2.5 hours plus 2 = 4 hours of active study a week. Sometimes more like 8-10 if I got really into reading something or Listening-reading to several chapters. Then after that (very easy to fit into my life 4-10 hours per week of study) I just play the audiobook whenever I have downtime at work (that’s usually 0.5-4 hours where I just let it play because I forget its on while working on spreadsheets, updates, emails, etc, or play the audiobook while messing around on the internet in my free time at home, sometimes I put on music instead), while walking so 15-30 minutes maybe 3 days a week, while driving far so maybe 20 minutes - 2 hours per week. maybe lets say 2 hours*4 days a week (I don’t remember to listen every day) so 8 hours random listening+1.5 hours walking+1 hour driving per week. That’s 11.5 hours listening in the background or paying attention plus lets say 4 hours of active study a week. So 15.5 ‘study’ hours for chinese per week - an average overall of ~2.21 hours of chinese ‘study’ per day. This isn’t counting when I get into weibo and goof off, get into some chinese show with no english subs and just start watching it (I watched 16 episodes of Humans cdrama in August which is ~10.66 hours for a total of at least (15.5*4 weeks = 62 hours + 10.66 hours -> ~72.66 hours spent ‘with chinese’ in August at minimum. 4 weeks*7 days = 28, so over around 28 days or most of august I did 72.66 total hours/28 days -> or ~2.595 hours of chinese per day as an average. So... my guess that I spend at least 1-2 hours on chinese per day as the average was a decent guess. Looks like I’m usually 2 hours to 2.5 hours daily as an overall average. It’s not that hard to get in that much without a ton of time in the day once you get some listening skills built up ToT Deciding to build up my listening skills has been one of the funnest goals in chinese so far.

Notes on Listening Reading Actively - it also doubles as increasing your exposure to listening to your target language, and the more hours the better even if its passive in the background, just more hours adding up toward your mind getting a better ability to parse the sounds of the language is going to help your overall listening comprehension in general. So even if you don’t pay attention much and can’t follow the whole plot and only catch certain scenes, you will be improving at least comprehension of: hearing words you know, hearing colocations and common phrases and recognizing more automatically which will help with speaking/writing indirectly and reading recognition of those things, overall ability to hear things correctly in different combinations and getting used to the common combinations.

You will be surprised how much more you can pick up of plot and details the 3rd listen compared to the first, the 5th listen, the 10th listen. It’s wild. Like... I’m listening to the 2ha audiobook and even having never read it in chinese, just knowing basic context, the 2nd read through I caught so much more of the plot throughout just because I had forewarning of when scenes change a lot, what audio plays during some parts I recognized in previous listens, and so I have more focus for figuring out the new details I missed. Whereas the first listen, I didn’t always know WHAT the scene context was until I heard a familiar line or description I remembered from the english version of the scene, but on a second listen I now have a better guess at the scene the lines are probably taking place in before and after those lines I recognized in the first listen. And this continues etc each time you re-listen to something. (So yes, that initial context of knowing what you’re listening to with a previous read of its translation or target language transcript will definitely speed up comprehension pick up - but if you just wanna test what your basic listening comprehension to new content is then it works fine just going into new audio with no prior context its just more difficult at first lol until you build an idea of the context from listening).

The original Listening-Reading Method person did like 40+ hours a week, 8 hours most days, no wonder they made fast progress! They often included reading in some form (hence the name) and later translation, so they also were constantly working on listening AND some reading skills AND eventually often some speaking/writing skills. Doing it my way results in mostly listening comprehension of stuff you could already read to a degree, more automaticity in recognition, and for picking up new vocabulary both in listening and reading. I do extra reading on the side with other stuff to get more reading practice in an isolated way (since I’m trying to push my reading speed up above speaking speed). I always try to do it the way the creator originally intended, but I am not able to focus on things for more than 20 minutes at a time, 40 to a couple hours if I take a break every 20 minutes. So doing it 8 hours just doesn’t work out.

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I’m fairly happy!

I am on plan for my main goals that started this style study plan:

1. Improving my reading level to get to start being able to extensively read actual danmei novels - we got there! I am at a reading level appropriate for SaYe at 98% comprehension when I checked, and at a bit above 95% comprehension for Guardian! I’m now continuing with that goal while adding on increasing reading Speed in general.

2. Improving listening skills so I have better automatic recognition of partly-known words from reading (working super well so far - I can tell because ability to watch cdramas in only chinese has improved noticeably and gotten much easier), and so I can start following the main plot and key details of audiobooks of things I’ve read before (working great for guardian, starting to work with other audiobooks provided I listen to the chapters a few times or several times if its brand new material I have no context for, however reading level matters and while things I have prior familiarity with are going very well - brand new materials are still quite challenging in that they require multiple listens for the full plot and several listens before I start picking up most non-plot-critical details).

#rant #september #september progress #august #august progress #listening reading method #pleco #rec list #audiobook #guardian #take all my study advice with heaps of salt #do what feels right for YOU #this is just the study plan that's been working for me recently #for my main goals: increasing base reading level and improve listening comprehension

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ecotone99 · 5 years ago

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[NF] Autismo

Be me, 11 or so years old.

You've gotten your hands on a computer fan somehow, you're don't remember, but your father doesn't seem to care that you have it for some reason.

You're holding it out of the side of the Truck and it's spinning at an insanely high speed. You love the sound of the "whirrrrrrrRRRRRR^RRRRRRRRR^rrrrrrr" that revs up as you change the angle of entry into the feedback do-nothing electric turbine you invented

You've loved planes ever since your mom helped you make one out of hot glue and cardboard with her when you were 4 years old. You modeled it after something she found on the internet probably, and you flew it down the stairs but it dived because we used too much glue (I'm hard on things, she probably wanted to compensate but didn't know about the rocket science of center of gravity vs center of pressure/propulsion.) You wish you understood why the plane didn't fly like a plane

You see a fly TRAPPED on the dash of the truck because it won't risk flight in this turbulence. you don't know why but you can't imagine what it's like to be a fly since your mom got you a book about flies and other insects that you loved because insects scare you but the pretty book told you which ones are scary and which ones just look scary, so it's okay. Mom is gone now, but she told you lots before Dad started yelling at you every day. It's going to be okay, he tells you that he loves you. You don't have to be scared of the medicines, just look them up on wikipedia and try to understand. Someday you'll realize it wasn't okay and you'll cry even more, but that's okay. right?

The fly is only alive for like 4 days. Sometimes people call it a fly, if there's a bunch of them it's called flies and all you know is that they're bad for food. You don't want them on your food, for some weird reason. The book didn't tell me about that.

I can't see the fly's whole life, but I can imagine it, mostly because the book talked a lot about flies because that makes sense when you see so many flies, that's what you'd want to know about the most so that's what people know the most about.

It's boring to be a fly. You just go, "OH SHIT I'M ALIVE BETTER FIND FOOD", then you master the food thing and you go "F*** B**** GET MONEY" and then you die, like that's the whole thing and it takes like 4 days. No time for questions.

*3.5 years later*

A psychologist with a funny last name sits across from you at a hexagonal picnic bench under a gazebo at the end of a red hexagonal cinder block trail in the courtyard of a nursing home where the smell of cleaning products reminds you of the stuff in the hospital when you watched your dad dying.

He tells you that you're very smart and you should believe in yourself, and that he wants you to understand your own psychology so that you have an understanding of what's going wrong and you can short-circuit the thought into another thought about how that doesn't matter or it's okay, you can just keep going.

But all you want to talk about is what that fly thought about time, you don't know why. What you don't know is WHY. HOW? WHAT? 4 days. You'd rather distract yourself than continue crying and telling a stranger about all the ways and things and times that make you suicidal.

"there's an INDY gene in those flies" he says. "You flip one gene (set/expression/phoneme?) from dominant to recessive and they live for 8 days instead of 4."

You sit there, dumbfounded.

Autismo part II: Redux

be me, 10 years later (24 years old)

You realize that concurrency is not A, but *THE* mental capacity solution to a reduction in time.

You listened to a set of books for fun on the drive to and from your University while you were living with your grandmother, a 45 minuted drive. First, Too Big To Fail, Andrew Sorkin's exhaustive journalistic account of the collateralized-debt-obligation (CDO) securities leverage and insurance, then bubbling and pop-type failure leading up to the week's events in 2008 that cause Lehman, Bear Stern, AIG, and (bank of america, maybe?) into liquidation positions.

You illegally ripped the CDs, not your CDOs, because you're poor. Except you're cash poor because you have $383,000 but your uncle in control hates his life and thinks that's why he works hard. He's a manufacturing infrastructure engineer with a 2 year degree, and that was hard.

So he wants you to hate your life until you get a job too, because that means you'll make a lot of money and be an engineer or something probably. But you already got a job. He made you. He told you that you only get to spend $10 a week on things you don't need unless you get a job and make the money yourself. You like computers and Jobs at the local theme park hurt your back. No good reason, they just want you to stand there to use a computer that you could totally use while sitting down because you're at the end of a buffet and you don't have to touch or move any food.

That job, your love of computers, your family all seem to make you happier and it also makes you ate life even more. At church on Sunday, the Pastor rips into you personally "PORNOGRAPHY IS THE DEVIL", "THINKING ABOUT OTHER THINGS AS IF THEY ARE MORE INTERESTING THAN GOD IS THE DEVIL", "SCIENCE IS EVIL", "PEOPLE WHO QUESTION GOD ARE WORSHIPING SATAN" he shouts through complex analogies that are aimed to keep you from hearing the actual fascism in the words. You're just the idiot savant kid sitting in the back running all of the audio equipment the entire time.

I tried to tell the pastor that he could put the sermons on a format of more dense form like a hard drive in a computer, and back it up to another hard drive, but every few weeks an 8 GB SD card would fill up and we'd just use a new one. THAT'S WRITE, WRITE ONCE, CATALOG DATA IN FLASH STORAGE LIKE A FUCKING NINTENDO, THIS MAN LIVED IN THE DARK AGES IN 2013. Oh, but the kid in the back thinking about how to jail break his iPhone and download the Golden Master release of the first iOS with multitasking, yeah, he's worshiping SATAN by not listening to you repeat the same fear mongering over and over.

Don't get me wrong, I believe in God now, my God, not yours, let's not talk about it right now. Yes, pornography is bad, but not why you think, it's because it's actually bad, like, a psychologist can prove it to you. No, thinking about other things isn't the devil, but thinking about how to make a thing or improve on a thing to make yourself like God, well that is, and I'm looking at you Mark Zuckerberg. Science isn't evil, it's an effort to understand things from first principles that sometimes leads to atomic bombs, that just means that we shouldn't make or use atomic bombs, not "DURR SCIENCE DA DEVIL". And those people questioning God are called lost sheep, great job welcoming them into your church pastor.

Anyway, you got the CDs ripped onto your Android phone and turned in the audio book CDs in time and deleted your copy because you knew there were internet services for libraries to do that and your library just doesn't have one yet. I probably should have told them about that. Your android phone sorted the numbered tracks generated by windows with a slightly out of order algorithm by comparison

You realize numbers are sorted differently by the alphabetic sorting in the file system on an android Samsung Galaxy S3, apparently. I was getting a degree in computer science but couldn't tell this was the case until the end of the book was not the end of the book, the end of the book played and then the book kept playing. The problem is that windows sees "track 1"->"track 2" and Linux (the heart of Android) sees "track 1"->"track 10"->"track 11"->...->"track 2"->"track 20", so it was mostly in order, until the end of the book was track 2 because it wasn't 19 apparently. Stupid fucking sorting algorithms, let's all just agree on standards! Oh wait, you just ignored the RFCs? cool. Let's just use CDs and listen to nothing but the CDs so we can get the audiobooks back on time, I'm not re-writing the Android Kernel. Bon voyage, NPR and news about the baboon running for president!

Then, A biography of Nietzsche by who know which author. His Uber-Mensche (super man) idea of how mankind was rebuilding itself in the imagined image of his "Gods" hardens your heart and doesn't make sense. The idea that you would even want to try sickens you. You just want to understand, not own the world. Screw owning anything, you wanna make things, help people, be someone.

Then, the most audacious pick you could because PBS Space Time on YouTube showed you that you can understand the physics without knowing the math, a book on how string theory works by a guy who actually works on that stuff, way out there past the words and into the Greek symbols for things I don't understand.

Then, I moved to Colorado because I wanted to smoke weed without fearing my record and harassment by the police, and a door opened because tech is a booming market, even in the back room of rinky dink flower shops in a small farming town where you live.

Autismo part II: Redux

be me, 10 years later (24 years old)

You realize that concurrency is not A, but *THE* mental capacity solution to a reduction in time.

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kkoehn17 · 6 years ago

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Last week I released my list of goals for 2019, but before I can truly dive into those new ones, let’s see how I did on my goals for 2018.

1) Do a handstand

COMPLETED

While I can’t say I can walk to work in full handstand while carrying my purse with my feet, I have come SO FAR from the beginning of the year.

2) Take a kickboxing class

COMPLETED

Guys. Seriously, take a kickboxing class. I mean, I figured I’d like it. Love it, even. But I didn’t realize it would be therapeutic. I genuinely worked through some things while I was punching and kicking that damn bag. So it’s safe to say that I will definitely make my way back to some classes in 2019.

3) Visit (at least) 20 museums in Los Angeles

WILL CONTINUE IN 2019

I only ended up making it to 8 museums this year, which is a bummer, but not that surprising when I look back at how busy my 2018 was. Instead of just letting it go however, I decided to make finishing this goal one of my goals for 2019. Hopefully this year I’ll find some more spare weekends to get out and see some ‘seums.

4) Get CPR certified

COMPLETED

That’s right, folks! According to the certificate that was emailed to me by the Red Cross, I am officially CPR and First Aid certified! I can officially save your life (if you’re having a minor crisis that was covered by the training)!!

If you’re interested in getting certified, you can find more information here.

5) Shoot (at least) 1 roll of film per month

(ESSENTIALLY) COMPLETED

I fell off a little at the end, but I shot 13 total rolls of film this year so I’m calling it good. I absolutely love that I set this goal and the pictures turned out SO COOL. Here are a few of my favorites:

6) Complete the 104 things to Photograph book

NOT QUITE

Yeahhhhhh. I just didn’t get around to this one, to be honest. I thought it would tie in really well with my film goal, but I just didn’t put in the effort to take pictures that corresponded to the prompts in the book. As of now, I could probably fill half of it, and while I will continue to fill it, I just couldn’t do it in one year.

7) Visit the sea glass beach in Fort Bragg, CA

FULLY PLANNED

I have worked out all the details needed to take this trip, and my roommates and I have thrown out potential dates. So while we didn’t take this trip in 2018, I think we will definitely make time for it in 2019.

8) Go to the dentist

COMPLETED

Yes, I went to the dentist. No, it was not fun.

9) Watch 20 documentaries

COMPLETED

This was another goal that I loved more than I thought I would. There are SO MANY documentaries out there that cover SO MANY different topics. And since I’m already someone that loves dropping fun facts, watching these documentaries this year gave me more material than I knew what to do with!

If you’re interested, these are the ones that I watched. I put my favorites in bold!

Happy (Netflix)

The Mortified Guide (Netflix)

The Mortified Sessions (Netflix)

Minimalism (Netflix)

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (Amazon)

Three Identical Strangers (Amazon)

Amanda Knox (Netflix)

Icarus (Netflix)

Evil Genius (Netflix)

The White Helmets (Netflix)

Tiny Shoulders (Hulu)

Conor McGregor: Notorious (Netflix)

The Mind of Jake Paul (YouTube)

Zion (Netflix)

Seeing Allred (Netflix)

Ballet Now (Hulu)

Becoming Bond (Hulu)

The Barkley Marathons (Amazon)

Blue Planet 2 (Netflix)

Batman & Bill (Hulu)

10) Perfect an omelet

DIDN’T REALLY WANT TO ANYMORE?

Yeah, I don’t really know what to say about this one. I mean, I had every intention of learning to make an omelette and I constantly mentioned buying a new pan that would help me do so, but then I just kind of…didn’t want an omelet? I don’t know. I guess I was really craving them in 2017, craving them enough to make perfecting them a goal for 2018, but here in 2019, I just want hard boiled eggs in my lunch box and fried eggs on my burgers. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

11) See (at least) one movie in theaters per month

ONLY MISSED DECEMBER

Similar to the film goal, I did fall short at the end on this one, but I think I more than made up for it the rest of the year.

Here are all the movies I saw in theaters this year. And again, my favorites are in bold! 🙂

I, Tonya

Call Me By Your Name

Maze Runner: The Death Cure

50 Shades Freed

Red Sparrow

I Can Only Imagine

A Quiet Place

Book Club

Incredibles 2

Won’t You Be My Neighbor

Three Identical Strangers

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again

Eighth Grade

Skate Kitchen

Crazy Rich Asians

A Star is Born

Bohemian Rhapsody

12) Read 20 books off the Time’s 100 List

COMPLETED

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it one thousand times: AUDIOBOOKS. They are the only reason I made it through this goal, and since finishing Time’s list is on my 30 Before 30 list, I’m sure they’ll be the driving force behind completing that as well. #teamaudiobooks

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Dear God, it’s Me Margaret

On the Road

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Lord of the Flies

To the Lighthouse

The Day of the Locust

The Great Gatsby

To Kill a Mockingbird

Never Let Me Go

Revolutionary Road

The Painted Bird

Red Harvest

The Big Sleep

Mrs. Dalloway

The Moviegoer

Housekeeping

A Clockwork Orange

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

1984

13) Pay off credit card

MAKING PROGRESS

About halfway through the year I had to pull the plug on this one because I just didn’t have the resources to continue, but I’ve since got back on track and am making progress slowly but surely!

14) See 3 WRLA’s

COMPLETED

While on a trip to Seattle and Canada in March, I was able to complete this goal, seeing the World’s Largest Cowboy Hat & Boots in Seattle, WA, the World’s Largest Paper Airplane in Mukilteo, WA, and the World’s Largest Tin Solider in New Westminster, BC, Canada!

15) Volunteer (at least) 5 times

COMPLETED

After what seemed like a promising start, I once again found myself scrambling a little bit at the end. I did get my five slots in, but it wasn’t without a little sweat and frantic planning. The main charities I volunteered for this year were Food Forward and Children’s Hunger Fund. Check them out!

16) Donate Blood

COMPLETED

Yes, I did it! Was it my favorite thing ever? No. But will I do it again because it’s an easy way to help out? Definitely!

Find out more about donating blood here.

17) Do the 1 second/day video challenge

COMPLETED!

This was probably the most stressful goal for me because I was constantly having to remember to film a second for each day, but I genuinely love how it turned out. Shout out to everyone in the video! You are all reasons why this video/year turned out great because you were part of some of my favorite moments of 2018 🙂

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Overall, I’d say this was a very successful year! It was a little crazy, a little blurry, and a little bit overwhelming, but I’m very thankful for all that it had to offer.

Now we’re off into the mysterious world of 2019!

I hope it treats you well and that you feel inspired to go for it! Whatever it may be for you. ❤

You can read more about the goals I set for 2019 here.

And if you’re looking for inspiration on goals you should set this year, check out this post!

2018 Goals Final Wrap Up Last week I released my list of goals for 2019, but before I can truly dive into those new ones, let's see how I did on my goals for 2018.

#blogging #fun #goals #goals for 2018 #Goals I&039;ve Set #inspiration #journal #life #motivation #new years resolutions #personal

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spajonas · 6 years ago

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Book Chat #39 - John Scalzi, Claudia Gray, Chris Hadfield, And Carysa Locke

I’m back with another Book Chat! We’re taking a break from my regular Japan posts this week while I slip into a new summer routine, and I realized that I’ve read some books and listened to some audiobooks I haven’t shouted about in a while. Let’s get to it…

LEIA by Claudia Gray

Guys, I’m really enjoying both Claudia Gray as an author and all of these Star Wars prequels! This one was especially good and bittersweet as well since I already know what happens to Leia as the war continues and she grows older. As a fellow author, I loved the plotting of this book, centered around Leia’s coming of age rituals on Alderaan, and her work as part of the Imperial Senate. This book had great bones and a great story as well.

PIRATE CONSORT by Carysa Locke

I should state right up front that I was a critique partner/beta reader for Carysa on this book. She is a dear friend and a great writer to boot. Once again, as a fellow writer, when I read her books, I see the all the scaffolding of a good story, and I don’t care, you know? Because it’s all so artfully done, and her pacing is so tight and the story is so engaging. Carysa knows how to spin a good tale! This second book in the series had more action than the first, and I liked that. It felt appropriate to Mercy’s rise in power. If this at all intrigues you and you haven’t started this series yet, DO IT NOW. The first book is FREE for a limited time.

DEFY THE WORLDS by Claudia Gray

It’s another awesome audiobook from Claudia Gray! This is Book 2 in this series and I found it just as wonderful and intriguing as the first book. The two narrators are perfect for both Noemi and Abel. And the story just carried me along and kept my attention the entire time. After finishing this and LEIA, I decided I had to check out more of Claudia’s work and I immediately went and downloaded her other time-travel series. I’m looking forward to reading that one!

HEAD ON by John Scalzi

I joked this morning that I may be John Scalzi’s number one fan. I think that minus one or two short stories, I’ve read/listened to everything he’s ever written, plus I read his blog too whenever he updates it. It will then come as no surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed this book too. I love Wil Wheaton as narrator of John’s books and his dry delivery of much of the dialogue was perfection. Chris’s mom in this book left me guffawing while I was out in the park listening and walking. I’m sure I scared some geese with my laughter. I loved the mystery of this one and being back in the Lock In world. I’m already excited for more in this world!

AN ASTRONAUT’S GUIDE TO LIFE ON EARTH by Chris Hadfield

This book gave me a ton to think about (in a good way). Chris Hadfield not only gave a thorough history of his career as an astronaut but let us peek behind the curtain of NASA and their partnership with Russia to get astronauts into space. I especially enjoyed all of this thoughts on “being a zero” which is to be the person that is needed, who doesn’t get in the way and gets stuff done. Contrary to Hollywood, a good astronaut does not have a big ego that rules their career. A good astronaut does what’s required and cares about the entire system, not their own career. Other people’s lives hang in the balance for almost every decision, no matter how small. If anything, this book taught me to consider how much work goes into the ISS and keeping it going for all mankind.

This book also details Chris’s production of the Space Oddity video that became a YouTube sensation as he was floating through space. He spent around 5 months on the ISS, and he and his son tried to work out ways to humanize the experience up there. This video was one of the ones they produced. I just love it.

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I really enjoyed this book, and if you’re looking for something non-fiction, I highly recommend picking it up.

What have you been reading?

Book Chat #39 – John Scalzi, Claudia Gray, Chris Hadfield, And Carysa Locke was originally published on S. J. Pajonas

#amreading #audiobooks #book chat #books

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ishouldreadthat · 7 years ago

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Happy Friday! Another week has come and gone, and it has been an absolute rollercoaster for me for a number of reasons. While I can’t say anything about the BEST news (although I’ve been tweeting about it in shouty capitals), we’ve had something awesome happen this week. It’s not book related, but you’ll hear about it soon enough! Otherwise, you’ll see below that it was an amazing week for books.

Books I read

Paris Adrift by E. J. Swift

Cosmos: A Personal Journey by Carl Sagan (audiobook)

I finished two books this week — one physical book and one audiobook. Paris Adrift was one I wasn’t too sure about for first 100 pages or so, but I ended up really enjoying. It’s a very strange and surreal book that combines contemporary fiction with historical fiction and science fiction, but once it gets itself going, it’s a very fast-paced and enjoyable read. If you’re curious to learn more, I’m participating in the blog tour. Watch this space!

I also finished up Cosmos on audiobook. I absolutely adored this book! The narration is perfect (my love of LeVar Burton has nothing to do with it, I swear) and the content and writing inspires wonder. Sagan’s passion really shines through and you can’t help but get caught up in it.

Books I am currently reading

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson

I was hoping to have The Belles finished last night, but I still have about 130 pages to go! I’m really loving this book. I think it would be really easy to dismiss it as shallow if you only read the synopsis, but Clayton does an amazing job of combining beautiful, lush imagery and world-building with the underlying tension of something being very wrong. If you want to know more, guess what? I’m participating in the blog tour for this one as well! Look at me go.

As I mentioned last week, I’m making slow progress through Astrophysics, but I’m still loving it! I may make a push to finish up this little book over the weekend.

Books I bought

Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff

The Extinction Trials by S.M. Wilson

The Girl who Leapt Through Time by Yasutaka Tsutsui

The Truth and Lies of Ella Black by Emily Barr

I had a little trip to the bookshop on Tuesday. I have been wanting to get my paws on a copy of Fire and Fury for awhile now. Both my dad and Scottish Fiance are listening to this on audiobook and they say it’s very well done. I might take the cover off my copy though, I really dislike that man’s face.

Of course, I can’t walk into a bookstore and get only one book (the reason I’ve avoided bookstore for the past few weeks), so I hit up the ‘buy one get one half price’ table and picked up The Truth and Lies of Ella Black and The Extinction Trials. I’ve been hearing so much about these two books lately and can’t wait to dive in. Finally, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time caught my eye. This book contains two short novellas translated from the original Japanese. It looks wonderful!

Book post

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton (review copy)

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Oh boy, it was an amazing week for book post. I received a review copy of The Belles to accompany the proof copy I’m currently reading. It’s just so gorgeous! I also was lucky enough to receive a proof of Children of Blood and Bone, which arrived yesterday and absolutely made my day. These two books are probably my two most highly anticipated releases of 2018.

NetGalley approvals

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

The Queen’s Rising by Rebecca Ross

I had requested a copy of Space Opera as soon as I read the description. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy meets Eurovision? Are you freaking kidding me?? I HAD to have this! The American publisher was kind enough to send me a digital ARC via NetGalley and you guys, I am so pumped. I’m planning to pop this on my February TBR and read it while I’m away on holiday/wedding venue shopping at the end of the month. I can’t wait.

The Queen’s Rising sounds like an amazing book! I’ve heard whisperings about it, but not much more. I’m not sure what people think about this book, but I’m looking forward to diving in! There’s nothing better than discovering a new fantasy series.

Other bookish news

I am so proud to have done my first author Q&A! And who was it with? None other than Katherine Arden, one of my absolute favourite writers! You can check out my Q&A and review here. I’ve been wanting to do this for ages and I’m so happy I got the chance. Here’s hoping I get to interview some more amazing people soon!

Some of you may have heard, YouTube recently changed their partnership policies. In order to qualify for monetization (earning money from the ads in front of your videos), you have to have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours worth of views in 12 months. While I hadn’t come close to the previous qualification of 10,000 views, I was almost halfway there! It was so disheartening to see them go after small channels. However, the book community wasn’t going to take that. Everyone came together to subscribe to small channels and boost each other’s view. I ended up gaining almost 100 followers in 48 hours. So I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped not just myself, but all the other small channels out there! You guys are the best.

I’m heading through to London this weekend for Author Sister’s birthday and then again next Friday for the launch of Hero at the Fall by Alwyn Hamilton (also going with Author Sister). If you’re going to the launch as well, give me a shout! I’d love to say hi 🙂

Hey, guess what? The reading vlog is back! After struggling to get these videos off the ground again (I love doing them but oh man, they take a lot of time), I’ve finally got them up and running. You can watch last week’s vlog here, and be on the lookout for the newest vlog on Sunday!

That’s it for this week! I’m hoping for lots of sleep and reading time over the next couple of days. I could really use it.

Chubby fluffy in a tiny bed

Have you read anything you loved this week? What’s in your TBR? Let me know!

Buckle up, this is a long post! Weekly Wrap Up #bookbloggers Happy Friday! Another week has come and gone, and it has been an absolute rollercoaster for me for a number of reasons.

#Am Reading #Blog #Blogger #Book blog #Book Blogger #books #Cats #Children of Blood and Bone #Currently reading #Fiction #Geek #nerd #novel #Reading #Recommendations #Reviews #The Belles #Weekly Wrap Up #Writing

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leticiatoraci · 7 years ago

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Mid-Year Book Freak Out-BOOK TAG 2017

I saw this Book Tag on Youtube and decided to do it on my blog. So here are my answers:

1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2017.

I have different choices for different genres. In Fantasy, there would be a tie between “A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2)” by Sarah J. Maas and the Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. In Sci-fi, the winner would be the awesome Comics series “Saga”.

2. The best sequel you’ve read so far in 2017.

“A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2)” by Sarah J. Maas which was better than the first book of the series.

3. New release you haven’t read yet, but want to.

The third book of A Court of Thorns and Roses, “A Court of Wings and Ruin” by Sarah J. Maas. I started or went on reading a lot of other series and still have this one left on my TBR.

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year.

The paperback edition of “Blood of Wonderland (Queen of Hearts Saga #2)” by Colleen Oakes. I have the first book in paperback and I don’t want to buy the second book in hardcover, this would make the series look mismatched on my shelf like many other series I was too much in a hurry to finish, so I’m trying to wait patiently this time, until October!

5. Biggest disappointment.

The book “Hounded (The Iron Druid Chronicles #1)” by Kevin Hearne because I expected much more from a series with a Druid. When I think of Druids, I think wise and ancient like Panoramix (named Getafix in English translations) from the Asterix Comics series and this one wasn’t at all what I expected. I also expected something completely different from the Celtic story world and the story itself. All the stereotyped characters, situations and not my type of jokes in this book didn’t work for me at all.

6. Biggest surprise.

The book “The Kiss of Deception (The Remnant Chronicles #1)” by Mary E. Pearson (Spoiler Alert) had the most surprising plot twist for me. It was so unexpected I still can’t really accept it… And I won’t lie, I felt kind of cheated.

7. Favorite new author. (Debut or new to you)

Erin Morgenstern, author of “The Night Circus”. This book is the most beautifully written I read this year so far and it will stay in my heart for a long time.

8. Newest fictional crush.

Crush is perhaps a too strong word for it, but Rhysand from “A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2)” by Sarah J. Maas is a very interesting character.

9. Newest favorite character.

Prince Robot IV from the Saga comics series because he has a television head! He made me remember a Brazilian 80’s song from Rita Lee where she sang in Portuguese that “the guy had a television face,” and this royal not only embodies that song literally but, (spoiler alert) kids can watch his dreams while he sleeps. He’s also a quite lost character, still very much in doubt about being self-centered or helpful and his main answer to most of the life’s questions is… Sex. Good that he didn’t get an STD while looking for himself.

10. A book that made you cry.

Even with a no-books-that-makes-you-cry policy, I must confess that the Epilogue of “Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices #3)” by Cassandra Clare was so touching it made tears surface to my eyes. This book was a perfect ending to this trilogy.

11. A book that made you happy.

Now I’ll have to repeat myself and go with “A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2)” by Sarah J. Maas because this was a book I felt like fist pumping and shouting ‘yes’ with the heroine choices. So I was happy with it.

12. Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received)

I would have two different first places for this: Beautifully drawn: “Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening (Monstress (Collected Editions) #1)” by Marjorie M. Liu (Goodreads Author) (Writer), Sana Takeda (Artist), Rus Wooton (Letterer, Designer) My “own taste” beautiful: Trying Human (Volume #2) by Emy Bitner, because I really like how she draws/develops this series.

13. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

I plan to read 10 books on Writing craft this year. So far I read six books, leaving four to go, or who knows, perhaps I’ll be lucky to read more than my new year’s resolution this time.

I have now two books as audiobooks, so I’ll hear them while organizing or coloring instead of taking the time to sit and hold them before me. It worked well for the last non-fiction book I was hearing.

14 Favourite Book Community Member(s)?

There are so many nice book tubers, readers I’ve met on Goodreads, and people I met on this blog, that I can’t name only one person.

I like all the different tastes and opinions, even if someone won’t read what I consider a must-read for this or that genre, or love a book/author I don’t care about. Isn’t diversity beautiful?

If you do the Mid-Year Book Freak Out // Book Tag on your Blog or Youtube channel leave your link in the comments. I’m curious.

Filed under: Books Tagged: 2017, Book, Mid-Year Book Freak Out, Tag from WordPress http://ift.tt/2sHucpb via IFTTT

#IFTTT #WordPress

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son-of-a-duck · 7 years ago

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June 21, 2017

It's nearly midnight and most of this entry will probably be typed with my eyes clothes because I'm tired.

When I got to work this morning I was going to call my homebound patrons but that was quickly forgotten about when my boss asked me to go around and put up the weekly scoop, which is just a single sheet of interesting things for staff, that we put in staff areas. Normally it is done by one of the assistants over the weekend but it got buried in her inbox, so the task was given to me this week. It was quite a journey from the basement up to the third floor. But I think I got them all delivered. And after all that running around I completely forgot about calling my patrons. Something I didn't realize until right before lunch while I was still on the desk so I couldn't actually call anyone. I also forgot to mail the letters to two of my patrons who get letters instead of phone calls. It was not a good month for contacting.

I got to use the paper cutter in the basement this morning. I printed off another 400 prize tickets and didn't want to slowly cut them on the regular paper cutter. The hardest part was finding the key to the one in the basement. Admin was supposed to have one but the three people I talked to knew nothing about it. I lucked out when I asked the assistant director because the head maintenance guy was with him and he had a key, so I met him down in the basement. The cutting went very well and it is still fun to use the cutter.

When I gave the key back to the maintenance guy he made me hold up all of my fingers so he could check to make sure I still had them all. He said something along the lines of “Good, you still have all ten fingers.” And my immediate response was “But I started with eleven.” Earlier when I ran into him talking to the assistant director he said they were talking about me and it wasn't anything good. And my response was “So only great things.” I was on fire this morning.

After lunch we loaded up the minivan and headed out to deliver books. I startled my first patron a little bit because she was asleep when I walked in her room and had to shout to wake her up. I had a good conversation with my second patron. One of my patrons in the first nursing home was gone for the day, which I kind of didn't mind because she's the messy patron that I have to clean all of her books after we bring them back to the library. At the second nursing home I had enough time to cool off in the van and read about fifteen minutes of a book while I waited for the other librarian. It took me awhile to start the book so the overall wait was closer to twenty or thirty minutes. Her patron had fallen earlier in the day and landed on her walker. She was meeting with a couple nurses and the librarian had to wait for them to finish.

My last patron is the one with macular degeneration and I was looking forward to telling her about the rating system I came up with. But then her daughter answered the door and let me know that her mom was dying. She was in a hospital bed in the family room and wasn't looking too good. It apparently came on pretty suddenly. I offered to leave the new books but she wasn't interested in listening to anything so I took them with me. Along with the rating system I had also pulled a bunch of new authors for her and I was looking forward to a month from now, seeing if she liked any of them. The inevitable end is the worst part about homebound. This will be my third patron to die and not the last, unfortunately.

Following that we stopped for gas and then went to Wal-Mart to look for the Pioneer Woman magazine because a patron requested it and it is only available at Wal-Mart. We had no luck finding it and later on my sister said the first run sold out really quick, so we were never going to find it. So we headed back to the library.

We unloaded all the books and got the ready for circulation to check them back in. I took the audiobooks upstairs with me because I was on desk and I needed time to take all the pockets off that I had taped onto all of the cases for the rating shapes.

While I worked on that I talked with the teen librarian because she was at our desk. We continued talking while I worked on inputting the comments I got from my homebound patrons. I was nearly able to finish that. In my last hour of work I had a walk through, continued inputting comments, and talked to the new librarian about programming and other library stuff.

After work I picked up Qdoba and headed to my Mom's for dinner. We ate food, watched YouTube videos, listened to music, and talked. It was a good night and I didn't leave until ten o'clock.

When I got home I watched YouTube videos, clicked around the internet, and eventually started writing this. There have been numerous distractions. One of which was one of the streamers I watch, VernNotice reading a book. He has apparently started a book club, where he just reads on stream for awhile. Being a librarian, I really like that idea. I have dabbled in streaming before, doing some where I make cross stitch patterns in Minecraft, ones where I made my Mom and sister's cross stitch owls, and one playing CS:GO. I like the idea of just sitting and reading, though. My thought is to pull up somewhere in Elite Dangerous with a cool view and just reading. I started my audio journal as an excuse to talk during the weekends when I may go a day or two without speaking to anyone, which would present a problem when I got to work on Monday and my voice wouldn't work properly. Reading a book out loud would definitely help with that and it would be another excuse to read books. I'll have to think about it. My main concern is about the legality of it. I'm pretty sure reading a book on a livestream is probably a copyright violation. So maybe I would need to stick with public domain books. And then if it actually becomes a thing, asking authors or their agents if I can pay for the rights to read the book. I know on YouTube artists can pay a small fee to cover a song and I wonder if it is the same with a book. Maybe I'll find out at some point.

And it is now nearly 1:45AM and I am just finishing this. Good grief.

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