I am leaving for Berlin tomorrow.
Now I am not really a travel person. I suffer from a slight agoraphobia, and really don't really like being at places I haven't been before. It gets better the longer I stay at the unknown place, and the better I get to know it thou. Plus I don't really like flying. So I have quite a bit of travel nerves as I am sure you can imagine.
Anywho, this means that the blog will be vacant until Thursday. It also means that I will get to see the last remnants of the Berlin wall (which I am writing a paper on after the tripXD).
I plan to take lots of pictures, and I will hopefully find the Neverending Story in German. I really enjoy reading books in their original language.
At the moment I am reading a biography of Hitler. I really enjoy reading biographies. Especially about great, and gruesome, persons in history, like Hitler or Mao. I think that reading about people like that, helps us understand the reason why things happened the way it did. I believe that the best way to avoid repeating it. I will someday read a biography of Bush for this same reason. Preferably some time after he is dead, because then the biographies are more objective. (I do however wish him a long and happy retirement, I just want him to have it far away from politics.)
So wish me a good trip and a safe flight. And please hope that I will not miss the plane back, which is my biggest source of anxiety when I travel. I really fear being stuck in some foreign country. So hope for a good trip, and coming home safe^^,
Word of the day:
恐怖症 - kyoufushou - morbid fear, phobia
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Education against starvation
I am a big fan of education. Better education, more money for research, and more education (as in schools for every child every where), is in my opinion not only is going to be the best long term best solution for the financial crisis, but is also going to be the only way to end world hunger and poverty. Help people help themselves.
I am also a big fan of helping the environment, and I would like to help stop world hunger.
Now how can I, not being a researcher or anything, combine my love for education and my desire to help save the world. This is how:
It's a quiz based system, and for every right answer you get right they donate 10 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. There are several subjects to get quizzed in, including the Periodic Table, art, German, geography and math. They are constantly expanding, when I started playing at the end of 2007 they had only English vocabulary.
And 10 grains per right answer add up fast, and you can choose to have the site track how many grains you have donated, I just got over 10 000.
I actually did some math on February. In the FAQ they state that the WFP provides, on average, 400 grams of rice per day per person. They also state that one gram of rice consists of about 48 grains of rice. Which adds up to about 19 000 grains of rice per person per day.
By these numbers FreeRice.com has fed over 3000 people, per day, in February. That's quite a few people. A very little percent of the actual amount of starving people in the world, but it's still 3000 less hungry people.
So go and learn some new words, or practice for your geography test, get some idea of what lies where, or get a great start to learning a new language, and feed hungry children at the same time=D
Word of the day:
飢え - ue - hunger, starvation
I am also a big fan of helping the environment, and I would like to help stop world hunger.
Now how can I, not being a researcher or anything, combine my love for education and my desire to help save the world. This is how:
It's a quiz based system, and for every right answer you get right they donate 10 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. There are several subjects to get quizzed in, including the Periodic Table, art, German, geography and math. They are constantly expanding, when I started playing at the end of 2007 they had only English vocabulary.
And 10 grains per right answer add up fast, and you can choose to have the site track how many grains you have donated, I just got over 10 000.
I actually did some math on February. In the FAQ they state that the WFP provides, on average, 400 grams of rice per day per person. They also state that one gram of rice consists of about 48 grains of rice. Which adds up to about 19 000 grains of rice per person per day.
By these numbers FreeRice.com has fed over 3000 people, per day, in February. That's quite a few people. A very little percent of the actual amount of starving people in the world, but it's still 3000 less hungry people.
So go and learn some new words, or practice for your geography test, get some idea of what lies where, or get a great start to learning a new language, and feed hungry children at the same time=D
Word of the day:
飢え - ue - hunger, starvation
Thursday, February 26, 2009
About the importance of pronounciation
So I messed up in Japanese class todayXP
We were doing comparative sentences I managed to say "バスのほうが新幹線よりやさいです" instead of "バスのほうが新幹線よりやすいです". Prompting a mini lesson in the importance of pronunciation.
To clarify I said "the bus is more vegetable than the train", when I was supposed to say "the bus is cheaper than the train"XP
Seeing as Japanese is a language based on syllables one syllable (or vocal really) wrong can have horrible effects.
Other examples that she told us is for example the one about the foreign student that has to push his way through the masses of people to get of a crowded train and manages to say "ころしてください" when he means to say "おろしてください". He of course means to say "please let me through", but ends up saying "please kill me". Which must have caused a whole lot of horrified looks. XD
Or the poor tourist at the beach who wants to sit down next to a pair and have a chat but confuses the verbs すわる and さわる, and ends up saying something along the lines of "can I feel you up?" instead of "can I sit here?".
So as you can see, pronunciation is crucial. Or else you can end up getting shot on a train or being smacked down by a jealous boyfriend XP
Or you can have long conversations of which item in a store is more vegetable than another XP
Words of the day:
やさい - yasai - vegetable
やすい - yasui - cheap
ころす - korsu - kill
おろす - oroi - (in the context I have used it here: move, get out of the way)
すわる - suwaru - to sit
さわる - sawaru - to touch, to feel (or to harm actually)
We were doing comparative sentences I managed to say "バスのほうが新幹線よりやさいです" instead of "バスのほうが新幹線よりやすいです". Prompting a mini lesson in the importance of pronunciation.
To clarify I said "the bus is more vegetable than the train", when I was supposed to say "the bus is cheaper than the train"XP
Seeing as Japanese is a language based on syllables one syllable (or vocal really) wrong can have horrible effects.
Other examples that she told us is for example the one about the foreign student that has to push his way through the masses of people to get of a crowded train and manages to say "ころしてください" when he means to say "おろしてください". He of course means to say "please let me through", but ends up saying "please kill me". Which must have caused a whole lot of horrified looks. XD
Or the poor tourist at the beach who wants to sit down next to a pair and have a chat but confuses the verbs すわる and さわる, and ends up saying something along the lines of "can I feel you up?" instead of "can I sit here?".
So as you can see, pronunciation is crucial. Or else you can end up getting shot on a train or being smacked down by a jealous boyfriend XP
Or you can have long conversations of which item in a store is more vegetable than another XP
Words of the day:
やさい - yasai - vegetable
やすい - yasui - cheap
ころす - korsu - kill
おろす - oroi - (in the context I have used it here: move, get out of the way)
すわる - suwaru - to sit
さわる - sawaru - to touch, to feel (or to harm actually)
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Dead like a TVshow
Remember I told you I had started watching Dead like me?
Which I knew had been canceled after the second season, I knew that before I started watching it, but the place where it stops seems so wrong to me.
Bah! I really should not read or watch anything that has gotten canceled. Firefly got canceled (the very last episode of which ended with Mal and Inara fighting! TT_TT), Moonlight got canceled (that too ended on a cliffhanger), The Tribe got canceled (due to not being appropriate for children anymore, but that too ended on a freakin' cliffhanger). Why do they insist on doing that! Please for gods sake let shows end with a proper ending! Please? Pretty please with sugar, and cherries, and whipped cream, and candy, and all that's sweet on top?
Take Firefly for example. It got thirteen episodes. Thirteen. Fox shat that one all by themselves. It's angled at the Buffy crowd, so they decide to show it at 9 P.M. on a Friday. Do they even know their own audience? And then they go of and show the episodes in the wrong freakin' order! They explanation to why things happened the way it did goes almost last. And it's an awesome show.
It's set in the future, 2517 to be exact, with spaceships and stuff, and an evil alliance. There aren't any aliens, we're alone in the vast emptiness of the universe, so we have inhabited whatever planets we can terraform into taking us. And there's reapers, humans that have gone mad and cannibalistic.
In this future there is a spaceship called Serenity, which hold the coolest crew of outlaws ever. There's a companion (prostitute, this show has an entirely refreshing view on prostitution), a preacher (which in this future is kind of shunned, the reason to which we of course never got to hear TT_TT), a doctor and his sweet little bad ass sister, a real bad ass hit man called Jayne. And there's Mal, and there's Kayley, and there's Zöe, and there's Wash, and and and.... And when we get our projector mounted you are all doing a Firefly weekend with me 'cos it's the best, most awesome TV show ever, and if I have to suffer because it was canceled then so do you!!!XD
And yeah, I know there was a movie, but they killed people and it was all wrong, and I want my show back!!! *cries*
Um, I was supposed to talk about Dead like me wasn't I?
It's about reapers. Grim reapers. They don't kill anyone, but they take their souls, so that they can move on. I really isn't a show about death, it's really about life, it's just a bit morbid is all.XD And a bit dark.XD And a whole deal of fun.
It starts of with Georgia Lass (George) who get's killed by a toilet seat that falls from a Soviet space station. (Yeah, I believe they actually call it a "Soviet" space station, but I might remember wrong, it was Russian anyway.)
She ends up filling someones quota, which means that he gets to move on, and she gets to be undead and reap souls.
Her family doesn't do all that well after she is dead, but that story weaves wonderfully into the fabric of the show.
All of the death is really tasteful, and very creative. It's not like CSI, you don't get to see guts and stuff.XP
It's really about life, and moving on. It's sometimes deep, and sometimes it's sad, but most of the time it's just fun. It has a great character arsenal, and the writing is really good. And you should all see this one as wellXD
(And selling point over all selling points: No moral speeches. This show could really do them, and they didn't, and I LOVE them for that XD XD)
Word of the day:
袋小路 - fukurokouji - blind alley, cul-de-sac, impasse, dead-end (street
Which I knew had been canceled after the second season, I knew that before I started watching it, but the place where it stops seems so wrong to me.
Bah! I really should not read or watch anything that has gotten canceled. Firefly got canceled (the very last episode of which ended with Mal and Inara fighting! TT_TT), Moonlight got canceled (that too ended on a cliffhanger), The Tribe got canceled (due to not being appropriate for children anymore, but that too ended on a freakin' cliffhanger). Why do they insist on doing that! Please for gods sake let shows end with a proper ending! Please? Pretty please with sugar, and cherries, and whipped cream, and candy, and all that's sweet on top?
Take Firefly for example. It got thirteen episodes. Thirteen. Fox shat that one all by themselves. It's angled at the Buffy crowd, so they decide to show it at 9 P.M. on a Friday. Do they even know their own audience? And then they go of and show the episodes in the wrong freakin' order! They explanation to why things happened the way it did goes almost last. And it's an awesome show.
It's set in the future, 2517 to be exact, with spaceships and stuff, and an evil alliance. There aren't any aliens, we're alone in the vast emptiness of the universe, so we have inhabited whatever planets we can terraform into taking us. And there's reapers, humans that have gone mad and cannibalistic.
In this future there is a spaceship called Serenity, which hold the coolest crew of outlaws ever. There's a companion (prostitute, this show has an entirely refreshing view on prostitution), a preacher (which in this future is kind of shunned, the reason to which we of course never got to hear TT_TT), a doctor and his sweet little bad ass sister, a real bad ass hit man called Jayne. And there's Mal, and there's Kayley, and there's Zöe, and there's Wash, and and and.... And when we get our projector mounted you are all doing a Firefly weekend with me 'cos it's the best, most awesome TV show ever, and if I have to suffer because it was canceled then so do you!!!XD
And yeah, I know there was a movie, but they killed people and it was all wrong, and I want my show back!!! *cries*
Um, I was supposed to talk about Dead like me wasn't I?
It's about reapers. Grim reapers. They don't kill anyone, but they take their souls, so that they can move on. I really isn't a show about death, it's really about life, it's just a bit morbid is all.XD And a bit dark.XD And a whole deal of fun.
It starts of with Georgia Lass (George) who get's killed by a toilet seat that falls from a Soviet space station. (Yeah, I believe they actually call it a "Soviet" space station, but I might remember wrong, it was Russian anyway.)
She ends up filling someones quota, which means that he gets to move on, and she gets to be undead and reap souls.
Her family doesn't do all that well after she is dead, but that story weaves wonderfully into the fabric of the show.
All of the death is really tasteful, and very creative. It's not like CSI, you don't get to see guts and stuff.XP
It's really about life, and moving on. It's sometimes deep, and sometimes it's sad, but most of the time it's just fun. It has a great character arsenal, and the writing is really good. And you should all see this one as wellXD
(And selling point over all selling points: No moral speeches. This show could really do them, and they didn't, and I LOVE them for that XD XD)
Word of the day:
袋小路 - fukurokouji - blind alley, cul-de-sac, impasse, dead-end (street
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Uma uma?
Listen real closely to this song. 'Cos it sure sounds like "Dansa med oss. Klappa era hander" to me.
That is rightey peeps, the greatly popular Caramelldansen meme is really Sweedish Bubblegum Dance sped up. The meme itself started on 4chan, but the reason I decided to show you through this particular vid is that it's the latest fad i Japan. O.o
If it wasn't for the fact that this thing will be long gone when I get to Japan, I would so totally go around in Tokyo with a ghettoblaster (does those still exsist?) and see how many people I can get to do the Uma Uma danceXD
It's so much fun to find Japanese fads that come from Scandinavia. ^^,
Lets do Licky Licky next=D=D
(Side note: Apparently the phrase "Dansa med oss, klappa era händer" sounds like "Barusamiko-su Yappa irahen de" to the Japanese, which means "There isn't any Balsamic vinegar after all" in Kansaiben (Kansai dialect). The fact that they wave their hands to that seems a bit odd to me, but hey, I did the heartbeat dance to "Oops, I did it again", so I guess I shouldn't speakXP)
Phrase of the day:
バルサミコすやっぱいいらへんで - Barusamiko-su Yappa irahen de - There isn't any Balsamic Vinegar after all
(PS: if you want actual videos of this thing search for Caramalldansen on youtube)
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Update
It's almost two weeks since my last post.
In that time I have applied for University, Japanese of course, with literature and sign language as backup choices^^, I will not get my any response until summer thou, but I will tell you all what I get into^^,
I have started a second blog, completely dedicated to one of my two biggest passions: Pokémon (Japanese being the other one of courseXD)
I have, with the help of my wonderful friends, completed stage one of my Pokémon collection: The early years. (Aka: GameBoy Color compatible games^^,) The next one on the list is the GameBoy Advance games, and then DS. Aaaanywho, I love my friends=D By the time this game came out I had become "cool" and thus I missed this one and everything up until the DS was released. Read all about this and Pokémon statistics on the brand new Pokéblogg^^,
I have also been to the movies since my last entry, I saw Bolt, and let me tell you, even when I don't have to watch her less than purdy face Miley Cyrus is a bad actress. She sounded bored most of the time, even when she was supposed to sound heart broken over losing Bolt.
It's basically another pet-searching-for-owner movie. Except these pets are priceless. The cat is so hilarious, and the crazed fan-hamster is just too cool.
One of the things that I loved about this movie, and that I usually love to find in animated flicks, was the unnecessary details. I mean, there is no need for the hamsterball to have tiny scratches, but they were there, and I loved them. And the one pigeon that kept shedding tiny feathers every time he moved. The peripheral details like that sells me over and over. The tiny white hairs sticking into the black lightning bolt on Bolt, the way Mittens fur was matted and ruffled, but turned soft and silky when she was fed and content. I love attention to details like that^^,
In reality the movie was held up mostly by the supporting roles, Mittens and Rhino were the funny sidekicks that kept the movie from becoming dull. Hard as Travolta tried, a character that's written in two dimensions, regardless of how tragic his story, will never be anything other than a two dimensional character.
All in all it was a fun movie, definitely a good way to spend 103 minutes of my life, but not really worth the outrageous price Oslo Kino are charging for movies nowadays. I am not going to see any film anytime soon if they keep charging 95 kr a person on a regular viewing. And just for any American sulking about having to pay 6 dollars if they want to see a movie when it comes out, those 95kr translates to over 13 USD. And that's a reagular viewing, with no extras. If you want to see it during the first week it plays on the big screen you have to pay almost 15 USD. I do not feel for you.
I have also started watching Dead Like me. Which I will talk about later I think. It's late.
Word of the day:
高い - takai - expensive
In that time I have applied for University, Japanese of course, with literature and sign language as backup choices^^, I will not get my any response until summer thou, but I will tell you all what I get into^^,
I have started a second blog, completely dedicated to one of my two biggest passions: Pokémon (Japanese being the other one of courseXD)
I have, with the help of my wonderful friends, completed stage one of my Pokémon collection: The early years. (Aka: GameBoy Color compatible games^^,) The next one on the list is the GameBoy Advance games, and then DS. Aaaanywho, I love my friends=D By the time this game came out I had become "cool" and thus I missed this one and everything up until the DS was released. Read all about this and Pokémon statistics on the brand new Pokéblogg^^,
I have also been to the movies since my last entry, I saw Bolt, and let me tell you, even when I don't have to watch her less than purdy face Miley Cyrus is a bad actress. She sounded bored most of the time, even when she was supposed to sound heart broken over losing Bolt.
It's basically another pet-searching-for-owner movie. Except these pets are priceless. The cat is so hilarious, and the crazed fan-hamster is just too cool.
One of the things that I loved about this movie, and that I usually love to find in animated flicks, was the unnecessary details. I mean, there is no need for the hamsterball to have tiny scratches, but they were there, and I loved them. And the one pigeon that kept shedding tiny feathers every time he moved. The peripheral details like that sells me over and over. The tiny white hairs sticking into the black lightning bolt on Bolt, the way Mittens fur was matted and ruffled, but turned soft and silky when she was fed and content. I love attention to details like that^^,
In reality the movie was held up mostly by the supporting roles, Mittens and Rhino were the funny sidekicks that kept the movie from becoming dull. Hard as Travolta tried, a character that's written in two dimensions, regardless of how tragic his story, will never be anything other than a two dimensional character.
All in all it was a fun movie, definitely a good way to spend 103 minutes of my life, but not really worth the outrageous price Oslo Kino are charging for movies nowadays. I am not going to see any film anytime soon if they keep charging 95 kr a person on a regular viewing. And just for any American sulking about having to pay 6 dollars if they want to see a movie when it comes out, those 95kr translates to over 13 USD. And that's a reagular viewing, with no extras. If you want to see it during the first week it plays on the big screen you have to pay almost 15 USD. I do not feel for you.
I have also started watching Dead Like me. Which I will talk about later I think. It's late.
Word of the day:
高い - takai - expensive
Friday, February 6, 2009
It's Sweedish!O.o On the internet!O.o
Yeah, real short insomniac posting hereXD If you want the real post for today/this week, you need to read the last one.
I just had to show you this one thing I found at Not Always Right:
Jag pratar inte Spanska sa jag!
Now I am perfectly aware of the fact that the last time I posted links for cool things on the interwebs some of you (I should expect you know who you areXD) neglected your homework and sat backreading on the links^^,
I refuse to feel bad for doing that againXD
Luff you all my honeys^^,
I just had to show you this one thing I found at Not Always Right:
Jag pratar inte Spanska sa jag!
Now I am perfectly aware of the fact that the last time I posted links for cool things on the interwebs some of you (I should expect you know who you areXD) neglected your homework and sat backreading on the links^^,
I refuse to feel bad for doing that againXD
Luff you all my honeys^^,
First dag of Japanese Class
So it was my first day of the new Japanese class yesterday. Level 5 now peepsXD
I LOVE Japanese^^, It was so much fun, and the people remembered me. (I was in this class last fall of 07, but then I took a brake to focus on exams.)
I'm a little behind, but I will catch up in no time, seeing as it's only a chapter and a half. Easy-peasy^^,
There were a lot of new students, and two of them speak very little Norwegian, and the poor teacher speaks almost no English. Poor thing, she struggled along thou, trying her best. She is the sweetest little Japanese woman.^^, She was really upset thou, 'cos we use Genki, that being one of the best books on the market. Just that FU Oslo, which runs the class, wants us to use Japanese for Young People. Which quite honestly is crap. So FU Oslo sends mail to everyone to tell us that we need to buy JfYP 2 and 3, text and workbook. Even thou Reiko (the teacher) sends text messages to everyone telling them to wait to buy the books, some of the students went ahead and bought them anyway. Reiko was so upset, they had to try and exchange them, and she kept apologizing. Poor thing=j
We are repeating quoting and guessing at the moment, which I have actually learned myself already, so I'm covered for the moment. I think I will be up to speed in about two weeks, give or take.^^,
We've had a week off in math. Our math teacher has taken pappaperm, which translates roughly to daddy-leave. It's maternal leave for men. You get a child, and then you get 6 weeks off basically, to take care of your little infant bundle of love^^,
So we get a sub for the 6 weeks he's on leave, just that this first week there wasn't any available subs, so we got to work at home. I better get around to doing thatXD
As a sidenote, I'm halfway through New Moon, the sequel to Twilight, and it's depressing and weird. But I'm almost done, so I am forcing myself through^^, Her narrative skills are painfully slowly improving thou. Some of the things in the book just does not make any sense. If they don't by the end of the book, await rantsXD
Word of the day:
学生 - gakusei - student
I LOVE Japanese^^, It was so much fun, and the people remembered me. (I was in this class last fall of 07, but then I took a brake to focus on exams.)
I'm a little behind, but I will catch up in no time, seeing as it's only a chapter and a half. Easy-peasy^^,
There were a lot of new students, and two of them speak very little Norwegian, and the poor teacher speaks almost no English. Poor thing, she struggled along thou, trying her best. She is the sweetest little Japanese woman.^^, She was really upset thou, 'cos we use Genki, that being one of the best books on the market. Just that FU Oslo, which runs the class, wants us to use Japanese for Young People. Which quite honestly is crap. So FU Oslo sends mail to everyone to tell us that we need to buy JfYP 2 and 3, text and workbook. Even thou Reiko (the teacher) sends text messages to everyone telling them to wait to buy the books, some of the students went ahead and bought them anyway. Reiko was so upset, they had to try and exchange them, and she kept apologizing. Poor thing=j
We are repeating quoting and guessing at the moment, which I have actually learned myself already, so I'm covered for the moment. I think I will be up to speed in about two weeks, give or take.^^,
We've had a week off in math. Our math teacher has taken pappaperm, which translates roughly to daddy-leave. It's maternal leave for men. You get a child, and then you get 6 weeks off basically, to take care of your little infant bundle of love^^,
So we get a sub for the 6 weeks he's on leave, just that this first week there wasn't any available subs, so we got to work at home. I better get around to doing thatXD
As a sidenote, I'm halfway through New Moon, the sequel to Twilight, and it's depressing and weird. But I'm almost done, so I am forcing myself through^^, Her narrative skills are painfully slowly improving thou. Some of the things in the book just does not make any sense. If they don't by the end of the book, await rantsXD
Word of the day:
学生 - gakusei - student
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