2009 - A Year In Review

Hello everyone! I guess it's been awhile hasn't it? Just over 3 months by my calculations. It was a busy, whirlwind holiday season to say the least! I wanted to take a moment, do a post, and look back on 2009. My friend Mike dubbed it the year of the ninja, wherein we would all aspire, by the end of the year, to be one. So are we? Well, not quite. But hey, we made the attempt, and we're closer now than we were. Not quite a bullseye, but closer to the target than we would be had we never aimed for it. (The proverb goes, "Aim for the moon, and even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.) As it stands, I have a lot of goals which I have not completed. There is a perfectly good, and I think a perfectly acceptable reason for this. I am a person of many, many.....MANY interests, and you might say a Jack of all Trades, and Master of None. Here is the vital thing. I have made progress toward many things which I aspire to complete, and even though I did not finish in 2009, I am not finished. The goal setting, more importantly than anything, focused me enough so that I could in fact get somewhere, and keep from going nowhere. I have to update some percentages, but the list is pretty close. One of the best things is that Merrick is approaching halfway on the first draft. This is by far more than I've ever managed with any story which I intended to be longer than a few pages. It was the method I was using, I discovered this year. As an author, I am an outliner, as opposed to a discovery writer. This means that I work from an outline better than off the cuff. I write my concepts and beginnings that way, but once I frame the idea, I need to outline. Because of that, Merrick is going to be finished! I'm very excited about it. In 2009, I also made a few inquiries, and connections as far as the publishing process will go, in the event that Merrick is ever at that level. It just might be someday! The other great thing that came out of 2009, goal-wise, is my study of Japanese. I have had a great time so far learning the language. I have a long way to go before I'm even comfortable with basic conversation, but this time last year, I knew perhaps 100 random words and had no idea how to put them together. Now I would place my vocabulary at 400-500 words, and a good grasp of the basic structure of the language. I've also nearly mastered Hiragana and Katakana. The Kanji are little intimidating, but I'm sure if I take it a little at a time, I'll be fine. Fitness was a big part of 2009, and I know it will be big in 2010 also. Michelle and I have been whipping ourselves into shape after the holidays, and have tossed around another piece of the Appalachian Trail. Perhaps the 20 miles or so that we missed on the trip last summer. A smaller hike, true, but by design, so we don't have to take as many days off from work. Also related to fitness (as well as the year of the ninja) is Kung Fu. I'll be continuing with that in 2010, and my goal is two sashes this year. With a little more practice I'm ready for the first one. In 2009, Michelle and I had opportunities to do so many things we'd never done before. Not only the Appalachian Trail, but Baltimore and GenCon in Indianapolis. It was almost too much! We had an absolutely great time, and it was a great year. One for the history books! In 2010, there are some new things planned. In the spring we'll be heading to Italy to visit Michelle's uncle, who retired there after his time in the service. There may be a quick crash course in Italian thrown into my language studies. We're also planning a return to GenCon to assist with True Dungeon again. Not only did we have the time of our lives, but hey, it's a free vacation! :) In retrospect, I believe that I've grown in 2009. I feel that mentally, physically and spiritually I am in completely new places than I was last year at this time. I'll never be perfect. And in many things, I'll never even be adequate, but I can try to be better than I used to be. That's the important thing. And so, look for more posts soon. Let's kick off 2010 and make it another good one! Thanks so much for reading! I really do appreciate it! -J

Good evening! This will be a quick one. I just wanted to drop a quick note to divert your attention over to the left, where the Japanese progress bar now indicates 23%. I am working on lesson 19 on my course of study and just completed my Beginning Hiragana book! It's really unbelieveable, but I'm reading and writing Hiragana fairly smoothly! I'm at nearly a quarter of the way there at the end of the first quarter of 2009! That means Basic Japanese is on track! This has been really fun so far, as I have already said. I have to buy my Beginning Katakana book in the next week or so and begin working on that syllabary. I think I might actually break into Kanji a little bit this year as well. I have also decided that I'm going to use another goal to work on this one. I'm going to strive to write a program in Python that will take a compiled vocabulary list and drill me on it. Like flash cards! Should be a fairly simple program. I'll get started on that next month I think. I'll keep this short, but I've got a couple of commentary blogs coming up concerning one of my favorite books, and one of my favorite bands! Talk to you soon! -J

General Update

I have just a quick update on a few things for those of you following along. It's a big week in the general goings on leading up to the crazy (I mean AWESOME) summer of 2009! 1. Fitness: In the world of fitness, things are now underway. Today I bought a new pair of Saucony running shoes and Michelle and I rebooted our runner's training with Couch to 5k. I linked it way back in 2008 when we started for the first time. This time we're going to try and repeat the program with a couple of differences. This time we're in pretty decent shape to begin with, and also we're doing it faster with a goal of running the Memorial Day 5k in Ironton and posting a much better time. It shouldn't be too hard to beat last year's time of over 37 minutes, but I'd like to beat the Jingle Bell Run time of under 29 as well. More on this as it develops. 2. The AT 2009 Expedition: The planning has begun. Our long anticipated week long hike on the Appalachian Trail looks like it'll be taking place the first week of June, barring any scheduling trouble or unforeseen circumstances. Michelle and I are heading down to Tennessee this weekend not only to see my grandparents who are up from Florida, but also to make a quick trip to a couple of good outdoor/backpacking stores for a little outfitting. We're going to get the rest of our footwear (socks and liners and such) and also our cookware. I have my stove, but I need a little better mess kit. We're planning on scouting out some of our food as well. There are various other essentials that Michelle has on a list that is pretty long, but hopefully not all that heavy once they're loaded on our backs. :) I'm thinking I'll probably post my complete gear list once I have everything together in one place. After the hike we'll do a comparison and I'll see what I can eliminate for future hikes. 3. Ninja Skills: Beginning the first week of April, Michelle and I will be joining our friends Mike and Jenn in a Kung Fu/Self Defense class in Huntington. We have never taken any kind of martial art, and thought it would be fun to try, not to mention a good thing to help with fitness and protection. Who knows, I might have to wrestle a bear in June! Michelle has expressed some interest in Bo Staff. I for one think it would be the coolest thing on earth if Michelle could just go nuts with a Bo. Just like Donatello!! 4. Japanese: I have finished lesson 11 of 30 on my Japanese I course. I did a quick review of lessons 1-10 just to make sure I had a grasp of most of the material, and I feel like I am definitely improving. Slowly but surely this course is increasing my flexibility with the language. Also, I picked up a used copy of "My Japanese Coach" for Nintendo DS this weekend and I've been working on my vocabulary with it. It's a neat little program that teaches with word games. There is a good dose of Education about Japan itself. The program is actually designed not only to teach you the language but to be a travel tool as well. It includes a fairly large dictionary and phrase book, as well as a sketch pad in case you jut have to draw something to get your point across. There you go. I know there were other things I was going to update, but I can't remember. I should write them down somewhere. I've been thinking about getting a Moleskine notebook for that purpose. Blog ideas, random thoughts and such. They're so nice in that display at Borders. So earthy and Bohemian. I think I need one. Alright. I'll get one soon, and then you won't have to feel so cheated when I can't remember all of the details that I meant to impart. :) Later! -J

Japanese Update: Method to the Madness

Hi gang! As my faithful readers, I feel I owe it to you to clarify one of my 2009 goals as I ascertain the method by which I will judge its completion. As such, I have figured out what will constitute the definition of "Basic Japanese" and figured out the way I will update the progress bar. Thus: The Japanese course I have chosen to study has a total of 90 lessons, each 30 minutes long. Henceforth I will consider the completion of each lesson to be 1% of my goal. These, as anyone can probably see, will add up to 90%. I will consider "completion" to mean that I can progress through the lesson with an estimated 80% accuracy of responses. This is the recommended percentage according to the program. So far, I have completed 10 of these lessons and I'll be setting my progress meter accordingly. I need the remaining 10% from somewhere, and since I have decided to be able to read and write as well as speak Japanese, then the remaining number will come from a solid basic understanding of the two basic Japanese syllabaries. Hiragana and Katakana. This year I'll be learning to read and write both of them, and will consider competence to be the ability to sound out and read words in either or both. (As well as to write a word I hear) without the aid of a reference. The completion of each syllabary will earn 5% on my meter. Two sets of symbols totalling 10% FYI- I have been working on my Hiragana and at present have learned to recognize and write 35 of the 46 basic symbols. So: Pimsleur Japanese I, II, III - 90 Lessons = 90% Hiragana Syllabary = 5% Katakana Syllabary = 5% ------ 100% Basic Japanese As for the Kanji; The 2000 or so borrowed and commonly used Chinese symbols; Well, I think I'll tackle those in 2010. Maybe I'll start casually working on them when I finish Hiragana and Katakana. As it stands, I'm thinking I might try to have a single Kanji learned for every day of 2010. 365 out of 2000 is a pretty fair start. :) Talk to you soon! -J

Japanese Update!

Konichiwa! I just wanted to update on my pursuit of the Japanese language! It's been a good week with my studies. The audio lessons are definitely the way I pick it up the best. I have to recommend the Pimsleur series for anyone who learns by listening and doing. You get right into speaking in lesson one and you learn the grammar as you go. I would also recommend the series if you have a long commute. I've been able to progress pretty quickly being that I drive so much. I am working on lesson 7 of 10 out of the basic set right now. I'm going to have to either buy or borrow the comprehensive set if I'm to really get going with it. The bad thing is that to progress through all three levels it can be pretty expensive. The comprehensive set has the same first 10 lessons, and then 20 more on top of that. Alright, so I have to tell you that I did not expect to enjoy learning a language this much. I expected it to be worthwhile, and I expected to enjoy it, but I am really having a great time with this! I have a theory that I'm loving it so much because I'm getting to use my brain in a way that I really haven't used it since I was very young. I did take a lot of Spanish in high school and college, but for some reason it wasn't the same. I can't really figure out why, except that maybe it is so close to English in so many ways, that it's not really like truly learning to communicate for the first time. The romance languages are that way. Similar sounds, alphabets, words etc. The trickiest part is the grammar and verb conjugation. Japanese is like learning to communicate all over again to me. The pronunciation and words are very foreign. It isn't what I'd call difficult, but it is different. It seems to actually be a pretty efficient spoken language so far. That doesn't even enter into the alphabet. If you take all of the Kana and Kanji into account, there are more than 2000 that every Japanese child is supposed to know by the 9th grade or so. Everything is new. Like learning to speak your first language as a child. I did decide around lesson 5 that I needed to learn to read and write Japanese as well. By all accounts, reading Japanese improves your pronunciation and your basic concept of the words themselves. Knowing the Kana (the letter systems) you can more easily grasp the words themselves as opposed to the Romaji (or the romanized Japanese words using roman letters to spell the Japanese sounds). So I went to Borders and picked up my workbook to learn the first 46 Basic Hiragana. I can recognize and write the first 12 so far. In Romaji: a-i-u-e-o-ka-ki-ku-ke-ko-sa-shi. So here I am, a 31 year old guy practicing my letters on a workbook sheet and saying them as I write them over and over. Using a mnemonic device for each one to remember them when I see them and learning to speak by listening to other people. This brings me back to why I think I'm enjoying it so much. I think maybe my brain remembers learning to speak and is having a wonderful time doing it again! As I said, I'm thinking in a way that I haven't since I was a small child. This is getting a little long winded for a blog that's supposed to just tell you, I'm progressing with speaking Japanese, I am now learning to read and write it as well, and I am having a blast with it! I'm raising my progress bar for Basic Japanese to 5%, but I have to confess that I really don't know what encompasses basic Japanese, so I'm guessing blindly. Anyway, I'm being as conservative as I can until I'm more certain about my progress and my destination. Thanks for visiting! Talk to you soon! -J

2009 Skills Update

Here's a quick update to let you know that I have started on my Basic Japanese skill for 2009. I will be moving the progress bar to 3%. Tonight I picked up an audio course, and have completed the first lesson. It's basically a little grammar and an introductory conversation. I can say a few phrases like, "I am an American." and "Do you understand English?" and "I only understand a little Japanese." I can also say the various permutations thereof. I'll be going over lesson 1 several times to solidify things before I move on to lesson 2. I decided as well, that I should take time to look up the words I'm saying. That's the one drawback to an audio only course. You can't see what the words look like. In other news, my dad has informed me that one of the members of our church who is an ex policeman is going to be teaching a gun certification for a donation to the Faith and Fitness Center Building Fund. This was fantastic news! Michelle and I are going to donate and take the class together, which should effectively knock out the Firearms Certification goal! I should probably follow it up with attaining some level of proficiency beyond the basics if we do this one in a hurry. Maybe some sort of accuracy percentage or something. I have a customer that I call on who is a master class pistol shooter in Ohio. Maybe he can give me some pointers. (Oddly, no one has ever robbed his pharmacy. He even pays for his employees to become certified with a handgun.) Lastly in this update, I also bought a basic navigation book for my orienteering goal. I'll get started on that as soon as I get a chance. This whole goal thing seems to be working pretty well! :) I need to think of some more. Oh and yes Coopers. We're totally camping this year. See you guys soon! -J