Lookie at the Dragons Dance!! ^_____^
Aug. 7th, 2005 06:44 pmSo offline life has been filled with action! Though admittedly, I haven't really been offline. >.> But still--in the time I haven't been using AIM, I've managed to get ahold of a new DDR pad, play for like 3 hours, read 2 library books and return them, finish the manga I borrowed from Carol, color four watercolor pictures, watch a movie with my dad and brother, go to work (duh), and attend the August Moon Festival in Chinatown with Wen. While, upon closer inspection, that all doesn't really amount to much, I still feel accomplished about it. ^^;
The Festival was a lot of fun, even though we got there after Wen had planned to, and we didn't get to see a martial arts presentation she had been interested in. But we got to see a lot of cool street vendors and eat Chinese pasties and I got a watermelon slushie that totally made my day with its deliciousness. :D Oh, and yes, we did get to see a dragon dancything. ^^
I also learnt some things about Chinese. Apparently, Chinese speakers don't think of words in terms of vowels and consonants, but rather as the way of pronouncing a particular character. Each word is pronounced a certain way, and that's just how it -is-...you don't think about phonetics at all, because you can't. It's pretty much like...you learn a word, and then you learn its tone/pronunciation along with its meaning, and that's just how it goes. There are also apparently 4 different types of tone, and while my mind automatically continued 'for every vowel', Wen insisted that Chinese shouldn't be thought of in a phonetic way. Still, that's the only way I can fathom it, so I'll make an example like that. Imagine a long o sound--as in orange. the first tone is kinda with a rising inflection, like a question. 'oh?' the second type of tone is kind of down, and then up, and about impossible to explain in text. Kinda like the first one, only deeper, but still dragged up at the end. 'ouh?' The third tone is deep, at the bottom of one's throat, in a kind of 'ouuuh?'...and the fourth one is the sound without inflection. 'oh.' It's really hard, and I'm not sure I'm even thinking of it right, but if that IS correct, then I found that the most I pushed it through my brain, the more clear the difference was, and sometimes when Wen and her mother were speaking relatively slowly, I could pick up the difference between the 3rd tone and the others, and notice what I think was the 1st one. According to Wen, my Chinese pronunciation (based on me repeating her words) has somehow become really good, in spite of the fact that only a year or two ago she described my pronunciation as deplorable and my repititions as unintelligible, even though I don't know that I'm repeating what she says in any radically different way.
...But yeah. With nitpicky differences like that, and no way to phonetisize(sp?) it, Chinese just isn't the language for me. Yet.
...Though, I recognized some of the characters on the signs, like there was this sign for a discount and I saw the character for what Carol had taught me was 'less, or least, or lower'...or something. Lower price? ...Maybe. ^_^
I also am starting to believe that I may've found my artistic niche in watercolors. I got a beginner's watercolor set, just to try it out. I've rarely had so much fun with art supplies. Even with linearts done hurriedly so I could get to painting, most stuff I've finished so far has come out wonderfully. It's not even technically skillful, because I'm shading using the same sort of techniques as I do with any medium, and sometimes with the watercolors, the shading doesn't even show up so well. I think it's more like the style of the watercolors allows for some overflow and flexibility, whereas mistakes and inconsistencies in colored pencil/marker/digital art are much more glaring. Either way, I've come up with some stuff that even I think I would favorite, were it someone else's, and that makes for a happyhappy Rai. AND IT'S SO MUCH FUN! <.>;
I'm thinking I need to get into a kind of schedule if I'm going to get anything done while working. The thing about work is that it requires getting up at 8, and if I'm lucky, releases me back into the world at 3. That leaves my day with about 5 hours of sunlight, anywhere between 2 and 6 hours to go places before they close, and naturally, I'm entering into it pre-exhausted. It's verreh hard to get myself to do anything after work, and that means that unless I force myself, 4 out of 7 days, I'm not doing anything productive at all. So maybe 7-8, if I'm home, could be time I should be exercising. And then 10-midnight could be time for reading or studying or watching anime...or something like that. I don't know if I'd be able to keep a schedule like that even if I made one.
I think my half-cousin Ryan is coming to visit tonight, and I have to 'escort' him to Logan on public transportation early tomorrow morning. Our relationship has been somewhat rocky over the several years he's been my cousin, so...I just hope that he gets off the train when I tell him to. --; It would be bad to lose him in Boston, I think.
Anyway. That's enough banter.
<3 for..nevermind.
~Rai
The Festival was a lot of fun, even though we got there after Wen had planned to, and we didn't get to see a martial arts presentation she had been interested in. But we got to see a lot of cool street vendors and eat Chinese pasties and I got a watermelon slushie that totally made my day with its deliciousness. :D Oh, and yes, we did get to see a dragon dancything. ^^
I also learnt some things about Chinese. Apparently, Chinese speakers don't think of words in terms of vowels and consonants, but rather as the way of pronouncing a particular character. Each word is pronounced a certain way, and that's just how it -is-...you don't think about phonetics at all, because you can't. It's pretty much like...you learn a word, and then you learn its tone/pronunciation along with its meaning, and that's just how it goes. There are also apparently 4 different types of tone, and while my mind automatically continued 'for every vowel', Wen insisted that Chinese shouldn't be thought of in a phonetic way. Still, that's the only way I can fathom it, so I'll make an example like that. Imagine a long o sound--as in orange. the first tone is kinda with a rising inflection, like a question. 'oh?' the second type of tone is kind of down, and then up, and about impossible to explain in text. Kinda like the first one, only deeper, but still dragged up at the end. 'ouh?' The third tone is deep, at the bottom of one's throat, in a kind of 'ouuuh?'...and the fourth one is the sound without inflection. 'oh.' It's really hard, and I'm not sure I'm even thinking of it right, but if that IS correct, then I found that the most I pushed it through my brain, the more clear the difference was, and sometimes when Wen and her mother were speaking relatively slowly, I could pick up the difference between the 3rd tone and the others, and notice what I think was the 1st one. According to Wen, my Chinese pronunciation (based on me repeating her words) has somehow become really good, in spite of the fact that only a year or two ago she described my pronunciation as deplorable and my repititions as unintelligible, even though I don't know that I'm repeating what she says in any radically different way.
...But yeah. With nitpicky differences like that, and no way to phonetisize(sp?) it, Chinese just isn't the language for me. Yet.
...Though, I recognized some of the characters on the signs, like there was this sign for a discount and I saw the character for what Carol had taught me was 'less, or least, or lower'...or something. Lower price? ...Maybe. ^_^
I also am starting to believe that I may've found my artistic niche in watercolors. I got a beginner's watercolor set, just to try it out. I've rarely had so much fun with art supplies. Even with linearts done hurriedly so I could get to painting, most stuff I've finished so far has come out wonderfully. It's not even technically skillful, because I'm shading using the same sort of techniques as I do with any medium, and sometimes with the watercolors, the shading doesn't even show up so well. I think it's more like the style of the watercolors allows for some overflow and flexibility, whereas mistakes and inconsistencies in colored pencil/marker/digital art are much more glaring. Either way, I've come up with some stuff that even I think I would favorite, were it someone else's, and that makes for a happyhappy Rai. AND IT'S SO MUCH FUN! <.>;
I'm thinking I need to get into a kind of schedule if I'm going to get anything done while working. The thing about work is that it requires getting up at 8, and if I'm lucky, releases me back into the world at 3. That leaves my day with about 5 hours of sunlight, anywhere between 2 and 6 hours to go places before they close, and naturally, I'm entering into it pre-exhausted. It's verreh hard to get myself to do anything after work, and that means that unless I force myself, 4 out of 7 days, I'm not doing anything productive at all. So maybe 7-8, if I'm home, could be time I should be exercising. And then 10-midnight could be time for reading or studying or watching anime...or something like that. I don't know if I'd be able to keep a schedule like that even if I made one.
I think my half-cousin Ryan is coming to visit tonight, and I have to 'escort' him to Logan on public transportation early tomorrow morning. Our relationship has been somewhat rocky over the several years he's been my cousin, so...I just hope that he gets off the train when I tell him to. --; It would be bad to lose him in Boston, I think.
Anyway. That's enough banter.
<3 for..nevermind.
~Rai