25 thoughts on “June 14, 2024: Obvious”

  1. I’m now 286 (consecutive) days into learning Japanese. Not long into learning, I saw a Reddit post that said a lot of Japanese people freeze and clam up when confronted with English because although they can read it and speak some of it, they can’t hear it. I’m getting firmly into that territory now. I do this for about 45 minutes most days, and I can envision carrying on a reasonable conversation, and then I turn on the Japanese commentary on a wrestling show and my brain explodes trying to keep up. Apparently I should have started before age 46.

    1. I had a similar experience in first year Spanish, built up a good vocabulary and learned to conjugate verbs and I was great on paper, but live conversation was baffling and I just couldn't keep up because I was trying to translate in my head. You'll know you finally made it when catch yourself thinking and dreaming in Japanese.

      3. I told myself I would do two things in grad school, besides getting a Ph.D.
        1. Surf
        2. Learn Spanish.

        Neither happened. But last year, I paid for a "lifetime" subscription to Rosetta Stone. Unlimited languages, blah blah blah.

        I've used it about five times to get a very feeble start on Spanish.

        My college German consists these days mostly of "ein Bier, bitte."

        2. My best friend & I are currently in San Diego for the first time together since December 2006. Some of the conversation has revolved around “I maybe could have done X or Y more while living here.”

          Torrey Pines is still a gorgeous hike, at least.

  3. I noticed last fall that one of our sprinkler heads was dribbling water onto the sidewalk but not popping up. I was in Omaha when the company opened the system, and the guy found it was blocked by roots. In freeing up the head, he damaged he collar, and it just gurgles. I cleared out some more roots around the head, and had the company come out to fix it. Turns out the maple had punctured the line so the saddle was leaking, which attracted even more root action. Needless to say, it was a muddy mess and a pile of roots by the time he got things back up and running. Thank God their hourly rates are really, really cheap *rolled eyes*

    On the plus side, I treated myself to upgrading the controller to a wireless one.

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