Day in the Life of an Idiot

 This is what my wife said to me this morning: "I'm sorry for falling asleep when you wanted to talk about grammar." Which...??? I laughed very hard and told my wife she is a SAINT for feeling bad? Because honest to god, I can be so nerdy. 

Last night, I mostly wanted to complain because articles and particles suck in Japanese. When do you use the object marking particle 'wa' as opposed to 'ga'? When do you use the articles e, ni, or de? It's very complicated for a non-native speaker and my instructor is great, but he also, I think, assumes that his students actually understand English grammar in a way that I'm not sure most of us do? Like, deciding what the subject of a sentence is can be hard once you move beyond: "the boy kicked the ball."

Did any of you out there have to diagram sentences in school?

I remember actually loving it, but, for me, it was more that anything that was more like art was automatically more fun for me?

Anyway, class went okay. My TMI went over just fine? Everyone else talked about their pets. I should have probably done the same, ah well.

I should probably take some extra time to prepare for this Friday night, because I just got a gander at my class list and there are ten students signed up for my master writing class!

TEN!!

I don't normally get ten students when we can meet in person~!!!!!  

I suspect what caused this is that I have been teaching for the Loft for about 20 years, but I have never, in all that time, actually offered a class of a higher level than intermediate. Part of that is that I like working with newer writers--I love that moment when I can explain that out there, not that far away, your people are having conventions and getting to meet other SF writers and editors and agents and IT'S AWESOME. I feel like some kind of fannish Bible-thumper, asking, "Have you heard the Good News, Fellow Nerd!?"  I mean, more and more the younger writers already know about fandom, at least the small-f version, and, of course, locally CONvergence, in particular, has done a great job of finding the young kids and getting them interested in cons and capital-f, Fandom.  Still, I always reach a few new souls and THAT FEELS GOOD.

Anyway, my point and I did have one, was that I suspect the class filled up so thoroughly because I have lots of former students, but many of them have taken all of the levels I have previously taught.

In other class-related news, my speech went well in Japanese class. I, as you saw from the video, practiced, and practiced, and practiced until I could ALMOST sound natural. Apparently, I was one of the few who put this kind of effort in, which.... I mean, I guess it all depends on WHY a person is taking Japanese. Obviously, I am taking Japanese in order to make a complete prat out of myself. I would actually like to attempt to blather to barista and shop clerks and people at the train station about the weather and manga and stuff, should I ever actually be allowed to visit Japan in person, ever again. So, for me, conversation is part of what I am in it for.  But, I mean, if you're more into wanting to be able to read it or understand it, it probably isn't as critical to you to work on sounding natural-ish.  

Also, I am an extrovert and the class clown, so it was important to me to make Tetsuya-sensei laugh--which I managed! 

In fact, he seemed very impressed and said, "Wow, Lyda, you should put that up on your TikTok," and I was like, "Sensei, I am a 53 year old woman. I don't have a TikTok... though, thank you??" ('Cuz, I mean, my instructor is a very snarky guy, so he could actually have been telling me I sounded like a complete weeboo. mmmmmm, the more I think about this.... mmmmm, nice shade there, Sensei.  Now I feel both hurt AND proud of my performance.)

Next week, much, I am sure, to your horror, I will probably be posting one of my better takes of me practicing talking about my family. Be warned, Tetsuya-sensei told us to "be creative."

I apologize in advance for my excessive use of Japanese onomatopoeia. 

 So, I've started up my Intermediate Japanese class through Community Education. It's a bit chaotic, but also wonderful? I'd forgotten how much I personally like the teacher, Tetsuya. He's great. I think he's legit planning on having the class organize a Zoom karaoke.  Our first homework is to write a short thing in which we talk about three things we like and three things we dislike.

I have half of the assignment in this paragraph (in romanji):


Now, I just need to come up with two more things that I like and I can start practicing saying this out loud. I feel like this is important information that I may need to convey in many future situations, so it behooves me to memorize it. :-)

I have to admit that I kind of want to continue to just talk about manga and anime the whole time? And then end it with the Japanese version of "Thank you for coming to my TED talk"

How much do you suppose Tetsuya is ALREADY regretting allowing me to take this class again??

 I spent a lot of today practicing my Japanese.  Normally, I'd have my Intermediate Japanese class tonight, but it's caucus night so no community ed. classes will be held.  I'm still practicing my butt off, though.  I have a lot of words to memorize this week and Tetsuya-sensei's quizzes are often pretty hardcore.  Plus, it turns out, the unit we're learning: family members, involves a very Japanese concept I'm calling "inside/outside voice."  For instance, if I want to say, "Hey, dad," to him, inside my own family, I'd say, "Oi!  Otou-san!" But if I'm being polite and talking about him to someone else, I would call him, "Chichi."  Like if I want to introduce my father to you, I'd probably (if I got this right) say, "Kochira wa watashi no chichi desu."

So, you know, it's good to not only have one word for everything, but even better if there are two!  

:-)

I'm beginning to understand why people say that learning Japanese is very difficult.  

In the world of writing, I have a couple of new installments for you.  First, I have a new chapter of UnJust Cause:  Adulting like a Pro.  Then, I have our last installment for School of Wayward Demons (for a little while.... there are THINGS in the works):  Erin Unravels in Excitement.  So, if you're curious what OMINOUS note Rachel and I plan to leave our story on, go check it out.

And I think anyone reading regularly here can guess that the THINGS in the works for School of Wayward Demons is that there is going to be a book version of this available for MarsCON (print and e- versions, btw), with, potentially, a Kickstarter/Indegogo fundraiser to, well, fund the production costs of said things. I'm am a leet-le nervous about the idea of a kick starter of any kind, because from what I can tell even the really successful ones can eat your brain in terms of time and money and energy.  But, you know: nothing ventured nothing gained. And I'm at least not doing this alone.  

Okay, that's all I know right now!

Those of you reading on Dreamwidth will see a new icon, Captain America's shield:



This will serve as a warning that I'm about to talk far too much about the Marvel Universe (comic books or movies) with probably very little other bits about my life.

Before I start on my Marvel stuff, though I want you all to know that once again I got a 99% percent on my Japanese quiz. This may sound as if I'm acing this class, but I thought about it a lot last night. One of my fellow classmates, Mint, has this wonderful pronunciation, right? He didn't do nearly as well on the quiz as I did. I think the reason for that is simple: anime. I'm really, really accustomed to LISTENING to Japanese because I listen to it at LEAST once a week (sometimes daily when I'm on a dishwashing/watching spree.) I think this means that I can hear the distinct words better than my classmates, because the quiz is that Tetsuya-sensei says the word (or occasionally phrase) in Japanese and we write down the English version. God forbid it be the other way around, that I would have to SAY the Japanese to his English. Half the time he looks at me like, "WTF are you even trying to say, Lyda-san?" when I do try.

So, you know.

Given that that's why I'm taking the class--a desire to hear and understand Japanese better, I feel I'm doing great. But if I were hoping to talk to someone Japanese, I think I still have a really, really long way to go.

Okay, so Marvel...

I just found out this morning that the new Captain America movie is subtitled "Civil War."

I'm so excited that I could squee my pants. Seriously. As I was telling my friend in Wales this morning, "Civil War" was the arc/storyline that truly brought me back to reading comic books regularly again after about a decade or so hiatus. I know I've written about it here when I was reviewing comic books more regularly and I also know that it's a bone of contention for a lot of Marvel fans.

Regardless about how you might feel about Civil War as it happened in the comic books, I feel like it's a good choice for the movie franchise. It seems as if they're already setting Tony Stark up for certain things, given ( spoilers (minor) though already out in the movie rumor mill ) By the time we get to Captain America 3, he may already be the ( spoilers if you're unfamiliar with the comic books ) I imagine that a good set of writers could dovetail all that nicely into what needs to happen to pull off a minor, two-hour version of Civil War. Especially if they use Age of Ultron to set up some of the tensions building between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark. Ideally, they'll do this with a background of ( major Civil War comic story line spoilers )

Ultimately, though, that's the problem, isn't it? Taking on these gigantic story lines and trying to distill them into two hours often means that some of the important character moments, etc. get lost in the Hollywood need for explosions.  Civil War appeals, I'm sure, because it comes with villains we already know and a lot of opportunity for every fans' wet dream of the versus, i.e. Hulk vs. Thor!  Who would win??  

And it's going to get complicated as they draw from earlier story lines like the Infinity Gauntlet, which is one I remember from when I was a youngster.  

So, I don't know.  I guess, fingers crossed?  Other Marvel fans, your thoughts?

Also, I have to admit that I'm not super-fond of the casting of Benedict Cumberbatch as Steven Strange.  I'm not necessarily against it, but Mr. Cumberbatch is currently overexposed.  I don't feel like the Marvel 'verse particularly needed him.  It would have been more interesting for my money if they'd gone with someone far less well known, like Oded Fahr.  I know there's no particular reason to cast an Israeli actor in the role of the very white Dr. Strange, but then there was no reason to cast Idris Elba as Heimdall EXCEPT THAT HE WAS THE MOST AWESOME HELMDALL EVER.  So, you know, it can work.  Also, it would make sense to case Strange as a PoC if only because it could have mitigated some of the awkward of the manservant Wong.  Some.  Honestly, I'm not sure how they're going to deal with Wong or a lot of the overt-Orientalism that permeates the Strange title.

TBF, that may have changed.  I think the last time I picked up the Dr. Strange title I was 12.  Though someone on FB told me that Wong is still there, acting more like Jarvis (which I'm not sure is different from his past or any better in terms of the racist stereotyping.)

So that whole thing could be interesting.  I particularly loved what my nephew John had to say about it which was, "If they shoehorn in an appearance by Loki just to make Tumblr poop itself, I refuse to see this film."

Tumblr may very well poop itself that that mere suggestion.  I'll be okay as long as they don't cast Martin Freeman as Wong.

I write so many things these days I'm sure it's hard to follow along, but, if you ARE following the School for Wayward Demons (looking at you, Frank G.) there is a new chapter up:  Gabe Sees Demons... And They See Him. Today's story is the introduction of one of "my" characters, Gabe Herrara.  The story also features art by Alexis Cooke:


If you didn't know, we actually have TWO artists working on the School for Wayward Demons.  So far, you've mostly seen the work of Mandie Brasington, but today, we not only get Gabe's debut, but Alexis' too.  This is just a small bit of a large piece I'm sure we'll see later on.

Anyway, I need to report that Glory is still alive.  I did try to take pictures of him, as I promised, but he's very concerned about that OTHER Siamese Fighting Fish that he can VERY CLEARLY SEE IN THAT REFLECTION, so he's always darting around trying to scare that troublesome dude away (my, but he is a handsome devil, though....)

In other news, today was super-busy. I worked from 9 to 1 at the Roseville Library.  I'm there today and Thursday shelving... it's all to see if I can continue to pass the numeric and alphabet quiz.  I guess I did well with the fiction, but I don't know how I did with the non-fiction because I had to leave before John had a chance to double-check my work.  Two things, I discovered today.  1) When allowed to work at my own pace, I shelve about a cart an hour, except non-fiction which takes me an hour and a HALF.  2) Yeah, I can see why John is testing people.  While shelving I came across a couple of books that were out of order.  I left notes for John saying, "Hey, I spotted this but didn't move it."  Because I wanted him to know that the problem was decidedly NOT ME.

Oh, and another thing, their adult graphic novel section needs me.  Badly.  But, because it was quiz day, I could not spend the time organizing that.  The problem, frankly, isn't entirely the shelvers fault.  The problem is the way comic books are read and the way the librarians want things organized (which makes FAR MORE sense to a reader of graphic work than it would to your average shelver, who doesn't.)  BECAUSE how it's organized is first by manga, then (and this is different at Roseville) by general non-titled graphic work, and then by collected series (ala Batman, Spider-Man, etc.)  So that people can know what is collected and what is NOT, there is a handy list, which I consult regularly because (of course) it's different at each branch (kind of. Mostly it's the same, but the collect somethings I wouldn't think to and don't collect some I think they ought, so I always double-check.)

Anyway, that was my work day.

THEN I drove right to pick up Mason, even though it was hours early, so I could sit in the car and study my Japanese, which I have to leave to go to in about ten minutes.  Our instructor quizzes us every week.  And I'm that student, so I'm highly motivated to try to get as many right as possible.  The only problem this week is that Mason didn't have swimming due to the MEA (or whatever the teacher conference thingies are called) and so I didn't get my usual practice in on Saturday morning.  I crammed today.  Thus, I have a feeling this time it isn't going to go as well as numbers, time, and counting did.

TBF, the previous week was HARD.  This week we mostly learned how to ask where things might find themselves, like, "Sumimassen, kaisuiyokujo wa doko desuka?" (Where is the beach?)  To which I've also learned ridiculously unlikely answers such as, "Kaisuiyokujo wa koko ni arimasu." (The beach is here) and "Kaisuiyokujo wa asoko ni arimasu." (The beach is over there.)

I'm pretty sure if I asked, "Sumimassen, yakkyoku wa dojo desuka?" (Where is the pharmacy?) I would get a complicated answer that might start, "Whoa, dude, you are so LOST...." and possibly end with "Holy crap, you puked on my shoe!  Do you have ebola or something??"

Which, again, is why I wish I could write my own Japanese how-to class exercises.

:-)