Well, as is obvious if i’m posting at 7pm, i’m not making it to LOR’s concert tonight in Richmond. It’s a two hour drive, and i’ve been just too exhausted and spent. Even though i really like that band, i just wish they were coming up to hit the DC market on this tour. I have to study, and get ready for Friday’s gig. I’m actually now really glad OtR isn’t tomorrow night…
On other news, found out today my guitar, the Guild, my favorite, is on its last leg. Hopefully there will be an inexpensive way to repair it, because the only way currently costs almost as much as a new guitar. Anyway, it has about another year in it ATM.
I have to hit the books now… …the main thing with this language training is that it’s leaving my brain fried for any other decent work. I’m reading about 5 books concurrently right now, 1 on programming, 1 on design, 1 nonlinear fiction, 1 other fiction… …and i have a lot of information and books about BiH (remember–Bosnia and Herzegovina–“i” means “and” in Bosnian), its history (especially the last 10 years)… if it weren’t for the language training i would be consuming that stuff like crazy… funny thing is, that studying is included as part of language, but only once a week.
The language training is funny actually… the tests they make FSO’s take are very practical–u have to be able to speak and read, get the gist of a conversation and a newspaper article (or something) and spit it out. But the training is about getting each little case ending perfect every time–something that, in conversation, can be worked around (it’s commonly known as bastardizing a language–u can understand when foreigners do it to english, right?)–it’s words that cannot be faked or worked around.
Another thing that i’ve realized about my own learning–i’m actually not bad at the grammar stuff and bad at vocab, so i shouldn’t complain! I’m good when there are a few rules to remember and many diverse applications of those rules, or relationships between those rules (read: programming languages, systems, design… gee!). I’m bad when there is just a mound of crap to memorize… read: language vocab! Even english–I’m thinking the reason i’ve come into writing later on in my life is because it has taken me all this time to master the language! :) Actually i was into writing much earlier, but i do remember having to go to special classes in the first and second grades because i couldn’t spell…
Ok ciao! I mean “dobar dan”!