National Garlic Day!

Mood:

This was Sunday, but I really really love garlic!(It's kind of like on the same level as chocolate to me...) Why not keep celebrating it? The more garlic there is, the better the dish...There have been few times where I've felt there was too much of it in something. Yesterday was the start of the month of Iyar on the Jewish calendar. 

The weather has been amazing the last few days, especially yesterday.It was around 72, very sunny, a slight breeze, and the smell of flowers was in the air. The mountains looked great, too. Really amazing to walk through.

I managed to get both my 2-mile walks in yesterday. Yay!Apparently many people were out walking, too. I guess the nice weather really brings people outside. It was interesting to see. I didn't go nearly as early as I usually like for the morning one. Went out at about 10. That's ok. At least I got out there.It was already starting to heat up, and after doing 2 miles in it, it felt much warmer than it was. I was wearing my black slacks because it was laundry day. It doesn't have any pockets. It was too warm to wear my coat. So, I strapped on my purse instead. (It's nice that it crosses my shoulders, instead of being only on one side.) I need pockets for my keys and mp3 player. Since my purse is rather big, I brought my iPhone both times, too. I threw in my small pocket flashlight for the night one just in case, too. I have a lot of other stuff in it that helps me be prepared for a bunch of stuff normally. So, maybe it worked out better than usual that way.

One guy saw me during the tail-end of my first walk, and said: "I thought you'd beat me to the corner, but your purse probably slowed you down!" I wasn't sure what to make of that.Plus, I had my music blaring, and I was in 'the zone'. It kind of sounded sexist, now that I think about it...I don't think my purse slows me down all that much. (Ended up getting home about the same amount of time as usual.) I don't even remember seeing him, and he acted like he saw me before. I know he also thought I was fast. So...this was odd. Maybe he was trying to start a conversation about my purse? When I'm in the zone, I don't feel I have much time for that. 

I didn't have many people talk to me during my walk last night, just a nod and hello from most of the ones I saw. Towards the end of that walk, Dad called me. I'm glad I brought it with me.We were talking the rest of the way of my walk, and a little after. 

Her surgeon had called me at around 4:30 yesterday, once the surgery was over with. It lasted around 3 hours instead of 2. Most of that last hour was for repairing things from the last surgery. Apparently, Dad had a ring of scar tissue. It was causing her a lot of pain.I'm glad it was taken care of. He told me I wouldn't be able to talk to her for a couple of hours. He said everything went well. 

Like I mentioned before, Dad called me towards the end of my walk at around 8:15. I didn't think she'd be up to talking at all that night. She was a bit groggy and tired, which was to be expected. Her throat was sore from having the breathing tube taken out, and couldn't talk much. I'm glad she called, though. She was able to stomach some broth, too. I'm hoping the recovery goes well. 

I managed to get my 1st walk in today, too. It was a little later than yesterday's 1st walk, but at least I did it!It was slightly chillier than yesterday, which I felt a bit more because my hair was still wet from doing it just before.It felt nice once I really got into the walk, though. People were really friendly this time. I was stopped as I was going through a green belt that has a nice paved trail going through it. It feels like a mini park. Lots of trees, birds, plants, etc. around. Really nice part of the walk. The people that stopped me apparently haven't seen me in a very long time. They said the last time they really talked to me was just before I went to college. They still live near us. They saw me yesterday, and were apparently blown away by my hair. They said they had to talk to me today.They told me my hair was 'simply stunning' and 'gorgeous'. We talked a lot about what's happened in our lives since we last talked. I barely remember them. They were incredibly nice. They said they hoped to see me again when I'm on my walks. They also said I looked like I was glowing. I was starting to blush with all the compliments. I'm not used to that sort of thing.It was nice though.

Yesterday, I decided to go back to watching the anime MAR, instead of continuing the drama Teppan Shoujo Akane. That drama was kind of tiring.I got sick of her dad's friend basically sabotaging every single thing she did. I know he was trying to get her to 'grow' more in her abilities as a chef, but it was getting ridiculous. And, she was growing pretty well on her own through experimenting. She really didn't need his antics every time. The stories were getting kind of stale. Things became too predictable, and unrealistic. MAR is getting a lot more interesting. I'm liking it so far. 

I also watched Fairy Tail. Not sure if I'm liking the current story arc, but it's interesting. Minerva joined a dark guild, and paired up with an interesting partner. One who can turn people into kids. They become as weak as kids, their defense also goes down dramatically, they move like kids, etc. Erza was the first to change. She's very unsteady on the ground now, especially with it being mostly ice. She also can barely hold her sword, and that was the only thing she had the energy to equip. (Her shirt from before hides everything. It basically turned into a dress.) Natsu changed, too. Only he seems weaker than he was originally at that age. He still could use the same 'tricks' he used as a kid, though. He was barely able to keep his clothes on (by holding everything up), and he also had to get rid of his shoes since they were too big for him now. Erza met Minerva and are about to go at it. (Even though Erza can barely stand or carry her sword.) Wendy and Lucy got separated from Gray and the others. Gray's by himself now. Happy and Carla are flying over to look for more clues as to how to revive the frozen town of giants. Flare suddenly showed up to help Lucy and Wendy. Don't know why she was there, and seemed a bit too convenient...

There was a new chapter up for Kuroshitsuji or Black Butler. There wasn't much to it this time. Basically, the 'Green Witch' saved Wolfram for the time being. I'm glad that he looks like he'll pull through. They still need to get him to a hospital or at least treated by someone secretly at one. It looks like Wolfram might still be able to take care of the Green Witch once he sees someone. And, it looks like they made it out of the area, too. So, there might be a new arc soon. That'd be interesting. Maybe we'll learn more about Ciel's family. I think they said that his grandmother had something to do with the Shinigami (or Grim Reapers, or lit. 'Death Gods'). I guess we'll just have to see. 

Yesterday, I also went over and edited the 3rd short story to my nightmare anthology. Only 9 more stories to go through and edit again. It was a pretty trippy one, although most of them are... 

Played my clarinet. Did some tunes from my regular clarinet solos book (I have an advanced one, too), some Duke Ellington, and Gershwin. Started off a bit rocky, but ended up doing pretty well the rest of the time. It's been a bit of a while since I've played last. I think I really need to get to doing it every day, or at least every other day. But, again it was pretty good this time. Rosie seemed to enjoy it, too.

日本語

Studied some of the common compounds for the kanji: 共. 共演 or きょうえん (kyouen): appearing together, co-starring. 共学 or きょうがく (kyougaku): coeducation, coed. 共感 or きょうかん (kyoukan): sympathy, empathy, response. 共産 or きょうさん (kyousan): communism. 共存 or きょうぞん (kyouzon): coexistence. 共著 or きょうちょ (kyoucho): collaboration, co-authorship. 共通 or きょうつう (kyoutsuu): common(ness), community; to be common, be shared; (suf) -wide. 共通語 or きょうつうご (kyoutsuugo): common term; common language, standard language. 共謀 or きょうぼう (kyoubou): conspiracy, collusion, complicity, being in cahoots. 共鳴 or きょうめい (kyoumei): resonance, sympathetic (sound), (being in) sympathy. 共用 or きょうよう (kyouyou): common use, communal use, sharing. I'll be going over more common compounds for 共 next time.

I know I mentioned last time that I'd go over more of the chapter tests on JapaneseClass' site next time, but I felt I needed more of a refresher beforehand. So, I went through the practice questions instead. They threw a bunch of new kanji/vocab at me this time. I tripped up on some, but I've never seen most of them before.I'm always surprised when I get those correct right off the bat. Especially with kanji pronunciations. I can somewhat figure out the meaning behind a vocab question with looking at each 'radical' or smaller kanji parts that make up one kanji. Like 語 for example. There are essentially 3 parts in this one. 言, 五, and 口. 言 basically means to talk, 五 is the number 5, and 口 is a mouth or opening. 語 means language or word. (日本語 is lit. 'Japanese (or Japan) language'. They usually put 語 at the end of a word for a language.) So, 言 (I've noticed most kanji who have this 'part' have something to do with talking) and 口 definitely have something to do with the meaning. But, it's not always that simple.With the kanji pronunciations, it's a bit harder to 'guess'. Although, if it's a compound with one kanji you know, it's a bit easier. They seemed to be testing me a bit more aggressively than usual this way, which is a good thing. Keeps me on my toes.

Finished translating another sentence from that You Maga article. This one was slightly more difficult than last time, even though it was shorter. I also read an article in Japanese on RocketNews24's site. It was about the lady in Australia that stood up for a Muslim couple. Another couple was sitting across from them on a train and was saying some pretty hateful things towards them. It was disturbing. I'm glad that someone who wasn't Muslim stood up for them. The lady who did, ended up saying: "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything." They seemed to be shocked by that. I like how she was trying to explain things in a somewhat calm manner. Trying to educate rather than being violent.

I went back to watching Rurouni Kenshin and D.Gray-man for Sundays. Decided that Arslan wasn't for me, and none of the new Jdramas that I want to see are out yet. Next Saturday, I'll watch the finale of Ouroboros. It's been a great show.I hope it doesn't end badly, although there have already been some crazy developments to the story. Ikuo and Tatsuya have split apart. Tatsuya thinks Ikuo is too close to the truth, it might break him, and he might not end up on his side. Ikuo's beyond pissed about the whole thing. They finally found some major clues as to what really happened, and who was behind it all. They both had made a promise that they'd bring that person down together. In the next episode's preview, Ikuo apparently meets the guy behind it all, and goes crazy. Apparently, the orphanage they both grew up in was basically to gather a bunch of very healthy kids in order to harvest their organs. Whenever they thought a kid was 'ready', they used the excuse that someone finally wants them to be apart of their family or that they needed to go to another orphanage, then they'd take them away. The kids that stayed behind and survived never heard from them again. The guy behind it all might actually be Ikuo's biological father. Also, their teacher, who they cared about so much, might be his biological mother. Might be why Tatsuya doesn't want him to find out. Should be interesting to see what happens next. 

Finally got around to looking for some new music on Sunday. Only found one this time. A couple of weeks ago I found 2. I don't think I found anything 'new' for a few months before that. All 3 are cool, though. Also, finally made a playlist of my top fave songs currently. Ended up being about 72 out of around 350 songs. That's kind of funny.But, these 72 songs are the only ones I seem to never want to skip through. I put the playlist to my mp3 player as well, so I could listen to it during my walks. Probably if I end up occasionally listening to the rest of the songs, they'll seem fresher.