I didn't blog the last couple of days because of the heat. I went to a couple of places to cool off on Monday. Wasn't thinking much about blogging while out. It got up to 90 degrees. That's too warm for me. 80 degrees is usually the cutoff point for it being too warm for me. The hottest temp I've experienced was close to 120 degrees in Scottsdale, Arizona. At least it's not like that here. Yesterday, it got up to around the same temp. Today is supposed to be a little cooler, although it's heating up pretty quickly. Tomorrow and on looks like it'll be much nicer. Ranging in the high 60s to 70s.
When in any vehicle (cars, ferries, planes, etc.) while in motion, I've always had a hard time staying awake. As soon as I feel that motion, I have a strong urge to sleep. I can't control it, and it's gotten worse over time. Loud music doesn't help. Sometimes digging my nails into my skin or having an exciting conversation might slightly help. However, those aren't very effective most of the time. I'm starting to worry a bit about it, so I searched for something like it online. I didn't think I'd find anything.
There was one thing that has the same symptoms: sopite syndrome. It was originally discovered through various experiments by the military. It's a type of motion sickness. I didn't realize there were other types. When I hear 'motion sickness', I think of someone that gets nauseous and may throw up. I've never felt 'sick' or nauseous because of it. With this one, most people don't. If they don't fall asleep, they may become drowsy, groggy, depressed, or cranky. I usually feel really drowsy, groggy, and rarely might feel irritated. So, it certainly sounds like me. I'm thinking of bringing this up with my primary the next time I see her. I didn't realize it might actually be a thing. Just something weird that I would do.
It's different than when people fall asleep because of how long the trip is, they're fatigued from other things, the constant (supposedly) white noise in the background, it's too monotonous, etc. All that would be 'normal'. This will hit me right away, and I can't control it. It happens whether I'm fatigued beforehand or not. I've actually felt refreshed and awake just before it happens. Doesn't matter if there's interesting scenery or not. There were a couple of relatives who tried to relate to it on fb, and I do like that they tried, but it wasn't the same. They started talking amongst themselves about sleep apnea at one point. Aside from the 'sleep' part, that had nothing to do with sopite syndrome...
Wanted to get back to writing Alliance 3 this week, but since it's been so hot, I've kept my desktop off. My room gets warmer with it on, and that room gets the hottest in the house. I guess I'll get to it either at the end of this week or next week. I have a lot of ideas for it, though.
Started learning Chinese through Duolingo on Monday. I had gone through all of their course for German, and at least half the units were at level 3 or above. I felt I needed to try something different. I've always been curious about Chinese. I think it's Mandarin specifically. They don't actually say. I know there are many different dialects, and Mandarin is one of the most common.
The first one was on hello, goodbye, and good. They had the transliteration for them, too. The accents on those words reminded me of Hebrew trope. In fact, hearing the way they're pronounced, made sense that way. It's very interesting. Without the accents, hello is nihao. Hao is good. Zaijian is goodbye. Also, went through the first Numbers unit. 1, 2, 3 is yi, er, san. (3 is the same as in Japanese.) I probably should get the Chinese keyboard. Started the Names unit yesterday. This one has been a little more difficult. I know they use the surname first system, but in Duolingo you have to switch it to the surname being last when you translate it. Also, they're going over saying 'you are (name)' and 'I am (name)'. For this they lit. say 'call' instead. So, it's like 'you're called...' or 'I'm called...' It's a little awkward.
I'm also doing things a little differently with this one. I've decided that I'll start each time with going over more levels from previous units, then continue. They didn't have the 5-level system when I started German. So, this might be a better way to incorporate them. Plus, it'll be like I'm keeping the previous stuff 'fresh'. So far, they've only used a male voice and no illustrations of people. That might be different after I get past the beginner's stuff. With German, the main speaker seemed female. They haven't gone over the pronunciation part yet, where they tell you to repeat what was said into the mic. Maybe that'll be later, too. I would think that's even more important for a tonal language. Also, they don't seem to go over as much grammar as German. At least looking at the visible units. That's interesting. There might not be as much to their grammar. After Names there's Greetings 2, Food 1, and Occupation. That's the end of the first section. I don't think German had a food unit until at least the 2nd section. The occupation one was even later in the trek. Interesting to see how this one goes.
Finished watching The Break. I correctly predicted who the killer was towards the beginning. It seemed really drawn out. I'm watching Bordertown on Netflix now. It's a Finnish detective show. There's some Russian spoken as well, since it takes place in a 'border town' between Finland and Russia. I already watched some of it a long time ago, but it wasn't through my account. So, I wasn't sure where I stopped. I'm about halfway through it. It still feels like I've watched the 'current' stuff already. Maybe I've actually watched the whole thing already? Oh well. I'll finish it soon again. Next will be the Korean show Bad Guys. I've seen the first episode of that, and it was good. It'll be interesting to go back to.
