This Blog Comes In Many Parts (Or Just Five)

One.

I deleted a post because it was something that had to be done in parts, and I was not and am not up to ever completing the series, so to speak. It wasn't all that fantastic, and it's already gone and I'm over it.

Two.

I have another (long, long) overdue Japanese Milstone to share: 52 Kanji. Before Mid-June (when I leave for a month), I want to have 233408320948230 of my Kanji down. But, uh, considering there are not that many Kanji, and I could probably do over 9000 Kanji a day every day and still not make that, I'll stick for finishing the first 2,054.

Three.

In a lame attempt to blog more, I'm going to do a "Pet Peeve of the Day" every day until I end up missing a day. It'll be a short post, probably less than 500 words each, but I'll just state what my pet peeve is and why it came to be. I'd start today, but I want to have my thoughts a bit more organized, and it's obvious they're not organized now, as I don't even know how many parts this post will have.

Four.

I haven't written anything in ages. I want to write something, but I need a prompt and went throught about 25 before I realized that I might be being too picky and I should just do the next one I see, then stopped looking at them. I think I'll try writing something Thursday, which will be the next time I really have time to sit and relax and stuff.

My main problem with writing has been that my brain works faster than my hands can write or type. Giving me 15 minutes to brainstorm for a story is just horrible. In fifteen minutes I could have thought up my entire introduction and how the plot is going to go. Then I'm more interested in working out the middle than thinking of the beginning, or the details for how I'm going to get there. I think I want to try co-authoring, as well, as the past times I've done it it has been fun. It's just that my co-authoring friend and I can't do it anymore. =\

Five.

I might have Celiac Disease. If you don't know what Celiac is, and want the short verison, it's basically a food allergy. Except it's only as far as digestion, and you're allergic to gluten (which is in most wheat and/or oat products). I remember that, somewhere between Kindergarten and Second Grade, that one of my friend's mother was allergic to corn syrup. (You don't want to have corn syrup, correct, but it's still in so much.) I remember looking at my juice box (or someone's juice box) and noticing it had corn syrup in it and thinking "It must really suck to be allergic to that." Yeah, I think I finally truly understand how much it sucks, haha.

But it could be worse, I guess. I could be lactose intolerant (dairy food group), gluten intolerant (wheat and oats food group), and be allergic to corn syrup.

Japanese Milestone I - ひらがな

Since Christmas or so, (with the gift of My Japanese Coach for DS) I've been learning the 104 Hiragana.

An example of Hiragana can be found in the title, but if you don't have Japanese installed on your computer, just Google search "Hiragana chart" any of the results will do.

Japanese has four written languages. Romaji, Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. (I'll say 'cat' in each alphabet. If you don't have Japanese installed, you'll probably see rubbish. Sorry.)

Romaji is roman characters writing out Japanese words; ie. neko.
Hiragana and Katakana are both phonetic alphabets. Each character represents one sound (one language, 104 sounds). Hiragana is used for Japanese words, Katakana for loanwords. (My name, your name, McDonalds, coffee: whenever a Japanese person would type one of those thigns, it'd be in Katakana.) Hiragana: ねこ. Katakana: ネコ.
Kanji are the (near) inifinite chinese characters given Japanese meanings; ie. 猫.

All four of those make up one language known as Japanese. Saying "this is Mr. Smith's cat." would be something along the lines of "これわスミスさんの猫です." (Literally "this cat Smith's is.") Excuse my horrible grammar.

That sentence uses the latter three alphabets, and was typed using romaji. (kore/wa/sumisu/san/no/neko/desu). Without the slashes, of course.

I'm not explaining that again. Never. Whenever someone asks me, I'll just direct them to this post.

Anyway, back to being happy. I've learned all 104 Hiragana. It's a small milestone, but it's a milestone all the same. And I've learned the combinations like: kyo (which would be the Hiragana for Ki + the Hiragana for Yo.), kya, gyu, nya, myu, etc. I still don't speak much Japanese beyond "Good morning, I am Alex. Nice to meet you." (Ohayo gozaimasu, watashi wa Aritsu desu. Hajimemashite.)

I'm getting somewhere, yes... With Japanese, I'm relishing every single step.... Especially because I'm tackling 2000 and some odd Kanji next. Then the Katakana. Finally, I start learning sentences. It's going to be a long year.