The Happy Thread IV

[katya]

I just had lunch with Curufin! OMG we both live in the same city now! What are the odds, right? Anyway it was awesome meeting her and I'm glad that my local friends count has increased a bit.

Originally Posted by RÃ*an

Happy!!!

And I saw a MOONBOW at Lower Yosemite falls!!!! Sooooo cool!!!!! (this pic doesn't do it justice - it's like a shimmery, ghostly-sparkly white rainbow with hints of color) It's kinda like the ghost of a rainbow - or, being a Tolkien board, the fëa of a rainbow ...

RÃ*an, did you really take that moonbow picture? It's breathtaking! Glad you had a good vacation.

[Jonathan]

Nice! It's cool when mooters assemble... even if there are only two of them

RÃ*an, glad to hear you're enjoying Yosemite! That pic is fairytale-like

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by katya

I just had lunch with Curufin! OMG we both live in the same city now! What are the odds, right? Anyway it was awesome meeting her and I'm glad that my local friends count has increased a bit.

Epic win.


I'm happy because in 10 days I'll be in DC, and because I finally made the choice to go ahead and switch over completely to a business major. So I -should- be out of school in two more years (finally some sort of end in sight...) AND this means that I will hopefully have more freedom to give my voice time to mature before starting grad school or throwing myself out into the field.

Hopefully I wont end up regretting this, but for the moment things are looking a little brighter.

[Rían]

Oh, how fun that katya and Curufin had lunch!! I've met two Mooters, and it's really nice

No, I didn't take that moonbow pic - just wanted to put one up so you guys could see it But the pic just doesn't convey the kind of ghostly, sparkly quality it has. It's really more white than the pic shows, with touches here and there of color. It's just that the long exposure brings out the colors. If you guys get a chance to see a moonbow, it's well worth staying up for!

[Mari]

I'm happy because I decided to get another degree, in teaching this time. I'm going to try and fit 2 years in one.

[Midge]

*sigh* What was that syndrome that Jonathan was talking about, when he voted for Hector after he'd imprisoned and beaten him? Stockholm syndrome.

Maybe you have Stockholm syndrome with school, Mari.

[Mari]

Haha, maybe. But with this degree I can finally do what I want to do: teach.
You are not allowed to teach unless you have a teaching degree in the desired subject here. What Katya is doing, substituting, I am not allowed to do either. I can only tutor in after school settings.

[Midge]

Well, good luck!

[Mari]

Thank you!

[Tessar]

OMG!!! I finally found something that actually lets me memorize this stupid French!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://johnplaceonline.com/study-sma...rize-anything/

Basically it's a thing where you read a sentence out-loud, close your eyes and repeat it, then read it again with another sentence, close your eyes and say both, add a third sentence, etc...

I have no idea why this works so much better than repetitive drilling of smaller chunks, but this is SO much more effective, and I don't seem to be mis-memorizing as many words (you know... it's 'ke' and for whatever reason you remember it being 'je' or 'se' or something). Hooray!!!!

It's pretty insane. It was taking me about 30 minutes to solidly memorize three to four measures, and in 15 minutes I just memorized an entire page (10 measures worth) of French. O_o



Edited to say: AAAAH! SO EXCITED!!! In about an hour's worth of studying, I now have three pages solidly memorized. It was taking me DAYS to get three pages done before. YAY!!!! You guys don't know how happy this makes me. Learning music quickly is a critical skill for an opera singer, and it's something I've always been terrible at... but this just opens a whole new world of music-learning possibilities for me.

I don't understand. O_o I was basically doing the same thing... taking very tiny chunks of the music and just repeating it over and over till I had it memorized (sometimes looking at the page, sometimes with my eyes closed), but it was taking me forever. Now just reading it aloud once, then saying it with my eyes closed once, is making it stick in one try. Weird!

[Nerdanel]

i went to the pride parade on saturday.. left the field station for the weekend. the parade was attacked by a couple of crazy people, they threw smoke bombs and sprayed people with pepper spray. they were caught, and are now charged with abuse and hate crimes. i didn't even notice it, so it wasn't a huge thing, except that it seemed to convince a lot of people that the parade is still needed (and isn't only an excuse for partying).

afterwards, we went to watch the argentina-germany game in a bar.. it was a great game! almost felt a bit sorry for argentina, even though i was sort of on germany's side. when that was done, we went and got a wii for some of the wedding money we got - it's a great console. our ps3 broke a couple of days ago, which needs to be fixed. we noticed then, how much we actually use it.. as a media center, internet browser and, of course, a game console. hopefully they'll fix it for us soon.

and tomorrow i'm going back to the field station - i need to get ready for the second part of the course i'm teaching. it's fun. 8)

i hope everyone's had a great weekend!

[Mari]

Sounds good, Nerdy! What are you teaching exactly?

I got a call for a job interview with a school! But I declined!
I think it's better to get my degree now and stay with my parents for another year, despite my very strong wish to move out and stand on my own two feet again.

[Nerdanel]

Originally Posted by Mari

Sounds good, Nerdy! What are you teaching exactly?

I got a call for a job interview with a school! But I declined!
I think it's better to get my degree now and stay with my parents for another year, despite my very strong wish to move out and stand on my own two feet again.

i'm one of the teachers on the basic ecology field course. we're teaching them how to conduct research: plan an experiment, do it and present it. it's fun to see how enthusiastic they are.

it's a good sign that you get calls like that, though! good luck with getting your degree.

[Tessar]

Despite the fact that today has kicked my butt in many ways... everything was totally made up for by the fact that I just memorized a page of music in five minutes. This new way of memorizing is the shizzle, you guys!!!!!!!!!! Oh man, this makes me so, so, so happy.

If I can learn an entire page of music with French lyrics in five minutes (compared to 30 minutes a few days ago, and then hours a few days before that) I am going to be able to learn all of my music for next semester SO super fast. This is -awesome-.

I explained the method to my voice teacher, and naturally she's been using it for years. Because she's perfect. Stupid perfect people. I wish they would share their secrets with me .

[Mari]

Did you ever ASK how they learned their music though?

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by Mari

Did you ever ASK how they learned their music though?

*ignores*



I just found what looks like a beautiful little catholic church not far from where I'm staying in DC!! It looks like I can definitely attend one of the Sunday masses while I'm there, and maybe try to make one or two of the week day services if I'm not completely bushwhacked... which I probably will be.

We'll see what happens... I am determined to do something with my free Sunday. Last year I had a great 'host' family and they took me all over downtown DC to the museums and whatnot... I have a sense my new host will not be involved with me at all if her e-mails are anything to go by, so I'm going to have to figure out something by myself. We'll see what I can wrangle up!!! I'm excited.

[Rían]

oh, DC is fun! Hard to go wrong with whatever you pick to go see Enjoy!

[Gwaimir Windgem]

I might end up there after this degree. All depends on where the scholarships lead.

[Tessar]

Unfortunately I'm having some trouble figuring out how to get around MD/DC via bus... I've been trying to use google maps to figure out how it works and the only buses they show leave at around 5a.m..... which is not so convenient.

[Mari]

The metro is no option? Worked great for me last year.