| I’m writing this from the library at RHCC. In front of me are my computer, my book, my notebook, my purse, my sunlasses, my phone, my hair clip... Across the table from me is my brother Bill with his Art History book and to my right is my brother Albert with his laptop. He’s not being very productive, but he says he doesn’t have homework!
I’m taking two classes this semester. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I take a class about The Contemporary Mexican American Female. I’m very much enjoying this class, and it’s getting me energized about education in general in addition to the topics that we’re covering in class. We have three books, each of which we’re going to read about a third of. The first book is Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature. I’m very much enjoying this book, and I want to make an attempt at reading the rest of it during the summer. =)
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I take a class on Small Business Management. I imagine that later on into the semester it’ll be more information that I don’t know, but at this point I’m not particularly enthralled with this class. We shall see. The book is big and expensive, and so far quite readable but not very informative. There is a website with a summary, a PowerPoint presentation, and a quiz for each chapter. These are a condensed version of the book. If Charles and I didn’t have ambitions toward business management, I probably could have done without the book entirely and learned from the PowerPoints and still done very well in the class. Oh well, I’m still hopeful that this class will look up later in the semester.
I’ll try to do at least weekly updates on school, but as you know I’m not very good about blogging regularly!
Topic for future discussion: Mexican American role models. | comments: Leave a comment   |
| I neglect this blog a lot, I realize that. It seems that I never sit down in front of the computer for a long enough time to gather some thoughts. Today is a fluke because I'm forcing myself to do it. Maybe I need to do that more often!
Things that have happened since I was last here:
- Started new semester at school. Two classes, a business class and a Chicano Studies class.
- Started using the family tree site Geni.com, which I really like.
- Got a new swim suit and will start swimming this week.
- Tried on all of my clothes and donated about half of everything.
- Started a new medication. Best results yet toward figuring out my stomach issue. I have an appointment on Friday to get some results from blood work.
- Visited Lexie at the cemetery on her birthday, but missed Angel's birthday party due to being very sick from new meds.
- Had a productive genealogy interview with Mom.
- Bought a broomvac and microwave oven, thanks to Charles's parents and grandparents as well as my parents for contributing to the appliance fund!
- Bought a year of Flickr Pro membership, making http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarolite/sets/ my new permanent picture home.
- Started using DailyLit.com to read books sent via email. Clever service got me actually reading again. Downside is that I stay up too late at night reading books in bed on my phone.
Oh, and our friend Mike has un-disappeared. Go him!
I'll try to get on here more often, I'll feel like I have something to talk about more now that I'm back in school! I ordered books for today's class from Amazon.com today, and I'll put in another order tomorrow for tomorrow's class. I get free 2-day shipping from them, so I thought it best to try to get everything ASAP rather than wait and order together. Hopefully the other class isn't 3 books like today's was!
And of course, for more up-to-the-minute updates from me, go to my Twitter, which can be followed via txt, website, or RSS here: http://www.twitter.com/Sarolite | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I didn't blog at all during the whole month of November! Isn't that horrible?
So, here's what you've missed (if you haven't been reading my Twitter, anyway):
I spoke with USC and UCR representatives about transfer requirements. Next on my list of people to talk to is UCLA.
I gave blood. Harmless process. =)
I went to my sister-in-law's baptism, which was lovely. =)
Went to a few free concerts at school, and to Annie with Charles. All awesome shows! Charles and I have tickets to see Alice in Wonderland (a children's opera that my piano professor wrote) on Saturday night.
I watched Star Trek Menagerie with my "brothers." Great nerd night. Then we checked out the new school together. My brother Rufus and I went to an orientation at the new school.
Had Thanksgiving dinner with my in-laws, not our customary two Thanksgivings due to my parents being out of the country. My sister Irma came to my in-laws' house with us (as did a friend of Charles), which was great. The next morning I went to Radio Shack to partake in some Black Friday shopping. When I came home from Black Friday shopping, I got word that my uncle had been in the hospital (in Mexico) since Monday, November 19th. He's still in the hospital now, but they're anticipating that he'll recover at this point. We also got word that my mom's half brother passed away in early November.
Charles's car had an electrical issue. I'm glad we got it to start eventually, because I haven't figured out how you get a tow truck into the garage or push the car up the ramp! Our customary mechanic took care of it for us.
We got the keys to our new apartment on the 1st, and have already started to move stuff in. I sent cards with our new address to a dozen or so people, those were out in today's mail. I also have what is hopefully a final draft of our Christmas letter ready, just need to buy more ink for the printer or run the pdf to Kinko's for many copies of color pictures. About 60 people on our mailing list, and I'm not counting people in Mexico, simply because I haven't begun to think about translating yet! Christmas letters should be in the mail next week at a guess. =) No pdf upload until they're in the mail, that would be cheating!
School update:
Speech Class: I got 75/75 on persuasive speech. Term paper due a week from yesterday, visual aid speech a week from tomorrow, and then the final. Also, this class factors in attendance and participation grades that I can't quantify (but should be good).
Health Class: Average of three exams is a B. Professor says in the end it'll be an A, however. He's got some logic for that. I can't explain all the subtle nuances of it, but I assume it's attendance/participation/etc. Nothing else here is graded until the final.
Piano Class: I got my first B(+) in the class today. I'm sure I'm getting an A in the class, however. There's a quiz on Tuesday the 11th, and then another "quiz" for our final on Tuesday the 18th
Chicano Studies Class: Have to finish workbooks by the day of the final. I'd call them 75% done or so. Everything else so far is A's.
I can't believe the semester is almost done. December seemed so far away when we started!
I'll try to post more, promise. (Perhaps my wifi working again will help. </SubtleHint>) Until then, Twitter is my friend, because it listens to me when I'm away from the internet! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Well, only one actually calls itself a midterm... but anyhow...
Speech class, I got more wrong than I thought I would! I wish they would let us look at the test sheets (not just the Scantrons back) to see what it was we thought we knew but didn't! Anyhow, I got 20/25 right, which is 80%. However, to make it out of 45 points like the syllabus said, he did the math in our favor. He said take your correct answers, multiply by two, and make that out of 45 (instead of out of 50 like it would be). So I got 40/45 points for it, bringing it up to an 88.8%. New grade: 117/125, 93.6%. I really want to keep this up in the A range, so I feel that I need to really nail the last two speeches to make up for any potential further missed points in exams. I think there's a final written exam. And there's a paper, which should be interesting.
My Health exam was a whole other story... We theorize that he purposely makes it hard because it's open book! =P Open book, open note, work with a buddy if you choose, look it up online if you're able... Yet, I still got 72% on this! I didn't even miss any classes between the last test and this test! All of the questions are compound, all of the statements (two to three per question) have to be true for the question to be true, except in certain cases where two false statements make the question as a whole true. Luckily, the professor gives a 10 point bonus for being an active class participant, which brings it up to 82%. I wonder how the people who sit in the back of the class are doing. New grade: 170/200, or 85%. This professor lets you drop the lowest test score out of the 4, which would be this 82% so far, last test was 88%.
In Piano class, we have a quiz on Tuesday, seven short pieces. Yesterday, I could only play first one right in class! I practiced for an hour or so today, and now the first four are alright, as is the 6th one. The 5th and 7th ones still confuse me greatly. Mostly because the fingers move around more than once, and not just up and down a scale! Those two won't look pretty in class tomorrow morning, but I'll have it by quiz time! I was listening ahead in the CDs, and the pieces from later on in the semester sound complicated! (Current grade: Still 11 A's and 3 A-'s.)
Going to a concert tomorrow between classes. It's convenient timing, really. Class is over at 11:05am, concert starts at 11:30am, concert ends at about 12:45pm, next class starts at 1:00pm. I believe it's the Jazz Band tomorrow.
In Chicano Studies class, well, we're not doing much... I've had a few very interesting conversation with the professor about his methods and about the community college system. I have to say, if I hadn't talked to him personally, I would have felt that he wasn't an effective instructor. Having seen his logic now, however, I respect what he's trying to do. I still don't have any letter grades for this class though, which just feels awkward! (Current grade: There's an A in my head, but not on paper.)
When I talked to the professor yesterday, I also let him know that I would most likely be attending the USC presentation rather than his class on Thursday of next week, which he seemed quite pleased to accommodate. He said one of his books (which we had to buy for this class but haven't gotten to reading yet) talks about how to choose a university, which I may find helpful. I will look into it when we get there in class, or between semesters if we don't get to it.
I emailed CSULA about my transcripts that they never sent. (Or the post office lost two separate envelopes from them to two separate addresses.) They cashed our check many months ago... January 12th! I need to find a phone number to harass them at, but in preparation for such action, I first ordered a (free) copy of the check from the bank. Should be here in a week or so. (It's been so long, it's already off the online check viewing database!) I need to order transcripts from UOP as well, the transfer center said they should be transferable. They're accredited, after all, but they seem to be a special case if you ask the internet...
Hmm, there's more I'm sure, but that's all for today! (Future topics: Business stuff, mostly.) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Well, I'm reading my past Twitters as I write this to remember what's been going on in the past 15 days! Get ready for a long post!
First, school update (in the order that the classes occur each week):
Speech:
I got 50/50 points in my informative speech about plastination (random topic). Then yesterday, we took the midterm, 25 questions worth 40 points. I don't know how he's going to do that math! I should have the results tomorrow. (Total: 77/80)
Health:
Took the second exam of four yesterday in this class as well. Results tomorrow. (Total: Still 88/100)
Piano:
I went to a string quartet concert at school. It doesn't count toward my three concerts I have to go to for my Piano class (they have to feature a piano), but I became aware of this free concert series through my class. It was very nice, it made me want to obtain music from Shostakovich, as well as tango music and Irish music. Yup, good concert. =)
I got an A- on the C,.D, and G major scales. All one grade, expected that to be three separate ones. The minus is because I stopped and started over when I pressed a key and no sound came out. I know I should have kept going, but it really threw me off! Remember, strike the keys, don't press them! I got an A on the four pieces. I did better there, I missed something I don't quite recall now (didn't play all the notes in a chord or something) but I kept going like nothing was amiss. He's trying to turn us into performers, so he respects that.
This next quiz is harder, fingers moving throughout pieces to new keys... I'll get it though, with enough practice. I start out each time I practice by warming up with all the quizzes we've done so far. Not only warms up my fingers with familiar movements, but it's a psychological trick too. I remember when those things were difficult, and that makes me confident about making these new difficult things easier! (Total: 11 A's and 3 A-'s.)
Chicano Studies:
The group presentation went well. There were a few technical errors, small things really, like a photo that was attributed to a certain culture by the internet, but was not really representative of them. There was no grade given to it, or if there was we were not told what the grade was. Overall, the professor seemed to be very happy with it. (Total: Nothing's been graded, but I think I'll get an A)
Transfer Center:
During lunch today, I talked to the CSUN representatives who came to my school to talk transfer. The host, the Transfer Center (what a suitable name!) also had a table advertising upcoming presentations. So I went to the Transfer Center after classes to get more general information, and I talked to one of their counselors. We've decided that my first choice transfer school shall be USC and second choice UCR. I should probably apply to three schools for good measure, third choice will probably be CSUN or CSULA. I have an appointment to talk to a UCR person, and I'm on the waiting list for the USC guy (he doesn't come very often). I'm going to a presentation by said USC guy next week.
I was a little concerned that my grades from 10 years ago in the Early Entrance Program at CSULA might bring down my GPA too much (I was a C student back then), but the counselor said that they do take the time into consideration. Now my new concern, having come home and read the paperwork I was given, is that they'll consider it "courses taken before high school graduation." Technically, they were that, but I wasn't concurrently in high school too, as their definition implies. I was a full time college student. Hopefully, they don't apply this "before high school graduation" rule, or I may have to re-take a few classes just because I'll have too many "before high school graduation" credits to transfer in.
Oh, and I need to take a lot more math to get into USC than I have to take for my A.A. degree, so I need to get cracking on that!
Then, personal stuff...
Family:
I picked up the pictures from our top secret last minute trip. We went to Yosemite for our anniversary. Not a ton of pictures, but some. Check them out at my new picture home, Flickr.
Friends:
My "brother" Albert's girlfriend Kat is in her school's colorguard. I went to their first field show competition of the year with Albert, Julio (another "brother"), and Momma Lebsch (Albert and Billy's mom). It was a lot of fun, and they got 3rd place out of 5 for their color guard. Band and percussion didn't get any awards though, but that's probably because the show isn't ready yet. I can relate. Downside of the night, aside from getting very cold, was that my prescription sunglasses got lost! They fell, and we tried to follow where gravity would have taken them under the bleachers, but no luck finding them! That means they either ran away, or they were "found." Who would want to "find" prescription sunglasses and not turn them in though? I emailed the band director, and he's going to let me know if they appear, but they hadn't as of the Monday following the competition. In the next few paychecks I shall consider getting new sunglasses. Until then, I have normal glasses and non-prescription sunglasses.
My "brother" Billy's birthday is tomorrow, so I went to see him on Sunday. I took him, Albert, and Kat to the mall (by I took them, I mean I'm the only one with a car). Our other friends had work. Boring, aren't they? We had lunch, did some shopping, then we dropped by Pavilions to see a friend who works there and get a birthday cake. I told them we needed milk to eat cake with, and they introduced me to lactose-free non-alcoholic eggnog! I like it!
Things I've done:
I dropped my laptop accidentally, breaking my external wifi dongle... It made me sad, even more sad than when my internal wifi stopped working. Add those two together, and it means no wifi for me! Charles is going to buy me a new dongle, he says he wants to pick it out so we're sure it's compatible. Until then, blogging from the media server. I haven't made another attempt at blogging from my phone yet, but I will eventually.
I downloaded Google Maps for my BlackBerry. I like it, and I appreciate the effort they put into making it say "Do not use while driving" when you start it up. =)
I went to the California RV Show. I basically wandered around and stepped into everything that I could! We're ready to buy what we like, but since there were so many RVs in one place from different manufacturers, I figured it would be a great chance to make sure we aren't missing something even better! Turns out we're really not. Of course, there are different things for different people. But for our purposes, the Outlook is still the best. Other things that impressed me, but not for us: Airstream trailers are nice, and I saw a fifth wheel with three bedrooms! Three! Oh, and one class C (that I might have otherwise liked better) tried to eat me! It somehow snagged my shirt when I was stepping in!
I went to the cemetery to visit with Lexie, Grandpa Salvador, and "Grandma" Soledad. (My grandmother died when my dad was very young. Grandpa's second wife Soledad raised him and his siblings.) I've put together a list on Twitter of things to take next time to tend to their grave markers. In case anyone's ever unclear about what I want, I want to be buried at Rose Hills, someplace where you can hear the water from the Sycamore Valley. When we have some disposable income, I may talk to Charles about putting a down payment on a suitable place. I strongly feel that this is something that should be done before death. (I have very strong opinions on death and dying, for reasons discussed in an earlier post.)
Things to do:
We're going to become all official as a business. Charles and I ordered business cards today, and I've been figuring out where I have to go (and what I have to pay) to get our fictitious business name filed. After that, run the name in the paper for four consecutive weeks, then open a bank account. Still to do: act on all of the above, and research business license requirements. Meanwhile, Charles makes the product. Teamwork!
I think that covers everything... be back tomorrow with exam results, I hope. =)
(P.S. I think that LiveJournal's spell checking dictionary should know the word "blogging." It doesn't, go figure...) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I attempted to send this from my new phone, but it didn't work. That's a topic for another day, however!
Okay, here's the latest!
Speech class: Lucked out and got the last date for my informative speech. Otherwise, I'd be very stressed with two big presentations due the same day! (So far: 27/30 total points.)
I need to find a speech to attend to analyze for a paper due in December. Where do you go about finding one of those?
Health class: Got an 88% on the first exam. It was harder than I expected. Not in a "I should have studied harder" kind of way, but in a "what does he mean by that question???" kind of way. I'll study more about reading the professor's mind! (So far: 88/100 total points.)
Piano class: The second quiz was four pieces. Got A, A-, A, A-. I'm going to get together with a classmate once or twice a week to help him out, which I've found helps me retain information. I process and re-phrase what I've learned from the lecture/book/practice, kind of like making an outline from a book you're reading.
I went to a concert conducted by my professor on Saturday. Charles had other plans, so I invited my "brothers" Billy and Albert (also invited Stephanie and Julio, but they decided against it) and Albert's girlfriend. It was pretty good. =) Now I just need to go to one more concert to fulfill the requirement for the class, but I plan to go to all the on-campus ones anyway. Most of them are free. =) (So far: 7 As, 2 A-s, and 2/3 concerts.)
Oh, I forgot my program from the concert in my mom's car! I'm sure he'll let me turn it in later though, or remember that he personally sold me the ticket, one of the two!
Chicano Studies class: My professor was out sick for two days, so we got behind a little bit. To make up for it, he skipped two quizzes and gave us all As on them in his book.
I'm finishing up a powerpoint presentation about the Chichimecs, Toltecs, and Aztecs to present tomorrow. I'm kind of stressed about it, to be honest. This class has only confirmed my "just lemme do it myself" attitude about group work... Out of 8 group members, only 4 of us have done our share, and being team captain I'm making up a lot of work that shouldn't have been my problem.
C'est la vie?
I honestly feel that had I been told "do this 60-to-80-slide presentation yourself instead of picking a group," it would have been done faster, better, and with less stress. Waiting on people that you have a gut feeling won't come through sucks. Your hunch about said people being confirmed is even worse. The deadline looming, and you find out at the 10th hour (not quite 11th hour!) that half of what was supposed to be contributed will not be... Guess it's supposed to prepare you for those real jobs at offices and stuff? Useless half of the team, you're fired! (So far: Nothing's been turned in until tomorrow, two fake As in the books.)
I'll blog about some more personal stuff when I don't have powerpoint slides spinning in my head... | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I got an A in all five pieces of the quiz in my piano class. Go me! All I had to do was stay in the practice room till my fingers hurt and my wrists stung, and I got it! Like magic! =)
The book we use for class has a 3-CD set with all the music from the book in it. That helps a lot, to play along with the CD. Even moreso for first learning a piece, it makes the rhythm more logical when you’re hearing it rather than just reading it!
Want to know what’s funny? The guy in the class who sits in the back not paying attention to anything and playing Mozart and Harry Potter music over his headphones didn’t bother practicing the pieces in the quiz. Dork. Getting ahead of the class and not bothering to look at the book is fine if you know how to sight read, but he doesn’t. He amused me greatly when it was his turn to do the quiz pieces!
Of course, he claims that he didn’t know there was a quiz, which I believe because he doesn’t pay attention. However, he found out when I told him and someone else 20 minutes before class, and he used those 20 minutes to play things un-related to class. I even turned up my metronome so other people could use it to practice!
Ahh, vanity, thy name is drummer in a piano class... | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I gave my first presentation in my Speech 101 class today. I got 27/30 points; the only thing I got docked for was going over the time limit. I knew that might be an issue, and I had already cut down on my content to try to get closer to the time. In the morning, I did it in under 5, but I guess I elaborated on a few more things in class than I did in my own living room. That, or my pauses for dramatic effect are longer when I have an audience.=P
I’m happy with the score though, I’d rather have time issues to improve upon than content or delivery issues!
Next stressor: Powerpoint (or in my case, Presentation) show about the Chichimec, Toltec, and Aztec Indians for my Chicano Studies class. Not everyone in my group is pulling their weight, which means someone else has to. I’m also doing all the talking in the presentation, and I have to learn really quickly how to pronounce the names of all the cities and gods of these indigenous groups! *collapses* But I’ll do it, cuz it’s gotta be done! This show has to be put together, and words learned, by two weeks from tomorrow.
I have a quiz tomorrow in my Piano class. I feel pretty good about it, but I felt pretty good about the last one too and I had some trouble with it.
My issue is that the only thing we’ve actually EVER played in front of the professor was that first mini-quiz (C and D major scales in each hand). We’ve never used the keyboards in class as anything more than desks, so when I practiced on my own for the quiz, I was making all the right sounds... However, on quiz day, he corrects us on our posture, hand position, wrist position, tempo, and so forth... So when I raised my wrists a little and turned my thumbs in more, it threw me off! Wish we played in class...
Quiz tomorrow is 5 pieces of 10 notes each (not moving our hands from the keys we start from, in other words), 4 measures each. It’s easy enough, unless the professor throws in some other thing I’m doing wrong to throw me off!
He was pointing out over and over the importance of using a metronome for practice, so I got him to okay using our metronomes for the quiz. Heading over to practice rooms now to practice for the quiz and playing to the metronome. (I downloaded a metronome program for my computer, called Gtick. But I got my physical metronome in the mail this weekend. I love new toys in the mail!)
Notice that I haven’t mentioned anything about my Health class (until right now). We have an exam there a week from today, but I’m not ready to stress on that yet, not until after tomorrow’s piano quiz! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| One of my friends disagrees, but I personally like sleep... Caffeine is not a good substitute, because eventually you have to come down... That or keep upping your dosage of caffeine, to the point where you drink three energy drinks in one sitting. Even when I worked nights I never needed more than one energy drink and a few sodas!
You know what else is good for your health? Simplifying, getting rid of stuff, having a clean house... That's what I need to work on in the near future. My sleep cycle got messed up recently for a number of reasons, so my energy level has been lower than usual. However, once this is back in check, I plan to get cracking on some work here... I also have to work on this because I start school in the beginning of September.
Fall classes are as follows:
Monday and Wednesday
11:20-12:45 Speech 101
13:00-14:25 Health 011
Tuesday and Thursday:
09:40-11:15 Music 321 (Piano)
13:00-14:25 Chicano Studies 007
All of these are general education requirements except for Piano. I already have a music class I took at CSULA, so I wouldn't need to do this, but I've always wanted to learn. My parents think I'm silly, but so be it! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| My husband, one of our friends, and myself went to Disneyland yesterday (Sunday). Lots of fun, I haven't uploaded the pictures yet but I will soon.
I was reading the news this weekend and found the story of the kidnapped baby interesting. Especially interesting, this quote:
Susanne Moore, a former Covenant nurse who had a baby Friday at the same hospital, told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that the hospital placed an electronic band on her newborn girl's ankle. She said she was told that if the baby were taken too close to a door or elevator, a sensor would cause the door to lock or the elevator to shut down.
Moore said she also was told that if the band were cut off before it was deactivated, the hospital would be locked down.
A couple of comments here...
- What has the world come to that we need to do this because we seemingly EXPECT babies to be stolen from hospitals...?
- Cool idea. I imagine it's RFID technology, but how do you get it to detect when the band has been broken? Does this mean it's a non-re-sizable band that's completely made of electronic components/cables? Is it just a single cable that goes the whole circumference, and if so how do you prevent someone from cutting the rest of the band and slipping that part off? Hmmm.
- This proximity-based door and elevator control is pretty clever, we were talking about something similar on the way home from Disneyland.
- I can see other hospital applications here, particularly for hospitals that have this proximity based control already... why doesn't the ER/OR double doors swing open when a gurney approaches? (So you have to tag all the EMT's gurneys, but that's okay!) Why doesn't the elevator door automatically stay open when a gurney's approaching unless you press the close button (if you're full, you know).
Then you expand it out to office buildings, places where people can't carry their keys/badges all the time... aquatic centers come to mind! Hanging 2 big keys and like 9 small keys from the shoulder strap of my swimsuit on a whistle lanyard while I was teaching lessons may have worked, but it's not nearly as cool as the doors recognizing me automagically!
Fun stuff.
By the way, whoever was still sick at Charles's parents' house (I babysat on Saturday), I think I caught it from them. I've had a stuffy nose all day and feeling generally "blah."
Still pretty productive though, I did the laundry that backed up due to our lack of drying capabilities since Friday.
I also went to school today. I did better than I expected on the test we took last week, I got partial credit for admitting that something went over my head in the reading. =P The reading was about a girl who wanted to eat at the rectory of her Catholic school instead of walking home to eat. The question was something along the lines of "the author criticizes the role of the Catholic church, what criticisms does she have?" Totally over my head, I thought if there was anything criticized it may have been the Mother Superior, but not the "role" of the Church in daily life. Apparently the right answer had something to do with equality and preferential treatment. I guess I was too literal reading the question, because I still feel that's a stretch- inequality among students in that era is a socio-economic issue that may well be limited to that particular scenario that was described, and it's not the church's fault. Other than that, I only had a couple of minor errors, mostly accents and/or spelling in my short answer questions.
Tomorrow, I have to go to parents' house. They're leaving to Mexico on Wednesday night, they'll be gone for two months. There's some talk about parents selling their rental property in about a year, supposedly mom thinks that she spends all of the rental income on upkeep. I think I need to talk her into sitting down and figuring out where her money goes when she gets back.
Of course, there are those in our family who know where mom's money goes, that namely being to the thrift store, the other thrift store, the thrift store in the next town over once a month, the swap meet on Thursdays and Sears. She needs to figure it out for herself, though, to make it stick. Hopefully we can talk her out of selling, though, because that will leave both of my sisters without a place to live. Unless she doesn't really like them and that's her sneaky evil plan all along... Hmmm.
Wow, that kind of jumped around... alot. I guess I haven't posted as often as I should. =P I'd break it up into subject-specific posts, but that ruins the free flow of information and such! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I got marked down on my weekly vocab sheet last week due to using my English-Spanish dictionary rather than using a Spanish dictionary that gives definitions in Spanish. The professor wrote on my sheet that I should use the dictionary linked on the resources section of the class management system, which is the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary.
I like my other dictionary better.
- I looked up jalea for example, which said "f. Conserva transparente, hecha de zumo de algunas frutas." Conserva I took to be something saved or preserved, transparente is transparent, made of zumo of some fruits.
- So I look up zumo and it tells me "m. Líquido de las hierbas, flores, frutas u otras cosas semejantes, que se saca exprimiéndolas o majándolas." Liquid of the herbs, flowers, fruits, or other similar things, that are taken out by exprimir or majandar.
- I look up exprimir, which I determined in my vast knowledge of conjugation to be the root of the word exprimiéndolas. It says "Extraer el zumo o líquido de una cosa, apretándola o retorciéndola." To extract the zumo or liquid of a thing, squeezing or twisting it. (Remember, zumo is defined as the thing that you exprimir, making a circular definition. A is made when you do B to fruits. B is what you do to fruits to make A.)
- I then look up majandar, which in my vast knowledge of conjugation (see above) I determine to be the probable root of the word majándolas. It doesn't exist, neither does majándolas or majando (las is a suffix meaning to a female them). I give up on that part of the definition. (I later discover, by browsing in my Spanish-English dictionary, that the root word is majar, which it defines as "to crush, to mash." I don't get "mash" out of any of the three definitions in Spanish!)
What does my Spanish-English dictionary say about jalea? "nf. (noun, feminine) jelly."
Lovely, huh?
The next word, which was found in the story we read for homework over the weekend, again doesn't exist at all in any form I can think of (again, in my vast knowledge of Spanish conjugation) until I browse the Spanish-English dictionary.
Here's another one:
- I found the word caló in the reading. The definition says "m. Lenguaje de los gitanos españoles." Masculine word, meaning the language of the Spanish gitanos.
- I think a gitano is some sort of native, but I decide to check. I copy and paste it, and "gitanos" isn't in the dictionary, only "gitano" is. This is the problem with dictionaries that you can't browse, only search. But one letter differences, such as plural to singular, should be correctable by the system.
Me using the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary is like a person who's never spoken English being given a link to Wikipedia as a dictionary. You have to know the words to learn the words!
The next word I looked up was defined by three synonyms, only two of which I had any faint idea how to translate.
This is going to be a long homework assignment, and Charles is already asleep... *sigh* (Not that he was going to help me with my homework or anything, but I don't like waking him when I get into bed after he's been asleep a while.) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I'm doing the rest of my homework now. I was first surprised at how much I was able to read comfortably. Once I started reading out loud, that is. Reading it silently was frustrating for some reason. My inner voice can't pronounce things as well, I guess!
Secondly, I was shocked at how many words I could pronounce when I saw them but wouldn't have been able to spell yesterday. After I do my outline, I'll add my new words to my two lists and let you know how much I've added to my vocabulary! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| A diptongo is the combination of a strong vowel (a, e, o) with a weak vowel (i, u). The resulting combination is always monosyllabic, and the weak vowel is typically slurred together with the strong one. The exception to this is if there is an accent mark on the weak vowel- that strengthens it, causing it to be pronounced separataly and in a separate syllable.
I was planning to share all the stuff that I've learned in the hopes that typing up my hand-written notes would help me remember stuff better. Then I realized how much I've learned and how difficult it would be to type it all without the benefits of a Spanish spell check! (Flock's spell check has to be reset to Spanish with every word, and I'm not sure how to change the language on the LJ spell check.)
Instead, I shall summarize!
This week we learned basic word deconstruction, including diptongos, die'resis (two dots over a u, I never even knew that Spanish had those!), tildes (accent marks, thankfully all in the same direction, unlike French that does both ' and `), and how to split a word into syllables. I also learned that interrogative words always have accents. I wouldn't have caught on to that pattern for at least two semesters if not told by the professor!
I just finished my workbook homework but I haven't done my reading yet. I have to read a 4-page story and summarize it in Spanish, presumably correctly spelled!
During class I keep a column on the right hand side of the paper where I put new words. I also highlight vocabulary in a different color than other stuff in my textbooks so that I can pick it out later. I picked out the words from all the sources today, and wrote them into two separate lists (the ones I would have typed out if I had any idea how to type and spell check in Spanish): words I didn't know at all and words that I could have defined before I started this class but wouldn't have known how to spell.
In my new vocabulary list, I have 61 words! A lot of them were not used in context, though, they were in lists in the workbook and are totally unrelated to each other. I still need to learn them though, I'm going to look them up in the dictionary after finishing my homework but before class on Monday.
In my "really, that's how they spell it?" list, I have 35 words. It's true what they say, spelling in Spanish is normally pretty intuitive when you understand how things work and how each letter is pronounced. If there's a deviation from it, it's indicated with accents, so it's nearly gringo-proof. However, there is some confusion while you un-train yourself from English pronunciations. For example, hueso (pronounced whueso, roughly) sounds to me like it should be weso. Of course, with my limited Spanish, I've probably been mispronouncing it all these years because I'd never seen it written and people have never corrected me all these years because it's "not bad for a gringa." Other than my hue/we/whe example, there's also cu/qu, q/ch/k (archaeologist is spelled with a q in Spanish), z/s, s/c, j/h (that's a gringo confusion I think), ll/y...
So, yeah, apart from a lot of grammar concepts that I think I've got about 80% down, I have 96 words to learn! Good thing Charles is at SCALE this weekend so I can do more homework. (Wow, I don't think I've said something like that in... well, maybe ever! See what happens when you take classes that interest you on a personal level?) I haven't been as productive today and yesterday as I typically would have been, for various reasons. I'm glad my workbook homework is out of the way now. =) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Community college is an excellent place to people watch. It's like high school, except a higher percentage of students have cars, the books are more expensive, and there's hardly any 10-foot high chain link keeping you in. Therefore you could even people watch without being a student!
Some of my observations this week:
- Similarly blocked class schedules means a constant and predictable ebb and flow of cars in the parking lots. Arrive 10 minutes before class, and you'll be parking on the other side of the school, no matter where your class is. If your class is on the north side of the campus, you'll be in the south parking lot. If your class is in the south side of campus, you'll be in the north parking lot. Do not attempt to spot swap with a student from the opposite side of campus, this will upset the delicate balance of the universe (or at least of the community college) and leave you both spot-less, but not in the clean way.
- No one wants to be at school half an hour early, except the people who park in the side of the school where your class is. The near parking lot will be full by the time you arrive even half an hour before classes start. The parking lot on the opposite side, however, will be empty.
- Emos run funny. This was observed at about 9:25am with a male emo running through the center square of the campus. This could be caused by their funny pants, or by the skateboards in their backpacks. If you are emo, you should plan to arrive in the near parking lot at least an hour before your class (or the far parking lot half an hour before) so that you don't have to run to your class.
- My Spanish professor uses a Mac laptop, and heavily recommends Firefox over Safari. When a file looked funny, she claimed that it was due to being in Safari and closed it to open Firefox and start the demonstration over again. Yay! (I'm not a Firefox user anymore, I use Flock, but I like Firefox too.)
- There will always be more left-handed desks than left-handed people, and thus right-handed people will have to sit at left-handed desks.
- You have to have a receipt showing that you've paid for your classes to buy a book. I personally think that's ridiculous, particularly for a store in the business of selling books. "How DARE you buy a book that looks interesting and learn stuff without being in a class???" So much for studying to quiz out of stuff. The only possible justification I can think of is to make sure that there are enough books for the enrolled students, but I somehow doubt that the non-enrolled purchasers outnumber the people who forgot their receipts in their backpacks (which are not allowed into the bookstore). The short answer to this: keep 5 more in stock than you think you need, that'll last you until the next edition comes out!
Next time I'll tell you what I've learned that's actually related to my class!
My Spanish class is 5 units, whereas a typical class is 3, so I decided to only take Spanish this time around. It'll ease me into the whole reading and homework routine, and I'm only one PE class short of having a "normal" unit load. I've actually learned quite a bit already, this will help me communicate with my family in Mexico, as well as help my genealogy research, reading documents and writing letters to request such documents. =) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I’m officially enrolled in a Spanish for Spanish Speakers class. I took a Spanish class at Cal State 10 years ago, so the credits won’t count toward graduation, but this is a skill that I’ve been lacking. It’s more appropriate for me than the other class I took, which was a general Spanish class. Spanish for Spanish Speakers, on the other hand, focuses on grammar, spelling, and presumably more advanced vocabulary. My class and parking permit are already paid. Next week, I’m going to start the financial aid process for next fall, take proficiency exams in math and/or English (although I took English 101 and 102 already at CSULA, so they should give me an okay for higher English classes already), pick up the parking sticker, and hopefully talk to a counselor about graduation requirements and what’s covered by my transfer credits. By the time I’m done with this semester’s “for fun” Spanish class, I should be ready (counseling, financial aid, etc) for a normal course load with classes that’ll actually help me graduate. Based on what I can see in the catalog, things look good. =) Charles wants to go to school now too, even though he’d rather do a bunch of tech classes than do everything and get a degree. =P | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I went to Cal State at Los Angeles from 1996-1997 (at the age of 13).
I then went back to high school, graduating in 2001. I bummed around, worked, traveled, then went back to school again, attending the University of Phoenix in Diamond Bar in 2004-2005.
I stopped going to school before the summer, my first summer as a manager at an aquatic center (having been an assistant manager the previous summer, I knew I wouldn't be able to do both school and work for those three months). At about that time, my FAFSA got "randomly" selected to be audited, and I figured that rather than prove my parents couldn't afford to educate me I should wait until October when I got married and my parents wouldn't have to be on my financial records.
Shortly before we got married, my soon-to-be husband lost his job. Then after getting married, I moved, I got a new job (was working two jobs for a while), he got a new job, I quit my old job (the commute was 77 miles each way for $12.75/hr, not worth it once hubby was working), he lost his new job (so I was working as much as I could), then he got another new job, I quit my new job, and we moved to be closer to his job. I think we've finally slowed down now. *fingers crossed*
So I went and applied online for the local community college. I honestly don't plan to work anymore, but perhaps I'll learn something for my own enjoyment or that will help my husband in his open source and consulting stuff, or that will be of help to us when/if we have kids. I'm probably going to continue toward Business Management because that's what I was studying before and it interests me, but I may change that.
Funny thing is, when I tried my ssn/dob combination after it sent me an acceptance email (it's not hard to get into community college!), it came up with my maiden name. Strange, I thought, but then I figured it was probably because I had put that name down under "Other names I've attended school as" or some such field. But then, it showed my old address. Bewildered at this point, I poked around and found some health fee hold from Fall of 2005. I think I got enrolled in the Los Angeles Community College District when I took a steward class at the union hall. I never would have thought about that!
Anyhow, there's a session of classes starting next week, but that's far too soon, and it's a condensed session. Too fast for me to get stuff together! I told it I'd like to start in "Spring." Off to look at class lists! I'll head down to the college in the next week or two to talk about graduation requirements and other such formalities. Really, I just wanna learn stuff, but I figure it's best to do it right and maybe even graduate some day! =P | | comments: Leave a comment |
| It has come to my attention that it's nearly 5-year class reunion time. It makes me think of the things that I have and haven't accomplished in those 5 years. I think I came out on top overall, my only regret is not having finished college yet. (I worked, traveled, bummed around, etc- I'm at about the later part of sophomore year now.)
Well, it also brought to mind the fact that I never bought a class ring when I graduated. I wish I had. I think I'm going to do it now.
I was on the Josten's website playing with their ring designer... Now, I can't show you the customized one (well, I could if I took a screenshot, but that's too much work) but I can show you the base ones, and just imagine it with my name, high school name, and graduation date instead of the default example one. ;)
This one is simple, elegant, etc.
This one is a little more fancy, and is also a similar style to my wedding ring. Could be good or bad? If I wear it right hand ring finger, and left hand ring finger is similar style, I'd coordinate/match better! Could show the different stages/transitions in my life. Or could be just weird. What do you think?
Then this last one is the "traditional" type ring. I didn't do anything particular cool in high school, I might put a flag team image on the year side, and a dragon on the name side. (Fits with knights mascot, and I like dragons.)
Comments welcome! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| |
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
sarolite's journal![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonmama/sillysuns/thoughtful.gif)
pensive![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonmama/sillysuns/creative.gif)
busy![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonmama/sillysuns/sleepy.gif)
tired![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonmama/sillysuns/happy.gif)
chipper![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonmama/sillysuns/stressed.gif)
stressed![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonmama/sillysuns/sick.gif)
sick![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonmama/sillysuns/angry.gif)
frustrated![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonmama/sillysuns/wow.gif)
impressed![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonmama/sillysuns/nerdy.gif)
studious