another halloween manicure

well i picked off most of my nail polish while i was sitting nervously after taking my midterms..
so this one is,
2 coats of jordana calcium boost
2 coats on tips only of a neon orange mini polish from the icing
1 line on each nail of black art deco nail art polish
one coat of speed shine topcoat

and no i dont care about my cuticles.. and yeah i know the black ran a bit when i applied the topcoat too soon

halloween nails

well this is my new nail design for halloween. skulls, blood spatter, stitches and candy-corn

i used art deco stripers for basically everything.. 2 coats of jordana calcium boost under the polish.. and sally hansen speed shine topcoat on top of everything.. it looks like my nails are finally starting to grow back

tofu dango

well i havent used this blog in forever.. i dont have time to be trying to study japanese all the time anymore since i have other classes to think of.. ive mostly given up and surrendered to the people who say its too hard to learn.. i was ok until i realized that kanji was easy and the morphology was difficult.. so from now on it is unlikely that you will be hearing about me trying to tackle the japanese language.. sorry to dissapoint you

well everyone ive been cooking a lot lately and i recently went to a japanese supermarket called mitsuwa marketplace. so im not so traditional when it comes to cooking japanese food.. i tend to go ahead and Americanize things. tofu dango can be eaten with sweet soy sauce.. but i dont like that.. so im going to see about Americanizing it by using different sauces.

lets start with the basic recipe

• 1 package silken tofu (i used the shelf stable variety)
• 2 cups mochiko
• add a teaspoon at a time of water until it is easy to kneed and shape

now that's simple yeah? so you mix them together with your hands (dont even bother trying a spoon or whisk) then roll the dough into little balls.. then you toss the balls (gently) into lots of boiling water and cook them until they float on the surface, then continue cooking for 2 more minutes while you prepare ice water.. then take them out with a spider (its a device that looks like a mesh strainer and a ladle had a baby) and shock them by putting them in the ice water.. this stops the cooking and improves the texture..

so then i drained the balls well and put them in a ziplock bag and parked them in the fridge

what to do with them? well you could

1. float them in soup as dumplings
2. melt your favorite jam and cover them after skewering them
3. melt peanutbutter and brown sugar syrup together
4. maple syrup

you could also add things like food coloring to the original recipe.. or herbs if you plan on using them in soup or stew. make multycolored skewers of tofu dango by immersing the balls in different cups of food colored water and then skewering them.. i think that idea would work well for a kids bento.. you can add soup mix to the mochiko before mixing in the tofu for savory dango. the possibilities are endless

here are some christmas themed tofu dango:

and here is some delicious tofu dango with peanut-brown sugar sauce

STRESS

well ive hit a deadlock.. i got to 5oo and started confusing all the kanji with each other.. ugh.. so ive stopped adding new kanji and im trying my best to work through it.. however im feeling very stressed out.. a few days ago my left eye started twitching incontrolably.. when i think of doing my kanji for the day it twitches more.. so i figure that might be the cause.. its very annoying especially because thats my good eye and its messing with my vision.. i can see the lower lid twitching away and its very distracting.. i cant sit and write many kanji because my hands will start to shake after about 30 or so.. because of the stress ive stopped with my strict schedule.. i dont think i could take the pressure.. ive been having trouble sleeping too.. even with my sleeping pills it takes me hours to fall asleep..

im not sure what i should do to stop the stress.. i already tried taking a week off from the kanji but if i take off another week i wont finish by september.. the reason i want to finish by september is because im going to try and go to a college level class for japanese.. i want to be able to learn the vocab words in full kanji.. i really need to pass the course.. that one course costs as much as my whole semester's tuition at community college.. so im feeling extra stress from that..

so far ive tried

*long baths

*taking a week off from kanji (this worsened the problem because when i started up again i felt worse.. and that was about the time my eye started twitching)

*going out to the movies and other fun things

*watching more tv

*exercizing (this caused my chronic pain to flare up bad and caused more stress)

*watching lots of comedy shows (this used to work well.. but not this time)

games and youtubevideos

well now for a post about games..
dont get excited im talking about study games.

my #1 pick is JRPG
its a fun little game to learn the pronunciations of the kana and kanji.
its a simple game but its really entertaining.. warning this game makes time fly so make sure that if you have to be somewhere that you set an alarm.. also this program and windows vista dont get along. its too bad because my next pick just isnt as fun for me..

my #2 pick is knuckles in chinaland
well this one is not as good in my opinion as JRPG.. its well made but i still like the other one better.. this game is a bit more complicated than JRPG.. oh and the name doesnt mean that it teaches chinese.. it teaches japanese.. so far im still on katakana in the game.. which is one of the reasons im unhappy with it.. it just isnt fast paced enough for me.. i hate the wandering around.. well supposedly it gets better as you advance in it.. its entertaining enough.. i do like how you can save your progress.

my #3 pick rossetta stone..

2 minutes in and you understand what i mean when i say its boring.. its pretty good if you can force yourself to use it.. i find it difficult to make myself do it..

my #4 pick slime forest

this one so far only teaches the meanings of the kanji.. i suppose it was fun for the first week or so.. its really not a bad way to drill the meanings.. but i dont play it anymore

ugh i wish i could remember the names of the other games ive tried

oh well on to youtube people

lets learn japanese (the youtube person not the video course i mentioned earlier)
expertvillage this teacher really explains things well.. i want to watch every video with her in it because she teaches very well.. she even pauses when she says to say something and then says 'good' after.. it really keeps me motivated.. i know that its recorded like that but it really feels like interaction with a real teacher.. she is by far my favorite
twlight76 here is a youtuber who's vids i sometimes watch right before i study the kanji on RevTK.. it goes to fast to really learn anything fropm but it sometimes helps to warm up my brain before exerting it.
speaking of videos that act as a warm up for my brain this one actually helps better as a warm up.. im not sure how it does it but after i watch it my reviews are always a higher percentage correct than when i dont watch it.. i would love to know why it works out like that..

so yeah thats all my tired brain can come up with today

mom sent me a birthday gift

she sent me 100$ i was really expecting like 25$ when she said she was sending a check

so far ive bought:

kanji power 5$

Teach Yourself Beginner's Japanese Script 4$

Kanji De Manga Volume 1) 4$

japanese particle workbook 14$

Read Real Japanese Fiction $16.94

The Kanji Handbook $23.94

250 Essential Kanji for Everyday Use, Volume 1) $7.71

********************************************************
ive saved ~ 94$ off list prices by buying online mostly used items..

i still have ~24$ left..

i cant wait until they arrive..

well the paper flashcards aren't working out so great.. it just takes too long..

i made a new schedule for myself.. the *starred* items are optional this month..

ill be starting tae kims grammar in may..

i wish i didnt have to go to my real classes.. they really cut into my japanese time..

so far today and yesterday ive stuck with this schedule.. i just finished a lesson in rosetta stone and im getting ready for lunch when i will watch 'lets learn japanese' ill also watch it when i take a bath later.. but theres no harm in watching an episode twice in a day.. however i dont think ill start a new episode in the bath because 2 episodes in a day might be too much for me..

i cant wait til summer arrives.. instead of new years resolutions i generally do summer resolutions.. this summer i want to complete RTK1 and start doing kanji chains and i want to have tae kim's grammar completed by the time school starts.. and i want to have finished 'lets learn japanese' season 1 and 2 and move on to the third installment of the series which is called Erin's challenge.. erin's challenge is for upper beginners to intermediate students according to the japan shop its sold with a text book so i guess i wont be doing it in the bath.. but a textbook might make it a better course.. so yeah my expectations are kind of high.. its almost impossible for me to get to upper beginner-intermediate by the time summer is over.. but ill give it my best..

i recently read a blog.. well i didnt read the whole thing but its called all japanese all the time..

well im not sure how much of it ill follow because giving up my friends and family who speak english would be too hard.. i live with my dad so its not like i can avoid him (nor would i want to) plus i go to school.. and i cant exactly stop going to lectures just because im trying to learn japanese.. i disagree with some of the things in the blog ive read.. for one there isnt any reason for me to start sleeping on a futon or doing everything at low tables.. i have a very bad back so i just dont think this is wise (i need more support when sleeping and sometimes i need help getting up when im on the ground).. plus quite alot of japanese households use beds instead of futons now.. and almost all the media i see has them sitting on western style furniture..

things i agree with would be watching as much japanese tv, movies and listening to as much music as possible.. i tried several languages before japanese.. and one day i get a demo cd of rosetta stone.. it graded me in every language they had.. for some reason i scored extremely well in japanese and terrible in every other language.. it took me a while to figure out the reason for my relative ease at learning japanese.. i had been watching TONS of japanese movies for years so i could just intuitively pick up some of the words and grammar.. the reason i was watching the japanese movies is because i have dyslexia so reading subtitles helped me up my reading speed and accuracy.. however blockbuster only had a small foreign section and when i started watching i was a kid so the only things that were kid appropriate that were subtitled were in japanese(anime).. i sort of cheated the second time i watched movies.. i had already read the subtitles once so i knew what was going on so i stopped reading them.. bad for my reading speed but apparently good for me picking up japanese without even knowing i was doing it.. however the knowledge i picked up was very basic.. so when i bought some textbooks and rosetta stone i ended up feeling like i hit a wall after a while.. suddenly what was easy is now as hard as it is with everyone else.. so now ive got to work at it much harder.. and it is slow going..

oops its time for lets learn japanese.. see you later