A Sword Has No Strength

About that.

( We're just gonna cut this.... )

I think that's it, so ... until next month (I hope not)!

Hi, I'm still a child when it comes to mail, and I love receiving it (from friends, you know, but even my bank statements are exciting because I get to see how much (or not) my bank accounts have grown. So there's that!). I got two interesting pieces of mail today.

The first was from Baruch. Curious, I opened it. It's dated October 30 and addressed to "All Benefit Eligible Employees." But if the new payroll started on July 1, then how am I still...? Does this mean I can get the rest of my money, because that'd be super-nice.

The second wasn't quite a piece of mail, but it was a card addressed to me, in my mother's handwriting. Oh no. The message inside was something like "I ask about your life because I love you." That's great, but let's be frank: you say you love me, but you don't care about me. You love me because you think you have to. I mean, you won't even listen to things I have to say unless it's during a commercial break in your precious TV-watching (which, though you're in front of the TV all the time, you think you're entitled to even if I'm already watching something. And it's not like I talk to you about much because we don't have any common interests). Besides, and I've said this before, you've got Jazmin now, who's closer to what you've wanted in a daughter, so you should be just fine without me (which is fine by me. I'm happy for you, in fact).

Just because we're related doesn't mean we have to be family, and I would rather it not be forced, either. In short, I don't want to talk to you because I'm not comfortable talking to you. You've never been able to understand the way I think -- even when I was a kid -- and I can't be bothered to get sidetracked and explain it to you all the time (because you think I'm being "sarcastic" no matter what I say) so I avoid it entirely and opt for someone else who can. I have nothing to say to you, so I don't interact with you. That's all.

...In more comfortable news, my Pokémon withdrawal is over, and I managed to catch a shiny Shroomish today. :D It was the first shiny Pokémon I've ever seen! And there's this game, where you use this site to drop you off in a random location Google Maps has mapped out, and try to find an airport (doesn't have to be the closest one). I was pretty clearly somewhere in the US, and I guessed I was in Texas within three clicks (turns out I was right). That was a bit disappointing. I still don't know where in Texas I am, but I'm following I-45 north, so hopefully I hit something familiar eventually. And then there was Futilitris. I'm too good at Tetris and too boring of a person for this to be any sort of challenge, wehhh.

OH HEY DID YOU HEAR ABOUT ALL THOSE STATES WANTING TO SECEDE? I HEAR THE TOTAL IS COMING UP ON THIRTY WOW LOL Okay back to trying to catch a Slakoth.

Incomplete lyrics for Be Genki (Naseba Naru!). Was able to catch a video on Facebook from H!P's winter concert, and there was a big screen with subtitles in the back of the stage. My listening comprehension's still not very good (especially for Risako: I can hardly understand a word she says ;A;), but I got most of it. *puffs up proudly* There are some words I think I hear, but I'm not entirely sure, so they're not included.

( VENUS YOU'RE A NERD )

This song is stuck in my head hardcore. I wanna learn the daaaaance.

Parlez-vous français?

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Oui! J'ai étudié le français au lycée, mais je me souviens seulement un petit peu de français parce que j'ai oublié prèsque tout que j'ai appris, avec l'exception de cette phrase. ... D'accord, d'accord, ce n'est pas vrai, mais c'est assez drôle. :D

Yes! I studied French in high school, but I remember only a little bit of French because I forgot almost everything I learned, with the exception of this sentence. ... Okay, okay, this is not true, but it's pretty funny. :D And it's a bit of a run-on sentence so I've got to tinker with it some more. Still, that's not bad for someone who hasn't taken a formal class in thirteen years! (I do miss it, though, but I can't take it at Baruch; I've actually got a code on my record that says I'm not allowed to do first- or second-semester French. Ain't that some shit.)

My French is better than my Spanish, though I've obviously gotten more use out of my Spanish since high school, working at Sanrio and having so many Dominican friends -- which is why I sound Dominican. They're the ones teaching me, not my family -- which is cool, too, but I still trip the hell over things. I rarely get tongue-tied when speaking French. Stuck on vocabulary, yes, but sometimes my tongue feels too big for my mouth, or I'm a lot slower saying things than I should be in Spanish. I don't know why, I've had more practice speaking Spanish than any of the other languages I've learned. It makes me a little sad that I fail my heritage.

Then there's Japanese, which I loooove, and I'd love to learn more (though not at TJS. Augh). I will forever wear, as a badge of honor, that time that Nagase-sensei slapped me in the face said she was surprised how quickly and how well I -- someone of non-Asian descent -- learned the language, and how nice my handwriting was, and so on. It sounds a little condescending, but it really was meant as a compliment. Two of the worst semesters of my college career, and I got two of the easiest As I've ever earned. I wish I could have stayed out there just to learn more. I'd say my French and Japanese are pretty even, once you toss in the little bits I've learned from various sources post-Stony Brook.

After that, I only know bits and pieces in a few other languages. There's German, Portuguese, Ukrainian, ASL.... I think those are all the ones I can count to ten in, say yes and no, and that's about it. I know a few other words in Portuguese, German, and ASL, but just a few, and not nearly enough to express myself. I learned a few kitchen- and food-words from Swedish Meal Time and that poem I memorized once. And then there's Finnish. MAN I WOULD LOVE TO LEARN FINNISH, but I only know how to say four (neljä!) random words (well, seven, if you break twenty-four down to two, ten, and four), and one of them is impolite. XD OOPS.

I think it would be absolutely awesome if I could, somehow, become a human Google Translate. *_* I love languages. Always have. Why didn't I ever pursue linguistics in school because I'm stupid, obviously? courez, how's the linguistics major working for you? We never talked about it! Can you teach me how the IPA symbols work? *_*

Practice and pictures today~ Time to tame my hair.