I went to Roller Derby on Saturday. Did you know that Regina has its very own Derby club? I do now. And it's very punk -- but I've come to understand that this is the new derby clothing style -- fishnets and everything.

I would like to try it. It looks like fun -- and very competitive, but in a way that allows my competitive spirit to become very violent. Of course, I'd probably only want to compete in the novice bouts, because that's more wiping out because you lost your balance and less wiping out because you just got body slammed. I'm a little too petite for that (and I probably couldn't body slam anyone else -- at least not without hitting the floor myself). Unfortunately.

Our club here seems to be among the most fortunate clubs in Canada in terms of naming -- Pile O' Bones seems to be an appropriately violent and yet already well-known nickname for Regina.

You know what's really freaking amazing? On FF.N, I've logged nearly 150,000 words on FF.N. In A Year Like None Other terms, that's almost a fifth of the way through. Wow...

Anyway, I didn't get Cruel Moon done... or started, at any rate. But I did find a magical gem on my computer, which I'm almost 80% sure I wrote. It's CainxJohn, from Godchild and Stargate Atlantis, and I love it. I couldn't sleep last night -- which serves me right for reading it right before bed. I wrote it a year ago, and I didn't quite remember what it is. Thus, the 80%.

So, here:
His Fairy Tale

It's also strange to consider that I still get hits on my stories, when I haven't published anything on ff.n for a year. I'm moderately well-known!

I should be happy, it's my birthday tomorrow and I sort of made progress on my website. I want to have the category image show on subcategory pages -- but I don't know how. I'll put that on the back burner. Tomorrow (and I saw this every night I spend working on this thing) I will work on writing and not the website. Because really, what's more important, the website to display my writing or the actual writing?

Ah, I'm just not used to having a website anymore. Otherwise, I'd be completely ignoring it, like usual.

I'm going to spend the next week writing, instead of the website. Then maybe I'll have interesting content for people to actually come here to see. Wierd, eh? Oh, and maybe I'll work on Cruel Moon. Despite not having updated for more than a year, it's still as popular as all my other fanfiction combined. Now that's weird.

I just get scared of epics. That I won't be able to make them great enough -- gripping enough -- thrilling enough -- totally anticlimatic.

Oh, and my new website! Tsukiyomi: my absolutely favorite kami.

Today, I perfected my green tea latte recipe, which can be made without a steaming pitcher or espresso machine.

Ingredients:
- 1 green tea bag
- half glass of hot water
- 2 tbsp superfine sugar (or to taste)
- a quarter glass of milk

Steep the tea bag and sugar in the hot water.
Meanwhile, in a tall glass or bowl (a glass works best, since the milk doesn't fly anywhere and my hand blender can fit inside of one), whip the milk with the hand blender for 1min 40secs. Then microwave the milk for forty seconds (until milk is warm, but the glass isn't hot).
Remove the tea bag from the other glass, and pour in the milk.

Thus, a warm glass of green tea with frothy goodness.

私はがくせいなので。おかねがないんです。
がくせいなのに、べんきょしない。
あるばいとがないんでしたのに、かかない。
よくテレビをみったけど、ラジオをきかなかった。

私はにぎやかでかっかそうようでしつぼうらくたん。
きょうはよくてすてき。

私はおきてとしょかんへいいてあさごはんをたべた。

にほんごはむずかしいだので私はれんしゅうをする。

ピンセットをかった。けぞめをかわなかった。（かはなかった？）
カバーレターをかいた。ウェブログをかかなかった。
「Three Days Grace」のおんがくをきいた。あゆみはまさきのおんがくをきかなかった。
ひごしへいいた。としょかんをいかなかった。
てほんちょうをつかった。あたまをつかわなかった。（つかはなかった？つかなかった？）
ソーダーをのんだ。おさけをのまなかった。
ハリポタをよんだ。しぶんをよまなかった。
せいかつぶあんをわかった。せいかつをわからなかった。
かれはおよいだ。私はおよがなかった。
きのうはたらいた。
かれとはなした。にほんごをはなさなかった。
はじまった。はじまらなかった。
かみのかをみがいた。くつをみがかなかった。
しゃしょうをあった。ブショをあわなかった。
にほんごをおしえた。えいごをおしえなかった。
ふてぎわをみせた。ソフトスキルをみせなかった。
カリをたべた。にくをたべなかった。
しょうかつをはじめた。あるばいとをはじめなかった。
じゅうじぐらいにねた。れいじにねなかった。
ななじはんにおきた。ろくじにおきなかった。

Grammar Insight #1: Past tense formal is easier to conjugate than past tense informal. Past tense formal has only one ending: -ました, while past tense informal has seven. In today's paragraph, I am going to try to learn past tense informal conjugation.

SURU/KURU
そうじをしたから。ぶんぽうをべんきょうしなかった。
テレべへきた。レストラトへこなかった。

-RU/TSU/U ENDING
ごはんにたまごをつくった。
あさごはんをつかなかった。

-IRU/ERU (GROUP 2) ENDING
私は「Ｈｏｕｓｅ」や「Ｍｅｄｉｕｍ」をみた。
たくさん「Ｃｈａｒｍｅｄ」もみた。
「Ｂｏｎｅｓ」をみなかった。

-NU/BU/MU ENDING
アイスクリームソーダをのんだ。
ワイのをのまなかった。

-KU ENDING
にっきをかいた。「Ｂｕｒｎｉｎｇ　Ａｓｈｅｓ」をかかなかった。
りんのおんがくをきいた。エヴァスをきかなかった。

-GU ENDING
かれはポールでおよいだ。
私はおよがなかった。

-SU ENDING
私はえいごをはなした。すこしにほんごをはなした。
ちょごくごをはなさなかった。

Not so bad, and in the end, I also learned how to do negative present tense informal as well, since you need to conjugate into negative present tense informal before you can into negative past tense. It goes:
-GROUP 1 ENDING (except う): change the final U into an A (ku -> ka), and then add -nai
-う ENDING: drop and add -wanai
-GROUP 2 ENDING: drop the -ru and add -nai
-GROUP 3 ENDING: kuru -> konai, suru -> shinai
Then to get it into past, you replace -nai with -nakatta, just like with adjectives.

Translation Problem #2: It sucks having to learn 1000 kanji to be literate, but kanji is very helpful in figuring out what word it actually is, or even if you're reading the whole word. Otherwise, it would be even more interpretative.

ぶんぽうをべんきょうしませんでした。しかしだいどくろでそうじをしました。いそがしいだ。

しょせつをさがす。ハリポッタとアニタブラクのしょせつをだ。ヴォデイマトはヴァンパイレをだ。

Translation problem #1: Sentence structure. Japanese is truly a bewildering language. Teachers tell you: "Subject Object Verb", but that's not really true. The only thing that is being the verb is at the end of the sentence. It doesn't even need a subject or object, and is quite content about not telling you who is doing an action and who is receiving an action. Which means that sentences can be like "Reborn knew discover continued searching" literally, while the actual translation would be "If I had known you would be reborn, I would have continued searching until I had found you". No I, no you, no clue to what each person has done. So far, though, I have found that paying attention to whether a verb is transitive (someone is doing the verb, with actor) or intransitive (the verb is happening, no actor) can help... a bit. But that just clues you in that someone did it, not who.

きのういちごのさいてんいきました。いいです。それからさわかいいきました。Ｇｏｖｅｒｎｍｅｎｔ　Ｈｏｕｓｅはいそがしいです。さかしよいこちゃです。きょうえいがをみにいきました。「Ｃｏｎｆｅｓｓｉｏｎｓ　ｏｆ　ａ　Ｓｈｏｐａｈｏｌｉｃ」だ。ほんもだ。

きょうしゅうかんじを十六ならうました。ばんごはやさしかっただ。「一」や「二」や「三」はとてもやさしかっただ。ぶんぽうはべんきょうしませんから。むずかしいだ。ん。あしたべんきょうする。

It's been a long time since I've written on my livejournal. So many things have happened since Nanowrimo two years ago. Like, I attempted to write in a non-online journal every day for a year... and eventually epically failed. But I'm impressed that I managed to stay with it for six months and have a rewarding two journals full of my whining. But at any rate, while I did fail that life goal (as well as ever getting Burning Ashes ever ready to be published, so close yet I can't make myself go), I am going to succeed in another life goal of mine -- to translate a book of manga all by myself. So far, to obtaining that goal, I have taken my first first-year Japanese university course, and have submitted the paperwork to take the second first-year course (and second-year course I have to wait to do the paperwork for, because winter semester courses are not up yet). At any rate, if I had really thought my university career through when I was applying, I would have applied to Renison College for Asian Studies. It would have saved me all the grief of all this paperwork, and I would already be in the third year level of Japanese. Oh well.

To further this goal, I am going to need to practice my Japanese. Two of the more creative ways that I've been told to do this is to write in Japanese everyday in a journal (like this one, except that they suggested a Japanese journalling website, but I've been really neglecting this one to the point where I thought LJ had deleted it) and to read and practice translating manga in its native language. So yes, finally I will get some use out of the load of manga I brought back from Japan four years ago, and Cardcaptor Sakura is simple enough (and I know the story enough) for even my simplistic Japanese skills to be able to understand. As well as studying the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 4 (which is the easiest level, apparently), because how else am I going to get the kanji skills and vocab?

Hmm, and maybe when I've completed my goal, I'll be able to become a manga translator for a living.... Or maybe I should get reasonable ideas about my future career. At any rate, since I can't bring myself to finishing my book, and I don't have a summer job yet, I have a large time void to fill.

So, without further ado, today's Japanese entry:

にじゅうななにちしがつにうちへかえりました。ひこうきはトロントかラジナまでいきました。　ウィネペグをとおりました。わたしはこうこうでははをみました。きのうわたしたちはKFCへたべにいきました。ムドピエをかいました。おしかったです。あしたいちごのさいてんやさわかいへいきます。

かんじをならいます。　むずかしいです。でも「人」や「私」はやさしいです。「一」や「二」や「三」もやさしいです。しんけんはかんじはちじゅならいます。わたしはskip・beatをすこしわかりました。でもたくさんわかりませんでした。

きょういいてんきです。おとといゆきでした。

Hey, we didn't have a message on our answering machine when we left. How very odd.

85% through NaNoWriMo.

Ember is difficult to write.

But so angsty he leaves people.

I love it.

This is what happens when I base characters off of Fruit Basket.

59% through NaNoWriMo.

I've killed Daniel.

Why, God, why?

What the hell? I am outraged!

How could my freaking provincial election pass by me without so much as a notice? And further, how could the Saskatchewan party win? Because that's really what this world needs is more conservatives in power!

What happened to our NDP pride? Umbridge had one thing right: that change for change's sake is not good. Yes, the NDP has been in power pretty much since I was born. And yes, I do want SK to prosper... but how can the Sask Party say that they are the ones to carry the newly booming province into the future when the NDP were the ones to start the boom!

I do not like the ties between the Progressive Conservatives and the Saskatchewan Party. Fine, Harper hasn't dug us under yet, but we need to keep a balanced political power. We need an NDP voice and a Liberal voice and a Conservative voice to make sure this country doesn't go off the deep end. And now the one true provincial NDP voice is gone. Well, great.

The Saskatchewan Party plans to make it more affordable for youth to attend university -- part of their big plan to keep the young in Saskatchewan (the plan -- well, that's as old as I am -- seriously). Let's face it, nothing is going to keep the youth from trying to broaden their horizons. While I'm here, I'm getting a much better scholarship than I would have if I had stayed home, and I'm asserting my independence here. My provincial pride (and yes, I have a lot of it) never stopped me from leaving -- but it will ensure that I will return, and I'll bring back all the experiences and knowledge that I have gained by leaving and not learning what every other university student in the entire province is learning. What does the Sask Party think of that? They're fine with it, as long as I don't ask for their financial help.

This isn't just my opinion. The Canadian Federation of Students gave the NDP an A for their platform, while the Sask Party only got a C+. Jeez, there just on par with Bush's academic ranking. I guess we can really expect great things from them. But hey! With those kinds of grades, they could get snapped right up by the University of Regina.

Maybe instead of just economic rewards for being strapped to the province, the Sask Party should concern themselves with increasing the academic standing of the universities there? Then maybe I would have considered actually attending school within Saskatchewan.

Officially 24.788% through NaNoWriMo.

I've given up all pretexts that this used to be a normal book.

Now it's supposed to be bizarre.

Ah, writers, making things up to suit their work.

I am officially 11% through NaNoWriMo.

It isn't bad for a book I swear will never see the light of day.

Although, I admit, it would be quite the coo if I published it.

Never mind Rowling bloodying the minds of the youth.

On the Internet, nobody knows you're a cat.