This is quite embarrassing but after having got off to some great starts over the last month or two, I only just finished learning Katakana today. To say I’m finished is actually incorrect as without further practice over the coming months, it will eventually slip away. Something I’m quite proud of is that besides reading Katakana I’ve also learned how to write each of the characters from memory. With Hiragana, I only this ability with a select few of the characters, something I will need to work on in the near future.
Having finally completed Katakana, I am also required to begin Kanji, specifically the J?y? kanji – essentially learning kana 10 more times. It certainly is scary however I’m sure I can accomplish it. I’m planning to use the Remembering the Kanji method since I don’t have confidence that the more traditional method which I used to learn the kana will translate to 2000 more characters, many of which are increasingly detailed and similar.
The Remembering the Kanji method will teach a single English word for each Kanji. The actual Japanese readings can be taught later in context. At that stage, I’m planning to use the All Japanese All the Time method of 10,000 unique sentences which I will enter into Anki, which is spaced repetition software. My review method for these will be much like my Katakana, write the sentence, read the sentence, and then proceed to check my answer. In the case that I’m wrong, I will repeat the writing and reading a few more times before moving on to the next.
I’m planning to supplement the 10,000 sentences method with JapanesePod101 podcasts, Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese Grammar and Smart.fm’s Vocabulary lists. The first and last of these will also serve as a great source of sentences for use in Anki with a reasonable likelihood that the translations provided will be correct. Eventually I’m also planning to use my anime and jdorama as a source of sentences.
I’ve gone over the planned method of action but I haven’t put forth my reasons for learning Japanese.
To prove to myself that I can
Watching Anime and Japanese Dramas without subtitles
Reading Manga and Light Novels
I’m interested in living in Japan in the future, thus its essential that I can communicate effectively
To better under the Japanese culture and traditions – fascinating!
This is a very very early development release of a plugin for WordPress to export a category as an eBook, currently only ePub. Some features don’t work and many are not implemented.
I’ve picked up the following series for the Winter 2009/2010 season. Stars are out of 5 and represent how much I’m enjoying said anime as of this post.
I wrote a simple caching library for CodeIgniter since database caching and page output caching were not suitable for my needs.
Usage:
class Test extends Controller {function main(){// load the library$this->load->library('simple_cache');// key is the name you have given to the cached data// will check if the item is cachedif(!$this->simple_cache->is_cached('key')){// not cached, do our things that need caching$data=array('print'=>'Hello World');// store in cache$this->simple_cache->cache_item('key',$data);}else{$data=$this->simple_cache->get_item('key');}$this->load->view('hello',$data);}}
I don’t think I need to explain anymore? Maybe I will update with a better description later.
The current governing political party of Australia, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) is seeking to introduce mandatory ISP level filtering, dubbed “Clean Feed” or the “Great Firewall of Australia” with the stated intent of blocking access to content that has been refused classification, specifically singling out child pornography and abuse material as its target although refused classification content covers far more than this. There would be no opt-out although it had been mentioned early on that there would be.
This filter has a of number issues that make such an attempt to filter en masse the internet use of Australian’s unpractical. These include that it could be easily bypassed using proxies and VPN, and a possible performance penalty that varies with the implementation. The filter would only target web-related content doing nothing to target content that goes over other protocols such as newsgroups and BitTorrent. The blacklist is tiny in comparison to the number of sites that would need to blocked in order to meet the Governments stated target. Perhaps worse, it could possibly create a false sense of security for parents who believe that the filter will protect their children from what has been deemed harmful but due to issues with internet filtering systems, manages to let undesired content through and into the eyes of their children.
With a mandatory filtering scheme, Australia would be following in the footsteps of other countries such as the People’s Republic of China, and Iran. The United Kingdom and select other European countries have also introduced filtering however these are different in the fact that the stated intention is only to block child pornography. This mandatory ISP level filtering would be the first of its kind in a western country. There is fear that this could set a dangerous precedent that could be used to promote internet censorship in other western countries.
Its the time of year again when I have to decide what I’m going to watch for the next 3 months. My watch list has recently been shortened considerably as various series conclude, signaling the impending start of a new round of anime. These are the anime I’m planning to watch that start in October 2009. I’m not the biggest fan of translating names, but for the convenience of my English-speaking or non-Anime watching readers, I’ve included translations or official English names in brackets. Links go to MyAnimeList.net where you’ll be able to get a summary of each series.
I’m excited about the continuations of existing series including White Album, Asura Cryin’, and Toaru Majutsu no Index’s spinoff Toaru Kagaku no Rail Gun. I have mixed feelings about Shugo Chara Dokki Doki. I loved the first two seasons, but the show was really concluded in those two seasons. I can’t imagine this third season being anything more then filler, or anime original content, which the first seasons already had their fair share of. My excitement for new shows is in particular extended to Kobato which is from CLAMP, a manga-ka group who I am a big fan of. I’m yet to watch a series by CLAMP which I haven’t enjoyed.
What are you expectations for this season? Do you have any suggestions?
This tutorial will explain how to add a table of contents to a generic WordPress page. Our table of contents will be a list of posts in chronological order. This tutorial is a follow up to a comment on the post for my WordPress Table of Contents Widget by Ashley who indicated that she would be interested in the capability of having a table of contents in a page rather then the sidebar.
This tutorial will take you through the steps needed to install PHP on Microsoft Windows. I’m using Vista, but with minor changes, these instructions should also be valid for Windows XP and Windows 7 as well.