ELSEWHERE

Humpback whales have such disconcertingly human eyes

Completely forgot to sign up for next semester's classes on Tuesday BUT now I have done so!

Skit done! Went really well! Just hanging out watching other people perform now

Don't ask how we got here but professor talking about teachers preferring to teach online due to school shootings

How depressing

So yeah! Class is done! There's still the final on Tuesday, but I don't go to class for that. And I'm pretty sure I could completely bomb that and still pass, so.

As mentioned, skit went really well! I have been recording the classes, so when we were done I went back and watched our performance, because I couldn't watch how people were reacting to it while we were performing, and the professor seemed really into it. Everyone on-camera applauded when we were done and one student said it was like they were listening to a Japanese podcast. It hasn't been graded yet, but we did get some feedback already on the submission and there aren't that many corrections so I think we're good?

Once everyone had gone, the professor let us go but stayed in the zoom for anyone who had questions, including Disruptive Student who had, quote, "a lot of questions". Two of which turned out to be "Has anyone else ever gone right to 402 and skipped 401", which, of course, the answer was yes, students have started straight at 402 before. She talked a bit about how he applied himself and raised his grade from an F at the beginning of the semester to a B, though, so, like, good for him. He then asked "Have you had any student before who is similar to me at all", to which she said she shouldn't have let him take the class, which. Wow. Like the tone wasn't one of like, 'You shouldn't have been here' but just very matter-of-factly saying that she probably shouldn't have let him skip 401 but he did well in the end despite that.

Meanwhile in a DM to another student he was complaining about people thinking they're "the main character" which is hilarious in light of his "am I the specialest little boy who has ever taken a Japanese class". Clearly he's annoyed because he's the main character.

He and a couple of other students hung out in the zoom with her for like an hour after class ended and just shot the shit, and I evesdropped, talking about like 'when is 411 offered and which professors teach it' and 'working and living in Japan' and 'study abroad opportunities' and 'working and living in China' and etc. Just a lot of just, general conversation which was interesting but not interesting enough to repeat. We all said bye, I thanked her for the class, and the zoom ended.

A lot of people seem to prefer her over the other professor and I really just don't see it. I do think there's a weird racism at play, if you can call it that, of I have explicitly seen people say that they don't want to learn Japanese from a white person (/a person whose native language is English). It's better I guess to learn from a Chinese person? I can see the argument, but I don't really subscribe to that thinking, especially if we're not doing a "I only want to learn from a native Japanese speaker" elitism.

But yeah, I mentioned -- because I also mentioned that I was planning on taking said white woman's class in the fall -- that I actually preferred her teaching to this teacher, and most people disagreed but one person said "Same. [The white professor] doesn't try to humiliate you in class, let's you skip if you honestly don't know the answer or don't understand"

There is a chance that when I take 411 that Disruptive Student will be there, and there is a perverse small part of me that wants to see that happen because, I will be honest with you I do not think that professor would have been nearly as lenient with Disruptive Student as this professor was. To quote someone else when I brought that up: "she would've kicked his ass out long ago"

So I kind of want to see that. But more of me just doesn't want to deal with him again.

But! That's a year from now, so. I honestly think there's a solid chance he burns out and doesn't end up taking 411 at all. Or he takes it somewhere else, or he actually succeeds and transfers to Japan to study there. I think it's unlikely that I'll see pretty much any of my peers in that next class because as said, most people seem to not like that professor (I wasn't, like, super thrilled with her either but it was fine), and additionally I'm sure a number of students don't plan on spending any more credits on a language class. We'll see, though!

After class we had dinner, we watched an Any Austin (the one about NPC pathfinding in Fallout 3, which I'd told ash about ages ago and he seemed interested in), and then we played Slay the Princess. ash is on his third princess and has gotten one that I hadn't seen before, at least in the incarnation/path he got her on. Enjoying seeing how ash plays, it's a very good one to compare styles with.

I did watch the new Jetlagged yesterday and was kind of disappointed by it! It was completely fair, but felt unfair, with the player getting extremely screwed over by something arguably not really in his control. Which happens sometimes in games but it just utterly destroyed his run in a way that wasn't fun to watch. He also made a few very bad decisions that definitely didn't help. I dunno! I hope the next one is more fun.

I'm going to go watch more older episodes until it's time to shut off the internet for the night. Tomorrow we will be trying to get some Christmas decorating done! Or this weekend if not tomorrow

This is the script in English:

A: Wow! Fun! This roller coaster is the best!

B: Oh, you've ridden it before?

A: Yeah, I ride it a lot!

B: But, you said that little roller coaster was the best. Which do you like more, that one or this one?

A: Hmm... The little one is a little slow, so I like the big one the most.

B: I see. Ah, we're next.

[mime riding the roller coaster for a few seconds before it stops abruptly]

B: Aa!! What??

A: It stopped...

B: I don't want to die! I want to go to Europe and see famous places!!

A: It's okay! It's okay! It's not that high. A park employee will help us.

B: It's not that high. It's okay.

A: Excuse me!! What's happened?

B: Can we get off?

A: Hm. Don't get off. The attendant said not to get off yet.

B: How long?

A: About five hours.

B: Five hours?? Get us out!!

A: It's okay! The weather is nice. It's sunny, but not hot.

B: It is... But...

A: What are you doing later?

B: I was going to see a movie and go to a restaurant, but now I don't think I will.

A: Oh? Why?

B: Because we're stuck on a roller coaster for five hours!!

A: Ah... Sorry... But, which movie were you going to see?

B: I was going to see Wicked.

A: Were you going to meet someone at the theater?

B: No, I wasn't going to meet anyone. I was thinking of seeing it alone.

A: Well, would you like to go later?

B: No, I don't think I want to go later. We're stuck for five hours.

A: That's right. Well, what are you doing tomorrow?

B: ... I don't have any plans. Do you?

A: I haven't washed the car, yet. I'm planning to wash it tomorrow.

B: I already washed it.

A: Really! Thanks!

B: It's nothing.

A: Then... would you like to go to the movies tomorrow...?

[the ride jolts]

B: Ah!! ... Um ... Sorry, but could you give me some more space...?

A: Sorry. It's because the ride... it's a little...

B: Oh! There's an emergency lever here!

A: Oh! Use it!

[the lever releases their safety bar]

B: Wow! Let's get out of here!

A: Wait! If you leave we'll lose our place!

B: No! I don't want to ride it anymore!!

Also asked: which anime are good for learning Japanese, to which she said not to ask her because she's old. She did go on to suggest Totoro in specific, One Piece, and Ghibli movies in general

erikavonkaiser wrote: ↑Thu Dec 12, 2024 8:39 pm

https://thedailyneopets.com/articles/neggs

Everybody tag yourself

Today we got the christmas tree up and also hung up Fluffy the Christmas Spider (he is hanging from a curtain rod and balanced on top of the TV, where he can stare at ash all evening). And we finished ash's Slay the Princess run -- he got an ending I haven't gone for yet, but otherwise didn't do anything new for me. It was fun! He enjoyed it, and we may do another run some time but not in the immediate future. I may or may not do some more completioning in the meantime.

Tomorrow we'll do some more Christmas decorating! Especially I want to put the village up and see how Cael handles it. So just things I won't be heartbroken if they break, and no little people for him to get fascinated with knocking around.

He did spend today bothering Loki, who didn't seem too upset by it. We're keeping an eye on that to make sure it doesn't go too far, but by and large we're okay with Cael having someone other than Oz to get some energy out with, and if Loki can handle it then that's great. Cael did calm down once the roomba went away (we'd summoned it to get fake-tree-needles that fell off while putting the tree together), so it's likely he was just overstimulated. Still, don't want bullying to happen. It seems likely too that Cael could be trying to establish dominance, and meanwhile Loki is "whatever" about it. "Whatever makes you happy, kid."

Need to study for final but I don't want to hunker down into that too early, because my ADHD-ass will just forget everything I'm reviewing by the time I have to take the test if I'm not careful. Probably will start on that tomorrow. And then once that's done I can do things that I've been putting off until after finals, like getting ash's and Erik's Christmas presents made.

Tonight! Very tired. Still struggling with sleep, going to keep at trying to get on top of it. Immediate future, more dinner, watch videos.

More Christmas decorations! In addition to Fluffy, the Santa Twins are also out, and those are the two unique-to-me Christmas traditions I have (so not, like, putting up a Christmas tree which is also a tradition but it's a tradition familiar to many people). We did also discover that a box of Christmas decorations had fallen upside-down at some point and spilled everything inside it, but thankfully only one thing broke and it wasn't a super sentimental thing (a music box of Santa fishing that plays 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'). All of the very important ornaments ash had in it were fine, as were his little snowmen figurines which are one of his unique-to-him traditions.

Tomorrow we're going to go to Daiso again and see about getting some cheap, cute decorations to add on to things, and also pull out another box and do a little more decorating from that.

 
We finished Resident Evil 2 tonight! I did not like the lab section for playthrough B -- I felt like what I was supposed to be doing was Not well telegraphed and we ended up kind of speeding through it without getting very much done. The ending was delightfully over-the-top though, I enjoyed that. Overall I didn't enjoy the game as a whole very much but it definitely had its moments. And I have gotten pretty used to tank controls now and didn't really struggle with them much, so that's neat.

Next is Resident Evil 3! I'll see about getting that working soon.