Little

The first I learned of it was a bang and hysterical screaming. I ran from our back yard into the front yard, to see 'ding 3 running back to the house, crying, 'She got hit! She got hit!'

I ran to the big street in front of our house to see her poor, broken body, which had been so lively only moments before, lying, lifeless, in one of the lanes.

People were already there, checking the collar and crying, when our family arrived. Our dog, Little, was gone from us, and we didn't know what to do.

We buried Little in our side yard, wrapped in a blanket, head pillowed on her 'fish': her felted toy. Our neighbors comforted us, as did members of our small group.

Little was precious to us, and she will always have a special place in our hearts. We must, however, learn to move on. I'm not quite ready yet, but today we have up to have a hectic day of piano lessons (we have Guild Auditions Monday) and school (it is a co-op day), and tomorrow I go on a field trip to Busch Gardens.

My dear, poor puppy, I will miss you. I love you, Little.

'ding 2

Zhongwen

Over the years, I've encountered many different experiences. Some of these have been pleasant, some not so much, but none have been quite as unique as my experience of taking a Chinese course at a co-op we go to.

Taking Chinese (or Zhongwen) has been a somewhat bewildering experience. There are over five hundred different characters in Chinese, and some (in my opinion) are utterly superfluous, such as a structural character used at the end of some phrases but not others, in a seemingly haphazard and weird fashion.

Also, the tones drive me nuts. There are five tones: the first, second, third, fourth, and neutral tones, and a slight shift in tone changes the meaning drastically. An example is the word "ma." Although a simple word in English, in first tone it means "mother," in second it means "flax," in third it means "horse," in fourth tone it is the verb "to scold," and in the neutral tone it is a structural character used to change a declarative sentence into an interrogative sentence.

In spite all of that, I would be fine if it weren't for the character memorization. Weekly, my class takes a character-writing test, and I always get a terrible grade. The pronunciation I have no problem with, but I just can't grasp the characters! The character meaning "forever," and the character meaning "water" are almost identical, apart from two strokes, or lines.

Anyway, this is 'ding 2, resignedly duking it out in Chinese I.

Hilarious

My youth leader sent this to me over Gmail, and I got a big kick out of it. I thought you might enjoy it.
You can't exactly read it, but if you click on it, it will bring it up in another window. I think it's hilarious that he says, "...is not statistically significant..."

I know this was a short post, but I hope it made you laugh as well.

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Stuff

First of all, Happy New Year! As I am writing this, it is a rainy January 2nd, 2009.

In my reading, Sherlock Holmes has conquered many cases, including the strange case of the surreal Hound of the Baskervilles. He has died and returned, and solved one of my favorite cases of his - The Case of the Dancing Men.

The huge army of Agamemnon has landed before Troy, Menelaus has fought Paris, who has been rescued by Aphrodite. Now, the Achaeans are preparing to attack the Trojans.

Don Quixada has been driven mad by books of chivalry and has become Don Quixote, the sadly unlucky knight errant, who, together with his squire, Sancho Panza, has encountered "giants" (or windmills), "armies" (or herds of sheep), and much more (or much, much more).

That's about it, currently. I'll write more as it hits me.

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