moved to wordpress

taiwan2019.wordpress.com

really wanted a native iPhone app for posting to my blog.

58 Days... umm, ok

Yeah, it's getting close... and still a long way to go.  The good news is that my major product at work has been completed.  I have my fingers crossed that nothing big will come up at work between now and my trip.

Wife just woke up... crap.

Time to pull the weeds, etc.

Times up!

93 days and counting...

Ok, another week has gone by and it is now Saturday again. During this past week, I only managed to study an hour. To put it bluntly, this sucks.

This weekend, my wife already has the following lined up for me:
- weed pulling in back yard (1 hour)
- mulching front yard flower bed (1 hour)
- garage cleaning (1 hour)
- transferring blueberry bush to a larger container (30 minutes)
- laundry (off and on for a couple of hours)
- who knows what else

Then, there's work I have to complete before Monday. That will take at least 10 hours of my time this weekend. So, basically, I'm losing yet another weekend to my wife and my job. No time left over for what I really want to do... study Chinese.

Anyway, I'm going to start now and at least try to get in a solid 30 minutes before you-know-who wakes up and asks, "Have you already pulled the weeds?"

The day is over...

Slept some, ate dinner, worked some, watched TV, and now I feel like crap and going back to bed. I managed to study only three sentences. I still have at least 8 hours worth of work to do, which means most of my tomorrow will be spent on everything except Chinese. I will try to squeeze in some study time in the morning before I get to tired. Ugh.

Make that 30 minutes... now I feel sleepy.

Can't keep my eyes open... short nap?

Round 4: Goal is one solid hour of studying...

Just finished watching a movie with the wife. Trying to get in at least one solid, uninterrupted hour of studying sentences.

Time to water the plants...

I made it just over 30 minutes of studying and it's now time to water the plants in the backyard. By the time I finish that, it will be time to eat. Then, I need to shower because later, I need to go to the neighbor's house to pick up a Taiwanese lunch box. One of our Taiwanese neighbor's takes her kids to learn Chinese every Saturday. Another parent there makes and sells Taiwanese lunch boxes. So my wife asked the neighbor to buy her one each Saturday.

Sometime this afternoon, I hope to return to my studies. I got through all of the vocabulary pages on the Daily Review PDF (linked off of my home page) and just started with the sentences.

I'm back for now...

Wife about to start making pancakes, etc. So, unless she needs my help with something, I should be able to get in at least 30 minutes of studying.

Back studying.. wife calling again

Just started back studying at 10:55am and wife is now calling me to come see her. It's 11:08am now and I get pulled away from my studies again.

Studied 45 mins... wife's awake now, which means I need to go wash the dishes

Only 45 minutes... a good start, but a long way to go.

101 Days before flying to Taiwan...

Where did the time go?

Right now, I'm working 80+ hours a week at my job. This will continue for at least two more weeks. Hopefully I can squeeze in time to learn more Chinese before my trip in January.

Today, for example, I do plan to study at least two hours. Since it's Saturday, I can push more of my work-related tasks to tomorrow (and will probably stress out then). Basically, I haven't studied Chinese in weeks. Ugh!

Time flies when you're working your butt off...

Almost two months since my last post and probably that long since I really studied Chinese.

Only 83 days left in the year.

Out of the initial five folks planning to join us on our trip to Taiwan next January, three of them have bought tickets and two of them have decided not to go. The good news is that the three that are going are very outgoing and willing to try new things. One of the two that decided not to go is not very adventurous, so it's probably a good thing he's not going.

Super Crunch Time: 128 Days Left in 2010

No comment... :(

Crunch Time: 152 days left in 2010

Here I am again... Seems like I always end up in this position. I was to do X in Y number of days and I'm always way behind schedule. My goals are just to grandiose I guess.

So, there are 152 days until the end of the year and I have a ton of Chinese to learn.

On the positive side, I finally have a good list of sentence patterns (including examples of each) that I can begin working off of. I'm comfortable with the first five patterns (out of 30 something).

On the negative side, my overall vocabulary is still in the range of several hundred characters.

Redeeming points for Chinese Help...

It sounds silly, but somehow my wife and I started this system where she'll help me with Chinese if I do more housework. For example, she'll give me a point for washing dishes. I can then redeem that point for up to 15 minutes of Chinese help. So, the two PDF's I uploaded were both reviewed by her so at least I know that I can safely study/memorize them and still be learning correct Chinese grammar and vocabulary.

Uploaded "Sentence Patterns" and "Daily Review" PDF's...

I created a web site on Google where I could stored my PDF's. Uploaded the "Sentence Patterns" and "Daily Review" PDF's and added links to them from my blog (the right rail).