Here is the latest Kinoko Channel video.
Mormor’s Backporch
My grandmother, or Mormor, in Swedish, was one of the most important people in my life for many reasons, not the least of which was that she was able to solve any problem one might have. She could find creative solutions for everything. When I was growing up, she had a house in Chicago with the most amazing backporch. When I used to play Dungeons & Dragons in college, one of the magical items was a Bag of Many Things. This was a magical bag that held a seemingly infinite amount of items. Mormor’s backporch was like that.
I have had several careers over my lifetime before I made the decision to do what I love and become an astrologer. One of those careers was as a teacher. When I was a student teacher, I lived with Mormor. Whenever I needed something for a class, all I had to do was to ask her, and she would go to her backporch, bring out various items and contrive them together into the exact thing that I needed. It was truly magical and amazing. When I moved out into my own apartment, I was able to leave with many things I needed, including a dining room table, from the treasures on her backporch.
When Mormor moved from her house in Chicago, she got rid of many of her belongings, so her new backporch no longer had the same sorts of material treasures. She still had a back porch, however, and the new back porch held treasures of a different sort. Mormor would often sit on her backporch, and it was there that her and I had some of our best conversations, about all sorts of things.
I started the site which is now called, The Wisdom of our Grandmothers, which was intended as an all purpose blog for my astrology business as well as all of my other interests. I then gathered my writings from various blogs through the years, and as it so happened, there was quite a varied assortment. Thinking that for an astrology practice, I ought to have a site that was much more focused, I started the site, The Stars Within Their Courses. Yet, even after that, I thought that the Wisdom site might a little too scattered and unfocused for readers, particularly as on that site, I want to explore deep issues with respect to feminine tradition and question some underlying assumptions in astrology.
So, I started this site for articles about all of my varied interests, from Anime, to knitting and crocheting, to gardening, to language studies and so forth and so forth. At times, if I am feeling brave, I may write in Japanese, and if I am feeling exceptionally brave, I may write in Swedish.
I hope you enjoy this blog.
よろしくお願いします。
This is the Precure I Want to Become
I am a big Precure fan. I like all of the series, but, as of now, I really, really, really love the series from Heartcatch through Doki Doki. I also love Futari wa Precure: Splash Star. All of the series are kawaii*, gentle, and fun, but I think that those series also have deep meaning.
This year’s series is Hugtto Precure. Like Heartcatch and Doki Doki, in this series, the villains make monsters from the faults of humans. I think it is very interesting.
This week’s episode is Episode 11. I think it is a wonderful episode.
Last week, the protagonist, Nono Hana, lost her confidence, and because of that, she was not able to transform into Cure Yell. This week, thanks to her precious friends, she regained some of her confidence and was able to transform again. As is often the case in Precure, after overcoming her difficulties, she leveled up. A Precure Sword appeared. Dashing, isn’t it?
But then, something surprising happened. She was able to see the monster’s True Self.
Saying, “This is wrong. This is not the Precure I want to become!” Cure Yell threw down the sword.
Then she hugged the monster.
After that, the Precure Sword disappeared, and in its place, a wand appeared.
Wands appeared for the other Precure as well. Then Cure Yell said, “This is my encouragement; this is the Precure I want to become.”
Admirable, isn’t it? Wonderful, isn’t it? I think that this is very appropriate to the theme of this site.
I am looking forward to the next episode.
________
*loosely translates into cute
Hugtto Precure Review, The Reaction of a Foreign Doll; 2018’s New Precure (VTuber’s Review)
I am very much enjoying the new Precure series this year, Hugtto Precure. Here is a review from my favorite VTuber doll, Kinoko-chan. Japanese and English subtitles are available.
Spring is Finally Here…I Hope
Spring has been slow in starting this year in Northern Illinois. It has been quite cold these last several weeks, and a few days ago, we even had a little snow.
But, today, at last, we are having a warm, sunny and beautiful day, and the weather forecast looks like it will be relatively nice all week. I was finally able to do a little work in the garden this afternoon.
But despite the difficult weather, the show must go on, and the early spring flowers and plants have been doing their job in the first act of the yearly performance.
The crocuses dutifully announced it was Spring, and they were quickly followed by the daffodils.
The new rose we planted last year does not look like much now.
But it looks like she has survived the winter and is starting to come back to life.
My aunt bought another rose for the other side of the front yard, but she does not look like much either yet. She is starting to come to life as well though.
However, the miniature rose that my grandmother left behind is starting to take off.
It looks like we will have rhubarb again this year.
As the perennial flowers and plants have been busy doing their jobs, I thought I ought to do mine. I have started the tomatoes and peppers indoors, and they are starting to sprout. Most of the sprouts are too small for a photo….except for this little precocious one, who started to sprout within a day or so of my planting the seeds.
Now, let’s hope the weather stays nice for a little longer.
Anki Woes
I have spent the last several days working feverishly on this blog. I have had a sudden burst of creativity, and I have learned the hard way that I need to act on those bursts when they come, even if they seem to come at inconvenient times. If I hold them off while I do other things that seem more important at the time, when I try to sit down and write later, I no longer have anything to say. Articles come when they come, and if I do not seize the opportunity when it comes, it is usually lost. So, this time when inspiration came, I followed its lead.
The problem is that in doing so, I fell behind in my Anki. For those of you who are not familiar with Anki, it is a Spaced Repetition Software (SRS) program to help a person memorize information. In other words, it is a fancy, electronic version of old-school flashcards. I believe that Anki was one of the first SRS programs developed for large scale use. The name Anki is a Japanese word, 暗記 (あんき), which literally means, rote memoriziation. It is extremely useful for language learning. I have used it for years to learn Japanese, and I am now using it to learn Latin. I also use it a little for Swedish, although for Swedish, I primarily use Duolingo. These type of programs are called Spaced Repetition Software because they repeat the cards at various intervals based on how well you do on the card. These intervals are supposedly set using algorithms based on scientific studies of how the brain remembers things. I honestly have no idea how these algorithms work, but it is nice to have the software decide how often I should see a card, and electronic flashcards do not make a mess in my house like paper ones do.
This is all well and good, and I know that Anki is useful. I do not think I would have learned Japanese without it. I certainly would not have learned to write kanji without it. It is also the only way I am able to learn all of the ridiculously complicated endings in Latin. By the way, learning Latin is making me appreciate Japanese more than ever. Still, despite its usefulness, I find Anki incredibly boring. What is worse, due to the nature of Spaced Repetition Software, if you fall behind on Anki, your reviews start building up, just like laundry and dishes. In just a few days of neglecting my Anki, I woke up this morning with about 380 cards due. Sigh.
I have considered abandoning Anki altogether in order to free up more time for immersion. That is actually a constant temptation, but I have found that my Anki repetitions do make my immersion more effective and useful, because I do better at recognizing vocabulary in my immersion if I have reviewed the words in Anki. Just like exercise, I would love for Anki to be ineffective, but sigh, I know it works. So, as I would say in Japanese, しょうがない, shou ga nai (it can’t be helped).
I have also tried breaking up my Anki in smaller chunks throughout the day rather than doing it all at once. That is actually what I am doing today. That does work to a certain extent, and even if I do not get them all done during the day, it still helps with the problem of build-up.
I have tried making my cards pretty by changing the background to pink, and I have added pictures, particularly to words that I have found hard. I am currently ruthlessly deleting “leeches,” to cut down my number of daily reviews. A friend of mine had the best definition for “leeches” that I have heard, which are “cards that you get wrong so many times, the program takes them away before you hurt yourself.” I used to revive and reschedule them, but now I am deleting most of them, and I am only reviving the ones that are truly important.
I considered trying different software. Anki was one of the first programs, but there are now many others that supposedly have more bells and whistles, like Quizlet and TinyCards. In consulting with another friend of mine about switching software, she responded “SRS is boring period.” She has a point. I use Duolingo for Swedish, and it has lots of bells and whistles to make it as game-like as possible, but I have to admit, I still find it boring. So, I doubt that switching programs would really help, and I dread the idea of trying to move years of progress to a new program.
So, here we are. I do not really have any solution. Today, I am coping by complaining here on my blog.
So, how about you? Do you use Anki? Do you find it boring? Has anyone found a way to make it more interesting?
Japanese Is Easy – Lesson 3: WA-particle secrets schools don’t ever teach. How WA can make or break your Japanese
Below is the third lesson in the new series by my friend and mentor, Cure Dolly. It is the best and clearest explanation of the は (wa) particle that I have ever seen. This video is not just useful to beginning Japanese students, but to students of any level who are confused about the difference between the は and the が particles.
If you are a beginner, however, I suggest that you start this series with Lesson 1.
Mormor’s Rose
Three years ago, my grandmother planted a rose in the spring.
She carefully tended it through the summer.
This picture was taken that fall at her 90th birthday. The rose seemed to be saying “Happy Birthday!”
Mormor passed away about a month after her birthday. I miss her terribly, but I am very lucky to have had such an amazing grandmother.
A VTuber’s Inside Person – What sort of existence is it?
Here is a freshly translated episode from the Kinoko Channel. English and Japaense subtitles are available. Please enjoy.
What is a Virtual YouTuber?
Among my various activities, I have been translating for the Kinoko Channel on YouTube. In this episode, Kinoko-chan discovers that she has been a Virtual YouTuber without even knowing it. The video is in Japanese, and there are Japanese and English subtitles available.