11.20.06
Posted in good things, links, sexuality, squeeeee!, women at 8:53 am by Hanne Blank
Now it may be that you’ve seen one of these before. Perhaps you’ve seen both of them before.
But if you have, then you know that there is nothing at all wrong with seeing them again. And again and again, if you like.
Lo-Rider, “Skinny” (uncensored and very likely not safe for workplaces)
Anthony Hamilton, “Sista Big Bones” (more worksafe yet still ooohbaby)
I noted to my spouse this morning that had the “Skinny” video been made in 2000, I probably wouldn’t have had to write Big Big Love, I could’ve just told people to go watch.
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11.17.06
Posted in advertisement, geek, good things, links at 9:16 am by Hanne Blank
I have been having an idiotic amount of fun, lately, playing with the free “lite” version of Transparent Language’s Before You Know It language learning software. They offer the software as a free download, and then you can go nuts downloading content files in as many different languages as your little heart desires.
The language learning content files are limited for any given language, in the free download version. I think most of the packages I’ve downloaded so far have 17 files, which translates into 17 “units” of instruction, essentially. But if you go through the limited materials and want to buy the full version, you can upgrade to the full version (75+ files, lots of additional interactivity, etc.) for a really reasonable $40.
What’s weirdly wonderful about BYKI, as opposed to other language learning softwares I’ve encountered in the past, is that it manages — somehow — to make the interminable drilling of basic vocabulary acquisition enjoyable. Last night I spent about two hours drilling two sets of introductory vocabulary in the three languages I’m currently working with and was having a ball. It feels like a game.
I am currently working with Czech, Italian, and Mandarin Chinese. I’ve studied Italian in the past, and read it pretty well (speaking/writing are less good but passable), so working through the Italian is just review and reinforcement of remembering gendered pronouns correctly, which has always been a pitfall for me. I’ve never studied Czech before, but have sufficient background in variegated Slavic languages that a lot of it is familiar enough that I can trust the backbrain to grab cognates correctly.
Mandarin? Whole different kettle of fish! But like any language, it has its patterns and internal logic. Particularly when I work with the Mandarin files, I can see how BYKI is a successful teaching tool: the combination of rote drilling and repeated exposure to the written and spoken language (the Mandarin files use both written ideographic Chinese and a transliterated/Romanized version to help you deal with the gap between phonetics and written language) helps the pattern recognition kick in.
I think that I would like it if I had someone on hand to explain ideographs to me a bit, because having to figure them out as I go is kind of hard and I’m not sure if I’m doing it right. I know some of them are right — the one for “wine” is pretty distinctive, for instance — but then again, the “wine” ideograph is also part of the way you write the word for “beer,” so I suspect that the ideograph may in fact be more related to alcohol, or fermentation. This is something I will be able to deduce, of course, if I keep noticing the ideograph in places where that interpretation would make sense (say if it were part of the word for “vinegar” and other fermenty things, which it might be, but I don’t know that yet). But I would find it satisfying to be able to find out now. Because I am impatient like that.
Anyhow, I’m having a good time refreshing my Italian, getting a bit of Czech, and wrestling with Chinese. I’m pondering adding modern Hebrew and Spanish to the list, just for fun. If you like playing with languages, you should try it out. Also, if you think you’re crap at languages, you should try it out — my strong suspicion is that it would work well and be fun for people who don’t have a knack for them, too. It’s geek-friendly language learning, and there ain’t nothin’ wrong with that.
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10.24.06
Posted in blogs, good things, links at 1:20 pm by Hanne Blank
In her LiveJournal today, brilliant editor Sharyn November wrote:
i had dinner with a friend last night, and we talked about participating in activities that were out of our respective comfort zones.
knowing me, please suggest some things i can do that i might not have considered. jokes are fun but not entirely appreciated (i.e., “visit mars,” “have a baby,” “go white-water rafting!”).
then i’ll do them and tell you how they were.
I liked this idea so much that I am opening the floor for anyone who’d like to to do the same for me: suggest some things I can do that I might not have considered. As I recuperate from the blech that has had me in its grip for the past while it’ll give me some things to think about and look forward to trying.
As in Sharyn’s case, jokes aren’t really what I’m looking for, and I additionally will note that snideness or nastiness will just be deleted.
I suspect that I will not choose to do all of the things suggested. But if I do try them, I will report back.
(Note to those reading this through the LJ feed: I do not usually see the responses to the posts LJ generates from the feed. If you want me to see your response, click through to the actual blog and leave a comment here.)
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10.20.06
Posted in arrrrgh, culture, good things, links at 6:47 am by Hanne Blank
I’m going through a bit of a rough patch just at the moment. It’ll pass, like anything else, I know. They always do.Some things I miss:
No, really. I can stop spamming you with photos any time I want to.
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10.18.06
Posted in culture, links, outrage, patriotism, politics, relationships, sexuality, shiny at 9:56 am by Hanne Blank
Did you know that next year, the laws will change to make it necessary to have a passport to go between the USA and various nearby countries (Canada, for one), for travel that formerly did not require a passport? NYT reports that “The State Department proposed creating a wallet-size passport that Americans could use to travel to Bermuda, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. The card, which would include radio frequency coding to link it to a database of biographical data and a photograph, would be used when a new rule goes into effect next year requiring a passport for travel to those countries.”
Righty-o, then. RFID for personal ID, incidentally, has been noted to be a source of significant problems including massive potential for privacy breaches. Security expert Bruce Schneier seems fairly satisfied with the encryption/protections the USDept of State is planning to implement in its RFID for passports (or what they have indicated they will be planning, at any rate), but if you’re not as sanguine as Bruce is maybe you wanna get the fullsize passport now.
Not, of course, that this’ll keep them from RFID’ing your passport when you have to get it renewed down the line, but perhaps it will keep you from being a guinea pig for the first-gen version. Again, if you care. Which you might or might not.
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Shrub’s megalomania took a giant step forward yesterday when in the first wholesale revision to NASA/space policy in ten years, he decided that all your space is belong to us.
(Yes, I know it’s “base,” not “space,” but that doesn’t work here, see?)
Quoth the WaPo, “President Bush has signed a new National Space Policy that rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit U.S. flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone ‘hostile to U.S. interests.’ ” (Link) Well done to you, George, and while I don’t think you have to worry about Al Quaeda sending up a manned explorer any time soon, I wish you good luck keeping, say, China from launching spacecraft if they damn well want to.
Whadda maroon. Someone needs to sit him down and make him watch all of TOS Star Trek. Possibly Clockwork Orange-style. ‘Cause clearly a childhood of Tom Swift and His Gigantic Space Ray of Obliterational Righteousness ‘n’ Doom has gotten far too deep into what passes for his brain. (Or has he been reading those drecky books about life apres-Armageddon that I always see heaped on the remainder table at CostCo? I can’t tell any more. Clearly he is suffering some 2-D/3-D conflict of some sort, since he’s not dealing in the World As We Know It, but what the source of his 2-D delusions is I know not.) Surely Gene Roddenberry would not object to his work being used for conscientious reprogramming purposes.
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And as your reward for reading the depressing news links, go play with this: Altar-Ations, a lovely little bit of interactive media educational art that manages to be funny, insightful, and scathing all at the same time. Brava Juliet for pulling this together.
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