Once Upon a Christmas Carol - an Audible Original

I just finished listening to the Audible original Once Upon a Christmas Carol by Karen Schaler (who I did a three-hour livestream with ["with whom I did a three-hour livestream" for the grammarians out there]), which will eventually become a podcast (because it's taking a while to edit the audio of such a long interview). Karen's Audible original is honestly fantastic. 

My parents were from the generation that grew up with radio, and during the Golden Age of Radio, there were many dramatic shows that included skilled voice actors and sound effects (which were Foley since digital was decades away). And because my parents talked about retro radio, I often listened to old-time radio shows every week on Chicago radio stations (before the Internet existed). So it's interesting how radio/audio has come full circle. For years, radio had talk, music, and entertaining bits. Now that we have digital options, companies like Audible create dramas that sound way better than those mono AM shows of yore.

There are many reasons why I like Karen's Audible original: it's total escapism because it's a positive, uplifting story that takes us to a small quaint town in Washington state, which is miles away from where I live. The story is excellent: she is a master of story structure! I wish I could write like that, and I aspire to make my own storytelling structures as tight as hers! There is romance, mystery, hope, adventure, friendships, warmth, professional insight, psychology, and more. The voice actors are convincing and sound authentic, to the point that I want to meet those characters and go to those places in real life. I also like how it ties to the Los Angeles, big-time music business scene, which is escapist for me as well because it shows me a part of the entertainment biz that I don't know about, and that in itself is fascinating. And it also shows the positive and negative aspects of social media and PR, crisis communications, and journalism. It's both practical and magical, and even asks the big question: what would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?

If you want to get into the Christmas spirit and escape the monotony and drudgery of regular life, definitely listen to this Audible original, and listen the whole way through because it will all make sense and will be tied in a nice Christmas bow.

p.s. the e-book version of my debut novel is still at Amazon, and the price for the print version has been reduced: buy at the Eckhartz Press site.

For the first time in several years, I've had a good holiday season

I saw a great article about the #joinin community, which is when people share their struggles on Twitter during Christmas. I was going to post my thoughts on Twitter with that hashtag, but I realized it would've been too long, and I didn't do one of those serial tweets because I doubt people would follow along. So here I am, about to post something that I've told some folks offline, but want to tell people about online as well.

For many years, and I mean more than a decade (though I'm not sure exactly how many years, but long enough to make 2018 a notable year, and hopefully a departure from what I've experienced before), the holidays were awful or barely tolerable. Not just one or two holidays, but various ones throughout the year, including a big birthday I celebrated that was nothing like I'd envisioned back when I witnessed others celebrate theirs exuberantly. There are many reasons why the holidays were not stellar or what I'd experienced earlier in my life, and if I know you offline, I'll tell you. I'm not sure I want to share all the details here because it might be too personal, and the Internet has a lot more creeps online than years ago when I started (which is going to be the topic of another post).

Holidays were strained or sad, or I had to work at jobs that barely acknowledged us, at companies that were too broke to even pay extra (though they liked rewarding their executives and laying people off in the process). Even if holidays were not lonely, I detached myself from them and barely tolerated attending gatherings or didn't do anything special at all. I assumed that was how it was going to be, thus I'd have to adjust to the situation.

But things started changing in late 2017. I noticed I had more opportunities to celebrate the holiday season, but I was still in my detached phase, assuming the spike was an aberration. But this year, not only did those events recur, but I was invited to others as well. So when the season began, I welcomed it and just enjoyed what I saw as a bounty of invites that flowed in. And it's not necessarily that I had the actual holidays free, because I've had to work all of them, including the days around them. My work situation is not like other people where we get paid holidays off or where the places are closed (though some places I work are closed), and working the holidays isn't actually a disappointment like it is for other people.

A lot of people would think this occurrence is no big deal because they already have built-in family obligations that are pleasant, and/or already know a lot of social people who are used to reaching out during the season. I have met several people who have never known an unpleasant or disappointing holiday or birthday because they have events to go to or a large enough family to absorb them. Or if they're not close to family, they have a web of friends who they see. So they're probably wondering why someone would celebrate a positive holiday season and note it online.

But having a more positive holiday experience is very meaningful, and it's also proof that just because you might be struggling around this time of year, every year, it doesn't mean it will last forever. Or if you've lost such positivity over the years, as I did, it doesn't mean it's gone forever. It might take years, as it did for me, or you might be lucky...you might experience a temporary setback that is remedied with a move or with other changes in your life that result in a more upward trend. Amazingly, even though we're between two years as I post this, my active season probably won't end until early February. And then I can truly look forward to more good things happening in 2019.

International Mother Language Day

On the way to trying to figure out if "mother tongue/language" in Italian was "madrelingua" or "lingua madre," I found a post at the Scioglilingua forum/blog (which hasn't been updated for a while probably because linguist Giorgio De Rienza passed away) that said "Lo scorso 21 febbraio è stata celebrata in tutto il mondo la giornata internazionale della madrelingua." [Last February 21 international mother language day was celebrated throughout the world.]

I had no idea such a day existed. The United Nations is the source of the day, and Wikipedia offers a thorough explanation: 

The date corresponds to the day in 1952 when students from the University of Dhaka, Jagannath College and Dhaka Medical College, demonstrating for the recognition of Bengali as one of the two national languages of East Pakistan, were brutally shot dead by police (then under Pakistan government) near the Dhaka High Court in the capital of present-day Bangladesh. 

Luckily, the Corriere della Sera newspaper hasn't deleted the blog/forum (I see it as a blog, but they categorize it as "forum"), so I'm going to go back to attempt to translate the post that explains the difference between those two words.

A typo on Canada Day

Today is Canada Day, and while I'm not Canadian, I like that place and have been there more than a few times. Actually, I'd like to go again, but my passport has to be renewed :D

I was looking at different Canada Day articles, and discovered a typo that the Canadian radio station, Newstalk 1010 (CFRB), committed: using "it's" instead of "its". "It's" is a contraction of "it is", and "its" is the possessive form. Oh well, maybe those Canadians will eventually learn proper English :p

I would be on my way to class now

Today is Presidents' Day, which means I don't have to teach tonight. Usually I'd start wrapping up my day now to get on the road for my annoying commute to the southern part of the city, and I'd usually be tired and would be wondering what happened to my day as it seemed to disappear so quickly. After class I'd *really* be tired and would make the non-annoying commute back home after 10 pm.

I should have planned my day off better. I got a lot of stuff done, and even read a big chunk of my manga, but I still feel like I squandered the time. Perhaps it's because I operated more slowly than usual, and I have a meeting to go to tonight, which means there won't be much time left for reading and finishing up the interview with Rick Kaempfer. Lesson learned!

As it's Presidents' Day in the USA and Family Day in parts of Canada...happy holidays folks!

A Valentine to No One

It's Valentine's Day, which means it's time to share a Valentine to No One:

I can't tell you what I think
I can't tell you how I feel
So I will send a Valentine to No One

A Valentine to No One
Because you'll never know
And you will never care
How much I meant what I said
That I was truly there

You will never know
And you will never care

Why is this baby crying?

I saw this picture on One Inch Punch (an East Asian site), and I'm wondering if the baby is crying because he's scared or hungry, or is just acting like a baby. It's an interesting image of Halloween, for sure. This is in Japan, btw.

Happy Thanksgiving, Canada!

I forgot to post such a greeting earlier to our neighbors to the North. Hope everyone pigged out like we Americans do every year!

Happy Father's Day in Taiwan!

Last night, a Taiwanese friend on Facebook posted "Happy Father's Day", so I did an online search to see why she would say that. It turns out that today (August 8) is Father's Day in Taiwan, and here's a good explanation about what it means:

[It] is widely observed on August 8, the eighth day of the eighth month of the year. In Mandarin Chinese, the pronunciation of the number 8 is bā. This pronunciation is very similar to the character "爸" "bà", which means "Papa" or "father". The Taiwanese, therefore, usually call August 8 by its nickname, "Bābā Holiday" (爸爸節).

She probably posted the greeting yesterday because Taiwan is about 13 hours ahead of us, so our August 7 was already their August 8.

Happy 4th! Time for the Declaration of Independence

Today is Independence Day, when the colonies here declared independence from Britain in 1776 (not when they actually became independent--that happened in the 1780's). So to celebrate it, here's the Declaration of Independence. Enjoy!

Happy Canada Day, Please

In honor of Canada Day, here's the cute video "Canadian, Please" by Canadians Julia Bentley & Andrew Gunadie (they wrote and produced it).

In honor of Father's Day: bad English in Canada

I don't get it: this Chinese restaurant is in Toronto, a place full of lots of correct English and native English speakers, yet they didn't bother to find out how to write Father's Day. They could've even gone online to find out the correct spelling. But they didn't, which resulted in a typo. Happy Father Day!

(photo by Rebelx)

Paczki overload

Wow, I think I should not have eaten paczki this year. In recent years, I've had the opportunity to eat just one of them, but this year, I could've eaten a few. I had one last week, one yesterday when a Polish student brought them to class, and was offered a fresh homemade one today--it had just come out of the oven--from my Polish boss. I was tempted to try it, but I was still feeling sick from the one I had yesterday.

They are uber-doughnuts because they're rich and thick, and are usually stuffed with jelly, cream, chocolate, or anything else that's gooey and good. Some of them look like doughnut sandwiches because the doughnut is split in half, and there's so much filling inside, it oozes out like an over-stuffed sandwich.

Even looking at that picture makes me feel nauseated because they're so delicious, but so sweet and rich. No wonder it's called Fat Tuesday (even though Polish people eat them on the previous Thursday).

Martin Luther King Day

For Martin Luther King Day, which honors the life of Martin Luther King, here is part of his last speech, right before he was assassinated.

It's a new year, so time for some resolutions

Happy New Year everyone! I am so glad 2011 has come. 2010 had its ups and downs, but last year's resolution to get more Japanese into my life was achieved. I consistently read Japanese throughout the year, and even read a manga book. And I got a nice translating project for a good company.

Of course, this year will also contain language-related resolutions. I will continue to read Japanese consistently, and plan on reading more than one manga book this year, and possibly complete a regular book as well. But now that my work schedule is a lot more predictable and stable than last year, I will have a chunk of time every day to improve my other languages as well.

Such as German: at one point, I could speak it okay, and even read and translated it. But pursuing radio and Japanese and other dreams caused my German and other languages to recede. I was talking to a German guy who speaks perfect English and German (thanks to growing up in both countries), and he suggested I watch a bit of Tagesschau every day. Actually, he told me that I *must* watch every day, and I should watch the 20:00 newscast because it's the most complete. Now I feel pressure :o

I even got a lecture from a Chinese guy who told me that learning Mandarin shouldn't be as difficult as it is for other Westerners because my knowledge of kanji will help. But wouldn't that destroy my brain? I tried studying Mandarin before, but it was too much input. My brain almost locked up :o

Well, since I'm posting this publicly, I have to proceed with my multilingual plan. We'll see how the other languages do against Japanese, though :D

Happy Bastille Day/La Fête Nationale!

Well, it's no longer Bastille Day in France, but it's still July 14th in the USA. So Happy Bastille Day/La Fête Nationale! Even though I've translated a lot of French into English, I've never been there and would love to go!

Happy 4th! Independence Day!

Now that the Canadians had their Canada Day, it's time for our day: Independence Day! It's not when the US became a nation, but when the colonies declared independence from England through the Declaration of Independence. From there, there was a war that the colonies eventually won, of course. Otherwise, I'd be using British words and British spelling, and wouldn't be fascinated by the differences of our English :D

You can read it online. I actually made it a part of this week's test in my ESL class, though I think they were baffled by the 18th century English.

Happy Canada Day

A Canadian sent me a link to a site that celebrates Canada Day. It claims to offer a list of "unique summer activities" that actually seem very ordinary, so don't expect to get any specific ideas there. I can do a lot of those activities any day in the USA.

But at least they give some historical information: "Formerly known as 'Dominion Day,' Canada Day marks the anniversary of the Constitution Act of 1867, joining Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Canada province (now Ontario and Quebec) into a single country."

But you can get more, and better, information about Canada Day at Wikipedia. And if you want to find some activities, go to the government's site in Ottawa, the City of Toronto's site, or About.com. And there are all those Canadian newspapers, depending where you are.

However you celebrate it, Happy Canada Day!

Craciun Fericit

I learned how to say "Merry Christmas" in Romanian when Cristina said it on her Facebook status, so I will use it here as well: Craciun Fericit!

a belated Joyeux Hanouka

Chanukah is over, but I wanted to share this cool image from France (that I just saw at The Paris Blog). So next year people will be able to enjoy it on time :D