This is a time in my life where I need to make progress within my life and I find harder then ever to make progress. I am making some good money again and I have been determined to finally make it to Japan by next May. Because of some mistakes I have made I own a little money here and there but I am unable to pay back any of it with ease. I lost my unemployment back in June and now I am making just enough money to make small dents in my debt. This is discouraging because I wanted to have visited Japan since 6 years ago. I have made no wasteful spending for a last couple months now and I am looking forward to this May that it will finally be my turn for some reward.
I hate making progress then other things fall apart. I finally made a few hundred on the side which could have given me some progress and then I had an on the job injury last week. I have been off work for one week and just went back today. 8 days ago I was pulling some wire in the ceiling in a Dunkin' Donuts up north and behind my back a Light Fixture fell from the ceiling and cut the back of my calf. There was four code violations with the construction of the drop ceiling which includes: 1. The fixture was 2'x2' in a 2'x4' opening with no cross bar. 2. No side clamps holding the fixture to the bars. 3. More then 5' of BX from the light to the junction box. Which left the light hanging 6 inches from the ground. 4. No anchors (Wire or Chains) connected to the fixture and the joists. I went to the Hospital and received 8 stitches and an expensive hospital bill. (Don't get me wrong we have the best health care system in America with some faults that far exceeds to quality of any system in the world.)
On a lighter note the guy who took me to get an X-ray was named Ray. So now I have the joke X-ray Ray. LOL.
As I mentioned before I have been learning Japanese from a private tutor. My progress of learning Japanese is coming along. I get all fuzzy inside when I make my own combinations of words to form sentences that where not directly thought to me. My vocabulary has been lacking since my primary focus is on learning the Japanese alphabet.
By the way, For anyone out there that is interested in learning kana like I am should check out this website I found. (http://www.manythings.org/q/kana.php?u=hiragana) It has some different kana (hiragana and katakana) quiz flash card games. I can already see my progress in learning kana when I get 102 out of 105 correct. That right, 105 variations of unique sounds in the Japanese alphabet. Plus, not to mention that their are two different alphabets with the same sounds and the over 2000 kanji characters which are combinations of kana sounds. This is nothing like when I used "Hooked on Phonics" when I was a kid.
One interesting thing about Japanese is the heavy use of loans words from other languages. Many loan words we use in English come from French, for example, words like beef, pork and poultry came to indicate the meat of cows, pigs and chickens through the interaction between French-speaking landowners (who ate the meat) and their English-speaking hired help (who tended the animals). Most foreign loan words in Japanese are from the 20th Century but quite a few others came into use in the Edo Period and before, including tempura (from the Portuguese word for spice), ga-ra-su (window glass), ko-hi (coffee), and ki-ri-shi-tan (Christian). (Remember, In Japanese, "i" makes the sound of "e" as in "he") In fact, these words have been used for so long they have kanji characters assigned to them, which violates the (modern) rule that katakana is to be used to write foreign loan words.
This time will be different because this time I am laying the stepping stones to solidly hold feet as I make progress to Japan Such as supporting a missionary family in Japan since last march and now seriously learning Japanese. I am putting my money where my mouth is. Please continue to pray for me.
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