6 April
Reading: read a few pages of Open Veins of Latin America (33%)
Exercise: 7-minute workout
7 April
Reading: read a chapter of Gaza in Crisis (14%)
Reading: read a chapter of The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (66%)
Music: started reading Music Theory for Musicians and Normal People (17%)
Italian: copied out ex. 13b from Teach Yourself Italian
German: read a few pages of Der Schwarm (11%)
Exercise: rest day
8 April
Reading: read a few pages of Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (29%)
Exercise: Hybrid Calisthenics workout
9 April
Italian: did ex. 12a from TY Italian
Italian: hand-copied one page of 1000: Il Druido, la Spada e il Corvo (16%)
Italian: read a few chapters of L’amica geniale (19%)
Exercise: Hybrid Calisthenics workout
10 April
Reading: read a chapter of Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (32%)
Reading: started The Grapes of Wrath (7%)
Music: played guitar; did voice exercises
Exercise: Hybrid Calisthenics workout
11 April
Reading: two chapters of The Grapes of Wrath (13%)
Italian: read a chapter of L’amica geniale (22%)
Italian: did Lesson 14 of TY Italian
Italian: watched episode 1 of BBC Italianissimo
Exercise: Hybrid Calisthenics workout
12 April
Italian: read a chapter of L’amica geniale (22%)
German: read a few pages of Der Schwarm (12%)
Exercise: Hybrid Calisthenics workout
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I've found another fantastic Croatian-learning resource: really bad fake-reality-TV shows. Specifically one called "Krv nije voda". It's absolutely ideal for passive input: lots of talking, normal day-to-day human-interaction vocabulary, well-mic'd actors, and of course the dramatically overdone facial expressions and body language that help communicate meaning. Perfection.
I found a radio drama in Croatian and I'm captivated, can't stop listening, although I can barely follow the loosest outline of what's going on. This is delightful, I've never tried this particular type of audio input foreign-language exposure before :D
Okay so what is this kind of thing officially called in Croatian (so that I can find more of them, because I'm instantly obsessed)? Some potential phrases I've found so far are:
May 7
- Music practice: voice, piano
- Croatian: Assimil “Kroatisch ohne Mühe” lesson 12 (passive wave)
- Chinese: read a few short passages on LanguageCrush (4 new words learned)
- German: read 16 pages of “Blutbuch” by Kim de L’horizon
May 8
- Music practice: voice
- Croatian: Assimil “Kroatisch ohne Mühe” lesson 13 (passive wave)
[This was a tongue-twister of a lesson! Most challenging word: iznajmljivanju]
May 9
- Music practice: voice, piano
- Music theory: completed Unit 4 (Basics of Rhythm) of music theory course
- Croatian: Assimil “Kroatisch ohne Mühe” lesson 14 (passive wave)
- Chinese: watched one video of Lazy Chinese
[Today I watched this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2k4MYT2ycI). It’s amazing how much I can already understand! Her comprehensible input videos are so helpful!]
- German: read a few more pages of “Der Schwarm” by Frank Schätzing
May 10
- CS: studied Python
- Croatian: Assimil “Kroatisch ohne Mühe” lesson 15 (passive wave)
- German: read a few more pages of “Der Schwarm” by Frank Schätzing
May 11
- Music practice: voice, piano, guitar
- Croatian: Assimil “Kroatisch ohne Mühe” lesson 16 (passive wave)
- German: read a few more pages of “Der Schwarm” by Frank Schätzing
- Chinese: made a personal “dictionary” of all the Chinese words I’ve learned to write so far (about 62, mostly single-character words but several multi-character concepts too)
May 12
- German: wrote a few pages in my journal in German
May 13
- Music practice: voice, piano, guitar
- Croatian: Assimil “Kroatisch ohne Mühe” lesson 17 (passive wave)
- Math: Khan Academy Algebra I (unit 3)
- Art: completed the second half of Unit 3 (Principles of composition) of Intro to Art History (sections on proportion, scale, pattern, repetition and rhythm, variety and unity)
May 14
- Music practice: voice, piano, guitar
- German: read a few more pages of “Der Schwarm” by Frank Schätzing
May 15
- Music practice: voice, piano, guitar
- Croatian: Assimil “Kroatisch ohne Mühe” lesson 18 (passive wave)
- Math: Khan Academy Algebra I (unit 3)
May 16
- Music practice: voice, piano, guitar
- Croatian: Assimil “Kroatisch ohne Mühe” lesson 19 (passive wave)
- CS: studied Python (finished section 1/24 of my full course)
May 18
- Music practice: voice, piano, guitar
- Croatian: Assimil “Kroatisch ohne Mühe” lesson 20 (passive wave)
- German: read a few more pages of “Der Schwarm” by Frank Schätzing
- CS: studied Python (started section 2/24 of my course)
Khan Academy gave me this easy (or so I thought) problem to solve:
"A factory makes toys that are sold for $10 a piece. The factory has 40 workers, and they each produce 25 toys a day. The factory is open 5 days a week. What is the total value of toys the factory produces in a day?"
I said to myself, okay...
10 times 40 times 25 equals 10,000. That means the factory produces $10,000 worth of value per WORKING day.
10,000 times 5 equals 50,000. And then there are two days per week (the weekend) when no value is produced. So, per week, the total value produced is still only $50,000.
And finally, there are seven days in a full week, so $50,000 divided by 7 equals roughly $7,142.86. That's the total value of toys produced per day. Not "per work day", but "per day", as it specifically says in the problem.
But what does the teacher say as he guides us through it? 10 times 40 times 25 equals 10,000, so the answer is 10,000.
That's it. The end.
He even acknowledges: "So, you might be thinking, 'Hey wait, we didn't use all the information! We didn't use the "five days per week" information!' And yeah, as it turns out, that was information we didn't need."
'As it turns out'?! Are you kidding me right now?! I carefully read the question, precisely calculated exactly what it was asking for, taking all of the provided information into account... and now you're saying I'm supposed to have somehow magically known to ignore one of those pieces of information in order to make it easier for myself?
Just admit that your problem is worded badly, dude. UGH this kind of shit drives me crazy. Why can't people use words clearly >:(
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My art history course is so cool and I'm learning so much!
For instance, today I learned about proportion and scale, with the examples of these two fantastic works of art:
"Doryphoros (Spear-Bearer)"; Polykleitos; c. 450-40 B.C.E.
"Altar group with Oba Akenzua I"; presumed unknown artist from Benin, Nigeria; eighteenth century
The information the course provided, especially about the sculpture of Akenzua I, gave me a much deeper appreciation of it. I'll copy in some excerpts from this lesson:
Doryphoros is about seven “heads” tall, so to speak, whereas the Akenzua is approximately two and a half “heads” tall. Doryphoros’ limbs fit within the range of average human proportion, whereas Akenzua’s legs are considerably shorter than his torso.
While their proportions are quite different, both present figures considered to be ideal by their cultures. Doryphoros embodies quite literally the focus on external beauty — according to the tastes of the day — that was prevalent in Classical Greece, whereas the image of Akenzua shows, with the intentional enlargement of the head, the greater importance of the intellect in the culture.
Hieratic scale
Scale can refer to any relationship of parts to the whole, but one particular type is of great significance in many periods: Hieratic scale is scale based on relative importance. That is, the more important a figure, the larger he or she is in relation to the figures around him or her. [...]
Akenzua, for example, is considerably larger than the figures that flank him. These are not children, but adult male attendants. We are not supposed to therefore assume that Akenzua is a giant, but rather, that he is far more important than the other two men. Also note that the other two have rather different proportions: their heads are much smaller in relation to their bodies, and their arms and legs longer. This reminds us that Akenzua’s proportions are absolutely deliberate, not the result of incompetence but of a conscious effort to convey a cultural meaning.
Before leaving this work, though, two more details should be mentioned. At their feet are small cats, but these are leopards — traditional symbols of the king — and so even the attendants are comparatively giant. And below the cats are fallen men, bound with their hands behind them, decapitated. The symbolism of decapitation as the ultimate, dehumanizing death highlights the importance of the scale of the head of the king who towers over them. (x)
Are you seeing this?!?! I am FREAKING OUT. This "hieratic scale" stuff is so, so cool. And I appreciate the piece so much more after reading this analysis! Man I love art <3
Also: I've just discovered that this very Akenzua statue belongs to the Ethnological Museum right here in Berlin! So I could potentially go see it in person :D :D :D
I was feeling a little burned out and went slow on studying for a few days, but I'm back at it today.
May 2
- Music practice: voice, piano
May 3
- Music practice: voice, piano
- Croatian: Assimil “Kroatisch ohne Mühe” lesson 11 (passive wave)
- Chinese: read a short passage on LanguageCrush (5 new words learned)
- Math: Khan Academy Algebra I (unit 3)
May 4
- Music practice: piano
- Math: Khan Academy Algebra I (unit 3)
May 5
- Writing and reading, but no proper study.
May 6
- Music practice: voice, guitar
- CS: studied D3 for a while
- Math: Khan Academy Algebra I (unit 3)
- Art: completed the first half of Unit 3 (Principles of composition) of Intro to Art History (sections on balance, symmetry, emphasis, and movement)
- Croatian: read two news articles on LanguageCrush (107 new words learned)
In math news, I've been having some trouble wrapping my mind around dimensional analysis, but I think it's finally sinking in.
May 1
- Music practice: voice, guitar, piano
- Art: completed the second half of Unit 2 (Elements of art) of the “Start Here” intro to art history course from SmartHistory.org (sections on space, texture, surface and depth, and light and shadow)
- Chinese: Assimil “Le Chinois sans peine” lesson 8 (passive wave)
- Croatian: Assimil “Kroatisch ohne Mühe” lesson 10 (passive wave)
- Math: Khan Academy Algebra I (finally completed unit 2!)
I've returned to dutifully doing my full set of voice exercises every single day, and it's amazing how much of a difference it really does make. After doing the exercises, one of my favorite ways to do daily practice is to sing my favorite Mozart arias. They are so lovely to listen to, but sometimes quite challenging to sing!
Apr. 30
- Music practice: voice, guitar, piano.
- Music theory: completed Unit 3 (Minor Scales and Key Signatures) of the course “Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom”
- Math: Khan Academy Algebra I (unit 2)
- Croatian: Assimil “Kroatisch ohne Mühe” lesson 9 (passive wave)
- Chinese: read a few very short passages on LanguageCrush (14 new words learned).
- French: listened to a 20-minute podcast in French.
My music theory class is starting to get into some crazy shit
To convert a major key signature to the parallel minor, add three flats, which in some cases can mean subtracting sharps, and in other cases means subtracting some sharps AND adding some flats?
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Apr. 29
- Reading: Jane Anger, Her Protection for Women (100%)
- Reading: Routledge Companion to Feminism and Post-Feminism (5%)
- Croatian: Assimil “Kroatisch ohne Mühe” lesson 8 (passive wave)
- Croatian: read a news article on LanguageCrush (202 new words learned).
- Chinese: Assimil “Le Chinois sans peine” lesson 7 (passive wave)
- Music practice: voice, piano.
- Math: Khan Academy Algebra I (unit 2)
- Art: completed the first half of Unit 2 (Elements of art) of the “Start Here” intro to art history course from SmartHistory.org (sections on line, shape and form, and color)
Apr. 28
- Catalan: read a bunch of breaking-news reports from ARA (Catalan newspaper) on LanguageCrush (230 new words learned)
- Chinese: Assimil “Le Chinois sans peine” lesson 6 (passive wave)
- Croatian: Assimil “Kroatisch ohne Mühe” lesson 7 (passive wave)
- Math: Khan Academy Algebra I (unit 2)
- Music practice: voice, piano
- Music theory: completed Unit 2 (Major Scales and Key Signatures) of the course “Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom”
I also sat by the river and basked in the sun and wrote in my journal for about half an hour 🥰
Apr. 27
- Music: vocal practice, piano practice, guitar practice
- Art: completed Unit 1 (Why art matters) of the “intro to art history” course (titled simply “Start here”) from SmartHistory.org
- Chinese: Assimil “Le Chinois sans peine” lesson 5 (passive wave)
- Chinese: read a beginner-level passage on LanguageCrush (30 new words learned)
- Croatian: read a few pages in Croatian on LanguageCrush (195 new words learned)
- Math: Khan Academy Algebra I (unit 2)
I decided to alternate days on which I do either art history or music theory. Soon, as I progress to harder material in my language studies, I'll also probably alternate days between Croatian and Chinese.
(We'll see how long this plan lasts. I have never stuck to a schedule in my life.)
I also spent a lot of today working on various musical projects with some musician buddies, as I wrote about over on my main.
Now I'm tired. Time for bed and a little reading before I sleep 😴
read a most wonderful book to the end yesterday then finished the last 30 pages (in German, a language I let collect dust on a shelf for many years!) of another book I've been reading and today I picked up a new book and found myself drawn into its pages sometimes I have to remind myself that only a couple of years ago the mere act of reading through an entire paragraph, let alone reading enough in one sitting to turn over the page and then continue reading was like a herculean task in its demand and difficulty. A reminder that some things do actually get better and when you regularly fill your life with books even deep melancholia must admit the positive impact it has on your life.
WOW I have not studyblr'd in a long time! But I've recently had a small study Renaissance, so I might as well blog about it.
While continuing my programming and compsci studies, I've realized that I should probably brush up on some basic math too, because that's an important foundational skill. So I've started doing some daily math studies on Khan Academy, which is helpful. It's humbling, because despite having reached uni-level math in the past (years ago, back when I was actually in uni), I've forgotten all of it in the interim so now I'm back down to the algebra level 😅 But it's good to stay humble when learning.
I also felt the urge to return to my active language studies, so I'm working through the Assimil courses for Mandarin Chinese and Croatian. The Mandarin course is in French ("Le chinois sans peine") and the Croatian course is in German ("Kroatisch ohne Mühe") so it means I get to practice both those languages too, which is a nice benefit.
After a few days of doing math and language study, my brain felt like a parched flower blossoming after someone had finally watered it, so I decided I wanted to expand my learning even further! I always read a lot, but I tend to gravitate towards fiction and I keep meaning to read more nonfiction, so yesterday I picked up the Routledge Companion to Feminism and Post-Feminism, to brush up on my feminist history.
Today I got even more hyped about learning: I read a few pages of a book in French about African revolutionaries, practiced reading basic Chinese on LanguageCrush (love that site!), dabbled in the history of philosophy on AFAIK.io (do not love that site! so I'm not linking it! further info below), watched a documentary in German about microbes, and did the first unit of a college-level music theory course.
I LOVE LEARNING SO MUCH AHHHHH 🥰
Here's my actual learning log for the past few days:
Apr. 21
- Assimil “Kroatisch ohne Mühe” lessons 1 and 2 (passive wave).
Apr. 23
- Khan Academy: Algebra I (unit 2)
- watched some videos in Croatian
- Lazy Chinese: one video
- Assimil “Kroatisch ohne Mühe” lesson 4 (passive wave).
- Assimil “Le Chinois sans peine” lesson 2 (passive wave).
Apr. 24
- nothing (sick)
Apr. 25
- reading: Routledge Companion to Feminism and Post-Feminism (2%)
- Khan Academy: Algebra I (unit 2)
- Assimil “Kroatisch ohne Mühe” lesson 5 (passive wave).
- Assimil “Le Chinois sans peine” lesson 3 (passive wave).
Apr. 26
- German: watched ARTE documentary on microbes (1.5 hours)
- French: read a few pages of the book Figures de la révolution africaine: de Kenyatta à Sankara by Saïd Bouamama.
- Khan Academy: Algebra I (unit 2)
- Assimil “Kroatisch ohne Mühe” lesson 6 (passive wave).
- Assimil “Le Chinois sans peine” lesson 4 (passive wave).
- Chinese: read a short beginner’s passage on LanguageCrush.
- studied some history of philosophy (from the site afaik.io, which I do NOT recommend – the content appears to be entirely AI-generated and some of it contains amusing but concerning mistakes; I am definitely not going to use that site anymore)
- music theory: completed Unit 1 (Basic Concepts) of the course “Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom” (which I do recommend; it looks incredible!)
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Working on my temperature scarf while reviewing the first few CS50 lectures. Earlier today I did a little songwriting and journaling in a café. Might finish a letter to a friend later. Not pictured: the cup of tea keeping me warm on this autumnal day.
Reading outside at a café today, enjoying the late summer air. This book is "From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend" by Priscilla Murolo.
I know "unskilled men" is a specific labor category, so it's not actually as funny as it sounds, but I had to laugh when I read the phrase "Among unskilled men, no one outshone Irish canal workers" 😂
