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RE: the above - thinking about money stresses me out and pisses me off too. I'm better offer than many though, I was able to buy a house at a time when the housing market in my country is pretty chaotic. Big mortgage though.

In my news - I was involuntarily committed to the psych ward of a hospital here due to bipolar disorder. I was diagnosed with this a few years ago, but this was the first time I was put the hospital for it. Now I've been off work since September because of it...insurance is covering my time away from work but it really sucks. I would try to enjoy the time off from work as much as I can but kind of difficult given my brain keeps taking me for a ride unpredictably.

Edit: Wow nobody goes on this forum anymore. but I'll shout into the void again...this holiday season both my grandma and uncle died. Wow. Drove all the way home for 8 hours for the first funeral, had to be around my father, who I can't stand and is a massive trigger for my BP episodes. Then I got sick with a virus that gave me a fever. Got home then two days later, still sick, find out uncle died, now I have to drive back.

Hoping for a peaceful January.

Yes of course.

I started a new job, got married, and bought a house in the last couple months.

I'm right there with you, 28 now and I haven't touched my piano in 5 years or so, I've just stuck around and helped in less musical ways.

Also, nice seeing a familiar name! How are things?

Wow it's been so long. I remember chatting with you back in the day. Did we once have like a video call of some kind like 12 years ago together? or did my brain invent that? I have this vague memory of that happening once.

Also I'm 29 now

Congrats everyone!

Wow the internet has changed...forums are dead?

Can't believe I remembered my password to get in here.

I'm 28 now and haven't touched a piano in 10+ years, time really does go quickly. The site looks awesome though, keep it up guys.

Over the last few weeks I have read:

The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West

A Bio of Ernest Hemingway named after him by Wendy Dearborn I think her name is.

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather.

Currently finishing up The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers.

I'm also reading a Spanish translation of Alice in Wonderland and Le Petite Prince, which is in French. These two I am reading more slowly as those are not my first languages.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the video, but I just heard from Bobby. Apparently Bobbythekid21 isn't supposed to be using nsm yet. Just look at the picture. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hXt-FdrCb9FFGrkbjpOqY9Y86RloDIae/view?usp=drivesdk

This made me cry.

Things would be really different if he had made those backups. 

Start over you say? Ok:

lol

Wow I'm surprised to see this topic.

Anyway, please pray for my health if you would be so kind.  I think I'm on the upward trajectory health wise, mental and physical, but need continued resolve.

^yes, I may have forgotten to mention, the fairy tales I have been translating have been perhaps too literary for a beginner.  They probably weren't a good starting point as some of the vocab isn't used regularly in common speech, but I stuck with it because I have been enjoying it so much.  I sometimes ask my friend in Mexico about certain words that I suspect aren't used much.  I once used the verb aflijar (to get upset) and she said I sounded like her grandma, maybe even older.

what was your thesis on/may I read it?

It was a Political Science/International Development thesis comparing secular development NGOs and Christian faith-based organizations in Guatemala.  Mostly looking at personal motivations/resiliency and the use of religion as a tool to build trust. If you still want to read it I can send it to you.

duolingo,

I used to use duolingo a lot but these days I find it to be pretty annoying and useless.  To make great progress you need something you can enjoy...hence me translating fairy tales.  2-3 hours a day is a very good amount.  Sometimes I get that or more, sometimes much less.

I'm interested in your methodology. I was trying to teach myself spanish for about 6 months. After awhile, I could start reading at a very basic level, then I hit a plataeu and is felt like even with 3+ hours of studying everyday my abilities never improved. You seemed to hit a much better much faster than I have so.... teach me your ways.

It probably varies between individuals but I can give you some insight into how it has gone for me.   

I did spend 3 months in Guatemala in 2016 where I picked up the absolute basics.  A bunch of verbs only in the present indicative, a little bit of the preterite, and the simple future using ir.  I didn't learn more because I was conducting research on people who spoke English and most of my free time was spent in bars.  If I had the mindset then that I do today, I probably would not have spent so much time in money in those bars, but that was a different life. 

Otherwise, I didn't start learning it again until after I finished my graduate thesis last October.  So I probably started seriously studying it in November.  You have to do it every day, and review all the time.  Sometimes I miss a day, but if I'm really busy I do try to at least read a few pages in Spanish, or look up and memorize 5-10 words, or try to think in Spanish throughout the day (even if very simply)...or at least review some of my vocab notes.

What really worked for me was reading about grammatical rules regarding moods and tenses and trying to learn about them from multiple sources (videos, reference books, websites), then trying to understand them when I encountered them in my studies.  I often look up vocab whenever I can, write them down, put them on sticky notes or whatever, and review them whenever I can.

Also listening to songs, watching videos, trying to write.  Translate books, plays, the news.  Then reread them again and again, reinforcing the new words and grammar you've learned. 

What helped a bit also was I spent 6 weeks in Mexico in November and December, but a lot of the time people I was with spoke in English.  I did learn some though, and a lot of the days there I spent reading about grammar and vocab before reinforcing it throughout the day.  I do try to write in Spanish to the person I was visiting down there, and sometimes I skype with them and speak in Spanish but not that much because her English is better than my Spanish (although I'm catching up very fast and maybe one day Spanish will be the easier language for us to speak in).

I don't know what else to say.  Consistency, review, variation, and dedication. Get excited about it, know it's something you really want, envision yourself knowing it in the future.  For me reading about famous polyglots gets me excited...I read a book by the polyglot Kató Lomb where she describes her methods, which are heavily reading focused, and that really got me excited. Also I often read about Richard Francis Burton, the 19th Century British explorer and linguist who apparently spoke 30 or so languages.

Learning the grammatical basis of the moods (indicative, subjunctive, imperative), tenses (past, future, present, preterit, imperfect, perfect etc etc) has really smoothed the transition into learning French as well, because a lot of those things are the same in French so I do not need to spend the time understanding their function, except for a few minor differences like the preterit only being a literary tense in French.  Others seem to ignore grammar and focus on speaking only, that's not really how my mind works nor what I want to do. 

So yeah, it's fun, if it weren't fun I would need some kind of practical reason to do it. You need some kind of motivation or goal.