Re: The Essential Random Thoughts Thread

[Rosie]

never, how dare you.filthy plebeian.

[Pontianak]

Mea maxima culpa, domina! Ignoscas mihi! Sed, numquam ad ego est vincar. Mea Lingua Latina dirus est.

Also, somebody needs to stop me.

[Demon]

Ponti: Actually please, go wild! It would make the board active in a
currently non-yuri anime showing time. One anime called "Girls und
Panzer" has hopes of being a "shoujo ai but never blatantly said," but
given what it's about and being created by the same people who made
"Strike Witches"... it's a bit telling on what it's probably going to be
like. It won't start until next week though so until then I have
nothing to post.
If you want to revive any threads, go ahead. If you want to make any threads, it's encouraged!

I don't know what that Memrise is so I don't know how to get someone to stop. o-o

On
another note: You know Latin?! I don't know what you wrote but I might
need your help in the distant future! ... Of course this is being asked
much from someone you barely know so feel free to decline. ^^

Reminds me that I wish my college was offering a class on the history of ancient Rome...

[Pontianak]

Demon: Yay, Strike Witches. I haven't much time for anime lately but if the Strike Witches auters and writers are making a new anime, I'll have to rescind that.

I... just know passable Latin, I'm afraid, haha. Nothing fluent yet, but you're free to ask whatever you want and I'll do my best to help you out. I'm applying for a course in classical history next year which is accompanied by a full-force Latin class, but until then, you'll have to make do with my self-taught Latin. Oh, and Japanese. That's self-taught too, but it's in a much higher quality thanks to the abundance of native speakers to infer grammar from and their kindness in regards to Lang-8.

Also, you're more than welcome to ask me anything about Ancient Rome. I like to consider that one of my best fields and I've no shortage of things to say about it.

Memrise is a site for learning languages, but they also do other things, too. I like to get a little excited when it comes to learning irrelevant trivia lolz.

[Demon]

Ah, so you like Strike Witches? I've watched it, but I can't seem to find the movie for the anime anywhere online. As for Girls und Panzer, it's supposed to start airing on October 9th. =)

Passable self-taught is still more Latin than I know. ^^ (I'm bad at languages period. x_X) And no worries; I don't see myself getting to work on this fiction story anytime soon. Stupid me made a race of humanoids whose last contact with humans in the BCE realm, contact with either the ancient Greeks or Romans. Or both. I'm leaning towards Romans. Thus they would speak Latin, a language I know nothing about. >_<
To give some context, the Latin usage would come in the communication of a young historian trying to communicate with one of the humanoids. If you're uncomfortable with that in any way, you're free to decline. ^^

I'm currently taking a class abut the bare minimum history of ancient Greece and I'm surprised that I'm enjoying it as much as I am! Enough to where I'm considering changing my history focus from East Asian studies. I'm hoping for an Ancient Rome class to see if I truly like it enough to switch and maybe a bit for the story above. =P Until then though, your specialty on Ancient Rome is greatly appreciated! =D

I was looking at your side bar there and that's quite a few languages you've got going on at once! XD

[Pontianak]

Strike Witches was a show I went into watching with quite a bit of trepidation based on the premise - furry underage girls with no pants whose legs turn into planes? what - but I came out of feeling pretty satisfied. I watched it because of the seiyuu cast and the character songs and carried on because of the characters and historical references.
I've not found the movie anywhere either.

Sure thing - I'll be glad to help out if I can. It sounds like an interesting enough idea that I'll enjoy it.
Grammar is mainly my failing point in learning Latin unofficially because I have no academic source to ask about which declension or whatever to use.

I have a bit of a passion for the history preceeding the early 1900s, but my most studied aspect is definitely Classical Rome if just for the abundance of books on the subject. I'm not quite as knowledgeable on Hellenistic things but I'm decent enough if prompted, but the Gallic/Germanic/Britannian tribes and Eastern Empires like Parthia are an area of ignorance for me.

Learning things in general is a hobby of mine. Whenever I find a site like Memrise I immediately sign up and go on an overwhelming rampage of education. I am ~unstoppable~

[Demon]

I didn't know what to expect either. When I first discovered it, I actually put it off for a bit and went in with rather low expectations. "Pantsless girls using magic to fire off guns. Right..." But I was surprised that the characters grew on me. I'm imagining the same this is going to happen for this upcoming anime.
That and there's also Jormungand season 2 coming up soon. <3

I suspect that Latin course is definitely going to help with that then. =) It's usually the vocabulary that trips me up with languages. So many words... so many...

It's Japanese history that's caught my attention. The culture over here is amazing and while the history is not that old at all, it's unique. It's what I have the most knowledge on. I might change that soon though, given my newest experience with this current semester.

First you ask someone to stop you, then you say you're unstoppable? =P But really, having a drive for education is good, compared to being a gold medalist in procrastination. -winces- I'm slowly getting better... I think.

[Pontianak]

Yeah. They were surprisingly good, I thought - Sakamoto-shousa being my clear favourite by a mile, but the others were pretty charming too. I'm still a bit ambivalent on Yoshika, Lynette and Lucchini, but I still do like them... And not to mention the charming characters in the novels, too! Beurling is my favourite there.
Though, to say Strike Witches is the oddest anime I've watched would be a huge disrespect to Seikon no Qwaser. The manga is surprisingly decent, but the anime............ is best left buried.

Really? I have a pretty good memory when it comes to remembering terms, words or phrases, so that's always been one of the easier aspects. If only we could combine our two strengths and make up an awesome language-learning entity... Like a Godzilla of language.

Japanese medieval history is fascinating, but I'm not a master of it, as much as I want to be. I also find modern Japan extremely interesting to look at, but the history buff inside of me manages to beat down the contemporary anthropologist. :p
Definitely feel free to share any knowledge you want with me, though. You'll find me a more than willing ear.

Being unstoppable doesn't mean I can't make a vain wish to be stopped in the hopes of preserving my free time. :p Although that fervour only seems to extend towards casual things. When it comes to my official lessons, I'm afraid you might have a serious contender for laziness in me.

[Demon]

Yeah, I liked a lot of the character, Sakamoto being a big favorite of mine as well. Next favorite would be Yoshika and Lynetta, then so on. There were only a couple of characters I didn't like, but that's because they fell into tropes I'm not a fan of, like Perrine and Francesca.
Hah... Qwaser... I couldn't watch it. It's an interesting read (she said while being slightly wary about admitting reading something like it online ^^; ) and I still do follow the manga. The anime is something else though. I couldn't get past the third episode. x_x

I usually can't keep up with all the vocabulary. However, teachers usually put the sentence structures on the board to help with grammar; I'm a visual learner so things like that help me out. That's not usually done with random vocab.
I just got this image of Godzilla in a tophat and monocle. Because that's apparently what the Languagezilla would look like in my head. o-o

Lol, sure thing. XD Learning the reality about samurai was rather depressing, given how much hype they have compared to what they really were. Ah well, at least we still have the movies and stories.

At least you attempt to learn things in your casual time. I usually spend it being unproductive as possible. x_x

Say, you wouldn't happen to know anything about Charlemagne's battle experiences off the top of your head, would you? Like battles, wars, conquests? 83;;;

[Pontianak]

Perrine was part of my top five, actually, I think. Along with Minna, Sakamoto, Eila and Sanya. I totally shipped her with Lynette.
I watched it first for Hikasa Youko, then read the manga, and found the manga to be faaaar superior. The characters and everything are just awesome, but I have to admit that Hana is by far my no.1 favourite. And not just because of Hikasa Youko.

Hrm, have you tried using an SRS or something, kind of like Memrise or Anki or Headmagnet? I use those for my classes so I dunno if it'll help you or not, but might as well try.
For some reason, I really want to see a movie based on an educated Godzilla who towers above everything, stomping around roaring out the rules of grammar and syntax.

Would you care to enlighten me on the samurai, maybe? I know very little about the actual history and a whole lot of myth, and not enough of either ot know where one stops and the other begins.

Not off the top of my head, no, I'm afraid. What little I know about him was gathered from Eternal Darkness for the Gamecube, so... Not accurate.

[RGigantea]

I've checked out Memrise! (thanks for talking about that here, leading to my discovery of the site)

Cool site..!

[Chibi Tortuga]

Apparently, I thought it was a good idea to enroll into a short story screenplay writing class and leave my last science course needed for my last semester. orz

[Rosie]

6 years...

[Pontianak]

I could totally pull Wakana.

Yeah.

Totally.

[Demon]

I thought YoshikaxLynette was cute; I shipped them. <3
I don't really follow voice actors because I get absorbed into the actual anime and don't pay attention to specific voices. Sakamoto's laugh always made me laugh though, it was awesome!

I don't know what any of those are. I've tried Rosetta Stone, are they something like that?

Well, they were basically parasitic nobles who mooched off of taxes. Sure, their families had jobs like firemen and kept order, but those jobs weren't really needed so they spent a lot of their time doing nothing productive. Some of the "samurai" didn't even know how to use their swords - they were just tangible status symbols. Their image has been romanticized by novelists from back in the day.
Fun fact: Homosexual relationships were okay back in classic/feudal Japan; it was relationships between peoples of different classes, no matter the gender, that were considered "shameful."

Ah well. Thank anyway. XD

[Pontianak]

I shipped Sanya/Eila the hardest, but Mio/Minna the second hardest. Trude was my fandom bicycle - I shipped her with everyone.

Personally voice actors make the show, or at least insofar as they make the show convincing. I have a soft spot for Chiba Saeko, Hikasa Youko, Koshimizu Ami, Tanaka Rie and Sonozaki Mie, all of which (save for Hikasa) were in Strike Witches, soooo...

They're similar to Memrise in that they calculate the number of times you get things wrong and see how well you know the material and when you need to review it. I used them for my kanji + kana, and I use them now for my psychology/history work.

Oh. So samurais kinda sucked. That's disappointing.

That's the same throughout history, actually, although it'd be incredibly anachronistic to call it homosexuality. It's a really recent idea that's only been taboo for a few centuries - pretty much all throughout the classical world and into Medieval times there was no homosexuality or heterosexuality as we understand it. Sex was sex regardless of gender, and the only thing that really mattered was the political/economic status of the person rather than their physiology.

[Chibi Tortuga]

It seems dead here....

Torchi used Phoenix Down

Was it effective? .__.

[Rosie]

I know...I think it's officially dead.

[Kagu]

It's...kinda what happens when your admin gets scheduled for multiple 9-days-in-a-row shifts for a job where she gets paid $3/hr and has to rely on the kindness of other people (HA. HA HA.) to make up the other bit.

[Chibi Tortuga]

That's okay Kagu, life gets in the way sometimes and that's understandable. :]

Anyways, I came on here to say that I hope everyone is doing alright.
Haven't talk to any of you in months, it feels like years really....
So yeah...
I hope y'all are doing alright and having loads of fun in between life's obstacles~! :D

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