linkismyhero

Seeing people pour out the hate for any music act, even if I don't like the act either, really pains me. Criticism is fine, but there is a line I draw between "fair assessment" and "stupid, petty hatred". It actually makes me extremely angry. That's why I stay away from the music board here on SG. Music snobs take away all that is good about music, and turn it into something extremely unpleasant. Should music really be taken that seriously? On the one hand, yes, music is a very important and powerful thing, and it should be taken seriously. But this blistering hatred has got to go. It's poison.

With that being said, I just heard a song from a few years ago (I won't say which, because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings) that I find pandering, and even insulting. I even expressed my feelings about it out loud (though not in those words). Hypocritical?

I've come across songs, like the one mentioned above, that actually make me angry. I guess I can understand where the sentiment comes from.

Just some thoughts for the day. Now back to your regularly scheduled rollerdisco fun.

* * *

And when I say "fun" I mean "F-U-N fun". Like, so-fun-it-sounds-totally-awkward-after-what-I-just-typed fun. I'm not sure how to turn this into a smooth transition...

* * *

Okay, this is the best segue I can figure: Music should be fun, RIGHT??? Here's an example of FUN WITH MUSIC!

If I
want a ham on rye
and a piece of pie
IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!!!!!!!!!

Gosh that made me laugh. Still giggling. I actually made that up YEARS ago.

(I didn't pull off that segue but moving right along...)

Hmm. I'm conflicted. This is my journal, right? And I can write about what I want. But geez. Nobody wants to read about the same thing over and over EVERY DAY. FOR MONTHS. And now I've gone and added something else I will probably be talking about EVERY DAY. FOR MONTHS.

Sigh. Maybe I should just title every entry "Journal of an Annie fan and Norwegian student", just so everybody knows that I will be talking about the same thing... again This IS my journal. But seriously. I mean, really.

I've tried to tone it down this time, really, I have. "Journal of an Annie addict", more like.

Nice quality Quicktime video #1
Nice quality Quicktime video #2

This MySpace profile approved my friend request. I was, shall we say, more than a little excited to notice that today.

I really like the word "kveld", as in "god kveld" or "good evening". Sounds just like the Yiddish "kvell" which means to beam or be proud. I will use it in a sentence (and engage in some multi-lingual wordplay. That sounds kind of naughty.):

Hot.

I was feeling intimidated by Norwegian pronunciation but I tried repeating after the disc again and it wasn't so bad. I think I'm overworrying about pronunciation, since I don't have anyone to correct me (although when I was taking German I don't remember anyone ever correcting my pronunciation [or almost never], so either people wouldn't tell me if I was wrong anyway, or I just am good at getting it right, or close enough).

It's the whole pronunciation of "jeg" ("I") that is throwing me off. The -eg ending is pronounced like -ai. It's not hard to learn, I guess, but the pronunciation lesson didn't indicate that it would be pronounced that way, so it was unexpected (and makes me uneasy, because what else aren't they telling me?)

In the end I will probably have a bunch of Norwegian books with which to teach myself, so hopefully they will each fill the gaps that the others leave behind.

I've never successfully taught myself a language, but then I was never this excited about it. I tried teaching myself Japanese many many years ago, and Russian, also many many years ago.

I bought some Spanish lesson books not too long ago, but was just completely disinterested. If I had a lot of Spanish-speaking friends I might have felt more motivated (or had a Spanish-related obsession, I guess. )

I tried learning Russian because I had a lot of Russian friends in high school. But Japanese and Russian were probably bad choices for languages to try to teach myself because they're both very difficult. That isn't to say they can't be self-taught, but given my age at the time (early-to-late teens I guess) I was probably in over my head (I kind of don't like admitting that. I don't want to feel that I'm inherently incapable of achieving a goal because of some uncontrollable limitation like age.)

You should go write testimonials for your friends! It is a Nice Thing To Do™.

I think it's pretty funny how the (English) narrator of the Norwegian lesson CD explained how to pronounce . as in awful. It only works if you pronounce it like the Englishes do. I told this to mother and she was quite amused. She kept saying awful over and over. It IS kind of fun. And a pretty good approximation of how is supposed to sound.

Nobody has explained to me the proper mouth shape with which to pronounce , but I'm wondering if it's the same as the German (they sound the same), where you kind of have your mouth the way it would be if you were saying "eee" but you make an "oh" sound with your tongue instead. (At least that's how I remember my teacher explaining it... correct me if I'm wrong.)

seems not to be so hard. It's like the a in cat (but maybe leaning more towards the way an English would pronounce it, if there's a difference [and I guess there is?]) However they said a couple of words using (vre, lrd) and it sounded more like the a in father. Maybe I just wasn't listening closely enough.

I think the three extra letters are super cute. Just look at them: . They even sound cute. Well, maybe not . That probably doesn't sound very cute. My favorite is . AS IN AWFUL!!!!!!!

P.S. I decided on a whim to treat myself to some Cherry Coke today. Bad, bad, bad idea. Not only did it taste pretty gross, but I have been pretty hyper all day long ever since I had some this morning. I've been off the caffeine for a while now, so it always makes me super hyper. Oops.

P.P.S. I really worry that I will make mistakes with my Norwegian studies that will ruin my attempts completely in the end. I'm not sure it works that way with a language, making a mistake early on whose aftereffects make success impossible down the road. I think any mistakes would be more along the lines of "not practicing often enough", like steady failures as opposed to one little thing that trips it up for good. Of course, I worry I'll make steady failures too.