Things about me

Another vanity post, really.  Are there any other kind?

I have recently acquired a Chinese name, courtesy of my friend Chika and Ollie's mother.  It is 吉利華, which is gat1 lei6 wa4 in Cantonese and jī lì huá in Mandarin.  My Japanese name (courtesy of a certain book about a certain person who shares my name who went on a certain journey) is ガリバー, or Garibâ. 

This led me onto doing some reading about naming traditions… mostly on Wikipedia, but all the same, it was interesting. 

Might add more later.

On The Naming of Me

Anyway, so, I have to remember to actually write in this blog.

My name, being internationally known as the name of a fictional character, has pre-defined pronunciation in various languages.  This is of no interest to anyone, but hey ho.  

/gylivɛʁ/ is French

/gaɾibaː/ in Japanese and written ガリバー

/galivaː/ is German.

Not very interesting, but hey ho.  I'm working on a Chinese name, which would be nice, I think. Well, not very useful, but I want one anyway.

This week: Japanese was, as usual, one of the high-points. I really enjoy that class.  We are doing advanced things learning how to tell the time: Ima gogo jûni ji nifun sugi desu. いまごごじゅうにじにふんです。Fascinating stuff, I'm sure.

Anyway, I just saw one of those photoshopped-to-make-you-feel-ill pictures, and I feel ill. There should be a basic “ethical use of the internet” course that you have to pass before you’re allowed to post things online.

Japanese is going well. I made more flashcards using Anki, a flashcard software makey thing. Seems like a good piece of software, although it reeks of cross-platformness (huge file size, peculiar interface). Petty things aside, so far it's been pretty great, actually. I recommend it for anyone who wants to learn things… like vocabulary.

Also, I'm installing WoW (again). It's taking a bajillion years to patch, as usual. I want to make me a blood elf hunter, dang it!

Made vegan cheese sauce. Can now make it from memory. Awesome. Got offered interview at Chester for a course next year. Had interesting discussion with my mother about whether or not going to Chester would be a good idea. In short: who know? But, if I didn't, I'd regret it. It's better to try and fail than not try at all.

Veganism, two weeks in, and other things

As the title of this post suggests, I've been vegan for two weeks now.

It's really not that hard. In fact, it's not remotely hard. Restaurants can be a bit irritating, but hey ho. To be honest, I only ever really went to Asian or vegetarian restaurants anyway, and they always have something vegan on the menu. I pretty much don't have any comments on it, because it's been a fairly minor transition.

I haven't actually left my flat this weekend, which is pretty sad. At the same time, I've not got any money and yesterday I was hung over to the extent that all I could cope with was shivering. I had a fairly nice 'doing crap in my room' day, which is necessary sometimes. I know I'll end up doing the same today, which is kind of lame, but hey ho.

I started writing a story last night, but it was stupid so I gave up. My NaNoWriMo novel floundered unusually early this year. It got to about two thousand words, which is pretty pathetic. For shame!

I suck

It's not as though it's totally unfair to call me an idiot sometimes. I haven't left the house today, entirely because I was too hungover earlier and couldn't quite gather up the courage to go and do anything at all.

So, here we are, thinking about what to put dans le blog. I'm quite keen on setting targets about things. But, what shall I write about? I'm a reasonably competent writer, it's just that I tend to meander off subject quite often and talk rubbish instead of content. But, surely, that's what most bloggers do, isn't it? It's not exactly like I've got a readership yet, on the end of the first evening.

I could write a kind of in game diary thing about a game or something. They've been done to death, though. Still, until I have a better idea, I may as well. I'll start tomorrow. Perhaps Animal Crossing: Wild World. It's not original, but it's easy enough.

Or, perhaps, recipes? I, personally, really like recipe blogs, because they have food in them, and I do like food. Despite buying recipe books, I tend to not actually use them and use the internet instead, which is silly, but I do. Also, I'd get to take pretty pictures of the things I cook. Joy!

I like the idea of doing a webcomic, or a serial of some kind, but lack the scanner for a webcomic and the brain to think ahead enough to do a serial. Maybe I'll start, though…

An introduction to myself.

こんばんは。私はガリバーです。えいこくじんです。

So, this is my first proper post.

A few things about me that you may care to know.

I am: male, English, vegan, living in Hamburg, tall, blond, not stupid, sometimes lazy.

I speak French, and am working on improving my German. I've just learning Japanese in an evening class, too.

I've just joined a gym, so hopefully I'll get all fit and smexy soon. So, if anyone knows any good workout programs for beginners wanting to beef up a bit for vanity reasons, that would be great.

So… yeah.