March Mania Day 22: 100 Word Challenge: Learning Japanese

A Calligraphy kit and some Japanese language learning books

I'm very sorry for the late posting of today's March Mania post, I crashed early and woke up realizing that I've only an hour and a half left to post this. Anyways I'll be explaining my struggles and attempts at learning my literal mother's tongue: Japanese! All in 100 words like the past five posts this week. Ready? We're off!

100 Word Challenge: Learning Japanese

The struggle so far seems to be speaking as there are many homophones in Japanese as it has five vowels and is limited by the requirement to end in vowels or 'n'. I've been trying to get off the ground floor by learning the writing systems. Kana are relatively easy but I've a lot of kanji to learn. Recently I've set up some loose leaf paper so that I have squares to write kana, later I can apply the same idea to when I need to practice kanji. Repetition helps, such as reading about sumo techniques and names of wrestlers.

Word Count (Word 2013): 100 words

March Mania Day 21: 100 Word Challenge: Paris 2012

Welcome and Bienvenue to today's March Mania 100 word challenge. Today I'll rack my brains as I attempt to remember a trip to Paris in 2012 and sum it up in 100 words. Bonne chance to me!

100 Word Challenge: Paris 2012

I flew to Paris with my dad and French students from high school on an Airbus A380. We visited many of the icons of Paris such as the Sacre Coeur, Luxembourg Gardens, and the Eiffel Tower. There was some good food including crepes Nutella and Niçoise Salad. We also spent an afternoon away from Paris in the nearby city of Versailles and explored the Palace, which housed Louis XIV, and the nearby Gardens. There was a lot of navigating via the Paris Metro, or subway, avoiding pushy sellers and generally having a great time and speaking to people in French.

Word Count (Word 2013): 100

March Mania Day 20: 100 Word Challenge: Wishes

We're about two thirds of the way through March and March Mania, thank you to the few people who think I am worthy of their time by reading or looking at my blog. Today's 100 word challenge may not be too much of a challenge as I describe some of my wishes (of which I'll have to grant myself since fairy godparents don't exist and I'm not Timmy Turner from Dimmsdale).

100 Word Challenge: Wishes

I do have a few wishes for things and actions in life. One of the wishes is that I am able to run a 5k from start to finish without walking one step. Another wish is for a good paying job that requires me to actively use math or meteorology knowledge. Some of my wishes involve food such as wishing for another chance to eat in Lancaster, Pennsylvania at places such as Issei Noodle and Annie Bailey's Irish Pub. I also wish that I could re-kindle past friendships sometimes, but I have been told it's better to leave things be.

Word Count (Word 2013): 100

Wow, an even one hundred. I'm sorry for the sad tone of the last wish, but it is a wish and relevant to the topic. I should focus on the present and the future wishes and know that I can make some things come true myself.

March Mania Day 19: 100 Word Challenge in French

Today I'll stack challenges upon challenges. Today's 100 word challenge will be entirely in French. I will provide a (hopefully not so) rough English translation after the French body of text. Note, I'm okay in French but did rely on a French-English dictionary for some words.

Défi de 100 mots, en français

Susheen est un chat qui aime beaucoup les sushis. Il aime trop les sushis si vous me le demandez. Il miaule assez bruyamment quand je ne le partage pas. Il ressemble la chate s'appelle Pusheen mais il dit que il est un homme, un homme fort. Quel chat! Il aime manger et dormir comme les autres chats. J'aime Susheen, mais il a besoin d'apprendre que je ne partage pas mon sushi. Si Susheen ne mange pas de sushi, il se met très en colere s'il me voit manger des sushis. J'ai besoin de pratiquer mon français, c'était assez difficile pour moi.

Susheen is a cat that likes sushi a lot. He likes sushi too much if you ask me. He meows rather loudly when I don't share it. He resembles the cat named Pusheen but he says that he is a man, a strong man. What a cat! He likes to eat and sleep like other cats. I like Susheen, but he needs to learn that I don't share my sushi. If Susheen doesn't eat sushi, he gets very angry if he sees me eating sushi. I need to practice my French, that was rather difficult for me.

Word Count (Français, Word 2013): 99
Word Count (English, Word 2013): 97

So Microsoft Word says I'm one short of my 100 word goal, but it's close enough if you ask me. Tomorrow will be easier as I stick to an English 100 word challenge tomorrow.

March Mania Day 18: 100 Word Challenge Who am I?

On day 2 of the 100 Word Challenge week, I will attempt to describe myself in exactly one hundred words. Will I be able to reach that goal or will I yap on about myself selfishly? Keep reading and find out! Contractions count as one word but hyphenated will count for one word by Microsoft Word rules and two for my rules.

WHO AM I?

My name is Sean and I was born in Hawaii. I have degrees in math and meteorology from Millersville University. I'm half-Japanese and really enjoy eating Japanese food, and other food for that matter. My current hobbies include music, computers, needlecraft, and writing. People often say I am very friendly or nice or sweet, but sometimes I doubt them despite being outnumbered. I earned Eagle Scout, am a fan of the Denver Broncos, and need to exercise more to lose weight. I've also ran three half marathons but have bad luck with 5k races. I always want to improve myself.

Word Count (Microsoft Word rules): 100
Word Count (my rules): 101

You decide whether I failed or succeeded today at the 100 word challenge, but at least if I fail, it's only by one.

March Mania Day 17: 100 Word Challenge: Millersville Days

Happy Saint Patrick's Day y'all! This week in March Mania I will challenge myself to summarize seven topics in 100 words. Shall I fail to do this, I hope to be at least within five words of 100. Only the body of the text in between the Title and "Word Count" will count toward the challenge. Today will be a challenge right off the bat as I have to try to describe my Millersville University days in 100 words. Also, I can't make a list and contractions count as one word. Ready? Let's go!

100 Word Challenge: Millersville Days

I started my career at Millersville by joining the marching band and met some great friends there. My first and final classes at Millersville were math classes. The meteorology department felt more like a family than a group of students. Old dorms were torn down while new ones rose up. I had a lot of great food there whether it was on campus or off campus. Failing one class caused me to think about what I really wanted to do and instead of one or the other, I chose option three: Dual major in mathematics and meteorology. It was great!

Word Count: 100

Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, Millersville University forever

March Mania Day 16: Music and I Future Plans

Now that I'm out of college and have limited opportunity and time to perform music, it'll be a challenge to figure out where to go with my music journey. I do have a few ideas on where to go though.

Mastering the Bugle

Although I already have a bugle from one Christmas long ago, it always produces flat notes (I wasn't the only one who produced a sound from it), so my idea for mastering the bugle involves buying a second bugle, but making sure that it can play a note sharper by default. The main goal is to memorize a few bugle calls and develop brass technique. This is probably the second or third easiest goal listed here.

Dueling Banjos?

I've had a banjo for nearly six years now, but I haven't been disciplined enough to give it time for serious practice. I figure a worthy goal would be to learn how to play Dueling Banjos. Also getting through a method book will help me nail the basics of playing the banjo.

Clarinet Scales of all sorts

The clarinet has been my main instrument since 2005 and I've been through so much with it. Instead of trying to learn some technically impressive piece, I think my next goal will to figure out as many scales as I can and play them by memory. Good luck to me as there are twelve major scales and 36 minor scales alone (three kinds of minor scales in all twelve keys). My friends would probably prefer if I learn stuff like Rhapsody in Blue or Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, but scales (and long tones) are fundamentals that must not be neglected.

Piano anytime?

Thanks to some technology from the past that my dad let me have, I can plug in earbuds to an electronic keyboard or piano via a 3.5 mm adapter jack and not disturb anybody with a cacophony of sound. I've yet to take advantage of it as I need the night to sleep for at least five nights per week.

Challenge Violin

I figured that since I liked how the violin sounds and that I had some enjoyment borrowing a friend's violin a few times that I got one for myself and wanted to challenge myself. I don't have any immediate goals for violin, but I think making it through Essential Elements will be at least somewhat helpful.

Saxophone Assessments

Although I picked up the alto saxophone purely out of accepting Mr. Kilby's request for another saxophonist in jazz band and only can think of my sax skills in terms of jazz, three years of jazz band seem to say that I did pick up the saxophone quite well. To figure out if that is true, I'll play through Accent on Achievement Books 1 and 2 and if the selections in those books are easy for me I'll be impressed, I was basically thrown into the metaphorical pool without preparation and went from 0-100 really quickly. Though I will say it helped that I played clarinet and it shares a few similarities to saxophone.

I'll keep everybody updated on what happens with what I do on my music journey!