Languages, Langues, Idiomas, Sprachen, Мови

I just came back home a while ago with my really groggy doggy. She was a jittery little spazz and wouldn’t cooperate with the vet at all to make the removal of her stitches an easy task for her, so she had to be sedated. That robbed me of an extra hour out of my day, but I’m happy she’s finally rid of that damn cone collar and a zippered up snout; she undoubtedly is even more so. Once she stops wandering around in circles, all stoned and dazed, life for the both of us will become a little more normal. Hobbies and pastimes are just going to have to be cheap or free for a good long while after I saw her bill.

I don’t know what prompted me to think of this topic, perhaps it was after seeing the shop signs of some of the ethnic grocery stores along the route I drove through today, or the titles of some foreign books I caught a glimpse of in the library, but I began reflecting about a conversation that I had with some others at work during a past coffee break. I was trying to figure out cumulatively how many different languages were spoken (or were understood) by all the different staff members that ever worked, or still continue to work at my place of employment, since I started working there. The list I came up with as I was tallying this is: English, Tagalong, Spanish, Cree, Amharic, Punjabi, Bengali, Turkish, Danish, Serbian, German, Mandarin, Romanian, Ukrainian, Tswana, Tamil, Somali, Fulani, some pidgin dialect from Sierra Leone, plus perhaps a couple of others I’m sure I missed. It’s truly amazing that with all these different languages, plus all the different mindsets that come with them, that there aren’t any more instances of miscommunication than the ones we perhaps already sometimes have.

I then tried to think about the reality of the tendencies of how I process language. These questions are important, especially now, as I’m now put in a position of assisting someone who uses a unique communication modality.  For myself, I look at languages formulaically, like some computer nerd who is trying to decompile a program. I treat foreign languages as puzzles; it’s kind of shameful to admit that I don’t really learn or research them purely as another means of self-expression. It was the way I taught myself how to read languages written in Cyrillic when I was twelve. Tearing apart and recombining sentences I saw in a phrasebook was how I taught myself Spanish. One of those cheap/free hobbies I then thought of doing was boning up on the languages that I have some working knowledge about.

 I’ve heard it mentioned that a high percentage of acquisition of a language can be attained by learning a vocabulary base of around 2000 words. I’d like to believe that, but that seems a little farfetched to me.  Another reason to learn more about the realm of linguistics is that I have been giving more serious thought to getting my certificate to teach ESL. Just for practice, here are a few things I composed. I’ll check them later through an online translator to see how accurate they are, and what I’d need to work on.

Probablamente, comprendo un nivel intermedio del castellano (para leyendo y escribiendo), pero yo he olvidado mucho ya. Todavía tengo problemas unas veces para recordar cómo utilizar los verbos “ser” y “estar”. Unas maneras de la gramatica, y las conjugaciónes correctas de muchos otros verbos son muy difíciles para mí también. Quisiera aprender más del vocabulario practico.

Il était plus de 30 ans depuis j’ai appris le français à l’êcole.  Je me souviens beaucoup des essentiels de français, mais je n’ai jamais besoin de parler. Je ne peux pas à suivre une conversation en français. Pour moi, chaque fois quand je l’ecoute, elle sonne comme un tres longue mot seulmente; pas une sentence.

Ich spreche Deutsche nicht so gut, aber ich kann deutsch lesen und schreiben nicht so schlecht, also ich glaube dass ich könne leichter zu lernen mehr.

Моє знання українського словника є досить обмеженим. Я якось соромно, тому що це мова половини мого спадщини.Я можу читати по-російськи, тому я можу принаймні використовувати словник досить добре, і транспонувати слова в перекладі програми. Тим не менш, неспокій, тому що я не сумісної клавіатури набирати українською перекладати слова на англійську мову.

Getting Back into the Holistic Groove

I couldn't resist. . . it appealed to my warped sense of humour.

From mid-November of last year until now, my efforts to maintain a better dietary regimen have really backslided. It's coming close to the time where I cycle into taking some measure to do some form of bodily detoxication. However, I'm going to make a point of not doing some method where fasting is involved. Whatever steps ahead I made health-wise compared to the one to two weeks of misery I experienced in the past within that duration of fasting wasn't worth it. The best way to go is approach things like I did early last year: eliminating as much excess simple starches and sugars as possible, and substituting them with complex ones, opting for more lean protein, and more raw, whole, "living" and unprocessed food. This time around, after researching several articles about the benefits of live culture fermented foods, either by yeast or lacto-bacillus cultures, I've decided to add more of those things as "living" foods to my lifestyle, more to see if they will act as alternative energy primers, and systemic cleansers. What I'm really interested in is experimenting with foods that have enzymes and nutrients that are classified as adaptogens. The idea is a more in-depth following from what I already learned and gleaned from Tim Ferriss' book, The Four Hour Body. After last year's big cancer scare, I thought I should take a more active interest into what these things can potentially do. Here is a run down of the things I'm looking into.

• Kefir - The diet I composed for myself last year was highly protein based, and since I couldn't afford to eat meat all the time, my protein intake was very egg and dairy intensive. However, I never was one to favour drinking a lot of milk. I don't know if it's just part of the aging process, but I seem have a harder time digesting it than I used to. Yogurt and cheese are OK, but expensive. I find buttermilk to be digestable, as well as delicious, but it too is so costly by a litre to litre comparison to regular milk. Soy milk has a gross chalky taste I don't care for; plus soy is a source of phytoestrogens, which can screw up male hormones. Almond milk is more tasty than soy, but. . .cha-ching. . . also expensive. The best option I've found so far is kefir, or rather the culture to make the stuff at home. Kefir is a drink that originates from Eastern Europe/Central Asia. Kefir 'grains' are colonies of organisms that are added to ferment milk, pre-digesting the lactose. It's just a more drinkable form of yogurt. My plan is to use kefir in my protein smoothies instead of milk. Not only does this culture ferment milk, but it will also ferment milk substitutes as well, like almond, soy, and coconut milk. The added advantage to this stuff is that it can be used for making sourdough, my next subject.
• Sourdough - If there is one starchy thing I know I couldn't live without, it would probably be bread. As a bachelor, sandwiches are a standard feature for quick and easy lunches. I especially love rye bread. Sourdough bread is better nutritionally because it doesn't require extra sweeteners to be added for leavening the loaf, and has more beneficial enzymes. Even though sourdough bread is readily available around here, the purely organic stuff is really expensive, and the fresh stuff in the bakery doesn't have a list of ingredients with it that mentions whether or not it was made with HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). HFCS was another thing I made an effort to avoid consuming last year, and that made a noticeable and profound difference in my daily energy and stamina. I got experimental, and thought I'd try making my own sourdough starter for my own custom rye bread, and use it at least until I rid myself of the extra junk flour I have in my pantry. I could have just pitched it out, but the frugal farmboy in me can't abide wasting stuff. I'll just choose to try to make it healthier. A jar, some rye flour, water, and a coffee filter to cover it and allow it to breathe is all I need to produce it. If I feel really adventurous, I may dare myself to make my own kvass (mentioned last entry) with any surplus of stale rye bread, my own healthier pop substitute to rid myself of the extra sugar here. Let the yeast convert it first to something more beneficial and healthful.



Rye Sourdough Starter.

• Kombucha - I associate this stuff with Rudolf, one of our old neighbours who emigrated from Germany with his family and settled on an acreage near the area where I grew up. He was also the same guy who initiated me into tasting and liking homebrewed beer. He was an interesting character, with interesting stories to tell, who had an equally interesting collection of home remedies. Kombucha tea was one of them. I remember the introductory sample he gave me as being very tart, but also very effervescent and refreshing. It's basically black or green tea that has been fermented with a symbiotic yeast/bacterial culture. The result is a drink loaded with probiotic enzymes and adaptogens. This stuff is reputed to: be a detoxifier, allow better digestion of gluten loaded food, counter joint inflamation, improve eyesight, improve skin tone and elasticity, serve as an anti-cancer agent, benefit gastro-intestinal health, as well have other benefits too numerous to mention. It's even supposed to stop and prevent greying of hair. How then could I not be interested? The name for this concoction is Japanese, but my research on this panacea shows a lot of different cultures throughout all of Asia and Eastern Europe using this stuff as a medicine and life elixir. Back then, Rudolf commented that there were people in the Caucasus mountains who drank this stuff on a regular basis, and were living well past a century; then again, I heard the same thing about the same alleged people who lived there; who were that long-lived and healthy because they ate their own version of homemade yogurt.

The alleged fountain of youth

I don't yet know how intensive, or especially taxing it will be to try to produce and maintain these weird things by growing them in cultural mediums. I presume that it won't be any harder to do than nurturing any other yeast culture, like I've already done on countless beer and wine making projects.

One top of what I mentioned here, the other indulgences that fit the bill that I already enjoy are foods like: raw nuts, sauerkraut, lacto-bacillus brewed pickles, kim chee, yogurt, unpasteurized cottage cheese, pickled herrings, ceviche, whey protein smoothies, lentils and other pulses, olives, collards/beet greens, bok choy, spinach, berries, eggs, rolled oats, chicken, curries. . .the list is really endless. There really is no way I could ever feel that I'm being deprived of anything.

Toasting My Dog's Health with Kvass

Today is my only whole day off this week, and my chance to catch up with projects I told myself I would do and complete since the New Year arrived, but the urgency to re-engage with them has waned a lot with the plummeting wind chill factor. Instinct is drawing me into slipping into winter torpor instead. Charging around in sub -40° C weather to get stuff done is somehow failing to appeal to me, despite the need to do so. This recent spell of cold weather has really sapped me of energy, and I still have so much to do. The only reason I’ve sat down to write is that I feel like I have so many knots to loosen in my head first before I can focus on mindfully approaching or tackling any one of them. Writing has proved to be somewhat therapeutic for me in the past; sometimes it has been a helpful way of re-motivating me. Maybe my instincts are the right things to guide me now, and staying in bed and resting is what I really do indeed need; I fear the boredom of it though.

Good news came yesterday in regards to Ella. The lab test results showed that the tumour that was removed from her turned out to be benign. I’m greatly relieved in that respect. However, that big ugly bump, and the new unforeseen expenses that it incurred, really threw a monkey wrench into some of the planning I’ve already done for some things. It’s tempting to just throw up my hands and say that there is nothing I can do about it; yet doing nothing about it feels like it’s not the answer. I’m trying to be tenacious enough to not let this bit of misfortune control me, or knock me off target.

Drevlyansky Classic Style
Ukrainian Kvas. . . Yum

I took a break between paragraphs. During that time I bottled my beer from my New Year's brewing project and then went out shopping to fill the huge void in my fridge. I made an effort not to drag home junk food despite the great cravings for it I’ve had as of late. I got experimental again, and bought more stuff at the Ukrainian food store on the east end of 8^th Street. I found the perfect thing to substitute and satiate my odd craving for pop. I bought a bottle of kvass to sample. I heard of this stuff a while ago while working for one of the Ukrainian cultural centres. I found recipes, but I never got brave or interested enough to make it for myself. The homemade stuff is quite perishable, and I’m only equipped for large volume production of more potent potables; plus since it is rye based, there is a real risk of some accidental contamination or culturing of ergot spores* in my kitchen, or on my brewing equipment. For those who don’t know what kvass is, the best description I can give for it is that it’s a fizzy cola-coloured, fermented drink, made out of rye malt or traditional sourdough rye bread. It’s sort of tangy and not too sweet. Technically, it’s a low alcohol form of beer without any hops; it’s sometimes flavoured with spices, raisins, or other fruits and berries. It’s a healthier drink than pop because it’s naturally fermented with living yeast, and thus rich with the B complex of vitamins. It has no preservatives, plus it’s loaded with same kind of probiotics like yogurt has, so it’s good for your immunity and digestive system as well.** I was told that traditionally in Ukraine and Russia, it’s quite often used as a hangover cure. I found it to be quite delicious. I think I'm hooked and actually prefer this stuff over Coke.

*- Ergot: a fungus that grows on rye and related cereal grasses. The spores of ergot produce toxic residues akin to lysergic acid (LSD). Poisoning from it (ergotism) results in some extreme neurological effects, including cognitive impairment, seizures, and hallucinations. There is a theory in cultural anthropology that ergot tainted bread consumed in the early years of Christianity produced "divine and mystical" experiences after the Eucharist ritual, thus attracting more "believers". In medieval Europe, the flour/meal made from grain of ergot infected rye crops, caused whole villages to be afflicted with St. Antony's Fire, and bad trips on this stuff may have unsuspectedly fueled and influenced negative perceptions and experiences of the "supernatural" which may have resulted in witchhunts and the Inquisition. Think about it: millions tortured, and killed by hanging and burning at the stake because of some snot-like organism growing on rotting kernels of grain. Fungus, yeast, mold, smut, germs, and other parasitic microbes and creatures don't get nearly enough credit for making such radical and lasting impacts on human cultural revolutions, history, and civilization in general.

**- An interesting historical note to add. In the 1800's, during the Napoleonic Wars, kvass may have been a critical key element in saving Russia from Bonaparte's armies. Napoleon's soldiers were frequently cut off from their supply lines while they were advancing toward Moscow, and were forced to drink the local untreated water in Russia which was, at that time, loaded full of water-born diseases. The Russian imperial soldiers had rations of kvass to protect them from these epidemics, and hence were healthier, and could spend more time fighting French battalions who were already starving, sick, and shitting themselves to death from cholera. One could assume that this was probably another factor that led Napolean himself to believe and conclude that, "an army marches on its stomach."

A Lousy Friday the 13th

I have to confess that yesterday, Friday the 13^th, was a portent for some really bad luck. I took Ella to the vet to get her checked out. There’s a newly forming bump on her nose that I initially just passed off as a silly wart or something. However, the way and rate it has been forming made it too hard for me to believe that any longer, plus it has begun to make her noticeably uncomfortable. After a rudimentary biopsy, the vet told me that she has cancer. This unsightly, rapidly growing tumour on her muzzle started appearing around Christmas. It needs to be removed immediately, or else if it continues to grow at its current rate for much longer, she won’t have enough remaining skin tissue left on her muzzle after the excision to permit her to properly heal without some facial deformity. Such a thing might in turn cause some future impairment of her eating, drinking, or even breathing. This was news that I wasn’t prepared for at all. I booked the date for the surgery for this coming Monday. It was the soonest time that was available for her.  She will need a general anaesthetic, always a risky thing for smaller dogs. It will be costly. Also, her having this proceedure doesn’t necessarily guarantee that it will completely cure her of this either if it has already started to get malignant and metastasize. I’m hoping the blood tests she had will prove something contrary to that. It’s a subject that has really been depressing me.

I may have to sacrifice my vacation funds, my remaining savings, or maybe eat beans and rice for a year, if that’s what it will take to help her. I don’t really care about that right now. What I know I can’t do is to watch her suffer. If she survives this surgery and it works out well, I’ll be grateful for at least that. If it turns out to be an exercise in futility, either by some complication in surgery, or the cancer re-occurring or spreading, I may have to brace myself for the unavoidable heartache of doing what’s ultimately best to not make her suffer anymore. I’m hoping so badly that I won’t have to deal with making the call for euthanasia.

Five Questions, Five Answers: Awoken by Paper Dragons

1.       Q: This has been the fifth night in a row of poor sleep for you. Why?

A: I’ve had some really taxing days of facing a new form of psychological challenge that I really don’t feel at all well-equipped to deal with. Despite the fact that I’ve been congratulated on the “good work” I’ve done, it has been prompting me even harder to think about where to go to next in terms of career building and education. What has followed is that I’ve become stressed and stricken with insomnia as I’m building castles in the air, and finding dragons in every room. Generally, the dragons to slay are the issues of where to find the time to study, and funding. It falls within the course correction motive I mentioned in an entry some while ago. It’s time to stop giving lip service to the idea, and start acting on it.

2.       Q: What kind of armour and weapons do you feel you need to slay these dragons?

A: Coalescence, a means with which to pool all my ‘special powers’ into one driving force to spearhead myself into a new spot. Forging, aiming, and propelling the spear is the big challenge. Another part of my weakness that’s been getting me so down and slowing me up is that any talents that I do have are so diffuse and varied that they leave no lasting impact on anything. Burnout, having no extra money, or time in the day, and depriving myself of opportunities to improve on any of them is making me worse. It’s like I’m now forced to use a Swiss Army knife to build a super-computer from scratch. One other major flaw I recognize in myself is that I seem to have no filter for processing massive onslaughts of information; it all just remains in my head as useless trivia. I have to find some systemized form of ‘armour’ for dealing with that.  

3.       Q: How is the great purge project going?

A: It is about 67% complete. I think I made about ten bushels worth of rats’ nest filler, and pretty much burned out my paper shredder.  The last third of this project will involve finishing rummaging and sorting through the remaining stuff in my filing cabinet drawers, scanning essentials, hardcopy destruction, copying digital backups, and systemizing things for future upkeep. The next big deal after that will be sorting and archiving my photos, which could last until the end of this coming spring . . . if I remain so ambitious. 

4.       Q: You have a three day weekend, what is going to happen?

A: The routine things would be: jogging, strength training, coffee with my friend, tidying up the place, reading some novels, writing, and cooking/stocking the fridge. The non-routine things will be finding the ways and means of attacking the problems I just mentioned above. Spending Friday afternoon in the SPL (Saskatoon Public Library) will happen for certain; avoiding dragging home any trivial and irrelevant materials of transitional interest from there that will just clutter up my brain will be a challenge as always.

5.       Q: Will you need more time off?

A: I’m sure I will, but when I’ll need it is still as of yet an uncertainty. It depends on some news I hear after two weeks from now. I could explain more, but I don’t want to jinx things.

Things I Need To Know How To Do Better

Twelve things to improve on for the New Year. Generally making it such that there is one focused challenge per month:

1. Attracting More Wealth and Managing It
2. Being More Social and Finding New Friends with My Interests
3. Making Time To Be a Disciplined Lifelong Learner
4. Discovering My Passions
5. Getting the Most Out of My Relaxation Time (Learning to Sit Still, and Accept Serenity)
6. Improving My Health with Fitness and Preventative Actions
7. Attracting My Ideal Significant Other
8. Confronting Conflicts and Handling Problems Mindfully, Confidently, Tactfully, Practically, and Effectively
9. Communicating with Kindness, Assertiveness, and with Good Intent
10. Getting Out More
11. Adding More Fun In My Life, Taking a Real Interest in the Lives of the People I Am Genuinely Fond of
12. Being More Spontaneous . . . TAKING MORE RISKS!

Five Questions, Five Answers: New Year’s Day of 2012

1.       Q: How did the last waking hour of 2011 end for you?

 

A: With a remote online chat with a friend, the finishing of Chapter Four of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a couple of muscle relaxants/pain relievers, and a belly scratch for my doggy, instead of a New Year’s kiss for someone else. That’s all. No parties, no booze, no games, no other social entertainment. It seems to be a disturbing trend: with past few years ending for me with some kind of sickness or pain. For the end of 2009, an eye infection; the end of 2010 was acute abdominal pain; now it’s seized up back muscles for the end of the year 2011.

2.       Q: How is the book?

 

A: It’s an eerie coincidence that I chose to start reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo now, since the setting is in phase with this actual time of the year, in the gloomy darkness around the winter solstice. With southern Sweden (the book’s setting) and my location being generally on the same latitude, I can really get a vivid feel for the atmosphere. I don’t usually or intentionally read stuff with this degree of political/legal intrigue, so I’m surprised that I’m getting so wrapped up in this story. The focal male character in the story, Mikael Blomkvist, a guy close to my own age, is ending his year off being quite down on his luck; perhaps I can just empathize and relate with him all too well. I’m resisting the urge to run out and see the movie before I finish the book.

 

3.       Q: How was the first waking hour of 2012 for you?

A: Thankfully, less painful. I got mindful to start the year with a good long look in the mirror, and to read and meditate on something inspirational. At least when I looked in the mirror, I saw a thinner fitter person than the one I saw staring back at me at the beginning of 2011. To opt to open myself to inspiration will hopefully help to drive me forward and keep a momentum for the ways I want to use this year to make some changes. 

4.       Q: Changes?  . . . What kind?

A: Course corrections . . . on a lot of levels, most being too personal to mention here. I do know that the whiteboard in my office will be my best friend throughout this day. I mentioned deploying a scorched earth policy a while back; that was rash to say.  More accurately, I have to do some selective burning, to clear away what is bad and useless, and to keep and further enhance that which is good and functional. There still has to be a plan as to where one has to light the fires. I only know for certain that 2012 will be the year of language(s) and finances, and forcing myself to learn stuff even more abstract than those things, as well as maintaining my health and fitness.

5.       Q: Besides planning stuff, what else are you going to actually do for today?

A: In keeping with accordance to a resolution to implement more measures of frugality and having fun doing it, I believe I shall be making some beer today, or at least get myself set up for it (converting my kitchen space into a lab), depending on what kind of time I have before work. I know I can’t stand having another day of being idle and reclined most of the day like yesterday. It would also be a good time to inspect my pantry, and make use of what I have; creating abundance with my essentials instead of absent-mindedly running out and shopping for food impulsively.