BooJaka

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Posts posted by BooJaka

  1. Posted

    A while ago I took a GCSE in Japanese. I enjoyed it but, since it was at college, I didn't typically put a whole lot of effort into it.

    Recently though I've felt a huge urge to go back and relearn it. I bought a CD and book set a while back and, though it teaches quite well, it's not especially fun. Does anyone know a fun, interactive way of learning a language?

    My first thoughts were some kind of DS game. You could write on it, read from it, listen to it AND speak to it. It would be perfect! Unfortunately though, as far as I know anyway, Nintendo haven't released such a miracle product. There are some homebrew things but they don't look particularly great quality and I'm not entirely sure I understand nor have the means to run homebrew stuff.

    So if anyone know anything like that that actually exists, particularly for Japanese, post now or forever hold your peace!

  5. Posted

    I always do my shopping in the first week of December so I'm relatively stress free. I'm also in a unique position where I don't have to organise/cook anything so I don't feel the pressure from any of that either.

    On the other hand though I kind of wish I did have some kind of stress happening right now since I've been home from Uni for a week and I don't really have a lot to do except watch Deal or No Deal. It's Scrooge Vs Santa week...:fart:

  15. Posted

    With the month being what it is and with the temperature ever gradually inching downwards, my mind inevitably turns to Christmas and whether or not it has lost its religious meaning and become too commercialised.

    I consider myself to be firmly Agnostic meaning that I don't necessarily believe that any kind of god exists but, at the same time, I wouldn't say that there is definitely no god as, in my mind, I've seen no proof to support either argument. It's a bit of a fancy way of saying "I don't know" but that's how I feel about it.

    Being this way, Christmas doesn't truly have much of a religious meaning to me. Oh sure, I know the story just as well as most people in the western world but, having doubts that such things were right to happen, should I really be celebrating this holiday? If I so shamelessly enjoy Christmas, shouldn't I do the same for Diwali or Passover?

    One major concern that pops into people's minds around this time of year is that Christmas has become too commercialised; that the shops specially stock items only available to get money out of the people willing to buy them and that the Christmas spirit has turned from religious matters to simply trying to buy someone a better present than they got you in some kind of competition. But let's put this into context. One year all the shops didn't just suddenly decide to make everyone buy more at Christmas, this happened because people were willing to buy more and the demand was obviously there. If you feel that the commercialism of the season has ruined Christmas then it is not the big companies you should be blaming, you should blame yourself for buying into it in the first place.

    And so, in my opinion, perhaps Christmas has lost its religious meaning with only the diehard Christians among us keeping it real and celebrating the season the way it used to be but then it had lost its religious meaning part way through the last century, it's nothing new. And just because it has lost one meaning is not to say it doesn't have others. Commercialised or not, Christmas is still the season of giving which I still feel is necessary throughout the world and, as it has become a social event rather than a religious one, as a nation, we invited all people to enjoy it as we do whether you're Christian or not. That's why I love Christmas.

    Feel free to disagree

  25. Posted

    I've had a problem with the calibration on my DS for a while now. For some reason it always thinks I'm tapping slightly to the left of where I actually am. Now, this has never been too much of a problem before and nothing I can't really compensate for until last night when none of my attacks were working in Zelda. It's very frustrating. :(

    I've been through the calibration thing but it just cycles through the same three hotspots endlessly. This morning I was doing it for 11 minutes (yes, I timed myself) and nothing.

    Anyone know anything about it?