IASA #4-22

Weapons rack now installed !

 

Kai's Travels

While I was doing my Mandarin lessons on Duolingo this morning, I started getting a bunch of texts from Kai as he began his trip here for Obon. The 1st was that he had to pay for his luggage; oops! Forgot to check him in yesterday. The merger  between Alaska & Hawaiian has not gone smoothly, normally I would get a reminder the previous day to check-in; did not get that yesterday.

He also informed me that TSA in Seattle is catching up to Kona!

Then he sent me a photo of his breakfast. And also told me about needing to get cutlery from somewhere else since there was curry sauce on the katsu patty.

I'm pretty sure I will gain weight while Kai is here since we are always trying new places to eat. And also some of his old favorites. My pre-Kai's arrival weight is 129.2 pounds, which is 3 pounds less than when I started on the solstice. Or about 1.2#/week weight loss. We shall see what it is after he leaves. And whether I can get back down to losing anything I might gain before August 1st.

On the way back from the airport, his 1st stop was at Our Founding Farmers for some ice cream! When we went across the street to K.O. Pizza for the chef's special for dinner. Already more calories than I have been eating!

We watched Good Morning, Breakfast on Lingopie just to watch all the good food. Kai is also thinking of taking advantage of the lifetime subscription so he can learn another language. 

The new series I started watching today is Fights Break Sphere. In this series released in 2018, a 19-year old Leo Wu plays 16-year old Xiao Yun, an aspiring martial arts practitioner. (He was 21 in Guardians of the Ancient Oath, playing 20-something General Baili Hongshuo aka Water deity. It is really interesting to me how the hairstyle can change the perception of age. But maybe that's a biologist thing since we look for characteristics of animals that can give us a clue as to their age.) Baron Chen plays the Grand Old Master who is training Xiao Yun. It's got a lot of martial arts but also has humor & funky music. No romance yet, but in the 1st episode they are already planning 16-year old Xiao Yun's wedding that will be happening in 5 days! Did they marry them off really young because their life expectancy was short?

I had mentioned earlier how I was able to recognize 水（shuǐ, water) after 3 days learning Mandarin on Duolingo. I have since learned the character for ice (冰, bīng), which I noticed in the word for refrigerator today! (冰相, bīngxiāng)

I am still doing well on the flashcards in Duolingo. I also learned the word for "messy" which really does describe my kitchen right now! And I finally learned how to introduce myself! 

These stats are unreal! There are now 8 countries showing more than 1000 views! And 3 of them have over 2000 views! 

 

The window for the next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea remains between the 11th & the 15th.

 

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Jim & Adrian! 

Prepping for Kaiʻs Arrival

As part of the clean up today in preparation for Kai's arrival tomorrow, I boiled the ulu, cut it up in chunks & put it in the freezer. I had a couple pieces with dinner before I froze it. I like it! I can't wait for the national food preservers group to figure out a safe recipe for canning ulu. Right now the only verified safe way to keep it is to freeze it.

While I was checking Moʻoʻs water bowl, I spotted part of a broken shell. Someone recently hatched out of an egg.

I also saw a lone jaboticaba berry. The trunk was bare; but the higher branches had fruit!  

I finished watching Guardians of the Ancient Oath this evening. SPOILER ALERT - Hou Zhengze was a piece of rotted wood (that was somewhat human-shaped) that Baili Hongshou as the Water deity unknowingly brought to life after keeping it with him for 1000 years. Hou Zhengze was half human, half wood, both god & demon; a complicated guy! Like Princess Jin Yang aka Zhen Bird, he also sacrifices himself to help with the cause of the Five Deities. The demon Ling Jun sacrifices herself so her lover (& demon hunter) the Metal deity An Tingfeng can absorb her spiritual energy to become stronger. During the final battle, the Demon Empress Jiuying reveals herself as Baili Hongyi whom she has infested & stabs Water deity Baili Hongshou, who then pulls himself along the sword to get close enough to Baili Hongyi to place the necklace with the white tiger tooth & obsidian around her neck, embraces her, & encases all of them in a block of ice to seal off Jiuying & prevent her from destroying everything. In the end, An Tingfeng is once again the only survivor, waiting for his friends (the other deities) to be resurrected. The thing I don't understand is why does the main demon always want to destroy everything? Because if they do, that means there is nothing for them either. Doesn't make any sense to me. I guess I could not be the quintessential demon! 

L-R: An Tingfeng, Baili Hongshou, Ming Yefeng, & Baili Hongxuan.

They try to vaporize the Demon Empress Jiuyang.

Baili Hongshou embraces Baili Hongyi whom Demon Jiuying has infested & seals them all in block of ice.

An Tingfeng toasts his departed friends.

Wu Zhen, one of the Ten Wizards of Spirit Mountain, seems to feel the same as I do about the romance thread in a lot of these Chinese TV series I have been watching.

For my Lingopie homework today, I reviewed the transcript for Good Morning, Breakfast as recommended by LanguageJones. It was somewhat distracting! I now want to go to China to eat! It looked like a dim sum place, which here is more a lunch thing than a breakfast thing. Interestingly, they had a pineapple bao that was made with what they call tree pineapple; it is known here as jackfruit. There was a huge tree that grew across the road from my grandparents house in Hālawa Camp; I enjoyed eating it. 

There was also a portion of the video where they were milking camels in the Gobi Desert & making camel milk liquor. And naan. Really savory, yummy looking naan! I need to go to China to eat! I will have to check out the Gastro Obscura tours to see if they have any in China. I will likely be viewing this particular video quite a number of times. 😋

The window for the next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea has moved to between the 11th & the 15th.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Jessica, Zsofia, Jill, & Molly Mahalo! 

I Took the Plunge

I committed to also doing Lingopie. They had a great 4th of July sale that was still available; so I signed up for a lifetime subscription ($229 vs $763) which also gives me access to anything new that they add for the rest of my life! (My family is fairly long-lived, with many lasting in to their 80's & 90's. Yay for great genes!) Based on how I am currently feeling about learning another language, & hoping some day they will also have ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, I think it is worth the investment for me. When you come for a visit, ask me about it & we can check out something in a language you might want to learn. I will probably use Lingopie to learn the language & Rakuten Viki just so my brain hears more of the language. (Currently, there is no Arabic. But it does have Japanese, German & Spanish that I have also dabbled in over the years. FYI Lingopie has both Mandarin & Cantonese.)

As part of sign-up process you tell them language you are interested in.

Obviously shows here are not in Mandarin!

Neither is this one, but these are intro ads.

These are 3 themes I said I was interested in.

There is more in full catalog.

There is also good set of tutorials.

I am starting with the Lingopie video Good Morning, Breakfast. How can I go wrong with food? And within the 1st 5 minutes I learned the Mandarin phrase for "fermentation" (发酵的, fā jiào de)! I am already liking Lingopie!

And there were even horses in this 1st episode that I watched! Very, very briefly as they galloped across the screen; but still horses. FYI Since Lingopie's shows are modern, I can continue to watch the historical dramas & still be learning modern language, culture, etc. Hūlō! I'll just watch the historical ones for entertainment. Which is what I started out watching them for. But Lingopie does have some historical dramas, too; just not as many as Rakuten Viki or Netflix. I had watched linguist LanguageJones' review of Lingopie earlier & will follow what he recommends to get the most out of Lingopie.

Because Lingopie uses videos & you can click on things to get explanations, I feel it is better if I do it on a larger screen. So I will continue Mandarin (& ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi) on Duolingo on my phone since I can take that with me & keep my brain active. 

Interesting story - When I was in Washington learning Japanese from a private teacher who was born & raised in Japan until she emigrated to the US as an adult, I used a word that I had learned as a child from my grandparents. She laughed heartily! Then she asked if I was raised in Hawaiʻi, I said, "Hai". (Yes.) She told me the Japanese taught by families in Hawaiʻi is old Japanese; after emigrating to work in the sugar cane fields the people did not want to lose their language so taught the next generations the language that they knew. It was frozen in time. However, back in Japan, the language evolved as times changed as all languages do. I had never heard this but it makes sense. So the word I used was from the early 1900's & she had only ever heard her grandparents say it & it was really hilarious coming out of the mouth of a young person!  

Remember that kukui branch the goats had eaten all the bark off of? It died.  

I found something else I can add to the anything-but-boiled-vegetables plan to make sure I get enough lipids!

SPOILER ALERT - In Episode 40 of Guardians of the Ancient Oath the Earth deity is finally revealed! It is Baili Hongyi aka Second Young Master aka Princess Li Ruo of the Wolf Tribe. Things are complicated, however, since a demon has invaded her body & takes it over at sunset causing her to kill people around her. At sunrise the demon retreats & she has no memory of what she did while the demon was active within her. And, of course, it greatly complicates her relationship with Ming Yefeng.

Demon-infested Princess Li Ruo wipes out You Wu tribesmen who were guarding her.

Ming Yefeng watches as his suspicions are confirmed about demon-infestation.

Maybe the people reading this blog whom I don't know are using it like a verbal mukbang? They get vicarious enjoyment out of reading my inconsequential ramblings? Dunno. Just a thought.

Speaking of mukbang, I could have done it back when I was eating to stay warm! And not have had to spit things out off camera like some mukbangers apparently do. I would totally clean up the plate, also eating the garnish & still getting side dishes. And I would add peanut butter to the breakfast meal carbs. Here is a mukbang compilation for those not familiar with this activity. FYI I am not in to watching mukbang, I would rather do the eating IRL. And I probably would not have actually done mukbang because I don't like being on camera!

The window for the next eruption at Kīlauea has shifted to be a day later than yesterday's prediction.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Uncle Howie & Bill!