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.  

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!

I Need More Fat

I had a very unusual craving today; a peanut butter & cream cheese sandwich! I allowed myself to eat it since a quick review of what I have been eating showed I was only getting about 11g of fat each day. About 1/2 to 1/3 of what I need to be healthy; you need fats in your diet even if you are trying to lose weight because they are necessary for your health. For example, the walls of your cells are made of lipids (fats)! And you need fats so you can retain fat-soluble vitamins. So if you don't have enough fat in your diet, your health will suffer. That is why I pay attention to what my body is telling me it needs. For my current weight, I need about 19 to 34g per day which will allow me to lose about 1 lb a week. If I was maintaining my current weight, I would need about 31 to 54g, per day. I could do this by eating 2 tablespoons of peanut butter each day but I have decided instead to use a combination of peanut butter & dark chocolate; my 2 favorite forms of lipids! (That's why I have them add peanut butter & chocolate chips to my Met Rx meal replacement smoothie! Yay! It is now a valid part of my weight loss journey! Same for ice cream on Fridays! Yay!) Obviously I will also add more fish to my diet for the necessary oils that are more readily available in fish.

This morning, I saw Moʻo tossing something around in the leaves under the lychee tree. It was another bird. I think it is a young saffron finch. 

I kinda got sucked in to Guardians of the Ancient Oath this afternoon, ended up watching 3 episodes in a row! This show is in the xuanhuan (玄幻）genre, meaning "mysterious fantasy." It blends Chinese folklore, mythology, and supernatural elements with a fictional setting. A number of things started coming together at about Episode 33 making it more interesting than just plain old palace politics; glad I was able to endure the bratty kid sister & get to the better parts of the series. SPOILER ALERT - Each of these characters finds out their real identity, Baili Hongxuan is the Fire deity, Baili Hongshou is the Water deity, An Tingfeng is the Metal deity, & Ming Yefeng is the Wood deity. Still haven't seen the Earth deity but I've got 9 more episodes before the finale. I hope they maintain this level of intrigue, mystery, & action.

L-R: Fire deity Baili Hongxuan, Water deity Baili Hongshuo, & Metal deity An Tingfeng vaporize Ironstone Demon. 

I saw Julia at the NKCDP Advisory Group meeting this evening. I met her a couple years ago at the South Kohala CDP Action Committee that she has served on for a number of years. We have stayed in touch; she wanted to know how we ran our advisory group meetings. We are not an official county-sponsored group. North Kohala used to have an official action committee, but dissolved it because nothing was getting accomplished; Julia is feeling the same way about their action committee. We had talked last month, but she wasn't able to attend. This morning she texted me because she could attend; I forwarded the agenda to her. This evening, Moʻo was well-behaved as she usually is but she started out being alert & looking around. She relaxed towards the latter half & went to sleep.

At start of meeting.

About half way through, starting to nod off.

I saw the hen this evening. She now has only 1 chick with her. 

I have now advanced to Level 10 in Mandarin! They say I can now introduce myself, but I don't think so. The last few lessons have been about sports & which ones I liked, not, "Hello, my name is ___." It has taken me about 7 weeks to get here. I am about 40% of the way to Level 25 which is where I stopped in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi since this is as far as it has been developed for now. If I maintain this rate, I will reach Level 25 in around 10 weeks or about mid-September! We shall see.

真的吗? (zhēn de ma?, Really?)

The window for the next eruption at Kīlauea remains from the 9th to the 13th.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Vonita, Donnie, John, & Kaʻohe! 

My Insomnia "Cure"

I have insomnia. I've had it for a while. I don't take anything for it; I just take advantage of it! One of the things I do is Duolingo lessons; if I'm going to be awake I might as well be productive! If you are eavesdropping outside my bedroom window you might just hear me practicing my Mandarin pronunciation! Or it might be something from a Chinese TV series I am watching on my phone. Though I don't do that very much since I prefer seeing it on a bigger screen where I can more easily read the subtitles in English & simplified Chinese characters. More likely you are hearing me listening to something on You Tube that will be taking me down another rabbit hole. Like "Top 10 Intense Historical Chinese Dramas with Strong Female Leads" or "Top 12 Fearless Female Generals in Chinese Dramas 2025".

Last night I also found a great piece on sword drawing techniques! It may not impress you but it got me in the mood to look at a lot more sword drawing videos. Another rabbit hole. 🙄

Then I found a video about Lingopie; it's another language learning platform. It's got more to offer than Duolingo & makes use of actual shows in the native language that you choose to learn; downside is there are not that many language options. Like no ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, but I've kinda gotten used to that. One thing that they said, that I guess I kinda knew but didn't want to admit, is that by watching the shows in the native language that you are trying to learn you will pick up on the use of every day language with the cadence, idioms, & modern slang that is being used as well as cultural cues. Which means since I am currently only watching historical Chinese shows that I am learning some outdated terms & cultural customs, like, "I must be punished! Kill me!". 🙄 I guess I need to watch some of the modern stuff that has no swords, horses, or martial arts. 🙁 Well, I guess they can have some martial arts. And they're probably going to have a lot more romance; there doesn't seem to be much modern stuff without a lot of romance. Oh well, guess I'll have to get used to that. 🙄 (Most of the time the romance seems to just be a blind alley that sidetracks the plot.)

The breakfast special at Motek Bakery this morning was Uncle Yosef. When I put in my order, David wrote my name down in Hebrew; this is what it looks like.

Uncle Yosef.

 

In case you are wondering how the cats break the cat door, here is a quick lesson. Two cats get in a little spat; usually the instigator is Paʻipaʻi. (She was a bully when she was younger, then she developed a subluxated knee cap which locks up on her every so often & decreases her mobility. I think she feels vulnerable when this happens.) Paʻipaʻi growls & hisses at the other cat, & if she is outside, she runs in through the cat door, quickly turns around, & starts batting the door to keep the other cat from coming in. Hence the crack in the door & it being batted off of its hinges!

Paʻipaʻi waiting to ambush someone.

Kai sent this to me. This is what my cats are like.

This is crazy! I know I said I wasn't going to look at the stats except for the end of the month. But I could not help it since I have to go past that page to turn off my views.  But today it showed 6 countries with more than 1000 views! Which is not much compared to very popular blogs & other social media with a whole lot more views, but this is a blog about nothing in particular. 🤔

The window for Episode 51 of the eruption at Kīlauea has been refined a little. It is now expected to occur between the 9th & the 13th.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Kathy, Margaret, Gregg, & Everett!

Canto to Mando

I found a You Tube video on the 3 Patterns That Unlock 80% of Chinese by Canto to Mando today. While the goal of the channel is to teach Cantonese speakers how to speak Mandarin, I think this will also help me a lot in picking up Mandarin because I had noticed the things he talked about on some phrases but do not have enough of a background with Mandarin to realize what was actually happening. This is the type of thing that would be really helpful to me to have a Mandarin speaker explain. I'm glad I found this channel.

The 1st pattern is the STPVO Blueprint. Apparently in both Mandarin & Cantonese there is only 1 basic pattern whereas in English there can be more than 1. Sentences in Chinese are set up with Subject 1st, followed by Time, then Place, Verb, & Object. I do not have enough of a vocabulary to have noticed this yet. But now that I know about, I will likely recognize it in the Duolingo lessons.

Subject = I, Time = yesterday, Place = home, Verb = read, Object = book.

Due to STPVO pattern, direct translation does not work. 

 

The 2nd pattern is The Action Chain. Apparently there are no prepositional phrases in Chinese, you just string things together. If there is more than 1 action in a sentence, they are listed chronologically with no prepositions.

Don't look for a Chinese word for that "to".

I don't think they should have included the "to" under the 2 in English.

This is one way to say this in English.

In Chinese it is said chronologically.

The color coding is wrong but numbers are correct. Basically it is "I plane went China."

This color coding is correct.

Both these English sentences have the same translation in Chinese.

Here's another example of the Action Chain with a longer series of actions. You apparently keep stringing them together in chronological order.

When translating in to Chinese, say it like it actually happens.

There is also a Crucial Upgrade. It is basically the If-Then statement. Both in English & Chinese the "Then" is frequently absent.

The "then" does not need to be there for the If-Then statement.

In Chinese it is more like a Because-So statement.

Both have same Chinese translation, "I yesterday home ate pizza."

There is a bonus pattern; it is the use of the word "but". 

The final Pattern 3 deals with Time & its effect on verbs. In the present time, the Mandarin word 在（zài) is placed before the verb. For a past action, the Mandarin word 了（le) is either placed right after the verb or at the end of the sentence. For future tense, the Mandarin word 会（huì) is placed before the verb.

How time changes verb in English.

But in Chinese verbs themselves do not change.

A filter word is added; in Mandarin "right now" filter is before verb.

For "past actions" filter word in Mandarin is either after verb or at end of sentence.

The "future" filter word is placed before the verb.

Here is the actual full video. It is about 21 minutes long, I found it very interesting.  I will be checking out more of his videos.