Holizz versus the Web

Welcome to today’s lecture on the Tom method of learning Japanese. As all the best lecturers, I shall use bullet points and nothing else.

• Watch anime (and non-anime Japanese films and TV) every day.
• Read Japanese weblogs. Start with something that isn’t a newspaper and is about a subject you like (I read Yukotan Hour).
• If you’re using Firefox, get Moji. You can highlight single kanji or whole words and it’ll give you readings, information on the radicals, and everything.
• Use a dictionary, a translator, the Unihan database, a charmap utility. And most importantly, remember that these are not infallible (especially translators), but they can be useful if used appropriately.
• Look up every interesting word you hear.
• Subscribe to Japanese learning feeds: Kanji a Day at ようこそ, japanese.about.com.
• Read manga. Even if it’s in English you’ll still pick up lots of sound symbols (what does Chiyo-chan being hit on the head by a ball sound like? べん).
• Speak Japanese all the time. Think it even if you don’t say it out loud. Pick a phrase you’re thinking of and see which words you know in Japanese and have a shot at constructing a sentence even if you have to substitute in English words (for instance, wetです—it was a rainy day).
• Make some Japanese friends and practice on them (as in use the odd Japanese phrase, not treat them like a personal tutor).
• Oh, and don’t forget to read the weblogs of ex-patriots! They may not necessarily have much Japanese language in them, but they tend to have a lot of cultural anecdotes.

Oh my god. I’m so stupid.

I got an email from Gmail@gmail.com and I clicked a link that looked like a plain text URL that Gmail had turned into a link. It took me to the Gmail sign-in page (complete with ticking-over free space counter). It was only after I’d signed in that I looked at the addressbar. redscream.com != google.com. So I ran back to Gmail and changed my password as fast as I could.

Bloody hell. That’s the first time I’ve been caught out by phishing mail. I feel so stupid.

Here’s what I told Google:

I got a phishing mail from “Gmail@gmail.com” today. I’m ashamed to say I fell for it because I didn’t look at the address bar until it was too late (but I changed my password immediately so it’s okay).

It contained a link that had a Gmail URL in the content but a different URL in the href (it looked like it was a plaintext URL that Gmail had turned into a link). I suggest that you highlight such links to help people recognise phishing attempts.

I might see if I can write a Greasemonkey script to do the same thing in the meantime.

Looks like Neil was a little ahead of the game when he adopted the Firefox feed icon because Microsoft has had a little chat with Mozilla and also adopted the Firefox feed icon (via Asa). I might adopt the icon myself when I get around to styling my site (don’t hold your breath).

This is what I like to see: cooperation between browser vendors to make things easier for users.

Hopefully now that there’s a consensus (at least between Mozilla and Microsoft) people will stop using those stupid orange RSS and XML icons.

I must say I’m quite looking forward to IE 7. I do hope it lives up to the hype and, most importantly, supports much more of CSS 2 (and fixes their CSS parser bugs).

I got 295 this time (out of a maximum of 600). 31 better than last time (even though I haven’t had any practice since then).

I got an X with a sighter then proceeded to get 85 for the first four ends (which is really good for me), then deteriorated for the most part but didn’t do so badly in the last four ends.

Now it’s time to switch banks.

ぎんこはいかる。

(I’m angry at my bank (at least I hope that’s what I said)).

Lloyds TSB cancelled my overdraft even though I contacted them to explain myself. My overdraft being cancelled means that I’m also being charged interest (there was no interest before since it’s a student account).

I called them last week and I stupidly agreed to let them call me back. I haven’t been called back. I called them again Saturday (I think) after 5 so I couldn’t contact my branch. So some call centre person took a message explaining that the SLC hadn’t paid me but they should soon. She even took a contact number in case they wanted to call me. But no, they just go ahead and take my overdraft without even calling.

I only had 40 pounds left of my overdraft but still, that’s 40 pounds I could have spent on food.

I just hope the SLC call centre person who told me I’d get my first payment around Thursday isn’t as much of a liar as the bank people are.

I got my annual statement from the Student Loans Company. I owe them a stupid amount.

Debt ✌(^_^)

RFC 4287, also known as The Atom Syndication Format, has been published!

See also Anne’s post and Tim’s post.

For some reason WordPress replaces " with \" between pre tags. I haven’t yet worked out why (or how to stop it).

Watch it in action:

"

The above is literally <pre>"</pre>. See? It’s very exciting.

It is the reason my homepage doesn’t validate (it kills attributes inside pres). This sort of thing is why I disagree with generating XML without an XML parser: it’s very difficult to stop it becoming ill-formed at the drop of a hat. It doesn’t matter with XHTML served as text/html, but I don’t agree with that either.

Update: It was fixed a few weeks ago. See Ticket #1793 double quotes escaped inside pre tags.

In my second ever tournament I got 255 266. That’s down 9 up 2 from last time. But this time was the second time I’d shot with a stabiliser and a shoelace so I was still getting used to that. I’d like to do better in the novice tournament on Saturday, but we’ll see.

We got our sai today in Jujutsu and learnt some more of the syllabus. They’re quite a fun weapon.

I haven’t seen a lot of people at Jujutsu since the grading. It’s odd. Just like Joe described after the Jujutsu meal. It’s not a bad thing, but there are some people I hope haven’t left for good.

Afterwards, we went to Delius. We discovered that Andrew came first of the novices (the archers were still there) and had some food.

And now I must leave. I’m seeing Murderball with Davina.

Meme stolen from Neil.

Ten Firsts

First Best Friend

Owen.

First Screen Name

Gluk Schmuck is the first one I remember.

First Pet

My first pet was Number 6.

First Piercing

Ears.

First Crush

I don’t know.

First Record

I don’t know.

First Car

None.

First Love

None.

First stuffed animal

It may have been a little pig knitted for me.

Nine Lasts

Last Alcoholic Beverage

You’ll forgive me if I don’t remember. It was 21 months ago. Probably beer at the Blue Boar.

Last Car ride

Monday when Davina took me shopping and then dropped me off at Cult TV.

Last Movie Seen

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Last Phone Call made

The bank. Today (yesterday).

Last CD Played

I don’t play CDs. I rip them and add them to my playlist.

Last Bubble bath

Several years ago.

Last time you cried

I’m not sure.

Eight “have you evers”

Have you ever dated one of your best friends

I’ve dated a good friend. But not quite best friend.

Have you ever been arrested

No.

Have you ever skinny dipped

Nope.

Have you ever been on tv

Yep. Several times. But I wasn’t the main attraction.

Have you ever kissed someone, and then regretted it

Not really.

Have you ever had a sex dream about someone

Sure.

Have you ever had sex

I’m doing Computer Science, what do you think?

Seven things you are wearing

• Purple trousers
• Pants
• Orange Old Navy T-shirt
• Glasses
• Flesh tunnel in my nose
• Nipple bars
• Red acrylic ring

Six things you’ve done today

• DS coursework
• CASS2 coursework
• Ate mushrooms
• Wore my white belt for the first time
• Punched somebody in the nose (I only touched him because he mostly blocked it)
• Begun sai level one in kobudo

Five favourite things in no order

• Fermented soy
• Emacs
• Jujutsu
• Archery
• Japanese

Four people you can tell almost anything to

• Summer
• Niall
• Will
• Davina

Three choices

Black or White

White

Hot or Cold

Hot

Chocolate or Vanilla

Vanilla

Two things you want to do before you die

• Speak fluent Japanese
• Be 1^st dan in at least one martial art

One thing I regret

• I don’t regret much so I’m not telling.