Thanks, Lady Celerity, BrokenEcho, Fremen, TopNotch, DorothyMH, TheLibrarian and Anek! Took some while to complete on again.

Sif_Shepard I love the idea of practising Cyrillic by texting. Must be nice, studying a language together. We had this, too, out of necessity, and it's completely different from doing it my way. Spanish and Russian is a nice combo, both beautiful languages. Add Mandarin Chinese and you're set to talk to the majority of the world

Sooo... with Combat HIIT done, I started thinking on what to do next. I could do some lifting, but wasn't exactly in the mood for that today. But, I was a bit unimpressed with the HIIT part of Combat HIIT. That actually made me wonder... What, if I'd do a combat workout, but very, very slowly? Would that even have an effect? Yes, probably. Would I try it out? Absolutely. That's why today I did:

Slow-mo Fireheart Day 1. I only did Level 1, because doing three sets, back to back without rest, as slow as possible, it took me 33 minutes. I tried to keep my muscles under tension all the time, move as controlled as I could and the same as I'd do if I'd moved at normal speed. Just slower. During set 2, I started sweating. Nearing the end of set 3, I started trembling. This was much harder than I thought. But weirdly fun. I felt my muscles in a whole different way. I'll continue tomorrow, but I don't know if I'll do the whole program.

Good thing: I.. uhm.. bought a used e-drum set for cheap that was in pristine condition. We had to drive an hour to get it, but it was worth it. I guess. Time to learn the drums.

Happy badge day!

Congrats.

Congrats on Combat HiiT!!

Happy Badge Day!

Congrats

Happy badge day! Congrats on Combat HIIT.

Congrats on completing Combat HIIT!

In school it was the grammar books and all that standard jazz, and Spanish vocab has stuck with me fairly well. I am from the states so it's basically the only other language than English widely spoken here (not entirely true but in my state and for all intents and purposes it is). As an adult my methods of learning are basically apps like duolingo and drops, which I've heard aren't the best but as a primer I think they're okay. Plus I have a translator app and a dictionary one as well. I learned the alphabet pretty well with duolingo it just took awhile. Also my wife studied Russian in college so when I was studying we put a Russian keyboard on our phones and would text each other a little bit but neither of us are very advanced. Still, it was fun.

I did try to look for shows and movies I'm familiar with dubbed in Russian with subtitles but I never really did find any. I was really into Russian music for awhile. I haven't studied in months though, and I'd probably like to put more effort into Spanish if I get back into studying. Russian was more fun though, in some ways it's kind of easy which surprised me. I liked the challenge of it in the beginning as well with learning a new alphabet more than I thought I would. I'll check out that link, thanks!

Thanks, Sif_Shepard

How's your approach to study languages?
Mine's basically the same for all of them: Get a textbook or a grammar, read through that, once. I used to copy declination tables by hand 50 times for languages like French or Italian, but don't do that any more. I just read about grammar once wihtout worrying what sticks and put it aside. Around the same time I start learning vocabulary. I used to that with a dictionary and a list of words, but nowadays I like to use frequency decks for Anki or Memrise if there's a good course available. When I have around 600 words, I start reading with a dictionary but continue learning vocab. I don't translate sentences, I just try to get the gist of it. If I feel one point of grammar is important, I look it up. If I feel especially serious, I note down recurrent words and add them to the list to learn. Nowadays, I like to use e-books and pop-up dictionaries in a browser. It's painful and slow at first, but it gets easier with time.
Sometimes, if I have to, I even try to speak. On the few occasions I needed to, I could make myself understood.
If you want to listen or watch movies/shows, I'd probably watch them as much as possible, maybe with subtitles in the language. There's a whole method based on it. If you're interesed, here's a handy guide: https://refold.la/
If you struggle with Cyrillic, you could try writing English, or your mother tongue if that isn't English, with Cyrillic letters, as much as it's possible. For example: Гелло Сыф-Шепард. I might have taken some liberties with the pronunciation of Sif Maybe Сиф-Шепард would be more accurate.

I studied german and spanish in school, and last year I practiced learning some russian and a very little bit of swedish, but the methods I've tried don't seem to really stick too well for me, I have a tendency to get overwhelmed by languages. I mostly study languages that I think sound pretty, so basically your opposite lol, and for me that is russian, greek, swedish, spanish, and some others, but I haven't dabbled in greek yet because I struggled enough with learning the cyrillic alphabet. I like listening to foreign music to get a feel for the language as I'm studying, it helps with my motivation.


Congrats on completing Combat HIIT!

Sif_Shepard you remember right, studying languages probably is one of my longest lasting hobbies. It's one of the few thigns I can focus on without any problems and it's so damn cheap. As in, it doesn't cost anything aside from the money for a pen and a notebook. I only learn up to reading comprehension, though, and don't care for listening and speaking. It's a great hobby, very recommended

To finally get over with it, I did Combat HIIT Day 29 and 30 today. So...
No idea what I'll do next. I might or might not decide tomorrow.

That being said, it's getting warm again. 27°C today. Hime's not amused.

Good thing: My cousin found a part-time job. Nothing big, but he's more at ease now.

Spanish is pretty cool, do you study a lot of languages? (I feel like I remember you saying that you do, but I could be misremembering because so many bees study languages.)

Sif_Shepard I've just went through the list of books I've read so far -31- and noticed that I haven't read any books by male authors with any kind of romance/sexuality/attraction of that kind. Well, Spell for Chameleon had the aforementioned descriptions of women's bodies, but that book was from the 70s. I have to read more, I guess. Wouldn't be much suprised, though. Anyway, I finished the book last night, liked it a lot and have acquired the second one. Tbh, I usually don't pay much attention to who wrote a book, but I certainly don't mind an even distribution of male and female authors for more variety. Out of my four top rated books, one's written by a woman and I guess it would count as a guilty pleasure read. But not because of that

TopNotch I would grow tomatoes myself, but I'm really not very good at taking care of plants...

f1shtacular exactly. I slice them, sprinkle salt over them, and just eat the slices. Very delicious, and very refreshing.

Anek I find simple things often taste the best

Today only was Combat HIIT 28. But I discovered that climbing trees slowly and deliberately can be a good workout, too.

Help me, I consider learning Spanish.

Good thing: With the temperatures having cooled down, Hime's active again. Being a Husky in 40°C must be hard, so I'm happy to see her bouncing around.

Yum! I love tomatoes the same way!