getting ready to go to bed. I'm trying to train myself to get up at 4.30 am every morning. wish me luck.

wondering if the thunderstorms will hold off until after soccer practice.

More on Learning Spanish

¡Hola todos!  I've really thrown myself into learning Spanish and I wanted to let you know that I'm having a lot of fun.  I really like learning new languages so that's not a surprise.  However, I am kind of surprised by how easy it's been so far.  I don't think that Spanish is necessarily an easy language to learn, but I haven't really been having any problems.  I think that's as much a testament to some of the tools I've had at my disposal.

First and foremost I've been using Busuu.com, which I spoke about before at some length.  But I've also been using two podcasts which I've really been enjoying.  

The first is SpanishPod, which is part of Praxis Language Ltd.  They broadcast out of Shanghai, China, but the podcast is done by an American Spanish teacher from Seattle, JP, and two native speakers from Mexico, Leo and Liliana.  The podcast is funny, it's professionally done, and they produce a LOT of content.  They have different channels available on their website, Newbie, Elementary, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate, Advanced, Advanced Media, two video podcasts, including one on grammar, and a cultural podcast that is done in both Spanish and English, and a question and answer podcast done in both Spanish and English to expand on the vocabulary.  They even run a Mexican radio soap opera that's very funny and campy voiced by the hosts themselves.  But it doesn't end there.  They have a large community of listeners who lurk on the forums and help people out and the hosts go on the forums to answer questions from listeners as well.  They also provide extension vocabulary and quizzes to help you remember what you've studied.  You can access portions of the site for free, but have to pay for the rest.  It's been valuable enough that I am going to pay for the basic membership.

The other is Coffee Break Spanish.  Coffee Break Spanish is part of the Radio Lingua Network and broadcasts out of Scotland.  Like a lot of things Scottish, Belle and Sebastian, the Vaselines, etc, it is a touch twee, but not overly so.  Where SpanishPod is more flashy and lively and vibrant, Coffee Break Spanish is more gentle and quiet.  Neither one is necessarily better, at least in this case.  Coffee Break Spanish has two hosts, Mark and Kara, who are both Scottish.  Marc is a Spanish teacher, and Kara is a beginner (or was when the podcast started last year) and learns along with the listener.  It is sometimes amusing to listen to because their Scottish accents are awesome, and do occasionally sneak through, but Mark is a clearly a patient teacher and will repeat the pronounciations a few times until Kara gets it right, which helps me get it right as well.  Coffee Break Spanish also offers a set of additional materials, extended vocabulary, and extra podcasts to reinforce the language.  They also offer downloadable flashcards of the language you can put on your iPod to use while listening to the podcasts, something SpanishPod does not offer.  It's offered differently however: in an ala carté fashion where you buy the additional materials you want instead of a monthly subscription.  Part of the problem here is it can quickly add up to buy what you want, especially because the prices are in British Pounds, which at the current exchange rate means that the £20 you'd spend for the additional materials on lessons 1-10 would cost you more than $36.  Still, the basic podcast for Coffee Break Spanish will always be free on iTunes, and that's good enough for me now.

I'm planning to stick with this for a while.  I haven't given up on maintaining my Hindi or my German, but as an addition to those skills.  I think it's good to be multilingual, and I hope that it will encourage my kids to learn multiple languages.  I also hope that it will insulate me from any possible instability in the market.  I'm seeking any advantage I can get.

realized that I haven't talked to a friend in a while and when I went to Facebook saw that she defriended me. I'm honestly heartbroken. :(

personally I would rather see wall street executives setting themselves on fire in the streets of NYC then give them more money to flush

spent a few minutes listening to the pundits fume over Wall Street this morning. personally I hope the bailout doesn't happen...

so far the Redskins have looked decent against the Cowboys. not dominant, but decent.

I'm totally geeking out on "Grupo Fantasma". I heard a review of their latest album on NPR and I finally picked it up. It's awesome!

just found out that a guy I worked with in the past and really respect was in a popular 80s new wave band in Philadelphia. that's awesome!

no one will ever convince me that "Jump in the Line" is only about dancing. Harry Belafonte was the original 2 Live Crew.

woke up REALLY late. my shoulders hurt. this must be old age. second day of cleaning out the basement.

found all of my old Magic, The Gathering cards down in the basement. I've tried convincing my wife she should play with me but no dice

in other news, John McCain announces he'll fund the bailout by selling a few of his houses.

weather like this makes me long for Scotland.

it's clear to me that the only milk product that belongs in coffee is heavy cream.

I've always been fascinated by Pattie Boyd. George Harrison and Clapton both wrote songs for her and Mick Jagger had a crush on her. why?

it may be Friday and pay day but my mood's kind of sour. maybe I just need more coffee.

sorry Kiran Chetry and Soledad O'Brien but Campbell Brown is my new news honey.

estimating projects for clients. I hate this part of the job. I need to keep better metrics for the work I do so I can do this better.

watched McCain speak at the Clinton Global Initiative. even as big of a boob as I think McCain is, he's so much more presidential than Bush

a father in Nebraska leaves all nine of children at a "safe haven" to abandon them: http://ping.fm/lt5b4

working from home. laughing at McCain's latest stunt. he's like the Keystone Kop of politics.

at work we're discussing what it's like to be bank owners. We figure that at $25 billion, the Detroit bailout's a steal. Who wants GM?

there's no way the Incredible Hulk has dry wall up in his house. otherwise he'd be patching holes where he bumped into it. stupid drywalll

Learning Spanish at Busuu.com

So my son started Spanish this week at his preschool and he's very interested in it.  My wife says he's the knowledge sponge because once he starts learning about something he's determined to wring every bit of information from everyone around him until he knows as much or more than they do.

Sitting at the dinner table today he looked up at me.

"Daddy, what's the Spanish word for 'eat'?"

"I don't know bubba.  Let's look it up."

"What about 'clean your plate'?"

I smiled.  "We'll look that one up too."

So I started to look around for an online resource to help me learn, and happened to see the link off LifeHacker for Busuu.com.  The site's in public beta and it's a web 2.0 way to learn languages.  While their offerings are limited at this point (English, French, German, and Spanish) the site seems to hold real promise and is a great way to learn.

You pick language units, which have a vocab section.  Then you need to pass a reading comprehension section and write a short paragraph using the vocabulary you just learned.  Native speakers of the language you're learning review what you've written and correct any mistakes you've made.  As you pick learn each unit, a little graphic tree in your "garden" grows.

The site's very well done.  The vocabulary units come with pictures and audio, and it's a very busy site.  Best of all, it's in public beta right now, so it's free.  All public beta testers get a free basic membership when the beta is over.  I like the site enough that I'm going to pay for a membership (provided it's not too expensive) after the beta ends.

I also hope that they add more languages as time goes on.  While it will be good to stay one step ahead of my son (and I'll need all the help I can get to do that) I'd love to branch out and keep practising my Hindi, refresh my German, and pick up some Portuguese.

Check out the site!  If you're looking to learn a language, this is the place to go.  And they didn't even pay me to say that!

if ever there was a real picture of a "nightmare", this has to be it: http://ping.fm/jQRWn

Somebody deregulated the banks into oblivion and all we got was their bad debts.

as my wife washes out my coffee mug "Are you done with this mug?" "I am now." "I might beat you."

just checked the balance on my 401k. apparently it's worth two pigs and a wool blanket. I'm cashing out now.

guess I'm going to start learning Spanish. Owen had his first lessons through his preschool and he's very excited, so I'll be helping out.

ran to Chick-Fil-A to pick up lunch for the kids. had all the windows down and cranked "Bohemian Rhapsody" the whole way.

met with CV's new superintendent yesterday. he's got a lot of good ideas, challenging ones too. he wants to move Algebra I to 8th grade

Met My School's New Superintendent

Heather and I went to the PTO meeting at McKenna's elementary and met with the new superintendent of the district.  His name's Dr. Bill Harner, and aside from a penchant for speaking about himself in the third-person, he seems grounded and ready to tackle the challenges at the school.  Now, those who know Cumberland Valley School District wouldn't think that there'd be many challenges, given it's higher ranking in the Commonwealth and in the nation in general, but I don't think that that's true.

Modern education's always a moving target.  The skills our children need to have, and the education they need to possess need to grow with the times, but schools also can't ignore fundamentals or just keep chasing the latest fads or else the kids, and all of us together, suffer.

So we sat for two hours in the cafeteria at the school and listened to him talk.  Dr. Harner's a former army commander and teacher from West Point with a list of degrees the length of his arm, so I expected a crisp forceful speech delivered with a booming voice and commanding authority.  That's not what he delivered.  He was genial, he rambled, he was personable.  He spoke at length about accelerating children, for example, moving Algebra I down to 8th grade so more kids advance into AP Calculus II by their senior year, and moving foreign languages into middle school so kids can get six or seven years of language before moving into college.

His overall goal is to move CV from around 1600th in the nation to within the top 250.

I hope he can do it.

you can tell I'm at home alone with my son when I start searching for fart sounds on the internet

JJ Abrams clearly loves using the same guy to make the music for both Lost and Fringe.

watching new "House". good so far. hoping I can squeeze in the new "Fringe" tonight as well.

dreamt last night I put all of my money into Petrobras and made a killing. honestly thinking about putting money there and in euros too

working from home today. watching Paranormal State.

my son has a serious interest in learning Mandarin Chinese. and he's bold enough to use what he does know when go out to eat.

considering yanking my money out of the American stock market and putting into "third-world" markets because it might be...safer

in Center City and ready for work. I brought my thermos of coffee today so I won't have to rely on the suspicious brew at the office.

trying to find a good RC truck for my son for his birthday. so many look like junk these days.

my kids are so pent up with energy right now. they're trying to kill each other and it's driving me nuts.

trying to figure out if my wife's insulin pump will be covered by our insurance. they don't seem real certain either way.

conference call this morning. I don't feel caffeinated or prepared enough. bleh.

It's raining in KoP now. If I'd know today was monsoon day I probably would have worked from home. 8p

My Little Man Is Growing Up

Today is my son's first day of preschool all on his own.  Last year when he went his sister was also in the preschool, albeit in a different class, so he felt like he wasn't totally alone.  This year, McKenna's in kindergarten and he's the big man on campus (as much as a hallway in a church can be considered a "campus") and he's not freaked out.  I am impressed.  I'm also a little overwhelmed.

He's my little man, my youngest kid, and this is his last year of preschool.  Coming out of his classroom today he just looked and talked like an older boy.  He was his own man today and it really showed.

I picked him up and we walked to the van as he told me all about his first day of school.

"I played with two boys today, but I don't know their names yet.  We won't learn any names until tomorrow.  We didn't even have any time to go on the playground, I only got to go down the slide one time and then we had to leave."

"Yeah"

"And nobody got into trouble today."
"That's good!"

"I drew a lot of pictures today.  I colored myself in.  I did a really good job, my teacher said."

"Wow!"

I put him in the van.  "Sit down little man and buckle up"

"Okay daddy.  And one boy only colored himself all yellow and the teachers had to tell him to use different colors but she said I did a really good job."

"Well I'm proud of you bubba."

And I am proud of him.  I shut the sliding door and started to climb into the van.  A tear ran down my face.  My little man is growing up.

I love the way my coffee maker sighs after brewing a pot. It sounds quiet, tired, and resigned to it's fate. It's an existential appliance

watching Friday's "Real Time With Bill Maher". Sometimes I really love the show, sometimes it just draaaggggsss.

once and for all I would like MythBusters to prove that playing out in the rain does not cause a cold, just so I can show my mother-in-law

Fifty-Five Pounds Down So Far

Weighed myself this morning and found out that I've lost a few more pounds, so I'm about fifty-five pounds down, which is awesome.  I have been sticking with the diet (more or less) and exercising more, but I've pretty much plateaued.

I have been doing exercises on the Wii Fit and that's been great.  I really do feel stronger and more at balance using it, which is awesome.  The only thing I wish the Wii Fit had was "playlists", in essence, 20, 30, and 40 minute exercise routines that would not force me to pause every few minutes to pick the next exercise.  It's almost shocking that they did not include this feature into the Wii Fit and I hope they roll out an update soon which includes it.

watching dvr'd episodes of the Colbert Report and working on a new blog entry about Sarah Palin.

watching "The Principal's Office" on TruTV. we love the principal from New Jersey.

as a libertarian I feel like this election's one about choosing which freedoms I would most like to preserve...

wow, Obama raised $10m in one day after the Palin speech. The RNC raised $1m: http://ping.fm/r98HP

watching "Dan in Real Life" because I need some positivity after all the bile last night

just donated $25 to the Obama Biden campaign to get a sweet mug. if they win, cool! if not, I use it in my garden.