Freeflow of Thoughts

Dear Diary,

Today manager texted us that work is closed due to icy conditions. I studied one unit of Mandarin on HelloChinese and went back to sleep. I dreamt a young Chinese woman and I were hanging out preparing food for a group, enjoying each other's company very much. Then I was inside a gorgeous home and recognized it as the home of Irene, my Canadian friend who is a social justice activist rock star. I surprised my friend when I revealed that I knew her personally. Next there was a very young woman who was about to prepare lesson plans for her ESL literacy class, and I enthusiastically offered to help her come up with good activities.

The next time I woke up, I had my oatmeal with goji berries that I got the other day from Mr. Chen's.

I went back to sleep. Lately I feel as if I've been transported to the early 1900s Europe where I've been sent off to a sanatorium for plenty of rest and relaxation. Friday was a mental health day - slept in. Saturday I had no plans - slept in. Sunday I skipped church - slept in. Monday was a holiday - slept in. Tuesday I swam ten laps at the Hays' Senior Center, and my organization closed at 1:00 p.m. due to sleet. This morning work is closed - slept in.

When I finally decided to be up, I refilled bird feeders for the cold, hungry birds who have trouble finding food on icy days. I read a chapter in my new novel, The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce. So far it is charming. I just finished Ginny Moon by Bejamin Ludwig, continuing my decades' long SPECIAL INTEREST in autism.

I'm enjoying slowly peeling myself off the app owned by Z*ck*rb#rg and spending more time on Xiǎohóngshū. This morning I noticed a live group chat called English Corner, so I jumped on. That was fun. I have a few new friends now, including a person named Katpotkin whose avatar is a communist kitty cat. ;) 

Here is a fellow whose channel is called Re-education explaining the concept of copaganda. I learned that this is a term for mainstream media and Hollywood whitewashing the purpose of the police, playing up the heroic protective aspect of police while downplaying systemic racism, the part police play in oppressing marginalized groups while preserving wealth and power of the elite.

I am making progress with my Mandarin. I mostly do listening and vocabulary building exercises on HelloChinese. It's like DuoLingo but with real people on video instead of cartoon characters talking. I'm trying to remember the Chinese characters, but I rely a lot on the pinyin transcriptions. I do try to speak into the app to practice pronouncing, but it is hard to get a high score in that area. Tones are challenging. I'm improving. For example, the new global blockbuster Nézhā 2 uses second tone and first tone, respectively, but my friend told me we have to clip the second syllable short because it follows second tone in the first syllable. I'm not sure I get the logic, but I can say it. I do know that when we say nĭ hăo, we don't actually say it with third tone, third tone because linguistic rules jump in there to make it more natural. You end up with second tone, third tone. Whew! That is a lot easier and more natural to articulate.

I have installed that app from their country that is pissing off American oligarchs. I will use it to get the cultural backstory on Nézhā before watching either the first one or the sequel that is taking the cinematic world by storm.