Well, I could feel I was getting sick on Monday morning, and by Tuesday’s wake-up alarm I felt so rotten that I put WK on vacation mode and there it remains.
I hope to shake this off soon (I need to go food shopping in the really near future 
), so I’m hoping to get last week’s plan finished this coming week.
Please, get well soon!
Here’s a first aid kit(ten) that would hopefully make you feel at least a tiny bit better:
Aww, thank you / danke schön - I feel better thanks to kitty’s meownistrations 
cold has been enthusiastic. moved into my chest on Tuesday. no studying. re: study plan; wash, rinse, repeat.
Please, get well soon!
May you find some nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaice meowdicine to get the cold out of your chest!
So, I turned off vacation mode on Friday morning, did a set of lessons and a few reviews, then about 40 more reviews late morning, and haven’t touched it since, so I reactivated vacation mode just a few minutes ago (just before 2pm, for my own future reference for when I deactivate it).
I think at this point I just need to call a spade a spade and go on hiatus while I get some stuff sorted.
The one Japanese-related thing I will be doing during the break is reading The Kanji Code. 
I’ve deactived VM again now that the profound sleepiness that was a lingering symptom of the cough/cold virus I caught 5 weeks ago has passed. 
My intention is temporarily to do reviews but no lessons until the end of the month / until the garden is bush-fire-ready as we head into summer (I will be outside from 5 - 10ish am in the cool and lower UV of the morning). I will also be cracking open those text and workbooks once more.
Thank you for the Kanji Code link! What an awesome book! I bought it immediately and it’s totally affirming a bunch of my suspicions about how Kanji work, lol. Hope you’re feeling better!
Yeah, I agree that it is a great book.
I’m feeling much better, thanks! I’m just playing catch-up from when I was sick but hope to be posting (and studying) regularly again from next week.
Wow! I’ve just had a look back and it’s been 7 weeks since I posted a weekly plan 
I still haven’t whittled down all of my backlog of reviews, but should have things in hand by tomorrow evening at the latest. My review percentages took a hit, down in the high 70s to low 80s (with some even lower outliers), but as I get back in the swing, things are picking up and I currently only have 54 apprentice items - since I’ve not been doing lessons, these will all be leeches.
I’m taking things easy on the textbook front and just wrapping up leftovers from last week (and the week before and the week before that…) before getting down to brass tacks again next week.
I’ve put typing back into my schedule, added the breathing / 呼吸 exercises from my therapist, and since my physio plan for my ankle is app-based and easiest to do near the computer just before study sessions, that is in there too, so the plan is decidedly larger than usual.
(@Elizabella - the etymological dictionary, by Henshall / ヘンシャル, features in my daily schedule, near the top in sky blue)
Hi Rowena,
Great study log!
Passing on a message from TKC author Natalie Hamilton:
Thank you so much for linking to the book. I would love to ask you a couple of questions re: your feedback. If interested, please email me at ochatranslations@gmail.com
I ended up buying the Kanji Code after constantly looking at it on Amazon (this is when I know something is worth buying) and checking out the sample pages on the website. Henshall though… I have checked it out numerous times through my local library’s digital service but I don’t know. Maybe I’ll find it more useful when I move up a few more levels.
For me, ‘knowing’* the etymology makes remembering the meaning so much easier than some of WK’s crazy mnemonics, but that’s me - you do you and what works for you.
* the word is in quotes for two reasons:
1. I still manage to forget a fair few of them and realise I need to look them up again when they have become leeches
2. So many of the etymological explanations will start with the phrase ‘Origin uncertain’
I’m always curious to try out ideas that work for other people. I’d “flipped” through Henshall on my own back when our first lockdown happened and I was curious to see what my library had to offer Japanese wise. And I appreciated it then as more of an academic resource that I’d consult AFTER I knew a kanji as I find the historical info a bit distracting (as in I’d think more about the history and less about trying to learn the kanji). 
But when I saw your comment in the other thread, I was curious to take a look again to see if my opinion had changed.
I am excited for The Kanji Code though! I heard about it a few months ago but then didn’t follow through. But now it’s coming and it’ll join some other resources that I have picked as study materials for 2021.
@inspectatoro (moving this convo to where no one can rightly complain it is out of place, and where we don’t have to keep using the pesky ‘hide details’ thingy.)
I just looked at the thread where you had taken a screenshot and highlighted your leeches. How far down have you managed to whittle them since Aug? I’ve been using BishBashBosh to keep on top of mine, but have seen an increasing amount of discussion about the Item Inspector; I had had some frustrations with the Self Study Quiz (especially the J → E aspect) - are you finding it is working for you?
I have just seen that you are in or originally hail from PNW - I lived just over the water on Vancouver Island before moving to Japan!
I do not think I have whittled it down at all, in fact I may have even increased it! 
I installed the script as the creator of it, prouleau, is a very nice person. I was going to address leeches at the time I installed it but never got around to doing it. 2020 has been a not so good year for me for non-WK study. I just never got it going…
My plan now is to address the leeches starting next year. My year end goal is 42 so it is a nice level to “park” for the time being. My plan is to lower apprentice to 100 and make sure it does not go higher than that. I also plan to lower leeches, not sure yet what number. But yeah, 42 or bust this year
Because of the time I theoretically will free up from less daily reviews, I want to tackle Genki I again.
Yes. Me and my mother moved here about 2 years ago. My dad and siblings moved here about 6 months ago. So we are adjusting to the PNW lifestyle 
Oh my! Does that make you an original PNWer? Or were you on the Canadia side?
No, of the 3 citizenships I hold, the USA is not among them, though I had the chance to visit some lovely areas in and around Seattle when we travelled for regattas when I was on the uni rowing team.
We also had reception for Seattle TV stations in Victoria, so I was more familiar with PNW events than stuff going on on the other side of Canada a lot of the time!
Where did you move from?
Oooo bougie bougie the Rowena-さん! (bourgeoisie)
California. I miss it but no regrets. We would not be able to live the way we do now if we were still back there.
Before I forget:
My, my…
Yeah, nah! It was military college, I was one of the lightest-weight students there, so I ended up as the coxswain for the men’s 4. The team was new, we had 3 boats and a boat house (shed) but no ramp, and as cox it was my job to hold the boat steady in the water while the men got all the gear in (seats, oars, themselves) - rowing is a winter sport, so there was ice around the shoreline, and by the time we were done with the 2 hour training session, I would often have to be helped back to barracks as I couldn’t feel my legs anymore, they were that cold 
Not really all that fancy as they are all British Commonwealth countries - a generation or two ago I would have just swanned around with my British citizenship and been given most or all the rights of citizenship in any Commonwealth country. I imagine it would be difficult to hold so many passports outside of the Commonwealth, but if I’m wrong I would love to learn more about it.
I’m guessing that means that PNW is more affordable (as well as less flammable)?
