Distractions...

Well, if I'm going to be distracted by anything... its a good thing that its Japanese! I know I've missed out on doing tarot readings for the last few days- replaced primarily with more Kanji.

Funny thing is, they use a similar skill set. Each card is like a primitive kanji character, with its own story. And adding those characters together creates more complex stories with various meanings, depending on how the original primitives are arranged and modified.

Its damn fascinating. And alot of fun, once you get past the shock of "I'm going to be able to read this jibberish?!" that you get when first looking at kanji script. I'm not saying I can read it yet, not even close, but I'm not scared of it any more. Kanji makes sense- like tarot makes sense. The more I see primitives and use them in different combinations, the easier it becomes to both understand and manipulate. New subtleties in meaning are revealed, both of the primitives and the kanji they make up.

So it goes that each card of the tarot has an unique 'story' that helps trigger our intuition' we tell a similar intuitive story for each individual Kanji- both primitive elements and more complex versions. Primitive elements would be the single 'cards' and the complex kanji 'spreads' of multiple cards. Depending on where in the figure each element appears defines its meaning, and modifies the other elements around it.

The Kanji is an intuitive written language (so much more than a mere 'alphabet'). A meditative language, if you will. Brought to you by the fine people who came up with stuff like the rock gardens. Buddhists. Its just their style to create a writing system that is a meditation in and of itself. The kanji builds on itself and, in doing so, can activate the creative memory if followed in a logical order. The value of this in a cultural context cannot be understated. Within the kanji is contained both a philosophy and history that is lost in the verbal portion of the language.

The Japanese spoken language SOUNDS beautiful. But the WRITTEN language is beautiful, esoteric, genius. I'm enjoying delving into it.

As far as other progress goes, some new things to report! I've started my own 'dictionary' of words and phrases and I'm entering them into Surusu. I'm using the SRS system at Reviewing the Kanji for my kanji- its streamlined, and I like getting other input for the stories. Heisig may be brilliant, but he is a little ethnocentric at times!

In raw numbers, I'm up to Kanji #80 after 3 days- this makes Foxx happy!

I've also found some awesome resources! Apparently Disney is OK with Japanese dubs of its movies being up on Youtube... I'm geeking out to "The Little Mermaid" right now... Hey! It was on at my 5th birthday party... shut up...

I also found a local (Vancouver) Japanese newspaper! I hope they cover the Canucks...

OK, Have to sleep. Shooting video tomorrow morning. Put down the pencil Foxxy, and step away....