Mara's Study Log!

[mitrac]

@yukitanuki

But with Harta since there’s so much in there, there’s really no hard feelings when something doesn’t land for someone else, because there is a big chance we have another series that we both enjoyed. And it actually is very interesting to see why some things landed for someone while they didn’t for others!

Such a good point! I hadn’t thought of it but you’re right, I don’t feel like I have to worry about filtering what I write and it is so interesting to see the different takes

[Mara]

@mitrac

love this, so the goal can become not to get a negative score

Probably the best I’m going to get

@mitrac

I think the Harta book club is about as ideal as it gets. Everyone reads at their own pace (and even focuses on different series), and yet it’s still fun for everyone. The faster readers can enjoy reading comments from people who read something that they read a long time ago, the slower / newer readers can enjoy and benefit from notes that are already there.

I also like peaking into the notes of things I skipped and seeing if I should have FOMO or not

@yukitanuki

It’s also fun because you can always comment on things you liked/disliked and not ruin the fun for everyone. Like when I write in a book club that I dislike the book we read then I just feel like sucking the fun out of the club. But with Harta since there’s so much in there, there’s really no hard feelings when something doesn’t land for someone else, because there is a big chance we have another series that we both enjoyed. And it actually is very interesting to see why some things landed for someone while they didn’t for others!

This is so true! I’ve really got to spend more time working my way through new (to me) issues. I usually do it while exercise biking these days, so maybe I will consequently also get really fit.

@yukitanuki

It is amazing how much more lively everything was during the pandemic years…

Oh wow, I hadn’t even put those two together yet, but you’re right. … I’m so glad I had wk book clubs during those years …

@yukitanuki

I also think that’s why the Readathon threads (also on wk) are so lively, because it’s a self imposed lockdown in which people read as much as possible. Can that be combined into a book club?

Interesting food for thought …!

[Mara]

June 9

No books finished this week, so no pretty pictures, and no tsundoku score update.

Mostly a pretty low energy week (not in a medical way, just in a life-y way. yay, small victories!) EXCEPT that I had an amazing run on the Cocoa-san book towards the end of the week and finished two chapters in three days! One chapter only took me a day. It was only 13 pages, but still.

day to day + notes

June 2

• 木曜日にはココアを 2 pages
• クラスで二番目に可愛い女の子と友だちになった 1 page
• 霧島くんは普通じゃない 12 pages
• ゆるキャン△ 30 pages (おぉ this chapter had multiple little scenes that didn’t appear in the anime and they’re so good! Especially the very last page. I’m so happy I started reading this again.)

June 3

• 木曜日にはココアを 2 pages
• 霧島くんは普通じゃない 2 pages
• ゆるキャン△ 6 pages

June 4

• 木曜日にはココアを 9 pages
• 霧島くんは普通じゃない 12 pages

June 5

• 木曜日にはココアを 6 pages
• ひとりぼっちの○○生活 5 pages

June 6

• 木曜日にはココアを 10 pages
• ひとりぼっちの○○生活 8 pages

June 7

• 木曜日にはココアを 13 pages
• ハルタ 15 pages
• ひらめきはつめちゃん 8 pages

June 8

• ハルタ 33 pages (finished a long yomikiri)
• 木曜日にはココアを 2 pages

Totals

Prose: 71
Manga: 105

I should probably make a graph with my scores … Now I suddenly realize that I haven’t made a graph in AGES possibly since grade school. @mitrac must be getting to me hehehe.

[mitrac]

@Mara

EXCEPT that I had an amazing run on the Cocoa-san book towards the end of the week and finished two chapters in three days!

That’s awesome! I’m curious, did it feel like something clicked in your brain? I distinctly remember that happening for me in German - still waiting for that in Japanese

@Mara

Now I suddenly realize that I haven’t made a graph in AGES possibly since grade school. @mitrac must be getting to me hehehe.

haha I’m so sorry buuut, spreadsheeets and graphs are so fun!

[Mara]

@mitrac

did it feel like something clicked in your brain? I distinctly remember that happening for me in German - still waiting for that in Japanese

I think my Japanese “click” maybe happened a while ago and without my noticing? I was reading along one day and then suddenly realized that in the distribution of “things making Japanese hard for me” grammar had gone from around 98% to about 2% without me even realizing it.

In any case, my run on Cocoa-san felt more like a wall coming down. Before, every time I reached the end of two pages it felt like I reached a wall. Then all of a sudden for a few days the wall was gone! Sadly it is back now, but I appreciate that it at least went down long enough for me to catch up haha.

@mitrac

buuut, spreadsheeets and graphs are so fun!

Any suggestions for an aspiring graph-maker? Such as favorite programs/applications? I recently started using a mac for most of my computer stuff, but I do still have access to my old windows computer.

[mitrac]

That’s just like Japanese to have multiple levels of clicking or walls

@Mara

was reading along one day and then suddenly realized that in the distribution of “things making Japanese hard for me” grammar had gone from around 98% to about 2% without me even realizing it.

That sound amazing. Now that you mention it, maybe that happened to me too without realising it! Grammar was tough, then suddenly grammar was not the issue at all. And now the wall for me at 2 pages is definitely vocab. Reading novels makes me so aware of it.

At least you got a mini respite from the wall, I bet the next one will be longer

@Mara

Any suggestions for an aspiring graph-maker? Such as favorite programs/applications? I

I’m aware of not being very sophisticated with new tools, I just use what I have since school and that I’ve used for work ever since😅. There’s probably new nifty programs now that make everything prettier, but I like to collect my data in MS Excel (if you have an office 365 subscription it should be part of it) and do my graphs there. I’m so ignorant about macs - do you use office or something else? Or using Google sheets in browser is actually almost the same!

The normal plots are fine, but if you want a fun tip to look into - Pivot Tables and charts have been fun to learn about. This is how I make my more complex plots and it gives me the option to sort through my data in different ways at a click. Let me know if you’d like help on that!

[cat]

@Mara

Any suggestions for an aspiring graph-maker? Such as favorite programs/applications?

I recently saw https://www.pacemaker.press/ mentioned in the context of tracking language learning goals even though it’s not the intended purpose judging by the marketing. Looks flexible enough though and creates graphs for you.

I personally just have spreadsheets to track my progress but do no visualizations with the data