I completely fail in finding any examples on how proper stylistic text analysis is supposed to be done. All I can find are HEAPS of theory. But oh well, it's too late today already. According to schedule I`m doing some grammar exercises for the next 2 days. Guess I will attend to analysis some other day again.

Also would like to highlight this google chrome extension . A must-have.

It's goddamn minus 7 degrees outside, everything is covered with approximately 40 centimetres of snow and yet - it's raining !
Oh, nature, you so silly.

Picture semi-related.

Ok, finally got a response from the skrivanek competition for young translators. Obviously I didn't manage to get to the next stage, that's no surprise, but unfortunately they didn't publish any model translation and neither did they send personal response as to how I performed, so I have no idea how many and what kind of mistakes I made. I only know that my English grammar professor, who was actually the one verifying my work, told me that I made several substantial mistakes, no further comments.
Anyway, since the results have been published, I guess I`m free to publish my own work as well.
The task was to translate The Economist article and I attached my translation of it under the cut.

Lagging behind my own schedule by almost a day. It's killing me and I should do something about it, the gaps in my knowledge are also enormous, but I`m fighting with complete lack of motivation to do anything. The fact that it's holidays and I`m probably the only one torturing myself to such degree doesn't help either, even if I fully understand the necessity for it. It's always easier if there is someone running in front of you, not the other way around...

Sidenote: I`m running out of almost everything at home (including myself, lol), except food.

FML

Wasted my time and made a short list of what I will be busy with during my winter break and examination period. More detailed list available under the cut.
Who needs vocation or holidays, if you can be hungry and try to work back a fraction of what you lost in previous 5 years.

As I was gliding along Riga streets, desperately trying to keep my balance and posture, I was struck with fascination of a young girl running past me while wearing high heels, manoeuvring her briefcase past other struggling people like me and simultaneously conversing on a mobile phone.

Suddenly: women wearing short skirts in the middle of winter EVERYWHERE !

Ok, obviously I have been taking this past week easy and not doing a crap. It's just that I felt that I need a sort of vocation for myself. And I plan to keep the pace going up to the next week.
Now, to the reason why I logged in. A reminder for myself what should I attend to after I return to studies:
-) Wouldn't hurt to practice my grammar, especially tenses. Some tests found on internet throughout the whole period till the exam should be enough.
-) Obviously I don't remember a crap of what we were learning in Latvian language lessons. I definitely have to re-read all the materials, check the program and depending on found there - maybe look for some additional materials. Also I have issues with using 'deklanācijas', so probably I should learn them too. Won't hurt.
-) Transcriptions, transcriptions, transcriptions. Phonetics is my weak point, especially transcriptions, so I need to find some materials, maybe examples to train by. Nothing much I can do there except practising to write them. Also I should remember to revise other materials for phonetics before the exam, since transcriptions is obviously not all we are going to have there.
-) And finally I shouldn't forget to do some text analysing for stylistic text analysis exam. The chance of failing there is quite big, but I`m not as worried about it...for an unknown reason.

If I will have enough free time after all this, I will start polishing up my German and Russian languages. Maybe read some books, read some grammar theory and such, nothing too serious, just getting ready for my plans to learn Swedish.

I lol'd .
Just put together everything I had relating to tomorrow's quiz, mashed it together, cut a bit down, resized the fonts, added some magic and managed to size everything down to 1 page...to add this extra portability to it.
Unfortunately google docs can't even handle it it, so it's downloadable by clicking here.
Haven't tried it printing though, I don't really use these "portable" references when I`m taking quizzes.

Anyhow, finally finished another 2 pages of vocabulary stuff for Stylistic Text Analysis lectures. Nothing too scientific or useful for others, just wrote down stuff for myself so that I would be able to explain what each term means.
See under the cut.

Quiz tomorrow. GL to me. Fuck !

Last Friday our Stylistic Text Analysis lecturer announced to us that we will be having a quiz on next lecture. Apparently we have to memorise the whole goddamn vocabulary for it. Well, it's not like wasn't preparing to do it at one point already, but this adds massive pressure to it and I simply know that I won't be able to remember it all in such short period. Anyway, don't have much choice, so will have to do the best I can. Finished all the homework for the whole next week in advance so that I can spend my evening by rewriting the words and their meaning.
Additionally winter depression is hitting me hard since I currently can't afford to spend too much money on anything. I am living on thin air, water and potatoes. The next two will be fun weeks.

My wallpaper speaks the truth.

Did I mention that I found a new jumper at last? 15ls
To hell with it, I will start living only on potatoes, rice and pasta and oatmeal. Spending so much money is driving me mad...