A small report

So I finally did set myself moving a bit. First of, tried out that damn Pitburger at Falafel King, can't complain, was quite tasty. Can't say the same about chips that came with it -quite awful, not cooked enough and lacking salt.
Additionally, I bought an ice-cream that I completely forgot to put in fridge right away...so *yay*, an ice-cream drink with a surprise stick in it !
What got me a little down was that RIMI was out of dumplings (reminder for self: pelmeņi translates as dumplings) with cheese...pretty much for the same reason why I wanted to buy them - they were at half the price :| That is, usually they are quite expensive, but their price was put down so low that they actually cost about as much as one of low-budget meals.

Another reminder for myself.
Should go through the mountain of information here and make a printable document out of it.
Also I should find some concentrated and trustable material on word functions with examples.

Update: Plans have changed (kinda expected as much). Postponed.

More stuff to share.

First I would like to start with study related materials.
Since stylistic analysis of text can sometimes get confusing especially if you are just studying it, it's always a good idea to have a good example on how to do it handily. As it turns out, good examples in stylistic analysis aren't all that easy to find (there are hundreds of bad ones however). So one of the good ones can be found in a ELTweekly issue and it might be a good idea to read it carefully and analytically if you are confused about stylistic analysis.
In fact, the ELTweekly by itself is definately worth to check out from time to time. I would really love to add them to my RSS feeds, but, unfortunately, even though they have the button there, they don't support RSS. And I don't really want to add even more spam in my mail.

Secondly, a most useful stuff for Latvians. Lattelecom are having a promotional campaign that lets you enjoy free internet TV for two whole weeks and in addition they offer you the chance to win a macbook air. In my opinion it's most definitely worth participating there. You can get your invitation here
The fun thing about TV is that there is so much stuff that I can let run in background and learn simultaneously just because I`m not interested in that enough to give it my whole attention and yet would like to see some particular moments of it. Well, guess it's a bad thing for television....
Too bad they aren't letting me watch their movies for free as well.

A reminder for myself regarding my plans for these holidays:

• Finish reading the book. Write a summary about it.
• Do the semester task in grammar - summary of the 40 minute long presentation video
• Complete transcription and tonograms for phonetics exam.
• Do home tasks for the next week, of course.
• Review to+infinitive, gerunds, passive voice, sentence object, subject and prepositions and other stuff in grammar.
• Shouldn't forget to check out job advertisements now and then.
• Optional: spring cleaning for apartment.

I feel like I`m still forgetting something, but oh well...

Doesn't look as bad when put on paper neatly organized in a bulletin. 5 days should be enough time for 7 tasks.

Let's see...I missed out one lecture, but it doesn't look like it will be that big of a loss after all.
A quick summary for myself:

Deductive argument 
A Deductive Argument is a form of argument where the conclusion logically follows from the given premises. If the premises in a deductive argument are true and strongly support the conclusion, then the conclusion of the argument must also be logically true. It basically has three parts: 1) the major premise, 2) the minor premise, and 3) the conclusion.

Example
Jim likes either Coke or Pepsi.
Jim does not like Pepsi.
So, Jim likes Coke.

(more here)

Inductive argument
An Inductive Argument is a form of argument where the premises support the probability or likelihood of the conclusion. Regardless of the number of premises, the strength of the conclusion in aninductive argument depends on the strength of the individual premises that support it.

Generalizations from a sample to a universal claim.

Example

Every emerald examined has been green

Therefore all emeralds are green

(more here)

Abductive argument

In my own words - it's the combination of Inductive and Deductive argument where best possible assumptions are made from from the existing premises. Couldn't find a better explanation anywhere.

Example

If there were another planet outside Uranus, that would explain its course.

Therefore these is another planet outside Uranus.

I can't get online from my computer.

There's nothing wrong with my hardware or software.
So, the University network must be down.

(more on it all here, here and here)

____________________________________________________________________

Now, just to figure out how write an essay using these (which is really not hard) and I`m set.

Tomorrow is going to be an relatively easy day and I have all the damn homework done already, so guess I will take it easy and rest a bit. Though I might decide to read the damn book (for the damn summary I`m supposed to write) a bit later just so that I don't regret wasting my time for nothing.

I really really really suck at passives. Getting only 30% on this test.
Damn, spent the whole goddamn weekend on doing most of the homework for the week and still I don't have the time to rest.
This evening I will be busy with training/studying my passives, reading theory theory for Reading Comprehension and transcribing the homework part for exam in phonetics. Actually sounds like I will end up with a lazy all-nighter.
Oh well.

Phonetics

It doesn't look like I have much time left atm, but let's what can I squeeze out.
So I had this plan to browse some web and look up additional information for phonetics (the course at which I`m afraid that I might fail) and grammar. Since grammar is not as pressing on me, it's on hold for now and I`m working on phonetics. Will be writing this post as I go.

First I need to learn to make the damn difference between some vowel sounds, especially e,ə and ɜ:. Hopefully listening and repeating a record of those sounds will help me out some. The same page also offers useful additional information worth reading, btw.
After that I`m proceeding with listening to some select words that have their phonetic transcriptions written in front of me. I need something more elaborate but since I`m short on time it will have to do for now. (god, those damn transcriptions look so Russian when you are trying to read them so I actually read them as if it were Cyrillic).
Next. Tests and exercises: 1 - 6 out of 10 (frigging good start) ; 2 - 66.7% ; 3 - 100% ; 4 - 100% ; 5 - 63% ; 6 - 100% ; 7 - amazing 17% ; 8 - 100% ; 9 - 90% ; 10 - 90%
Some more additional information about schwa.
Ohshi- turns out that the word 'lamb' has  /b/ muted in it ! ( [læm] )
Ok, anyway, my brain can't keep up anymore, so I will just leave this, this and this here, take a short pause and continue with studying for todays Reading Comprehension test.

I have come to conclusion, that I should start moving forward what concerns my pronunciation and speech. Playing MMORPG and pushing myself to use mic did help me immensely as I`m using English now much more relaxed. However the problem of pronouncing certain words incorrectly still persists, I have heard people commenting that I constantly use funny pronunciations when talking. It probably stems in that I have known English in written form for several years before I actually started talking in it (usually it's the other way around for today's youth who learn English from songs). In any case, I`m not really sure how to go about it yet without a tutor. Hopefully I will manage to find some audio recordings + transcriptions of some more difficult words in English that I could then repeat 160 times aloud till it burns into my subconsciousness... I might learn to tell the difference between then vowel sounds that I`m pronouncing as well while I`m at it.

...every time my parents call (mother just called) makes me wonder if there is actually any point in trying so hard because their financial situation doesn't look that good.....knew I shouldn't put all my trust in them helping me out just because they were so sure. Now I don't even have a safety net to fall in...

Don't really want to save this to my bookmarks, so will put up a reminder here that in case if I need some reference on proper quoting and referencing I can take a look this page.

Also another reminder that I should finally get rid of this list of words to check in dictionary, so, if I will find some time this evening (which is actually unlikely), I will hopefully post the results in blog.

And 2 quick sidenotes: 1) bought an executive clipboard 2) My perspectives for the future are slowly turning to sh*t.

Going over to susan's house

First I think it's important to note, that our course has been given an assignment to keep a journal of our activities. Purely to practice our use of English language even at home. Personally I don't think that I have it necessary since, being a non-lifer, I most of my time is consumed by the internet and I`m mainly communicating only in English there. But nonetheless an assignment is an assignment and from now on I will try to spam my blog a bit more often.


Now to the important stuff.

Reading through "Modern German Grammar" on my free time I have come to conclusion that I have forgotten the damn language way more than I could have imagined, but at least it's coming back to me fast. I only wish I had more willpower to keep reading that stuff.

The new study semester doesn't seem to have started very optimistically. The main issue are our two grammar courses, both of which, as it seems, have the same program but different lecturers just slightly different names. Frigging ridiculous, but have no other choice than to bear with it and do the usual - the best that I am able to.
Related: download Longman Advanced Learner's Grammar here and Cambridge Advanced Grammar in Use here...

Also, just finished up a home assignment for lexicology (no idea why I uploaded it) and grammar, currently taking a break but still have some stuff to do planned since aside from doing my home-work I need to refresh my memory on some stuff (like passive and infinity in grammar), study a bit ahead (gerunds in grammar) and maybe find some additional literature for phonetics. Doubtfully Hopefully I will manage to do all that by today too.

Update: the Advanced Grammar in Use torrent seems to be semi-dead but while searching for other sources I found this torrent . Quite useful too, just have to yet go through the whole damn list.

Atm trying to break away from making a break. Still have the plan to polish my German and, maybe, Russian language and then move on and start learning Swedish. It's just that my diet is still making me quite depressed which doesn't help with pushing myself to work, but oh well.
Meanwhile, I downloaded Trados. I have absolutely no idea how the hell I am supposed to use it and I`m feeling like using a Photoshop or AutoCAD for the first time in my life. But at least I did manage to find an answer as to why the hell I would like to use something that time-consuming and inconveniet. Hopefully this pain in the butt will pay off and help me in the future to find a new job. Atm I`m using the trial version of it, didn't really want to go all pirate on it right away.
Going to visit Jekabpils for a few days, probably at Friday or Saturday. Should remember to find and print-out some materials to study from while I`m there. Oh life without any friends or...well...without any life, thank god you leave so much time for me to get bored and start studying.

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.

Anyway, officially (at last) signed the rent contract for the apartment. Should also remember to edit the template in my e-bank [?]
Finished one of the two essays for Wednesday and I actually feel proud of it.

Transcriptions are killing me. Thank god for sites that offer to automatically transcribe stuff for me, otherwise I probably wouldn't have been able to finish my homework. Anyway, guess I will have to use that and my Latvian-English dictionary to train it for now. Actually I probably should visit Robert's Books, see if they might have some pronouncing dictionary.

Oh, right, should note that I also sent in the work for the young translator competition organised by skrivanek. I have zero hopes on getting any place there however, not even talking about the main prize I could actually use...

It's 7:12 AM and I`m hungry.