Diet

While on the theme of good resolutions, we have started a diet to shed back some of the weight we put on in the last year.

As it had worked so nicely for me in the past, we are following the Atkins diet.

We are currently on day 3 of the induction phase and I have already lost 3 pounds... maybe I won't have to buy new suits as I might be able to fit in the old ones soon :)

More pictures of my katana

Just in case ;) I still need to take a nice res picture of the midde of the sword.

Good resolutions for the new year

This year has started on an educative note:

I have started learning Japanese again. This time is faster and easier as I have a realistic target ahead and a few very interesting untranslated books to keep me motivated. If I don't get bogged down by something, I should be able to attempt the JLPT 3 test in December.

To help reach this objective, I have made some preparations on many fronts.

Printed flash cards:

• hiragana
• katakana
• the 2042 most usual kanji
• the 900-ish family name kanji

Computer flash cards:

• the JLPT4 vocabulary and expressions list
• hiragana
• katakana
• the JLPT4 kanji

Books:

• Heisig "Remembering the kanji" (1, 2 & 3)
• Kodansha "Furigana dictionary" 
• Nagoya University "A course in modern Japanese"
• Kodansha "Japanese for Busy People"
• Gakken "Japanese for today"
• Lampkin "Japanese verbs and essential grammar"
• Barrons "Japanese grammar"
• "みんあの日本語"

Software:

• iStudy flashcard
• JEdict
• Rikaichan on firefox

I am still in the process of creating the JLPT 3 level flash cards.