Jumping straight to the numbers for this off-week.
Tuesday 3/16
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Reading: 2% of El Ascenso de la Sombra, ~90 minutes
- Watching/Listening: 2 episodes of The Proud Family, 1 episode of Daniel San GMR, ~60 minutes
- Speaking: reading out loud, ~30 minutes
Wednesday 3/17
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Reading: 2% of El Ascenso de la Sombra, ~90 minutes
- Watching/Listening: 2 episodes of The Proud Family, 1 episode of Daniel San GMR, ~60 minutes
- Speaking: reading out loud, ~30 minutes
Thursday 3/18
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Reading: 1% of El Ascenso de la Sombra, ~60 minutes
- Watching/Listening: 2 episodes of The Proud Family, 1 episode of Daniel San GMR, ~60 minutes
- Speaking: reading out loud, ~30 minutes
Friday 3/19
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Reading: 2% of El Ascenso de la Sombra, ~60 minutes
- Watching/Listening: 2 episodes of The Proud Family, 1 episode of Daniel San GMR, ~60 minutes
- Speaking: reading out loud, ~30 minutes
Saturday 3/20
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Watching/Listening: 5 episodes of The Proud Family, ~120 minutes
Sunday 3/21
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Watching/Listening: 5 episodes of The Proud Family, ~120 minutes
Monday 3/22
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Reading: 2% of El Ascenso de la Sombra, ~90 minutes
- Watching/Listening: 2 episodes of The Proud Family, 1 episode of Daniel San GMR, ~60 minutes
- Speaking: reading out loud, ~30 minutes
- Total Duolingo: 140 XP, 0 minutes
- Total reading: 1/10 books read, 390 minutes
- Total watching/listening: 5 YouTube episodes and 20 television episodes watched, 540 minutes
- Total speaking: reading out loud, 150 minutes
- Total Time: 15 hours 30 minutes
A somewhat low week, thanks to Thursday and Friday. As part of this extended licensing time that I’m having at work, there were two instructor-led classes for those days to try and help cement all the material, and thanks to it not being self-paced, I had to work with the time I was given to do other stuff. This maybe points me in a slightly negative light, making it sound like I’ve been goofing off when not beholden to something different, but it’s more me structuring my day to fit the way I learn. I do better in short sprints with frequent breaks, just from how my mind works, so up until this point I’ve been working at 30-45 minute chunks, then taking a break for five to ten minutes focusing on something else, then focusing again. Combining a few of those with my built in breaks and lunch, it’s been easy to hit 90 minutes of reading and 60 minutes of watching every day.
Conversely, when it’s instructor led and we’re getting content delivered in an hour and a half to two hour chunks with no downtime between, it’s more difficult to hit those totals, and also I get less out of it. To be frank, I probably would have been better served studying on my own for those two days instead, but I gotta be a team player and do what I’m told. I’m fairly confident about the first of my three licensing exams that’s coming up, so I’m not miffed about this being “less efficient” than doing it on my own. I think I’m going to pass either way.
Anyway, work stuff aside, I did get some progress on Spanish. I’m nearing the end of The Proud Family, which I’m going to have to modify my take on a little to ‘a product of its time’ and ‘slightly cringey,’ as more episodes have gone on. There have been several moments of the show that were likely just fine in 2001-2005 that land a little insensitive or outright racist now. I’m not holding it against the show by any means—I think a lot of people forget what the world was like even that short while ago, that show came out before same-sex marriage was legal anywhere in the US, and when it concluded, Massachusetts had barely started allowing it to happen. Things have come a long way, despite how much further we have to go for other stuff, and The Proud Family was at least trying to be progressive and sensitive, even if it doesn’t live up to the modern standards for it.
With The Proud Family wrapping up next week (I only have four episodes left, so it’s definitely happening), I’m left contemplating what should come next. Ducktales has wrapped up airing its final season, but it hasn’t been added to Disney+ as of yet, so I have some more time to wait on that, and while Netflix says that the new season of Aggretsuko is coming soon, it’s not out yet, either. I’ve done a bit of poking around and am contemplating checking out HBO Max, at least for a little while, because it seems to have a number of Cartoon Network shows that I’ve been wanting to watch but haven’t had a way to view in Spanish, and they at least offer some things in Spanish, so seems like I might be able to check those things off my list of shows I want to check out. If nothing else, though, the new Mortal Kombat movie is coming to HBO Max soon, and I am hype, so it’ll be worth trialing it for just that reason, Spanish or no.
Outside of watching stuff, I am in the home stretch on El Ascenso de la Sombra now, with maybe a little over a week left of reading before it’s finished. There’s a slight chance it’ll spill over into the following week if things go funky, but I’m doubtful and expect it to be wrapped up by the next look back. There have been a number of recurring problems with this series that have bothered me, but this book has been more engaging than the previous and I’m recognizing why the series is as popular as it is. I’m definitely looking forward to taking a break between this and book five, though.
Other than that, things are progressing on as they ought to be. Next week’s going to be a second off-week in a row, since March won’t wrap up until the start of the week after, then we’ll be back to normal again. As a side note not really related to this project, my surprise twist for the week was getting scheduled by my doctor to get my COVID vaccine. Got shot one this last Saturday and will get shot two in mid-April. The opportunity got here a bit faster than I was expecting it to, but I am not complaining one little bit. First thing I’m doing after shot two and the two weeks to finish building up antibodies is going to a barber and getting an actual haircut. It’s been far, far too long. Ya girl’s very excited.
Anyway, that’ll do for this blog, TTFN.
Fumbling Toward Fluent 