Hooray! So you want to join our merry band, huh?  We’d love to have you.  Here’s a guide to getting started.

1. We’re going to start with the Kanji
Don’t freak out.  Don’t worry.  Don’t stress.  Instead, get excited.  The kanji are super cool and really different from English.  They have symbolic meaning, and often convey stories.  As I’ve been learning them, I’ve found that they inspire my imagination and make me want to learn more of them.

You may be wondering why we’re starting with the Kanji.  The answer is pretty simple:  #1)  it’s the biggest hurdle to learning Japanese, and #2) Once you’ve learned the kanji (and have the language-learning skills that will come with studying them) you’ll be in a position to easily and rapidly absorb both the Kana and useful vocab in the future.

2. We’re going to use some amazing technology to make this process easy
The Theory - There’s a lot of really amazing research out there about how humans learn.  So much, in fact, that people are getting PhDs in the field.  A few of these very brilliant people got together and tried to create a useful and powerful way to absorb information.  The final product is called “Space Repetition Learning System Technology” (or, as the kids these days call it, SRS for spaced-repetition-system).   In a nutshell, it means that you build flashcards with whatever information you want to put on them, and then you’ll review them the first time.

On your first review the program will watch which ones you got right and wrong, and will ask you how hard you had to think to remember them.  Based on those facts, it will bring back those flashcards either sooner or later so you have to remember them again.  This process goes on and on until the perfect day when you are often reviewing the content you have trouble with, and then reviewing the stuff that’s easy for you less often.

Anki - There is a beautiful and free program out there with Android/Mac/Linux/iOS/Android ports that will serve us faithfully.  It’s called Anki.   Here’s a setup guide

1. Download Anki from either http://ankisrs.net/ (for desktop users), or from the Google/iTunes app stores
2. Install the App
3. Sign up for a free AnkiWeb account (either through mobile app or at https://ankiweb.net/
4. Login to your new AnkiWeb account inside the actual Anki program/app
5. Now you  need to download the “deck” (deck  of flashcards) we’ll be using to memorize the Kanji.   I recommend using this deck, which is based off of the 6th Edition of the book we’ll use (Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji, Volume I).  If you’re using a desktop version of Anki, simply click the “Download” deck button on the bottom of the deck link to download it.  You can then either double-click the file to automatically import it into Anki, or you can use anki to search/open it.   On mobile Anki platforms, simply click the “Get Shared Deck” button and search for the RTK deck
6. (More info on which RTK deck to use in the  next section)
7. With the RTK deck downloaded, click/tap the newly downloaded deck to open it
8. Click “Options” (desktop version) or “Settings” (icon in mobile version)
9. Change options for “New Cards” to however many new kanji you want to learn a day (25 or 50 are my recommendations, though lots of people do 15)
10. Change options for “Reviews” to a maximum of 2200 per day (don’t worry, this won’t happen.  It’s just a crazy-huge number to allow maximum reviews)
11. And that’s it!  Keep reading the guide to get started

3.  Our texbook, guide and hero – J. Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji, Volume I
There’s an amazing book out there that is near-universally acclaimed to be the best way to learn the Kanji.  Specifically, it’s James Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji (RTK).  There are two versions worthy of being used:  the 6th edition (most recent), which is what I’ll use, and the 5th edition.

The Sixth Edition: Firstly, this book is worthy of your money.  I’d recommend you buy it and cherish it forever.  You can find it here on amazon.  The deck I linked to above (and, again, here) is made specifically for this edition of the book.  They are a beautiful match, and will serve you well.

The Fifth Edition: Alternately, there are illegal ways of downloading RTK, but most of them are the 5th edition.  If you decide to use RTK 5th edition, you can still use the Anki deck I mentioned above, but there will be some mysterious Kanji (~200 of them) that are not in your book.  Also, the order of many of the kanji will be off.   Instead, I’d recommend using THIS deck.   It’s got nearly 4000 kanji in it, but that’s because it covers both of Heisig’s RTK vocab book (volumes 1,3), instead of just book I.

The Method:  RTK uses a unique and effective method to learning the kanji:  you learn smaller bits of the kanji (called primitives) and use them to build up the stories of larger kanji.  This is used in conjunction with a story-based learning mechanism where you invent stories to remember each kanji’s composite primitives.   It’s effective, and it works!

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *
*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *
*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *
*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

Now that you’re set up, it’s time to look at your life, make changes, and begin.

5.  Make room in your life
This is THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP OF ALL.   Either after reading this section, or the quick guide as a whole, you need to stop, turn off your monitor, and take a good, hard look at your life.  If you want to learn Japanese, you want to learn Japanese.  Don’t let any negative or self-criticizing thoughts about past failures creep into your mind.  Have faith in yourself, in Heisig’s technique, and — most of all — in the power of SRS learning.

Next, when you’ve chased away any negative thoughts, open up your calendar/daytimer/mind and find at least 30 minutes (but one hour is best!) every day where you will have time to study Japanese.  This is kind of a crazy suggestion, but I recommend waking up 30-60 minutes earlier every day and doing the studying at the same time every day of the week.

The Goal:  We need to build a habit, and so having repetitive motions like waking up at the same time every day and then studying Japanese the same way every day will build a momentum and make it easier to stick-with-it.

Once you’ve decided where you’re going to stick Japanese, write down that schedule and put it somewhere where you’ll see it (or where you’ll be studying).

6. Read the introductory material to RTK  (1 hour)
Now, if you have the RTK book, you should start with page 1 and read all the way to where the first kanji appear. This will explain the RTK method to you.  Treat this as seriously as learning the actual Kanji:  read it, know it, and try to do it in one sitting.

7. Day 01 – Start learning them Kanji
Choose how many Kanji you want to learn on your first day, and then start working through the book (starting with the first Kanji/primitive).  Heisig will pop in regularly to make sure you’re using the story-based memorization techniques right (forgive him for this — it’ll stop pretty soon).   In short: read through the Kanji and the supplied story, write down that Kanji ONCE in a notebook, and then move on to the next.  Once you’ve done that for the 25/50 Kanji for the day, go take a small break, and then boot up Anki.  Click on the RTK deck, click “Review Now”, and the Kanji in the deck will be in the exact same order as the kanji in the book.  Do the first 25/50 (or however many), and then feel good about yourself : ).

Reviews of cards you struggled with may pop up for review throughout the day.  Just keep an eye on your phone/computer.

The time required to do all of this the first time is MUCH longer than it’ll normally take you.  After 2-3 days, you’ll be able to start sailing.  I can generally get 50-75 new kanji in an hour.

8. Day 02 – Do the next set
Wake up early/at the appointed time go and learn the next set of Kanji (read, make up own story, write down once, move on).  Learn the new cards in Anki.  Review old cards either there on the spot, or throughout the day.

9. Day 03 – Third Set and Blog Post
Follow the pattern (Read, Create Own Story, Write Down Once) (Anki) (Review Old Cards)

Then post about your experience so far (how you like it, any questions, and — most of all — express your determination to learn Japanese!)

10.  Keep up the pattern
Keep it up!  Be sure to post entries at least once a week throughout the Kanji stage (to make sure you see your own determination, to get support about low periods or skipped days)

11.  Don’t give up
We’re here for you.  If you start sliding, post about it!

But is my guilt warranted?

I decided to do some research and have discovered the following:

In the hospital there are 25 steps per floor. A volunteer burns 0.11 calories for each step taken upwards, and burns 0.05 calories for each stair on the way down. (These numbers change slightly with age and weight and gender). Multiplying this out, we get the following numbers:

Thus: 2.75 calories burned per flight up, and 1.25 calorie pet flight down.

The following shows the flights of stairs walked on a recent shift, and the calories burned:

Floors 1-4 = 11 calories
Floors 4-5 = 2.75 calories
Floors 5-6 = 2.75 calories
Floors 6-2 = 5 calories
Floors 2-1 = 1.25 calories

Total: 22.75 calories by opting out of elevators. Put in perspective: Half hour of bike riding burns ~300 calories.

Worth it? I don’t know.

Oh the things volunteers think of…

Photo Author roberto@zenvoid.org

Renting a U-Haul was a good life experience.  Neither Steven (brother-in-law) nor I had ever done that before, and overall it saved me a lot of time and money (the gas I’d have spent on a billion trips in the Versa).  I’ll tell you one thing, though: I was sure glad I’d had some practice driving huge trucks around (Nate’s truck!) because haulin’ cargo in a huge, beastly  U-Haul was at times a tricky drive.

Moving is expensive.  Gas, especially, is expensive (saved on that, though, with a two-trip move thanks to U-Haul!).  To our (my?) delight, however, as we measured the budget with the actual expenses, we had a little wiggle room left over.  As worthy an investment as any, we sprung at a deal for $6 Harry Potter movies and bought “the lot” (as Harry would say in movie numero uno), taking our collection of HP movies from 0 to 6.  Once we had a couch and a TV in the new apartment, I started walking down memory lane by running through the movies in order.

The movies are really fun.  I’ll be posting on them as I get through them.

We really like the new apartment.  It’s much bigger and, as we’re now on the second floor, we can open our blinds a little and still have privacy.  One hilarious comparison is the old kitchen–a walkway for one–to the new, open kitchen which is full of light and beautiful:

The old Kitchen

The New Kitchen

The new apartment also has one more room than did our old, and we’ve turned it into a craft room/study.  It’s big, beautiful, and full of light.  According to the floorplan it was intended to be the master bedroom, but once we saw how easily the natural light flooded the room we realized that we wanted to spend our time in there and spend our sleeping time in the other, smaller room.  That arrangement has been fantastic: the smaller room has made a really cozy bedroom.

Saying goodbye to our old apartment has been hard.  Between the memories of getting it set up before we were married, the memories we’ve had living in it, and the home-y feel the neighborhood has taken on, we’re really going to miss it.  Last night, as we finished cleaning it up, we said a prayer before leaving and saying a final goodbye to it.  That helped, and though we’re on to the next stage in life, it’s still sad, though, when things and periods of life slip away.

Foremost among the characters were the five starship captains. Each of them had unique challenges, personalities,and approaches to managing their ships.The individual captains brought different styles to their commands, and each of their styles provided examples and lessons for managers in today’s world. Let us look at each of the captains in detail and in chronological order as they appeared on our television screens.

The paper examines the leadership styles of James T. Kirk, Jean Luc Picard, Benjamin Sisco, Catherine Janeway and Johnathan Archer.  It also examines the leadership characteristics they had in common.

Truly, this is worth the five minutes it takes to read.  : )

Find it here.

In fact, in a fascinating twist, it’s an odd experience to go back and reread the story because in doing so my friend–who I know so well–reverts back to his/her old self,  and memories and bonds must be reforged time and time again.

One such character, for me, is Captain Jean Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise (Patrick Stewart), the main character of the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series.

I admire the character, Captain Picard, for several reasons.

First, I admire his leadership style.  He was excellent at delegating tasks based on his crew’s strengths, and I found his ability to spread the workload admirable.  Not only did it build unity and purpose within the crew, but it allowed his senior officers to grow.  Of all the famous Star Trek captains I feel he was best at processing the details of a situation and then synthesizing an effective solution.

Secondly, I admire his strong ethical code.  In several ethical dilemmas where I myself found myself unsure of what to do, Picard unblinkingly and unhesitatingly chose the road which mirrored the highest ideals.   I found myself admiring his devotion to his personal ethical code.

Perhaps one of the reasons Picard is so successful a character is the way Star Trek the Next Generation (TNG) was written:  the episodes are mostly structured as standalones.  This allowed Picard to embody certain ideals and characteristics time and time again, and remain in a kind of stasis through the series.  And yet, as the show began to realize that fans wanted season-spanning story arcs and personal growth of the characters (something Gene Roddenberry staunchly opposed while he was still alive and involved with the show), we saw a gradual softening of Picard (he stopped being so serious), and we loved him all the more for it.

For all these things, and for the sides of him I resonated to or admired, Patrick Stewart’s role of Jean Luc has become one of my all-time favorite characters.  I think he’s a prime example of a character-persona that persists long after you stop watching the show.  It feels perfectly possible that, in some blended universe of this world and the show, you could go to a cafe and have lunch with the guy.  There is a very strong sense of reality in his character.

The obvious method relied on the expansive battle hologram that dominated the bridge. The hologram was on at the moment, and it displayed an array of triangular blue blips representing fighters flying about waist-high. The much larger blue oval of Dennison’s command ship hung a moderate distance above and behind the fighters. The massive and powerful but far less agile leviathan probably wouldn’t see battle this day. The enemy’s ships were too weak to damage its hull, but they were also too fast for it to catch. This would be a battle between the smaller fighters.

And Dennison would lead them. He rose from his command chair and walked a few steps to the hologram’s edge, studying the enemy.

 Believe it or not, I had never heard of Brandon Sanderson until I encountered this short story (“Firstborn”).   I found it on the ever-dangerous “Recommendations For You”  page on Amazon.com and downloaded it to my kindle to read in my “down time” (Which, like so many atomic elements I’ve studied in my chemistry classes, does not actually occur in nature, but has to be made).  I finished it last night and was rightly impressed!

As I’m not a natural short story fan I started out anticipating the frantic (or conscious minimalist) characterizations and setups which you often see reading through magazines like Asimov or Fantasy and Science Fiction. I was instead surprised and delighted by how well Brandon manages in ”Firstborn.”  I grew to enjoy the leading character and the supportive roles surrounding him.  By the time I finished and clicked away back to my eBookshelf (I read it on my Kindle), I felt like I’d grew to know and appreciate the characters on a level normally associated with a novel-length piece.

While the storyline is predictable–I felt I knew exactly what was going to happen from the get-go–I found myself enjoying the story anyway.  The colors, especially, of the world he created stood out in my mind.  Here’s an excerpt which, for one reason or another, visually caught my mind’s eye:

He missed dinner. However, it wasn’t his fault, considering he had to travel half the length of the High Empire. Dennison’s father, High Duke Sennion Crestmar, was waiting for him in the spaceport when he arrived.

Sennion didn’t say a word as Dennison left the airlock and approached. The High Duke was a tall man—proud, broad shouldered, with a noble face. He was the epitome of what a High Officer should be. At least Dennison had inherited the height.

The High Duke turned, Dennison fell into step beside him, and the two strode down the Officer’s Walk—a pathway with a deep red carpet, trimmed with gold. It was reserved for High Officers, uncluttered by the civilians and lower ranks who bustled against each other on either side. There were no vehicles or moving walkways on the Officer’s Walk. High Officers carried themselves. There was strength in walking—or so Dennison’s father always said. The High Duke was rather fond of self-congratulatory mottoes.

Overall I feel like this story was enough to persuade me to read more of Brandon’s work.  While I’m not yet ready to embark on the epic quest that is The Wheel of Time series, I think I’ll pick up some of his other work (Ever since I tried “Firstborn” that pesky Amazon Recommendation section has been implanting the temptation of his Mistborn series into my head).

Okay! So. Have thirty minutes? Want to read it?  It’s free online! Click here to be taken to Tor.com and read it!

Before I end this post, I need to mention one more thing:  My wife seems not to care for Brandon one bit.  When I asked why that was, she gave me a reason which, I admit, does make me question whether or not he has a soul.  ”He makes fun of and mocks The Grapes of Wrath in one of his young adult novels.”  (Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians) As I’ve never read it, I cannot justifiably comment on this. However… No matter how awesome a writer you may be, nothing justifies a jibe at Steinbeck.   Steinbeck, like Dostoevsky or Tolstoy, could (and should?) be canonized.

Representing one of the most interesting and challenging episodes in my undergraduate years, the 2011 National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) was held from March 31-April 2 at Ithaca College, NY.

For over a year I’ve worked at the ARUP Labs on the University of Utah’s campus under the direction of Dr. Marzia Pasquali.  In that time I’ve labored to develop second tier tests for two metabolic disorders: homocystinuria and SCAD deficiency.  Dr. Pasquali has on numerous occasions gone far and beyond her role as adviser and helped me put together my research project.  For this and previous conferences, especially as it comes to my research poster, she should be credited with the fantastic final product.  I am very grateful to her for all she’s done to make my research experience successful and interesting.

To present this research at a national forum was, at times, electrifying.  It was awe inspiring to see the opportunities “mere” undergraduate students have in this day and age when it comes to participating in serious, real research.

One of the most rewarding aspects of my trip was the friendships I made with students from all across the nation.  Thanks in large part to a Cell Biology test which was to happen just a day or so after I returned to Salt Lake, I spent most of my nights studying in the hotel lobby.  Three friendships, in particular, were forged there that I’m confident will continue on into our professional lives.  I’m grateful for the chance I had to meet such driven and successful students.

The experience was truly a gem in the course of my undergraduate studies.  I’m thankful to Jill Baeder and the UROP program of the University of Utah for providing this experience.  I’m especially thankful to Jill for her tireless devotion to making opportunities happen for students like me.

Over the course of that week I managed to make a couple of new friends (most of which were from the University of South Florida or from my native University of Utah), do a lot of studying for my upcoming Cell Biology test, and learn a lot about the research going on around me.  It’s amazing what “mere” undergraduates are able to do these days!

Overall there were a few particularly interesting aspects to my NCUR Adventure, a few of which I’ll detail here in this post.

Dallas Airport – A Taste of the Bizarre

The Dallas airport was… bizarre… to say the least.  Well, at least the inter-terminal walkways were on the crazy size.

With the walls changing colors synchronized to an eerie cross between the Twilight Zone music and the final Fantasia skit (where the demon is coming out of the mountain), I felt like I was walking down a very colorful walkway to certain doom.

Cornell – The Land of Disappointing Castles and Slobbering Drunk Students

Okay, so it wasn’t that bad, but my time on Cornell campus (and speaking with a few faculty) was very eye-opening.

The first thing that I noticed about Cornell campus was that almost all the central buildings are castles.

Castles.

Yes, I will say it one more time: Castles.  The moment I first saw them there was no question in my mind that I was going to spend a day on their campus.

One castle in particular stands out above the rest, though I never managed a decent picture of it:  coming home on the night shuttle from Ithaca, the bus would take a windy road through the forest to a ledge overlooking one building which, in the fog and darkness, looked exactly like Hogwarts.  It was uncanny.  The first time we drove home the whole bus gasped and scrambled to snap blurry photographs of it.

On the whole, their campus is gorgeous.  Just look at these buildings:

They’re very pretty.  Other castle-y buildings were spread all over campus.  The only disappointment I had, however, were that most of the prettiest buildings were reduced to things like gyms. The blood, sweat and tears of a hundred years had worked their way through the stone, and you could almost smell the buildings as you passed them.

Besides the castles, I had one other interesting experience on Cornell campus: a discussion with some faculty about the student body’s work ethic and expectations.

I was (admittedly) taking a lot of pictures as I walked around campus, and so it came as no surprise when one man stopped me and asked if I needed some help getting around.  Was I new?

When I introduced myself he laughed and explained that a lot of “those conference students” were doing the same thing I was: enjoying Cornell’s beauty.  He remarked that he wished more of his students had gone to the conference, which remark led to a very good discussion between us.

It was his opinion (and the opinion of two other faculty I later met and spoke to) that the students who attended Cornell were significantly less driven and more prone to laziness than any other student group he’d before encountered.  It just so happened that he had taught for the briefest time in Utah, and he commented that while Utah took some adjusting to (when I asked what he meant, he explained that he’d married in his thirties and was surprised to find most of the student body over 25 were married with children), he  had never met Utah students’ equal when it came to work ethic and effort.  ”Where I am currently pressured to give undeserved marks to my students, my students in Utah consistently earned their marks–even if they were bad marks–and I to this day admire you for it.”

Interesting, huh?

One day Heather and I were talking about her book and as we chatted I had the idea that it would be really fun to search around and surprise her with a writing conference date.  I got online, threw some keywords into Google and… you guessed it, realized very quickly that writing conferences don’t happen all the time.  In fact, I had to do some searching to find anything that wasn’t 1000+ miles away and was scheduled to happen sooner than later.

It was just as I was about to can the idea that I found the League’s website, and thought to myself, “Oh yeah, them! I wonder what they’ve got going on…” It turns out that not only did they have a conference going on (just a week or so away, even!), but they had lots of activities through the year.

Without much of a warning (or, really, any warning–nothing more than checking to see if we had other plans for that Saturday), I signed us up as full-fledged members and registered for the conference.

Neither Heather nor I had ever heard of the speakers, but read this in the conference announcement (text taken from that source):

John Brown is an award-winning novelist and short story writer. This firstbook in his epic fantasy series was published October 2009 by Tor Books.It’s called Servant of a Dark God and is set in a world where beings of immense power ranch humans for their souls. Other forthcoming novels in the series include Curse of a Dark God and Dark God’s Glory. He currently lives with his wife and four daughters in the hinterlands of Utah where one encounters much fresh air, many good-hearted ranchers, and an occasional wolf. Brown’s agent is Caitlin Blasdell of Liza Dawson Associates. His website is www.johndbrown.com.

Jennifer lives at the base of a very tall mountain in Northern Utah with her husband, three children, and a naughty puppy. She loves the smell of rainy days, hot chocolate, and old books, preferably all at once. She is a former speech teacher, theater director, and enjoyed a brief but disastrous career as a door-to-door pollster. In her spare time, Jennifer tends to panic, wondering what she has forgotten to do that has allowed her any spare time. Jennifer is the author of the recently released, Elliot and the Goblin War, with Sourcebooks Publishing. The next in the series, Elliot and the Pixie Plot, will release in May, with a third to follow this fall. She will also release, The False Prince, with Scholastic in April 2012. Learn more about Jennifer and her books at www.jennielsen.com.

There were other excellent presenters, but these two in particular stood out.  Both put on incredible workshops. Jennifer gave a workshop on character psychology and John walked the group through plot formation and writing theory.  John also introduced his concept Zing which he’s coined and elaborated on further on his website.

I plan on posting my notes from the conference on the site, so look for that here.

[Update 5/10/2011 - Uploaded my notes and the TASK tool Jennifer provided]

On the whole I was blown away by the quality of the League’s spring conference.  The talks were fantastic and both Heather and I were exhausted by the level of engagement the excellent speakers brought to the table.

While we haven’t yet attended any of our chapter’s meetings (Wordcraft), both Heather and I are very much looking forward to learning more about and participating in this great (and local!) organization.