End of summer 2013-report

Right now I am sitting in a train traveling to my right now favorite place in the world(Zagreb) and counting the last hours of my almost 3 month long summer vacation.It was a pretty average summer.

In June/early July I still had some exams left to finish.At the beginning of that exam period I was pretty pessimistic about it.I almost screwed up some things,so I was expecting a possible catastrophe like last summer.However in the end I actually even increased my total average,with some surprisingly good grades.Somewhere at this point I switched from Ubuntu 12.04 to Ubuntu 13.04.

In early July I finished all my exams so this is when my vacation actually began.I was afraid I could fail the last exam but I actually aced it.It was still a close call though because I did not have time to answer all the questions.Soon I started looking for a part time job.Because at 21 that was my next step towards independence.I did not really do it for the money(alright,maybe a little for the money),what I actually wanted was the experience.But while I was waiting to get a job I did not just wait while doing nothing,I tried to get some skills.At first I wanted to familiarize myself with the basics of the python programming language.I think I did learn enough that If I would ever want/need to get serious about it I would have a good starting point.I also tried to learn myself some Linux terminal commands.I had the same result as with python,a good starting point.This might have been the best period of my vacation.

I think I finished multiple dozens of Anime movies and series during July XD.Bakuman was great at that time.

August...I was still searching for a new job.I already had several job interviews under my belt and I already kind of knew what to expect.I still continued to slowly gain some skills.I think that that month I watched loads of computer security related tutorials and "how to" videos on Youtube.And at the end of August it finally happened :I found a job!!!!It's true that I quit after 4 days(because it simply was not going right,most of my coworkers quit as well),but I have to look at the positives.I gained that initial experience that I wanted so much and I learned that I can survive an 8 hour working day.So that was for me another step into adulthood.
In August,just like I did in July I finished loads of anime.Puella magi Madoka magica and Steins gate were great at that time.August was also very good.

September...Was kind of,well I spent most of my time helping out my parents.Sure nothing wrong with that,but yeah,I am not really a family person.I tried learning some Japanese Hiragana.Well I could have done better.I really did not have a lot of free time during September :( .I was hoping to spend 5 days in Zagreb but unfortunately I had to cancel that,because I was just too busy.So September left a bad aftertaste.

And here I am now counting the last hours of my vacation.Ultimately it was better than last summer which was mostly spent for learning for my HTML/CSS exam because I needed to take it a third time,but it was worse than expected.
I spent most of my time in a small town in my parents house. Unfortunately that small town is boring as fuck,so I spent most of my free time doing nothing specific and just being in my room. Occasionally I went to Zagreb for college stuff or for job hunting,those days were fun...

So what will I do with the remaining few hours of vacation?I guess watch some anime,sleep,wake up,experiment if I can jam my wifi signal with Kali Linux,paint,go shopping,eat...and then my first class of the semester will start so the vacation will be officially over.

Well that's just it.

Though I hope I won't stop blogging. I still have some blog post ideas in my mind.Maybe I won't post as frequently as I did during vacation,but hey I will try...

Foreign languages and how to remember them.

So,one day I was thinking about what were my talents.Not what were my skills,but what were my talents.Most of the skills I have acquired were not acquired by talent,they were acquired through tough practice.However,I am not a talentless person,I just never really got motivated to develop the talents I got.

My computer skills were gained purely by practice.I even think that a lot of my college friends have a better learning curve than I have.

However,let's go back to my talents now.I think I have two pretty good talents(maybe more,but those are the only ones I can think of right now).The first one is that I am great with foreign languages.I mean If I had tried I am sure that by now I could have learned at least 10 languages.I didn't because of laziness.The other one is my ability to surprise people,even myself,even if I don't try.I mean seriously there is nobody in my life whom I haven't surprised.Intentionally or not.Luckily right now I am more or less successful at limiting my surprises to positive or neutral surprises.I am filled with surprises.

Now,let's go back to foreign languages.The context being that I am in the process of learning Japanese.I have actually written the next parts a week ago on a forum,but the forum post was so good that I thought I could expand it into a blog post:

The good:My Japanese is good enough that if I started learning it intensively now that I could speak it pretty good in less than a year.Or watch raw anime.
The bad:If I continue with this speed it might take half a decade or even a whole decade.

I have tried watching an episode of hellsing the dawn raw,and I think I at least partly understood half of it.It was a few months ago.The truth is you can really learn a language just by consuming a lot of media in a certain language.I learned German when I was six just by watching German TV.Even without translated subtitles.I also think I learned more English by using it on the Internet or watching movies in English,and guess what I almost qualified for my country's national English competition.I was second in the Zagreb county and I will always regret the fact that I did not score 2 more points to qualify.And my German used to be even better than my English a few years ago.Yeah I guess I got my point across.Even children learn their mother tongue by listening to people around them.There is no such thing as genetic knowledge.At least that is what science says.You learn languages by using them,not by well "learning them manually".

The problem with that is that you also forget languages by not using them.College has proven that my English is not at its best.Because for some reason or another I am just not using it as much as I did before.Maybe I could switch to dubbed anime,but then I would have to quit on my Japanese so I won't.And my German is even worse off.I haven't had a proper chance to use it ever since they stopped airing German dubbed anime on German TV.But I am planning to enter a student exchange program,and I plan to go to Germany trough that program next year,so I guess I will have a good chance to renew both my English and my German then.

Another problem with this method is that it is not very good for learning grammar,unless you really stick to it.

That's it.Hope you had a good time reading this.

Employed...and unemployed again :(

So basically yeah,last week I finally found a job somehow.I became a telephone sales agent!
The job was not bad really,the environment and company were nice.I met some nice people there.I even was lucky enough to grab the window seat!But after my finished 8 hours I felt a bit stressed.I guess that is what hundreds of phone calls do to you.

So why did I quit in the end?I guess I just could not sell anything.There were some borderline cases where I almost did it...but yeah.And there is also the fact that I planned to quit at the beginning of October anyways so.

Although I won't actively search for a job for now(because of college) I will apply if I find a very interesting job ad.

But,let's look at the positives.It was a nice experience to have.Now I myself have experienced what a work day is.I have also proved that I am durable enough to endure it.My communication skills might have improved.Also now I have time to develop some skills,which otherwise I would not have been able to do.