2011 To-Smite List

I've been updating my To-Smite List weekly, but now that the year is coming to a close, it's also important to set more long-term goals. So, I'm going to set up a To-Smite List for the entire year of 2011. These are the goals that I hope to accomplish before December 31, 2011:

To Write:
HC Outline
JP
MY
M
The first three updated short stories for my website

To Read:
Agamemnon
Antigone
Avatar
An Education
Full Fairy Tale Collection (8 count)
Full Journal of Scientific Exploration
The Hurt Locker
In the Loop
The Kite Runner
The Last Station
Paradise Regained
Personal Finance for Dummies
Precious
The Road
A Serious Man
A Single Man
What Every Body Is Saying
The White Ribbon

To Watch:
8 1/2
Apocalypto
Barbershop
Being John Malkovich
Chariots of Fire
Cool Hand Luke
Coraline
The Decalogue
Dr. Strangelove
Knocked Up
Kung Fu Panda
La Terra Trema
La Vie En Rose
Louder than Bombs
Man Bites Dog
Memoirs of a Geisha
Michael Clayton
Mother
The Motorcycle Diaries
Patton
Precious
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Seven
Titanic
Waking Sleeping Beauty
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Y Tu Mama Tambien?

To Build:
Language Chart
In So Many Words (Volumes 1-3)
The Little Prince (Spanish, French, and German)
Website Illustrations

To Acquire:
Flip Mino Video Camera
Tripod

To Photograph:
Calvary Cemetery
Flying Fish Festival at Catalina Island
Huntington Library and Gardens
Meditation Mount / Ojai
Salton Sea
San Miguel Island (Deferred until 2012)
Self Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine
Sequoia National Forest

To Remember:
Have fun

The Linguistics of The Little Prince

I set a goal a few years back that I want to be able to communicate in at least seven languages. On my list are French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Mandarin, Polish, and Spanish, and since I've never really had the time and resources for an official education in all of them, I'm using whatever means I have at my disposal, in this case, one of my favorite books of all time, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, which, if you haven't read it yet, please do.

So, thanks to the public library system, I'm transcribing the story in different languages and compiling them into an Excel spreadsheet, something like this:

English	Italian	Polish
"It’s the time you spent on your rose that makes your rose so important."	« È il tempo che tu hai perduto per la tua rosa che ha fatto la tua rosa cosí importante ».	– Poświęcileś swojej róży wiele czasu i dlatego jest dla ciebie aż tak ważna.

The nice thing about this format is that each phrase is in an adjoining cell, which makes context and vocabulary interpretation much easier. With external lessons in pronunciation and other vocabulary, it's actually been very effective at improving my written understanding of these languages. Now if only I could figure out the same for speaking them.

In any case, the project smitten in this category is the scanning of the next round. Le Petit Prince and Der Kleine Prinz are due back at the library today after renewing them twice. I probably won't get around to actually transcribing them for another year or so, because of other projects, but at least it's ready to go.

In So Many Words Volume 1

I actually finished Volume 1 of this project.  It's difficult to realize just how big a deal this is without taking into account that I recently learned about the "Justify" format option and how to make a Table of Contents and Index.  I sat down on Saturday morning, worked through two solid days, and had a finished project by Sunday evening.  My eyes burned, but the fact that I actually have something to show for the effort is phenomenal.  To give you an  idea of what I'm yammering about, take a look.

(excerpt from the Introduction)

"Four years ago, I faced a major transition, graduating high school and moving to a new state, a new culture, and an entirely different niche in the world of my peers. I wanted to take something along with me to keep me connected to my origins. Thus was born this project.

"Sadly, I didn‘t complete this project in time to bring it with me to college. In fact, it sat on the backburner for all four years due to more pressing priorities. It took the end of formal schooling and additional homework to complete, and now that I‘ve had a chance to look back on it, I don‘t think I could have ever appreciated the contents of this book without the experiences of the last four years.

"The works in this volume originate in the most innocent part of my life. They are, for the most part, adorable, silly, and perhaps a bit saccharine. However, the progression is what intrigues me. In the Prologue, I can see the buds of a thousand issues that would come back to bite me in adolescence, though it is also comforting to see, as I read my ultra-condescending eighth grade Valedictory speech, how much progress I have made since and how much more the coming years will bring.

"What you are about to read is a compilation of every document I have ever written that I have been able to salvage from the drawers, cabinets, basement piles and old books where they sought to hide. Many ended up in the landfill, but I have recovered my favorites. I have done my best to preserve their original flaws and charm, and I hope that in so doing, the delight I felt upon revisiting them will be contagious. Happy reading."

It's 361 pages long. It's full of pictures and irregularities. But it's awesome. This is one project I can gladly say has been smitten. Now, I just have to figure out how to make myself an affordable hard copy.