Random Raves XXXI - New Year Raveolutions

[Camikaze]

TIL Sydney is almost closer to France than New Zealand. Blew my mind.

 

[Kennigit]

^

????

 

[Phrossack]

Why, because of New Caledonia?

 

[Camikaze]

Yeah, though I'd never really realised New Caledonia was so close. Apparently most of NSW north of Sydney is closer to it than to New Zealand.

Spoiler :

 

[Phrossack]

"Indonesia" is an incredibly cool word. It's so fun to say. Indonesia.

Anyway, a rave: I just got back from a dorm hall outdoor Easter egg hunt/tag hybrid. Basically, most players look for eggs, but some are dressed as zombies and try to grab little flags of paper hanging from your waist, like flag football. I never lost both my flags, and found fourteen eggs. This won me a bunch of candy, a basketball, some coasters, the Divergent book, a notebook, some BBC zombie series called In the Flesh, 300, Sherlock Holmes, SuckerPunch, The Matrix, a deck of zombie-themed cards, and a T-shirt.

Granted, I don't eat any of the candy, play basketball, or enjoy Divergent or SuckerPunch much at all, I think 300's a bad joke, and I think the zombie cards are kinda tacky. But the game was fun, I'll find a use for this stuff, and it's all free

 

[Takhisis]

So you only lose your flags one at a time. Nice!

 

[schlaufuchs]

Harry Potter und die Kammer des Schreckens: finished

 

[Mouthwash]

Yeah, though I'd never really realised New Caledonia was so close. Apparently most of NSW north of Sydney is closer to it than to New Zealand.

Spoiler :

I don't get the map?

 

[schlaufuchs]

I don't get the map?

Presumably: proportion of Australia each country occupies by land area.

 

[Phrossack]

It looks to be a measure of the closest country to each part of Australia. See that purple bit near Arnhem land? It's closest to Timor-Leste.

 

[madviking]

what phrossack said

 

[_random_]

Why, because of New Caledonia?

I'd assumed that he was talking about the mainland of France, and that maps simply distorted things so that New Zealand appears much closer than it actually is. I was tired enough when I first read it that this didn't strike me as terribly strange.

 

[Camikaze]

I don't get the map?

Invasion plans.

Harry Potter und die Kammer des Schreckens: finished

I just started Der Stein der Weisen. I dunno the best way to go about it, though. Should I push through to the end of a chapter before looking up new words, or look them up immediately when I come across them?

 

[Arakhor]

I now own a copy of Carcassonne, with the first two expansions as well. I also need to find someone to play against.

 

[schlaufuchs]

I just started Der Stein der Weisen. I dunno the best way to go about it, though. Should I push through to the end of a chapter before looking up new words, or look them up immediately when I come across them?

Hm. Here's what I do. I'm reading them on ebook and I have http://quickdic.org/ open in a separate tab. Anytime I come across a word I didn't know I'd look it up. If I felt it was a word worth remembering I'd write it down in an excel/notepad I had opened up, and when I was finished with the chapter I'd go back and log all the words into anki for later studying. The thing with these books is that they're written at a fairly low level and Rowling reuses a lot of words. The first 5-10 chapters of Stein der Weisen took me 2 hours each just because of the sheer amount of words I had to look up just to figure out what was going on. After awhile you learn the most common words and then you don't have to look up that much anymore. By the end of Stein der Weisen I was having to look up maybe 5-10 words per chapter (compared to the 30 or 40 of the beginning [I think I added something like 200 words for the first chapter I read]) and by Kammer des Schreckens I looked up maybe 60 words for the whole book. Also adding words makes it much easier to figure out new words through context which, again, makes reading these much much easier.

Further, if you're still having trouble, the German version is very nearly and absolute literal translation of the English. When I read the first book I had the English version beside me and if you have absolutely no idea of what was just said you can find the English equivalent in the book and go from there.

Also there are some words where you'll need to the English equivalent just because those words do not exist outside of Harry Potter. The biggest example of this in the first book is Saurüde (Wolfhound) which was a term invented for the purposes of the book and, to my knowledge, exists nowhere else.

 

[Takhisis]

Harry Potter und die Kammer des Schreckens: finished

Ja! How far along the tale did you realise that Tom was

Spoiler :

Voldemort

?

I now own a copy of Carcassonne, with the first two expansions as well. I also need to find someone to play against.

Yes? You called?

 

[Camikaze]

Hm. Here's what I do. I'm reading them on ebook and I have http://quickdic.org/ open in a separate tab. Anytime I come across a word I didn't know I'd look it up. If I felt it was a word worth remembering I'd write it down in an excel/notepad I had opened up, and when I was finished with the chapter I'd go back and log all the words into anki for later studying. The thing with these books is that they're written at a fairly low level and Rowling reuses a lot of words. The first 5-10 chapters of Stein der Weisen took me 2 hours each just because of the sheer amount of words I had to look up just to figure out what was going on. After awhile you learn the most common words and then you don't have to look up that much anymore. By the end of Stein der Weisen I was having to look up maybe 5-10 words per chapter (compared to the 30 or 40 of the beginning [I think I added something like 200 words for the first chapter I read]) and by Kammer des Schreckens I looked up maybe 60 words for the whole book. Also adding words makes it much easier to figure out new words through context which, again, makes reading these much much easier.

Further, if you're still having trouble, the German version is very nearly and absolute literal translation of the English. When I read the first book I had the English version beside me and if you have absolutely no idea of what was just said you can find the English equivalent in the book and go from there.

Also there are some words where you'll need to the English equivalent just because those words do not exist outside of Harry Potter. The biggest example of this in the first book is Saurüde (Wolfhound) which was a term invented for the purposes of the book and, to my knowledge, exists nowhere else.

Thanks! That's kinda what I've been doing so far, except with Google Translate and Wiktionary. I'm three chapters in and I must've come across words like merkwürdig a dozen times, so the repetition does seem to be helping. I was surprised that Google Translate actually managed to spit out Privet Drive for Ligusterweg.

Embarrassingly, I've never read any of the Harry Potter books in English.

 

[Arakhor]

Yes? You called?

Unless you have the XBL version of Carcasonne or live near me, my calling won't do much good.

 

[ReindeerThistle]

Only 171 hours to go until the gf comes back to town....



At which point my internet time will be scarce... so... just sayin'!

 

[Phrossack]

I enjoy never having headaches or allergies. At least, I think I do. I wouldn't know. They seem awful.