ARGH

[altogetherisi]

I just had a major scare, where I think virus fake anti-virus thing installed itself, told me I had loads of crap, tried to force me to give it credit card details, then I couldn't turn it off, I couldn't delete it, it took over the background of my desktop, it was trying to intimidate me... ARGH.

I restored the system and I think its ok now. But I was seriously panicking. My beautiful baby in trouble! It seriously freaked me out.

In other news...

I bought my Hebrew textbook, and have started to learn the alphabet. Alphabets should not be complicated. But this alphabet-- well. There are no vowels. I don't even know how to begin to learn to pronounce a language which HAS NO VOWELS. Perhaps I can think about it like txtspk, maybe that will help. There are three different s s s. And some of the letter look pretty similar. Oh, and I know they have this in Greek as well, but when people do this ' and expect me to know what that sounds like... well, I'm sorry, but I don't.

I mean, I know I'll get it if I just focus and then when I get to Cambridge I'll probably wish to be learning something as ridculously simple. But still. I already know the Greek alphabet. And absolutely everyone else in the appropriate facebook group is taking Greek. And I dunno, I kinda wonder why I picked Hebrew in the first place, am I just making life more difficult for no particular reason? Originally, I had my heart set on learning Arabic and reading the Koran and wouldn't that be awesome? But then I was concerned that Arabic doesn't seem to have any supervisions, plus no Qu'ranic study modules until next year, whereas I am taking both the OT and NT modules available this year. But again, why exactly have I turned away from Greek? I mean, I think I thought Greek was boring. But now, I'm starting to think, well, maybe I'd rather read the NT than the OT anyway. Hebrew??? Sounds really cool, but honestly - why???

*sigh* Maybe all this will come to nothing. Clearly I like double guessing myself.

I got another big pack of stuff from Pembroke, but as of yet nothing fun - it was serious stuff outlining bills and rules and stuff. But at least I now know my room number and my rent etc, so I then spent a while making an accounts spreadsheet trying to figure out budgets and estimate how much I might need for food etc, try to see how much I'll have at the end of the year.

Oh and also, Sarah Rees Brennan wrote another part of her Big Idea stories, which give back story for characters from her debut The Demon's Lexicon. This one is about Marie, Daniel and Olivia, who I particularly adore. Some people in the fandom expressed less than love for Olivia, but to me I find her extraodrinary, amazing; I adore her as a character and kinda would love to have a chat with her as a person. I mean, I have much love for Daniel and Marie as well, of course. I mean, clearly I adore every single character Sarah writes. (OMG I love Seb McFarlane SO MUCH he is utterly wonderful and excellent). I really can't help this. They are so beautiful, and I don't mean physically. Beautiful and rounded and whole. And so I adore them.

Anyway. There are no spoilers for The Demon's Lexicon, and this stands alone. So anyone that has maybe seen me raving about it should read it, get a feel for sarah's writing and beautiful character crafting, and then if they like it they should definitely read The Demon's Lexicon. It is The Arundel Tomb and everyone should read it.
 

So yes. Everybody read that. Because it rocks, Olivia rocks (Seb McFarlane rocks), Sarah rocks.

Comments

[elixer-of-life.livejournal.com]

I learnt Hebrew for about three or four years when I was preparing for my Bat Mitzvah, but I did use vowels. It was only when I got to the serious Torah reading stuff that they dropped the vowels, by which time I'd learnt my portion off by heart anyway, so it didn't matter :P

But I seriously regret dropping it. It's a lovely language (once you know the alphabet - it's all the "final" letters that get me lol).

[altogetherisi.livejournal.com]

I feel vowels would help me, even just pretending to make me feel more secure. I don't understand how to use it to write my name, which makes me sad :( I am trying to learn Classical Hebrew to read the OT (I can't quite remember whether the Torah was included in the Bible as the entire OT or just part of the OT) but yes, that is the bit I have apparently decided to learn to read. And I'm not entirely sure why...

[elixer-of-life.livejournal.com]

I've never been able to understand how people can read Hebrew without the vowels. Like, my Rabbi reads directly from the Torah, translating into English as he goes. And he's not from Israel or anything, he just knows it.

I think the Torah IS the Old Testament...but I know very little about that kind of thing lol.

[hanelissar.livejournal.com]

Oh I know how you feel. I so, so know how you feel...

I spent about four months on-and-off this year trying to get a start on learning Hebrew. But how do you learn an alphabet (sorry, 'alefbet') when you have no clue how the letters are pronounced, cannot understand a system without vowels and know that 'translated' from the Hebrew characters you can still have a whole crazy latinate language...

I was really into the idea of taking Hebrew. Faced with my unit choices, I completely wimped out and now I'm doing Bible seminars, a Hinduism module and stealing one from Classics on Pagan Religions in the Roman Empire. I am regretting not taking it as I think it'd be amazing and so awesome to learn Hebrew, but I also think I'd want to kill myself quite soon into the course.

So I wish you oh-so-much good luck and please let me know if you can ever make any sense out of it!

[altogetherisi.livejournal.com]

Pagan Religions in the Roman Empire?! Screw Cambridge, that sounds awesome. Maybe there will be some ultra cool modules like that avialable to me next year, but this year alas.

I think I'm going to spend the next two weeks trying to get a grip with Hebrew, and if I really can't get anywhere ask to switch. I mean, on the one hand, its HEBREW, its pretty damn cool. But on the other hand, my passion for it completely flees and turns to terror when faced with actually studying it. So... that's probably not a good sign. And I never really made a decision to put OT before NT study. And of course secretly I want Arabic, but I'm kinda scared of it. Greek is still difficult, but at least it HAS VOWELS.

[eternal-vows.livejournal.com]

Ooh, poor computer. :P My dad is crazy about running spyware and virus scans. It's actually kind of funny. ^^" Anyway, good luck with college...!

It makes me feel sick when I think about the fact that in one year I'll be in a different school, and I will actually have to *study* for my good grades, and this makes me sad because I still remember the good, ol' days in Year 5 and 6 where we played with toys and laughed all the time. It's mildly depressing. :(

Um, I can see how having no vowels is kind of harsh. ^^" It's like the time my dad was assigned to make a new language. I have no idea how he did it. Heh. I'm sure he had vowels though... I'm amazed you know the Greek alphabet--I still can't pronounce the French alphabet, and it's the same as the English alphabet. I can't even pronounce French words I see. Not without the help of the pronunciation thing next to the dictionary entry. And then barely then. Heh. Good luck!