What are you doing?

[Danster]

Been celebrating my daughter's birthday with my immediate family plus the in-laws.

[General Ceel]

Been putting a lot of work into the youtube channel recently. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zKkf4...m1WuoPgYeA

[Danster]

Had my niece and nephew round this weekend. It was hard work, and made me break my alcohol abstinence. I managed Sunday-Thursday without a drop but turned to the whisky Friday and Saturday night. Then we had the in-laws over last night so I cracked open a bottle of Italian red to go with dinner and then finished off with a scotch for a digestif.

Back on the dry train for now, although I'm playing football on Thursday and that will inevitably involves a post-game pub trip.

[General Ceel]

I'm drinking an imperial IPA right now... at 11:30AM... because I like to drink while I edit video! hehe!

So yeah... editing!

[Danster]

I like to drink whilst doing most things! Currently finishing off a cheap bottle of blended scotch.

I'm having a stab at learning Greek so was sipping it whilst doing a lesson. I've paid for a two-year subscription to an online platform, after getting into it via Duolingo but then getting frustrated at the lack of context. I've always wanted to learn a second language and I love Greece. I was also motivated to try a hard language, as if I can crack that, I can then be tempted to try another, less difficult one knowing that I can do it, as I'd have already done something harder, if that makes sense.

I want to be bilingual by the time I'm 40, and multi-lingual by the time I'm 50.

[General Ceel]

That's a great goal. Greek, like Latin, is a great language to learn because of the influence its had on other languages, including our own English. I wish that I had had the option to learn one of them back in my school days. It would have been useful, not as something to speak, but in terms of understanding what I read in science and the arts.

[Danster]

It's one of my big regrets from school days. Not sure if it's the same in the US, but in England you have to learn at least one language right up until 16. I did Spanish but I didn't enjoy it and didn't put any real effort or work into it. As I got older I started to wish I could speak another language and was always jealous if I came across a fellow Brit who could (you don't come across too many bilingual people here, I suspect it's the same in most English-speaking countries).

I look back now and think I was getting 2 hours of Spanish lessons a week at school and hardly any of it has gone in! Who knows, if I actually stick to my grand plan and learn Greek by the time I'm 40 and then turn to Spanish, maybe some of that learning has been locked away somewhere and will come out again. Mind you, I haven't ruled out French after Greek. And like I said, if I do actually manage to crack a language like Greek, which is considered a Category 4 language when it comes to difficulty for English-speakers to learn (only Category 5 is higher and that only contains Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean and Japanese), then I will have the confidence to pick up at Category 1 language like French or Spanish with relative ease.

In reality, I'll probably give up the Greek thing well before I hit 40

That said, I've just completed another lesson tonight. I'm 22% of my way through the first of five learning pathways.

[General Ceel]

I was required to have language credits in both high school and college, but at the high school level in our area the choices were few. I took Spanish in both high school and college.

[General Ceel]

Put our outdoor Christmas lights up today. Also bought a tree, brough it in and got that decorated.

[General Ceel]

Just put my latest youtube video: https://youtu.be/BM44GTgyn7Q?si=1AtyVYXZGIrZBijc