Language

I hauled out some software I'd gotten a while ago, a tutorial on Mandarin Chinese, and popped it in the computer.

I now have a delightful long string of Chinese words coming out of my speakers, on such delightful and informative topics as body parts, colors, common phrases, food, numbers, times, and common objects.

Nephew, with his not-completely-formed brain, is happily repeating the words with just as much accuracy as he mimics Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers after watching Shrek.

He's going to grow up knowing just enough Chinese to get in trouble. Which is more than I know, anymore...

It's quite restful to hear the sound of one of the languages that I grew up with again.

Desk/chant

I put together my computer desk today, and while I was doing it, I started chanting, because that's what you do when you realize that in turning the screws clockwise, you're invoking... so I decided to invoke nice things.

It would, of course, help to be able to remember more than bits and snatches of my chants out of a ritual setting, so that others might use them... one of them was quite simple, and it came to me after I'd dropped the hex wrench several times, while trying to hold a board in place with no support and screw it in at the same time.

Help me find balance within my life
Let me not drop the tools that I've been given

...over and over until the board was screwed in. Helped, I think. The other chant that I remember invoked "Goddess of light, Goddess bright, Goddess of knowledge," to assist in building not only this desk, but my life.

(no subject)

Laptop power cord broken. may not be online from home for a while.