Kerrie's 2014 Super Challenge & More

Okay, so the kids have been singing "Let it Go" enough to drive me crazy, but this video cracked me up, and I decided I should see what all the hoopla was about. It was a cute movie, and the music was catchy. I can rarely complain too much about Disney movies, except that there are too many orphans.. :D

Since my Spanish is improving quite a bit now, I pay a lot more attention to idioms and translation choices - especially with the music. It is fun to see how they translate and interpret the songs. For instance, "Let it go" is translated as "Libre soy" (I am free). I"m curious to see how it's translated into other languages, so I may watch it again in French and (maybe Italian). I'm such a nerd. :)

If anyone knows where I can find the Korean or Japanese dubbed version of the film, could you let me know? Torr

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)

"A teenager discovers he's the descendant of a Greek god and sets out on an adventure to settle an on-going battle between the gods."

I actually decided to watch this because I was thinking about reading the books, and I was a little curious about the storyline. From reading reviews, it sounds like the books are far better than the movie. I certainly hope so. I may decide to pick up the first book once the Super Challenge officially starts, if I run out of other stuff on my to-read list. Or maybe not.

Under the Dome (2013)

Blah

Goal for French 2014-2015 (Double) Super Challenge

4,000 pp for 2014

6,000 pp for 2015

200 audio/movies (x90 minutes)

Books (0 / 5000)

1. Rien so far :)

Movies/TV Shows (0/200)

1. Stargate SG1 (s3e1) 45m

Rien so far. :)

More Books to Check Out

Tara Duncan (series)

Movies on Deck

(http://justpaste.it/KerrieOnDeck)

edit: http://justpaste.it/edit/1026465/4df31040

Italian has to wait til we get 3,000 pages of French done first. :)

German has to wait til we get 2,000 pages of Italian done first. :)

Other languages I'd like to get to eventually:

Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Turkish, Korean

Russian, Croatian, Greek

And I better stop listing languages now. I know better than to think I can do more than one or two at a time. :)

Assimil Books I want to get to

French with Ease / Using French

Italian with Ease

German with Ease / German without Toil

Le Coréen sans peine

Norvégien sans peine

Dutch with Ease

Russian Without Toil / Russian (English base)

Japanese with Ease (1 & 2)

Le Turc sans peine

Chinese with Ease (1 & 2)

Le Brésilien sans peine

Catalan sin esfuerzo

Hungarian with Ease

(and I have more ... but that's a good start)

General update (August 6, 2014)

I'm far behind where I wanted to be by the middle of 2014 with language learning. That whole thing called life, you know. :)

I finally, after 8 years, was able to sell my (manufactured) home. It was financially killing me. I was very close to just walking away from it and letting it go into foreclosure. I'm grateful it finally worked out in the end. Unfortunately, I still owe $6000 USD on the loan, but the bank is offering me a settlement for $2100, so if I can come up with that by the end of the month, I will be finished and done with the financial mess caused by that stupid house. I only have about $2000 in my emergency fund, and *nothing* besides that, so I don't want to set myself up to be that close to the edge. My dad is going to help with about $500 of it, and I'm hoping I can get a loan to cover the rest. Even a high-interest loan for $1600 will be better than a loan for $6000. Updates to come.
I finally, after 8 years, was able to get a secure job. It's low-paying and boring work, but it is a reliable paycheck. Barely enough to cover the bills, but it will work. I'll get a little raise after 3 months, 6 months, and a year, so that will help. Once the mess with the house is taken care of, I only have about $6000 of debt left (from my student loans). I plan to get that paid off by the end of next year (2015). I am going to be debt free!

Now, this has left me feeling a little lost. These have been my two big goals for nearly a decade. I know that they may seem small to many people, but I am a single momma, and I have virtually no security net. I can't put myself out there for a new job that "might or might not" work, and risk being unemployed again. I have to keep a roof over our heads, and the best I can hope for while I'm trying to get all my debt paid off is a secure job. Which I finally have. Now that my biggest goals have been realized, I feel like I need a new goal to focus on.

Of course, the most obvious thing here is my languages. I love languages, I love learning them. I want to get my Spanish to a level where I am comfortable enough with it that I can confidently look for a job using my language skills. This is something I am thinking about, but it is also somewhat unrealistic at this point. First, my Spanish is not there yet. That's not the problem so much, though. There are LOTS of bilingual English-Spanish speakers in our area, and while Caucasians seem to have a leg up when it comes to translating type jobs (sorry, just the truth, at least around here), I don't have any experience in any of the types of jobs I'd be interested in. So I have thought about doing some volunteer work in certain fields that would give me some of that experience, and perhaps give me a few contacts to network with.
More realistically, I have been working with an affiliate program for a website much like eBay, only global. I think the program has tremendous potential. The problem with it is that I'm not interested in "becoming rich" or anything like that. If I had tons of money - heck, even if I just have more money than we need - I would most likely spend it helping others. I want to change the world. Sure, it would be one kid at a time, one community at a time, whatever. But I think this program actually has the foundation and building blocks of something that could be used by organizations. (Children International, Doctors Without Borders, organizations that focus on educating and empowering women in third-world countries, opening schools in underprivileged areas, bringing safe water to people who don't have it; I have tons and tons of ideas.) All of these types of groups and organizations could use the program to help support their efforts. This is what I really want to do.
I have never had "a calling" before. My sister is a teacher, and that is her heart and soul. I have friends who are passionate about their work. I have never had anything like that, beyond my calling as a mother. The more I think of the possibilities, the more I get passionate about being able to help people. That is what I want to do. It is funny, now that I'm just barely beyond "survival mode" and I start dreaming of changing the world. So I think that is going to be my main focus for the near future.
I anticipate I will be making enough from that in the next two-three years that I won't have to work anymore, which would be really awesome. Then I would be able to spend a lot more time working on my languages, perhaps traveling a bit, and taking my kids to new places (and maybe new languages!).
In the meantime, I'll be working on that project a lot over the next year or two. I will continue to work on my languages, and explore a professional side of using my Spanish, but my heart is in this other project now. I will specifically continue to work on my Spanish (double) Super Challenge.
I've also been giving a lot of thought to going back to Croatian or Russian - I am torn between the two. There is a large group of successful entrepreneurs in my affiliate program from the Balkans, they have a LOT of resources available in BSC that is not available to the rest of us, and being able to tap into that resources could give me a boost in my building my affiliate business.
Korean, oh Korean. I wish I had more time in the day. I keep looking at the Monash University Korean course, and the FSI course, and thinking I need to find the time.
I have, for the past few years, been thinking about the idea of where I want to go "in the future." I am not a fan of the US, the US education system, the politics, and so so much more. There are so many things wrong with this country, and I really don't intend to stay here. (Right, I understand it's not as simple as just up and moving somewhere else, but ...) The three places that continually call to me are Thailand, Brazil, and Greece. Don't ask me why, because I don't know. But I have been thinking of learning Thai, at least a little, so if/when I decide to go there, I will have an idea of what I'm getting into. It looks like StuJay has a great starting point for learning Thai - Fundamentals of Cracking Thai - on his jcadamy website. Once I have my finances straightened out a bit more, I might invest in that.
That's about it for now. If you're interested in my affiliate program and helping me change the world, or if you want to discuss all the things wrong with the US, or you want to try to convince me that learning Thai is a waste of my time, or whatever else you want to tell me, my email is at the very bottom of this page.

General update (October 5, 2014)

Well, I got the mess with the house - and the remaining balance after the short sale - taken care of and off my back. Thanks (beyond words) to my mom, who is an absolute angel.

Now, I just need to find a way to start making more money, which means I need to get started on some of my marketing projects. One of the ideas I have been thinking about is using my affiliate site for a great big international bookstore. A central place where you can find multiple languages, learning materials, kids books, audio books, DVDs, music, reading books, you name it. All under "one roof" - where you can legitimately buy a real copy of whatever you want in/for your target language. Sure, it will be awesome for language learners, but think of immigrants, refugees, ex-pats. If you introduce someone to the affiliate site, you will earn from ALL their purchases, so once you refer them, they are "yours" forever. Which could be really awesome if you find someone like Serpent who is interested in 15 languages. :)

Besides earning commission from buyers, you can refer stores to sell their stuff, a little like eBay offers storefronts for sellers (only this place is free). You earn a piece of commission from every sale made by that store (forever). Plus, if you find other people to join your team (as an affiliate), then you can earn a small piece from all THEIR sales, too. It's a little complicated, but it really has the potential (long-term) to bring in a very good, steady income.

I actually want to start a separate site, which will direct people by language and what they are looking for. For example, there would be a Korean page with links to the stores that sell Korean books, DVDs, etc. Also, if there are stores located in different countries, then I could list that information too, so you can decide which is the best deal (with shipping costs) for what you're interested in.

This idea actually grew out of the idea of finding local bookstores around the world to sell Harry Potter books in their local languages. In the US, it's fairly easy to get Spanish and French books, but it is much harder to get Japanese or Slovak books, for example. I might start a separate site for something like that, and link the two sites, kind of like UZ and GL do.

I know there's *so much* stuff available online (free, if not necessarily legal), but I would really love to see a site where people could LEGALLY get their hands on the books they want in and about other languages. I know this will not happen overnight (although, if I could get someone like Benny onboard ... hehehe), but I am planning to start working on this over the next month or two. If anyone happens across this and would be interested in helping me promote such a site once it's running, please let me know! (My email is at the bottom of the page.)

Subtitles

http://www.podnapisi.net/en

http://www.allsubs.org/

Old 2012-2013 Super Challenge Page

http://justpaste.it/Kerrie4

http://justpaste.it/edit/1020572/7370c921

Email: kerrieann1975 (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Kerrie's 2014 Super Challenge & More

The Super Challenge

Goal for Spanish 2014-2015 (Double) Super Challenge

Frozen (2013)

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)

Goal for French 2014-2015 (Double) Super Challenge

Assimil Books I want to get to