Simple ones first: I finally remembered what the formal name of the deck is, and it's called Gateway to the Divine tarot, so I guess that matches up with the Drama. I'm... not entirely sure it does in scale, but in perspective it lines up well enough.
No, the question of what languages I study is only second simplest. XD I am currently learning for the first time: Arabic and Hindi, using textbooks and assistance from internet friends and various videos and sites for listening. I am currently reviewing/learning for the second time: Japanese and Latin. I took Latin in middle school (age 13-15 roughly) and Japanese in college, so it's mostly review and refreshing but also some learning, or at least, trying to embed it more deeply. I am currently maintaining, which is to say running simple grammar exercises and reading in the language: Spanish, French, German, and Russian. And Irish, though it's more grammar and less reading since Irish is much much less widely spread. And I'm able to do this because of Courtesan School, and because of mad starting bonuses (in RPG terms), which is to say I grew up going to a bilingual primary school and in a bilingual household. English-Spanish. As far as I can tell from articles, this means my brain has more... plasticity? I multitask easier and make connections easier, I certainly learn languages easier. Plus it's also just plain fun for me.
Courtesan School! Oh boy, it's been seven ... seven and a half years, almost, I feel old. It started out on Christmas, I think Christmas Day, when I was unhappy with where I was in life and my friends were also unhappy with where we were in life and we were all groaning on chat, and I dragged us into a group chat so we could groan together. And we decided to all try and improve our lives together. We had the usual things, lose weight, dress better. We had some less usual things, I wanted to learn German and Russian, another friend wanted to learn Spanish. We wanted to pick up old hobbies, etc. I had off and on been enamored with The Book of the Courtesans, so that was what we called ourselves, because courtesans historically have been women (and sometimes men) who took power from their strengths, for themselves, without a pre-determined place in society or socially acceptable path to acquire power. We started with some pretty simple goals, and we set ourselves to check in once a week to see how we were doing.
And after that we sort of because it was best practices, sort of organically fell into an approach of, every check-in we looked at what we were doing. Was it working? If not, why not? If we could identify why not, what could we change about it? And doing that every week forced us to look more closely not just at what we were doing but also why that approach, what were the differences between theory and practice, why were those different. What were our strengths and our weaknesses, and how could we make both work for us.
Seven years later! Oof, let's see. Just for myself I have lost and kept off about 15 pounds, which doesn't seem like much except I only needed to drop about 35 and I've managed to go down and stay down one jeans size. I've built up considerable muscle, and I generally feel better. I'd say I'm eating better but... kind of? I'm cooking for the household far more often, I'm eating a lot less processed food, we'll say that. I'm still too fond of cream sauces for my own good. >.> No, I guess I am eating better. My skin has cleared up, and I feel much healthier. I've developed an ability to do a ridiculous number of things in a day, just for starters, my day involves reviewing five languages on Duolingo and Memrise (somehow I added Italian in there, it's not a concentrated study I just learn it in very small bits and pieces for funsies), reading in 2 or 3 besides English, writing fiction, doing a day job, exercising, sometimes cooking and sometimes more like throwing pre-prepped food from the weekend together to make a meal, picking up in the house, keeping track of correspondence, reading, working on craft projects, tending the garden etc. So, time management! One of the best things I learned about CS, keeping a schedule even to the day to day things and getting much better at estimating how much time it'll take me to do a thing if it's related to stuff I do anyway. Which is a skill you don't always realize is a skill, but it's so very helpful. I've gotten much much better at adding new habits in, through that "is it working? if not why not? how best to change" process. I've gotten somewhat gentler with myself in learning things, and I think generally I'm a lot happier, more confident in myself, and wiser in ways that don't just have to do with aging seven years. Also I'm way better at communicating problems with my closest friends before they become problems, or at least, raising the issue since communication, always a two-way street.
Anyway. So that's Courtesan School in about as brief as I can make myself make it. :) Making small changes in our lives, building ourselves up to be the best whoever-we-are we can be, learning how to be in touch with ourselves such that we can identify "no this is not me" and discard it if possible, or at least discard it as far away as possible so that we can be, as the saying goes, our most authentic selves. Which in turn makes our lives easier and happier.
no subject
No, the question of what languages I study is only second simplest. XD I am currently learning for the first time: Arabic and Hindi, using textbooks and assistance from internet friends and various videos and sites for listening. I am currently reviewing/learning for the second time: Japanese and Latin. I took Latin in middle school (age 13-15 roughly) and Japanese in college, so it's mostly review and refreshing but also some learning, or at least, trying to embed it more deeply. I am currently maintaining, which is to say running simple grammar exercises and reading in the language: Spanish, French, German, and Russian. And Irish, though it's more grammar and less reading since Irish is much much less widely spread. And I'm able to do this because of Courtesan School, and because of mad starting bonuses (in RPG terms), which is to say I grew up going to a bilingual primary school and in a bilingual household. English-Spanish. As far as I can tell from articles, this means my brain has more... plasticity? I multitask easier and make connections easier, I certainly learn languages easier. Plus it's also just plain fun for me.
Courtesan School! Oh boy, it's been seven ... seven and a half years, almost, I feel old. It started out on Christmas, I think Christmas Day, when I was unhappy with where I was in life and my friends were also unhappy with where we were in life and we were all groaning on chat, and I dragged us into a group chat so we could groan together. And we decided to all try and improve our lives together. We had the usual things, lose weight, dress better. We had some less usual things, I wanted to learn German and Russian, another friend wanted to learn Spanish. We wanted to pick up old hobbies, etc. I had off and on been enamored with The Book of the Courtesans, so that was what we called ourselves, because courtesans historically have been women (and sometimes men) who took power from their strengths, for themselves, without a pre-determined place in society or socially acceptable path to acquire power. We started with some pretty simple goals, and we set ourselves to check in once a week to see how we were doing.
And after that we sort of because it was best practices, sort of organically fell into an approach of, every check-in we looked at what we were doing. Was it working? If not, why not? If we could identify why not, what could we change about it? And doing that every week forced us to look more closely not just at what we were doing but also why that approach, what were the differences between theory and practice, why were those different. What were our strengths and our weaknesses, and how could we make both work for us.
Seven years later! Oof, let's see. Just for myself I have lost and kept off about 15 pounds, which doesn't seem like much except I only needed to drop about 35 and I've managed to go down and stay down one jeans size. I've built up considerable muscle, and I generally feel better. I'd say I'm eating better but... kind of? I'm cooking for the household far more often, I'm eating a lot less processed food, we'll say that. I'm still too fond of cream sauces for my own good. >.> No, I guess I am eating better. My skin has cleared up, and I feel much healthier. I've developed an ability to do a ridiculous number of things in a day, just for starters, my day involves reviewing five languages on Duolingo and Memrise (somehow I added Italian in there, it's not a concentrated study I just learn it in very small bits and pieces for funsies), reading in 2 or 3 besides English, writing fiction, doing a day job, exercising, sometimes cooking and sometimes more like throwing pre-prepped food from the weekend together to make a meal, picking up in the house, keeping track of correspondence, reading, working on craft projects, tending the garden etc. So, time management! One of the best things I learned about CS, keeping a schedule even to the day to day things and getting much better at estimating how much time it'll take me to do a thing if it's related to stuff I do anyway. Which is a skill you don't always realize is a skill, but it's so very helpful. I've gotten much much better at adding new habits in, through that "is it working? if not why not? how best to change" process. I've gotten somewhat gentler with myself in learning things, and I think generally I'm a lot happier, more confident in myself, and wiser in ways that don't just have to do with aging seven years. Also I'm way better at communicating problems with my closest friends before they become problems, or at least, raising the issue since communication, always a two-way street.
Anyway. So that's Courtesan School in about as brief as I can make myself make it. :) Making small changes in our lives, building ourselves up to be the best whoever-we-are we can be, learning how to be in touch with ourselves such that we can identify "no this is not me" and discard it if possible, or at least discard it as far away as possible so that we can be, as the saying goes, our most authentic selves. Which in turn makes our lives easier and happier.