Konmari'ing My House! How did it go?

Last year I heard about this Marie Kondo book and grabbed a copy for my Kindle. I'm not an avid reader but I'm always wanting to be tidy (have been the exact opposite my whole life) so gave the book a shot. I think I gave up after the first chapter and put a Google alert out for the then upcoming Netflix show.

Viola! Google alerted me mid December that January 1st was the day, so on my countdown calendar it went and January 1st I sat down and watched all 4 or 5 episodes. How nice I thought and put it out of my mind. Then the spark hit me. Maybe it was all the chatter, or articles about overflowing Goodwill donations, I wanted to try it myself, so January 21th everything in my closets were put on the bed. I quickly read blog posts, watched folding videos online and went to work. It wasn't until January 29th that I actually read through and finished the book. Verdict on the book now? Love. Here's what happened:

Category 1 - Clothing: 2 weeks (Mostly the weekends)

"Oh, I'll do clothes on Saturday and all the rest (shoes/boots, coats, socks, scarves, handbags) on Sunday. Well, that didn't quite work out.

Saturday and Sunday came and went and clothes were mostly complete. Oh, except for shoes/boots, socks, coats, scarves, bags. I felt like a failure but then realized this was the real deal, and if I was going to do through the process it may take time. I figured, okay, and since I'm going all in I'd better read the book. Eye opener. The book tied all the pieces together and I was able to see the how everything works and filled in pieces I was missing. Very helpful. And it was a short read, maybe 3 hours if I recall correctly.

And the results:

Clothes...Got rid of 30% or more of my clothes. Even though I'd just regular de-cluttered 6 months ago! 2 days.

Socks...Got rid of about 80% of my tights (left myself 3) and 50% of my socks. Game changer. 3 hours.

Belts: 3 went away, kept 1 just in case and it sparks joy.

Handbags: Kept all of them, will revisit later, it's too hard to know what to do with them but I have less than a dozen. For now I've stored them inside one another as described in the book. "1 bag inside 1 bag, handles showing".

Shoes: Oh boy.
Donated 6 pair of shoes.
Tossed 3 that had seen better days.
All the rest fit, I think I have 22 pair of shoes/boots now.

Category 2, Books: No time flat.

Books. That was easy, I only had 15 books, culled it to 10.

Category 3, Paper: 2 days.

Easy, got rid of all my magazines, almost all my clippings, letters written to me by friends I no longer had in my life, etc. Got rid of about 80% of my paper. I did end up keeping 90% of my empty notebooks, I will definitely use them.

Category 4: Komono. Forever. Harrowing. 

I'm so glad Marie Kondo says the system only needs to be done once, because Komono was a nightmare. If you're not familiar, Komono is every single thing in your home that is not clothes, paper, books or sentimental. OMG. It was a nightmare. Stuff everywhere for weeks. But in the end I got rid of tons of stuff that never went during other declutter efforts. I got rid of all but a few pots/pans, 20% of my plateware/stemware/cups, etc. Out went 4 picture frames i wasn't using, 3 mirrors, 2 large blankets I wasn't using, 30% of my bedding, and even furniture pieces! Got rid of a storage piece I no longer needed because I got rid of so much stuff, got rid of a desk that I really liked but didn't use, etc, etc. Things were flying out of the house, I was doing weekly trips to Goodwill, animal adoption centers, fabric recycling stations, used book store, etc.

Funnily enough it was the under the kitchen sink that almost drove me to tears. It literally took me 8 hours that spanned 2 days for 1 cabinet under the sink that holds all my cleaning supplies. I thought I was going to lose it. But I didn't. I finished. Now all my cleansers and kitchen cleaning stuff has a nice home and everything has a place. Before? lol. bad.

I got to a weird place where there were things out that didn't fit places or I wasn't sure about whether they should stay or go, so with 90-95% of Komono done I moved onto category 5.

Category 5: Sentimental. Easy.

I barely had any so that was easy! I'm left with 2 photo albums and some campaign swag from 2 elections.

Then one morning I was continuing my process, putting away things here and there that were still out and about, I put away an item then turned around to find another thing to put away...what? Where is the stuff to put away? I looked around the bedroom...nothing, must be in the living area, nothing, kitchen? OMG, I'm done, I've put every single item I own out the door or in a perfectly accessible place that fits nicely and looks nice. I was done. I was stunned, almost frozen in place for a few seconds as I tried to process what was happening. What was happening was my place could not be any tidier than it was at that moment. Not one thing out of place and everything looked fabulous.

The whole things took a total of 5-7 weekends (small NYC apartment) as I didn't have weekday time except for a little bit here and there. But my life is so much better after Konmari. Upcoming: How have things been since.

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Mandarin Chinese learning apps, what’s out there and which are worth it...

Since May I’ve scoured the internet for materials and apps with which to learn Mandarin Chinese and I think I’ve used pretty much the majority of popular stuff out there. If I could afford all the time and money I'd probably use the whole lot, but time and money are finite for me so here’s what I found so far. What's out there and what's worth it, whether time or money. Warning, I am biased toward better navigation and interface, so you’ll see it mentioned here. 

Over several months I downloaded just about every popular Chinese learning app I could find (maybe 40+) that would work for A1-B1 levels (beginner to low intermediate) and played with all of them for weeks or more, kept what I love and deleted the rest. Highly recommend trying a number of them as some apps work well for some and not others. Almost all of the premium programs and add-ons have a trial period, definitely sign up, don’t forget to cancel if you don’t want it!  And many of them have deeper than usual sales twice a year, noted in comments. Without further ado, these 30 digital learning apps/programs are most of the ones I tried and find worth mentioning, and how to buy them for less.

Popular gamified learning apps:

HelloChinese, ChineseSkill, Mondly, Drops, LingoDeer, Duolingo, Memrise 

All are generally free with premium options. Hello and Skill are probably my 2 favorite. ChineseSkill has a fantastic amount of reading/listening materials in the immersion section, totally free and great as well as a writing section, games section, etc. Not often mentioned it’s a nice hidden gem. There are others, but these 7 are generally the best in this category. No in-depth reviews because really, they’re all quite similar (they teach a couple of words/grammar points/characters, then test and make cool noises when you guess right) and can be pretty basic but all good for beginners/elementary/low intermediate, recommend downloading close to a good 1/2 dozen. (I kept HelloChinese, ChineseSkill and Mondly).

Readers: All readers have listening so it’s really a 2 in 1.

Du Chinese $90 year, $12/month, 30% off discount a couple times a year, 50% off for students always. At a discount, worth it imo. Articles are extremely short though. Wish they had longer stories. Easily the nicest interface, and I love the easy access toggle options. (Kept this one). 

The Chairman Bao. $80 a year, they put 25% off codes up from time to time bringing it to $60 a year. It’s got a lot of content and is priced similar to DuChinese. Google for codes. I’d like to have this one as well, but I already have a reader so I’m good. Be on the lookout for deep discounts on black Friday.

Decipher: $5/month. Leveled by HSK but so many words at further levels while in lower reading levels, like 30% upwards of the reading level, so um… newp. Not for me. Great price though.

Ling Q: $100 a year, $10/month, 1 month $1 trials every so often. Style is messy and scattered, lots of material but I don’t like dealing with how messy it is. I can get enough from ChineseSkill free immersion section that I wouldn’t pay this amount for such a tough to navigate software program. C’mon LingQ. But if you can tolerate the mayhem, it's pretty good. And i believe they have codes that come out in December.

DuShu Chinese: (Android only) Not easy on the eyes for sure, and oh geez, what's this arrow for, cuz it looks exactly like one near it! Ooh, another button, what's this for...oh, i guess nothing cuz nothing is happening! Hate this type of user experience. I've tried it a half dozen times and honestly I just can't figure out wth is going on. That being said, it gets a 4.8 on GooglePlay store and I've seen a number of people recommend it, might be worth checking out...i guess.

Here’s a post online comparing 3 popular readers: https://www.alllanguageresources.com/du-chinese-vs-tcb-vs-decipher/

Character apps:

Skritter: Not pretty to look but gets the job done. $15/month. Geez, $$$. I've seen 33% off 6 months codes around. Not bad. And 50% off during black Friday. Makes it worth it if you plan on learning to write by memory (which i don't, so i passed).

TofuLearn: Free, ($3/month for premium, not necessary): A pleasure to use, excellent interface and features like easy click to etymology, lots of example sentences, stroke order, and more all together one click away. Awesome. Unfortunately the space repetition algorithm is pretty poor. Oh yeah, and they have major problems keeping their servers up which is unbelievably frustrating. But I just can’t stay away b/c learning new characters with this app is better than the rest (like a mini quiz after introduction of new characters). Honestly, the app is so good I actually put up with those egregious flaws. (Kept this one). 

Pleco character recognition and writing practice add-on ($10+ one time iirc). Haven't personally tried their add ons but Pleco add ons definitely seem worth. If you're on Pleco a lot consider their add ons, anything hooked up to a dictionary (like TofuLearn) is very useful.

Premium learning apps:

FluentU: (Subtitled Video & Audio w/ quizzes) $30 a month/$240 a year. Oh my. I have fluentU myself because of a study group I’m in we got a discounted rate. I probably wouldn’t buy a full year otherwise, I find it really expensive. That being said, I do use it every day, the quizzes are fantastic and really make you learn what they’re teaching. I’m only 3 weeks in but find it a very useful learning tool. Never seen them have a sale. Group rate: Price is $30 a year or less per person with group on 10 or more! Hope your Mandarin meetup group is ready to play! Or ask your school. Worth a shot. Great app/program. Just a little pricey. Oh, and no Android app, only iOS or browser. Hopefully they get Android soon, very nice app on iOS. And I'm really not even mad at their HSK Flashcards because it includes grammar points and again, their quizzes are really useful and well done.

ChinesePod: (Audio Lessons) $280 or so a year, 2x a year they do over 40% off. Wait for the sale. Seriously. Then it’s a very good price for what you get imo. You will often see complaints about the amount of English in beginning levels, I did find it annoying but in the end I do think the program is super useful as a supplement. Another criticism you’ll see/hear is that the vignettes/lessons aren’t related to each other at all, so you don’t get to hear your new words/phrases/etc in other lessons. Yeah, that’s a shame. If it had some continuity it would be even better and could even stand alone but it’s still a fantastic supplemental resource and the app is really fantastic imo. 5 different ways to interact with the lessons. Well worth the $140-$160 a year after discount!! I’ve seen them on 4^th of July and near black Friday.

Glossika: (Space repetition audio sentences) $30/month ($299 a year). What the??? It used to be $100 total all said and done for the downloadable Glossika files and book. Now it’s a subscription only model and an expensive one at that. I might pay for it for a handful of months of using it for 1-2 hours a day, but no way on the whole year. Not for me anyway. Nice and clean to use, still way out there for price. And even when they have a discount it's only one 1 month. Rude! If money is no issue, then maybe I’d do it. So basically yes worth the time, but $$$. Some people have the old downloadable Glossika files, might want to seek those out. I have them. They’re intense, take work but are definitely imo worth the time (and quite a bit of time at that, plan to do at least 1 hour of it a day). Skip if you a total beginner.

Yabla: (Video) Now here’s one I haven’t tried. $10 month/$100 year ($30 a year or less with group on 10 or more). And codes floating around range from 15-25% off annual. Apparently, it’s pretty similar to FluentU but with a lower price tag. Here’s someone’s review comparing the 2. Summary: FluentU is better.

The must haves:

Pleco. Dictionary app. $0.

A Spaced-Repetition Flashcard Software: Here are 6 I've tried worth mentioning: 

• Anki – free on Android, $25 on iOS; Super full-featured. Not pretty but no one does SRS like Anki. Personally I don't need all the features and didn't feel like spending the $25 but if you're into serious SRS option it's Anki. I do use it on my Android tablet for 1 specific deck i mention below.
• SmartCards+ ($8 year), it’s nice, I used it and like it. Nicer looker than Anki but not as  feature-rich; 
• Quizlet ($20, $12 when on sale). Nicer looking than Anki, what isn’t. Less feature rich;
• TofuLearn – Again, great app for learning characters with a built in dictionary, teaching quizes, stroke order, sentence examples, all on the first card! It's amazing. BUT! again, terrible SRS algorithm and no more support. Despite that all, it's still my favorite, it really has been amazing for getting to know each character from the very first time.
• Pleco also has an SRS feature via a $10 add on, which is a nice option because, like Tofu, it's connected to a Chinese-English dictionary for easy lookup of etymology, sentences, etc. Not a beauty by any means, but a dictionary feature is a game-changer for beginners/Intermediate. 
• Brainscape Free and nice to interact with, not as easy to receive free decks as the first 3 I mention but worth the effort if you need a free and pretty SRS app. Haven't worked with it much other than the decks they already have available, but i was quite addicted for a while. 

WikiChinese Grammar:  $0. Not an app but a great online resource for Chinese Grammar ordered by HSK level. 100% awesome.

Other:

‘Spoonfed Chinese’ SRS Flashcard deck of 6,000 sentences with natural speech audio, add it to your Anki. An alternative to making your own cards through sentence mining. $2. Have it, like it, wish I had more time for it. https://sellfy.com/p/RT2M/

Clozemaster: $0. A very popular context-based gamified fill in the blank spaced repetition software. I love the audio feedback on it, well done. Simple but has good features. Fun to use until it bores you but the science behind the method is real. Some may never get bored, I got over it after about 2-3 weeks. But it’s free and really useful. If i had more time I'd probably still be using it.

Italki: Skype tutoring at very good prices. If you use a referral link you get $10 free credits after buying a lesson. They range from $5 for 30 mins to $25 an hour depending on the teacher/tutor.

Textbooks: No, they’re not apps or digital software, the opposite really, but are a great resource for self learning a language and I would be remiss not to mention. If you like structure, think about getting a textbook series as your core learning material and then supplement with apps.

Integrated Chinese textbook series 3^rd or 4^th edition. They are very similar, better graphics in 4^th edition, nice punchy update, both are great. In the series there are: 4 textbooks, 4 workbooks, 4 character workbooks, and audio files. Way worth buying and using. Books in the series range from $30-$70. So $250 for the all 4 textbooks (worth it for sure) and etc for the rest. 3^rd edition really not much different from 4^th from what I understand, check ebay for 3^rd edition if the price of 4^th has you balking but I’d pick 4^th edition if the prices were close. I remember reading somewhere this is the most widely used Chinese textbook in the U.S., I believe it; and is one of the most popular recommendations I’ve seen online. I currently use the series and love it.

New Practical Chinese Reader: Very popular as well. This has 6 textbooks to the series (in addition to workbooks and audio) so maybe it can take you a little bit farther? No idea on that really, this I haven't tried.

Some people use 2 textbook series! Helps fill in the gaps. I use a number other supplements and just cannot handle another resource or i just might.

Other often recommended textbooks are: AudioVisual Chinese, Colloquial Chinese, Chinese Made Easy. Here’s a nice rundown comparing textbooks: https://www.fluentu.com/blog/chinese/2014/11/22/best-mandarin-chinese-language-textbooks-online/

Somewhat popular stuff I haven’t tried: Yabla, Speechling,Tandem, HelloTalk, Chinese101, Ninchinese. I think i tried Ninchinese for a brief moment and let it go immediately cuz i had better or equal stuff.

You’ll never get by with just 1 or even 2 if you really want to get a handle on the language. I use 1 from every category at least 5x a week. That’s Textbook (IC), Reader (Du), Premium course (fluentU), SRS (TofuLearn), other (Spoonfed). Damn that’s a lot, and yes, maybe even overkill. But they’re all really good as are a lot of the modern apps and programs out there. 

Oh yeah: Not worth the money OR the time: Rosetta Stone. I got it for free, even at $0 it was not worth the time, precious time that I could use learning through other methods or doing anything else.

That's it for now. Might come back with an extended FluentU review if I can actually get a streak going. Not easy to rack up points, that's for sure! If you have any questions, leave a comment...and... Happy learning!

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The New TCL 6 Series is Coming!

No choice, I had to write a blog post about this. What else is an obsessed girl to do.

I recently bought the 55" P605 TV from TCL and was starting to love it, but before my 15 days was up at Best Buy CES rolled around and out came the news that the 2018 version is coming out this spring, so off I go to return my P605 and begin the wait. Woot! and Ugh! The wait!

This is what TCL has to say so far about the 6-Series:

"TCL's 6-Series combines stunning 4K HDR picture performance and the award-winning Roku TV smart platform in a bold, brushed metal design for a superior TV experience. Dolby Vision delivers greater brightness and contrast, as well as a fuller palette of rich colors. With TCL’s Contrast Control Zones™, image contrast individually optimized across up to 120 zones to yield striking contrast between light and dark areas. The 6-Series models' iPQ Engine™ provides precise color replication (meaning out of the box without calibration) and HDR Pro Gamma™ to significantly improve HDR performance in any setting.

The 6-Series also features Wide Color™ with NBP Photon™ technology for even more realistic colors and performance closer to the limits of human vision. Powerful picture performance is complemented by the Roku OS with the most streaming content available and seamless access your cable box, Blu-ray player, gaming console, and other devices without flipping through inputs or complicated menus.

The 6-Series will be available in 55- and 65-inch models this Spring"

Of course I scoured the internet to see what I else could find about the TCL's 2018 6 Series' updated features and it delivered. Here's what we know so far, rumors included:

The physical:
-Variants: 55" and 65"
-Brushed metal finish
-Possibly a .2" bezel (4.8mm) according to this video hosted on TCL Kenya on youtube. The 2017 version was twice that.

And I'm not even mad at the cute little power jewel button they've added to the bottom bezel.

What's new on the inside:
-Increase in local dimming zones (from 72 to 96). 65" inch will be 120.
-Brighter and better contrast according to TCL
-"Wider viewing angles" according to the rep talking to Joelster in his awesome youtube video (see below)
-Decreased reflection (according to a CES TCL rep)
-Each TV optimized for color coverage right out of the box! There will still be room for calibration, but the average customer will be ahead of the game.

Pic from Joelster video of wider color angle:

Price: 
55" = $649. 
65" = No word yet but my guess, $999-$1,099

Release date?: "Spring" says TCL, which could mean any date before June 21st. Oh please don't make us wait too far past May 1. A couple of websites mentioned a scheduled Q1 release date, but I won't hold my breath.


Here are my 2 favorite videos about the R6/6 series taken during CES:

AVS Forum interviews Director of Product Development TCL North America, Aaron Dew.

Joelster 4K visits the TCL booth at CES: 

So far no one knows about the native refresh rate. Their marketing has touted a "240 natural motion rate" and one could take a guess that = a 120 native rate based on companies usually doubling their motion rate with marketing terms, but anything goes, so no guesses on that. Well, if I *were* to guess, I'd go with 60Hz. But that's just me.

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