do any of you guys use iFlash? OMG WHERE HAS IT BEEN ALL MY LIFE. You type out your flash cards, AND THEN IT SYNCHS WITH YOUR IPHONE, or older gen iPod, and you can obsessively learn vocabulary words wherever you might be. It’s AMAZING. Considering that this was my flash card pile from this semester, JUST THE FRENCH ONES:
This is really going to be a lifesaver going forward.
Anyway, as promised, here are some photos I took at the Dickens Fair. As they are taken with my iPhone because I forgot my camera, they are the worst photos in the world. But you’ll get the gist.
For the uninitiated, the Dickens Fair is sort of like comic-con, only just for Charles Dickens. They take an enormous space, in this case the Cow Palace, and decorate THE SHIT out of it to make it look like 19th Century Victorian era London streets. And I mean streets: the vendors and decorations are arranged in such a way that there are actual streets with names, and it has a grid pattern to it.
The vendors are ubiquitous, but at least they tend to be victorian-themed. For instance, there was a booth for walking sticks, another for corsets, another for antique books. Among the more out of place vendors: an absinthe bar (pictured below), a fortune-teller, a tarot card reader.
As you meander about (on the sawdust they throw down to represent the streets), various scenes break out around you. Scrooge and the ghost of Christmas future, an argument from Great Epectations, that scene where the kid from Oliver Twist morphs into a giant robot and fights the Decepticons, etc. It’s hard to tell the performance artists from the crowd sometimes, because, also like Comic-con, everyone dresses up in corsets and hoop skirts, or top hats and tails.
Oh oh, and along with the carnival food, there are carnival games, with, you guessed it, a Dickensian Twist. See also: hit the see-saw thing with the hammer and fling the chimney sweep into the chimneys, throw this boot and hit one of those cats, etc.
Pretty hilarious, overall. Unfortunately, for those of us with EXTREMELY limited funds, there wasn’t a whole lot to do, outside of watching the free, community-theater-only-louder-and-more-depressing style shows on the various stages.
BONUS: TINY CHILDREN IN VICTORIAN GARB.
ANOTHER BONUS: I finally saw a real-live Steampunker, so I actually know what one IS now.
Charles Dickens himself (although if you ask me, he's a little more Darwin than Dickens).
that dude was especially creepy. He was just silently slinking around all day.
"Am I in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come?
absinthe bar! complete with absinthe boobs behind Jeff, there. She was hot. Sayin'.
I'VE GOT A BIKE YOU CAN RIDE IT IF YOU LIKE
Overall, it was nerdarific. But it also got me thinking about how all the festivals these days are structured this way. It reminded me of various Warped Tours, and Outside Lands. Purchase your tickets to get in. Then, here are the designated aisles we have designated for you to walk down, they are lined with the designated vendors, please purchase your designated items. While you’re here, please fill out this demographics survey which enters you in a raffle of some kind which you will never hear or think about again. If you like, while you are shopping, we have some entertainment available at the far ends, tucked away in corners, if you are so inclined.
But I’m not sure if that falls under “keen observation”, or “boy, you’re getting bitter in your old age”.
I’m sure you’ll all let me know. =)
I guess the only cure for embittered aging is more steam punk in your life.
as a study addict, may I also recommend Smart.fm? It is better for learning Asian languages, but that is only because there are a metric fuckton of lists of vocab already there. But the flashcard creation is not terribly hard, there is an iphone app which is free, and the study method(ESPECIALLY for chinese characters and other images) is stellar, because it tests you in target language -> native language, and vice versa, and makes you spell it correctly, and that is just the basic mode for things that are in roman script.
And you can add sound. Or pictures. Or full sentences.
There is even a mode where you have to choose the correct word in under a half second, recreating the stress of recognizing words fired at you at native level.
and there are lists for other pieces of knowledge you need to cram into your head. for example, flashcards for works of art, molecular structure, geography, et cetera.
I cannot recommend it enough.
neat! in iFlash’s defense, you can use full sentences, link to websites, add audio, photos, etc. Sounds pretty similar, except for the under half a second part.
The only problem I seem to be having is that if I write too much, it doesn’t adjust the font, it just cuts it off.