Bemused ramblings some dude says on the internet
The June 60 pedal is supposed to be a recreation of the Roland Juno-60. The June 60 has a mono input and either mono or stereo output. It has a switch which makes this toggleable, a switch to turn turn the effect on or off, and two buttons. There’s a V2, but I’ve heard mixed things about it.
The pedal itself is well made and looks great.… Read the rest
Paul Rouzer’s A New Primer of Literary Chinese is pretty much the best book of its class that I’ve seen. It covers literary Chinese for English speakers looking to learn in a self-contained package. The book does not build on any specific series and is completely standalone. By being standalone, it is suitable for pretty much any learning path. It also covers the Japanese Kanbun pronunciations as well as Korean Hanja pronunciations.… Read the rest
Zen wasn’t the first thing to get me into meditation, but it was the most impactful. I have been on and off for following the habits I should, and while getting back into meditation after a long break, I read (and reread) a bunch of introductory Zen books to get back in the swing of things. Some I had read before, others were completely new to me.… Read the rest
Sound Kapital: Beijing’s Music Underground is a quick rundown of the underground music scene in Beijing as of around 2007. The music on the included CD runs the gamut from indie rock to straight up punk or hardcore. This book isn’t so much a book as a quick introduction to the artists and the scene and a massive collection of gorgeous photography detailing each artist.… Read the rest
Teach Yourself: Get Talking Thai in 10 Days and Conversational Thai in 7 Days are both quick and simple language guides for learning the fundamentals to get the most out of a vacation. Both works feature David Smyth as an author, but Conversational Thai in 7 Days also features Somsong Buasai as an author. Both of these works aim to fill roughly the same role, namely, basic language guides for usage during actual travel to Thai.… Read the rest
ReviewDisclaimer]
Basic Chinese: A Grammar and Workbook by Yip Po-ching and Don Rimmington is one of the first serious grammar books I bought for learning Chinese. I have been rereading through it since a few people have asked me about suggested grammar books for learning Mandarin and I wanted to see if it was like I remembered. Overall, for an intermediate-beginner or higher, this book is a solid home run.… Read the rest