Homophones and Kanji... Yuck

Today I sat down at iKnow... it still wanted me to do 40... so I did.

I've got this nightmarish conundrum I'm trying to sort out.
If I'm saying them correctly...

締める - shimeru - tighten, fasten
閉める - shimeru - close
閉まる - shimaru - be closed
開く - hiraku - open

They're all so similar it's hard to come up with ways to memorize! ugh...

I've also got
きれい(kirei) - clean, pretty
嫌い - kirai - hated, disliked

single vowel differences are a pain for me.
You'd think it'd be easier... like clean v. clone in English... but nope.

Two notable things I learned...
六日 - muika - 6 days, 6th of month
六つ - muttsu - six (things)
I need to learn the whole list of these...

I learned this too.
晴れる - hareru - to be sunny(weather)
It's easy, because it sounds close to "haru", which is 春, spring (season


I've been a little slow at responding to answers... I need to work on focusing better.

My other interesting misc were:
直る - naoru - be repaired, return to normal
お姉さん - older sister (another form... i need to go look up lists and differences. I think this is formal)
辺 - hen - vicinity, area, part
易しい - yasashii - easy, simple


The sentence I'm studying for the day is this:
私はパンよりご飯が好きだ。
I prefer rice over bread (or the other way around, i can't remember)
I'm trying to figure out how comparisons work.

More Practice... and Starting A Song!!!

Today I finally sat down and found something!!!

It's in the early stages i.e. 1 verse, opener & chorus, but it's good!

No spoiler, I don't like to show my work 'till I'm done, but I can say the focus chord is Dm.

I'm using Dm, Am, G, C, and A.

Dunno if there will be another in the bridge (not there yet) but it's good. i like it.
It's not all strumming, there's a bit of picking to it i may continue to modify and mess with.

I'm getting better with practice at guitar cardio. In case you haven't yet received my recommendation, it's a MUST for those that want to get good at guitar.

I have a link to the left.

I still need to name the song. That's in the works, too.

Water Drop Attempt

I haven't had time to figure out what I wanted...
It seems like the only good ways to do water are with a camera.

This is a piece of practice... I almost didn't show it. I am trying to learn to do cool water... this is comparatively lame.

It's not too bad, though. I'm learning, at least. The basics are layer styles. They are the easiest way to imitate water.

There are a large number of tutorials I've collected that I haven't had time to to that are worth a look.
Two significant ones are:
Water from a tap
Dark Rain - my favorite

These are out of 40 Tutorials I found a list of.

I hope to do SOMETHING april-themed... just dunno what.
NO EASTER EGGS. Sorry. I'm putting my foot down.

What do you think I should do? I'm saving flowers for spring.

iKnow I'm Falling Behind...

Well, iknow yelled at me tonight for falling behind - it wanted me to do like, 50 of them!
Fat chance. It's late and i've got to get to bed.
I did 30, and only two words in each were new, some of them dumb numbers/weekdays still.

Today I will forbear a list, as there's little new anyway.

Here's the interesting stuff.

こっち(kocchi) - here
(i need to look up the "there" equivalent...)

開く - hiraku - open

つける(tsukuru) - switch on (to go with kesu- 消す - switch off !)

乾く - kawaku - be thirsty
二つ - futatsu - two things

Here's some I pulled from the example sentences.
The first was from "God, spirit" and other was from "why"
信じる - shinjiru - to believe/trust/have faith (in) (religious word)
泣く - naku - to cry
Tomar v. Tomaru
I have a language confusion I'm trying to sort out.
In español, to take, consume (like medicine) is "tomar"
In 日本語, to stay (overnight) (i.e. in a hotel) is "tomaru"

It makes memorizing 泊まる (tomaru) a pain.