Tag Archives: Other and sundry things

The State of Affairs

26 Jul

When I began this blog, I wanted to make it 100% about metal detecting. To this end, I have avoided talking too much about myself and my life outside the hobby.

However, a monumental decision forces me to come here and talk about it. I have decided to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. The Japanese Language Proficiency Test or JLPT for short, is offered outside of Japan only twice a year and in the U.S. in particular, only once every December. Passing the test gets me absolutely nothing in the US (maybe) but I think it’s important if one wants to work in Japan. My reason for taking it is simply to get awesomeness points but who knows? I may end up with a new career in the Land Of The Rising Sun!

I maintain a separate blog where I post about my goal of becoming a polyglot. I am not promoting it at the moment because it kinda lacks pizzazz. That will change shortly since I began posting in Italian and soon, will start posting in Japanese and Portuguese as well. The last language I will post in is Arabic.

Learning foreign languages has turned out to be one of the funest things I’ve done in my life. Once I overcame the misconception that only people with some kind of magical native talent could learn foreign languages (which is funny since I’ve been fully bilingual most of my adult life), the whole thing became a blast. The secret is hard work. That’s it. Nothing else. Just good ol’ elbow grease. There are many, many polyglots online. Most of them are young people but there are some old foggies like me as well.

So, please forgive my indulgence as I talk about something other than metal detecting but I just had to do it.

Thank you for looking!

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Tragedy strikes!

4 Nov

Ok, it seems like tragedy to me…

Towards the end of my lunch time hunt yesterday I set my Pro down to dig a shallow quarter signal. I reached for the Lesche ( I use the Lesche to dig shallow targets) and not paying any attention to where I had laid down the detector I stabbed it on the screen! I have scratched the screen before but those were loving caresses compared to what I did to it this time.

broken at pro

I almost broke through the LCD screen as well

I damaged a few pixels on the LCD screen but I think it’s still not broken. I did tear a good size gash on the plastic cover, rendering the unit unfit for aquatic maneuvers (or for rain hunting for that matter). The Pro took it like a man and still works fine. I don’t want to take any chances however so while it’s gone to the infirmary, I will be hunting with my trusty gold-sniffing yellow wonder, the Ace 250.

Thank you for looking!