But I did make that pot of coffee today - yay!

And it was great. I recently got this bag of New Mexico Pinon coffee, a mix of roasted coffee beans and pinon pine nuts. Plenty of coffee beans, and yet I'm still looking for the pinon nuts - oh well. Anyway, tonight I have (yet) another rehearsal for the UCSB Javanese gamelan - we might try out a more spiritual piece today, one that's played only once every year in the court centers of Yogyakarta and Solo (also known as Surakarta). I'll probably put up some photos as well.

Anyway, I took my fourth Korean test today - I'm expecting that I've aced it. Hmm... I've also done some data transcribing of some Balinese. It just takes a looong time. And Balinese is one of those languages where the pronunciation of consonants is a bit more "subtle" than in languages like English or German. The consonants are like those in other Western Austronesian languages like Tagalog. (BTW, don't get me started on people mispronouncing that name as "tag a log" - it's definitely not that. It should be [ta.GA:.lohg], with stress and length on the second syllable - minor rant...) Anyway, when I hear foreigners try to pronounce Tagalog words, there's usually something disconcerting with their consonants and stress. Tagalog consonants do not have that much "aspiration", or that puff of air that accompanies the p's, t's, and k's that are in the beginning of words like 'pie', 'tie', and 'kite'. It's a similar situation with Balinese consonants, perhaps even more so.

Anyhow, how's your aspiration :)?