So...

*I got drafted on the spurr of the moment to take my little sister and a friend of hers to see Taken, this evening. All-in-all it was actually pretty good. Generally I have an iffy relationship with action movies. Swaggering, cocky heroes tend to get on my nerves unless they're particularly well-done. (*cough*TheDoctor*cough*) Of course, in this case, the star was Liam Neeson, so we had none of that silliness. The closest he gets is a tiny smirk when he outwits the French government officials who try to trap him and deport him. The man means business, and I liked that.

After all, he should mean business; his daughter's been kidnapped by white slavers. Fortunately for him, he can draw on his career as a government ninja to get her back. Well, not really a ninja. He never fully explains what he was, aside from saying he was a "Preventer." Suffice it to say: he is a good man, capable of doing very bad things to very bad guys, and he comes at them with all of the skills of his training, and all of the wrath of a father protecting his child.

If you liked Man on Fire, you'll probably like this.

*Tomorrow's the big show, Cirqu du Soleil's Saltimbanco! *wiggles* I'm probably not going to get any sleep, but it'll be worth it...

*I'm really liking this Japanese Coach game. A lot of these earlier bits are just taking me through the basics, some of which I already knew, some of which I was able to grock that hadn't actually been explained, and some of it new.

Things grocked:

Desu! (pronounced "des") It's a simple little word placed at the end of most present-tense sentences. It stands for "is", "are" and "am" all at once. It is, essentially, "to be".

Also: Wa! It has no direct translation, but it indicates the subject of a sentance, by being placed after it.

In English sentances, you have them in the order of Subject, Verb, Object. In Japanese sentances, it's generally Subject, Object, Verb.

So, "I am American"
Would be "Watashi wa Amerikajin desu."

Or "This is a car."
Would be "Kore wa kuruma desu."

New things: Tenses!

The past tense of "desu" is "deshita" (pronounced "deshta"). It serves as both "was" and "were".

The negative form of "desu" is "dewa arimasen" (deh-wah ah-ree-mah-seh-n), aka "isn't" and "aren't".

To get the past negative ("weren't"/"wasn't") you combine the two: "dewa arimasen deshita"

None of this changes the order of the sentance. You just tack it on instead of "desu".

All of that's formal. There are also informal forms, used when speaking to close friends and younger family members.

Informal forms:
desu = da
deshita = datta (dah--tah)
dewa arimasen = ja nai (jyah nah-ee)
dewa arimasen deshita = ja nakatta (jyah nah-kah--tah)