Chinese stringed instruments and thunder snow

Called Auntie Ying, and told her about recent events - no, I didn't tell her last week since it didn't seem relevant to the conversation. But I told her NOW, heh... only because she asked why I needed to get my glasses fixed! Discussed respect, frames, grudges, stress, how my mother did something WRONG, hitting, trust, eating, co-workers, religion, prayer, how she noticed I was a bit down on Sunday (I hope it wasn't that obvious to EVERYONE!), the Olympics, and more stuff. It was an interesting conversation - we know Amanda and Conor like us. I definitely have known Amanda for almost all her life, and I know Conor will talk to me. He spelled "from" by himself on Sunday, evidently remembering what I'd told him the week before - yay! Also talked to Corey about Chinese stringed instruments:

[23:18:51] mrptptpt: hello? MSN keeps saying my messages can't be delivered
[23:18:51] mrptptpt: The following message could not be delivered to all recipients:
Corey says:
so are you going to eat sticky rice balls on Sunday for the Lantern Festival? today in English class, I learned that that's what all the cool kids do
the teacher said "stinky," though... but she wrote "sticky," so I'm pretty sure that's what she meant
[23:20:51] AlenaBrolxFlami: MSN just disconnected me, saying I had an invalid password
[23:21:37] mrptptpt: it says you're online for me
[23:21:55] AlenaBrolxFlami: no, no sticky rice balls - my mom banned me from the house, remember?
[23:22:18] AlenaBrolxFlami: because I just reconnected
[23:22:40] mrptptpt: no, I don't remember that
[23:26:06] mrptptpt: you said she got mad that you didn't do the dishes...
[23:45:06] AlenaBrolxFlami: I thought I told you that she banned me from the house, which was an aspect of her getting mad
[23:47:48] mrptptpt: well, I'll give you some tips on how to get along with Chinese people if you want :P they all seem to like me here! the English teacher wants to take me to see a kung-fu guy or something (I think it's a tai chi instructor) for some kind of demonstration, and she's arranging for some girl to come in and play music for me on one of those Chinese dealies... the flat-stringed instrument that you lay down flat on a table / lap / etc.? they told me the name in Chinese, but I need to hear Chinese words like 15 times before they stick
[23:48:24] AlenaBrolxFlami: I don't know the name of that one, sorry
[23:49:04] AlenaBrolxFlami: you're like a novelty there! white man in the city, yo! :P
[23:50:16] AlenaBrolxFlami: it's like Eric and Jeremy going to my Chinese church
[23:50:19] mrptptpt: you probably know what I mean, though :P if not, I guarantee you've heard it before. they showed me one, but they didn't know how to play it well... they just wanted to show me some Chinese instruments, since some people were practicing some in another room, and we could hear it from our classroom
[23:50:56] AlenaBrolxFlami: picture?
[23:52:41] AlenaBrolxFlami: well, I guess you can't if you don't know the English name
[23:53:50] mrptptpt: it's rectangular and has 16 strings. there's a diagonal bridge that goes across the strings, and you apparently just change the tone by pressing down on one side of the string (while playing a note on the other side)
[23:54:17] mrptptpt: they're in all kinds of kung-fu movies and stuff, and apparently it's a pretty well-known Chinese instrument. I'm looking for pictures
[23:54:57] mrptptpt: looks like you call it a Zither in English... I think... that's just from some Google results. it takes a while to load them on here :P
[23:56:33] AlenaBrolxFlami: and I was just going to say that based on my Google results, it's called a guzheng :P
[23:56:35] mrptptpt: well, I'm not totally sure this is exactly it... they said the traditional ones have 16 strings, and the modern ones have 21. the bridge wasn't THAT diagonal on the one they showed me
[23:57:01] mrptptpt: shorter, with more open string area away from the bridge thing
[23:57:35] AlenaBrolxFlami: well, I put in "Chinese zither," and the first bunch of results are about the guzheng :P (off phone now, so I can type faster - whee!)
[23:58:20] mrptptpt: if you just run your finger across it without doing anything, it plays a series of notes that you hear a lot in old Chinese music and stuff. if you could hear me, I could try to mimic that, and you'd recognize it
[23:59:47] mrptptpt: this is what they were practicing on... a two-stringed thing. they always write in Chinese on the board to show me the names of Chinese things... since I can't read them, it doesn't really help much at all :P but er is two, and I know the character for two, so I asked why it's named "two-something"... two strings
[00:00:25] AlenaBrolxFlami: haha... you're probably right... and I've heard an erhu before, some time ago
[00:01:49] mrptptpt: well, just use Wikipedia :P
[00:02:10] mrptptpt: I think the picture in the "history" section is pretty much the same as what they showed me
[00:06:14] AlenaBrolxFlami: that's pretty nice, then
[00:09:52] mrptptpt: I told them I have a guitar, so I guess they think I'm really into music :P I did tell them that I wasn't really good at it
[00:10:54] mrptptpt: if they want me to play, we can go to an arcade... they do have GuitarFreaks V6 all over the place here (GuitarFreaks is the Japanese game that Guitar Hero sort of copied)
[00:11:45] mrptptpt: I've never played it though, and apparently it's not very easy... I don't play it at home since it's not REALLLY compatible with Guitar Hero guitars, and the best solution involves switching between the guitar for songs and a regular controller every time you go back to a menu
[00:18:08] AlenaBrolxFlami: haha... well, I guess that's something you can do for bonding time or whatever
[00:21:09] mrptptpt: I don't know how you do it, but you can link GuitarFreaks and DrumMania machines (if they're the same type, which they are at all the arcades I've been to that have them here), and have someone on guitar and someone on drums. I should try those out before I leave, even though they're probably pretty hard
[00:21:19] mrptptpt: still no sign of Pop'n Music, though
[00:21:26] mrptptpt: that's what I really want to play
[00:23:15] AlenaBrolxFlami: does Jane know anything about which arcades would have it?
[00:24:46] mrptptpt: not really, but she's a lot more outgoing than me... so when we're walking around somewhere, I can just ask her where they are... and she doesn't know, so she just asks whoever is nearby on the street... and most of the time, they know and seem happy to help :P I know how to say "excuse me, can I ask a question?" and I know "where is," but I don't think I know enough to actually ask where something is, since I don't know the words for the somethings :P
[00:32:16] AlenaBrolxFlami: yeah, that would be a challenge...

Trivia fact for Friday, Feb. 26: What is thunder snow? A rare winter thunderstorm that is accompanied by lightning and a heavy snowfall instead of rain.