How to practice Spanish

I've been learning Spanish for quite some time now. Here's how I practice:

get a notebook and write down all new words you learn and review them multiple times.  (or use a flashcard program on some device)

use Spanish RSS feeds - in your Google Reader or something similar (with this, for example)

use sharedtalk.com and chat with people in Latin America (so fun!)

read spanish (children's) books and take the time to look up words you don't know

be extremely hopeful and grab a novel. i started '100 years of solitude' and tried to trudge through it. i only made it to like the 10th page because of all the odd vocab in it, but it's a way to sort of 'brunt force' your way into learning new words.

that newspaper REFLEJOS in the IL 'burbs is great, it's also online. they cover interesting stories that the mainstream papers don't. their crosswords are fun and super easy.

when i was in Costa Rica i got something similar to 'reader's digest' which was an easy-ish periodical to read, with less pressure to read it than a newspaper which gets obsolete in a few days

my favorite spanish teacher showed me this website which has a lot of entertaining quizzes. her homepage also has tons of links, some of which may prove helpful (let me know if you find any)

i repeat: diligently look up words when you see them and don't know them. write them down with their translations and go over the list routinely (daily/weekly/whenever you're bored)

read BBC news headlines or headlines from the papers in a specific country - look up words in the headlines you don't know. if you find a story interesting, read/skim it.

watch a spanish news channel or tv show (online or on tv), or short videos, better yet kid's shows or cartoons...

use a flash card program like mnemosyne to practice the words you've recently looked up

to take a step further, learn the basic structure of verbs, past, present, future and conditional/indicative/

subjunctive so you have a framework into which to place these vocab words as you learn them (this is more advanced and requires more practice than the rest)

read something you're interested in -- i started reading some pablo neruda poetry which is so good in so many ways. he writes very well. i also like reading lyrics to songs i listen to. specifically, jarabe de palo (grooveshark!) is a spanish group that has pretty clear lyrics and worth translating for the poetics.

or SOME COMBINATION THEREOF...do what works and what you enjoy. depending on whatever else is happening in my life these different techniques have come in handy - a flashcard program is much more useful when i'm learning lots of vocab, or want to learn a lot fast. ...whereas mostly what i do now is read news to keep abreast of what's going on specifically in costa rica. la nacion (their newspaper) and a spanish word of the day page pop up every time i open my browser.

make things routine (like a homepage you always see, or doing 5-10 minutes of flash cards every day, or every Saturday)

Updates (7/19/2012):

• This site has a lot of videos
• This has also been very useful in writingtyping in Spanish. Using multiple keyboards and quickly being able to switch with Alt+Shift makes putting accents and other characters (á, ñ) in text super easy.
• Radio Ambulante is a non-profit org dedicated to producing high quality Spanish podcasts similar to NPR -- and has a great "about us" video.
• RTVE is a huge website that hosts Spanish-language videos from news to TV shows and documentaries.  I especially like: Españoles en el mundo about the lives of Spaniards who have relocated to other countries.
• I recently heard of Gladys Palmera's site which has a lot of streaming music and radio.
• Oh, and I recently watched the movie Tambien la Lluvia, it's great!
• Finally, I've been compiling awesome music on Youtube in my Español playlist.

Updates (8/20/2012):

• An awesome video from my friend Toño on the difficulties of learning Spanish 

Updates (10/8/2012):

• All levels of podcasts from Notes in Spanish

Are you learning a second language?  What do you do that's helpful/fun/educational?  Please share!

gum navigation?

Gum can be found everywhere, but a more attentive examination reveals that it reaches maximum density in the vicinity of the most frequented bars: the chewer who is headed there is forced to spit out to free his mouth. As a result, the stranger, not familiar with the city, could find these places following the direction of the more thickly massed gum blobs...

Reposted from here.