Month: April 2018

Caveat: Makaska

Banalities & Journaling / Geofiction

[This is a cross-post from my other blog.]

Work has been quite rough, lately. So I haven’t done much of anything geofictional.

However, isleño recently took AR120 “live” in OGF. AR120 is meant to be a kind of OGF version of the US. And I had long planned to make a state in this country. I gave up the vast majority of my territory in Mahhal (returning it to the unused country pool as AN160e) and exchanged it for a smallish “Great Lakes” state. This state will be Makaska.

Makaska is roughly modeled on Minnesota, and other upper midwest locations (Wisconsin, Michigan, Dakotas). It has a large, isthmic metropolis, called Ohunkagan – this is real-world Dakota language, which I studied once, long ago. Many of the place-names in Makaska will be from Dakota, including the actual state’s name.

I have actually done a lot of work on Makaska. But its shape was vague because I wasn’t sure which location I would get in OGF to implement it. So it was kind of schematic, with all these fragments of contour sections, hydrology, counties, etc.

Now I’ve begun the work of adapting these schemata to its actual location. I have more than 10 different JOSM layers, and I go back and forth, adjusting a river, rearranging some towns, etc. I used JOSM’s opendata plugin to upload about 300 placenames directly from a spreadsheet where I’d been working on them. So that’s a start.

Here’s a screenshot of the work-in-progress.

picture

Music to map by: Niloo, “Ola Ola.”

CaveatDumpTruck Logo

Caveat: a crust of truth

Not My Poetry

Cassandra

The mad girl with the staring eyes and long white fingers
Hooked in the stones of the wall,
The storm-wrack hair and screeching mouth: does it matter, Cassandra,
Whether the people believe
Your bitter fountain? Truly men hate the truth, they'd liefer
Meet a tiger on the road.
Therefore the poets honey their truth with lying; but religion—
Vendors and political men
Pour from the barrel, new lies on the old, and are praised for kindly
Wisdom. Poor bitch be wise.
No: you'll still mumble in a corner a crust of truth, to men
And gods disgusting—you and I, Cassandra.

– Robinson Jeffers (American poet, 1887-1962)

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: break and burn and end

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Not My Poetry

Well I guess I'm having a hard week. No further comment.

What I'm listening to right now.

Taylor Swift, "Begin Again." She's really quite a talented lyricist, in my opinion. Her language is both contemporarily authentic yet still meets a lot of the traditional criteria of poetic language.

Lyrics.

Took a deep breath in the mirror
He didn't like it when I wore high heels
But I do

Turn the lock and put my headphones on
He always said he didn't get this song
but I do, I do

Walked in expecting you'd be late
But you got here early and you stand and wave
I walk to you

You pull my chair out and help me in
And you don't know how nice that is
But I do

And you throw your head back laughing
Like a little kid
I think it's strange that you think I'm funny cause
He never did
I've been spending the last 8 months
Thinking all love ever does Is break and burn and end
But on a Wednesday in a cafe
I watched it begin again

You said you never met one girl who
Had as many James Taylor records as you
But I do

We tell stories and you don't know why
I'm coming off a little shy
But I do

And you throw your head back laughing
Like a little kid
I think it's strange that you think I'm funny cause
He never did

I've been spending the last 8 months
Thinking all love ever does Is break and burn and end
But on a Wednesday in a cafe
I watched it begin again

And we walked down the block, to my car
And I almost brought him up
But you start to talk about the movies
That your family watches every single Christmas
And I want to talk about that
And for the first time
What's past is past

And you throw your head back laughing
Like a little kid
I think it's strange that you think I'm funny cause
He never did
I've been spending the last 8 months
Thinking all love ever does Is break and burn and end
But on a Wednesday in a cafe
I watched it begin again

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: todavía en sueños …

Banalities & Journaling

Thirty-two years ago, around this time of year, I started work at the Casa de los Amigos, AC, in Mexico City – that was the Quaker guesthouse and social services agency there.

I would have to say that that decision, which I made somewhat on a whim in the moment, was possibly one of the most transformative decisions I made in my entire life. It changed my "short sojourn" in Mexico into a long-term proposition, which in turn set in motion the wheels that led to my mastery of Spanish, which of course influenced my continued university career, including graduate school, such as it was.

And 32 years later, a long-term resident of South Korea, I still dream in Spanish rather than in Korean – at least when my dreams depart the English-language sphere.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Now I’m living in Korea Town

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Not My Poetry

I don't have much to say. I'm going through a rough spot, in terms of lack of creativity and overall poor affect. I'll just plug along with work, which is busy enough.

Meanwhile, what I'm listening to right now.

Neko Case, "In California." The video, incidentally, was directed by a Korean director. There seem to be a lot of those operating in L.A.

Lyrics.

In California I dream of snow
And all the places we used to go
With the night falling down
With the night falling down
Now I'm living in Korea Town
Waking to the sound of car alarms

I remember your face when I showed you the ticket
Said you were happy for me, your heart wasn't in it
Just a phone call away
Now there's nothing to say
As the days roll by, disconnected

In the land where the sun is always shining
I'm crying alone, palm trees they laugh at me
Another fool playing songs that don't matter
For people who chatter endlessly

Another suicide on the 405
The Black Dahlia she smiles and smiles
It's the same old town that bled her dry
One more starlet one more time
Bound to make it do or die
Talk a walk to Bonnie Brae
Try to wash these dreams away
They try to tell me L.A is beautiful when it rains

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: maybe just stroll in the spring drizzle

Banalities & Journaling / Databases, Smartphones & Computers

I suppose I always have a bit of doldrums around the equinox.

This past weekend was singularly frustrating. I was trying do computer things, with my little server. Trying to port an application I was playing with to a different database. And I just failed to figure it out. I guess I'm doing this computer stuff partly to challenge myself, because I've grown frustrated with my other "hobbies," such as they are (e.g. learning Korean, the geofiction thing, writing). So then I feel frustrated with this, too. So I have to just back off and let myself be "unproductive" I guess.

I'll go out and stroll in the spring drizzle.

[daily log: walking, 7.5km]

Caveat: 자는 범 코침 주기

한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean) / 한국어 속담 (Aphorisms & Proverbs)

I ran across this aphorism in my book of aphorisms.

자는 범 코침 주기
ja.neun beom ko.chim ju.gi
sleep-PRESPART tiger nose-needle give-GER
[It’s like] giving a poke at the nose of a sleeping tiger.

My book says this is similar to “Let sleeping dogs lie.” One shouldn’t provoke those more powerful. I’m not sure these are exactly the same, but good enough.
[daily log: walking, 1km]

Caveat: ensnarement

Buddhism & Zen / Not My Poetry

To Be a Good Buddhist Is Ensnarement

The Zen priest says I am everything I am not.
In order to stop resisting, I must not attempt to stop resisting.
I must believe there is no need to believe in thoughts.
Oblivious to appetites that appear to be exits, and also entrances.
What is there to hoard when the worldly realm has no permanent vacancies?
Ten years I’ve taken to this mind fasting.
My shadow these days is bare.
It drives a stranger, a good fool.
Nothing can surprise.
Clarity is just questioning having eaten its fill.

– Jenny Xie (American poet, b?)

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: the patient daemon behind the screen of sea-rock and sky

Not My Poetry

The Bed By The Window

I chose the bed downstairs by the sea-window for a good death-bed
When we built the house, it is ready waiting,
Unused unless by some guest in a twelvemonth, who hardly suspects
Its latter purpose. I often regard it,
With neither dislike nor desire; rather with both, so equalled
That they kill each other and a crystalline interest
Remains alone. We are safe to finish what we have to finish;
And then it will sound rather like music
When the patient daemon behind the screen of sea-rock and sky
Thumps with his staff, and calls thrice: 'Come, Jeffers.'

– Robinson Jeffers (American poet, 1887-1962)

[daily log, walking, 7.5km]

Caveat: Truman’s Talent Show

Banalities & Journaling

It's that time of year again. The annual Karma English Academy Talent Show is coming up in May. So we're working on our various skits, songs and other things that we will be doing for the show, with our various cohorts of kids. My student Myeongha is in fifth grade. He's new to Karma, so he doesn't have a memory of the Talent Show, as some of the other kids who have been around longer do.

Out of the blue, he said to me, "I don't know Talent Show. But I know Truman Show." 

I found this implausible, so I began quizzing him as to what The Truman Show is. For those reading this who don't know, you can see on the wikipedia that it's a fairly well-regarded US movie, from 1998. It's hardly recent, therefore, and it's hard fare for even native English-speaking kids, much less fifth grade Koreans. But it was clear he'd actually watched the movie. He was able to explain the plot, in his limited way.

I was puzzled why he'd watched it. I asked, "Did you see it with your parents?"

He shook his head. "Youtube," he offered, laconically.

"You watched it by yourself?"

He shrugged. 

"Did you like it?" I asked, curious.

"No."

"Why did you watch it?" 

Myeongha shrugged again. "Boring."

I understood. Korean students mix up "Boring" and "bored" – their language doesn't make that particular distinction, and it must be guessed from context. He didn't mean the movie was boring – though in fact he might have meant that, too – rather, he meant he was bored, so he watched it. 

Perhaps it was a circular relation.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: that great big hill of hope

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Not My Poetry

My blog-hosting server was down today for quite a while. So this post is late (at least, relative to the posting schedule I try to keep for myself. But here it is. I don't have much to say.

Several of my students were singing, with passable competence, a song I recognized from 25 years ago. I was surprised. But it turned out the song had been hijacked as the soundtrack for some comedy meme video that was circulating – it wasn't that they'd decided to go retro or anything. 'Retro' is not an interesting cultural space to Koreans, in general, in my experience.

What I'm listening to right now.

4 Non Blondes, "What's Up." I remember this song as being part of my "soundtrack" during the time I was working nights at UPS while doing some graduate coursework at the University of Minnesota, and when Michelle and I got married. I think she liked this song, too.

Lyrics.

Twenty-five years and my life is still
Trying to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination
And I realized quickly when I knew I should
That the world was made up of this brotherhood of man
For whatever that means
And so I cry sometimes When I'm lying in bed
Just to get it all out What's in my head
And I am feeling a little peculiar
And so I wake in the morning And I step outside
And I take a deep breath and I get real high
And I scream at the top of my lungs What's going on?
And I say, hey hey hey hey
I said hey, what's going on?
And I say, hey hey hey hey
I said hey, what's going on? ooh ooh
and I try, oh my god do I try
I try all the time, in this institution
And I pray, oh my god do I pray
I pray every single day For a revolution
And so I cry sometimes When I'm lying in bed
Just to get it all out What's in my head
And I am feeling a little peculiar
And so I wake in the morning And I step outside
And I take a deep breath and I get real high
And I scream at the top of my lungs What's going on?
And I say, hey hey hey hey
I said hey, what's going on?
And I say, hey hey hey hey
I said hey, what's going on?

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: In the mud

Banalities & Journaling / Databases, Smartphones & Computers / Geofiction

[This is cross-posted from my other blog.]

This isn't exactly geofiction, but I was messing around with a new project on my server.

Way back in the day (I am somewhat old), I used to play MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons). These are text-based computer games of various kinds – no graphics at all. They're a kind interactive "choose your own adventure" text, you might say. But the game mechanics in them are the ancestors of modern MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft, and there are even conceptual connections to Grand Theft Auto or Minecraft.

MUDs are quite old – they existed on mainframes at businesses and universities before PCs were even a thing, starting in the 1960s. Because of my family's connection to the local university, I was a rare child of the 1970s who actually played computer games before PCs were invented! These were MUDs and other text-based games.

When I noticed I had my own server up and running, it occured to me that I could build a MUD. Possibly, it's not even that hard. Sure enough, there is open-source software that will run a MUD on a server for you.

I chose a package called CoffeeMud. I'm still messing with it. It's very unlikely I'll ever do anything with it. But I had this domain-name, "Hellbridge.com", lying around, so I thought, sure, make a MUD.

  _    _        _  _  _            _      _
| |  | |      | || || |          (_)    | |
| |__| |  ___ | || || |__   _ __  _   __| |  __ _   ___
|  __  | / _ \| || || '_ \ | '__|| | / _` | / _` | / _ \
| |  | ||  __/| || || |_) || |   | || (_| || (_| ||  __/
|_|  |_| \___||_||_||_.__/ |_|   |_| \__,_| \__, | \___|
__/ |
Hellbridge.com                   |___/
Powered by CoffeeMud v5.9

I originally acquired the "Hellbridge.com" domain for a quite different purpose: It was intended to be a "satire-website" for a place where I once worked, which had a name where "Hellbridge" was a similar sound but darker connotation. But looking at it now, I thought it would make a great name for a MUD. So there it is.

I liked the CoffeeMud package because the admin and config of the site is mostly done from within the game. That's cool. So I create an "Archon" character, who is like God. I walk around the MUD and type "Create chair" and a chair falls from the sky. Likewise with any other object, room, monster, or character class. That's fun.

The Archon character is created in the empty, default "Fresh Install" room, by reading a book that is placed there. I read the book and I became a God.

Nice book. Note the stats jump in the prompt.

<20Hp 100m 100mv> read book
The manual glows softly, enveloping you in its magical energy.
The book vanishes out of your hands.
<1403Hp 571m 595mv>

It's not live yet. It may never be. But meanwhile, I thought it was interesting to try it out.

It's a little bit like geofiction – you're creating an imaginary world, after all.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Doubling Up

Banalities & Journaling / My Photos

Lately, a new thing has been appearing on the wide avenues of Goyang: double-decker buses.

These seem only distantly related to the iconic double-deckers of London notoriety – I think they're a German make: M.A.N. Regardless, on certain highly traveled routes, like the 1100 (shown below) that connects Ilsan with Seoul Station (downtown), they're putting in an appearance. I expect once a domestic bus manufacturer (e.g. Hyundai) comes out with a model, they'll really take off. As an inveterate watcher of public transportation infrastructure, this is interesting for me.

The picture was taken on 중앙로 [Jungang-no = "Central Road"], just southeast of the Juyeop subway station, yesterday, as I walked home from work in the springtime drizzle.

picture

[daily log: walking, 1km]

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