ㅁ One day there was an alligator who lived down near the warm equator a monkey came along and sang a stupid song so with a grin the reptile ate her
– a limerick.
Month: April 2018
Caveat: What about alcohol?
Here is the Korean zeitgeist, as revealed in an offhanded comment by a sixth-grade girl who goes by Mindy:
Sometimes alcohol is necessary.
She said it in a chipper voice, as if conversationally stating the obvious. That would sum up the Korean perspective, easily enough.
[daily log: walking, 7km]
Caveat: Poem #621 “Headlong”
ㅁ Consciousness derails, off track it will fly... I feel it, a kind of lack: only black.
– an englyn of some kind.
Caveat: Much sorwe I walkë with
Foulës in the frith,
The fishës in the flod,
And I mon waxë wod;
Much sorwe I walkë with
For beste of bon and blod.
– An anonymous, Middle-English lyric poem from around 1300 CE. We each walk with much sorrow.
[daily log: walking, 7km]
Caveat: Poem #620 “Demonstrated wisdom at age 13”
ㅁ I put her there, in front of class. I said, "You're teacher - boss!" The boys in back were bad, They joked, and made the rudest sounds. She stood, With folded arms and grave aplomb and verve: "If you don't mind, I'd like to go on now." For all the world an old hand at these things. In fact she showed more wisdom than I do, In such soft voice, at such an age - thirteen.
– some lines of blank verse (iambic pentameter).
Caveat: Consult the Authority
"Dictionary, n. A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic." – Ambrose Bierce
[daily log: walking, 7km]
Caveat: Poem #619 “Things the weather’s changes bring”
ㅁ Two days ago, there was snow. A freakishly dry and feverish wind thrust hard from the west. Early spring blossoms fled torn from their hospitable branches, disconsolate. Young men strode uncoated, with wild hair flailing like cut tentacles. And garish bits of paper breathlessly licked at the sides of insentient buses. Four hours later, there was a warm drizzle falling.
– a free form poem.
Caveat: touched by His Boolean Appendage
The Speculative Grammarian site has this very clever and utterly wrathful satire of the crypto-creationists' "Intelligent Design theory", here. Given the site it's on, bear in mind that it's a rewrite of the ID theory transferred from biology to linguistics, and called "Wrathful Dispersion" theory, alluding to the Tower of Babel tale in Genesis.
I particularly liked:
One cynical observer has likened WD ["Wrathful Dispersion" theory] to Scientology, which “is a religion for purposes of tax assessment, a science for purposes of propaganda, and a work of fiction for purposes of copyright.”
And:
In particular, a satirical Web-based grassroots pseudo-cult has grown up around the theory that all modern languages were in fact “shat out of the arse of the Flying Stratificational Grammar Monster,” with adherents claiming to have achieved enlightenment upon being “touched by His Boolean Appendage” or “washed in the blood of Sydney Lamb.”
[daily log: walking, 7km]
Caveat: Mahhal Contours
[This is a cross-post from my other blog.]
I’ve been trying to organize my contour work for the new, smaller Mahhal. I’ve scaled the country back to a size where I think I can actually accomplish contours for the whole place in a finite amount of time, using my current methods. Mahhal is now just the northwesternmost 15% of the original archipelago. The remaining islands will eventually serve some other purpose, I suppose. Hopefully, it will be something very low density (Antarctic tundra and glaciers!).
Just like the Ardisphere, I felt the need to divide the contour work into manageable-sized “chunks”. Since the contour conversion program is based on a division of the planet into “degree squares” (which aren’t exactly square except at the equator, but anyway), I decided to do the same as I’d done in that country. However, because of the much higher latitude, and the fact that they’re all islands, I didn’t opt to try to subdivide each degree square into “bands.”
Currently I have four squares that are active. The 84°E Line splits Tárrases, so I have the two squares that straddle that island. And I have the two to the north, which are the northernmost reaches of the archipelago.
Below is a screenshot of the work, in JOSM. Each square is a different file (layer), so JOSM has four files open. Tárrases is complete, of course. The island directly west of the Duchy, Tteu (ዕሓ ጼዐ), is complete (though I might adjust some of it, later). Now the big island northeast, Kkogyra (ዕሓ ቆግራ) is complete too. That is where the capital and largest city of the Jessitim Kingdom, Piropeta, will be.
The matching view on the OGF standard map is here.
Music to map by: Rural Alberta Advantage, “On The Rocks.”
Caveat: Poem #618 “Second stanza”
Kiamon never once thought on her fate
Gamely she played along, planning to wait
Patience came easy when dreams were all clear
Doubts never showed themselves; neither did fear.
Caveat: Either a cry for help, or a strange joke… or both
I have a new student, a 5th grader who has adopted the nickname Mario. He came into my class clearly not wanting to be there. Straight up refusing to answer, and refusing to participate. Shortly, however, it became clear he actually knows English pretty well. He may have the best vocabulary of anyone in the class.
So now, several months on, he still doesn't do homework. But he participates well, and sometimes even seems to be having fun, before remembering he hates being there and puts his scowl back on.
We did an in-class assignment I created, that I've used a few times, to go with a chapter in our textbook about "Why do you want to travel there?" which covers different countries. The assignment is to make your own country, then explain why you want to travel there. Many elementary kids like making their own countries, though most do so in a humorous or cartoonish vein.
Mario submitted the below. It was, of course, pretty limited in terms of the requirements of the assignment. And desultory, in terms of effort. But where did he learn the term "bipolar disorder"? What to make of the very interesting (in very faint pencil) "… and there are lonly "?
The rest of what he wrote (not that much):
I would like to go to bipolar disorder countxry
because It's interesting
It's my own note, at the bottom corner, where I wrote the Korean term for "bipolar disorder" from the dictionary (조울증). That's because I wanted to discuss the content of the paper with Mario's home teacher, and I wanted to be prepared with what "bipolar disorder" meant – it's not exactly a common concept for English-speaking Koreans. And who knows where Mario found it. The dictionary? His parents? How could he even have known the Korean word for it – Curt observed that it's not exactly a regular word in Korean, either, but rather a medical term. How does a fifth grader wield such a term, it two languages no less? This boy also has offhandedly said he wants to attend Julliard (in New York) and has vandalized one of my toy frogs. Something's going on.
[daily log: walking, 7km]
Caveat: Poem #617
Well, snow in April!
The bold flakes tasted the air…
but spun out, failing.
[daily log, walking, 1.5km]
Caveat: Poem #616
Cohut: she played in fields and sands,
and knowing only love and games,
until the day when warring bands
with swift, hard strokes revoked her names.
Caveat: 10, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000
What I'm listening to right now.
Samarth Swarup and Asa Singh, "Siri answers."
Lyrics
[Musician: ]
What is ten trillion raised to the power of ten?
[Siri: ]
The answer is… one,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
[daily log: walking, 7km]
Caveat: Poems #614 and #615
There once was Moby, a white whale and some narrator named Ishmael and these guys on a boat that soon failed to float with digressions, and prose that was stale.
– this is my own “retelling in limerick form” of a well-known work of literature, quite inspired by this post on the languagehat blog, in turn inspired by some discussion on a site called wordorigins. I spent a good hour browsing the comments and links for these two sites. Entertaining. My favorites, seen at those links:
There once was a girl named Lenore
And a bird and a bust and a door
And a guy with depression
And a whole lot of questions
And the bird always says “Nevermore”
… and:
“Utnapishtim,” cried Gilgamesh, “Why
Do you get to live, while I die?”
“I can see that you’re vexed,”
[There’s a gap in the text]
The walls of Uruk are quite high!
I also enjoyed this observation, by a commenter named Trond Engen:
“A limerick needs a dose of offbeacity or else it will often sound flat.”
That comment, in turn, inspired another work of my own:
If you want limericks to have a capacity to show anything more than verbosity and to thusly afford some readers unbored Then they'll need to include some offbeacity
Caveat: Premises and implications among 7th graders
This exchange actually happened in a 7th grade advanced class.
Julie: I don't like smart people
James: I'm smart!
Julie: So I don't like YOU.
…
Tobias: That doesn't make sense.
…
James (glaring at Tobias): Hey!
I found this incredibly funny, not to mention indicative a lot of cleverness on the parts of James and Tobias. Yet when I tried to explain it to my coworkers, we got bogged down in trying to parse the premises and implications of the statements. It felt like a kind of logic class for standup comedians, where the students were not all native to the same language.
So, here's my question for logic students: Why is Tobias's statement a potential insult toward James?
I gave up, in the end, in explaining it to my coworkers. But I had laughed hard during the class, and the boys were clearly intentional enough in their humor that they were pleased with the appreciation I showed them.
[daily log: walking, 6.5]
Caveat: Poem #613
cold rain, breath in puffs,
sound of car tires on wet roads,
childhood in shadows.
Caveat: Cost me all of seven cents
What I'm listening to right now.
Sesame Street Co., "The Alligator King." This is actually a really good song. Yet despite being from Sesame Street, it's probably too hard (in terms of vocabulary) to teach to my students for whom it would age-appropriate.
Lyrics.
One two three four five six seven!
Said the Alligator King to his seven sons,
"I'm feeling mighty down.
Whichever of you can cheer me up
Will get to wear my crown."
His first son brought seven oyster pearls
From the bottom of the China Sea.
The second gave him seven statues of girls
With clocks where their stomachs should be.
The third son gave him seven rubies
From the sheikdom Down There Beneath.
The King thought the rubies were cherries,
And he broke off seven of his teeth.
The fourth son tried to cheer him up
With seven lemon drops.
The King said, "I'm sorry son,
Since that ruby episode, I just haven't got the chops."
The fifth son brought the King perfume
In seven fancy silver jars;
The King took a whiff, and he broke out in spots
'Cause it smelled like cheap cigars.
The sixth son gave him seven diamond rings
To wear upon his toes.
The King snagged his foot on the royal red rug
And crumpled up his nose.
The seventh son of the Alligator King
Was a thoughtful little whelp.
He said, "Daddy, appears to me
That you could use a little help."
Said the Alligator King to his seventh son,
"My son, you win the crown.
You didn't bring me diamonds or rubies, but
You helped me up when I was down.
Take the crown; it's yours, my son.
I hope you don't mind the dents.
I got it on sale at a discount store –
Cost me all of seven cents!"
[daily log: walking, 7km]
Caveat: Not so geoficticiany, are we?
[This is a cross-post from my other blog.]
I have become rather obsessively immersed in a non-server-related, non-geofiction-related project. Such is my nature. I’m easily distracted by new projects.
As a result, though I still load these new geofictician sites and the OGF sites daily, and even comment occasionally or tweak something here and there, I haven’t really been doing much.
I’ll get back to this soon enough.
I did spend a few hours building Mahhalian contours, the other day, with a mind on fleshing out the new, leaner, smaller, faux Mahhal-for-OGF (because the “real” Mahhal will be a separate planet file on this here server thing, eventually).
Music to map by: 매드 클라운, “콩.”
Caveat: Poem #612
The thing about rain
in the springtime: birds like it;
they make noise and play.
Caveat: 도둑 맞고 사립문 고친다
I found this aphorism in my aphorism book.
도둑 맞고 사립문 고친다
do.duk mat.go sa.rip.mun go.chin.da
thief visit-CONJ hedge-gate repair-PRES
The thief visits and [then you] repair the hedge gate.
Clearly, this is the same as “Closing the barn door after the horse has already left the barn.”
I’d say more, but that horse has bolted.
[daily log: walking, 6.5km]
Caveat: Poem #611
Spring
was out
and about
today, showing
trees all a-flower
and announcing magpies
among the fallen needles
of past years' silhouetted pines
beneath gray skies of filigreed time.
Caveat: Valdivian Nostalgia
When I lived in Valdivia, Chile, in 1994, I stayed at a guesthouse (casa de huéspedes) while I took classes at the Universidad Austral, which was a kilometer walk across the river on the island. That was a very cold several months, living there, because it was the Chilean winter, August-October, and the Chileans don't believe in any kind of central heating, and the guesthouse wouldn't allow electric space-heaters in our rooms.
It only snowed once, but it was always hovering right above freezing, with neverending drizzle and rain and overcast skies. So I would huddle in the guesthouse's dining room, by a wood stove there, when it was lit. The landlady's cooking was a unique style in my experience. She was German-Chilean, but several generations removed from Germany. I have no idea what to call her cuisine. What was memorable were the single-dish meals she served, made of pasta or rice, always with some kind of tomato-based sauce, 
sometimes with meat, generally with beans, and always with a fried egg or two on top, which I would mash into the concoction before eating. It wasn't particularly delicious, but it was always reliable and filling. I don't know if this cooking style is common in Chilean homes, or even, specifically, southern Chilean or German-Chilean traditions, or if it was more idiosyncratic to that guesthouse's landlady. I did experience something similar at a hotel restaurant in Punta Arenas, but with ñoquis (gnocchi), possibly due to the strong Argentinian influence down there (Punta Arenas is only connected to the rest of Chile by road via Argentina), as I think of ñoquis as being very characteristically Argentinian.
Sometimes, in the years since, I have made various half-hearted efforts to recreate what I think of "Chilean tomato glop with egg". The other day, I can proudly say, I came as close as I ever have to recreating the look and feel of the original. I was finishing off a batch of rice, using a fresh tomato and onion and some leftover chopped ham, I added in half a can of Mexican canned beans (yes, you can buy that in Korea) and two poached eggs. I can't comment on the taste aspect, given the radical transformations my taste-buds have undergone in the intervening years. But anyway, I was happy with having accomplished it. So I took a picture.
[daily log: walking, 6.5km]
Caveat: Poem #610
Softly, trees will bend
Gently, the moon might part clouds
Darkly, orange ghosts…
Caveat: la même chose
Every Spring is the same, in northwest Seoul. Smoggy. So… every Spring I become grumpy and “under the weather” – almost literally.
Actually this morning isn’t so bad. But the weekend seemed so, and last week was horrible. Such is life in the megalopolis.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
[daily log: walking, 7km]
Caveat: Poem #609
Aochra fought his way across the steppes,
Not once pausing. Sand and stones just watched.
Fearsome was his wrath where'er he stepped:
Each one killed, his counting stick was notched.
Caveat: Some weeks…
[This is a cross-post from my other blog.]
And then, some weeks, I don’t get much done.
I started working on trying to customize my Rails Port (the main “copy” of the OpenStreetMap slippy map), and got very bogged down in the fact that the OpenStreetMap Rails Port is highly complex software written in a language and using an architecture unfamiliar to me: the infamous “Ruby on Rails.”
I dislike the way that the actual name “OpenStreetMap” is hard-coded throughout all the little modules. It seems like a poor application design practice, especially for an opensource project. One area where the name proliferates is in all the internationalization files. So I started wondering how hard it might be to get all these internationalization files to be more “generic.” The answer: pretty hard, at least for me.
I’ve wandered off down a digressive passage where I’m learning about software internationalization under the Ruby on Rails paradigm, but I’m undecided how I want to handle this. Do I want to try to solve it the “right way”? Or just kludge it (most likely by deleting all the internationalization files except perhaps English, Spanish, and Korean)?
Meanwhile I have also got pulled away by some non-computer, non-geofiction projects.
So… not much to report, this week – nothing mapped, nothing coded, nothing configured.
Music to map by: Sergei Rachmaninoff, “Piano Concerto No. 2.”