燕

Last spring I was able to go to a huge roller coaster park in Japan with some of my friends. Among the ten coasters in the park they also happen to have the world's largest wooden one; this is a view of it from the nearby Ferris wheel. I rode it once, but found that it gave me a pounding headache. Looks like I've gotten too old for wooden roller coasters. I did fine on the modern ones, though.

I might also have been more prone to headaches at the time, seeing as my parents were visiting. When my parents visited me in Japan I was usually in a state of high stress and constant sleep deprivation/exhaustion.

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Wednesdays are going to be my busy days; biweekly that means class from 9 AM to 9:30 PM, with an hour's break for lunch and dinner/transport each. And then walking 40 minutes home. Today was the first of them, and actually I found myself enjoying it. I like being busy; it makes me feel useful. Which explains why I so mercilessly over-scheduled myself while I lived in Japan; I did in fact enjoy it.

I've actually been rather lazy since coming to Scotland. I think I need to take further steps to remedy this.

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Over the vacation I had a chance for some long talks with my various family members, some of which were quite interesting.

( Regarding a conversation with my little brother with attendant thoughts which cover socialism in Sweden, the causes of the American Civil War, rappers, and lottery tickets. )

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I had half an hour during my busiest busy day in which to procure dinner. I wanted to go to the Black Medicine coffee house, because its name is so cool, but I ended up wandering the wrong way. I was thinking thoughts of going into the KFC-- I was running out of time-- it would be easy to order there-- but at the last second I gave in to the terrible yellow plastic beacon of a down-at-the-heels middle eastern place with cheap battered tables and faded posters of deserts on the walls.

And glad I was to have done so. Their baba ganoush was LOVELY. And I found out that the "sh" sound at the end has a bit of a hard "g" sound in it. I am enlightened!

. . . okay, nowhere near. But I get a little closer every day!

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I found some fun and interesting things on the internet recently. Let me share them with you!

A friend who is obsessed with a cartoon show called Phineas and Ferb linked me to this episode which makes reference to Carmell Dansen. At which point I told her that about two years ago Japan discovered this song in its original Swedish. And before long ALL OF JAPAN WAS INFECTED. It caught on so hugely that every anime currently on the air (and many who just have extremely obsessive fans) was making their own version of it (Jack Sparrow's at 2.16, fyi).

The same friend taught me a new French phrase!

déjà moo - the distinct feeling that you've heard this bull before

My stock of French phrases is growing once again! I can now add this gem of wisdom to my recently-acquired "tes moeurs crapuleuses" ("your sordid morals") and "tu cherches à corrompre mon paresseux" ("you are trying to corrupt my sloth"). Thankee, Patrick O'Brian!

This picture is my current desktop walllpaper. ( About which I said . . . )

( To which my adorable sister replied... )

She's so cute! <3

This comic is quite adorable.

Reading through Pandora Hearts led to this string of (mostly) non-spoiler comments on Facebook:

( Comments Ahoy! )

Siblings are over, so while events are many updates are few and far between. When did my brother get so freaking handsome? When did my sister get so freaking beautiful? They astound me. The things you miss when you move out . . . of course they were handsome/beautiful when I was home for Christmas, but now it's x10. Crazy.

I have an alarming tendancy to make inadvertant and horrible puns. I never actually realize until after I've said them, and I feel deep remorse akin to agony upon realization, but they are just horrible enough to deserve recounting.

One of my worst, to my recollection, occurred earlier this spring. Japan can get quite hazy around then, and I remarked on it to one of my teachers.

"Oh, yes," he said. "That's because the wind picks up sand from the Gobi Desert in China during this time, and carries it through the air and drops it on Japan."

I recounted what he said to a friend of mine who was also curious about the reason, but she seemed somewhat dubious about his story. "I mean, sand from the Gobi Desert? Do you really think that's true?" she asked me.

"Dunno," I said. "It seems a little far-fetched to me . . ."

Horrible.

All of this comes up, of course, because I made another one tonight. My mother recently came back from Venice. While she was there, she visited Verona and saw this medeival statue of Cangrande della Scala. He's an interesting man with an interesting history. She told me a possibly apocryphal tale of how he got his name: christened Francesco, he was so impressed by Marco Polo's tales of Ghengis Khan that he decided to take the Khan's name as his own. However, he misinterpretted it as meaning "cane," "dog" in Italian. And so he was called the Big Dog of the della Scala family, and took the dog as his personal symbol.

Wikipedia disagrees on the origin of the name, but I like the story.

His family name, della Scala, translates to "of the stairs" or "of the ladder," because his family originally made their fortune by building ladders. She then told me that they rose from that position, acquiring wealth and power, until through military might Cangrande came to rule all of Verona.

"Wow," I said. "They went from making ladders to ruling Verona? That's a bit of a step up . . ."

Horrible.

I promised my mother I would commit seppuku immediately, but as I didn't have a sword handy, my vow was broken not long after it was made.

One does find interesting things when one randomly browses one's friends' friends pages:

A brief history of a would-be Chinese assassin.

From the Wikipedia entry on Toyotomi Hideyoshi:

Japanese grammar schools even today impart to children an intriguing story intended to offer an insight into the different characters of these three great historical contemporaries: Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu. First a brief background:

Nobunaga wanted to unify the many mini-kingdoms of Japan and become sole ruler. An aggressive and brilliant military tactician and commander, he was a very impetuous man and not surprisingly, rather callous and coarse even toward trusted subordinates. He came very close to attaining his goal of a unified nation, but in the end his recklessness and closely associated lack of any real understanding of the men serving him eventually led to his assassination. Hideyoshi, on the other hand, as well as being a fine military commander, had long held a reputation for being a brilliant manipulator as well - an excellent reader of people: the very skill in which his boss, Nobunaga, was most sorely lacking. Hideyoshi's subtle methods in the long run thus proved far more successful than Nobunaga's brash methods and he succeeded where Nobunaga had failed, unifying the many separate domains into one country and becoming the first military ruler of a unified land. Tokugawa meanwhile, had long coveted the same position, but did not have the power base or support equal to Nobunaga or Hideyoshi, and thus could not compete with either; he had to settle for demonstrating his skill in the art of being patient - but in his case, the "all good things come to him who waits" folk saying could not have been more true: in the end, Tokugawa came to power after Hideyoshi, and his clan proceeded to rule the country for the next 200 years. Under the Tokugawas, the Samurai caste was eventually put out of work since regulations were issued which greatly curbed the use and even carrying of swords (this as a means of reducing potential rebellion - which was not always successful).

The story told in Japanese grammar schools today regards these three famous men, and their individual approach to a problem, as being faced with a songbird (known as a "Hototogisu") which will not sing. When asked what he would do in this situation:

* Nobunaga replies: "Kill it."

* Hideyoshi replies: "Make it want to sing", while

* Tokugawa replies: "Wait."

February for me is like a month of Arthur Dent's Thursdays.

Anyway, this story is from the English Festival that was held on Saturday. I really liked it, so I decided to put it up here. The Festival went decently smoothly. Some of the acts were really good, although two of the presentations by the older kids were on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Which for the two Americans sitting in the room was a little like being kicked twice in the stomach, and knowing that in a way we deserved to be kicked twice in the stomach because the U.S. still has nuclear weapons.

I won't get diverted into rambling about the importance of nuclear disarmament, though. ( The story! Not one of the Hiroshima ones! )

Desparate for something else to do while ideas for this essay rearrange themselves in my head.

So, here's a brief history of all my email addresses and internet aliases. Because of course they all have stories. Come on, be enthusiastic! This is your chance to delve into the complicated workings of my mind, the morass of interconnected references and the mire of meaning.

I can see you're excited now. Why don't we start with the livejournal . . .

Livejournal Username: grey_damaskena

Why? Well, the first part, grey, is for numerous reasons. First, I really like grey as a color. I prefer "grey" to the alternative, which is "gray." The former implies a certain amount of softness in my head, a warmth that the harder, sharper "gray" lacks. It's the difference between a soft mist and the harsh, cheap smear of newsprint in my mind. The other reason for using "grey" is because I wrote a short story back when I was in high school that had Death as a main character (not Neil Gaiman's, no, though there were certain similarities. All art is derivative), and said character had grey eyes, which became a theme for the story. I thought it was really good at the time (it was the best I'd ever written, at the time. Hopefully this is no longer the case), and was quite proud of it.

The second part, damaskena, is the last name of my favorite character from Judith Tarr's the Hound and the Falcon trilogy. It's a truly amazing series of books, and I highly recomend them though they're a bit hard to find. They are, in order, called the Isle of Glass, the Golden Horn, and the Hounds of God. Historical fantasy. Amazing.

Livejournal Name: upside down

"Upside Down" is the title of my very favorite Tori Amos song. It's quite rare as Tori songs go . . . originally it was released on the Winter single, and has subsequently been included in a few other singles. Great song. When I hear her play it live, I will be able to die with my life completed.

Livejournal Friends page: blankets

Another reference to a Tori song (yeah, who's a geek?). The song is called Bells for Her, and it's from the Under the Pink album. The interesting thing about that particular song is that in an earlier verse, the word is spelled "blankets" and, later on, is spelled "blank ettes." I think the song is about the breakdown of a friendship; when the singer and the woman she refers to are friends, they are "blankets;" when they're arguing and the frienship is broken, they're "blank ettes." Thus it's a good name for the friend's page.

Internet Nomiker: Althea SaDiablo

The first name, Althea, is the first name of the character from whom I also lifted "damaskena." Yes, her full name is Althea Damaskena, or Thea for short. She's Greek, she's a shapeshifting elf, and she kicks everyone's ass (in my humble opinion). She has numerous good qualities which I would be wise to emulate, though I could never be quite as cool as her.

The second name, SaDiablo, is lifted out of another most excellent trilogy of books, Anne Bishop's the Black Jewels Trilogy. Another series that I really, really like. Titles are as follows: Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows, and Queen of the Darkness. There is now another book in the same world, "the Invisible Ring," which I didn't like as much but still isn't bad, and a book of four short stories, "Dreams Made Flesh," which I quite like but haven't had time to finish (I'm on the story that has Saetan-angst, and watching him suffer makes me sad). Anyway, my favorite character in said books is Saetan SaDiablo (thus the earlier comment), and I would adore being a part of his family, so I cheerfully adopted myself into it by borrowing the last name.

AIM: Scryer1

This one's been with me for a very, very long time. I went through a bunch of possibilities before I finally found a SN; Scryer was not my first choice, but I appreciate the irony. Because sitting at a computer serves much the same function as scrying does: you can see far-off places and events or find out information by use of a flat, inanimate surface. Not all that different from looking into a bowl of still water or a mirror. But think of the Technomages from Babylon 5: they achieve what appears to be magic through the use of incredibly advanced science.

Email address: chibi_l_sama

I aquired this one while I was in college. The first anime I was ever into, and my number one favorite anime of all time, is of course Slayers. The top dog in the Slayers pantheon is L-sama, the Lord of Nightmares. Since I am a force for chaos and evil (at least some of the time), it seemed appropriate to my friends. But since I'm a student, I'm still in training and don't yet have full smiting powers. Hence the nickname Chibi-sama. Mess with me and I flatten you with a shovel, it's that simple.

Email address: ddraig_goch

Now defunct. The translation from Welsh is "red dragon." The red dragon is on the Welsh flag and is also famously referred to in Arthurian myth: as a boy Merlin has a vision of a white dragon and a red dragon fighting for dominion. I can claim about as many Welsh ancestors as any other nationality my ancestors may originate from, and Wales itself is of great interest to me.

Email address and forum name: WhettedKnife

I do martial arts, and have spent quite a bit of time training in knife fighting. The phrase itself is from a poem, "Sea Fever" by John Masefield. The text for said poem was initally sent to me by greensilkchai, and I really like it. I also have more than a passing interest in ships and sailing, not that I know much about either.

Forum name: CrownedinWood

A reference to another favorite character of mine, the Fool from Robin Hobb's Assasin, Liveship Traders, and Tawny Man trilogies (I'm not going to list them all, it's too much effort. Suffice to say that they're very good). Not a name I've used often, but I think it sounds very neat.

Title: Pirate Queen, formerly of Brighton

I first buckled swash back in freshman year when I played in my first game of Seventh Sea. See, I was on the pirate bandwagon before Pirates of the Caribbean (incidentally, #2 has finished filming . . .). When I was abroad, I felt it necessary to take a title appropriate for my traveling status. And since I was in a port town, a seafaring name was best. As I traveled, the title became more elaborate. I am now the Pirate Queen of the Something Something Yakuza, scourge of the Irish Sea and Ravager of the Northern Coast, currently landlubbing in Pennsylvania.

Right, that's all of them that I can think of right now. I have a bunch of other titles, most of them self-proclaimed, but I can't be bothered with them at the moment. That isn't really the issue at this point, though. No, the issue is, why the heck are you still reading this?

Righto. Am in Warsaw now . . . the old town is nice, but the rest is decidedly questionable. Technically I should have been on a train to Krakow at this point, but they canceled it about 5 minutes before it was supposed to pull up to the track. So we're waiting in the station for the next one, two hours from now . . . and we found an internet cafe.

Great gods, but Poland is cheap. Glorious.

At this point in my trip, I've been to Shrewsbury, to Holywell, to Bangor, to Caernafon, to Stratford-upon-Avon, to Birmingham (think I managed to see all there was to see from inside the bus, so it counts), I've hit the entire English countryside and northern Welsh coastline between London and the Isle of Anglesey, been to Ireland (start in Dublin and trace a somewhat circuitous loop around the entire island. I've been to every place your finger touches), to Stockholm, to Copenhagen, to Hamburg for all of 55 minutes, to Berlin for all of 45, and am now in Warsaw.

Warsaw was completely leveled in WWII, but they rebuilt the old sections of it according to a group of paintings, and did quite a good job of it. We toured the Royal Palace and then wandered through the maze of streets, had ice cream and kebabs in that order . . .

Copenhagen. Not so long ago I was in Copenhagen, and I liked it there quite a lot. On our final afternoon we were supposed to visit the Royal Reception Rooms in the Danish Royal Palace, but the guy behind the counter at the geek store we found suggested that we visit an amusement park 20 minutes outside the city, where every ride was 1 kronar (about 16.3 cents for you Americans), and so we did. And it was quite splendid. I haven't been to an amusement park in an age or three, and now that I have no fear of rides I can go on everything.

The world is such a big place. So big . . . it took the entire day to travel from Copenhagen to Warsaw (which is decidedly questionable late at night. Avoid if possible after 11 PM . . .). Lots of German countryside, lots of Polish countryside . . . very few people here speak English, which is quite a contrast from Denmark, where everyone did. We are so spoiled as English speakers, it astounds me. I can't really complain about the dominance of English as a world language, since I benefit rather directly, but it's somewhat frightening.

Can't think of anything terribly useful or interesting to say at the moment, so.