Learning Japanese

I continue to seriously consider learning Japanese. I remember when I learned Spanish in school I was at a special school where we used Spanish a great deal. Thus I was emerged in the language and all of our teacher spoke Spanish. When I learned what little French I know I was dating someone that spoke the language. And she was insistent on me learning it. So i was well motivated there as well.

Pittsburgh PA is not exactly a major hub for Japanese culture. Nor do I have any Japanese friends. So the only way i can learn the language is through classes or an audio course. neither of these methods have worked well for me in the past. The thing that has worked best for me is being forced to learn the language because I need it.

With the exception of eating Sushi everyday at a local Sushi bar there is actually no where that i know of that I meet Japanese people everyday. In addition half the staff speaks Spanish as their first language. So that is good practice for that but not much help with the Japanese. In addition it would get expensive after a while.

Well i suppose I should sign up for a college class and see what happens. Being that i am married I can probably not date Japanese women. In addition I don't think anyone would want to start a relationship based on that reasoning anyway.

Wel be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

The Salvation Navy Series Problems

One of the fundamental tenants of the book is that several planets are populated with people that have been rescued by the Far Star Project. They are needed for their technical knowledge or their abilities. They are saved because The Far Star Project need to be able to staff a vast fleet that will fight the time war.

One of the problems that I am now having is where do I save all of the people from. One of the assumption is that the first round of people that are saved are saved by people that have very little foreknowledge of the future. Fleet Lord Stone lives on Earth for centuries before the time wars. He has advanced medical knowledge and he saved many Humans from the plague and other biologic disasters. He even used what few advanced ships he has to save people from ship wrecks and other things.

For reason that are apparent for the story Stone shifts his operation from Europe to America when what will become the United States is being colonized. That would mean that by the time the holocaust rolled around they would not be in a position to do anything about it. The Story mention Stone taking part in the second world war. He was in the Navy so he spent his war in the Pacific.

Would that constitute a plot hole is they do not rescue victims of the holocaust? Either way I am sure I can get out of it for the first book. Still if they did rescue Jews at what time would a flag officer in the United States Navy know the holocaust was happening. How many could they rescue? I suppose these are all question I will have to answer soon.

Can't Keep Away

I simply cannot keep away from writing in the book. I know that I need to give it time so that it can be edited properly. Never the less I have the constant urge to write stuff in. Today I wrote two chapter both of which may not go into the current book.. Still, it is clear to me that this will be the hardest book of the series. It is the one that I will have to do all alone. If no one buy the rest of the series will remain as scraps and out lines that do not have to dealt with. If someone buys it than I will have help with next one.

I suppose that is a strange way to look at it. Still, I am not one that will put the effort into it is no one cares. It is after all an attempt to tell a story. If no one wants to read the story there is no point to writing it.

Random Cat thing

Just some more randomness. My cat just dragged off one of my note books. The cat weighs three pounds and the note book weighs seven ounces. So that is a fairly heavy thing for a cat to drag off.

I am not sure what anyone would care about this. It is something that happened I thought I should share.

Still Working on the Book

Still working on the book. The thing continues to do well. I just wish I had thought of everything that had to go into the first book. There is a a possibility that I would have made it into two separate books.

I have bee writing the thing in these red composition books. Yesterday I finished off composition book number 9 and am moving onto book ten. I am not sure why I started writing the book like this. Even so when i type from the note books into the computer I get a great deal of editing done at that stage. So all and all it may be inefficient, still, it works for me.

I am not sure why anyone would care about this, it was something to post.

BE safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

The Viking Game

This is a game that I have been playing around with for several years. No pun intended. Any way here are the rules.

Pieces

The King piece was called Hnefi ("King", Old English has Cyningstan "King-Stone"); the pieces Hunns ("knobs"), Tæflor ("table-men") or Tæfelstanas (Old English "table-men").

The Lapps call their Tablut pieces "Swedes" and "Muscovites" (they were very similar to modern stylized chessmen, the Swedish King resembling a King, the Swedish Hunns pawns and the Muscovites bent rooks). They sometimes had pegged bottoms that fit in holes drilled in the board. The King was bigger and more ornate.

With the larger boards (e.g. Alea Evangelii), the King's pieces were sometimes differentiated, with a small, elite "King's Guard" of uncapturable pieces.

There are many finds of board games and gaming pieces from Scandinavia and from the British Isles. Gaming pieces were often hemispherical and made of antler, amber, bone, clay, glass, horn, stone, jet, wood or even horses' teeth [10]. Finds of several light and several dark pieces together have been made sometimes with a single piece being a different shape, like a sea urchin, in the same area.

For 9x9 boards, sixteen dark pieces surrounded eight light pieces with an additional King. Boards with more squares typically had twelve light pieces and a King facing twenty-four dark pieces. The colors were often switched.

SET-UP

The King (large white piece) goes on the central square (Throne -Konakis in Finnish), surrounded by his men (other white pieces). The enemy (black) pieces are set up around the edges of the board. Black moves first -except in the case of Alea Evangelii, where White moves first.

PLAYING HNEFATAFL

Turns alternate between the players.

All pieces move in the same way, like modern rooks at Chess. That is, on his turn, a player may slide a single piece of his color any number of squares in either orthogonal direction (up-down or left-right, no diagonal moves) as long as it doesn't jump over another piece of either color. The Throne and the four corner squares are off-limits to all pieces except the King. With the smaller board variants, pieces of either color may pass over the Throne; with the larger board variants, only the King may do so.

The White player is trying to have his King escape his assailants by reaching a corner square. If the White player moves so that his King ends up with a clear path to any of the four corner squares, he must announce that he has an escape route open. The Lapps use the word Raichi ("Check") to announce a single route and Tuichi ("Checkmate") to announce a double route. On his next turn, if he can still do so, the King may be moved to a corner square and escape. White then wins.

If the Black player inadvertently opens an escape route for the King, the White player may take advantage of it immediately!

If the moved piece ends up sandwiching an opposing piece between itself and another piece of the moving color or a corner square, the sandwiched piece is removed from the board. This is called custodial capture. It is possible to capture several pieces in a single move.

White captures both black pieces

The King must be sandwiched along both axes to be captured. The Throne, corners and edges count as Black pieces for purposes of sandwiching the King, so Black needs only three pieces to capture the King on the edge of the board or if he is right beside his Throne, two if the King is right beside a corner square. When the King is in danger of being captured on Black's next move, he must announce "Watch your King" to the White player (this is reminiscent of Chess' prohibition against moving one's King into check). Black wins by capturing the King. The King can also be captured if he and no more than one defender are surrounded on all sides and incapable of moving.

In all cases Black captures the King and wins

A piece may safely move to place itself in sandwich between two opposing pieces (or a corner square).

White can safely move in between the black pieces

WINNER

The winner is the White player if he manages to reach a corner square with his King, the Black player if he manages to capture the King. Because the game is uneven, it is good etiquette to play two games, switching sides. Each player keeps track of how many pieces he lost or took from his opponent and this score is used to determine the ultimate winner.

I have just started making a new board. The old one that I have is worn and has been around too long. First though I am going to make a board for my minster's son. They are being moved and he has played this game with me from time to time while they have been here. So I want him to be able to take one of the these games with him.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Two New Chapter

I have written three more chapters for the book even though I didn't want to t write anything new. I was supposed to be letting the book alone. i just could not do it.

The new Chapter have to do with Admiral McRandal who is a more important character in the later books in the series. I suppose I have to put him in. He needs to be introduced early on so that he just does not appear out of nowhere.

that is the only problem with writing such a complicated book. Everything has to al least be alluded to up front.

Well I suppose in the grand scheme of thing this is not so bad.

Be safe out there and keep you stick on the ice.

A Random Game

I am on another site type thing wher ethey have a kind of blog. This is a set of question those folk sent me.


Here are some questions. What you have to do is the following questions with a twist...

1. Put your MP3 player, iTunes, Windows media player, etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!!

Then, just tag at least 6 friends. Everyone tagged has to do the same thing. Have fun!


IF SOMEONE SAYS "ARE YOU OKAY" YOU SAY?
Sure – Blondie Maria

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Funnyish – Johny Cash Fulsome County Blues

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Great – Edith Piaf Mi Lord

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
To be funny – Rolling Stones Anyone seen my Baby

WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO?
Illusi et Divinus – Smokey Robinson Tear of a Clown

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
I have no freinds – The Spinners Ruberband Man

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
They try not to – Loveholic Maria

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
My Book – Ah a Take on me

WHAT IS 2 + 2?
4 (I used a calculator) – 1812 Oveture

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Awesome dude – Louis Armstrong What a wonderful World

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Yet to be written – Ricky Martin I don’t know the title to this song

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Master Clown – Kana the title is in Kanji and I can’t write it here

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
writting – Charlie Zahn Loch Lomond

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
bees – Emilie Simon Fleur de Season

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
I listen to Kana – Hikaru Utada song name is in Kanji again

WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?
Mach and Cheese and Spam – Jackie Chan I’ll make a man of you Maderin

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Very tolerant - Andy Steward Scotland the Brave

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Another stolen tagging thing- W Southpaw


6 people:
I have don’t feel right tagging people
I will tag lettus pocky though

New Devil Sticks

I know it has been a while. Still I have been working on the book and there has been little room for anything else.

Something interesting did happen on the clowning front today. Sergeant Wilson and Thurman have been playing around with the devil sticks. The problem is that they like everything else. So Walt and I decided to take a crack at making some.

I figured that it would take us many tries to get anything that is close to usable. So we gave it a shot.

Sergeant Wildon stopped by to help us work on the Devil stick. And they she is sanding the dowels that we made the sticks out of.

Our goal in life was to make some sloth stick, or slow spinning Devil Sticks. When we finished the first set and tried them out they spun like speed sticks. They we incredible fast and very maneuverable. The sloth sticks we were trying to make are usually very light. The sticks I prefer are the the s type the Dube company makes. They are quick but are harder to do some tricks with.

It would appear that over building them to make them tough for young people had created a fast tuning stick that has the easy trick attributed of the devil sticks that have the big end. So we appear to have created a new type of Devil stick. We decided to call them chopper sticks.

Well be safe out there and keep yousr stick on the ice. Thank you Sergeant Wilson and Walt