Lyda Morehouse's Blog, page 43

John Learner Lives!

Remember when I yammered on about my Japanese language tapes and how someone should really record the language tapes we all really want, where there's an interesting story and things go horribly wrong on 'John Learner's trip abroad?

Well, I'm finally going to do it. It's not going to be exactly like my original vision, though I think it will be even more fun. I'm just starting to formalize my vision and gather resources. One of the resources I need is you. I'm looking for actors/people who can play pretend who speak ANY LANGUAGE OTHER THAN ENGLISH (or, possibly even any language other than American English). You don't need to be fluent, but you should be confident enough in your skills to be recorded speaking a few simple (if fantasy-ish) phrases for the show.

Your language skills could even included dead languages, like Latin, archaic versions of modern languages, like say ancient Greek or Old Norse, and made-up languages, like Jibberish (which would require only a lot of confidence to pull off.)

The podcast is going to be one part travelogue into the "Unseen World"--a place, like in Night Vale, where magic exists and demons and Sirens and other such creatures are real and walk hidden among us. The other part is going to be a language guide to meeting these creatures or encountering magic. So, for instance, the end of the show would include one of those language-tape type conversations:

Me (in American): Hello! It is nice to meet a dybukk! You have possessed your host very thoroughly, I see!
You (in Hebrew): ---------

Me: Why yes, I am open to that sexual position, dear succubus, but please do not devour me.
You (in Greek): -------

And, similar sorts of "useful" phrases a person might need when encountering a demon/magical creature from the culture your language is associated with. Jibberish, btw, I would expect to go along with an alchemical creature/magic, since the words jibberish came from the alchemical writings of al-Jibar.

So, if you have any interest, please let me know! I'd like to start writing scripts for this ASAP.

Of Fannish Things: Sleepy Hollow, Attack on Titan, and Welcome to Night Vale

As you probably have noticed, LJ, I've mostly left you to get swept up by Tumblr. It's been a torrid affair and I'm afraid I've fallen deeply for Tumblr. I do hope, LJ, that you can I can still be friends.

But, now I have to rave a little annoyingly about my new friend, Tumblr.

Do you know what Tumblr introduced me to? Attack on Titan (aka "SNK," which is the abbreviation of its Japanese title, which I have yet to memorize.) I've started watching SNK, while doing the dishes. I think I'm up to episode 16. I just finished watching the "Female Titan" episode, which means I may be ready for some big ass trees. It's interesting to me the extent to which I've been spoiled/not-spoiled by all the various bits of clips and screen shots and fan art about this show. All the fan activity drew me in to try it, while giving me the warning that it's... bloody. War has consequences and the Titans eat us. So, I'm not invested in ANYONE. Actually, at one point I had to check Wikipedia to make sure the MAIN CHARACTER actually lived, because it looked very much like he didn't. I thought that maybe the show was going to break out and be the first shonen hero story where the hero who gave all the rousing speeches died early and the entire show/manga was about avenging him. But, no (and I'm okay with that. I did the Wiki search after realizing that no, I would not go on watching if the good-hearted brave one bought it.)

But, because I know better than to invest, I've been having fewer 'feels' as the kids call it. It fun to watch and addicting in the way of these shows, but it's not going to replace Bleach any time soon.

The other thing Tumblr got me interested in? Welcome to Night Vale. Welcome to Night Vale, of all things, is a podcast. The clever thing about it, is that it's set up to be a story about a guy on the radio, so it has an immediacy to it that I'm enjoying. I'm only up to the "Management Negotiations" episode (the one following the Glow Cloud, number 4, I think,) but it amuses me. The radio station is in a desert town somewhere in the US where weird is somewhat commonplace, you know, like how old woman Josey just happens to have angels changing light bulbs for her and things like that. But, in between bizarre public service announcements, advertisements for strange places, there's a story about the radio DJ and his attraction to a new scientist who comes to town (with PERFECT hair) named Carlos.

It was the cute fan art of these two that got me enchanted. I have a harder time finding time to listen to the podcasts, but I've been making time because the story is that interesting.

That leads me finally to "Sleepy Hollow" which I enjoyed tremendously. Tumblr didn't find this one for me, alas. I also thing that "Sleepy Hollow" is far too clever and cheesy-goodness-y for network TV. I predict it's going to go the way of "Firefly" and be over before it really gets started. For one, the main character is a black female police lieutenant and, you know, female leads? Not a lot of them, really, it's sad to say. I mean, I suppose Ichibod Crane is technically the hero of the show, but she's the one through whom a LOT of the mystery is being solved. Things I liked--the headless horseman is one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Ichibod Crane nearly lost his sh*t when he saw the Freemason pyramid symbol on the back of the US dollar. Masonry symbols have been popping anywhere you look for them, but they aren't given a lot of play, yet, which makes me extremely hopeful that beyond the good witch/bad witch stuff they've set up, there may also be a third magical group--the Freemasons, which would crack me up. Between the Biblical stuff and this, I'm so 100% sold, it's not even funny.

Also, there are creepy demons.

"Sleepy Hollow" FTW.

Okay, got to run, but I promise I'll be back, LJ. I'm really sorry I've neglected you for my new lover, Tumblr (s/he is prettier, though. Sorry!)

Uh, Right...

I feel like I've woken up after a long nap. A little disoriented and trying to figure out where all the time went.

Since getting married, Shawn and I have actually done a lot of stuff. We took a 'honeymoon' down to LaCrosse and spent Labor Day weekend with my folks. Labor Day in LaCrosse is actually pretty awesome because there's a parade of all the unions. The parade takes place on the north side of town--read: wrong side of the tracks, literally. Actually, LaCrosse is not only divided by the rail, but also a marsh/wetlands/swamp. Historically (and currently), the rich lumber barons lived on the south side of LaCrosse, while the workers lived in my neighborhood. The difference is still quite stark if you drive around. The South side has all these Victorian mansion type houses with large lawns, and our houses are decent but not fancy. The sort working class people built for themselves in the 1890s-1900s.

So, it's very appropriate that the parade happens only on the north side. Usually, it is first led off by the police, then the Teamsters, through all the locals (electric workers, bus drivers, ASCFME, etc.,) until the fire fighters end the show.



Mason always thinks of this parade as "the candy parade," because it's been traditional for all the local unions to toss Toosie Rolls and other such goodies:



We also did some rummage saling and I managed to find some awesome books on Japanese gardening and Japanese architecture which will be fun to read through.

I had to take this shot. As you can see, we helped the hoarders out by buying their chess set:



When we got back on Tuesday, it was Mason's first day of school. Believe it or not, Mason is in 5th grade now. That just seems crazy old to me.



Then, this weekend, spontaneously, we bought gerbils. We've had gerbils for years, but, being rodents, well, they die... quickly (a gerbil's average lifespan is 2 years.) So, our last set died some time ago, but we had all the things and had been diligently saving paper tubes for 'some day.' Turns out that some day was Saturday! Meet Magneto (the albino) and Templeton (who was going to be named Gambit for his reddish hair, but he's a no-good thief and a glutton, like the rat in Charlotte's Web.)

Eloped!

On Monday at 4:30 pm, Shawn and I snuck down to the courthouse and eloped!



Okay, we didn't exactly sneak.... and this isn't all we plan to do, either. There will be a wedding celebration to follow with cake and dancing, and I will invite as many of you as I possibly can. But, we wanted to get this done, because: health insurance.

At any rate, my folks came up and we picked our friends Sean M. Murphy (who also served as our amazing photographer) and naomikritzer as our witnesses. It was a short ceremony, though much longer than I expected, as the Hon. Gail Chang-Bohr had a whole rite written up which she read to us about the responsibilities of marriage. She only once accidentally started to say "husband," at which we all laughed. I was initially irritated to be lectured on love and honesty, but, as Shawn pointed out, it's all good advice, even if we did already know how to stay together. The judge actually couldn't believe we were old enough to have been together for nearly 30 years, until I explained that I've been living with Shawn since I was seventeen.

I was surprised by how excited and nervous I was. After the ceremony, we all went out to eat at Scuzzi's and had a tiny 'marriage' cake that just said "yay!" on it. After everyone left, I crashed. I fell asleep hard. Apparently, I was a lot more invested in the whole thing than I realized. Perhaps, you can see it on my face:

St. Paul Tourists

Mason and I have been playing tourist in our hometown. With what remains of the summer, I'm hoping to take him to a lot of the free/cheap things to do. But, yesterday we decided to try out the food trucks that congregate around Mears Park in downtown St. Paul. There were a number of choices: Asian Invasion, Gogi Bros., Twisted Fork, and Tiki Tim's.

We checked out all our options, considered prices (we only had a little over $6 each to spend), and finally settled on Asian Invasion. Mason had the pork dumplings and I had the Vietnamese pulled pork sandwich:







Mason's big plan for this outing was to sit on a park bench, eat fun food, and read. So I brought along the book I've been re-reading (Sujata Massey's FLOATING GIRL) and we ate, read, and were harassed by aggressive birds.



Mears Park is beautiful. It's tiny--really no more than your average city block--but it has a man-made stream and waterfalls.

Obon/Lantern Lighting Festival

Every year, Como Zoo holds a Lantern Lighting/Japanese Cultural Celebration. Mason and I went last year and enjoyed it tremendously. So, this time we decided to go early and stay late--that might have been a bit of a mistake because we both got a bit tired and grouchy by the end. But, it's a nifty little festival full of traditional Japanese dancing, crafts, martial arts demos, as well as things of interest for otaku of all nationalities.



We ended up having to park several long park blocks away from the entrance (which, no surprise, is near the Japanese garden). This was the beginning of our snappishness, actually, because the sun was hot and Mason insisted on carrying several large books to read. At any rate, as we were headed to the park, I saw a small contingent of my people. What do I mean? They looked like fans and they were clearly trying to call some friends to figure out where the hell the festival was taking place. As I approached, I leaned in and said, "Near the Japanese Garden" and the young man on the phone instantly perked up and asked if his group could follow me and Mason. Of course I said yes and it took about five seconds to discover we'd not only run into otaku, but a guy who regularly cosplays Ichigo.

So, we chatted Bleach and cosplaying the whole way to the festival. I gave the young man my card in case he wanted to stay in touch. Mason, of course, blurted that I've written an obscene amount of ByaRen fic and that led to a somewhat awkward discussion of orientation (the young man is bi, and was proud to have been part of a yaoi photo shoot at Detour in which he kissed a cosplayer dressed Grimmjow... which means I could probably Google a picture...) Regardless, they were a fun bunch, but we separated at the gate.

The booths were much the same as last year, and the first place Mason and I made a bee-line for was to the people who, last year, had a metric ton of Japanese-language Shonen Jumps. This year that had only a handful, but we were able to find a really good one to send to my friend empty_mirrors , who is learning to read Japanese.

Otherwise, Mason and I ate a lot of Japanese food--though I managed to chose some fairly gross eel as one of my entries (this is what I get for not reading Japanese) and passed several hours watching martial arts demos of all kinds. Mason is particularly fond of the sword folks, but I was pleased to watch my former Aikido sensei show off ki magic (aka "the Force"/reiatsu.) Here he is, John-sensei, who infamously refused to let me give him face and drove me insane by teaching me how to drop Zabimaru in bokken class:



Sensei-John was in fine form this Obon, I have to say. He completely baffled this audience member, Mark, who he had performing the 'try to pick me up/ oops now I'm using my ki and you can't" gig. For myself, I was the most charmed by Mark who kept giving sensei looks like 'what the hell? How does he do it???'

Mason also tried out the archery:



And, we watched BOTH zanjutizu kenjutizu demos. This year, I'm happy to say, they had female members ACTUALLY DOING STUFF.



I also took a picture of this young lady (kneeling) because: hair. Also, note the color of her zanpakuto katana's sheath:



There was also a guy that they had sparring with this group who their sensei introduced as Cameron, and Mason and I nicknamed him 'Cameron-pachi' because for a while he was the undefeated champion (he's the aggressive blur in this action shot). I liked him because his ki-yah sounded a bit like 'fight! fight!' which made me think of my boy:



I also ran into my neighbor from across the street (who I long thought was named Eric, but who introduced himself as John), who is a member of a martial art that uses FARM IMPLIMENTS to defend against those guys above (samurai). Can I just say? AWESOME. I tried to get a picture of their head instructor wielding a hoe, but it may be blurry too:



Also because we had so much extra time this year, I discovered a mumbling old guy demonstrating bansai and ikebana arrangements inside the Conservatory:





Then, of course, came the final part, the actual lantern lighting. I took a picture, but it's really just kind of a dark shot with a few points of light. It's probably best to imagine the scene in your head: tall rectangle paper lanterns glowing a soft yellow, lowered slowly by a poll into a man-made lake at dusk. It's really very spectacular.

A Taste of New Orleans

Shawn is home from her conference in New Orleans. My happy house plant managed to be coaxed away from the hotel a couple of times and actually managed to see the French Quarter and the famous Café du Monde. She brought back this:



So, I read the instructions and bravely gave them a go

The batter was simple. Two cups of the mix and add water. The only tricky part was that I was meant to add 7 fluid ounces. It took me a bit to figure out that meant a little less than a cup. Luckily, I had one measuring cup that showed ounces. I wasn't sure what size to make them and I'm terrible at guess what two inches looks like in real life, so this is what I got:







The final product (with chicory coffee), which Shawn said was a pretty good recreation. I guess next time we'll try making them a little bigger, but they puffed in the middle like they were supposed to. And, of course, enough powdered sugar makes everything tasty!



The coffee was pretty gross, though, if you ask me. I'm glad I tried it, though.

Yesterday's Adventure

Mason, Eleanor and I went to the "little" zoo yesterday (aka Como Zoo). We mostly just wandered around. Eleanor hadn't been to Como since they added the interpretative center, the rainforest walk, or expanded the polar bear experience. Mason and I hadn't yet seen the Gorilla Forest improvements. So, we did a lot of exploration.

When we first came in, a volunteer was showing off a hedgehog. OMG teh cute! Super-fast, too! Like a real life Sonic!



The ostriches were being weird and weirdly cute, so I had to snap a couple of pictures of them:



The gorilla area was much nicer. Previously, they had a sort of sad concrete environment and now they have a lot more room and a more natural looking habitat. The sun was hot so I sort of forgot to take many other pictures because we were hurry to find shade. I got a kind of crappy shot of the lion who was also trying to hide from the sun:



My favorite part of the zoo is always the Japanese garden. Most of the rest of the pictures are from there. Mason bought a parasol from the gift shop. It has painted cherry blossoms on it. It'll be nice for tomorrow, which is Obon (the lantern lighting ceremony):

Renji Trap

One of the things I love about manga is that occasionally, they run silly bits of information about characters that have been introduced. One thing that's canon is that Renji likes a bean paste filled pancake desert type thing usually sold at festivals called taiyaki. When Mason and I went to United Noodle today, we discovered that the restaurant there makes FRESH taiyaki. Thus, I have set out a Renji trap:



Do you think I'll catch him?

Kudos CON

There's going to be a new convention in town, and it's specifically for fans and fan works. I really, really want to contribute to this because not only is it a cool idea, but also I could get a PLUSHIE PLOT BUNNY. Take a moment to think about how utterly awesome this is...

Then, go to their web site and watch the video and check out the tiny plot bunny in the background.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/565819342/kudoscon

A PLUSHIE PLOT BUNNY. YOU NEED THIS. Also, you might also have a real life OT3 that you need bring to the convention.