Happy New Year
Posted By Ardellis on January 1, 2009
Sen trí naca a hna kai etÓftó aŋrinarŧ urarnún.
Which, of course, is proto-Túfóžan for:
May the new year bring happiness to you all.
How Many is Too Many?
Posted By Ardellis on December 26, 2008
Been poking around in my conlangs today, which I haven’t done for some time and I’m considering adding yet another noun case to Proto-Túfóžan. It has 46 already, so I’m leery about the prospect of adding another, but I think I may really need it, especially if I want to avoid creating adpositions (at least at this stage).
For those of you who may not know, 46 is more than three times the number of noun cases in Finnish, which is considered case-heavy among natlangs.
On the other hand, at least I haven’t caught up to Ithkuil yet. It has 81.
Goodbye, Uncle Forry
Posted By Ardellis on December 7, 2008
He had a long, fantastic life. He influenced a lot of people. He will be missed.
Muggle Quidditch
Posted By Ardellis on December 1, 2008
I didn’t realize until I read it in the campus paper, but my alma mater (which also happens to be my employer) has a Quidditch team.
Sometimes Having to Explain It Just Makes It Funnier
Posted By Ardellis on November 28, 2008
Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends Rick Rolled the Macy’s Parade yesterday.
You should have seen my in-laws’ expressions when I burst into hysterics.
Uncle Forry
Posted By Ardellis on November 16, 2008
As you may already know, the word about the blogosphere these last few days is that Forrest J. Ackerman is fighting pneumonia as well as congestive heart failure, and we don’t know how much longer he’ll be with us. Fans and friends (and armies of folks consider themselves both) are sending him cards, letters, and Facebook messages, thanking him for his unparalleled contributions to horror, SF, and fandom. And for those of you within traveling distance, Uncle Forry is also welcoming visits from anyone who cares to drop in at his home and pay their respects (details are in the article linked above).
My own experience with this legendary man is limited to a brief greeting in passing the last time World Con was in Boston, but he was very kind and helpful to my husband a few years back, when Andy corresponded with him by email while working on a project for a graduate school class in museum collections. The world, especially the geeky corner of the world that I live in, would be a much different and a much emptier place if it had never known him. And that’s the plain, unvarnished truth.
What We Used to Read
Posted By Ardellis on November 11, 2008
Via Elizabeth Bear. Yes, I am in fact several weeks behind in reading some of my favorite blogs. It’s been a busy life.
MGK Versus His Adolescent Reading Habits
MGK Versus His Adolescent Reading Habits, Part Two
It’s only side-splittingly funny because it’s true. I say this despite my lingering fondness for most of the books on that list (the ones I actually read; there are a few there I never did). Except Donaldson. My father loved that series, but I never could get past Covenant’s personality. Think I made it two chapters into the second book before I threw it against the wall.
The Language of Stephen Fry
Posted By Ardellis on November 9, 2008
I’ve always loved Stephen Fry. Nothing against Hugh Laurie, of course, but given the choice between the two, I’m afraid I’ve always favored Fry. Perhaps because he’s always been a bit drier, a bit smoother, a bit more, well, quintessentially British in my eyes than his former partner-in-comedy. And this opinion, I promise you, dates back to long before I even knew Laurie was capable of doing such a good imitation of an American accent.
But this is new. Stephen Fry has just elevated himself not only onto my blogroll but onto my own personal list of People Who Get It:
Words are free and all words, light and frothy, firm and sculpted as they may be, bear the history of their passage from lip to lip over thousands of years. How they feel to us now tells us whole stories of our ancestors.
And that’s just two sentences. Go, please, and read the rest. Yes, it is a rather long piece, but, Gods, is it beautiful. And true. And I’m still arguing with myself as to which of those adjectives is the more important.
The Essential Avon
Posted By Ardellis on November 8, 2008
Ah, Kerr Avon. In all his snarky, self-centered glory!
