Candy Cane Sheep!

Saw half a dozen newly sheared sheep on the way back to town. They were rubbing their sides against a red-painted barn, maybe it itches when the new fur grows, and the color rubbed off on them. They looked like candy canes!

Didn't really want to stop to take a picture, wanted to get Loki home as fast as possible, he's cooperative but rather stressed about riding the car. Or maybe it's just the fact that he's locked in a small box for four and a half hours after twelve hours without food and eight without water.

Sounds and letters

I wanted to ask something. I found a band logo today for a korean band that pronounced their name as "beast" but the logo was "B2ST". I spent a ridiculous amount of time staring at it trying to make sense of it, turning it this way and that, distorting "two", but my puzzlement only grew. Until my dear friend pointed out that the 2 could be in the band's native language. I'd already thought about that but dismissed it because two in korean is "set" and in their chinese loan numbers "ii".
When she said it though, I realized that "ii" and "ea" in beast probably is the same sound. I say probably, because in my head, it's not. If you recorded me saying the two sounds, I realize that I'm very unlikely to hear any difference myself, but would you ask me when I'm saying it, I'd swear that I'm saying two different things. In my head, when I say or hear "beast" there is clearly both an "e" and an "a" in there. I feel them... it's not quite seeing and not quite hearing.
This probably helps me with spelling, because I would also claim that I can "hear" how a word is spelled (probably it's just obscure grammatical rules that I've somehow absorbed subconsciously, and I'll claim the same even if I spelled it wrong the first time and then learned the right). But it does confuse me when it comes to word-plays like the band name.

So the question is, do you too?

Learning a new language

i -- 1. (particle after subject or object word) 2. this 3. (particle after verb or adjective to make adverb) 4. tooth, teeth 5. two, 2 (hanja) 6. lice 7. person (particle after younger/same age person's name) 8. with 9. ear 10. different


do -- 1. (particle after noun to add meaning of 'as well', 'too') 2. district, province 3. principle, doctrine 4. drawing, picture 5. degree (angle or temperature) 6. (particle after word to add meaning of 'but, however') 7. group of people 8. island

si -- 1. hour, time, o'clock 2. (particle in verb to add politeness) 3. (particle in verb to make polite request) 4. city, town 5. (particle in noun to add meaning of 'in-law') 6. poem 7. to see (hanja)

:<

Melodies

Saw a black cat trotting along the road yesterday, carrying a... uh, [sork] so big that the tail was dragging on the ground, it was at least twice the size of the cat's head. Show off.

Listening to Korean radio through shoutcast.com. Partly because normal radio is boring, partly because I like music where I don't understand the words because then I don't get ticked off at stupid lyrics, and partly because listening to it passively teaches me the sounds and melodies of the language. It's also cool to have a normal music radio channel that plays *only* songs in the native language. How many Swedish-exclusive music channels are there? (Not that I'd listen to them.) I've listened to French radio before, but a lot of the music is the same as ours and in English. While it's cool to have like a "universal" language between European countries, I guess that native languages get sidelined. I'm usually not so opposed to that, but it's a tragedy when it comes to music, really. Every language is like it's own instrument. Ever listen to duets by people from Sweden/Norway/Denmark? Chorusing together but in their own language, it sounds awesome.

So if every language is it's own instrument, what instrument would that be? Like, Norwegian would be the ukulele to the Swedish guitar, Italian would be drums and Russian, I think, like one of those stringed square things that lie down and you can play chords on... not the Asian ones, darn it what are they called...

Cuddling with cat > [insert activity here]

Anyone can understand programming, just look at this:

public class Cat extends Pet {

public void getAttention(mistress) {

if(attention==false){
try{
sitOnKeyboard();
if(attention==true)
break;
pokeObject(breakable);
if(attention==true)
break;
chewOnCables();
if(attention==true)
break;
} catch (OverProvocationException op) {
runAwayHide();
}
}

}

public void main(String[] args) {
Cat.getAttention(me);
if(attention==true) {
purr();
}
}

}

beta test

EDIT: Graphical UI now implemented, it was many easier than I thought. And the "bunny" type will work now, and this time I mean it :P The window looks kinda funny... because well, it was easy enough to make it work, but to make it look like I wanted... whole other story./EDIT


I've been playing around with java and have managed to generate something that might work, so now I'd like to see if it really is something to bounce about like a bunny over.

You'll find it here.

I'd love it if some people would like to try the program so I can get some beta test results :) For windows it should be just double-clicking the Evolution.jar file. For Linux, either double click it, but if that just opens a folder you open terminal and go to the file's locaton and write "java -jar Evolution.jar". For mac I have no idea :p

Oh and you need JRE but you should already or I'll be a fat surprisedcat. Otherwise just get it, you'll need it for other things.

Hello my name is...

I've been sitting here writing for like 40 min. I write something, and then censor it, and write something else, and censor it. It's a bunch of whining, really. Maybe it's just therapeutic to write it down. It's funny how little of what I think that I actually tell people. I mean, it's probably the same for everyone. I guess. How would I know? :p Maybe I should say, it's lucky how little of what I think that I actually tell people.

I censor everything that comes out. Everything, to varying degrees but still. I figure that also is the same for everyone, but I don't know that either. Some people really seem to say what they think, but I guess if you think fairly ok things then that's ok. Huh. That right there is another of my quirks. When I say things about people I envy or admire (it's the same thing though right?) it always comes out sounding like an insult, so I usually censor that. It's not an insult. Let me try again. If you think good things, then it's ok. Nuh, still kinda sounds like an insult. Like a pat on the head :<

The essence of my whiny mood lies in a few things: being stuck here with my family for too long (I need my independence dammit!), not having my computer (this made me realize how dependent I've gotten on it for social stuff), and my leg and back being crappily crappy and it bringing around some realizations. Like that if I have kids, I won't be able to run around and play with them, or catch them if they wander into the middle of the road. But I think what really brought this bout of depression down was that some people went to an amusement park, and I thought, well crap I would have wanted to come, and that funny guy Voice of Reason said, "No, you don't, because you can't walk for shit and after an hour you'd be sitting on a park bench with a hurting back and hurting ankle and a fake smile as they walked away from you to do something fun, or much worse were stuck sitting there with you". And then it turned into a merry little garden party when old buddy Who Do You Think You Are popped out to cheer me up saying, "Oh what, are you crying now? Don't be such a wimp, there's so many people so much worse off than you."

Oh good. This time I could write it with a bit of humor instead of deep black emo-ness. Therapy session over.

Conscience

Buying The Witcher 2 from www.gog.com gives pretty much the full amount paid directly to the creators of the game, as far as I've understood. It's 49.99€ for the digital download, where some shit like maps and making-of videos come included. Bear with me, this isn't a commercial, nor a review. It's gotten pretty decent reviews, packs quite a long playtime in a well thought-out world, and comes from the company that made the first The Witcher. They were a fairly unknown Polish group, who produced one of the best RPG's of its time. GoG also recognizes that because of laws and taxes and all that funky stuff, the European digital download costs 16$ more than the US, so they give you games from their store to the same value. The Witcher team also makes a point of trusting their players, choosing to believe that if their product is good it will stand for itself: The Witcher 2, like the first, comes without any DRM. No, this is not a request for them to have my babies.

So what is it? It's a question: If I hypothetically said that I know a site that is 100% reliable and legal but possibly much less ethical (in how they acquire what they sell, but I don't know, I don't know if anyone knows), that sells The Witcher 2 for a little more than 16€, but where it's very doubtful if the developers get very much, if anything at all... how is that different from torrenting it for free? Because it feels different. If this was any other game I would probably buy it cheap, but why? Have they successfully guilt-tripped me into buying their game from being too nice? I'm extremely curious how the game sales are. Is the DRM-free way the way to go to win the war against pirating, not because you defeat the hackers, but because you win the players hearts and loyalty? Or is it the eyes full of hope of a catholic sheep on its way into the wolf's den?

Does a product that is good ever stand on its own?

A regular day's concerns

"If you stick to the roads, you´ll meet less mosquitos, just like in World of Warcraft."

I was playing The World Ends With You today, where there´s a bonus boss that´s insanely difficult because of one single thing; he stomps the ground all the time which interrupts casting healing and shields, which I´ve been relying on a lot. I was staring at my Nintendo DS wondering how on Earth I would be able to kill it, and thought, "but hey, Chingling, my pokémon, is immune to ground moves".

>.>

In other news, Loki now knows two tricks: high 5, and uh, licking my hand, well it´s a trick because he does it on cue. I´m sorry, three tricks, the third being leaving live mice all around the apartment. Yesterday I found one right inside the door and anther severely bleeding beneath my suitcase. I´m a little worried that he´s put a dead one behind the stove because something smells -.- His free-roaming privileges have been revoked.