So I'm alive and well. Some of you might have wondered; don't worry anymore. I'll take a picture later of me holding a recent newspaper, or something.

Portland is very beautiful. It doesn't rain as much here as I was lead to expect-- I have yet to be inconvenienced by the rain, and only three days out of the last thirty have been warmer than I was comfortable with. We have been able to adjust temperature very happily just by opening and closing windows around the house, and it has been easy to fall asleep. We've gone downtown a handful of times, and each time I was surprised at how nice it is. There are a lot of homeless people here-- more than I have ever seen before -- and I admit I have had to convince myself not to be slightly frightened of them. But the streets smell nice and are very well laid out (alphabetical and numerical order, huzzah for the grid system) and there are coffee shops and bookstores everywhere. There is no sales tax, and food is much less expensive here-- particularly our favorite sushi place, which is one of those sushi-go-rounds. It has a lunch special during the weekdays for $1-$1.50 per plate, and we stuff ourselves cheaply.

Still losing weight, though not nearly as fast as I was-- I haven't put any back on, though. Need more exercise.

Started putting in applications. I was putting it off until lately; desirous of a vacation, unsure if I wanted to continue on in the same sort of job I was doing before. Ideally, I never have to take mentally impaired humans to the grocery store again. I would love a more office-like job, somewhere where I work in a building and have a desk. I have a pretty good resume, these days, and I am not frightened of my situation; we have an excellent support network here, and the time I have taken to myself is time we can more than afford.

I felt a little homesick this morning, missed the people I used to know.

I found out today a little bit more about a friend who was once very dear to me, and the sort of things he used to tell people behind my back; weakening me, and for why? It's too long past to even bring up now, I am afraid; the benefits gained of laying it all straight would not exceed the sadness of that confrontation, so I'm letting it go, chalking it up to mistakes made. We haven't had a real conversation in ages anyhow; all too often I find that I disagree with his issues and opinions, don't laugh at his jokes, don't sympathize with his problems. Does that sort of thing happen over time, or do you only notice it in retrospect? Or perhaps I'm laboring under an attribution bias; hurt by his actions, I can only see reasons to let him go. Then again, that latter doubt has been his saving grace for some time, now; perhaps it is best to let the attachment die altogether.

I was a little concerned about my mental health, making this trip. My freshman year in college saw me to a full mental breakdown; this is not common knowledge, and the details are genuinely unimportant. I grew a great deal as a person because of it, and gained a more detailed understanding of my limits after the fact, but the relevancy of mentioning it is that I was a little concerned that this infinitely more remote move would see me to a similar breakdown-- the loneliness, the fear of failure, the homesickness, the strangeness of all the people and places and things. But I'm older now, and I am the furthest from alone. That matters.

I broke my driver's-side sideview mirror, backing out of the covered parking space we only just started renting. I have never damaged a vehicle of my own before (I was once occupying my car when someone else crashed into it, but I don't count it as a mistake -I- made.) I was not going to fix it, since the shards are still contained in the frame and it seemed to work, but now I find that it ever so slightly distorts my view when changing lanes on the highway, and I really should spend the money to have it repaired. That is slightly stressful, because I am sure it won't come cheaply. I feel stupid for breaking it. I'm usually so careful about backing out.

We started putting pictures into the picture frames on the wall. Mary, the ones you bought us for the wedding are so beautiful-- they are extremely well made, and they are up in our living room now, where we spend all of our time. Right now we mostly have just wedding photos in them; I should really pick up a new ink cartridge, and start printing out some of the other gorgeous photos that we own.

I mailed my old cellular phone to my mother. It is still in service. My phone number these days is different, and if you have lost the number somewhere, I can give it to you. There were some voice mails on it that I never receivved, including "a long and emotional farewell from a former client of yours" that my father reported to me in no more words than that, and then deleted. I sort of wish I had gotten to hear it, but c'est la vie.

We are going to the Chinese Gardens on Saturday, with Ilana, who has been patient and bright and come by to see us nearly every day. I am excited to go and, I think, ready to be glad that the sun is shining and my friends are here. We are grown; we made this decision. We are where we decided to be. Looking back, it was a big decision, but well planned and well made, despite weddings and vacations and graduations-- we saved up the moeny we made ourselves and we ran to a land that appears to contain all of the promise we thought it did.

Lyrebird as Firebird

Based on the Australian lyrebird, this is yet another unusual interpretation of the firebird / phoenix. Crappy lighting kind of means crappy photo, next time the sun is out, I'll get a better one. The flash mangles pastels, the purple actually isn't anywhere that bright in the picture in natural light.





( Larger one behind the cut. )

Happy birthday gear_halo!!!!

Have some 'yotes...

Morgan Freeman allegedly to marry step-granddaughter.

"I take a dim view of staggering home every Sunday with five pounds of wood pulp on my arm, when what I really want is information, not wastepaper. How I look forward to the day when I can press a button and get any type of news, editorials, book and theater reviews, etc., merely by dialing the right channel. The print will flash on the screen, and if I want "hard copy" to file or read elsewhere, another button will conjure forth a printed sheet containing only what I need."

- Arthur C. Clarke, "Technology and the Future," presented 1967

He goes on to anticipate e-mail, admittedly "typed or written on special forms like war-time V-mail," two paragraphs later. :P

I'm re-reading Report on Planet Three, a collection of Clarke's essays that has, somehow, ended up being one of my frequent re-read books. He has both a bright vision for the future and something of a talent for prediction, even if he's often wrong in the specifics--and the timeline. In particular, there's two things that Clarke assumes will exist by the year 2001 that did not, in fact, end up happening. The first is AI. I'm not too torn up about that being wrong; my roommate makes a compelling moral argument about intelligent machines. The other, though, is that he assumed space exploration would proceed at the pace it did in the late 50's and early 60's. Clarke envisions a human base on the Moon, exploratory missions to Mars, and orbiting space hospitals by the turn of the century. This is the one I really, really wish he'd been right on. I could go on about why, but the subject he keeps bringing up casually, as an "of course it will happen," and that I therefore keep being "D:" about, is the space hospitals. I'm not a doctor, but from my layman's perspective, Clarke's points about how zero-gravity could help various types of difficult-to-help patients today--particularly burn, cancer, and heart patients--seem valid to me. And that makes it bitterly disappointing that we don't have them.

I bet my dad would love getting heart surgery IN SPACE. >:

Today needed only this. Sigh.

What we're wearing now. I wore jeans & t-shirts 20 years ago; I can't see that changing. (As for "popular fashion"... based on accelerating trend math, 20 years from now, the 1960s should be back for the fifth time.)

http://home.myway.com/

News. Stuff. No pop-ups, now slow-loading banners (although the market info does take a sec to come in - if you're not watching the market, just hit "stop" about 1 sec after loading. You'll have everything else.

vikinggoddess!

Hope this year brings lots of rodeo wins, cowboys, success, a great job, and happiness to your life!

(Hi there. I'm possiblymaybe taking over/alternating with Gil on the mid-week meta.)

What are the minimum elements needed to make a story FSF?

--Is it FSF if the magic or technology are only part of the setting, or a background to a plot that doesn't focus on them? (Which is why I occasionally hesitate before going on to describe some Discworld books as fantasy.) Is it sci-fi if it uses only the known capabilities of existing technology? (I can't think of a parallel for fantasy.)

--What would existing FSF stories be like without some or all of those elements, and how would existing non-FSF stories be changed by the addition of those elements?

--At this point, does a work have to have a certain trope quotient to be FSF? (For example, Cosmicomics is the most sciencey sci-fi I've ever read, and yet it's totally unlike any other sci-fi.) What's the most trope-filled thing you've read/seen that you wouldn't describe as FSF? (Some other Calvino works.) For the sake of discussion, assume last-century.

So anyway I was surfing the net, and found this blog talking about extrapolating a language out of a few lines of dialog between an Ubese hunter and Jabba the hut. The exchanges are anaylized to deduce a basic phonology and grammar. (I'll use IPA, as it is easier for me to visulize than the blogger's romanization system). The blogger comes up with three known consonants t, tʃ, and j and three vowels (one of which I think is either a dipthong or an elongated vowel) a, eɪ (e:), and o.

Since 3 consonants and 3 vowels is not enough for a complete phonology, the blogger adds the consonants ʃ, k, n, l, and ɦ (I'm assuming hh is ɦ). He states that he feels that Ubese has no labials or voiced consonants. It is enteriorly possible that this is true as the name given by one language to another does not necessarily mean that the name is phonologically correct within that language. So Ubese could be the Hutt name for the language. Boushh's name could also be a foriegn equivalent of the true Ubese name. However, the blogger forgets a critical piece interaction between the bounty hunter and one of Jabba's minions.

At 2:23, you will see that the Ubese trader says " 'liv.ʌs duʔ.'tʃa ". Now it is possible the trader switched to speaking another language after speaking with Jabba. But it appears in Star Wars, people tend to speak their native tongues, rather than speak the same language, allowing that each side understands what the other is saying. I suspect that the Ubese trader is still speaking Ubese. That would mean that there two voiced consonants "d, v" and a labial "v".

But then again, conlanging is a rather subjective thing.

What intrigued me about this blog was the idea of taking an interesting sounding language and breaking it down. Do you think that it might be easier to have some lines written and then extrapolate or is starting from scratch better for you?

As you may have noticed by now, I've never been as regular as I'd like with posting mid-week metas. On top of that, those questions I have been posting lately have generated very little discussion. Therefore, I'd like to open the floor for feedback on a few questions:

* Should we even have mid-week metas anymore? Or have we exhausted their usefulness?

* If we do keep up the scheduled meta posts, how often should metas be posted? Should we keep to a weekly schedule, or switch to (for example) monthly metas?

* If we do continue to have scheduled meta posts, who should post them? Should I continue doing it, or should someone else take the reins?

* How do we encourage greater community participation?

( Insert faux-Tweetgrab Here )

Oh, the joys of cut-and-paste technology...

Um. Nothing to report here.

Everything is fine.

These aren't the droids you're looking for.

I turn 35 Saturday. Still don't feel it most of the time. That's not a complaint, just a comment. I get sore a bit more easily, but I never had the heavy weight gain I've been warned I would have since I was 18; in fact, I'm too skinny right now. Starting to gain back weight I'd lost over the last few months of my job before I got let go, so I guess that's good. Losing 25 pounds when you're like I am is not a good thing.

Mostly, I just notice that time goes ever, ever on, and at an ever increasing pace. 15th anniversary passed by last month, in 6 months Josiah will be 10, we've owned this house for 8 years now, etc., etc. Just can't credit how quickly things move on.

My first couple of weeks as the (volunteer) youth minister at the small mission church southeast of here have gone well. I've got a rough outline for curriculum for the rest of the year in place along with some ideas about activities. I have two junior-going-on-senior class guys, plus the younger brother of one of the two, so one of the things we're seeking to do is solidify belief structure: what is it that you believe and why. I didn't honestly know why (other than because my parents believed it) until I got to college. I had to walk a rather rocky path of learning the hard way the answers to a lot of those questions, in the process nearly losing faith entirely before I made my way back. The idea is, against the backdrop of Scripture, to delve into what Christianity is about, what Christians should be doing, why we believe what we believe, along with side trips into extra-Biblical sources that lend credence to the Bible's historicity, and along the way to explore any of the hard questions they have. I don't believe in dodging the "why" questions. I don't know the answers to all of them, but I'm not afraid to delve into them either. Almost every youth I've ever taught wants to be treated more like an adult. I prefer that, truth be told. It means they are ready (or think they are ready) to deal with the hard questions and not flinch from the answers.

Wish I had something to say about the job situation. All I can say is that God provides what we need. The only thing I've actually asked people for help with was a car repair a couple of weeks ago. Everything else, all other payments, food, etc., have been the result of people calling up and arranging to do something on our behalf. It's really amazing. So, on the one hand, I'm worried sick cause I'm at the end of my rope. We're out of money and have no prospect of regular income. On the other, we haven't gone hungry yet and the house note was paid again. Still have lots of bills to pay, but somehow, someway, we'll get through.

God bless you all, in the measure with which he has blessed me, or even greater.

Two other families got their USCIS I-800 approvals today. The I-800 is the child's immigration application. That means the United States is giving their thumbs up and agreeing to let the children become adopted as US citizens.

Now their documents are headed back to China. China has already approved them in a previous step. Once China sees they've been approved in the US too, they'll make an appointment at the consulate in Guangzhou for a legal adoption.

So. Yup. Two families. Got theirs today.

How's everyone doing? Nice night, huh? Anybody got some wildlife sightings, cute cat stories, bad jokes? Anything worth noting on the news?

calixd!

I hope this year brings happiness, romance, sheer goobriffic fun, and contentment to you! Oh, yes, and a healthy dash of rip-roaring, swashbuckling fun!

....and another book review as I play catch-up. Click the link for the full review:

Seeing in the Dark: Claim Your Own Shamanic Power Now and in the Coming Age by Colleen Deatsman and Paul Bowersox - Another core shamanism 101 book?

Okay, guys, LJ Scrapbook won't upload my China pictures. :( Sometime later this week I will go to Photobucket or somesuch and upload them there so I can post them on LJ. But it's not going to be tonight, because my Firefox is seriously acting up and I'm exhausted.

I woke up this morning from a dream in which I was trying to scrub blood out of my work pants. There was a lot of blood, but I'm not sure where it'd come from or even if it was someone else's or mine or an animal's, or what. I think I remember there being a dream with a lot of blood, and then I half woke up and then fell back asleep and was trying to clean up the blood from the previous dream. But, yeah. Blood, at that starting-to-dry-out stage, so it was just a tiny bit sticky, and I woke up thinking it was funny that the texture and color and smell were so vivid and realistic, but the part where I got the blood on me was so vague.

Thought I'd share some of the pictures we've taken since we arrived in Montana. :B

( Montana... )

I'll make a scenery post tomorrow. Miss you all! <3

Stolen from poetswarn:
PICK ONE OF MY CHARACTERS AND I WILL TELL YOU:
- why I decided to play this character
- my favourite scene or bit of interaction concerning this character to date
- my favourite original aspect about this character (world-building for OCs or head-canon for FCs)
- the last thing they did "off screen"
- what their last words would be if they died tomorrow.
- what the next thing I'm doing for them is (narrative, post, shelving, whatever).

BONUS ROUND:
- I will tell you what character of yours I'd like to play mine against (if I know enough about your characters).
- You may ask me a free question if you so desire.