(boing!) Cnoocy Mosque O'Witz

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 14:10:27 GMT

Posting this here so I don't engage about politics on Facebook
( us politics )

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NaNoGenMo 2024: A sketch leading towards a Shavian primer

Sun, 01 Dec 2024 19:49:05 GMT

For NaNoGenMo 2024, I wanted to write a children's primer in Shavian. Which I did not succeed in doing, but I produced something and I learned a lot.

( Project writeup )

( Some technical details )

I would like, at some point, to produce a Shavian alphabet picture book without the length and time restrictions of NaNoGenMo, but it won't be today.

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Long drive puzzle

Tue, 07 May 2024 22:21:02 GMT

Recently I was on a long drive, listening to the radio, and having trouble finding something to listen to while I drove. I've included the audio and more importantly the transcript, so you can figure out how to help me.

Please download audio from https://suberic.net/~marc/puzzle/longdrive/radio.mp3

( Transcript )

Fine print: the puzzle information is accurate as far as I could tell as of 2024-04-17. If you know what information you need but can't find a good source, go to https://suberic.net/~marc/puzzle/longdrive/[REDACTED].html

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NaNoGenMo 2023: Incolor ac viridis furiōsē nōtio dormit

Fri, 01 Dec 2023 00:28:41 GMT

My NaNoGenMo (National Novel Generation Month) project for 2023 is at https://github.com/mmoskowitz/NaNoGenMo-MMXXIII , and the novel itself is at https://github.com/mmoskowitz/NaNoGenMo-MMXXIII/blob/main/novel.txt

This text is a myriad of epic nonsense.

That is to say, this is 10,006 lines of Latin dactylic hexameter, which is syntactically and metrically valid, but which makes semantic sense only accidentally. From Lȳsidamus spatham honōret holarcticus almam (May Lysidamus from near the North Pole honor his nourishing sword) to Arachnae ballia depsant, (Arachnes knead custodies) this has been composed by a program that makes use of a lexicon extracted from the Latin entries in Wiktionary, and assembles them like Mad-Libs into different sentence structures within the constraints of dactylic hexameter. There is no narrative and a very limited set of sentence structures, but it was an interesting exercise to build (and does not contain any machine learning) and I hope it is enjoyable, though I certainly wouldn’t recommend trying to read any large part of it.

More info and code at the link above!

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Running an RPG one-shot in Latin

Sun, 16 Jul 2023 20:19:46 GMT

Last week I got the chance to run a one-shot role-playing game session in Latin, and I thought it would be helpful to others to write it up.

( Introduction )

( How it worked: preparation )

( How it went: the story )

( Conclusions )

( Some useful translations )

( footnote )

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Dear Yuletide Writer 2022

Fri, 21 Oct 2022 22:23:48 GMT

Hello! Thank you so much for writing for me!

( Things I Love, DNWs, and Fandom Prompts )

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Possum in the Trashcan

Sat, 24 Sep 2022 11:44:13 GMT

Possum in the trashcan, please don't freak
We'll set it down by shady trees
We can make you up some kibble and a bowl of water
You can feed yourself while you are leaving...

That was yesterday morning's excitement. All parties involved are now fine as far as we know.

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NaNoGenMo 2021: All the cryptic grids!

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 02:03:47 GMT

On the morning of Saturday, November 27, I was thinking about NaNoGenMo. NaNoGenMo is National Novel Generation Month, which challenges participants to use technology to generate a novel (very loosely defined) of at least 50,000 words during the month of November. While doing so, I came up with an idea that I wanted to attempt.

You may notice that coming up with the idea on the 27th gave me four days to complete the task, two of them workdays. But I succeeded!

( What I made, with links to pdfs along with an image )
( How I made it, with GitHub links )
( What I learned )

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Jukebox story received

Sun, 06 Jun 2021 19:32:09 GMT

I received a really neat story in the Jukebox fic exchange, for the video for the Halsey song "Bad At Love." I really like the analytical element of fanfiction, and this story does some really cool things with that.

Badland Girls Eat Greed and Honey (1633 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Bad at Love - Halsey (Music Video)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Additional Tags: Oracles, implied revenge, Desert Highways, ominous ending
Summary:

Each of us takes turns being the oracle.

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Dear Jukebox DJ 2021

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 00:02:21 GMT

Thank you very much for writing for me!

( Consolidated Likes and DNWs )

( Ariel - Dean Friedman (Song) )

( Bad At Love - Halsey (Music Video) )

( All Alone - fun. (Song) )

( Pile Driver - Stan Ridgway (Song) )

( メギツネ | Megitsune - BABYMETAL (Music Video) )

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Dear Yuletide Author 2020

Sun, 25 Oct 2020 04:36:53 GMT

Hello! Thank you so much for writing for me!

( consolidated Likes & DNWs )

( Ariel )

( Bad At Love )

( Hostess Comics Ads )

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My apologies to Hook and Silverstein

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 12:53:27 GMT

( unfinished political song parody that needed to get out of my head )

Suggestions for rhymes in the chorus appreciated.

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Listening to 80 years of Billboard: Part 9: Conclusion

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 12:26:40 GMT

( Come along some night / That's what I will, that's what I will, when I'm feeling right, wear a cloud for a hat )

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Listening to 80 years of Billboard: Part 8: 2010s

Wed, 19 Aug 2020 13:04:29 GMT

( We hadn’t seen each other in a month / When you said you needed ‘space.’ (What?) )

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Listening to 80 years of Billboard: Part 7: 2000s

Tue, 18 Aug 2020 12:25:14 GMT

( You and me together through the days and nights / I don't worry 'cause everything's gonna be alright )

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Listening to 80 years of Billboard: Part 6: 1990s

Mon, 17 Aug 2020 11:50:09 GMT

( Don't cry for me, next-door neighbour )

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Listening to 80 years of Billboard: Part 5: 1980s

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 11:30:31 GMT

( I sailed away to China / In a little rowboat to find ya / And you said you had to get your laundry clean )

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Listening to 80 years of Billboard: Part 4: 1970s

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:21:26 GMT

( Something in the wind just learned my name / And it’s telling me that things are not the same )

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Listening to 80 years of Billboard: Part 3: 1960s

Wed, 12 Aug 2020 11:29:37 GMT

( I think it’s so groovy now / That people are finally getting together )

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Listening to 80 years of Billboard: Part 2: 1950s

Tue, 11 Aug 2020 10:37:19 GMT

( And when he does his shaky rockin' dance / Man I haven't got a chance )

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Listening to 80 years of Billboard: Part 1: Introduction and 1940s

Mon, 10 Aug 2020 11:17:30 GMT

A little more than a year ago I started a project. I had received access to a nearly complete set of the top 100 Billboard songs from 1940 to 2018, and I decided to drip them into my regular daily music listening, year by year, until I had heard all of them. As I do with any new music, I rated some of these songs as I listened so that they would come up more often in the future. So I'm going to make some posts to share those songs and some of the insights that I had during this exercise.

I've included both a YouTube playlist and a song listing at the end of each decade. I've also starred the songs that I gave 5 stars to. I want to quickly note that in general, these aren't the songs from their eras that you hear on the radio all the time. With a few exceptions, I didn't tag songs that I already had copies of or that I can expect to hear when I turn on a classic rock station. So, let's begin!

"Birds cuddle down in their nest
Soon all the world will be sleeping"

The 1940s

To be honest, the set I was listening to actually starts with two small sets of his from the 1920s and 1930s. But as amusing as Rudy Vallee singing the University of Maine drinking song (https://youtu.be/Q6CIDved-bY) is, I didn't feel the need for it to show up more often in my listening than once every couple of years. So the first gems I picked out are from the 1940s.

For all that I haven't tagged many of these, I did enjoy much of this music. There was an issue with the nature of the music industry, though, which is that in the 1940s and for some time after, there wasn't the same emphasis on a particular recording, which means that the same song would chart multiple times in a year with different performers. So "Mairzy Doats" charted three times in 1944, and that wasn't even the song that charted most.

The 1940s were very marked by World War Two, with songs about going off to war showing up as soon as it started, such as "Johnny Zero" about a math dunce who turns out to be a flying ace, so that "Johnny got a Zero" changes from a taunt into a cheer. And then there's all the "romantic" songs about leaving your lover on her island in the Pacific Ocean. Ugh.

One surprise was the dominance of Glenn Miller in the early charts, including a possibly regrettable cover of "Jingle Bells." It drives home what a big deal his disappearance was, as if Taylor Swift had gone missing over the Middle East in 2017.

"Btw 18th & 19th On Chestnut St" by Bing Crosby & Connee Boswell: #10 in 1940
"In The Mood" by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra: #26 in 1940
"If I Loved You" by Perry Como o/Russ Case: #17 in 1945
"Now is the hour" by Bing Crosby: #3 in 1948

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Dear Yuletide Writer 2019

Sun, 03 Nov 2019 12:54:14 GMT

Thank you so much for writing for me!

( Wants, Do-Not-Wants, and prompts )

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Three Things Meme

Wed, 19 Jun 2019 10:59:03 GMT

colorwheel gave me three things which i may or may not know or care about.

sunlight

I like sunlight very very much as long as it does not directly hit my eyes and does not spend too much time hitting my skin.

pharmacists

Pharmacists have generally been awesome to me. One of them gave me my first real job; I spent months as a cashier at an independent drugstore as a teenager. These days I usually interact with them when picking up medicine for cats.

flannel

I wear a lot of flannel when it's cold out. It's comfy and versatile if you don't get dressed up much. Also I can put on a big flannel shirt, wear it around some, and then put it on my wife when she gets cold.

feel free to ask in comments if you want three things.

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Dear Jukebox DJ 2019

Sun, 31 Mar 2019 13:55:04 GMT

Thank you so much for writing for me!

( Read more... )

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De Tavi Pontis Clade: translating one of English's worst poems into Latin

Sun, 06 Jan 2019 19:34:08 GMT

Every December, I participate in a fanfiction exchange called Yuletide, in which people request fanfiction for artworks and other fandoms that do not have significant amounts of fanfiction written for them.

This year, there was a request for fanfiction for the poem "The Tay Bridge Disaster" by William McGonnagal. This is one of McGonnagal's best-known poems, and he is known for being among the worst poets ever to write in English. So of course I am a fan. When all I knew was that someone had requested the poem as a fandom, I was already interested in writing something for them. But then I saw the letter, in which one of the suggestions was "Retell it in Virgilian hexameters."

Here's the thing. I had already written the first line as a Virgilian hexameter. About a year earlier, I had seen in a listing of Latin placenames for locations in Britain that the Scottish river Tay is Tavus, and had translated McGonagall's "Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay!" as "Trāminis ō pulcher pons tū Tāvī radiantis!" So I had to write more. It was a moral imperative.

As it turned out, I wasn't able to get the whole poem translated by the Yuletide deadline. I did get the opening and closing stanzas, which are perhaps among the best-known parts of the poem. So I put a frame story onto it of discovering the two fragments, which gave me the chance to use some MLA citations. The selection by Colin S.K. Walker is real, and very recommended.

De Tavi Pontis Clade Carminis Fragmenta: Newly Discovered Fragments (543 words) by cnoocy
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Tay Bridge Disaster - William McGonagall
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Academia, scholarship, Hexameter
Summary:

The opening and closing of Gulielmus McGonagall's De Tavi Pontis Clade, newly discovered in the original Latin.

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