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tarigwaemirAd Mundo Exteriore,
Self, you must remember to start coding the new layout for Have Faith and figuring out how to setup multiple blogs. You must also finish the Sai skin before the end of next week, in order to keep up with oniichan's frenetic updating pace. ::falls dead::
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durberville:
1. What books are your comfort reading -- the ones you slink back to in times of stress?
Very genre fantasy, such as David Eddings or Tad Williams. I'll actually read pretty awful novels when I'm stressed out, simply to avoid self-pity. Also, my favorite children's books, from L.M. Montgomery, Edith Nesbit, etc.
2. What was your favorite book as a child, and why?
The Secret Garden was the first chapter book I ever read on my own, but I think Anne of Green Gables should win the prize, simply because I've read it countless times and it's wormed its way into my blood.
3. What was your favorite book as an adolescent, and why?
A tie between Demian, by Hermann Hesse; Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky; Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card; and (who can possibly forget) The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. (I guess I'm leaving out The Glass Bead Game, also by Hesse, which was terribly influential as well.)
4. What is the most-unread category of books gathering dust on your bookshelf -- the books you've bought but just never got around to reading?
The National Geographic books and probably the mathematics-related tomes sitting on my shelf. Actually I started the math books but I never made much progress, due to my ignorance of calculus. And now that I'm actually capable of following the material, I've forgotten about reading them.
5. What kind of books would you like to say you read, but never do?
Hm. I should read some of the French realists, like Flaubert, Balzac and Zola, but I never really could understand them. I never finished Madame Bovary, you see. I also wish I read more Greek and Roman classics, especially Plato, Aristotle, Cicero and Virgil, and that I actually finished Goethe's Faust.
6. What's the oddest book you ever read?
What exactly does "odd" mean? I get nightmares about this short story I picked up about these crustacean-like alien pets that metamorphed into their cruel owner and ate him alive. I also found Edgar Allan Poe's "Ligeia" quite terrifying at first. The most confusing book on the other hand would have to be Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus.
7. What book were you never able to get through, despite the recommendations of people you respect?
Several books actually, but I don't remember what they were. Shows what a good friend I am, neh? Actually, Mother often recommended books to me that I didn't like the first time but grew to appreciate on further reading. Hesse's Siddharta, for example. I'm usually able to finish a recommended book, even if I don't like it, as long as I start it.
8. What's the book it took you a couple of tries to get into, but was as good as promised once you finally made it?
Siddharta, also Rolland's Jean-Christophe, the short stories of Thomas Mann...I can't really remember all of them. It's usually a case of me not being mature enough for the book. Besides, I often pick up and finish a book months after I dropped them. It's usually a matter of time, really. There are certain books that I can zip through, but time constraints make that difficult with longer books. Since I've gotten into the awful habit of reading several books at once, I often abandon a long novel until I'm ready for it again.
9. What's your favorite short story . . . or do you even have one?
"Tonio Kroger", by Thomas Mann; "The Snows of Kilimanjaro", by Ernest Hemingway; that Nebula prizewinning entry whose title escapes me, by Ted Chiang; anything by Chekhov or Joyce. And probably others, come to think of it.
10. The desert island. Three books (and collected works don't count; if you want *Lord of the Rings* it'll cost you all three slots). Go:
Shoot. That's impossible. Um...at the moment, I'll bring the full unabridged translation of The Three Kingdoms, by Luo Guangzhong (because I've only read the abridged version); all the volumes of The Golden Bough, by James Frazer (because it's the consummate work of scholarship); and probably the Bible (because I'll feel guilty if I don't). Although it might be nice to have a few Talmudic commentaries snuck in with the Bible.
By the way,phoebs and L.P.? Thank you, thank you, thank you for recommending One Hundred Years of Solitude. I have no idea how to interpret this book, but it's absolutely fascinating. I think I was half in love with Colonel Aureliano. I'm zipping through it at a horribly swift pace though, which means I should probably reread it more slowly sometime in the near future. Mother bought it for me yesterday, when we went to B&N. I also got Shadow Puppets, which is out in paperback. Anyway, I should return to The Origin of Species but screw priority for the moment. I need to know what happens to the twins.
Also, the Flushing library has The Magic Mountain. The world conspires against me. ::resists temptation:: I not only have Darwin, the yet-unfinished biography of Thomas Aquinas, The Tale of Genji, The Golden Bough, and yes, the 800-page Structure of Evolutionary Theory by Steven Jay Gould waiting for me, but also Mother is about to assign me a Korean book to read before the end of the summer.
Which reminds me that Father expects me to memorize the Thousand Characters and study the tsumego book. I played my first real go game last night and lost by about fifty or sixty moku. That's better than the game in third grade, when I knew nothing and lost by about a hundred. Father said that I wasn't too awful and that some of the tsumego lessons had stuck in my head, but I never paid enough attention to defense. I was pleased to realize that I could predict Father's su about a quarter of the time although this ability was largely useless considering I had no idea what I should do in response. All it says is I know how Father thinks. Father likes to play objectively, not psychologically, because he has a strong idealized sense of integrity when it comes to mental activities—he thinks it's cheating to base your judgment on your knowledge of the opponent's mind, rather than making the most advantageous and the most perfect move possible. So he squashed me completely, refused to go easy on me, in order to teach me the true spirit of the game. (That is, striving for strategic perfection.) He does the same in Chinese chess and omok (gomoku, in Japanese). Nevertheless, I think at my current abysmal ability, my only advantage is my knowledge of Father's habits and preferences, his playing style, so to speak. (Not too difficult to ascertain, even with my poor knowledge of go, because it's just Father's personality.)
Anyway! My goal is to lose by forty moku next time. ^_^ I wasn't too disappointed by the crushing defeat because I could tell that I lost certain territories, though I still wasted a lot of stones trying to save them. I also managed to protect two corners, although that's probably due more to Father's leniency than anything else. Father isn't an amazing player on the amateur scale, but he has a small talent for strategic games, which makes him a good objective to aspire to. In any case, go is a little bit more intuitive to me than Chinese chess, although I'm not a very good strategist regardless of the game. But I can look at go as a sort of conversation between the two players, a dialectic argument if you wish, and that helps tremendously in my understanding of the game. I need to study the book more though, in order to avoid the stupid mistakes.
I've more than depleted my online time. The Society site is updated, by the way, so take a look at the roster. I need to get back to the Buendìas, amici, so goodbye.
...Tari
Self, you must remember to start coding the new layout for Have Faith and figuring out how to setup multiple blogs. You must also finish the Sai skin before the end of next week, in order to keep up with oniichan's frenetic updating pace. ::falls dead::
Taken from
durberville:1. What books are your comfort reading -- the ones you slink back to in times of stress?
Very genre fantasy, such as David Eddings or Tad Williams. I'll actually read pretty awful novels when I'm stressed out, simply to avoid self-pity. Also, my favorite children's books, from L.M. Montgomery, Edith Nesbit, etc.
2. What was your favorite book as a child, and why?
The Secret Garden was the first chapter book I ever read on my own, but I think Anne of Green Gables should win the prize, simply because I've read it countless times and it's wormed its way into my blood.
3. What was your favorite book as an adolescent, and why?
A tie between Demian, by Hermann Hesse; Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky; Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card; and (who can possibly forget) The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. (I guess I'm leaving out The Glass Bead Game, also by Hesse, which was terribly influential as well.)
4. What is the most-unread category of books gathering dust on your bookshelf -- the books you've bought but just never got around to reading?
The National Geographic books and probably the mathematics-related tomes sitting on my shelf. Actually I started the math books but I never made much progress, due to my ignorance of calculus. And now that I'm actually capable of following the material, I've forgotten about reading them.
5. What kind of books would you like to say you read, but never do?
Hm. I should read some of the French realists, like Flaubert, Balzac and Zola, but I never really could understand them. I never finished Madame Bovary, you see. I also wish I read more Greek and Roman classics, especially Plato, Aristotle, Cicero and Virgil, and that I actually finished Goethe's Faust.
6. What's the oddest book you ever read?
What exactly does "odd" mean? I get nightmares about this short story I picked up about these crustacean-like alien pets that metamorphed into their cruel owner and ate him alive. I also found Edgar Allan Poe's "Ligeia" quite terrifying at first. The most confusing book on the other hand would have to be Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus.
7. What book were you never able to get through, despite the recommendations of people you respect?
Several books actually, but I don't remember what they were. Shows what a good friend I am, neh? Actually, Mother often recommended books to me that I didn't like the first time but grew to appreciate on further reading. Hesse's Siddharta, for example. I'm usually able to finish a recommended book, even if I don't like it, as long as I start it.
8. What's the book it took you a couple of tries to get into, but was as good as promised once you finally made it?
Siddharta, also Rolland's Jean-Christophe, the short stories of Thomas Mann...I can't really remember all of them. It's usually a case of me not being mature enough for the book. Besides, I often pick up and finish a book months after I dropped them. It's usually a matter of time, really. There are certain books that I can zip through, but time constraints make that difficult with longer books. Since I've gotten into the awful habit of reading several books at once, I often abandon a long novel until I'm ready for it again.
9. What's your favorite short story . . . or do you even have one?
"Tonio Kroger", by Thomas Mann; "The Snows of Kilimanjaro", by Ernest Hemingway; that Nebula prizewinning entry whose title escapes me, by Ted Chiang; anything by Chekhov or Joyce. And probably others, come to think of it.
10. The desert island. Three books (and collected works don't count; if you want *Lord of the Rings* it'll cost you all three slots). Go:
Shoot. That's impossible. Um...at the moment, I'll bring the full unabridged translation of The Three Kingdoms, by Luo Guangzhong (because I've only read the abridged version); all the volumes of The Golden Bough, by James Frazer (because it's the consummate work of scholarship); and probably the Bible (because I'll feel guilty if I don't). Although it might be nice to have a few Talmudic commentaries snuck in with the Bible.
By the way,
phoebs and L.P.? Thank you, thank you, thank you for recommending One Hundred Years of Solitude. I have no idea how to interpret this book, but it's absolutely fascinating. I think I was half in love with Colonel Aureliano. I'm zipping through it at a horribly swift pace though, which means I should probably reread it more slowly sometime in the near future. Mother bought it for me yesterday, when we went to B&N. I also got Shadow Puppets, which is out in paperback. Anyway, I should return to The Origin of Species but screw priority for the moment. I need to know what happens to the twins.Also, the Flushing library has The Magic Mountain. The world conspires against me. ::resists temptation:: I not only have Darwin, the yet-unfinished biography of Thomas Aquinas, The Tale of Genji, The Golden Bough, and yes, the 800-page Structure of Evolutionary Theory by Steven Jay Gould waiting for me, but also Mother is about to assign me a Korean book to read before the end of the summer.
Which reminds me that Father expects me to memorize the Thousand Characters and study the tsumego book. I played my first real go game last night and lost by about fifty or sixty moku. That's better than the game in third grade, when I knew nothing and lost by about a hundred. Father said that I wasn't too awful and that some of the tsumego lessons had stuck in my head, but I never paid enough attention to defense. I was pleased to realize that I could predict Father's su about a quarter of the time although this ability was largely useless considering I had no idea what I should do in response. All it says is I know how Father thinks. Father likes to play objectively, not psychologically, because he has a strong idealized sense of integrity when it comes to mental activities—he thinks it's cheating to base your judgment on your knowledge of the opponent's mind, rather than making the most advantageous and the most perfect move possible. So he squashed me completely, refused to go easy on me, in order to teach me the true spirit of the game. (That is, striving for strategic perfection.) He does the same in Chinese chess and omok (gomoku, in Japanese). Nevertheless, I think at my current abysmal ability, my only advantage is my knowledge of Father's habits and preferences, his playing style, so to speak. (Not too difficult to ascertain, even with my poor knowledge of go, because it's just Father's personality.)
Anyway! My goal is to lose by forty moku next time. ^_^ I wasn't too disappointed by the crushing defeat because I could tell that I lost certain territories, though I still wasted a lot of stones trying to save them. I also managed to protect two corners, although that's probably due more to Father's leniency than anything else. Father isn't an amazing player on the amateur scale, but he has a small talent for strategic games, which makes him a good objective to aspire to. In any case, go is a little bit more intuitive to me than Chinese chess, although I'm not a very good strategist regardless of the game. But I can look at go as a sort of conversation between the two players, a dialectic argument if you wish, and that helps tremendously in my understanding of the game. I need to study the book more though, in order to avoid the stupid mistakes.
I've more than depleted my online time. The Society site is updated, by the way, so take a look at the roster. I need to get back to the Buendìas, amici, so goodbye.
...Tari
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-27 05:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-28 07:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-28 07:48 pm (UTC)I have yet to find a HQ picture of a firework that'd withstand the resolution ;_; And what filters? oO;; Ooooo?? TELLL MEEEEEE~ I'm in despair here!! ;_;
And I don't think any brush would be able to be THAT big and still look...like a realistic firework. Of course, it is still yet to be tried. ^^
Thanks for the ideas suu!
brushes and filters
Date: 2003-07-28 07:52 pm (UTC)as for filters... I don't know which ones would make it look like real fireworks, I was just thinking of playing with them until you found one/a combination that looked right.
I'm currently using 6.0. As I've said... I've forgotten about 9/10s of what I used to know about the program... and it was on a different version, too. *sigh*
Glad I could help some! ^_^
(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-30 07:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-30 07:47 pm (UTC)Go
Date: 2003-07-28 07:21 pm (UTC)