Hi folks, In addition to my recent adventures in adventure module writing, and gardening, I finally got a belated Father’s Day gift recently: The Mythic Odysseys of Theros (MOoT) is a cross-over reference guide between Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: The Gathering, specifically the Greek-mythology inspired plane of Theros. Theros is a kind of idealizedContinue reading “A Nerd Dad’s Review of Mythic Odysseys of Theros”
Category Archives: Language
Life After COVID-19
This month, June, is the third month in lockdown over COVID-19. It’s amazing that three months have already passed. At first, we were, like many others, in full panic mode, swinging between constant fear of getting ill and enjoying as much food, drink and home entertainment as we could. My sense of religious faith wasContinue reading “Life After COVID-19”
Treats Over Flowers
For Mothers Day, I wanted to share a well-known proverb in Japanese language: 花より団子 (hana yori dango) This means something like “treats over flowers”. Flowers are fine, but the way to a person’s heart is good food, in other words. The term “dango” are small Japanese sweets made from rice and sometimes sweet bean paste:Continue reading “Treats Over Flowers”
Priorities
Hello Dear Readers, The last couple weeks in lockdown (with at least 4 more ahead) have been interesting. After the initial panic, we’ve gradually settled into a routine where keep our kids “in school” during weekdays, take walks a lot in the neighborhood, only visit the grocery store as needed, and generally learn to keepContinue reading “Priorities”
Buddhism, HTML and diacritics
If you want to impress your friends (or your blog readers…*ahem*) when you talk about Buddhism, why not use some HTML diacritics? You see, most of the Buddhist terms you read about derive from one or more non-European langauges: Sanskrit: the holy language used in Hinduism, religious literature. Now a dead language. Pali: an ancientContinue reading “Buddhism, HTML and diacritics”
What’s in a four-syllable phrase? Yojijukugo
Japanese as a language is somewhat unusual in that it belongs to its own language family¹ genetically but has inherited so much from the Asian mainland. Chinese compound words make up a large bulk of Japanese vocabulary, even if the grammar and usage are entirely different, but that is not all. Japanese inherited pithy four-syllableContinue reading “What’s in a four-syllable phrase? Yojijukugo”
It Never Hurts to Review
My studies of Japanese have persisted over the years, all the way back since college (and even dabbling a bit in high school in the 90’s), but really took off after I married my wife. On our first trip to Japan post-wedding, I was totally unprepared for being in Japan and was helpless to communicate.Continue reading “It Never Hurts to Review”
Don’t Mess With Donkeys
This is something I saw on Twitter recently, showing an ancient Egyptian papyrus translation: "I swear by all the gods that I have done nothing of what has been said, except only about the donkey of Karas… And if you are angry because I did not send anything… the reason is that I was kickedContinue reading “Don’t Mess With Donkeys”
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
I saw this Twitter post today by the awesome blog Sententiae Antiquae: “Alive for a day: What is a person? What is not a person? A human is a dream of a shadow” ἐπάμεροι· τί δέ τις; τί δ’ οὔ τις; σκιᾶς ὄναρ #Pindar — sententiae antiquae (@sentantiq) January 8, 2020 This quotation by ancientContinue reading “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow”
Japanese Particles Make the Difference
Every language is different, and each one has its idiosyncrasies. The more languages you study and familiarize yourself with, the more this becomes apparent. This is not something you have to be a polyglot for, but just part of the fun of learning other languages. In the case of Japanese, the biggest idiosyncrasy I haveContinue reading “Japanese Particles Make the Difference”
