A strange game.

mopalia — Sun, 25 Oct 2015 23:49:14 GMT

Grab the nearest book. Find the 5th sentence on page 23. Append it to the paragraph below. Append your name to the list below of people who have contributed to the paragraph. Post the result to your LJ.

They also talk of our being guilty of injustice, and their being the victims of an unjustifiable war. Brandy, and Tom got increasingly close-mouthed and sour. Although a certain sense of tripartite society survived down to Christian times, the three classes described in the Eddic poem "Rigdthula" bear little resemblance to Dumezil's three. It is often argued, and still oftener thought, that none but bad men would desire to weaken these salutary beliefs; and there can be nothing wrong, it is thought, in restraining bad men, and prohibiting what only such men would wish to practice.

At its nearest point the wall was little more than one league from the City, and that was south-eastward. When he saw Jack Hare jump towards the fire, and the Practical Man brandishing the toasting-fork, Sir Isaac grabbed the strings of gravitational force that bound Jack to his destiny and PULLED--- That's a seventy-four gun privateer, besides. To honour a group of British nobles, treacherously slain at a conference by Hengist's guards, Aurelius decides to erect a great monument near Amesbury. That being so, he did not chortle when he went upstairs. Let stand. This ensures that when the garbage collector runs, it has complete access to the memory in the heap and can perform its tasks safely without the threat of being preempted by another thread. And then you may begin to laugh. The data are stored in Column 1 and renamed "Age."

Pull your hand back. I don't remember that any secrets were revealed to me, nor do I remember any avid curiosity on my part to learn something I wasn't supposed to--perhaps I was too young to know what to listen for. You don't remember how awful it is being normal. Highlight the desired state tax table and press Enter. Abraham had now reached a ripe old age, and the LORD had blessed him in every way. The third lieutenant started, then said a little weakly, "Huzzah for Captain Riley."

"Oh," said Pooh. In fact White had carelessly placed the team in Nip without realising it,
He poached and scavenged, and sometimes the locals would bring them gifts of potatoes or fuel. It was a heady life, and cheap. How can he switch his mind onto God? Consequently, a 1n phase (haplophase) results from meiosis; a 2n phase (diplophase) results from syngamy (fertilization).

Once during the reign of Queen Chindok, Lords Alch'on, Imjong, Suljong, Horim, Yomjamg, and Kim Yusin gathered at Oji Rock on South Mountain to deliberate affairs of state.

1) Ranger Rick - 2) Rialian - 3) Elenbarathi - 4) Starsandfishes - 5) Echthros - 6) Doltaghey - 7) Ebonhost - 8) Tibicina 9) Browngirl 10) ceo 11) roozle 12) quietann 13) Dale (achinhibitor) 14) tigerbright 15) autographedcat 16) kitanzi xvii) annonynous 18) thnidu 19) singinglark 200 curiouswombat 21) seaivy 22) bobby1933 - 23) elainegrey 24)mopalia

I would rather have appended the next sentence, "Thereup a huge tiger ran out into the meeting place." but I played fair.

mopalia — Sun, 04 Oct 2015 22:50:57 GMT

Yesterday I ran out of gas. Well, my car did, anyway. I called some service places. and they wanted over $100 to come out and give me 2 gallons of gas. This was the tow company that Geico recommended. Ha! I called Uber (you have to use an app on your phone, you don't actually call them.), got a lovely young man ("when will you be here?" "about 30 seconds" - he was there before I hung up the phone) who is actually in school studying nursing. He picked me up, drove me to a gas station where I bought a gas can and a gallon of gas. The Uber driver insisted on waiting to see if I got started ok, but the gas lines were completely drained and the battery was dead from clutch popping to move it off the road. (Car issue is well in hand and being solved.) He was terribly worried, wanted to be sure I didn't get towed, helped push the car to a safer location, and was simply wonderful. Then he drove me home (about 3-4 miles). The Uber bill? $13.96. I tipped him outrageously, he was worth it.

If you need a ride and haven't tried Uber, here's my recommendation. they sent me a promo code - judithh565ue - that will get my friends (that's you) $20 off your first Uber ride and me a $20 credit. I'll probably never take a taxi again.

A delightful movie

mopalia — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 04:07:02 GMT

If you don't mind subtitles, this is a delightful movie - just the thing when you want something heartwarming and funny.

Observing my mother's death day

mopalia — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 23:49:55 GMT

This is the day my mother died.
Years ago.

They didn't tell me until months later, long after she'd become a pile of ash
Illicitly dug into the plot
Where her mother and father were.

That plot – the one that caused a rift with the church.
Not consecrated, the priest said. I can't bury you there.
Didn't God make this piece of land, just like the piece behind your fence? my mother asked.
My child, you don't understand, he said.
I understand too well, my mother said,

and we became Protestants.

My mother was smart. She did the kind of word puzzles that I find hard, just like her mother
who won a plot of land doing word games in Il Progresso. And that's where they built a house, and raised my mother's other daughters.

I liked math.

I remember the grape arbor
and not much else. When we visited 30 years later
I felt like a stranger
but my sister looked at the changes the new owners had made
and she remembered where everything had been.

My other sister is dead
and this one might be, too, for all I know. No one would call me, I think.

Because I was the one who couldn't stay in one place
and now I'm in California. That seems to confuse them.

I didn't know
that this was also a legacy from you, mom – along with the ADD, it's pretty clear now
why you hated all the social stuff
why you married the most social man in the world
who made friends anywhere he was, instantly
and why you hated to go out of the house.
What a mismatch!

But no one knew then
that people like us -
you and me, mom -
never understood the social game
even though we learned to play it.
Back then, we were introverts
but now there's a new, improved label, and we might have Asperger's syndrome.

Somehow, I feel better with this label
and maybe I don't have to try so hard to fit in
because I never will
and now that I understand that
I can relax
and they can all dislike me.

Love the sinner and hate the sin, they say
but here's no sin in just being who you are
so you're not under any obligation to love me.

Maybe in the next life
I will be more “normal”
and better able to meet expectations,
and will keep friends for more than a few years
and live in one city for a long time
and hold down the same job all my life

But I hope not
because I’d die of boredom.

Sorry, Mom, that I didn't know all this while you were alive
but today, I say thanks. Now I know why you never hugged me
and always seemed so far away. I've come to that same place. The view's not bad.

There's a cat
plants on the patio
good food to cook.
No one to share with
So, mom – come sit at my table some times
Enjoy the plants on the patio
Pet the cat.
Better late than never.

And maybe when my son is 70
And I've been gone a long time
Maybe he'll forgive me, too,
and leave a space for me
at the table. You come, too.

Date format

mopalia — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 04:17:32 GMT

Thanks to all who weighed in on the date format - good to know my instincts were on track. I got voted down, but that won't happen again! . I have citations!!!

Grammar question

mopalia — Thu, 02 Jul 2015 23:59:25 GMT

I haven't been able to find a good answer to this, and I know there are a few of you out there who use commas in the right places. Here's the question:
We often (in label textx) write the release date of a game or console. The proposed text for the next exhibit was written:

" . . . released for arcades by Namco in Japan in December of 1982. Atari manufactured and distributed the game in North America starting in January of 1983."

I find the "December of 1982" to be unweildy, But "December, 1982." feels a bit cluttered with the commas. Is it defensible to use "December 1990," etc? Your highly vocal opinions are solicited!

It needs to go to print in a dayor two, so if you miss this, don't worry about it. Thanks!

Reduce your productivity now!

mopalia — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 18:15:05 GMT

In an effort to help you waste as much time as possible, I wanted to let you all know that Dramafever, the TV-movie streaming site that I watch K-drama on, has added "British Historicals." I think I am about to lose the day to Pride and Predjudice. There are even 3 Upstairs Downstairs episodes. Not too much stuff available now, but I imagine it will increase. One week free trial, after that - ads, which I understand are excessive. Still - Mr. Darcy!

edit: Oh, drat, some are subscription only. Which is fine with me, but not so good for others.

Inside Out

mopalia — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 20:56:27 GMT

If you haven't seen Pixar's latest movie, Inside Out, you should. Like a lot of Pixar's early movies, there are parts of it way to high level for kids, but still fun for any age. You know the old, "I laughed, I cried"? Well, DIL cried, I laughed. I won't even tell you may favorite parts - go see it and then we can compare.

And if you're at all techie, this is a must-see. Even though it's not terribly techie.

A day of mourning

mopalia — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 23:26:07 GMT

Today is the one year anniversary of the sinking of the Sewol Ferry.
In our time, the ferry started to sink around 7PM and was submerged by about 9:30PM. The icon I have been using this year is a white chrysanthemum, symbol of mourning and sorrow in Korea, placed near the sea where the ferry went down.

Please take a moment this evening to say a prayer for the children, crew and teachers who were lost, and for their families.

Put a woman on the $

mopalia — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 09:26:38 GMT

http://www.womenon20s.org/
There are only men on US currency. Add your vote to change that.

Sorry I missed your birthday . . .

mopalia — Sun, 08 Mar 2015 16:15:12 GMT

This is for elainegrey, whose birthday was on my calendar and which I missed. It was the muse's fault.

I'm very glad you were born. ;)

Being the mother of an uber-geek

mopalia — Fri, 30 Jan 2015 03:27:15 GMT

My son has bought me a new monitor. I didn't actually need a new monitor, and this will give you an idea of how the mind of a game programmer works.
Problem: his wife has 2 monitors (apparently you can't live in SV with a simple one monitor set-up). Oen of the monitors is totally unimportant, and it has begun to have a high pitched whine when the computer turns off. She does not have a lot of desk space. So since I am using a fairly small monitor (19") as one of mine, he suggests that he will buy me a larger one and they will take my old one. But I am very sentimentally attached to my old one.
The week before, a neighbor put a perfectly good 21" monitor out next to the dumpster, up for grabs. I grabbed it. So I offered them that one. He took it and it works fine, wife is happy.
So he still wants to get me a bigger one, because frankly, I always have vision issues, mostly from chronic migraines, so I'm always complaiining about not beong able to see. Ergo, I need a bigger monitor, even though size has little to do withmy vision issues.
Yesterday the new monitor came. It's a whopping 27". It doesn't take up desk space, it takes up acreage. So now I have a 27", the 24" that he bought me the last time he thought I needed a new monitor, my old 19", and the 17" on the laptop.
When your son is a game developer, he is firmly convinced that you need a lot of big monitors (he has 2-30" and one 36") or life isn't worth living. You need these to play games, right? He's a total tech addict.
He's waiting for me to tell him what size tablet I want, since phones - even my Android Nexus - are too small to play games on properly. I now have a monitor fleet.

It could be worse. Think about the upgrades he get me if he'd become a lion tamer.

Entropy

mopalia — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 02:07:44 GMT

Our website keeps going down. We get messages from Uptime Robot that say "the website is down." Uptime Robot is apparently a monitoring program that sends up and down reports to our IT people - I'm on the list just because I like to keep track of what's going on.

I've gotten a lot of messages from Uptime Robot lately, and i'm getting fond of it. It sounds like an android that I'd enjoy doing a 2-step with. Well, so what if the website is down? C'mon, Uptime Robot - let's dance!

Z finally looked into it, and sent an email about what he thought the problem was, and how he thinks he has fixed it. The email contains the wonderful phrase "As near as I can tell, we're running out of entropy . . ."

If you're looking for a killer app to write, just come up with something that will convert the entropy in my kitchen after I make dinner to something that will keep the website up. I see no technical problems with this, but Z refuses to work on it. No imagination sometimes.

Wonder Woman

mopalia — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 08:02:02 GMT

Right now, The New Yorker is out from behind its paywall, and the article on Wonder Woman is worth your time. Like all New Yorker articles, it's long but well written. I was amazed at the connections - Margaret Sanger, Suffragettes, a menage a trois, more. The article after that is on plus-size fashions. It's a great issue for women - well, for anyone. Enjoy!

A nation in mourning

mopalia — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 17:12:40 GMT

The entire Korean entertainment industry has shut down. There are no dramas being aired; concerts, fan meet-and-greets are canceled. Movie attendance has dropped way down, people are canceling golf reservations. Here is the most moving thing I have read yet.

The ferry sinking in South Korea

mopalia — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 16:28:44 GMT

I've been frustrated by the US news services which mostly present drama and ratings raisers instead of information. If you are wondering about the causes of this tragedy, http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/633566.html Is an editorial that explores the possible (probable) causes of both the sinking and the loss of life. At this point, the captain seems culpable. Tragically, the school's vice-principal, who was in charge of the high school students, has committed suicide. He hung himself and left a note saying that he couldn't live while his students were dead; he asked that his ashes be scattered at the site of the sinking.

Only a few weeks ago I began a correspondence with the public relations person at Korea's only Computer and Videogame museum, located on Jeju Island, the vacation destination that the ferry was heading for. It is easy for me to imagine these hundreds of teenagers hoping to visit the museum, and I feel a very deep connection to this tragedy. These could just as easily been kids who were coming to visit us.

Did you see that coming?

mopalia — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 16:44:06 GMT

This was posted on A Korean site by an anonymous songwriter/singer. Listen to a bit of it to get the feeling - what do you think he's singing about?

And now - the translation:

Bro – That kind of guy
The kind of guy who knows how you feel and comforts you,
even if you don’t say a word.
The kind of guy who is always on your side
when it’s so hard that you get exhausted.
The guy who quietly gives it to you as a present
even when you just gave it one glance.
The guy with a broad chest that you can sometimes lean and rest on,
even if he’s not handsome.
That kind of guy would be crazy to date you.
Don’t you have a conscience?
If guys who aren’t so great keep coming to you,
that just means you aren’t so great, either.
The kind of guy who takes you to the sea
when you want to get away.
The guy who is at least 180-cm-tall and makes 60 million won a year,
even if he’s not tall and a wealthy chaebol’s son.
The guy who smiles brightly and shrugs it off,
no matter what kind of nonsense you say.
If I were to be that kind of guy,
the guy who you can fall for at first sight.
Are you high? I’d be crazy to date you.
I would want to enjoy my life, too.
If you want a prince, go to Saudi Arabia,
although the catch is, they practice polygamy.
Even if you put airbags in your breasts,
even if you grow caterpillars under your eyes,
there is one truth that cannot be hidden.
Your face is offensive.
Did you just get shot in the head? I’d be crazy to date you.
Don’t you have a conscience?
If guys who aren’t so great keep coming to you,
it’s not that you’re unlucky, or that you haven’t waited long enough.
It’s just that you aren’t great yourself.

You could write this equally well from the opposite gender perspective. The song has caused a bit of a sensation, but the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I love it.

One gender, one world

mopalia — Sun, 16 Feb 2014 21:20:19 GMT

Maybe gender is actually starting to be unimportant - this is from a registration form Im filling out today for an event that has nothing to do with gender, but whoch does arrange housing for people:

Sex *

What do you identify as? Check all that apply.

<input ... > Male

<input ... > Female

<input ... > Other: <input ... >

This is a required question.

I'm looking forward to this event . . .

Musical obsession

mopalia — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 03:42:29 GMT

I am obsessed by this song. I seem to have to listen to it at least 3 times in succession before I am pacified, both at home and in the car. This is B1A4, my long time favorite boy band. I go into raptures for - believe it or not - the kid in the baseball cap, who has what I think is the sexiest voice in K-pop. He's auditory velvet.

The other group that I listen to non-stop is somewhat different. I'm in love with the leader, DGuru, who can't stand still, as well as the music. It's Idiotape, and they're coming to SXSW, but I'm not. But I would if I were rich, ;)

Well, that pretty much sums up my life these days. I've decided that I'm 70 now - if I use the Korean method of being 1 when I'm born and roll over my age at every Lunar New Year, I jump from 68 to 70 and skip 69 entirely. And a 70 year old who listens to this stuff is much cooler.

Today's quote

mopalia — Tue, 24 Dec 2013 15:17:56 GMT

I want our nation to be the most beautiful in the world. By this I do not mean the most powerful nation. Because I have felt the pain of being invaded by another nation, I do not want my nation to invade others. It is sufficient that our wealth makes our lives abundant; it is sufficient that our strength is able to prevent foreign invasions. The only thing that I desire in infinite quantity is the power of a noble culture. This is because the power of culture both makes ourselves happy and gives happiness to others.

Kim Ku

Things I didn't see coming

mopalia — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 15:22:07 GMT

The day I would wake up and think, "What I really want for breakfast is Miyeok Guk." That's seaweed soup. Nope, didn't see that one coming - at least until a couple of years ago.

Of course, I have all the ingredients handy. Soup's on!

Need audio education, please

mopalia — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 10:01:23 GMT

Most of the music i listen to is unavailable in this country except by download, and some is only found through YouTube. So I use DownloadHelper to pull videos and often later convert them to MP3s (although some, like Norazo, are really best experienced as videos). Problem is, DowmloadHelper used to give me one or two choices, like high or medium quality. Nowadays It asks: 720p, HQ84, Medium, HQ82, HQ5, HQ36, and Mobile. Sometimes there are even more. I also get to pick .mp4, .flv, or .3gp. I am totally confused and would appreciate if someone would save me from hours of trying to understand this in Wikipedia and just tell me what I want for maximum quality. Thanks! (For the curious, right now I'm looking at Idiotape, 0805. Awesome, and they'll be at SXSW - but I won't. :{ )

mopalia — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 04:53:33 GMT

Well, that's pretty cool. I know the new Mayor of NYC. He was at my son's wedding - because, after all, he's his uncle.

This and $2.50, as I understand it, will get me a ride on the subway. Wow.

Colors

mopalia — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 15:04:08 GMT

How well do you see colors? Probably not as well as you think!

Mess

mopalia — Sun, 27 Oct 2013 10:41:16 GMT

Flat surfaces are my enemy.
They sit and beckon
wanting to be covered with papers
things
projects
chores
Until they become mountains
of the undone.
Flat surfaces
are my enemy.