日記であります！

Old English question

2009-06-28T16:09:38Z

If I wanted to have someone record audio samples of Old English words and texts, which Germanic language background do you think would allow to the reader to be able to read it most naturally and/or most accurately? Offhand I'm guessing perhaps Icelandic (due to orthography), followed by German?

Because I don't feel like retaking it all over again later...

2009-04-11T03:11:29Z

Stolen from Roberto:

I Am A: Lawful Good Dwarf Cleric (4th Level)

Ability Scores:

Strength-15

Dexterity-15

Constitution-18

Intelligence-16

Wisdom-15

Charisma-15

Alignment:
Lawful Good A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. He combines a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. He tells the truth, keeps his word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished. Lawful good is the best alignment you can be because it combines honor and compassion. However, lawful good can be a dangerous alignment because it restricts freedom and criminalizes self-interest.

Race:
Dwarves are known for their skill in warfare, their ability to withstand physical and magical punishment, their hard work, and their capacity for drinking ale. Dwarves are slow to jest and suspicious of strangers, but they are generous to those who earn their trust. They stand just 4 to 4.5 feet tall, but are broad and compactly built, almost as wide as they are tall. Dwarven men value their beards highly.

Class:
Clerics act as intermediaries between the earthly and the divine (or infernal) worlds. A good cleric helps those in need, while an evil cleric seeks to spread his patron's vision of evil across the world. All clerics can heal wounds and bring people back from the brink of death, and powerful clerics can even raise the dead. Likewise, all clerics have authority over undead creatures, and they can turn away or even destroy these creatures. Clerics are trained in the use of simple weapons, and can use all forms of armor and shields without penalty, since armor does not interfere with the casting of divine spells. In addition to his normal complement of spells, every cleric chooses to focus on two of his deity's domains. These domains grants the cleric special powers, and give him access to spells that he might otherwise never learn. A cleric's Wisdom score should be high, since this determines the maximum spell level that he can cast.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Detailed Results:

Alignment:
Lawful Good ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (31)
Neutral Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (27)
Chaotic Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (20)
Lawful Neutral -- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (22)
True Neutral ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (18)
Chaotic Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXX (11)
Lawful Evil ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (14)
Neutral Evil ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Chaotic Evil ---- XXX (3)

Law & Chaos:
Law ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXX (9)
Chaos --- XX (2)

Good & Evil:
Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (18)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXX (9)
Evil ---- X (1)

Race:
Human ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13)
Dwarf ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (14)
Elf ------ XXXXXX (6)
Gnome ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Halfling - XXXXXXXX (8)
Half-Elf - XXXXXXX (7)
Half-Orc - XXXX (4)

Class:
Barbarian - (-25)
Bard ------ (-19)
Cleric ---- XXXXXX (6)
Druid ----- (-23)
Fighter --- (-4)
Monk ------ XXXX (4)
Paladin --- (0)
Ranger ---- XX (2)
Rogue ----- (-4)
Sorcerer -- XX (2)
Wizard ---- (-2)

Not too bad, considering I normally play a Dwarven Paladin...

New AMV!

2008-10-21T03:04:47Z

Ok, more of a remaster of a classic I did a long time ago with some new twists, but I really like how it turned out this time. Check it out!

http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members/members_videoinfo.php?v=163362

Stealing from Stefanie

2008-08-06T21:46:59Z

1. Put Your iTunes/Windows Media Player/ETC on Shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
4. Put any comments in brackets after the song name.
5. Put this on your journal.

1. If someone says, "Is this okay?"? Out of the Silent Planet (Iron Maiden)
2. How would you describe yourself? Title Music from Sonic 3
3. What do you like in a girl/guy? Questions of My Childhood (Kansas)
4. How do you feel today? Spiderwebs (No Doubt)
5. What is your life's purpose? Driver's High (L'Arc~En~Ciel)
6. What is your motto? If I Were a Rich Man (Fiddler on the Roof)
7. What do your friends think of you? Give a Reason (Yoko Ishida)
8. What do you think of your parents? The Vigil (Snoopy!!!)
9. What do you think about very often? Young Lust (Aerosmith)
10.What is 2 + 2? November Rain (Megumi Hayashibara)
11.What do you think of your best friend? Drum Solo (Animetal)
12.What do you think of the person you like? Life Isn't Always Perfect (Mike Bundy)
13.What is your life story? Couldn't Have Said It Better (Meat Loaf)
14.What do you want to be when you grow up? Counting Blue Cars (Dishwalla)
15.What do you think of when you see the person you like? Talking Head (Motörhead)
16.What will you dance to at your wedding? Son of Billion Dollar Babies (Alice Cooper)
17.What will they play at your funeral? Damned for All Time/Blood Money (Andrew Lloyd Webber)
18.What is your hobby/interest? Killing Time (Metallica)
19.What is your biggest fear? Ashita ga Aru (SMAP)
20.What is your biggest secret? The Sun in the Stream (Enya)
21.What do you think of your friends? Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend (Marilyn Monroe)
22.What will you post this as? Let's Dance (David Bowie)
23.What song would you play during your first time having sex? How Do You Do? (Song of the South)

Certainly a good way to remember some things you picked up randomly a long time ago and forgot about. hehehe...

Collab of the Week: Shapes!

2008-07-20T07:06:44Z

Welcome to this week's collaboration project on LingWiki! This week's theme is shapes!

Looking primarily for the basic two-dimensional shapes (circle, triangle, square, rectangle, pentagon, hexagon, etc.). Any other two- or three-dimensional shapes are welcome, so feel free to add in some of your favorites.

If you're feeling ambitious and don't mind letting your work be used on the site, recordings of pronunciations would be great as well! A great way to do that and help many other people as well is to register at Forvo and record the word there.

Thanks to all who contribute! The assembled collection of the contributions will be viewable at shapes.

For those looking for Japanese grammar help...

2008-07-10T09:53:29Z

I had someone request this, thought I'd post it here for DVD, and anyone else who might be interested: http://lingwiki.com/index.php?title=Japanese_Verb_Endings

It's a work in progress, but I'm also doing one on verb endings to complement it, and I'm planning on doing another on numbers soon.

If anyone has any requests, feel free to drop a line!

Collab of the Week: Colors!

2008-06-30T06:32:46Z

Welcome to this week's collaboration project on LingWiki! This week's theme is colors!

Looking for the basic colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet), plus brown, black, white, and gray to round things out. Any other colors or shades are welcome, so feel free to add in some of your favorites.

If you're feeling ambitious and don't mind letting your work be used on the site, recordings of pronunciations would be great as well! In the interest of convenience for all involved, recording them as one file is fine; I have the software to break it into separate files for use on the site.

Thanks to all who contributed numbers last week, and to all who're going to help with colors this week!

(For those interested, the original thread on the site can be found here)

Collab of the Week: Numbers!

2008-06-22T17:10:47Z

Welcome to this week's collaboration project on LingWiki! This week's theme is numbers!

Just the numbers 1 through 10 is fine, though if you can provide higher numbers as well it would be great! For example:

Vietnamese
1 - một
2 - hai
3 - ba
4 - bốn
5 - năm
6 - sáu
7 - bảy
8 - tám
9 - chín
10 - mười

Multiples and powers of 10 are useful as well, so feel free to add in any other numbers as you see fit.

If you're feeling ambitious and don't mind letting your work be used on the site, recordings of how to pronounce the numbers properly would be great as well! In the interest of convenience for all involved, recording them as one file is fine; I have the software to break it into separate files for use on the site. Please indicate what you would like to be credited as in your post if you post any audio files.

Thanks to all who contribute!

Favorite proverbs or sayings?

2008-06-15T09:15:07Z

Conducting a second weekly collaboration project on LingWiki, this week's theme is proverbs and sayings!

Each language has its own unique sayings and phrases that give it life and color. This week's collaboration is aimed at building a collection of them across a variety of languages. While being a native speaker of the language the saying comes from is helpful, it's not necessary for this week's collab.

For each phrase you contribute, please include at least the saying written out in its native script and a translation. Ideally, a romanization of non-Latin scripts (writing systems that don't use the English alphabet, essentially) should be included, as well as an explanation of the proverb's deeper meaning and a list of headwords under which the phrase could be added. If you wish to provide a handwriting sample by writing it/them out, feel free to do that as well.

For example...

Japanese
猿も木から落ちる。
Saru mo ki kara ochiru. (Even monkeys fall from trees. Even experts make mistakes.)

Headwords: 猿 (saru, monkey), 木 (ki, tree), 落ちる (ochiru, [to fall)

As always, feel free to log into the wiki itself and add your contribution to the appropriate articles or ask how in LingWiki's help forum.

Thanks to all who contribute!

Also...

If you weren't there when the first weekly collaboration took place, you can still participate! A thread has been posted here so that it can continue.

Handwriting samples?

2008-06-08T16:35:05Z

Been working on cataloging a couple of alphabets on my site (LingWiki), and just for the fun of it I thought I'd see if people wanted to go ahead and post writing samples for their native language, be it via pangrams or just writing the alphabet. I'll see about getting my own up once I get to my girlfriend's this afternoon and have access to a scanner; can't say my penmanship is that good with my laptop's trackpad...hehehe...

If you're interested in letting LingWiki use your posting as a sample on pages regarding your native language, just make a note of it in your reply or feel free to register and upload it yourself and poke about the site some. Thanks in advance for all contributions!

LingWiki Update

2008-05-08T07:40:20Z

As of three nights ago LingWiki's database appears to have started having problems. The data is intact, however the software started refusing to acknowledge it was allowed to access it.

While it means losing the input of the 67,000 edits the LingWiki team has put in over the past two years, I have decided to create a new database and use it as an opportunity to update the Wiki software and refocus the site a bit. We are also in the process of working out partnerships with several other linguistics websites, so it'll be an opportunity to work on including that as well. I'll still keep the old database archived in the event someone can find a way to recover the article data out of it.

To those who've helped out over the past two years, thank you very much for your contributions, and I'm very sorry about what happened. That said, if you've been wondering how to contribute to the LingWiki community, now's your opportunity to join in and have your say! We've created a new category specifically for you at http://lingwiki.com/index.php?title=Category:Policy_Issues_Needing_User_Input , and it's continually growing.

If anyone has questions about the site, please feel free to comment away!

On watching Zoolander...

2008-03-14T05:08:20Z

chibionigiri Have you noticed that Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller are usually in the same movies?
kaji_sensei Who?
chibionigiri The blonde guy and the brunette.
kaji_sensei No idea who they are.
chibionigiri It was one of the first major films for Owen Wilson.
kaji_sensei Who?
chibionigiri He was the cowboy in Night at the Museum.
kaji_sensei Oh.
kaji_sensei So the blonde is Ben Stiller?
chibionigiri No, that's Owen Wilson. The brunette is Ben Stiller. They were both in Night at the Museum.
kaji_sensei Really? Who was Ben Stiller in that movie?
chibionigiri HE WAS THE GUY LOCKED IN THE MUSEUM!! *facepalm*
kaji_sensei Oooooh...

I forget who I stole it from, but it was stolen from my friends page...

2007-10-19T17:57:30Z

Which File Extension are You?

Stealing from Greddy

2007-09-23T19:35:07Z

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Literature Nerd Does sitting by a nice cozy fire, with a cup of hot tea/chocolate, and a book you can read for hours even when your eyes grow red and dry and you look sort of scary sitting there with your insomniac appearance? Then you fit this category perfectly! You love the power of the written word and it's eloquence; and you may like to read/write poetry or novels. You contribute to the smart people of today's society, however you can probably be overly-critical of works. It's okay. I understand.
Drama Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Musician
Social Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Anime Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

Kaji's Scriptorium - Now Open!

2007-08-19T09:02:03Z

Hey there! Thanks for stopping in. Name's Paul, otherwise known as Kaji online. Offline, my occupation consists of several odd teaching jobs, which suffice to say barely pay the bills out here in California. Hence, I've decided to open up shop and offer my calligraphic skills for sale!

Names on certificates

Envelopes

Custom stationery

For your quick and simple calligraphic needs.

Samples to come

Full certificates

Poems

Short compositions

Most standard services fall into this category.

Samples to come

Includes ornamentation above and beyond simply lettering. Intended as a work of art in itself

Samples:

Want something that's not covered by the above? Just want a digital commission? Need lettering services to help with one of your own commissions? I'm willing to do just about anything involving text, so feel free to run the idea by me for an estimate if you're interested!

Prices do not include shipping, see end of section.

Lettering: Flat rate of $5 for materials and $1 per item

Calligraphy: $15-30/page, depending on complexity of the request

Manuscripts: $15/hr. plus cost of materials

If done on paper: $10 for materials

If done on canvas: $25 for materials (canvas will be 16"x20"). Larger dimensions will be determined based on the cost of the larger canvas over the cost of a 16x20.

If you do not have a design in mind at the time the order is placed, a fee of 10% of the total will be added to cover time spent developing one for the manuscript. See the FAQ for more information.

Payment

Lettering and Calligraphy commissions: 1/2 up front, rest upon receipt of a scan of the finished product.

Manuscripts: Cost of materials and 2 hours of labor are due up front. The rest will be due upon receipt of a digital photo of the finished work.

Shipping:

Anything I can fit comfortably into a manila envelope will cost $1 to ship

Orders that do not fit into a manila envelope will be billed actual estimated shipping costs

Due to their intensive nature, all manuscripts will be insured when shipped

How to Order:
Send a note on DeviantArt (user: Kaji01) or e-mail me at Kaji_commissions@mac.com containing the following information:

Name:
E-mail: <-- Please ensure it's one you check so that I can reach you
Type of Commission: Lettering, Calligraphy, Manuscript, or Other
Commission Details: Be as detailed as you feel you need to be, I'll ask questions in reply to clarify if necessary. Please either paste in or include a link to the full text you want transcribed for Calligraphy and Manuscript commissions.

Once I receive your order form I'll send an acknowledgement. Once the details are clarified, I will send an estimate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What forms of payment do you accept?
A: In order of preference: Paypal, money orders, cash, and checks. If paying by check, it will have to clear before I begin work and/or ship the finished product.

Q: What's a design fee?
A: A design fee is compensation for extra effort spent planning out how to do a manuscript. If you have a specific plan laid out (e.g. "I'd like this text done as two side-by-side pages with a Celtic knot border), the fee is waived. If the instructions consist of something to the effect of "I'd like a manuscript with this written on it. Make it look awesome.", however, I charge an extra 10% of the total cost for the time spent deliberating what would make it "awesome".

I registered for the GRE!

2007-08-18T08:59:06Z

Finally, after much sitting on my ass regarding it, I've registered to take the GRE. Yes, I'm already in a master's program, however that was the same place where I got my undergrad, so taking the GRE was ruled unnecessary while I was there. Since I'm looking at applying for the Ph.D. program at UC Santa Cruz, however, I need to get it done. Test is next thursday at noon.

That aside, my cash level is desperately low at the moment (may miss my student loan payment), so I've decided I'm going to go ahead and open up shop. If anyone wants lettering services of any sort, feel free to ask or name drop if you know of someone else who is interested. I'll be putting up the information on my DA account in the next day or two regarding ordering, prices, and such.

Finally, since I've been showing it to several other communities, here's the project I've been occupied with the past few days now:

Going to be embellishing the borders and such once I decide on a pattern and replace my gold marker (which got used up while experimenting with Celtic knots earlier today...).

See y'all around!

HP thoughts

2007-08-04T23:22:03Z

Was talking to Theresa about it the other day, came up with a way the whole series could have easily been avoided...

All right, what it boils down to is that Voldemort gave Harry protection and Horcrux status when he killed Lilly. As Theresa pointed out, Voldemort offered to spare Lilly if she'd just step aside and let him kill Harry. Considering Snape's love for Lilly, and the fact that it was Snape who ratted out to Voldemort about where the Potters were, it seems probable that this was out of respect for Snape, perhaps a small reward for him if things went well.

As we all know though, she wouldn't just give up Harry, and so ended up dying. However, one small spell could have solved all of it, and I don't see where he'd have been above using it, either.

Imperius curse.

Cast it on Lilly, force her aside. Kill Harry, who now gets no protection from his mother, then give Lilly to Snape as a love doll. Snape gets his woman, Voldemort rules the world, no Harry to get emo in Book 5, everybody's happy!

hehehe...

Bored, taking a break from resume and cover letter work...

2007-06-18T21:58:27Z

So, Kaji_sensei, your LiveJournal reveals...

You are... 0% unique and 12% herdlike (partly because you, like everyone else, enjoy video games). When it comes to friends you are popular. In terms of the way you relate to people, you are keen to please. Your writing style (based on a recent public entry) is intellectual.

Your overall weirdness is: 44

(The average level of weirdness is: 27.
You are weirder than 85% of other LJers.)

Find out what your weirdness level is!

Stealing from Theresa and Mae, just because...

2007-04-28T06:41:52Z

http://kevan.org/johari?name=Kaji01

http://kevan.org/nohari?name=Kaji01

Instructions are there if you don't know what to do. I've generally never been one to run away from criticisms, so feel free to be as bluntly honest as you care with the second one...hehehe...

A pleasant surprise...

2007-04-11T17:43:48Z

I'm a bassist, have been for a while, though I've never actually gotten around to appraising any of my instruments. Decided to poke around a little bit and made a couple interesting discoveries, though...

My main bass is an old 4-string Squier, which I figured means that unless the person is a Squier fetishist (and I've met a couple of them, swear up and down the actual Fender basses are substandard). I've had to repair the jack on it a couple of times, and based on a look inside it looked to be from some time in the 80s due to the way the wiring was coated and the sheer amount of dust that had built up (I bought it from a pawn shop in 1998). I asked at a local guitar shop if they knew how old it might be, and got told it was likely a knockoff since the neckplate had "JV" stamped at the beginning of the serial, whereas to the best of his knowledge there were no Japanese Squiers.

Well, turns out he was wrong. Turns out that JV is a valid serial prefix covering when the Squier first went into production, according to Fender. Poking about on Wiki also indicates that the Squier was orignally released in Europe as a Japanese-produced vintage collection, focusing on '57 and '62 replicas of certain models. Based comparisons of the pickguard, finish, body shape, etc., it appears to have been a replica of the '62 P-bass.

Thus, it turns out that instead of being just another cheap alternative, my primary bass is actually an authorized vintage replica, and that my jestingly billing it as an '83 bass is actually on the mark. Thing really is as old as I am.

My second bass, which is at home right now is a Fender P-Bass Special 5 (similar model pictured to the left, as I don't have a picture on hand and it's not here to take one). I bought this bass new in 2000 with just about all the money I had when I turned 17, so other than sentimental value it's not really worth much of anything.

Third guitar is one that is kind of on indefinite loan from the church since I'm the only one that plays bass there and nobody uses it. Gibson basses are kind of rare, been wanting an EB-0 for a while. While this one is not technically an EB-0 (as all of said model were in the classic cherry red finish), the serial number on the back of the headstock matches the range Gibson states it stamped in 1962. Trying to find more information on vintage Gibson basses to further verify that it's an actual Gibson bass, though everything I've been able to check so far indicates it as genuine except perhaps the fact that there's only two knobs on it (but then, there's only one pickup and thus no logical reason for four knobs anyway).

Question for the Germans out there...

2007-04-11T15:25:23Z

As you can probably tell by looking at the music noted on the entry, the 80s classic 99 Luft Balloons just came up. Poking around a little bit online I've seen people noting that there are several differences between the German and English versions of the song, but I'm nowhere near good enough in German to really pick them up and nobody seems to be really detailing what said differences are. Is it just a matter of liberties taken to make a song still sound like a song once translated, or are there serious content differences between the two songs?

Thanks!

Compliments of Eli

2007-04-11T06:44:57Z

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=New+York,+NY&daddr=Paris+France&layer=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=49.089956,60.029297&ie=UTF8&z=3&ll=10.833306,-76.113281&spn=104.70149,120.058594&om=1

See #23

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=New+York,+NY&daddr=Paris+France&layer=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=49.089956,60.029297&ie=UTF8&z=3&ll=10.833306,-76.113281&spn=104.70149,120.058594&om=1

See #21

Swim across the Atlantic, take a slight left across the English Channel...Dead simple! hehehe...

Stealing from Chocolate

2007-04-10T16:20:24Z

You Belong in 1967

If you scored...

1950 - 1959: You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

1960 - 1969: You are a free spirit with a huge heart. Love, peace, and happiness rule - oh, and drugs too.

1970 - 1979: Bold and brash, you take life by the horns. Whether you're partying or protesting, you give it your all!

1980 - 1989: Wild, over the top, and just a little bit cheesy. You're colorful at night - and successful during the day.

1990 - 1999: With you anything goes! You're grunge one day, ghetto fabulous the next. It's all good!

What Year Do You Belong In?

And, on a side note, Theresa should be home in about 12 hours! hehehe...

All right...

2007-04-03T17:09:11Z

I'm finding I have a lot of time that I can't figure out how to put to good use, especially in the mornings when I don't have to sub of late. As there's a gym about 2 blocks down the street and I actually have some extra money this month, I've decided to go ahead and see about joining to try and burn off some of the fat I've picked up over the past 4 years or so. Gym's open 24 hours, so at least that'll cut down on excuses. hehehe...

Either way though, figured I'd let people know.

Favorite writings?

2007-03-05T04:23:37Z

I've decided to start collecting my writings into a single volume and edit them together, perhaps for publication as a book on philosophy or social commentary or something of the sort. However, while I already have a couple things I remember offhand, I've posted so many things in so many scattered places that I can't possibly recall all of what I'm looking for on my own. Therefore, I'm turning to everyone here to help me out for a moment.

If anything I've ever written has really struck you as particularly insightful or meaningful, I'd greatly appreciate either a link to it, or some reference to where it was posted and what it was on.

Thanks in advance for all the help!
Kaji