Fantasist's Scroll

It’s nice to have a quality journal to write in.

I may not be an Oscar Wilde, who was famously in love with his own journal, but I do occasionally like to write in one. And, I have to tell you, I’ve scribbled in everything from cheap, spiral-notebooks to heavy, leather-esque tomes, but the best that I’ve ever seen is Moleskine. My mother got me one for Christmas one year and it was so beautiful that I was afraid to write in it. It’s bound with real leather and the paper feels, well, creamy. It takes ink like a dream from any pen. And, they have a built in book mark to mark where you stopped! Not to mention the elastic band to hold it closed and the pocket for small papers in the back cover. Really, these are superior journals. And, no, I don’t get a commission off this.
If you like writing in journals, you owe it to yourself to at least look at these. (You can buy them here.)

The Magus knows!

And, now you can, too, with the Fantasist.net Fantasy Pocket “Litter” Generator. It’s pretty simple to use: just check the boxes that correspond with the categories that you want to generate random items in and click the button. The result is a list of what a character in a fantasy setting might be carrying in its pockets. Suitable for fiction, role-playing games, or just for fun.
The generator is a fairly simple idea that was inspired by Picked Pockets designed by Wraith Systems Labs. Their’s was built in Visual Basic, or Visual C++, but this is web-based and will work for anyone with a browser.
But, enough chatter, it’s Friday, so, go have some fun!

Two odd ones.

One’s even in Houston! First, though, the Troll Museum. Yes, that’s right. Trolls. Not in the very-scary-big-monster variety, but the neon-hair-belly-button variety. Yes, those horrible, little figurines have their own museum. It’s like a car accident. It’s terrible, but I can’t look away.
The second museum is in my very own Houston! It’s the National Museum of Funeral History. Yeah, you read that right. It’s a museum dedicated to the way we bury our dead. And mourn them. It’s horrific, too, in a different way. But, I have to admit, it’s interesting. Now, if I can just convince the wife that she wants to go….

Well, either way, they might make a fun vactation stop, depending on your sense of humor! Happy Friday!

(And, yes, this also appeared on my other blog. Hey, this was so cool I had to recycle it!)

Today is William Gibson’s Birthday!

For those of you who have been hiding under a rock, or are freshly hatched from the Great Egg, William Gibson is one of the fathers of the cyberpunk movement. He’s generally credited with coining the term “cyberspace” and popularizing a somewhat more realistic, if sometimes bleak, view of the future.
He also ran away to Canada in 1968 to avoid the draft. Which is the only bad thing I can say about him. I otherwise admire his work and thought processes. Certainly his literature is beyond compare.
If you’re interested in science-fiction at all and haven’t read any of his work, you have no idea what science-fiction really is. And not the movies, either, you have to actually read his work.

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Bill.

I’m a “Top 10 Conlanger”?

Well, according to the Wikipedia, yes, I am. That’s really interesting to me, since I don’t actually have any conlangs at the moment. Apparently, they’re basing this ranking on hits in Google, which, of course, means that I am, in fact, in the “Top 10”. Mainly for the free tools and such that I have here for conlangers. Still, it’s a bit, well, odd to me that I’m in the “Top 10” list of anything, much less conlanging…
It’s kind of cool, actually.
Oh, my resources are all at this page. Enjoy them!

Yes, this is a fun book!

Okay, first off, .How to Keep Dinosaurs is NOT in any way a serious book. It’s a fun, little quasi-“coffee-table” book about keeping dinosaurs as pets. It breaks the possibilities down into several groups, ranging from dinosaurs for beginners to dinosaurs for safari parks. Each dinosaur entry is accompanied by picutres of the creature in a modern setting, usually with people. These photographs are so good, they look like they’re almost real. And, of course, each entry has notes about what the dino likes to eat and any special care notes that might be usefull. It’s a very funny book, but well crafted and informative. It’s really a load of fun and well worth picking up if you’re a dinosaur enthusiast, or if you’re looking for something that will add a bit of surreal reality to your fantasy life. Very cool.

Strange things travelers might need to know…

My step-daughter goes to school with a lot of people from other countries and, right now, there are quite a few kids from Korea at her school. She has at least one friend that’s taught her some things in Korean, but she wanted to know more, so when we were out this weekend, I bought her the Lonely Planet Korean Phrasebook. Well, we were going through some of it and found some interesting phrases. Things like “I don’t do drugs” and “I only smoke marajuana occasionally”. But, they also had “My period is … weeks late” and “Stop harassing me!”. How often do “travellers” really need phrases like this? What occasion calls for the discussion of drug use while in a foregin country?
I have some older Lonely Planet phrasebooks, but I don’t remember seeing phrases like this in them! I guess they’ve updated it for the new century. Hmm, at least it gives me some ideas for updating my Conlang Phrasebooks!

I can’t pronounce mine!

Okay, this isn’t the most “accurate” of tools, but it is interesting. Basically, it’s a little web gadget that takes some information from you and pops out your, roughly approximated, Chinese “equivalent” name. The disclaimer says that you should get an expert to help you choose a Chinese name before using it in a real-world situation, since the Chinese feel that names are quite important to the character of a person. All of which is very interesting to me in terms of a created culture or created language.
For instance, I can picture a culture that has a separate language for naming. Or who hide their names for magical protection. Or who change their names for the same reason! Really, the possibilities are endless.

Oh, yeah, you can find the “Get a Chinese Name” tool here…