Fantasist's Scroll

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!

I finished The Hiram Key: Pharoahs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus last week.

It was, er, well…. “Interesting”, to say the least. I’m not sure I agree with everything they claim, but it sure made me question what I thought I knew about my own faith and Freemasonry. In a nutshell, the authors claim that Freemasonry is the repository of the “secret” teachings of Joshua ben Joseph (aka Jesus Christ), by way of the Knights Templar. Now, the idea that Freemasonry is derived from the suppressed Knights Templar is not new, and, frankly, one I believe. Too much just fits together too well for that part to not be true. Where it starts to get a little sketchy for me is that they claim the Knights Templar got ahold of some secret, forgotten scrolls that were hidden under the Temple in Jersualem at it’s building. And, that the knowlege in those scrolls goes back to ancient Egyptian kingship rites which themselves may be derived from ancient Sumerian religious beliefs. It’s all a kind of a stretch to me, but the authors make it seem frighteningly plausable.

It’s an interesting book, but probably not the best place to start if you’re interested in Masonic history. But, since this book got me so interested in the history of Freemasonry again, I’ve set myself the goal of reading at least one Masonic book a year. So, keep an eye out for other reviews!

(And, yes, this review first appeared on my other blog.)

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!

It’s about time I did!

I was on a web BBS for role-playing game development this past week, arguing with someone again, of course, mainly about what seemed to be a willful misinterpretation of a semantic point. But, I got really, really upset by it. As my Dad would say, it “punched my buttons”. Boy, howdy! Frankly, that disturbed me. Why should what some faceless, nameless person think about my point bother me? What did I have to prove? Who was I trying to impress?
Well, I don’t know. However, what struck me about all that was how childish it all was. Not just the whole arguement, because it got rolling, I felt, as a result of someone else trying to impress everyone with their credentials, but specifically my reaction to it. I was rather like a child throwing a tantrum. And, that’s really sad. So, I’m going to stay away from BBSs for a bit. At least until I can get a handle on whatever that all was for me. Maybe that’s a sign that I’m growing up a bit. (About time! After 35 years, you’d think I’d have grown up already!)
So, with one last parting shot, I’ll quote the Bible:
“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. ”
Corinthians 13:11

Not the usual Fantasist’s Scroll book.

But, well worth looking into. I first got interested in Rastafarianism by way of William Gibson, who had several characters who were Dreadlocks. My ignorance of what that was all about was, well, somewhat shocking for me at the time. So, I started poking around. Quite a few years ago, I found Rastafari: Roots and Ideology by Barry Chevannes. It followed me around, unread, in a box for several years. Well, I finally read it this past week. What a shame I waited so long!
This was a very good book about the history and origins of a relatively new religion. Among other things, it was fascinating to track the birth of a new faith from its very start through the modern day. As a sociological look at a small, but growing, religious or spiritual movement, this is a great book. It is, however, a rather schollarly look at this movement and, as such, is somewhat dry at times. Still, it presents not only a well-rounded look at the religion, but also the socio-economic forces that shaped it. One of the main “pillars of faith”, for instance, is the concept of “repatriation” to Ethiopia. This would never have come about if not for the practice of black slavery in the New World.
I’ll not attempt to describe the intricacies of Rastafarianism in a short message, but, if you’re interested in knowing more, this book is a great place to start.

Noticed a few changes?

Well, that’s because I’ve relocated, yet again. Apparently, my old web host thought that my scripts were killing their server. Oddly enough, they seemed to think they were okay when I asked them to test them and make sure there were no problems before I released them to the public. Funny how that works.
In any case, I’ve found a new home at Amzia.net. And, I’ll probably be a little scarce for the next week as I move my other domains over, too. Oh, and, should it turn out that the last folks were right, I’ll be modifying my scripts to slow them down. Actually, to make sure that they only run one at a time. Though, I have to admit, I doubt there’s really a problem. Unless, of course, the problem occured when they moved my account from a Unix server to a Windoze server. But, that’s an entry for my other blog.

Oy! I finally get it!

This morning, while thinking like Martin Luther, it occurred to me why I have trouble with some of my fellow conlangers. It’s a simple difference of philosophy. They are opposed to my automated tools on the basis that they somehow degrade the “art” of conlanging. I think, to them, that the process of conlanging is the whole point.
To me, though, a constructed language isn’t relavent without a constructed culture to go with it. That is the fun of conlanging for me. Seeing the interplay of culture and language in a new way, or even an old way that I’m controlling, is the fun thing. The language creation itself is just a means to an end, so it only makes sense to me to crank it out as quickly as possible.

It’s interesting that this never occured to me before. Of course, I may have been so busy being defensive that I didn’t take the time to figure out what was going on. And, I have to admit, I let my temper get the best of me. I got irritated with the snobbery I percieved in the arguments I heard against using automation. I guess technology has become such a part of my life that I take for granted what it can do for me and that not everyone else exploits it the way I do. Go figure.
Anyway, I thought it was an interesting observation….

The rise of civilisation explained.

I finished Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond this weekend. What an amazing book!
When I started this, someone from a mail list I’m on said that it should be required reading for anyone interested in creating a world. I heartily agree. In a short 425 pages, Mr. Diamond shows us how mankind stopped being nothing more than roving bands of “primative” hunter-gatherers and grew into complicated societies. He also shows us how some cultures advanced more quickly than others. Along the way, he explains how history works. What drives massive migration? What allows someone to invent? Why would we need to develop writing and what advantage does it give over people who can’t?
All those questions, and more, are answered in a very logical, easy-to-understand way that was a pleasure to read. In fact, it was a challenge to read during the holidays because each page is so densely packed with relavent information that I felt I needed to devote my entire attention to the page. I’m sure there were important ideas that I missed, so I’ll eventually re-read this one, and I say that about very few books.

As a writer, I found numerous ideas for how a culture might develop in this book. And, along with those ideas, I found a lot of motivations for created people, as well. At many times in history, life has been an adventure, no matter who you were or what you wanted life to be. Mr. Diamond highlights several of those times in Guns, Germs and Steel. For instance, imagine what it must have been like to be some of the first people to colonize New Guinea or Australia using only primative stone and bone tools. Now, imagine what it might have been like with a few differences, like steel. Start writing about those imaginings and, viola, you’re off and running.

No matter how you slice it, Guns, Germs and Steel is a great book that I’d reccomend to almost anyone with an interest in ancient history.