joudama scribbling

Y'know, one good? bad? thing about me getting to final translate at work again is that it means I am, once again, living on Wikipedia at work.

This means my overthinkers club brain is kicking into gear. After all, I just finished an article on a big battle during the Muromachi period that was chock full of the rivalries and backstabbing going on before the battle, then an article on a town in North Korea with a concentration camp, just set up to translate an article on the decorative cord tied on katana, then decided to work on an article about the Greek wind gods. Meaning I've been all over the place on wiki reading about Greek mythology and Japanese history.

And making fast a furious mental notes of things to add into upcoming fic to pad out the world building.

Also, I just saw Diwali has started, and I had planned to integrate bits of that into a Gaian winter holiday (since, yeah, there wouldn't be a Christmas there), and also seeing a connection between the Ancients and the Jewish diaspora (said two bits were all contemplating during the first two hours I was at work).

...My brain is a scary, scary thing.

For now, it's lunchtime, and off to write more Sephiroth and a Kitten. I kind of worry people will compare this upcoming fic to "Where One's Responsibilities Lie," but *dies* the two are so different. The premise is the same--big and emo meets cute and fluffy--but oh, lord, how very, very different the outcomes are. >XD

I had originally been going to include this in "Ienai," then decided that since it was, well, as long as the fic, to do it in the same style as my "Ultimanias" for my FF7 fic--make it a separate post, and my fellow nerds could read it if they wanted.

Codec from jou (freq. 198.42): ( I picked that number for a reason. XD )

I started working on another MGS fic (like "Soft," the one I'm working on came at me as a flash of a scene, and that doesn't happen often, so I'm working on it). I like MGS already because, like I said in another entry, it lets me work on the surreal.

So I started writing it in third person, but a very...odd third person. Most third person I work on is third person limited (the present, Rude POV in TTYNKAP is the best example) with occasional omniscient fic. This fic, I was working from a more objective form of the third person; Otacon's POV, but very much detached, focusing less on trying to make the reader empathize, but describing his feelings as simple facts. I can't describe it much better; it was an odd style for me, one I've used with writing Sephiroth, because it seems like a good way to get better into his head, ironically enough, because he's so detached from his own emotions. But I was pushing it in another, more formal kind of direction, using it for effect because Otacon's emotions are so always on the surface and overwhelming for him.

Like I said, I'm playing around with new techniques in MGS fandom. Little things that I hope will make me a better writer.

So I was thinking about this as I was walking to the post office, and I was thinking about MGS and the post-modern, and smiling a little at how MGS makes all this fourth-wall breaking comments, reminding you all the time that you're playing a game. And that's when an idea hit me. I went back and completely revised what I had so far of the fic, and will write the rest of it in the new style.

Second person.

I'm...kind of excited. I've never written second person before, but it seems like it's perfect for MGS and all it's meta.

And yes, I am working on HC, too. I like multitasking! :D

I've had this internet argument before (heh, including once on a snark comm; the person arguing up a blue streak for "USian" oddly enough didn't respond to my explanation, probably because she had no comeback for it.) I just typed it up to explain to someone why USian is NO, and I'm going to post it here so I can pull it out easily whenever I need to.

Why 'USian' is WRONG WRONG WRONG When Referring to People from the United States of America

The short answer is: English doesn't work that way. People trying to use it are actually making a very, very fundamental mistake between English and other languages that do use the equivalent of "USian," one that is rooted in not how native English speakers see the USA but how they see the world itself.

To break this down:

Mexico is actually "The United Mexican States." China is "The People's Republic of China." America is "The United States of America." As a result, when shortened, the form of government in the country name is dropped: Mexico, China, America.

America gets away with "The United States" for the same reason as the Philippines (the Philippine Islands) do, because the "of America" can be considered "of the (North) American continent." This is because when the US was formed, North and South America were still "America." But our concept of the world changed, and "America" along with it. And if you're getting confused, let me explain. ^^;;

In the non-English speaking countries where the equivalent of "USian" is used for American, it's because they don't divide North and South America into two separate continents--they are all simply "America." Which means that the word we use for both continents combined, "the Americas" is simply "America." (a source: Real Academia Española: Diccionario panhispánico de dudas (DRAE pág. 274). Madrid: Santillana, 2005. En inglés, America significa ‘Estados Unidos’, y Americas significa ‘América’. And to pull out wiki, here's the section on 'the number of continents, which shows the breakdown in how the number of continents is taught in different parts of the world. Native English speaking countries and Latin American countries are not taught the same thing.')

Therefore, in languages where the six-continent/North-and-South-America="America," it makes logical sense to refer to someone from the Americas as "American" and someone from the US as "USian," because America is not the word for a country, but the combined North and South American landmass.

In countries where English is the native language, however, the continents are considered separate and "America" doesn't mean "the combined North and South American continent" but the "United States of America" (see the above rule about shortening country names.) There is a linguistic difference. A native English speaker trying to say someone is from North or South America has to use either "from the Americas" or the old-fashioned "from the New World" and it's awkward because we don't have a single word for someone from what we consider to be two continents, precisely because we do consider them to be separate. We would say they were North American or South American because that's how we conceive of it (anectdata, I've said plenty of times that I'm North America, but would be flummoxed if I had to say I was from the Americas and would have no idea why I would be saying that because to me it makes no sense--two big continents, there, so why conflate them?). But languages where the continents are combined, such as in Spanish, just say "American" for this because that's how they see it (see above Spanish bit. I know y'all are smart and can parse it; it ain't hard).

If you're speaking Spanish, then yes, you should be using the Spanish word for "USian" (Estadounidense) and not "American" (Americano/a) because it is the correct and appropriate term in that language and not doing so is incorrect and will cause misunderstandings. That's how the language works and you roll with it.

'USian' is not, however, the correct and appropriate term in English for someone from the USA because of that very fundamental difference in the way landmasses are counted and taught. As a result, when I see a non-native speaker saying "USian," I consider them to be making an English mistake because of a failing in learning English--they weren't taught about that North & South America continents vs the continent of the Americas and so are fundamentally using the wrong term, and when I see a native English speaker making that mistake, likewise, I consider them to have not realized just why, linguistically, the word that we use is the standard in English (because we have seven continents) is not the same as it is in languages where USian is used (because they have six).

So just as it would be inappropriate to use "American" in Spanish to refer to someone from the US, it is in many way inappropriate to use "USian" in English. Doing so is trying to shoehorn in an equivalency of "America" and "the Americas" that isn't there in English just because of a fundamental difference in word use in a completely different language.

So in other words: English doesn't work that way so quit mucking it up.

And behold, the revamp, edited, and expanded version of the first part of the TTYNKAP AN Ultimania. Though this one is more an Ultimania for the world building I'm doing for all of Wutai and the history of Gaia, really. ^^;;

( A Brief History of Gaia: Wutai )

Yup, I'm an anal-retentive nerd.

Do not even ask me how much time I spent on wiki trying to find a name for a random small village next to Banora that has no importance other than a name.

On the plus side, I'm pretty sure I also just figured out where the heck the name "Banora" came from, apple connection and everything, so I'm proud of myself.

And slightly horrified by my own nerdishness, to have sought this out. Especially since I could have been, y'know, actually working on fic or gaming or something.

...oh god. *buries face in hands* I just read what I just wrote. I'm sure it's possible to be a bigger loser than I am, but I'm not sure how. ^^;;;;

Here, to redeem myself, here is a snippit of the fic I'm working on--it's going to chronologically be the first story of "In This Together."

( Gillian had known this day was coming. )

While looking for "Loveless" to use in a fic, I came across the English version, and looked for the Japanese as well.

The English version is...errrrr in a few places. As a result, I'm going to retranslate it (slowly, because I'm sick bleh).

So far, my retranslation rhymes, but god only knows how long that will last. ^^;;;

( Follow the fake cut to overthinkers! )

I still think too much, like this is news to anybody. I thought of this when I was doing the ever dangerous "walking to the bakery to buy lunch" yesterday, and then decided to write it out today, since I was running late this morning and didn't have time to upload AHIH to Google docs so I could work on that during lunch.

( The Cetra Diaspora )

The faux-cut goes to overthinkers, since hey, the comm is there, I should use it!

This is still very rough, and I need to do some revision to "A History of the World, Part 1", which I referred to, but hey. Any and all thoughts and comments welcome. :D

A Moment of Zen.

So, Silla? One of the three Korean kingdoms that took over the entire Korean peninsula and ruled for close to 1000 years?

In characters, it's 新羅--"Shinra." (신라 in Korean: sin ra, but the "s" is closer to an "sh" sound)

I had noticed it before when a Korean guy I was teaching English to over a year ago was telling me about Korea's history, and when he was trying to romanize everything wrote out "Shinra" and I went "O_o?!" What came out of his mouth was closer to "Shilla" but I had a serious WTF moment and seeing "Shinra" on the page.

I forgot until I was looking something up on the Japanese wiki, and a "WTF" at seeing what I instantly read as 'shinra-jin' in kanji, so I clicked on the page for Silla and came across the hangul and went, "wtf, that jamo [Korean letter] is 'n' not 'r/l', that's...SHINRA?!"

Moment of Zen.

And the characters for the ShinRa we all know and love is 神羅. And 新羅 is normally 'Shiragi,' but the alternative reading is 'Shinra' or "Shirura'

...I'm going back to the nerd table now.

The Overthinkers Club: Making Sense of This Shit Since the Creators Can't Be Arsed To.

Y/Y?

>XDDDDD

I may be late to the party, but, OK. So In KH, Sora's name in Japanese means "sky." "Riku" means "land."

"Kairi" can mean "estrangement" (乖離) or "dissociation" (解離).

...Hunh.

It can also mean "nautical mile," but that's just silly.

So, after that Yuffie fic, and someone pointing out on LJ that it was too formal in tone (it was; I've revised), I decided one bit of formality stayed--"don the clothes"--because it felt like a formal, four-character compound while I was writing.

...y'all know me. You know where this is going.

I came up with the four-character compound. *waves Overthinkers Club banner*

Or rather, I came up with several *waves banner again*, and can't pick which one I like best. Which one do y'all like? Whichever one gets decided on in the end will be jou-cannon Wutai, and will prolly show up at some point in other fic.

The choices are:

脱紫穿黄 (tuo zi chuan huang) - remove the purple and don the yellow
脱紫穿綠 (tuo zi chuan lu) - remove the purple and don the green
穿綠黄衣 (chuan lu huang yi) - don the green and yellow clothes
帝穿綠黄 (di chuan lu huang) - the emperor dons green and yellow

I think the third is too straightforward for a four-character compound, so I'm leaning towards the first, second, or fourth.

( Examples of compounds. )

Jou's Horrible, I-Hate-My-Brain Thought for the Day:

So how DO the pudding-type FF monsters reproduce?

I have been bugged by a long time by Squeenix's um, creative use of ages and timing in the FF7 world. OK, fine, it's making me froth at the mouth because it makes no sense.

And then it occurred to me that maybe a year on Gaia is longer than it is on Earth, and suddenly things work a LOT better, and explains why everyone is ridiculously young.

So I'm thinking a year on Gaia would be one to two months longer than it is on Earth. One month longer would put twenty-five-year-old Seph in CC at 27 Earth-years, and two months longer puts him at 29. It makes Zack being able to join SOLDIER at fourteen (the equivalent of 15 in a 13 month year and 16 in a 14 month year) not seem like it's uncomfortably skirting the edge of child soldier.

I'm still toying which one I think works best, but it's definitely going to be part of my fandom internal canon.

...this also means that Angeal would not have been that underage in that last fic, and waahey, works out quite nicely and I'm not going to hell. W00t!

...I have created a monster with materia ice, and it seems to have found its wings and is taking off (first chibirisuchan's recipes, now raisedbymoogle's fic based off those recipes). *wipes tear of pride*

...and, um, I have had a puppyverse fic planned for a while that uses "mastered" (aka, alcoholic as hell) materia ice. So it will be showing up again and is "canon" in my 'verses the same as McMoogles (and a few other things, like some names for the continents, a couple holidays [one of which y'all will see for Christmas], the Silver Dragon/Ginryuu/Yin Long/"Annals of the Silver Dragon" and an imperialist Wutai past) have become.

*cheers*

See, when something bugs and niggles at me, I can never let it go. Even when I try to.

This is why that Valentine's Day-esque holiday in "Second Day Chocolate" now has a name: "Tryanur."

And where did such a wacky looking name come from? Why, Sanskrit! It's from the the word "tryah" (three) and "anura-", the root for "love."

Why Sanskrit of all things? Because this kind of holiday has the Cetra written all over it, and the name of the City of the Ancients given in AC was "Ajit," and that's a word derived from Sanskrit meaning "invincible" ('ajita', and yes, my wiki-fu is strong.)

I accept my loserdom and revel it in, yo. And I need to make myself a "Loser" icon or something...

ETA: I took a Nerd-Geek-Dork Quiz. Note the language of newspaper the guy in the pic reading. >XD;;

( Given the topic of the post, the results should shock none of you. )

So, I've been wondering for forever. Does anyone actually know where the names Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz come from? It's been driving me nuts for forever, because everyone else's name makes sense, even Cloud's (from "Nifelheim," which got morphed into "Nibelheim," and it means the land of clouds, and was one of the places the dead who didn't go to Valhalla went).

I actually think I know where the names came from though, and if my guess is right, I will cheer lots and lots.

See, I named one fic "Fragments," and for some reason that was niggling at me because I knew I had seen that name somewhere before. And then it hit me, "Fragments" was a book on the Holocaust, and that made me think about a book I had read years ago on the Jewish Mourner's Prayer...the Kaddish. "Kaddish," it turns out, is Aramaic for "holy."

...Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeah. It does not take a big stretch to go from "Kaddish" to "Kadaj."

There is also the Kaddish Yatom [Kaddish Yehe Shelama Rabba], the "Orphan's Kaddish." Yazoo, um, whut.

I'm still trying to track down what Loz might possibly be (I'm wondering if it's from the "Rosh" of "Rosh Hashana", actually; in katakana the two aren't that far off: ロッズ vs ローシュ, no further than カダージュ and カッディーシュ). Yazoo is kind of a stretch, but yeah, I'm pretty sure Kadaj is from the Kaddish.

...yes, I need a new hobby.

Yes, yes, dorky Mel Brooks reference, so sue me. >XD

I'm working out the history of Wutai and its many invasions of the Eastern continent right now, and I'm seeking opinions and thoughts because it's always best to get other people's ideas, I figure.

So I have a couple of questions for the peanut gallery.

First off:

Right now, I'm toying with the idea of having a Warring States period, where pretty much everyone everywhere was at war. How far back in the past do you think this should have been and when did it end? I'm playing around with having it having lasted for between 500-1000 years. I also figure this was the time when most of the Cetra who had survived Jenova started dying out, because I daresay Cetra wouldn't do very well in a time of constant warfare consisting of lots of scorched and salted earth policies.

Also, when do you think materia first started really being used? I'm going with the idea that the Wutai learned how to use it first, and it's why they were able to take over the world--they had shiny armor, swords, and magic, whereas the barbarians in the East had pointy sticks and face paint.

I kind of also figure that it was learning to use materia that set off an industrial revolution of sorts in the East--I was looking at clips from DoC, and there was a big disconnect of sorts between how the Kalm and the other cities (and the way the people dressed--it REALLY looked like homespun, yo, and same with a lot of the people in the slums of Midgar in CC), and then there was this super-advanced ShinRa technology), and I'm kind of figuring the technological boom was REALLY recent and mainly brought about because ShinRa threw a LOT of money and resources into it. After all, swords and chocobos are still, well, used. A lot. So the technical revolution isn't really over yet, it was just put into hyperdrive at ShinRa and then kind of trickled out.

So, the question: about how far back do you think it was before people on the Eastern continent started using materia?

Right now, I'm thinking a timeline like this:

2000 years ago - Jenova, bye-bye Cetra
1500 to 1000 years ago - the Warring Era began. It's during the end of this period that the Wutai discover how to put materia to use. It's also during this period that all the Cetra on Wutai die out (see comments). It's during the Warring Era that the knowledge of the Cetra and Jenova got lost; things like that tend to happen during constant warfare with everything getting destroyed repeatedly and entire populations being wiped out.
500 - 300 years ago - the Warring Era ends: the Cetra population is pretty much down to nothing, and the few that remain are so few and far between that pure-blooded Cetra are pretty much all dying out, and the ones that survive are marrying and having children with humans, and so the blood is thinning out lots and lots and LOTS. Wutai by then has gone into an isolationist stage. The east continues to war, but they're minor compared with the Warring Era. It's enough to keep the Cetra population close to nil. The Warring Era lasting so long is also part of why the population of Gaia is pretty small--it is, if you think about it. There just aren't a lot of people and there aren't that many cities.
300 - to the present - the east starts to learn how to use materia, which ushers in a time of advancement that leads to an Industrial/Technological Revolution, which they were still in the middle of when the game happened. Prior to ShinRa taking over the world, there were still minor wars, which is why there was no government strong enough to stand up to ShinRa and most places were small city-states rather than countries, but after ShinRa took over, there was actually peace because, well, ShinRa wouldn't stand for uprisings, and in the mindset of a place that had warred for a very, very long time--anywhere not under their control might attack at any minute. Which is why Wutai was a threat, even though the Wutai had been peaceful for quite a long time.

...I swear to god, all this for a fic. *dies* But, after I get the prologue back from the beta and do more revision (I revise. Lots and lots and lots because I am never happy), up it goes.

ETA - And the more I think about it, the more I'm sure there really wasn't any kind of centralized government anywhere on the eastern continent until ShinRa came along--it was a bunch of city-states, and the only place that was unified into a country as we would think of it was isolationist Wutai (another reason ShinRa would want it taken down). There were regions that were unified together, but they weren't really a country per se--no strong government would stand for a company getting its own army and taking over.

ETA 2 - I just saw this article about how the human race almost went extinct 70,000 years ago, and was down to a population of about 2,000 people. This, to me, further indicates that something more catastrophic than Jenova must have happened for, 2000 years later, the only Cetra still alive to have been Aerith--they would have started to rebound after Jenova's defeat, thanks to a baby boom, because when there is a low population but things are looking up, BABY BOOM LIKE WHOA is what usually occurs. There would have had to have been something long-term bad that happened to keep the population of them low and to make where they lived an area that was just impossible for them to survive, which would have been the Warring Era (...I really need a better name for that period than that), and it would have had to have ended historically "recently" in order for the Cetra population to have hit the point of no return as it did. Just as the drought in that article caused humans to go into small, isolated groups, so did the Warring Era do for the Cetra--the only problem is, they just didn't have a chance to rebound after.

I'm also going to guess that there was some kind of climate change that occurred on Gaia as well which acted as a spur for all the wars and such, especially with the Cetra dying out--I'm still working on all of this, so we'll see how it goes. There was probably a mini Ice Age, like the one that hit Europe during the late Middle Ages.