Sunday, October 4, 2015
Saturday, October 3, 2015
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Interlingua Fans and Esperanto Reality
Locally here on Lulu Island and with visiting Americans, Interlingua seems a popular vote, but I know globally, Esperanto supporters, who can actually speak the language they support, far outnumber the followers of Interlingua. Interlingua is blue and number 8, but rarely 26, to them. Esperanto is correctly green or incorrectly white and number 4, 16, or 28 to them.
Magic Numbers, ABC
I think many have schizophrenia-like behaviour. They think I have some kind of magic about numbers, like the numbers of folders and files make sense to them in a superstitious way. And letters in words are about people in my current life. Wackos, they are. Bah!
De-Asianization
Xtianity is rapidly spreading in the Sinosphere, as it displaces traditional religions. I think Sinitic peoples largely no longer have a different view of reality. They are engrossed in shopping malls and loving their automobiles and eating their fast food. They don't wear traditional garments anymore. They don't know the stock exchange is just a casino, a model borrowed from the West.
Not Learning Irregularities
At this point in my life, I would rather not learn the irregularities of natural languages. They're just insanities. The future of Asian cultures look bleak. I would rather concentrate on Esperanto. It's a better fantasy.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Esperanto Experience
My first encounter with Esperanto was in the 1980's at the main Richmond Public Library, where I found Teach Yourself Esperanto by John Cresswell and John Hartley. It had intriguing illustrations. The language looked fascinating, partly because it was "manmade." I was still a teenager. I started learning a little bit, but not really in depth. Then in my university days at UBC, in the ancient grey castle Main Library, amongst the shelves were interesting old books in Esperanto. Also, one day in one of the Buchanan buildings at UBC, I found Teach Yourself Esperanto Dictionary by J. C. Wells. A Colombian from Bogotá named Gonzalo Bermúdez R. left it in one of the classrooms. His "business card" was inside the dictionary. It was not until 1997 when I seriously started studying Esperanto, and I had been going to Esperanto meetings, in fast-food restaurants and Asian restaurants in Vancouver, as well as the mountaintop SFU in Burnaby. Today, I'm still a full-fledged Esperantist.
Monday, September 21, 2015
Sunday, September 20, 2015
Philippine Language Environment
Often, a Filipino may know a local minor language, then a regional language like Cebuano or Ilokano, then the national language Tagalog aka Filipino, then some English. In the Tagalog region, there are places like Batangas, which has a variant Tagalog dialect called Batangueño, then people have to learn Standard Tagalog from Metro Manila, then some English. It turns out that most Filipinos know three language varieties, sometimes four.
Personally, as a child, I learnt Standard Tagalog of Metro Manila, then the Batangueño Tagalog dialect of Ibaan, Batangas, then English.
Teleportation
I agree with Dr. Michio Kaku that teleportation technology will improve and that it may be possible to teleport matter to other planets and moons.
Sci-fi Most Important
"Science fiction is the most important literature in the history of the world, because it’s the history of ideas, the history of our civilisation birthing itself… Science fiction is central to everything we’ve ever done. People who make fun of science fiction writers don’t know what they’re talking about."
~Ray Bradbury, author of The Martian Chronicles
Friday, September 18, 2015
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Red Cloud
Today's the first time that I think of nicknaming myself as Red Cloud because the birthmark on the right side of my belly looks like a red cloud.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Humans as Animals
If you have lost faith in humanity, you should try to think of humans as mere animals with animal behaviour. Thinking humans are not animals is incongruent with reality.
Monday, September 14, 2015
If Things Aren't Going Well
If things aren't going well, you should remind yourself that what surrounds you is just Māyā or Illusion.
Gravity Effects
People born and raised in greater gravity would have a stockier build. People born and raised in lesser gravity would have a more slender build. Martian gravity is a bit over a third of Earth's. Crutches would be needed for the Mars-born on an Earth vacation. The discovery of artificial gravity may be in the far distant future.
Nepal
On French TV5, I've just partially viewed Femmes des montagnes (Women of the Mountains), a show about Nepal. The people there are variedly mixed-race: Mongoloid, Caucasoid, and Australoid. Some people know a bit of English, even that far away.
English Unfriendly?
Some people actually like English because it sounds more unfriendly, compared to other languages.
Sci-fi Sri Lanka
Sir Arthur C. Clarke, a British sci-fi writer, lived in Sri Lanka until his death in 2008. He was knighted in 1998.
My favourite Clarke book is actually Imperial Earth.
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Tu, Vos
Interlingua is like French, Spanish, Portuguese, and the like because there are the familiar-formal, young-old, and singular-plural distinctions embedded in its "tu versus vos" pronoun dichotomy for the English counterparts of you. Interlingua preserves the naturalness from Latino languages.
Vi, Ci
Esperanto has the egalitarian pronoun "vi" which is like the English "you" used for singular and plural, young and old. But Esperanto also has the rare counterpart of the English "thou" which is "ci" used for special intimacy.
Esperanto Community
The Esperanto community on this world is, of course, international. That reason is why I think it's good to learn Esperanto. I know there are a lot of smart people with vision. Learning Esperanto isn't the same as just learning some ordinary natural language. My experience with Esperanto has made evident that there are smart Esperantists around this globe.
English More Egalitarian
Compared to languages like French, Japanese, and Tagalog, English seems more egalitarian. When I speak English to older people, I don't need a title for their name. English-speakers use the one word "you" for both young and old people. There is less hierarchy in English. Perhaps, that reason is why Europeans, in particular, promote English.
Japanese Age Consciousness
From my experiences with ordinary Japanese, they are very age-conscious, more so than Canadians. I make myself look like some neo-hippy. Intellectuals like me don't care about age, so much.
Sinospheric Xtianity
Xtianity is spreading in the Sinosphere. It seems that people there like it because it suppresses sexuality. Compared to some Eastern religions, this craze is not spirituality. Xtianity is a very small minority in Japan. It always has been.
Homonyms
Tagalog is a language not full of homonyms, whilst Japanese is, due to borrowings from mainland Asia.
Saturday, September 12, 2015
Esperantist
Although strangers know that I'm an Esperantist, they still try to promote Interlingua. I still like Interlingua, but it's Esperanto that suits my personality. I already know most of Esperanto's vocabulary. I feel comfortable speaking it. That way is my destiny, being an Esperantist.
What Is Being Oriental?
1. Use of indirect communication
2. Use of metaphor, metonymy, simile
3. Use of puns, word play on homonyms and near homonyms
4. Use of fuzzy logic
5. Use of multivalent symbolisms
6. Worship of Nature and sense of multiple spirits in the environment
7. Sense of paradoxes or hypocrisies
8. Meticulous written and spoken language
9. Security in silence
10. Frequent non-verbal communication
Societal Schizophrenia
Society assigns meanings to numbers and colours, so that, as psychiatrists opine, the whole framework becomes like a jail, although it is used for non-verbal communication, which, some think, is convenient. Arbitrariness is a kind of freedom. As one culture encounters another, the cultures learn that numbers and colours are indeed arbitrary in the universal sense.
Schizophrenics
There are lots of schizophrenics here on Lulu Island. They think the initial letters of words have special significance. They seriously believe in numerology and colour meanings. I think schizophrenics have multiplied in number in recent years. Sigh!
No. 6
No. 6 is an interesting anime about a postapocalyptic future where humankind survives in a few city-states.
Friday, September 11, 2015
Empowering Women
With slowing and plateauing population rates, empowering women is a strategy for compensation. In the past, women were "wasted" essentially because they were not as educated as the men in their society.
Woman Authors
Woman authors I like are Ursula K. Le Guin, Anne McCaffrey, and Doris Lessing, all of whom write sci-fi. They write like men.
Book a Journey
Every book I read is a journey. I like watching movies and shows, too, but a book gives you practice in your own imagination.
Foretelling
Which sci-fi author is closer to reality about the future? Is it Arthur C. Clarke, Samuel R. Delany, Olaf Stapledon, Piers Anthony, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Larry Niven, Robert Silverberg, or some other? How do you think about the ideas in anime?
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Earth's Terrible Climate
With the current great rain and flooding in eastern Japan, Japanese would realize Earth's terrible climate. They should think about outer space colonization. The Earth is unstable.
JAXA
I've looked at the website of Japan's space agency JAXA, and I think it's still early morning for Japan's space ambitions. There's much potential.
Voyager
An interesting feature of Star Trek: Voyager is that the ship's crew, being lost far away in the other side of the galaxy, all want to get back home, instead of making a new home. How would you choose?
Talking with the TV
Often, people on TV talk to me, and I can talk to the people on TV. In Science, the phenomenon may be explainable through faster-than-light waves or particles called tachyons or psychons, which can travel back in time. In Buddhism, the phenomenon may be the workings of Māyā or Illusion. I rely on Buddhism or Science to explain it. Such works for me.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Vocabulary Study
Let me make something clear. My vocabulary entries are mainly for my benefit, and it's not really a public service. If you like the words, then fine, if not, then just ignore. It's not like I'm writing a newspaper article or something.
Emanations
This morning's episode "Emanations" of Star Trek: Voyager is particularly important because it deals with the afterlife in an unusual way.
Persecution
As Lulu Islanders are perhaps predominantly secular, my ethnic neighbours wrongly perceive religious persecution, whilst it's really sexual.
The Chessmen of Mars
I saw this book The Chessmen of Mars with exactly that cover when I was a child in the Philippines. It was at a bookstore in Metro Manila. Then began my growing fascination with sci-fi.
Astronomy Fan and Desert Worlds
Why am I so fascinated with astronomy? I know it's unlikely I ever will set foot outside of Earth. And I know most planets and moons out there are hot and cold deserts. Yet, I like deserts. I live here on Lulu Island, which is a desert. There are living, even habitable, worlds out there, exoplanetists know. My imagination compensates for unsatiated reality.
Monday, September 7, 2015
Sunday, September 6, 2015
Why I Blog
Let me make something clear. My blogging activities aren't really some kind of service to the public, but rather, they're an expression of vanity with the idea of promoting my own hobbies. The audience is merely incidental. If there's an audience, then fine, but if none, then fine, too. You know I walk around Lulu Island, and I see really nobody.
Friday, September 4, 2015
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