Texas trip begins
I'm very grateful to my brother Andy for waking up at the same time I did, 3:45 AM, and driving me to the airport to catch my early flight. Here I am in Texas, visiting the home of my wonderful and beautiful loved one, . I'm going to be online until about midnight, while she's at work. Feel free to message me.
I got to meet upon arrival at the airport, and his flight departed hours after mine arrived. It was also neat to see how he and picked up each other's speech patterns. I regretted arranging the scheduling in such a way that I got to spend so little time with him.
I'm so lucky to be able to take trips through the generosity of loved ones who want to see me. Given that I am considered to have had the most success in making Lojban fun to non-academic layman types, there is currently some talk in the Lojban community of helping me afford to go to Philcon, to attend the annual Lojban festival. "What? Epkat isn't going to be there? Expletive attitudinal token!" There is currently an event scheduled which is intended to be shared by the leaders of the Logical Language Group (of which yours truly is a board member) and the Klingon Language Institute. I am writing a skit that will simulate a game show with contestants from the two languages.
Just as when someone paid for me to go to Origins and GenCon to demo his games, I would consider such an arrangement a form of working for my fellow jbopre. Thus if it works out, I would faithfully man the fan table, performing my fun Lojbanic dog-and-pony show. I would stop only occasionally to seek out that literary demigod, Philcon's GoH Charlie Stross, to tell him about Penguicon. Their other GoH, Tom Smith, is already sure to attend Penguicon.
Speaking of artificial languages, here is a comic strip of The Mighty Morphin' Constructed Language Rangers. Translation thanks to my polyglot friend Mark Shoulson.
One day, the bio-people(?) were calmly walking...
When suddenly
- Oh! Look! A villainous giant robot!
--
- I am Zamenhof, the Green Power
- And I, Schleyer, the Black Pöwer [note Heavy Metal umlauts]
- Here I am, Couturat, the Blue Power
- I am Alice Moriss, the Pink Power
- Uh! Uh! ... And finally me, de Wahl, the Yellow Power
- WE ARE THE BIO-PEOPLE(?)
- Hey! Base robot! I shall kill you with a terrible weapon: A Volapuk
library!
- Ah, not effective... But now tremble, here is an weapon all the more
terrible: an entire Ido library!
- Not enough? Then, here's something even more effective: Interlingua
and Occidental libraries combined!
- Ha! Do you need more? Then take an Esperanto library!
- Damn... Apparently it still resists us somewhat. Well then, we shall
combine our powers to kill it with the Five-Pointed Laser GreenStar!
- Hey! But the Green Star was never a symbol of Ido. So why should I
participate in it?
- Nor one of Volapük, so go fuck off!
- Yes, correct, we too are leaving. We don't want to recognize an
Esperanto symbol.
- Oh friends, act not foolishly, do not leave me alone! We must unite
against the enemy!
- Oh! But what is that? -- A point in the sky?
- A flying turd? -- A cunt with reactors?
- No, a Klingon robot! [robot: Success!]
- [robot: if you misspeak I will kill you]
- We must help it! [robot: Surrender or die!]
- Here! Take this blow! -- Ha, evildoer, you suffer! -- Take this!
-- We will kill you!
- There! [robot: you suffer]
- Yippie! We have triumphed! [robot: where is a good restaurant?]
- Lucky we were here: once again we have saved the world!
In news of other weirdness, did you know whatwouldjesusdownload.com is now distributing a new computer operating system intended just for Christians? This is not a joke.
Comments
treebones on Aug. 9, 2006 9:28 PM
*blink* Ubuntu...for Christians.
They're taking the OS holy wars to a totally new place, I see...
uplinktruck on Aug. 9, 2006 9:29 PM
So, other then the bundled bible study course, how does the Christian Ubuntu differ from the nonsecular version?
matt-arnold on Aug. 9, 2006 9:33 PM
Data is addressed on the disk using book, chapter, and verse.
temujin9 on Aug. 10, 2006 12:04 AM
The blessings of the Lamb of God, passed on with every holy byte?
temujin9 on Aug. 10, 2006 12:02 AM
Hey, cool! Are you staying in CS, or coming down to Austin at all?
matt-arnold on Aug. 10, 2006 12:04 AM
I plan to be there at some point, although I'm not sure when. I'd like to meet some of the cool Austinites I've heard of. And those who I know from way back!
temujin9 on Aug. 10, 2006 12:05 AM
Let me know; it'd be good to see you again.
matt-arnold on Aug. 10, 2006 4:05 PM
Are you going to the Austin Poly Dinner tonight? Let me know and I will see you there. If not, we could hang out with you afterward. My number is 248-787-7436.
thatguychuck on Aug. 10, 2006 5:44 PM — Lobjan all over the place!
Aha, so THAT'S where you are! You have been missed.
I told you about interesting news, and I shall share it.
We're covering the logic of language in a Logic class at the moment. One of the topics covered on Tuesday was Lobjan. There wasn't a lot of detail about the language, but I was able to volunteer that the largest weekly gathering of Lobjan users/researchers met in Redford, Michigan on Wednesday nights. :)
People out there know of the language, Matt. Congratulations. You are yours are doing well. :)
matt-arnold on Aug. 10, 2006 8:25 PM — Re: Lobjan all over the place!
Wow! Great! Please let them know that if any of them are interested in joining us, even in a very non-committal way, that you can put them in touch with me.
thatguychuck on Aug. 11, 2006 3:06 AM — Re: Lobjan all over the place!
Already did. :) Looking at the layout of the class, I'm not expecting a ton of interest. But there's a possibility or two out there. :)
gregvb on Aug. 12, 2006 5:51 PM — Re: Lobjan all over the place!
Is Lobjan lojban for Lojban? :)
matt-arnold on Aug. 12, 2006 7:28 PM — Re: Lobjan all over the place!
Yes it is. Back in the fifties, James Cook Brown christened the language Loglan, from the English words "logical language", in his article in Scientific American. When Robert Heinlein was inspired by that article to include it in "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress", he used that name. The word "Lojban" is a translation of this name into the language itself. It is a compound word meaning "logical language" from {loj}, short for {logji}, meaning "logic", and {ban}, short for {bangu}, meaning "language".
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