I've always liked culture and (attempting) to learn languages, but I think I have to say BSL (British Sign Language) is the most exciting and satisfying language I've ever tried to learn. The grammar is a little complicated but so many of the signs are self explanatory and have some good humour to them. For example, the sign for 'Lidl' is also the sign for cheap, while the sign for 'Waitrose' is also the sign for expensive. There are so many instances when I find BSL seriously cool.
Personally, learning from videos is a little bit difficult, but Signaloid has some very cute videos for BSL featuring a vocaloid inspired character, and BritishSignLanguage is a good resource dictionary for various signs, the animations aren't that great, but there are detailed descriptions of each sign which can be helpful.
Tuesday 24 July 2012
Wednesday 18 July 2012
The River Beach
I don't usually wake up early, but when I do... Well, not much actually happens, my mind still feels numb from lack of sleep. Yet, determined, I try to continue a poem I started last night called 'The Beach River'. This poem is an attempt to describe a political metaphor, but it is hard to get the point across without flooding it with an over-exaggerated message. I'm hoping I'll be able to post it on TulinKei later.
Recently, I've been listening to Mutyumu which has probably inspired the flavour of my writing.
Recently, I've been listening to Mutyumu which has probably inspired the flavour of my writing.
Monday 16 July 2012
The Housekeeper and the Professor
First, an apology.
Yet again I have taken another name from fellow Blogger users, and made, yet again, a blog which I'll claim, (as always) to regularly update. But alas, I needed somewhere online to share things that are not political, musical, or even as colourful. This blog is dedicated for everything under 'general'. Book reviews, projects, art, music, language... It'll contain a bit of everything that I am too lazy to dedicate an entire blog for, (and thus save some blog names for everyone else) and just feel it needs to go online. It'll be like a rough notebook, bits here and there - nothing too polished, (they'll probably be a 'blog' for that.) so enjoy, hope it's somewhat interesting, but if you're looking for something in particular you might not find it here.
And I do wish that awful music you get while you're waiting for someone to put you through on phones would stop soon. Lady on the phone has been waiting for at least ten minutes now. Distorted classical is most painful on the ears.
The Housekeeper and the Professor
Ah, yes. I came into the library as part of my new routine, to actually err... Read. Here I am with a brand new fiction book by an author named Yoko Ogawa, author of 'The Diving Pool' if you've ever heard of it, I personally haven't. This novel is about a maths professor who, after a traumatic head injury, has lived with only eighty minutes of short term memory. A young housekeeper with a ten year old son has been entrusted to take care of him. Reciting the blurb; "Each morning, as the Professor and the Housekeeper are reintroduced to one another, a strange, beautiful relationship blossoms between them. The Professor may not remember what he had for breakfast, but his mind is still alive with elegant equations from the past. He devises clever maths riddles -- based on her shoe size or her birthday - and the numbers, in their articulate order, reveal a sheltering and poetic world to both the Housekeeper and her little boy." Yadda, yadda. I'm not too keen on maths, but it sounded rather interesting. The blurb goes on, which makes me worry there's not more too the book, but alas, I open and start reading.
Straight away Yoko Ogawa is keen to draw in the maths, which I'll be honest -- almost frightens me. The Housekeeper's 'little boy' is called Root by the Professor - and the Housekeeper who narrates the story is keen to point out that the most important thing she and her son learnt is the meaning of the square root. Oh my word, what have I gotten myself into... I wonder if I get through this, I'll understand everything there is to know about the Pythagorean theorem.
Reading on, the story goes along as expected/dictated by the blurb. A woman who I don't think has actually said her name (or her boy's real name once) gets a job as a housekeeper for the professor, she's immediately asked her shoe size, cue the maths. It is clear, also, that this book was written in Japan, and there are slight, interesting hints throughout the book.
I reach page 18 and 19, and see a double page spread about the numbers 220 and 284. Did you know the sum of the factors 220 is 284 and the sum of the factors of 284 is 220. They're called 'amicable numbers' and apparently they're extremely rare. I like the last sentence on the page, 'I traced the trail of numbers from the ones the Professor had written to the ones I'd added, and they all seemed to flow together, as if we'd been connecting up the constellations in the night sky.'
Looks like my time in the library is up now. I'm not sure if I would continue reading the book, but for enthusiastic mathematicians, this book may really appeal to you.
Yet again I have taken another name from fellow Blogger users, and made, yet again, a blog which I'll claim, (as always) to regularly update. But alas, I needed somewhere online to share things that are not political, musical, or even as colourful. This blog is dedicated for everything under 'general'. Book reviews, projects, art, music, language... It'll contain a bit of everything that I am too lazy to dedicate an entire blog for, (and thus save some blog names for everyone else) and just feel it needs to go online. It'll be like a rough notebook, bits here and there - nothing too polished, (they'll probably be a 'blog' for that.) so enjoy, hope it's somewhat interesting, but if you're looking for something in particular you might not find it here.
And I do wish that awful music you get while you're waiting for someone to put you through on phones would stop soon. Lady on the phone has been waiting for at least ten minutes now. Distorted classical is most painful on the ears.
The Housekeeper and the Professor
Ah, yes. I came into the library as part of my new routine, to actually err... Read. Here I am with a brand new fiction book by an author named Yoko Ogawa, author of 'The Diving Pool' if you've ever heard of it, I personally haven't. This novel is about a maths professor who, after a traumatic head injury, has lived with only eighty minutes of short term memory. A young housekeeper with a ten year old son has been entrusted to take care of him. Reciting the blurb; "Each morning, as the Professor and the Housekeeper are reintroduced to one another, a strange, beautiful relationship blossoms between them. The Professor may not remember what he had for breakfast, but his mind is still alive with elegant equations from the past. He devises clever maths riddles -- based on her shoe size or her birthday - and the numbers, in their articulate order, reveal a sheltering and poetic world to both the Housekeeper and her little boy." Yadda, yadda. I'm not too keen on maths, but it sounded rather interesting. The blurb goes on, which makes me worry there's not more too the book, but alas, I open and start reading.
Straight away Yoko Ogawa is keen to draw in the maths, which I'll be honest -- almost frightens me. The Housekeeper's 'little boy' is called Root by the Professor - and the Housekeeper who narrates the story is keen to point out that the most important thing she and her son learnt is the meaning of the square root. Oh my word, what have I gotten myself into... I wonder if I get through this, I'll understand everything there is to know about the Pythagorean theorem.
Reading on, the story goes along as expected/dictated by the blurb. A woman who I don't think has actually said her name (or her boy's real name once) gets a job as a housekeeper for the professor, she's immediately asked her shoe size, cue the maths. It is clear, also, that this book was written in Japan, and there are slight, interesting hints throughout the book.
I reach page 18 and 19, and see a double page spread about the numbers 220 and 284. Did you know the sum of the factors 220 is 284 and the sum of the factors of 284 is 220. They're called 'amicable numbers' and apparently they're extremely rare. I like the last sentence on the page, 'I traced the trail of numbers from the ones the Professor had written to the ones I'd added, and they all seemed to flow together, as if we'd been connecting up the constellations in the night sky.'
Looks like my time in the library is up now. I'm not sure if I would continue reading the book, but for enthusiastic mathematicians, this book may really appeal to you.
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