Tag: random

Initiated into the Oddfellows and Community Involvement

It has been longer than I’d have liked it to be since I last updated Di Mortui Sunt.  The Holidays can really mess up a schedule.   I’ve been a pledge of the local Oddfellows chapter for most of this year and became a member on the night of October 28th.  The picture above is of all the new members and the Noble Grand of the Lodge (he’s the chairman, basically).  If it’s hard to see me it is because the black woman’s, center-right, second row, hat is blocking my face.  What do Oddfellows do?  Well it’s a social fraternity much like the Elks or Free-Masons, except the Oddfellows didn’t became a fraternity to help out their members instead they came together to do community service and help the poor.  This was something I wanted to be a part of and so I did.  If you want to know more here’s the website for the International Order as well as the Wiki page.

I’ve recommended the group to several of my friends and will be attempting to get D to join as well.  Not only does the Order help the community but it is a great social network to be part of the Lodge puts together hikes, dances, dinners, concerts, and more.  Next Tuesday (12/22) I’ll be getting my three degrees as well.  I don’t know what all this entails.  I wish I could tell you about the initiation ceremony, but then I’d have to kill you… Or maybe they’d kill me, I forget which.

Keeping with the spirit of the post I just wanted to mention how social fraternities like the Oddfellows, the Rotary club, Elk’s Lodge, etc…  are a great way to get involved with your community and to meet your neighbors.  Our culture increasingly isolates individuals from the people nearest to them: in their own towns and neighborhoods.  This alienation from the people around us can go a long way in explaining our ability to label everyone around us as ‘them’ while our own ‘us’ shrinks and shrinks.  if you don’t feel like getting active politically in your community these local social groups are another great way to contribute to your town/city while getting to know more people and make new friends.

Connecting with the people around us is the very first step in making your community, state, country, the world, a better place.

Reflections on Autumn

This is going to be a short but important post for me. I’ve had one of my poems published in a magazine. The Yolo Crow is a literary magazine for the California county of Yolo, where I live. I submitted one of my poems, Reflections on Autumn, in June and I found out at the end of last month that my poem had been accepted for publication and would be appearing in the Fall 2009 issue (it’s the first poem in the book.)

Autumn Ride by Ming Chai
This is going to be a short post but an important one for me because I’m telling you about my poem being published in a chapbook!  The Yolo Crow is a literary magazine for the California county of Yolo, where I live.  I submitted one of my poems, Reflections on Autumn, in June and I found out at the end of last month that my poem had been accepted for publication and would be appearing in the Fall 2009 issue (it’s the first poem in the book.) You should visit their site and order a copy of it!  While you’re doing that tell them why you’re buying it too.  I might have posted the poem here before but I think re-posting it is in order, so you’ll find it below.

This isn’t the end. I’ve submitted other poems to other magazines and will continue to do so.  I do need to spend more time writing poetry though.  Next month, as this month is NaNoWriMo and I’m participating again for the third year.  I’ve never been able to successful complete a NaNoWriMo challenge and I don’t see that happening this year either.  Instead of writing a 50,000 word novel I’m aiming for 10,000 words this month ,which should be difficult enough.  What is 10,000 words, a novella?  We’ll call it a short story.

In other news, I’ve got the garden all planned out and priced, as well as the fire pit and patio around it.  They’ll both becoming together over the next month and a half.  As soon as I get a camera and a scanner I’ll be uploading pictures and images of it all.  We have a composter on the way too, which should cut down on our garbage and help with the garden.  Busy, busy times!

I’ll end with a random thought, Lava Lamps.  Are they the most amazing thing to come out of the 1960’s?

Reflections on Autumn

Light pierces the eye, hits the pan of the skull,
a dazzling display that with every fold of color, every shimmer, brings pain.
The sky is empty and the eternity of clear blue is marred by only
the stooping sun.
The breeze lazily curls around the body, seeking, slipping through thin cloth, brushing against flesh;
flesh pale and cold, unwarmed by blood that is too thin,
pumped by a heart that works like the engine of a run-down Chevrolet,
pumping, struggling….and finally pumping again.
The wind carries merely the hint of things that once were
which now lie buried by ash and forest debris,
fermenting in soil.
On barren trees but for a few leaves
fruit hangs overripe on the vine,
pungent skins cracked and bleeding
drawing endless clouds of insects
which fill the air with the sound of
contentment.
Contentment that lasts for but an instant, a flash, and it is gone
and they are gone,
small bodies littering the ground
struck down by a cold that comes from the north,
from lands far distant.
From plains of unbrushed life,
fields of ice radiate  iridescent
under an atmosphere thinned,
thin like the flesh of a grape,
or the calm on water,
easily torn, easily broken.
Thin like the soul…

Thoughts on Scribblenauts…

I’ve gone back to it but each play is for a short period, never more than a puzzle or two, anymore than that and I find myself being burned out on how unimaginative the designers were and how despite all the tools at my disposal I’d only ever need a handful of them to get through the entire game. Scribblenauts is a great concept, a nice toolbox, a good first draft, but it isn’t much of a game, and definitely not a fun one.

scribblenauts

Seeing as this game came out almost a month ago and the 2 minute attention span of the Internet has moved on to the next “big thing” I thought it’d be appropriate to talk about Scribblenauts the game by 5th cell for the Nintendo DS.   The game enjoyed near universal praise while it was being shown at conventions and show… Everyone kept talking about how great the concept was and how much fun they had solving the various puzzles the game presents you using the most ridiculous items possible (a personal friend kept telling me about using Cthulu and a laser sword (lightsaber being copyrighted) to complete one).  On this wave of praise I made sure I had ordered the game and looked forward to playing it especially because it looked like just the type of game D would love as well.

When the game arrived I eagerly slid it into my DS and booted the system up, the game has a short tutorial (that I felt was still too long, this isn’t rocket science and besides the manual is lying right here in front of me!) and then you dive into the meat and potatoes.  A quick description might be in order, in Scribblenauts you solve puzzles by summoning objects that you write into the game.  The first 30 minutes was a blast, as I spent most of the time trying to think up the ridiculous things to summon into the world: black holes, clones, pirates, ninjas, etc., etc.  After playing around I settled down into solving the puzzles and my enjoyment began to wane almost immediately.  It wasn’t the concept of the game that had failed though, rather it was the imagination of the designers who came up with the puzzles.  Very soon the obstacles placed before you become repetitive.  And, despite the vast vocabulary at your disposal there are only so many variants on a flying, diving, and tying things together…  I’m going to surmise that 90% of the words included in Scribblenauts dictionary will never be used.  For one, there is no list and so players do not know their options.  Second, players vocabularies aren’t vast.  Finally, the game doesn’t really give you a reason to think outside the box, the puzzles are all variants on common themes:  fetch this, bring these two things together, avoid this, etc.  I could use a vine, wire, cord, or chain to tie two objects together but in the end I’ll keep using the rope.

An hour in and I had become bored and set it down.

I’ve gone back to it but each play is for a short period, never more than a puzzle or two, anymore than that and I find myself being burned out on how unimaginative the designers were and how despite all the tools at my disposal I’d only ever need a handful of them to get through the entire game.  Scribblenauts is a great concept, a nice toolbox, a good first draft, but it isn’t much of a game, and definitely not a fun one.

Ending Tuesday Share

Copyright Myhaela
Copyright Myhaela

I’ve decided to end the Tuesday Share posts. I wasn’t getting any feedback on them, and they didn’t seem to draw any additional traffic. In the future items I find on the Internet that interest me enough will get full write-ups here. All other interesting items will be shared through Google Reader. You can see those items, as well as any comments I might have on them,  here.

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