Chévere!

[osprey_archer]

I found the best Spanish dictionary ever yesterday. It’s not exactly a dictionary, it’s a book with lists of words grouped around a certain concept: these words mean “to run,” these words are types of shoes, these words describe different types of rivers…

Where has this book been all my life? I would have loved this book, and carried it around with me like a favorite blanket and petted it and called it Jorge.

My favorite word from this book is “serenarse,” which means “to calm yourself down; to regain your self-control.” I feel that “Me serené” is infinitely more graceful and affecting than “I regained my self-control.” It’s a pity I can’t unilaterally introduce it into the English language.

Just generally, Spanish reflexive verbs beat English reflexives into the dust. Myself, yourself, himself—all of these words are awkward and overlong, compared to the graceful simplicity of the Spanish me, te, se. If you ever want to inflict an action on yourself, Spanish is the language to use.

***

Also, a link to a hilarious and affectionate description of steampunk, via marycatelli:

People think of goths as weirdoes who take vampires too seriously, and therefore they can’t help being worried on some level that a crazy goth might, you know, want to make them bleed. Whereas steampunks are — what? Weirdoes who take pocket-watches too seriously? What are they gonna do, vehemently tell you what time it is?

I feel like I should mention that the article is not nearly as hard on Goths as that sounds.

Comments

[girl-called-sun.livejournal.com]

Still can't make a valid comment on social observation, but I can make a comment on steampunk, or at least on weird fiction.

Computers that run on steam power and punch cards, or ants and cheese, or needs thwacked with hammers - that's technology I can believe in.

BTW, have you read, or heard of, China Meiville's Perdido Street Station? Heavy, definitely weird, enormously imaginative, epic.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Don't computers hear need to be thwacked with hammers sometimes? :p

But I know (I think) what you mean - steampunk technology just seems so much more real than real technology. You can see its workings and it has heft and weight, instead of being this tiny little nothing that makes everything it does seem so easy.

I keep meaning to read more steam-punk type stuff, but it's hard to find things that don't ping my Victorian buttons.

I've heard of Perdido Street Station; I vacillate on whether to read it because I've heard that it's wonderful and beautiful imagined and well-written; but, alternatively, it's depressing and gruesome and...still well-written, but so depressing.

[enemyfrigate.livejournal.com]

You must tell me the name of this wondrous book!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Using Spanish Synonyms.

If you're interested, I've also found this great Spanish/English dictionary online (http://www.spanishdict.com/) which lists not just definitions, but phrases that the word is often used in.

Do you study Spanish?

[enemyfrigate.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm attempting to get my Spanish back and usable, though I have to admit I was always better at reading it than speaking it.

I find that the usual textbook teaching style doesn't work that well for me with languages, so any other resource is great. I've been thinking of getting the Rosetta Stone disks but they're kind of expensive for me right now.

My next project is to work my way through the Spanish translation of Harry Potter with a good Spanish dictionary.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Harry Potter in Spanish? I bow before your ambition.

One thing I've found - I don't know how good your Spanish is, so it may not work for you - but if you need to work on your listening comprehension, Spanish movies without subtitles are very useful.

[enemyfrigate.livejournal.com]

I got the idea re: HP in Spanish from, I think, a Lifehacker post, about learning language. Since I have a fair amount of reading comprehension, the idea is to choose a familiar and straightforward book that you've already read, and go through it in Spanish with a good Sp. dictionary at your side. The post specifically suggested HP, actually, as it is available in a bajillion languages, and has been widely read.

Since I learn little to nothing from Spanish textbooks these days, it seemed like a good idea.

I've tried it with SPanish movies, and TV shows dubbed into Spanish; my success varies. It helps to view something you're already familiar with, so you can really listen and not be distracted with simply viewing for story etc. I'll have to try that again sometime soon.

[visualthinker11.livejournal.com]

this is not at all realted, but i think you'll love it anyway:

http://www.comicmix.com/news/2008/10/06/bryan-fuller-plans-pushing-daisies-wonderfalls-crossover/

...yeah.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wonder which characters? Oh, can you imagine Jaye talking to Emerson Cod? SNARKFEST.

[visualthinker11.livejournal.com]

hah, it really really would be. ; )

i'm betting it'll be a minor-ish character or two... maybe dr. ron or sharon? who's not really minor but she isn't jaye/eric/mahandra...the three people who i would get most excited about, but probably are the least likely to show up.

(...or maybe the bird lady from the zoo, or the police officer from "caged bird")

aaah crack!fic- what if mahandra is emerson's daughter?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

That crack!fic is the Best Idea Ever.

Although I think Dr. Ron could be utterly hilarious, especially if he tried to talk to Ned who would be all I DO NOT TALK TO PEOPLE, or Chuck who would be trying to explain her mental state without actually referring to any of the supernatural events that caused it.

[visualthinker11.livejournal.com]

it would be incredibly exciting. though i do get the impression that his kid's young enough to read pop-up books.
...but maybe mahandra's still related to him in some way, or is a character from his past. because, yeah, i want to see that snarkfest. ; )

i very much want to see that chuck scene now... it sounds kind of excellent.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Plotbunny!

I do need a new project now that Jaye's epic is done, after all. :)

[visualthinker11.livejournal.com]

and it is super-epic. it was bad though, i read though a lot of the third part but couldn't get my brain in edit-mode because it was too busy enjoying the utter excellence of it. plus i haven't seen a whole lot of great wonderfalls fic around (though i haven't been actively looking, either...), so it's automatically noteworthy fic in that way.

ooh, it'd be fun to read your pd fic, if you so choose to write some. right now i'm toying with a crack!drabble in which olive actually is in the sound of music, or maria's in pd...it's definitely still in the gestating idea stage, though...

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Ooh, are you going to have Olive and Maria meet? Because that could be interesting.

I'm not making any promises on the PD fic, because half of my fic plans seem to fall through into the fiery abyss, but it's definitely on list of possibilities. It has points in its favor for its non-epicness.