camwyn | Oct. 23rd, 2002

You have no idea how much I am looking forward to this. Mark Twain was right. Work consists of what a body is obliged to do, and play consists of what a body wants to do. I'm obliged to go to Kean, because if I get a master's degree I'll be able to look around and say 'yoo hoo, Red Cross chapters not currently in hiring freeze mode (or possibly Red Cross NHQ), I've got this lovely piece of paper, now hire me as a manager so I can make a livable wage'. But I want to learn Mandarin, and I definitely want to learn to read Chinese. I find it personally humiliating to look at written Chinese and not know what 99.95% of it means. (The remaining 5% are characters I've picked up from years of shopping at places like Maxim's and Kam Man Foods, plus some basic words, astrological signs, and fragments from Your First 100 Words in Chinese. It's not like looking at a Western language and not being able to read it. At least I know what the sounds are, and stand a snowball's chance in Hell of guessing right. I taught myself the Cyrillic alphabet because the inability to sound out Russian was irritating in high school, and I took a few semesters of Greek (most of which now eludes me) because I grew up in a Greek neighbourhood and wanted to at least know what the street signs said. I want to be able to do that much in Chinese, too. And I definitely want to be able to speak it, Mandarin anyway. (Cantonese can wait.) Preferably, more than just "Wo ke yi chi bo li, wo bu huei sho shang", thanks.

Other news: downloaded a training map for Black and White yesterday. Currently teaching the horse to perform the Wood miracle. He figured out the village store. Just as soon as I figure out how to raise the Totem, I'm going to teach him how to do that, and then I can probably get people to dance so the horse can learn to do that too. I'll name him tonight, and then I'll teach him some of the other important Miracles - Food would be good, so would Heal. I actually got him to eat grain for once, instead of fish... he definitely needs to learn Wood, though, the secondary village on the training map keeps complaining that they need to build more homes, so once he learns Wood we'll see about teaching him to make Builder Disciples. He's learning pretty well, and I only had to slap him once or twice (no kicking the villagers!). The rest of the learning last night was accomplished by belly scritches and nose rubs, so he thinks I'm a good god. Which is cool.

Today's pulp survival tip is actually an Evil Overlord reminder: 48. I will treat any beast which I control through magic or technology with respect and kindness. Thus if the control is ever broken, it will not immediately come after me for revenge.