Now 'Ats Funny

So that you can understand the title, I will quickly tell you a little bit about our family read-aloud. It's called At Home in Mitford. In it, one of the characters, a boy named Dooley Barlow, says, twice in the book, "Now 'ats funny." This is a huge deal, as Dooley is cynical and doesn't usually think anything is funny. I believe that the movie below would coax Dooley into saying that rare phrase:



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IF - interactive fiction

Well, the last you heard from me was the news of the death of our beloved dog, Little. It has now been three months since I last blogged, but I thought I'd blog about this thing.

Over the summer, I've acquired a desire to learn about computer programming. Unfortunately for me, a free computer programming course is virtually non-existent. Thus, I've fallen back on the next best thing - interactive fiction (IF, for short). IF is a different sort of video game that has nearly nothing to do with video. It is pretty much what it sounds like - a story in which you control the outcome.

Thus, I have discovered a way to program it, for free. I discovered a free digital copy of The Inform Beginner's Guide, which is better than the alternative, which is buying the actual book, which may or may not be in pristine condition. The one problem is that the digital copy makes it difficult to type in the programming code while reading what to type in.

I now have followed instructions to design two IF games, which are now on my computer, as well as unlocking another IF game to play, which is relatively annoying, seeing as, during the few minutes I've checked it out, I was unable to beat it easily (which I shouldn't have expected to be able to in the first place).

The book comes with hyperlinks to allow you to download a program with the necessary files to get you started, as well as the proper instructions that will walk you through the process of designing three IF games, of differing difficulty and complexity.

It is interesting for me, although, after six or seven hours doing it yesterday, I am pretty much sick of it for now. I hope you have fun with it!

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Little

The first I learned of it was a bang and hysterical screaming. I ran from our back yard into the front yard, to see 'ding 3 running back to the house, crying, 'She got hit! She got hit!'

I ran to the big street in front of our house to see her poor, broken body, which had been so lively only moments before, lying, lifeless, in one of the lanes.

People were already there, checking the collar and crying, when our family arrived. Our dog, Little, was gone from us, and we didn't know what to do.

We buried Little in our side yard, wrapped in a blanket, head pillowed on her 'fish': her felted toy. Our neighbors comforted us, as did members of our small group.

Little was precious to us, and she will always have a special place in our hearts. We must, however, learn to move on. I'm not quite ready yet, but today we have up to have a hectic day of piano lessons (we have Guild Auditions Monday) and school (it is a co-op day), and tomorrow I go on a field trip to Busch Gardens.

My dear, poor puppy, I will miss you. I love you, Little.

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Zhongwen

Over the years, I've encountered many different experiences. Some of these have been pleasant, some not so much, but none have been quite as unique as my experience of taking a Chinese course at a co-op we go to.

Taking Chinese (or Zhongwen) has been a somewhat bewildering experience. There are over five hundred different characters in Chinese, and some (in my opinion) are utterly superfluous, such as a structural character used at the end of some phrases but not others, in a seemingly haphazard and weird fashion.

Also, the tones drive me nuts. There are five tones: the first, second, third, fourth, and neutral tones, and a slight shift in tone changes the meaning drastically. An example is the word "ma." Although a simple word in English, in first tone it means "mother," in second it means "flax," in third it means "horse," in fourth tone it is the verb "to scold," and in the neutral tone it is a structural character used to change a declarative sentence into an interrogative sentence.

In spite all of that, I would be fine if it weren't for the character memorization. Weekly, my class takes a character-writing test, and I always get a terrible grade. The pronunciation I have no problem with, but I just can't grasp the characters! The character meaning "forever," and the character meaning "water" are almost identical, apart from two strokes, or lines.

Anyway, this is 'ding 2, resignedly duking it out in Chinese I.