two-fisted romance

[incandescens]

Looking back on the week; I'm really pleased with my new job, I look forward to developing it further, I'm absolutely exhausted and need to catch up on my Exalted writing (though am not dangerously behind yet).

Incidentally, I just finished the fifth volume of Count Cain and was extremely annoyed by the explanation of the Red Ram (or, in the French I was reading it in, "le belier rouge" in casual conversation. Though they did show the actual writing of Red Ram on the walls.) I do not consider "he forgot the letter U" justification for that piece of finagling.

Though I do want to know what's going on with Dr Jezabel Disraeli, and Delilah, and Cain's father . . . gah, gah, guilty pleasures. Gothic trashy sentimental dark sloshy guilty pleasures.

Hm. Must organise birthday present for sister (11th August).

Put together the Warrior Monk Stikfa and added it to the Soldier Stikfa on my computer at work. Left them for the weekend with the Monk putting his sword to the Soldier's throat. Why, yes, I do expect the Monk to win most fights I choreograph. The damn things are addictive. So easy to toy with.

---

John M. Ford
Div. of Inappropriate Technology
Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow
Creators of GURPS TWO-FISTED ROMANCE:
"Will you look at that? Jane Austen's kicking Danielle Steel's Bath buns, and the Brontë sisters are tag-teaming Joan and Jackie Collins."
"You know, a gentleman wouldn't watch this."
"You see 'Gentleman' anywhere on my character sheet? Hey! Here comes Georgette Heyer with a riding crop!"

Comments

[copperbird.livejournal.com]

Great news about the job starting well :) A good sign.

[incandescens]

Thanks. :) Let's hope it stays that way.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

It's been a good ten years since I read Red Ram, but at the time I remember that the spelling made sense to me. Japanese has nothing that approximates the ur sound, so the Japanese suffer the agonies of the damned when required to make it. The best you can hope for is an ah sound ending (maybe) with an approximation of r. Thus I'm sure Yuki Kaori thinks of the word as mah(r)dah(r) and writing the mur as mar to be not that far off. The thing being, I wonder how murder was actually pronounced in 19th century British, since the present-day version to my ear regularly swallows its r's.

There's a related story about someone saying in the English subtitles to a Cantonese film, Knock her up! and producing handcuffs with which to do it. This puzzled me for ages until I learned that in Cantonese, apparently l and n are the same sound. The fact that the spelling was right even though the sounds were confused still makes my eyes cross.

[incandescens]

Ah. Okay, hm . . . that makes more sense now. Thanks.

(I admit to having been confused a priori by frequent references to "belier rouge" -- French translation, after all -- and being far more interested in the Dr Jezabel Disraeli side of the plotline.)