Pharra

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The Iraq Affair

Dr. Earl C. Carlson wrote this piece before the media hoopla about the upcoming Iraq war. I found it interesting, so I am posting it here.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

A Fairy Princess: Lisell

http://img39.picoodle.com/img/img39/9/10/11/f_Fairym_e8501af.png
Fairies are cool. Out of all the games at www.y8.com (don't go there without Firefox and NoScripts and don't allow y8.com to run scripts on your computer), I pick the fairy dress up game. I must be gay.

Actually I prefer to think that I just like fairies. Fairies and mythological dragons are my favorite, but they don't have a "layout the Dragon's horde" game. :P

Lisell:
I can't make a character without making a story.

Lisell is the 9th daughter of Lynay. To avoid sexuality in my stories, fairies either procreate asexually or any two fairies can sprinkle each other with pollen and get the job done, effectively meaning all fairies are both genders at the same time; it all depends on the mood I'm in at the time.

All fairies are poisonous and most are herbivores, much to the plant family's chagrin. Moss & algae are fit for some, while others prefer fruits or leaves. A few kinds of fairies are omnivorous and opportunistic, eating bugs and things small enough not to be a threat and slow enough to catch.

Lisell is a Vasp fairy, the most venemous. As is custom among fairy keepers, she's been trussed up a bit by her owner and her venom glands removed, which precludes her from ever rejoining the wild.

Still, she goes outside with her owner's family on a wire string, gets plenty of food, and loves digging her tiny fangs into anyone who tempts her temper, especially strangers. She doesn't like most of the owner's children much, except the oldest, who is the most calm.

Her white hare is a tell-tale sign of her species, the Vasp Fairy.

She responds to many verbal words and gives the wry smile you see here when she chooses to ignore them, which is often.

Fairies, after all, aren't really domesticatable.

William Bouguereau

One of my heroes.

Sunday, October 07, 2007

My Belruel - Jam Sessions

Because no one seems to get it right, I have posted the musical notes / music chords to "My Belruel" (actually Tycho's Ode) here:

A A - A
'twas the twelving day of Everfair
E E - E
when fell my maid of raven hair
D D - D F#m F#m F#m
beneath her cloven standard of the wren
E A A - A
and damn that roiling goblin horde
E E - E E
we'd almost slain the overlord
D D - D D F#m - E E
but i could never roll an elf again

A A - A
"The Queen of Bells and Battle-Downs"
E - E
she wore the title like a crown
D D - D F#m - F#m E
Foes so deep a man would drown, but she still stood alone
A - A -
a princess and a duchess both
E E - E
and sworn to nine prestigious oaths,
D D - D F#m E
her duties, they would take her to that twisting spire of stone

A A - A
Against his tower, a silhouette
E E - E
She called like a coronet
D - D D
And the green sea of his armies burst from warrens far below
A - A
The pacts he'd made with demonkind
E E - E E
Had rent his thin and tattered mind
D - D - F#m E
And hellish princedoms occupied the arrow he let go

A - A
They took her through the crowded square
E - E
And laid her at the temple stair
D D F#m F#m E
The sorcelled barb of Arudair beyond their healing arts
A
there stands a circlet on her brow
E
that turns the blades of men around
D F#m
But if Belruel could hear me now
E
This song would pierce her heart

A A - A
'twas the twelving day of Everfair
E E - E
when fell my maid of raven hair
D D - D F#m F#m - E
beneath her cloven standard of the wren
A A - A
damn that roiling goblin horde!
E E - E E
and damn their hell-bound the overlord!
D D - D F#m F#m - A E A
but i could never roll an elf again

Tycho from Penny-Arcade said this tune was based off of a default song in the preview build of Jam Sessions - I can't find any song that matches it in the final release.

He seems to poetically, or randomly, intersperse extra notes or fewer notes, and I have not annotated where he'd strum the guitar without holding a key, which makes a sound but produces no note.

NO one on TEH INTERWEBS has bothered to really try to write down each note on each line, just the notes that are on that line in the order they appear. I'm quite disturbed at the lack of interest of this particular piece - it is one of the finest pieces of work the author has ever done, and it's like it's just something he did and tossed, and so has everyone else.

In a way, that's the saddest fate of Belruel.


I am currently trying to practice this with my 10yo daughter, but without a proper music sheet and knowing what timing to set the metronome, it's about near impossible. I shall have to involve my lovely Latin wife, who plays classical piano, for aide. We spent almost two hours tonight (1:45) playing THE FIRST THREE LINES. After the first half hour even my well disciplined child asked "Do we have to keep playing?" I told her "This is drilling, sweetie." She was a trouper the rest of the time, no questions asked; we got our yucks in with all of our bloopers too.
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