Monday Musician: Bach, Little Fugue in G Minor

Today’s Pick:

Johann Sebastian Bach, Little Fugue in G Minor

Break

So, I thought I would just do a quick post (quick for me, anyway) and explain what’s going on now.

As of yesterday, I am officially on Thanksgiving Break.  To be perfectly honest, it isn’t official Thanksgiving Break until Monday, but our 5-day Break is sandwiched between two weekends, nearly doubling it in size.  Anyway, I managed to get everything done that I could do before yesterday.  All I really need to do for my classes is to finish reading Pride & Prejudice for British Literature, finish Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley for history class and to simply make sure that I don’t forget everything that I’ve learned over the last semester.  Sometime over next week, I’ll be getting a paper prompt for British Lit. class for our final paper, and the first day back from break, I should be getting a paper prompt for History as well.  I’m not going to worry too much about those things over Break, but I will endeavor to do what I can to be prepared for all of this.

Anyhow, I have returned to my home.  I walked into my room yesterday to find it nearly completely cleaned up, which is not at all how I left it, so I definitely owe my mother quite a bit.  Yesterday, I also moved a filing cabinet into my room and will be spending at least some of today organizing all of my papers and stuff.  I was amazed when I was going through these stacks of papers yesterday at all of the stuff that I have.  I even found a few sets of song lyrics that I had forgotten about.  Anyhow, that’s my agenda for today.  I also hope to take full advantage of the time I am given and do some writing for my book.

Anyhow, that pretty much sums up what I’m doing right now.

SfC

Monday Musician: Scarletti, Sonata K. 455

Today’s Pick:

Domenico Scarletti – Sonata K. 455

I picked this piece because of what I see to be a unique musical excellence…though I cannot quite define it.  Comments?  Anybody?

Thoughts For the Weekend

To begin with, I haven’t spent much time in the last few days writing on Kenushi Ryu.  What little spare time I have had this week has involved finishing and perfecting my paper on John Donne’s Holy Sonnet XIV.  I feel satisfied, however, that the final product I turned in was the best that I could do, given the amount of time I had.  Of course, had I invested more time in it to begin with, it would have been even better, but I won’t beat myself up about that; I did what I could.

Anyway, we have moved on from the Romantic poets to Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” for my English class.  I can’t say that I have read too much (it’s on my weekend to-do list), but from my initial impressions, Mr. Bennet is shaping up to be one of my more favorite characters.  He’s witty, but he also doesn’t show it off or flaunt it; he always knows more than he is letting on.  His is a sort of character that I would love to accurately portray in my book (in my own literary style, of course).

On this subject, in one of my history lectures a couple of weeks ago, the professor mentioned a book to the class whose name now eludes me.  It was a story of Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency through the eyes of his advisers, secretaries, etc.  When asked why the writer of this book didn’t tell it from Roosevelt’s perspective, he stated that he felt that Roosevelt’s was a mind that he felt was too difficult to penetrate and understand, which is quite something for this particularly accomplished writer to say.  Of course, it is an historical fact that Roosevelt kept most of his thoughts to himself, meaning that he could make sudden decisions without foreshadowing it to anyone, not even Eleanor, his friends, advisers, or anyone else.  Again, this makes me say that such a mind is the sort of character I would love to write into my book properly.  Of course, as the writer that I have already mentioned, if I feel that I can’t do it well, then I feel that I ought not to try, but it would be something fun to attempt.

On the subject of my history class, we are in the finishing chapters of Bradley’s Flags of Our Fathers.  The thing that I found most striking about the novel was the way the Battle of Iwo Jima was described in such powerfully honest details, talking about the wounds that people sustained and the Japanese tortures on a captured American and all of that sort of thing.  Of course, I already made a post back in September (World War II and Counting the Cost) where I discuss the reality of all of this, but reading through the middle part of Bradley’s book definitely reinforced that newly-percieved reality.  Anyway, that’s something else that I have on my to-do list.

I had a concert with the college band that I am in Tuesday night and my mother, father, and sister all came up to watch it, which was a cause for joy.  Thinking about it right now just reminds me that in a week, I will be going home for a whole week for Thanksgiving, and the history instructor informed us today that he is canceling Friday afternoon classes so that we can go home sooner, which also makes me very happy.  Since the last couple of days have been taxing on my time, I also have a great deal of French Horn practicing to do this weekend.

Also, I have a Music Theory exam on Tuesday, which will require preparation, though I do feel more prepared for this one than I do the previous two.  Don’t mistake me, I will still be certain to study and prepare for it.  However, I am much more relaxed about this exam.

Religious Studies continues to be the class that I do the best in.  I just find myself asking how much of the extra time and energy I spent in high school learning about religious issues and theological understanding accounts for the amount of (unusual) proficiency I have found in that class.  Our guest speaker on Wednesday was a Muslim woman talking with us about Isalmic teachings focusing on modesty and our guest speaker on Monday was a Jewish Rabbi who mainly focused (per the regular professor’s request) on discussing why modern Judaism rejects Jesus as their Messiah.  First, though, he explained that Judaism is not a homogenenous religion, that it has many opinions about scripture and God.  Perhaps the most striking thing he stated was that modern Jews do not see their religion as the only way to God, that you don’t have to be Jewish to know Yahweh.  In fact, perhaps the most shocking statement he made (most shocking to me) was blatantly, “Jews are pluralist.”  He then went on to explain the following reasons why Judaism rejects Jesus as their Savior, as I have copied in my notes:

• Jews have a concept of God as being One (in contrast to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity), and Jesus being God violates their understanding of Yahweh.
• Jesus did not fulfill the full qualifications for being the Jewish Messiah as set forth by the Old Testament prophets (he did not become an earthly king, did not usher in Messianic Age, etc.)
• Jesus said that he had not come to “remove one stroke of ink from the law or the prophets,” yet Paul allowed Gentiles to become Christians without requiring circumcision, Sabbath rest, keeping of the Jewish Law, etc.
• Jews also believe that forgiveness is attained not through Jesus Christ, but by a change of behavior through following the law.

Anyhow, I found the lecture quite interesting and informative.  They have definitely given my mind something to munch on.

SfC

Some More Thoughts on Kenushi Ryu

So, I’ve been thinking more about my book lately.   Saturday night, I finally returned to my book proper (As opposed to simply working on stuff about my book, i.e. character sketches, maps, histories, etc.) and reread the first of it, revising a little bit as I went but mainly just rereading to remind myself precisely where I am in the story I want to tell and how far I have to go.    It was actually exciting; even being the writer of the story and knowing the circumstances under which the novel beings, I found myself thinking, “What’s next?  What’s going on?”  It definitely makes me wish that I didn’t have to wait until Thanksgiving Break (only two weeks away now!) until I get a really good opportunity to write consistently.

However, as I was walking today, I got to thinking and realized that there is a very important and legitimate question that I need to think about that has thus far evaded my consideration:  as I have stated in another post, the reason I want to avoid using Latin or another language is because I would feel obligated to explain how that language made its way into my book or how that language will make its way into our world (assuming that my novel takes place in a past reality in the same universe).

However, I have lately been wondering about how this approach can realistically work.  For a short and simple example, what symbols do the people of the Kenushi Ryu world use for mathematical questions, since Greek symbols definitely qualify as a past human language?  Of course, an easy way to avoid that would be to say that they don’t have developing mathematics like geometry or algebra or anything like that yet, but that wouldn’t really feel honest on my part as the writer.  Of course, once I get an ancient language drawn up and written into this universe, I could simply use those symbols as a basis for any such mathematical equations.  This isn’t extremely difficult to have a decent answer to.

A much better question, however, is the question of measurements.  As is already apparent in my maps, I’m using the standard of the American/British measurement system by using the mile.  I was also planning on using acres and other units of measure from that measurement system.  In addition to this, I was also considering using Metric units of measure without even considering the implications of all of this.  I really felt a little foolish that all of these considerations hadn’t crossed my mind before now.

So, right now, I’m considering what to do about measurements…and I’m also considering the possibility that I’m being too thorough in all of this and am simply overhthinking.

Leave your comments!  I’d love to hear from you!

SfC

Monday Musician: G. Rossini, William Tell Overture

Today’s Pick:

Gioachino Rossini – William Tell Overture

I especially picked this piece because I personally find it enjoyable and know that my audience will find it familiar.  Comments, anyone?

John Donne, Holy Sonnet 14: “Batter My Heart, Three Person’d God”

For my Introduction to British Literature class, I have been assigned a paper about one of the authors that we have discussed in class thus far.  Here’s a quick list of the works that we have read and talked about in class:

• Beowulf
• Lanval - Marie de France
• Miller’s Tale - Geoffrey Chaucer
• The Passionate Sheppard - Christopher Marlowe
• The Nymph’s Reply – Sir Walter Raleigh
• Sonnet 18, 29, 130 – William Shakespeare
• Paradise Lost – John Milton (Books III & IV)
• The Sun Rising, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, and The Flea by John Donne.
• To His Coy Mistress – Andrew Marvell
• Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
• Assorted Poems from William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience
• Tintern Abbey and Michael by William Wordsworth (Just finished today)

So, for my paper, I have been given three options:  1)  Discuss Unferth’s gift of Hrunting to Beowulf and take a stance on whether this was Unferth betraying Beowulf with a kiss or actually seeking reconciliation and back it up, 2)  Discuss the themes of justice in the medieval social order illustrated in Chaucer’s The Miller’s Tale and how these themes relate to one of the three main characters-John, Abasalom, or Allison-and how each character’s transgressions against society are punished in the end, or 3)  To read and analyse John Donne’s Holy Sonnet XIV, explaining the argument and message.  Obviously, by the title of this post, I chose the third option.

So, as part of simply immersing myself in the text, I thought I would write it down in my blog.  In fact, I was thinking that poetry might compose a second weekly update that I do for my blog, to go along with my Musician Monday’s updates.  However, for now, I’ll just post Holy Sonnet XIV.  So, without further ado, I give you, “Batter My Heart, Three Person’d God:”

Batter my heart, three personed God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but O, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captivated, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy.
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again;
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

So, for the introduction to my paper, I will be looking up some historical background to begin the paper.  This will be my major project for the weekend.  The paper is due on Wednesday, so I’m not in a terrible hurry to finish it this weekend, but I want to so I can read it and reread it and have friends read it, proof it, think about it, and just absolutely do the best I can to make it a great paper.

Anyway, that’s the main thing going on for me right now.  Other than that, this will be a rather relaxed weekend.  I have a large amount of reading to do in Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley for History next week; Religious Studies is fantastic; I’m pretty well caught up in music theory (even a little ahead); and I will need to be practicing my major scales for French Horn practice pretty extensively this weekend.

So anyway, that’s how things are going for schoolwork.  For Kenushi Ryu, I’m continuing to refine the map for Kenusha that I have already posted (if I have a newer version, I’ll just leave a UPDATE note on the post and upload the newer versions).  In addition, I’ve started working on a map for the Plains of Halsom region, as well as doing other various work.  I’ll keep the blog updated as I get more done.

In addition, I have borrowed from a minister The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel finally.  I have read The Case for Christ and The Case for Faith and found them both to be very thought-provoking books, and a very intellectual friend of mine owns The Case for a Creator and really enjoyed it, so that will likely occupy some of my free time for a time as well.

Have a great day and a great weekend!

SfC

A Regional Map for Kenushi Ryu

Over the last two weeks, I’ve managed to catch up on most of my schoolwork and have managed to stay caught up fairly well.  The Lord has given me a great deal of strength to perform the tasks that I need to perform, strength to do what I need to do in spite of my lack of motivation, tied together with what I will label Daylight Savings Fatigue.

As part of what I’ve managed to achieve in the last couple of days, I have created a page where I will try to consistently update with progress on Kenushi Ryu.  Here’s a couple of views of the regional map for Kenusha that I will be adding to the main “Kenushi Ryu” page:

Here’s the geographic map:

Here’s the geographic map overlaid with roads and settlements:

Of course, the settlement indicators are not the only settlements in the region.  To be defined as a settlement (in this map at this time, anyway), a population of 5,000 souls or more is required.  This includes for forts, though at forts, the garrisons of troops is included with the civilian population, mostly because the humans on Kenusha are not at all a militaristic society and their army is made up mainly of citizen soldiers.  Also, I use the term “forts” loosely to mean any settlement that acts as both a population center as well as a settlement with more-than-rudimentary defenses, a sizable garrison, and a local economy that’s partially or mostly devoted to producing war materials, so you’ll find more fletchers, engineers, barracks, and the like in forts.

Also, the large castle labeled “Kenusha” represents the capitol city for the human population.  It’s population is over 100,000, but not much more.  By that reckoning in addition to the other human settlements, there’s at least 195,000 humans in this region of the island.  However, as a rule of thumb, there’s about 5 citizens living in unmarked settlements to every 2 counted living in major settlements, including Kenusha, so by that reckoning, there’s 487,500 humans in this region…and this is, of course, an estimate; some of the marked settlements exceed 5,000 inhabitants substantially, so 500,000 is a more realistic figure.

Also, this doesn’t count the non-human population…but in order to go into that, I’ll need to describe those other races, and they are still a work-in-progress.

Anyhow, any comments of any kind are greatly appreciated.

SfC

UPDATE (11/9/08):  I’ve repplaced the older versions of Kenusha with a newer version; however, the only difference is that the plains of Halsom don’t extend as far south and the Sunken Lowlands don’t extend so far west as well as the addition of a compass star.

Monday Musician: Haydn Sonata #31

So, as I implied in my previous post, I believe that I will now actually be updating my blog at least once a week (Gasp!).  I will try to be certain I update on Monday’s with a video/performance of a classical or orchestral piece of music.  I might occasionally throw something else in, but this will be an exception to the rule.

Today’s Pick:

Joseph Haydn – Sonata #31

If you have any comment, don’t be afraid to speak them!