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Reading a few people on my f-list who always have interesting things to say about writing, I was moved to reread Dorothy Bryant’s Writing a Novel (I always want to call her Dorothy Allison, who is another person altogether). Not all of it works for me, but I find it interesting and sometimes motivating. For today “Remember that detailed planning is of great value, but only if you understand that it does not work. By that I mean you cannot expect your careful planning to solve in advance many of the problems you will run into while writing, nor help you avoid making changes you must make. It is through the writing itself that you learn what you are trying to write. You write some of it, and it’s not quite right, but the process of writing sets deep forces in motion. (That’s why if you miss a day you feel as if getting started again is like moving mountains.) These deep forces shift you to a new place, slightly closer to what you can write. Day by day, as you write, everything keeps shifting and changing under your hands. The plan helps in this process, but only if you are ready to deviate from it as you begin to see your direction more clearly.”

From my favorite singer, not a song this time but a game livestream (from last summer sometime). Unlike Liu Chang, Jiang Dunhao does not do livestreams on the regular (“I never know what to say”), so this is a bit of an exception. He’s playing a game called inZoi? which seems to be a kind of slice-of-life? in a city where they speak an annoyingly random language? and makes himself an avatar wearing one of his own typical striped shirts (with a lot of cute little “Nope!”s in English when he doesn’t like the options presented). It’s not all that exciting to watch, but like Liu Chang’s game livestreams, excellent for listening practice, since his narration reflects what’s happening on screen, plus the style of the game means there are a lot of everyday words coming up. (The first thing he does is go to the karaoke box on the game map, where he is somewhat appalled to find that his avatar sings really badly.)
(okay, I lied, here’s a song too, even though I think I’ve already posted this one: 掉了, just because it blows my mind every time.)

For work reasons, I came across this list of large cardinal properties (I don’t even know what cardinals are, other than cardinal-versus-ordinal, not counting the religious ones and the red birds) and found it extremely delightful. I know for math people, including those on my f-list, it must make actual sense, but I just like the existence of worldly cardinals, weakly and strongly inaccessible cardinals (need to apply this categorization to the local authorities, utilities companies, etc.), unfoldable cardinals, shrewd cardinals, almost and totally ineffable cardinals, ethereal cardinals, subtle cardinals, remarkable cardinals, almost high jump cardinals, super almost huge cardinals, and so on.

Antonia Forest fans may be amused to note that there’s a kid called Juki at the Saturday juku; also another boy called Mokuren, a very pretty name which means “magnolia” (I haven’t seen the characters but presumably it’s 木蓮, although these days you never know). Some of the modern kira-kira names I find too much, as in the previous post, but at least it’s more interesting than everyone being named Hiroshi or Daisuke or Keiko or Miyuki (depending on the generation).

Still working my way through the Chinese edition of The People at No. 1 Siwei Street; the dialogue is very cute in Chinese. Seriously confusing myself because there’s a character who is mostly just called the landlady, 房东, but because I know there’s a landlady character, I keep looking at 大家 and wanting to read it that way (“landlord/-lady” in Japanese, “everyone” in Chinese). Also I can’t believe I now know how to say both “pillowfriend” and “fuckbuddy” in Chinese (床伴 and 炮友, if anyone cares); clearly I have made some fundamental mistake somewhere in my self-guided Chinese education.
More silly Chinese: People online using on-the-spot loan words written in hanzi, like 哦莫 (Korean “omo,” kind of “oy vey”) or 摩西摩西 (Japanese “moshi-moshi,” telephone hello doubling as “hey you, wake up there”).
When I need spare names for original Chinese characters (I mean, people, not letters) I have a secret weapon: searching for chorus or orchestra rosters in Chinese. The former usually separates members by voice part and the latter often comes with photos, making it easy both ways to check name gender, and there are lots and lots of names to mix-and-match first and last. Also interested that Western orchestra instruments seem to have multiple translations: for the contrabass I’ve mostly seen 低音提琴, low violin, but also 倍大提琴 which is literally “double bass” (or “double cello,” anyway). Also the 法国号, French horn, which also goes by 圆号, round horn; the cor anglais seems to be literally the 英国管 as well. The harp is 竖琴, vertical-stringed-instrument (琴 is the word for “zither” but can refer to anything with strings, the violin family as above is various 提琴s and even rock guitarists and bass players will refer casually to their axes as 琴 as well). Timpani are 定音鼓, fixed-tone drums.

Visit to Arima, a hot spring spa with centuries of history as a tourist destination (possibly millennia; the original hot spring visitors were gods, if you follow the local legend). Lots of cherry blossoms, because it’s in the mountains and they bloom later; steep hills everywhere (my knees are not in good shape right now and the hills were a challenge; does anybody have any good exercise ideas that are easy on the knees?); the “Jealousy Spring” said to puff out steam whenever a beautiful woman walks by; a local train using rolling stock from sixty years ago; soda-water senbei, which you’re supposed to eat within five seconds (literally) after they come off the griddle, because the first bite is chewy and after that they get crisp (they taste like old-fashioned fortune cookies); and of course the hot springs, notable for their copper-colored water, like bathing in a mud puddle but actually very clean and soothing (see here, not where we stayed but the photos are nice). (No wonder I’ve read at least one murder mystery in which the Arima waters are used to conceal an exsanguinated victim.)

Photos: Way too many cherry blossoms, mostly from Arima; I still maintain that they’re not my favorite flowers, but they sure are photogenic. Two cats: Koron-chan with an elegant little halo, and an offended stray at a safe distance. Some maples: the red leaves are not actually painted on the wall, they just look like it. Message on a mailbox that cracked me up. A bounty of kumquats going to waste because they’re growing on the train side of the railway fence, meaning nobody can pick them (I suppose the railway company could, but logistically it wouldn’t be easy). An alleyway in Arima and a temple entrance which looks like it’s off in the mountains somewhere but is actually right in the middle of my large city.

Be safe and well.