'Conlang: the Movie'

Hey, here I am again. Now I haven't posted as much as I might have wanted to, and I just read my last post, and it is completely out-dated. So here's an update:

Well, linguistics is still linguistics, and that was a pretty good explanation I gave you last time. Nothing wrong there.

Something new is that I didn't start at the university this September. I got what is called a 'stand-by' spot (some may call it 'wait list'). Well, apparently around 200 had applied for Linguistics and they only needed 26 students and 3 on 'stand-by', so I was pretty glad to have the 'stand-by'. And although not enough people declined for me to get a spot this year, I am secured a spot next year :D

So what do I do now? Well, I still have that Japanese-class two nights a week. That is going very well, and my classmates are all very nice and very much party people.

Other than that I have got a job that I do about 20h a week and earn DKK 110 an hour (I think that is approximately GB£12 or US$20). It's in a store called 'Tiger' where I am a cashier and such. The name of the store means excactly what you think it means (if you're thinking "tiger", that is), but it is also a pun on the danish word "10'er" which is the 10kr.-coin (that's what most things cost in there). The former is pronounced [tiːɐ] and the latter [tiːˀɐ] (this is IPA which may not be supported by all browsers).

Now the nasal conlang I am still working on - not that I have gotten a lot further. It has moved to the new CBB-forum here. And the video I sort of promised you taken with my HTC Legend is very likely going to be an explanation and example of that nasal language.

Oh, and I almost forgot. I recently donated $30 to this project. It is the 'Conlang' movie: a hillarious movie about conlanging and language geekyness. Watch the sample movie in the link, that will explain enough. My point is that for $20-$25 (depending on were you live) you can acquire your own copy of the DVD, but they need $2800 in total by November 30 in order to get the DVDs out. So go ahead and buy it, I want my copy ;)

Language and linguistics

Hey, I'm back. Now completely done with the gymnasium. So from now until the fifth of july I'm going to party down constantly, so now is my last chance to write something (again in the middle of the night, but hey, I don't have to get up in the morning anymore!). As a gratuation gift I got an HTC Legend (!) and all the stuff I need for the Roskilde-festival: tent, foldable chairs, cooling bag. So that's great.

Okay, we're talking language and linguistics today. My latest and greatest passion at the moment. I'm even going to University next year (hopefully) to major in linguistics.

So, what is linguistics anyway? Well it's the science of language. From the tiniest sounds that we speak to the complex grammar and sentence structures they make. All the way from physics and aerodynamics in pronounciation to the neuro science of language learning to the art of writing and the sociological influences of dialects. Just my thing.

I guess (again) that my childhood in Japan is to blame for this interest in linguistics. Being bilingual at such an early age can have stimulated the language part of my brain.

Now, conlanging is probably the ultimately geeky part of linguistics. Creating your own language either by mixing or changing existing languages or making them from scratch. I am into the latter, although I have yet to construct a usable language. I have a lot of small projects going, that I can actually focus on now, since I am done with school. Great!

Go read about my first (and maybe a bit ambitious) conlang: A nasal conlang

I won't be back from partying until the fifth, as I mentioned. But I'll be sure to update you with a bit more explanation (maybe a video taken with my new Legend). See ya.

Music

See, that's excactly the kind of consistency you can expect from me. Sometimes I'll post the next day, other times the next month.

On with the introduction to music. I suppose I have always been very musical, and it might have something to do with my upbringing in Japan. It certainly isn't my parents' musicality that has rubbed off on me (i.e. they have next to none). No, I have always been fond of singing, as a child singing such classics as ぞうさん (zou san, "little elephant") and パンダうさぎコアラ (pan'da usagi koara, "Panda, bunny, koala").

I also play the piano.

I like to listen to pretty much all music. Anything from classical to pop to death metal to rock'n'roll to schlager to hymns to country. So mostly what is on the radio. In my own collection of music I have mostly stuff with good harmonies and/or some funny lyrics. So I'm a big fan of Shu•bi•dua (Danish parody rock band), Tripod (Australian comedy band), Tim Minchin (Australian piano-playing rock comedian), The Beards (Australian rockband whith only songs about beards), They Might Be Giants (I haven't heard all of their songs, but the Mesopotamians is my favourite).

Of course I'm thinking of writing my own songs too. With the same sort of humourous lyrics as the above. I only haven't really done much about it... yet. I'll let you know when I write something, and I'll probably upload it to YouTube.

Well, I guess that concludes the introduction to music. I should really be reading for my last exam: classical studies (oral). That's on Monday. But then I am going to be doing only stuff I like to do for the rest of my life (well, I have the right to be optimistic). The next - and probably last - introduction will be "Language and linguistics" that is going to be interresting, but also a bit geeky. I hope to write that next week after my exam and before I go to Roskilde on the 27th!

Typography and Art

...and by "art" I mean the visual/graphic sort.

As I promised, here is the first of the detailed introductions to what I like to use my time for.

I think it started when I was taught - at the age of one or two i think - the latin alphabet (with the addition of the three danish letters æ, ø and å). I supposedly showed interest in my dad's computer and he descided to show me all the letters in big sizes on the screen. The first word I read by the way was "Astra", and yes that was read off of the car we had at the time - a green Opel.

I have also always been into drawing, and writing in different styles. And in what you would call middle school I wanted to be an animator for a living. So I suppose I have always been a typographer and an artist and Fontstruct was just the right (and let's not forget free) medium for me.

I played around with typography and words, and that lead to the study of different writingsystems (e.g. greek, cyrillic, japanese kana) and ambigrams and that sort. I've even been working on a mirror ambigram that reads "КРИСТИЯН?" (My name in Russian) and "CHRISTIAN" when mirrored. I know - that's really geeky, but hey, it'll make a good T-shirt design if I ever go to Russia. And even if I don't.

Oh, and that's another thing I've been thinking about doing, T-shirts, that might even make me some money for a change. Well, I am probably too nice when I give away my fonts for free, because I hate paying for stuff myself. So, anyways, making some T-shirts might make up for it. Hey, now I'm checking it seems like I already have a profile on Spreadshirt.com, I just haven't put any designs up. I'll be sure to do that and link to the shop from here.

I wanted to show you an example of the stuff I do, but the one I had in mind I'll save for later, but here is my latest fontstruction: 2D-barcode.

And right now I'm in the middle of my exams in gymnasium (equivalent to high school), so I probably shouldn't even be sitting up at night blogging. What I'm trying to say is that I don't know when I'll post again, but hope to do it soon.

That's it for now, I'll try to get some sleep now.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. I've been thinking - for some time now - about creating a blog, and here it is.

So, where might you know me from? Well, you probably don't, but I'm an active user of fontstruct, over there I'm known as CMunk.

Other than that I can't think of anything, but if you see the name CMunk, chances are It's probably me, since I use that username everywhere, but I can't asure you that there aren't anyone else using the same name.

What can you expect from this blog? I'm a great deal into language and I am (hopefully) going to university starting this summer to study linguistics, so that will be a main topic of this page. I will also study Japanese on the side. I'm into conlanging, which is basically constructing your own language. You might know some famous conlangs like Esperanto, Volapük, Klingon or Na'vi. In my own attempts to create languages I have thought up a few setups, but haven't gotten much further than the phonology (what sounds the language has and how they are combined) yet.

I also like music and I play the piano and sing myself. I'm thinking of writing my own songs, but I can't promise that I will, but if I do they will be posted here also.

I read a few blogs as well that I might link to. Those could be haha.nu, a blog about interesting things (to me) from all over the internet; savagechickens.com, a cartoon drawn on sticky notes about chickens and their dayly philosophical questions.

And of course many of my fontstructions from now on will be posted here. And as a typographer I like to play around with letters and might make an ambigram once in a while.

You may be able to tell already that English is not my native language. I am from Denmark, but lived five years in Japan from when I was one year old to when I was six. I spoke fluent (kindergarten-level) Japanese, but don't speak a word of Japanese at the moment (hence the japanese course). Apart from Danish and English I speak and write German and a bit of Esperanto.

So that's pretty much it. I will go into further details about each of the topics in the next posts. I hope you will enjoy it once I get started.