Sekreta lingvo por Ni!

Who what now? That is, a secret language for us. That language is Esperanto. Esperanto is a constructed language, created about 100 years ago by a polish ophthalmologist, LL Zamenhof.

The Esperanto flag

The language has 16 grammatical rules which I’m still learning, and a vocabulary which is based on many different European languages. I speak French, although it’s been a while, and that’s been really helpful in my learning. Esperanto’s rules never have exceptions. This makes learning the language really fast and really easy.

Part of what sparked my imagination about doing this is that this is a language that is both everywhere and nowhere. It doesn’t really belong to anybody. There are about 2 million people who speak it, as a hobby. They are scattered all over the world.

It occurred to me that this could work in my favor, in our favor. That is, that kinky people in general and age players in particular could get a lot of use out of this thing.

Having the ability to have a conversation that cannot be understood easily if overheard is damn useful. The only people who know this thing are those who make the effort to know it.

Plus, in the month or so that I’ve been learning it, several interesting things have happened to me.

Learning something useful and real for its own merit on my own time feels remarkably childlike to me. The time I spend every day in practice is a bit like having piano practice, or chores.

There are some Esperanto words which just sound little and are fun to say.

Here are a few fun sentences, see if you can figure them out:

Ĉu via vindotuko estas malseka?

Vi estas tre fia.

Mi pensas, ke iu bezonas frapadon sur la fundo.

Mi volas tuŝi vin en specialaj lokoj.

So fun! I’ve been taking a Duolingo course to learn it. And over on the Big Little Podcast slack I’ve started a channel for others who are learning it with me.

I’d love it if you’d join me!

#365Gratitude Day 253:Shrimp-lickers or pen linings?

On Friday I had a moment of mad scientist frenzy. I had stumbled across this electronic party game called QuipLash and what u wanted more than any other thing was to play it across the Internet with friends.  

The game is meant to be played by a large number of people in the same room, each using their smartphone or tablet as a controller.  

Cool, right? 

As for the game, it's like putting Cards Against Humanity and The Game of Things in a blender, mixed with a dash of fart jokes and crude flirty behavior. 

I love it.  

Using my xbox, twitch, and my laptop I worked out a way to get a bunch of nice folks from the Big Little Podcast slack to play.  

Which resulted in choices like that delightful one. So fun! 

#justBecause Do you ever take online polls?

http://strawpoll.me/6210865

#justBecause Help me help my friend?

I have this friend Kim.  She's very nice.
She's in some deep water, and could use help.

Sickness, misfortune, car accident, work mishaps have all swirled together into a hurricane of bad luck.

Let's bail the water out of her tiny boat together, ok?  She doesn't need much.  If we all just pitch in a little, we can make it better.

Here's the link.

#justBecause I like poetry, and I like pussies

My friend Teddy shared a poem with me today, by Edward Leary.

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!"

Here's a link to the poem in its entirety.