Month: December 2004

…would still be a rose. Which is why I am having naming difficulties. See, I gotta book project where the time frame, in our terms, is oh, 1700s or so. The names of the people are mostly normal, with some odd spellings here and there. They have a Goddess that I have named Divitia. The priests and priestesses got another name because I hate the word priestess. So, using the Eastern philosophy term ch’i, and using a British word for maid – char, I came up with their titles.

A Nun or Monk (also the unisex name is Ch’an) is someone who works for the Abbeys or Monasteries directly. They act as groundskeepers and secretaries and clerks. They have said no vows to Divitia although they may attend any of the training.

A Sister or Brother (with the unisexual name Ch’anma) is someone who has taken at least the first set of vows to the Goddess. They are considered servants to her and act as teachers, counselors, and whatever else field they are interested in.

The Ch’anmata are the actual priests and priestesses. They are the ones that provide the sermon (Speakers) and the ones that do the higher level of management and supervision. They can also be an Archimandrite (head Ch’anmata of an Abbey) or an Abbot (head Ch’anmata of a Monastery).

Universally, the Ch’anma and Ch’anmata are called Ch’a. This helps when it is not known what level of vows a Ch’a has taken.

See how much fun writing a book can be? Especially a science fiction or fantasy?

My current problem is that I need to somehow reveal the why of such an odd spelling. So, after browsing Wikipedia, WordWeb, and making copious notes, I came up with Ch’andra as the new name of their Goddess. Chandra is a Hindu god so I thought it kinda fit. I started this whole name thing because in Simple Sarah and Long Lea, my use of the titles for the religious folks changed from chapter to chapter. After I decided that for the fortieth millionth time, I started writing again. I currently am writing about children. But I can’t use the term ‘kid’. So, I came up with ch’en as the name for ‘kid’ and it will be both the casual name and the formal name, like when one someone says “Child, you are the cutest thing!”, in this they’ll say “Ch’en, you are the cutest thing!”

Totally confused now? Me too. Hopefully I will have it all figured out by the time I say ‘The End’…again.

12/11/04

I am going through kind of a funk again. It’s not nearly as bad, just a result of two rough counseling sessions. So I’ve not gotten much writing done this week bur really, do I care? Nope.

I did, however, get some work done on ‘Scholarly Ways/Centrics’ this week. It is up to just over 12K already. I put up a snippet of the original version. It’s not all that great but it’s just a hint of what it is like now.

Lorna and I had an interesting discussion on ‘sentience’ today. What makes an organism sentient? Where is that line between being self aware and doing what we are programmed to do? A dog risks its life to push a child out of the way of a speeding car. Is that sentience? Or is it just what the dog was bred to do? One resource on Wikipedia says that ‘sentience is the ability to experience suffering.’ I am not sure I understand that, however. In order to determine sentience we would have to see the world through the eyes of that being. We cannot assume that the showing of teeth in what looks like a big smile is in fact, a big smile.

In an ant colony, the ants are born into their roles. There job was determined while they were still in the egg. They do not stray from that path. In the movie, ‘Bugs Life’, one of the ants realizes there has to be a better way to do things. He sees himself as capable of much more than he was born to do. He wants to make a difference. THAT is sentience. But how to show that? How do we know that the dog wants to make a difference by risking its life? How do we know that Timmy really is in the well?

Then there is ‘sapience’, which is putting humanoid characteristics onto/into something. Artificial Intelligence is a good example of sapience.

In Real Life, I ordered some most of Lorna’s Christmas presents already. I hate to try and go shopping this time of year so I do it online. The price for shipping is well worth it to me. I ordered them from several different sites. Now I have to try and remember if I got everything. Oh, and her birthday is in January so some of the stuff I found I won’t order until then.