This morning I took Scully for a walk first thing, before the day got hot or rainy, both of which were forecast. As it happened, neither turned out to be true. I took Scully for another walk at lunch time and it was a bit cloudy and breezy, and not too hot. It felt like the beginning of the end of summer. Then when my wife got home from work we took Scully for a third walk, passing by the local mini supermarket and picking up some eggs and a cucumber.
This morning I worked on my lesson plan for this week’s ethics topic: Fantasy Logic. It’s about applying logic and realistic consequences to fantasy story ideas, to see what would happen, and strengthen the kids’ skills at applying critical thinking to crafting a story. Some questions I ask:
- What would happen if dragons existed in real life? How might people deal with them?
- In Harry Potter, the wizarding world hides magic from Muggles. Do you think that makes sense?
- In fairy tales, why does a magical wish often have unintended consequences?
- You want magical items in your story, but you don’t want magical shops where people can just go to buy them. How do you explain why nobody is selling magic items?
- You want your hero to have a powerful magic sword that makes them unbeatable, but you don’t want every fight to be boring because they always win. How could you make the sword more interesting?
After lunch I worked on some comics stuff, both Irregular Webcomic! and Darths & Droids.
And I did some preparation for our upcoming trip to Tokyo. I checked out eSIMs for our phones, so we can stay connected while over there, since I’ll be working at the ISO standards meeting while my wife and her mother and sister are off exploring Tokyo on their own, so we need some way to communicate. Up to now, my wife and I have relied on WiFi spots to stay in touch while travelling, but I figured this time we’d need connection at all times. I explored a few companies and found a good looking one, which I have now purchased.
I also had an interesting discovery in Duolingo Japanese tonight. I came across the new word ちょっと. If you know Japanese, you’re probably already nodding sagely. If not, then I’ll point you at an article I had to read to understand what the heck this word is about. I feel like I levelled up in Japanese ability just from learning about this one word!
New content today:
You purchased a mobile phone company?
I’ve read too much fantasy literature. I know the answers to those questions so seemingly-instinctively, I would have trouble considering them from first principles.
1. First we’d die to them, then we’d get advanced weapons and kill a bunch of them, then we’d stick them in zoos, then we’d get all surprised when they go extinct.
2. Yes.
3. …because that’s how you tell a good story? This question is a lot broader than the others.
4. Magic items intrinsically bond to the first person who lays hands on them and are useless if anyone else tries to use one. Yes, wearing gloves counts as laying hands on it.
5. The sword was designed by a very paranoid wizard to only be able to be drawn from its (equally magical) scabbard if it is fighting for a righteous cause. The wizard’s definition of a righteous cause is extremely finicky, so for most fights the hero can’t use the sword.