Writing Log: Aardvark to the rescue!
02/01/2010, Monday, full day at day job
* Posted writing log, freewriting
* Wrote 2 pages longhand on "Ekaterina and the Firebird"
* Consolidated online and typed-from-notes-so-far "Ekaterina" and typed up several more pages. Tried to do some research.** Swore bitterly at said failed research. Learned to hate cyrillic. Was very happy with Aardvark.
**Trying to find equivalent Russian words, in the English alphabet, is not super-easy. What is black, as in Black Forest^? Chyorniy. How do you say good morning? Dobraye utro. What's a Russian songbird that would be in a deciduous forest in late autumn? Shegol (goldfinch)--that one required Aardvark. What's Russian for "Dad"? Papa. Okay, that last is pretty neat.
^ Black forest was the widespread folk name for oak, birch, aspen and other deciduous forests, especially in the southern and southwestern part of the country. This name arose from the sharp contrast of the black silhouettes of the leafless trees in winter against the white snow. There is also the concept of the red forest, which is applied mainly to light coniferous forests of pines which have a reddish bark. It is also often associated with coniferous forests in general because of their beauty in all seasons of the year (the Russian word krasniy, which means red, is used here in its old meaning of beautiful, like Red Square in Moscow). In contemporary forestry literature these terms are no longer used, but they were widely applied in earlier times.
- http://www.forest.ru/eng/publications/history/02.html (and isn't that just the most evocative thing?)
* Posted writing log, freewriting
* Wrote 2 pages longhand on "Ekaterina and the Firebird"
* Consolidated online and typed-from-notes-so-far "Ekaterina" and typed up several more pages. Tried to do some research.** Swore bitterly at said failed research. Learned to hate cyrillic. Was very happy with Aardvark.
**Trying to find equivalent Russian words, in the English alphabet, is not super-easy. What is black, as in Black Forest^? Chyorniy. How do you say good morning? Dobraye utro. What's a Russian songbird that would be in a deciduous forest in late autumn? Shegol (goldfinch)--that one required Aardvark. What's Russian for "Dad"? Papa. Okay, that last is pretty neat.
^ Black forest was the widespread folk name for oak, birch, aspen and other deciduous forests, especially in the southern and southwestern part of the country. This name arose from the sharp contrast of the black silhouettes of the leafless trees in winter against the white snow. There is also the concept of the red forest, which is applied mainly to light coniferous forests of pines which have a reddish bark. It is also often associated with coniferous forests in general because of their beauty in all seasons of the year (the Russian word krasniy, which means red, is used here in its old meaning of beautiful, like Red Square in Moscow). In contemporary forestry literature these terms are no longer used, but they were widely applied in earlier times.
- http://www.forest.ru/eng/publications/history/02.html (and isn't that just the most evocative thing?)