whynot | merah darahku, putih tulangku

+ OH MY HOLY FUCK:

steampunk_nusantara -- a communal worldbuilding thingie for a STEAMPUNK SOUTHEAST ASIA. It kind of reminds me of a play-it-by-ear Museum at Purgatory. We inventory made-up artifacts! Fictional non-fiction! EXCUSE ME WHILE I HAVE THE VAPORS.

STEAMPUNK. SOUTHEAST. ASIA. My first contribution is a positive review of a questionable book. My first thought was actually, "Steampunk jeepneys would be so badass." Jeepneys* are already pretty trippy to begin with. Xzibit can learn a thing or two from them about pimping one's ride. And jeepneys all steampunked up? LIFE, PLEASE PROVIDE.

* Jeepneys are what happens when the American jeeps left in the Philippines after WW2 are pimped out for public transportation. Which begs the question: steampunk WW2?? GIMME. Keysmash capslock forever! \o/

+ In sorta related news, here's an experiment. Said experiment is me writing interrelated drabbles in French and Bahasa Indonesia. I'm not super comfortable in either language, but writing anything in them has been something I've wanted to do for a while, just to see if I can, to maybe ease into it. If you speak either of these languages, please feel free to correct my grammar and phrasing and stuff! I would love to improve. (Fic: making me engage in things I would otherwise never get around to.)

So I guess the drabbles could be missing scenes from Bring Out Your Dead, or something. Or otherwise, just 219 words about two guys road trippin' through the End of Days. I'm not quite sure what to think of the fact that I seem to be more comfortable writing in French than I am in Indonesian. I'm that estranged from my mothertongue, it seems.

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Heh, I think our French is at about the same level. And now I kind of wish I retained more Bahasa Indonesia than the ability to say things like 'saya tidak suka Sugus' (a dirty lie) and the knowledge that SEMBILANBELAS is the most fun to say of all the numbers.

SUGUS OH MAN. *nostalgic vapors*

Is Bahasa Indonesia a popular language to take in Australia? You're like the third Australian on my flist to have studied it before.

As far as I know it's commonly The One Language taught in primary schools, because it's so phonetic and one can build up a fair vocabulary and range of phrases without running into grammar issues straight off the bat. And I know a lot of high schools offer it as a continuing language option, though mine didn't -- our Offered Asian Language (most schools seem to only offer one) was Japanese. If it'd been offered I would definitely have kept it up, because I really enjoyed Indonesian lessons in primary school.

Randomly butting into this thread, but oh yes, I loved Indonesian lessons in primary school! The mindless chanting of 'Baik baik saja, terima kasih!' when our teacher asked 'Apa kabar?', the swimming pool song (Renang, renang, di kolam renang!), getting the giggles when we had to describe what we were wearing and I used to wear lots of rings (cincin-cincin is amazing to say).

GOOD TIMES. I miss it!

:D Did you sing the pelangi song? Or the balonku ada lima?

I love that to pluralize, we just say things twice. It's why my boyfriend's favorite thing to say in Indonesian is teeth (gigi-gigi).

That's really cool, I never knew that. I can see it. Totally, B. Indo's grammar and conjugation are pretty straightforward.

I took Japanese in high school and have retained less of that than when I took two years of French. Alas, Japanese: the one that got away!

you should do something for crossedgenres.com 's eastern issue. !

Hmm! Interesting. Thanks for the heads-up.

Just how many languages do you speak?! *impressed* I don't remember nearly enough French from high school to make out any of that, and my Bahasa Indonesia isn't much better these days. BUT IT SEEMS REALLY GOOD FROM WHAT I CAN MAKE OUT.

ALSO, THOSE JEEPNEYS ARE ALREADY SO MARVELOUS THAT A PICTURE OF A STEAMPUNK ONE WOULD LIKELY DESTROY MY ABILITY TO LOWERCASE EVER AGAIN.

I am also terrible at Tagalog and Sunda ;) . I also admit, the thought of Dean and Cas speaking French does strange and thrilling things to my heart, perhaps in capslock.

Jeepneys are like MADE for steampunk. Come to think of it, a steampunking of Filipino public transport in general would blow my mind. The tricycle (http://www.thinkphilippines.com/pictures/tricycle-philippines.jpg), for example.

OMG that comm sounds awesome! *runs off to join*

The steampunk costume I've envisioned is actually for a muslima, whom I've created to be the adventurous descendant of Ibn Battuta - which, okay, not Southeast Asian AT ALL but my point is that I would love to see more cross-culturalism in Steampunk (as it is I'm actually worried about showing up at a con in hijab, which is SO wrong). Steampunk-print saris! Can you IMAGINE? And the history! And the myths! So I'm totally on board with this, despite being white Southern American girl, because WOW. Think of the changed empires.

Also, Steampunk WWII = DieselPunk (http://www.dieselpunks.org/)!!! Which I love with a heart-filled passion.

DIESELPUNK jflkdsjflkdsjf. I wonder what the warfare would be like.

The comm is not geographically restricting things to Southeast Asia, because that would be hard. International influence pass through all the time, y'know? And I mean, there were def Muslim traders in SE Asia.

OMG! That community's soooo awesome!

And, wow, I've never thought, but of course! Jeepneys are perfect for steampunk!

* Jeepneys are what happens when the American jeeps left in the Philippines after WW2 are pimped out for public transportation.

Funny story, according to a family legend my paternal great grandmother invented or at least thought of the jeepney and had the jeep lengthened.

Also I think tricycles would be amazing for steampunk!

Heehee! Hooray strange family lore! I have a legend in my family that my great great great uncle married a sky goddess or something XD. I'm like SURE WHY NOT.

Sky goddess? Wow, that is awesome. Don't you just love family lore?

I loooooove family lore. So weird and full of magical realism and totally challenging my rational empiricism.

those Jeepneys are the COOLEST THINGS EVER. EVER. oh man!

and I am jelus of your otherlingual fanfic! I would be afraid of writing something in spanish. but maybe not anymore I shouldn't be. HMMM.

You def should not be! :) Have faith!

You are so squee-ful about Steampunk Nusantara, it always re-invigorates my gleefulness. ^_^

I'm also more comfortable reading Jawi/Arabic than I am looking at Chinese characters. I find it kind of annoying. But Chinese is also very annoying to learn, so I don't feel too bad about that.

It is such a great idea for a community! We can haz steampunk. :D

It is! ^^ We were considering making it a GoogleWave project, but it just... didn't work, you know? (I blame Tariq, he loves interjecting into other people's typing with random babble, so a DW comm cuts down on that a lot ^_~)

and we totes can haz steampunk!

AND WE SHALL DO IT BY STEAM!

that is SO. AWESOME.

languages I want to learn and need to get working on: German. Gaelic. And now you are making me want to learn Bahasa Indonesian, because it just looks so pretty!

Bahasa Indonesia is pretty easy compared to a lot of languages. Pronunciation is straightforward, for one, like Spanish and not at all like French.

be the moon = menjadi bulan
Well, 'becoming the moon'. bulan = moon

merah darahku, putih tulangku

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