Dealing with cards *ha, pun!*

[taotrooper]

Today it was a card-y day. I tried to work on the OOP practice I have to hand over on the 19th, because I'm really behind, but in the end I got distracted by shiny Internets. Again.

The point is, I made one exercise, and it was one about creating a deck of baraja (una baraja española, para aclarar). It was kind of weird because my knowledge of it comes from the Minor Arcana (BTW, I never mentioned I bought myself a beginner's Tarot deck last month), and the Spanish cards in a Tarot are different than the ones on a Baraja in two things: a) barajas have no Queens, and b) the wand suit are different in Spanish depending of the deck -they're "bastos" (think of trollish clubs) in playing cards, and "varas" (wooden sticks, proper wands) in Tarot.

I learned this today, by homework. Most people learn by card games. I clearly suck at life. Incidentally, popular card games here are, obviously, played with barajas and not the usual French decks. Which is so bizarre for me because I'm used to them and not the Spanish decks. You can find barajas everywhere and not the hearts-diamonds-clubs-spades darlings.

Another thing:

Go and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me where all past years are,
Or who cleft the devil's foot,
Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
Or to keep off envy's stinging,
And find
What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind.

If thou be'st born to strange sights,
Things invisible to see,
Ride ten thousand days and nights,
Till age snow white hairs on thee,
Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me,
All strange wonders that befell thee,
And swear,
No where
Lives a woman true and fair.

If thou find'st one, let me know,
Such a pilgrimage were sweet;
Yet do not, I would not go,
Though at next door we might meet,
Though she were true, when you met her,
And last, till you write your letter,
Yet she
Will be
False, ere I come, to two, or three.

By John Donne. Yes, Howl's Moving Castle people, the poem and the author EXISTED in real life. And this is the full version.

I was surprised when I saw it on Neil Gaiman's Stardust. That tipped me about the realism of it. Probably more English native speakers knew about this fact, but as someone who was never taught English literature and poetry, I had no idea.

Offtopic: Anyone knows of good fic authors who write about Alabasta characters? I'm thinking genfic and/or Kohza/Vivi. I just don't know where to start, and I don't dare poking around.

Comments

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Bah, we covered him in our Brit Lit. class but we didn't go over that poem! Too bad, I would have liked to talk about it in class.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

I only know of that poem for geeky reasons (ie, it showed up in two fantasy books I've read). It's kinda hard for me to get, but it's because of the Early Modern English. I also have my problems with original Shakespeare in English, which is kinda sad.

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

barajas have no Queens
[nerd]And some don't have 8s and 9s, either. Like the ones you use to play truco or escoba de 15 (but I think escoba was originally an Italian game?). [/nerd]

It's weird that you can't find French decks. o.O Here it's really easy to get both kinds, even if we use Spanish decks for almost all the games. By the way, there are solitaires for Spanish decks, too. I've got a little book on them and everything. Clearly, *I* suck at life.

And thanks for the poem! :D I knew it was real becuse I'd heard of Donne before (... through Clow/Yuuko fanfic) but I'd never found the complete version.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, Tarot decks HAVE Queens. I wonder how come they dropped them from the standard baraja. Is it mysogyny, or they just never used them in most games, like with the truco-customized decks? (I didn't know that, it's interesting ^^)

Oh, I've never said I can't find French decks. I haven't checked around, but I'm sure small misc stores must have them. It's the fact the popular games are all for barajas. Here young people strongly play mus and tute. I see Argentina is kinda the same from your comment, but in Venezuela we favor French decks the most. I think I only knew of one popular baraja deck when I lived in Caracas, and it was preciselly truco (I'm not sure if it's the exact same truco you play, though)

You find it if you google :D

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what happened with the Queens. When I get out from work I'll have to check if I still have those "history of cards" sites bookmarked (oh, fanfiction, the things you make me google...)

Yeah, here it's more like Spain because we play mostly with barajas. I'm a bit of a weirdo because everyone loves truco and that's the one game I don't like... give me maths/luck games, don't force me to use my non-existant pretending skills! D:

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

I never learned to play truco, even though I was forced to play once. I also "played" either mus or tute without having idea. (All of this with a classmate/acquaintance telling me which cards to play behind me)

I guess I just suck at cards. I only know how to play el burro, and I used to play some rommy when I was little.

Oh, and Uno. But that can be played by any retard.

[fujurpreux.livejournal.com]

Ese poema también es el epígrafe de Stardust, de Neil Gaiman. =D

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

Uh,

I was surprised when I saw it on Neil Gaiman's Stardust. That tipped me about the realism of it. Probably more English native speakers knew about this fact, but as someone who was never taught English literature and poetry, I had no idea.

[fujurpreux.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, my brain isn't working properly this days. ;_;

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

Don't worry ^_^

[miyazawa-lulu.livejournal.com]

Si encuentras algo decente de Kohza/Vivi, ya sea fic o fanart o lo que sea, avísame, que yo tampoco me atrevo a mirar nada >_>

El poema me suena de clase, aunque supongo que eso no es raro O_o Ahora que me han regalado Howl's Moving Castle (que ya he empezado a leer como una loca ^^u) y Castle in the Air supongo que descubriré la referencia a la que haces referencia, valga la redundancia XD

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

Bueno, está la unión japonesa (http://aqua.flower.d-net.to/sandland/) y este escueto search (http://www.opse.net/cgi-bin/search1/s.cgi?mode=kt&kt=03_17) para curiosear, en lo que respecta a fanart japonés. Este me pasó un fic corto que aún no he leído pero tengo en mis memorias, por si quieres echarle un ojo. Ella dice que está bueno.

Nonononono, la referencia está en HMC, no en CitA. Tú sigue leyendo, que va a ser bastante crack. Y me dices qué te pareció el libro cuando termines!