Thursday, February 17, 2011

I am in the airport on the way back from Disneyworld! On the plane I'm going to do something which I will tell you about later.

How many times have I postponed things?

When you wish upon a star, your dreams will either come true or not.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

I did it again

That's right, I did it again. I didn't post on Sunday. I think I'll have to start thinking about my posts much earlier and having them automatically post on Sunday. Today I'll just tell you about Latin Wikipedia, or more appropriately, Vicipædia Latina. It's basically Wikipedia in Latin.

It exists. Valētē!

Sorry about that description. I'm too lazy to do more.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

MaoEG

Here's your mid-week post.

Medieval-and-on European Genealogy (MaoEG) is a great hobby of mine, especially finding houses. The unofficial genealogical definition of house is a group of people including and only including a person and all those who trace legitimate patrilineal or matrilineal descent to them. I will name houses by their common names, and in inventing my own give the place of birth or place of rule for their founder. Here I'm going to list some important ones.

And by important, I don't mean impact on history, but how many members they had. That's why you won't see the commonly known ones.

Have any with more people? Comment or contact.

Here's some things to know:
  1. The founder is the person furthest tracable back. The MRCA (Most Recent Common Ancestor) is the person from whom all current members descend. An ancient founder tells you that the house has been important for centuries; an ancient MRCA tells you that the house probably has members all over the place, as it dosen't just consist of a bunch of extinct branches.
  2. The head is the person most senior descended from the founder via primogeniture.
  3. Patrilineal means in the male-line, no female interuptions. Matrilineal means the oppisite.
  4. And I hate branches that are called houses.

Patrilineal
House of Wettin
Founder: Dietrich I von Wettin, 10th Century, 1st generation (duh)
MRCA: Frederick II, Elector of Saxony, 1412 -- 1464, 16th generation
Head: Michael, Prince of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, 1946 --, 33rd generation

If you look at the names, it looks German right away. Indeed, probably the supermajority of members were German. However, it has some non-Germans too: just look at Queen Elizabeth of the UK. She traces back through Queen Victoria's husband Albert, who was German (duh).

House of Este
Founder: Adalbert of Mainz, 9th/10th Century
MRCA: Ernest I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, 1497 -- 1546, 20th generation
Head: Person Confidential, 31st generation

Known more often as the House of Welf, it's founder was Italian, it's MRCA was German, and it has members from across the map. In Britain it was known as the House of Hanover.

It's late MRCA dosen't mean there was a 20-generation line that didn't go anywhere; there were in fact two great branches from 5th generation on, of Welf and of Italian Este, but the Italian Este branch died out 1803.

House of Oldenburg
Founder: Egilmar I, Count of Lerigau, 11th century
MRCA: Frederick I of Denmark and Norway, 1471 -- 1533, 13th generation
Head: Christoph, Prince of Schleswig-Holstein, 1949 --, 27th generation

The early MRCA tells you already that this is a diverse house. It has two main branches: the main Glücksburg branch from the MRCA's older son, and the Holstein-Gottorp branch from his younger son. The Glücksburgs have produced Danish, Norwegian, and Greek monarchs, the consorts of the rulers of UK and Spain (the former meaning that the next king will be Glücksburg), and the Holstein-Gottorps have produced czars in Russia (the Romanovs weren't really Romanovs).

House of Capet
Founder: Robert II, Count of Worms, 770 -- 807
MRCA: Robert II of France, 972 -- 1031, 7th generation
Head: Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou, 1974 --, 37th generation

There is a confusion as to the ancestry of Robert of Hesbaye, so I list him here as founder, though there are sources denoting parentage.

As 39 generations have proved, you can't extinguish the House of Capet. It has two main branches, Bourbon and Burgundy, and both are famous throughout history. Need I say more?

Charlemagneering
Charlemagne, as one of the most prominent figures of the dark ages, is the de facto standard dream-ancestor; in other words, you want to trace to him.

As it turns out, the MRCAs of all of these houses trace to him.

To Frederick II, Elector of Saxony:
  1. Charlemagne, 742 -- 814, m. Hildegard of Vinzgouw
  2. Louis I of France, 778 -- 840, m. Judith of Bavaria
  3. Gisela of France, 9th century, m. Eberhard of Friuli
  4. Ingeltrued of Friuli, 9th century, m. Henry of Franconia
  5. Hedwiga of Franconia, 9th century, m. Otto I of Saxony
  6. Henry I of Germany, 876 -- 936, m. Matilda of Ringelheim
  7. Otto I of Germany, 912 -- 973, m. Edith of Wessex
  8. Liutgarde, 10th century, m. Conrad, Duke of Lorraine
  9. Otto I of Carinthia, 10th century, m. Judith of Bavaria
  10. Henry of Speyer, 10th century, m. Adelaide of Alsace
  11. Conrad II of Germany, 990 -- 1039, m. Gisela of Swabia
  12. Henry III of Germany, 1017 -- 1056, m. Agnes of Poitou
  13. Henry IV of Germany, 1050 -- 1106, m. Bertha of Savoy
  14. Agnes of Germany, 1072 -- 1143, m. Frederick I of Swabia
  15. Frederick II of Swabia, 1090 -- 1147, m. Judith of Bavaria
  16. Frederick I of Germany, 1122 -- 1190, m. Beatrice I of Burgundy
  17. Henry VI of Germany, 1165 -- 1197, m. Constance of Sicily
  18. Frederick II of Germany, 1194 -- 1250, m. Isabella of England
  19. Margaret of Sicily, 1241 -- 1270, m. Albert II of Meissen
  20. Frederick I of Meissen, 1252 -- 1323, m. Elizabeth of Lobdeburg-Arnshaugk
  21. Frederick II of Meissen, 1310 -- 1349
Ernest I's wife was actually a 6-greats granddaughter of Frederick II:

  1. Frederick II of Meissen, 1310 -- 1349, m. Mathilde of Bavaria
  2. Elisabeth of Meissen, 1329 -- 1375, m. Frederick V of Nuremburg
  3. Elisabeth of Nuremburg, 1358 -- 1411, m. Rupert II of the Rhine
  4. Margaret of the Palatinate, 1376 -- 1434, m. Charles II of Lorraine
  5. Catherine of Lorraine, 1407 -- 1439, m. Jacob of Baden
  6. Margarete of Baden, 1431 -- 1457, m. Albert III of Brandenburg
  7. John Cicero, Elector of Brandenburg, 1455 -- 1499, m. Margaret of Thuringia
  8. Ursula of Brandenburg, 1488 -- 1510, m. Henry V of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
  9. Sophie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 1508 -- 1541, m. Ernest I of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Frederick I is also descended from Frederick II:

  1. Frederick II of Meissen, 1310 -- 1349, m. Mathilde of Bavaria
  2. Elisabeth of Meissen, 1329 -- 1375, m. Frederick V of Nuremburg
  3. Frederick I of Brandenburg, 1371 -- 1440, m. Elisabeth of Bavaria
  4. John of Brandenburg, 1406 -- 1464, m. Barbara of Saxe-Wittenberg
  5. Dorothea of Brandenburg, 1430 -- 1495, m. Christian I of Denmark
  6. Frederick I of Denmark, 1471 -- 1533
Robert II of France traces via Henry I of Germany:

  1. Henry I of Germany, 876 -- 936, m. Matilda of Ringelheim
  2. Hedwig of Saxony, 910 -- 965, m. Hugh the Great
  3. Hugh of France, 939 -- 996, m. Adelaide of Aquitaine
  4. Robert II of France, 972 -- 1031
Matrilineal lines next.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Explanations

Sorry I forgot to post yesterday; I went on a computer fast. Hopefully you'll see a mid-week post.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Matlang, Day 7

Hey y'all, it's back to Matlang.

In our continuing saga, I will start to outline my vision of Matlang grammar.

In English, the essence of the clause is in the verb. Look at the sentence now the whole world had one language and a common speech. The essence is in the verb, have. Everything else describes in detail that action of ownership. Who had, what was had? Everything else is an argument to the verb. I think, with my limited linguistic knowledge, that most languages are that way.

In Matlang, our goal was to create a language based off of principles of Material Logic. The fundamental concept of Material Logic is, in fact, concepts. There is also the principle of substance and accident: Substances are the essential, unchangeable, defining characteristics of a being, while accidents are things applying to it that are unessential and changeable. In other words, heads and modifiers.

But the substances are all nouns.

Therefore, we must in Matlang have clauses be based off of the noun. In the aforementioned sentence, it is the world which is the basis of the sentence.

Let's form a structure of the same sentence in Verb-based and Matlang terms:

Verb-Based
have{world
     -the
     -whole
     |{and|language
           -one
          |speech
           -a
           -common
-past

Matlang
world
-the
-whole
-have{{and|language
           -one
           -past
          |speech
           -a
           -common
           -past
-past


I'd like it to have a somewhat head-initial syntax, like world whole have language one speech common.

And for our first five words, they will be nouns:
  1. Sōcrāt-, Socrates (duh)
  2. pater-, father, ancestor
  3. mater-, mother, origin
  4. phrāter-, brother, friend (informal)
  5. adelph-, brother, monk (formal)

Monday, January 17, 2011

Happy MLKJ Day

Sorry I forgot to post yesterday, so I'll just say Happy MLKJ Day.

In the spirit, should you donate to a civil rights group? Of course not, and this is why:

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."
-- MLK's dream speech

Those were the injustices:

  1. Racist policemen
  2. Racist hotels
  3. Poor black people
  4. Racist water fountains and bathrooms
  5. Racist polls
Hmm, how many of those really still exist in America? Only number 3, and that isn't a problem caused by racism. Trust me, when the civil rights people say "his work isn't finished" they lie so they can keep their jobs.

Why not just donate to an antipoverty group instead? After all, we are free at last to do so.

Thank God Almighty!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Positum Intitulō

This post is of multiple subjects, which is why it has no title.

Subject 1
I made it my goal to post once a week. I will do so every Sunday.

Subject 2
Last post I said that I would tell you about the papers. They included:

  • A photocopy of a family record, showing the ancestors of my grandfather in two generations, including the names and BMD dates of Cora's parents. For those that don't know, BMD stands for birth-marriage-death, and Cora's parents were until now a mystery.
  • A discharge record of my great-grandfather Frank Brown
  • A letter to ditto from his cousin
  • A handwritten poem about Father Christmas by my great-great grandfather
  • A ditto about a boy drowning by ditto.
This leads to more research I will do over the summer, when I get an ancestry.com account:
  • Search for immigration papers of Cora's parents (they were Norwegian), and after that birth records.
  • Find out about my great-grandfather's regiment
  • Do more research on his ancestry
Who knows what I'll find -- that's the beauty of genealogy.

Subject 3
I said that I was doing Perl; now I'm learning C++. So far I've managed to do, hmm, 0 successful programs.

I'm working on it.

Efharistó!