To say the least, I am still not impressed that I haven’t been able to play Animal Parade yet. On the flip side, we have Dragon Age: Origins and it now mostly takes up my time. hflahgfalgtal I love you Alistair. <3

Year: 2005 (Japan), 2008 (NA)
Genre: Farm Simulation
Creator/Publisher: Marvelous, Natsume
Console: Nintendo DS
Rating: E (ESRB)

Ohohohohoho, this is one of those games that has spawn from my Harvest Moon addiction (which my friends and family find both amusing and exhausting at times). Anyways, Harvest Moon DS Cute is essentially the girl version to Harvest Moon DS (or Sprite Station. Whatever you wish to call it). And in this game you get to choose if your sprite resembles the Another Wonderful Life (Gamecube) character or the More Friends of Mineral Town (GBA) character. In my case, I went with the Gamecube character and named her what I typically name my Harvest Moon lady character compared to my boy who is normally Jack because I am old-school. Anyways, the story takes place in Forget-Me-Not Valley, which anyone who has played A Wonderful Life or its related games should be familiar with. This also means that the majority of the cast has remained the same, with slight changes here and there. Grant’s wife is now non-existent and Tim is off traveling so you don’t really get to see him. Also, Skye the phantom thief has joined the cast.

DSC follows your typical HM storyline: it’s up to you to raise a successful farm. Of course, it has its own added story tidbits to make it unique, which also happen to be different than the one for the original DS.

In the girl version the story starts a little differently. Your deceased mother sent a wish to the Harvest King, asking his help to guide you to be a success on your farm. The Harvest Goddess is sent to your house in the middle of the night but while watching you sleep she decides that you do not have the motivation to fulfill your mother’s dream. An argument ensues between the two Harvest leaders and the Goddess is punished for calling the Harvest King a “big baldy”. The Sprites repeat the name calling after their leader is banished away, which results in them also sharing her fate. Now you have to find the Goddess and her Sprites and also be a success on your farm. – Ushi No Tane

After that, you can basically go about life like you would if any other HM title: grow crops, raise animals, befriend the townsfolk and woo your potential spouses. Also, you must locate the Harvest Sprites by doing different tasks or by finding them on the map. Easy, no? Well, not always. Some of the sprites definitely take work getting to but fear not. More often than not, you’ll random come across them when you aren’t expecting it.

As a HM game, I have little complaints about it. It could be because I just love playing HM games, but I can spend hours on end at this game and not get tired of it. Normally, I’ll tell myself that I’m going to finish at a certain day and quit, but I normally miss that deadline. How awesome of me. One of the biggest complaints about this game I have heard though is that your bachelors just aren’t “good-looking” enough and that some of them are old. Well, tough potatoes, kids, but that’s life sometimes. I don’t see how the age thing matters all that much, considering if you’re off running a farm by your lonesome (okay Takakura’s there too, but he doesn’t really do anything). As far as I see it, the bachelors are all very interesting. Rock’s somewhat of a butt, though I can’t complain cause I can act like him IRL sometimes. So, if you decide not to be a prick over that, everything should be good.

Of course, things might get a little repetitive for you, like in all HM games. But, hopefully, you’re aware of that and won’t mind it too much.

Characters of Importance

Player Character: Your character. Name her whatever you like.
Takakura: He’s your advisor (sort of) and lives on your farm in his own home.
Harvest Goddess: She’s the local goddess and it’s up to you to save her.
Rock: Bachelor #1. Son of Ruby and a general free spirit, though he doesn’t like working.
Gustafa: Bachelor #2. He’s a musician who lives in the yurt north of the beach.
Carter: Bachelor #3. He’s an archeologist who spends most of his time in the mines, digging.
Griffin: Bachelor #4. Griffin owns and runs the local bar.
Marlin: Bachelor #5. Younger brother of Vesta and works on her farm on the east side of the valley.
Skye: Bachelor #6. A phantom thief who happens upon the valley.

“The heavens declare the glory of God. 

The skies proclaim the work of His hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech. 

Night after night displays knowledge.

There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.”

Psalm 19

I love that Psalm.  Psalm means “song of praise” in Hebrew.  Oh, may the Lord put a new song in your heart, in my heart.  So much trouble under the heavens these days.  War, crime, poverty, Swine flu scares.  Easy to get bogged down with it all.  So, look up!  The skies remind us that God loves us, that He is powerful, that He is beautiful. 

As the sun faithfully rises every morning

 and sets again every evening,

He is faithful. 

And so generous, He give us these beautiful skies for free!  “…for He causes His sun to rise on {the} evil and {the} good, and sends rain on {the} righteous and {the} unrighteous.” Matthew 5:45b

 God IS good.  God IS powerful.  We CAN trust Him. 

Do you know Him?  Click on this leaf He made for a quick introduction:

Special thanks to these photographers: David B. Vernon (moon over bridge), Mulia Nurhasan (Aurora Borealis), Sarah Mack (hand under sunset, Kenya sunset, Kenya children),

There used to be a beautiful girl with raven hair, snowy skin and ruby lips. Her mother-in-law was a witch and has a magic mirror. One day, the witch asked to her magic mirror, “Who is the most beautiful women in this world?” and the mirror said “Of course, it’s you!” . But, the mirror thought the girl was the most beautiful, because the witch will have her servants kill or she would poison them. The mirror was scared with the witch and lie. What do you think? A lie sometimes maybe excused…

image courtesy of the Renton History Museum

The Renton History Museum’s Fall Speaker Series continues tomorrow, November 10th at 5pm with Harvest Moon and Wisdom, Weaving, Songs and Legends.

Come and listen as Harvest Moon transports herself to the Basket World with songs and stories from the Salish tradition that are guaranteed to entertain all ages.

The Renton History Museum, with Humanities Washington, continually bring the greatest presentations to the museum and they are not nearly as popular as they should be. Perhaps that is a good thing because if they catch on it may become standing room only but as it stands now a larger crowd could definitely be accommodated. If you have always wanted to go to a presentation at the museum and just not had the chance to make it do it tomorrow, you will not be disappointed.

Wisdom, Weaving, Stories and Legends with Harvest Moon happens tomorrow Tuesday, November 10th at 5pm. The presentation is free for members and a measly $3 donation for non-members. Please go out and help support this great program that the staff at the museum has worked so hard to bring to us.

Under the harvest moon,
When the soft silver
Drips shimmering
Over garden ,
Death, the gray mocker,
Comes and whispers to you
As a friend
Who remembers.

Under the summer roses
When the flagrant crimson
Lurks in the dusk
Of the red ,
Love, with little hands,
Comes and touches you
With a thousand memories,
And asks you
Beautiful, unanswerable questions.

-Carl Sandburg

Joe mooned the audience at the Open Mic reading
the other night at the Millburn, NJ Library.
I knew he had it in him,
I was just hoping that I would never see it.

Joe always complained
about the “Intelligentsia” in the poetry world.
We would go to workshops,
they would give him some mundane topic
and expect that he would write in esoteric terms
that not even a swami could interpret.

“These people would expect lyrical phases
even if the topic was to write about a fart,”
he told me once.
“Some things are just what they are,
and they aren’t lyrical.”

So when he read his poem at the library
about the outhouse
that was on the Western Pennsylvania farm where he grew up
he started to hear some snickers
saw those condescending smiles in the audience
like “here goes Joe again,”
and all of his William Paterson College A.A. bred inhibitions
broke down, he just lost it.
There at the podium he mooned them,
and that just about said it all,
but it didn’t really.

For you see, if certain writers who were acceptable to
the Intelligentsia had done that, it would have been innovative,
avant-garde. They would have put his picture
on the wall at Poets House in New York
written about it in Poets and Writers Magazine.
But Joe had the wrong initials behind his name -
A.A. instead of M.F.A.

So now as we have a beer at Mechlin’s Corner Tavern
Joe asked me about the old poetry haunts
and Mrs. Snooty who black listed him.

Afterwards he jumps into his chauffeured driven limousine,
he now having become quite the cult idol,
much sought after reader,
with his own booking agent, traveling first class
from college to college throughout the United States.

That’s what one minute of fame, on You Tube,
“Mooning the Intelligentsia”, can do for you.

Ray Brown

Joe mooned the audience at the Open Mic reading
the other night at the Millburn, NJ Library.
I knew he had it in him,
I was just hoping that I would never see it.

Joe always complained
about the “Intelligentsia” in the poetry world.
We would go to workshops,
they would give him some mundane topic
and expect that he would write in esoteric terms
that not even a swami could interpret.

“These people would expect lyrical phases
even if the topic was to write about a fart,”
he told me once.
“Some things are just what they are,
and they aren’t lyrical.”

So when he read his poem at the library
about the outhouse
that was on the Western Pennsylvania farm where he grew up
he started to hear some snickers
saw those condescending smiles in the audience
like “here goes Joe again,”
and all of his William Paterson College A.A. bred inhibitions
broke down, he just lost it.
There at the podium he mooned them,
and that just about said it all,
but it didn’t really.

For you see, if certain writers who were acceptable to
the Intelligentsia had done that, it would have been innovative,
avant-garde. They would have put his picture
on the wall at Poets House in New York
written about it in Poets and Writers Magazine.
But Joe had the wrong initials behind his name -
A.A. instead of M.F.A.

So now as we have a beer at Mechlin’s Corner Tavern
Joe asked me about the old poetry haunts
and Mrs. Snooty who black listed him.

Afterwards he jumps into his chauffeured driven limousine,
he now having become quite the cult idol,
much sought after reader,
with his own booking agent, traveling first class
from college to college throughout the United States.

That’s what one minute of fame, on You Tube,
“Mooning the Intelligentsia”, can do for you.

Ray Brown

New like a honey-
Moon birthmark, pale and mottled;
Morning harvest moon.

Symptoms: Insomnia, nervousness, obsessiveness, neglectant, loss of hunger, and potentially, DEATH.

It is the most dangerous epidemic the world has seen to date. H1N1? Negative. I’m talking about Farmville. “Farmers” are quickly taken in by the fictional world of farming. Hoping to find a chocolate cows, turtles, or ugly ducklings.

Why are people so obsessed with this game? Its a rip-off of a game that was released years ago for the Nintendo Gamecube, and since then has had multiple spin-offs. Even when I’m on the route, people in doctors’ offices, clothing stores, etc., are all playing this.

If you have a Gameboy SP or even up to a DS Lite (not the new DSi), you can get Harvest Moon. The original, Farmville, if you will. You can also get the Gamecube version, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, to get your farming fix and leave the flashy crap that is Farmville where it belongs–in the trash. Happy Gaming!

“Under the harvest moon,
When the soft silver
Drips shimmering
Over the garden nights…”      –Carl Sandburg

~

Our Guild logo is the sailboat to coincide with our name, Lake Norman Guild. One of the themes for a guild challenge this year was “Sailing under the Harvest Moon” (which also happened to be the name of our Quilt Show this past weekend).

Instead of using the whole theme though, I decided to concentrate just on the harvest moon.

In my research I learned that the harvest moon is the fullest moon occurring closest to the autumnal equinox.

An equinox, which happens 2 times each year, occurs when the centre of the Sun spends about the same time above and below the horizon at every location on the Earth.

Therefore the night and day are equally as long with no long period of darkness between sunset and moonrise.

The moon shines brighter, takes on a beautiful golden hue and looks larger than it appears because it sits so low in the sky.

It is so very bright at night that farmers work thru the night harvesting their crops working by the light of the moon, hence the name “Harvest Moon”.

To depict this larger than life phenomenon, I painted 2 different Stewart Gill metallic paints along the edge of the hand dyed gold fabric, creating the illuminating moon.

Using a silver grey Caron D’ache crayon, I extended the haze of the light around the moon and onto the field of wheat to show some reflection.

The thing that stumped me for a bit though was the fabric we had to use in our finished piece.

Originally I cut leaves out of the fabric to float on water (sailing theme) but they really looked out of place. In the end I liked the way I used it to portray a suggestion of a fence line across the field.

The quilt measures 20.5″ x 17″, a small piece again but the smaller size enables me to try out new techniques without committing to larger pieces.

I have been told lately that my work is taking on a particular “style” (big smile here) and that’s definitely something I’m striving for, to create a body of work that represents the essence of MY creativity.  I’ve got much more work to do to reach my goal and, in fact, I am a part of the year long SAQA Visioning Project to help me move forward.

~

See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Now is late in autumn here in Akita.

Our website is full of autumn. The readers have contributed pictures and haiku about autumn from all over the world.

伊藤貞順 (Ito Teijun), a Japanese poet in Akita, presented two pictures to us. She rode on a local train from 鷹巣 (takanosu)  to 角館 (kakunodate) and enjoyed the beautiful sceneries of nature, taking some pictures of them.  

Joshua Sellers, an American poet contributed his haiku about autumn to our site.

pieces of sky ―

autumn drizzling

in puddles

千切れ空秋滴るる水たまり 

chigire zora  aki shitataruru  mizu tamari  

 heavy fog ―-

from pines, sounds

of dew dripping

霧濃ひし松樹の滴露の音 

kiiri koishi  shouju no shizuku  tsuyu no oto

 night shadows ― 

a lone cricket chirps,

then silence

夜更けるこおろぎ独り静寂へ 

yoru fukeru  koorogi hitori  seijaku e

 moonlit sky ― 

quivering crepe myrtles  

and their shadows

月光に振るえる影やサルスベリ

gekkou ni  furueru kage ya  sarusuberi

 not one word

whispered ― 

an acorn

囁きの一言も無しドングリか

sasayaki no  ichigon mo nashi  donguri ka

autumn daybreak —

sunlight blazing through

 maple leaves

秋の明け紅葉眩む日の光

akino ake  momijiba kuramu  hi no hikari

Last of all we post some other haiku on the blog, ‘AKITAHAIKU’ , whose address is http://akitahaiku.blogspot.com/.

Harvest time ― 

ears of rice bathing

in the sun

収穫の日向に浴す稲穂かな

shuukaku no  hinata ni  yokusu  inaho kana

by Hidenori Hiruta, a Japanese poet

 Harvest time ― 

approaching winter

ready to celebrate

収穫時祝いを備ふ冬近し

shuukakuji  iwai wo sonau  fuyu chikashi

by  Juhani Tikkanen, a Finnish poet

fou muin ― 

hystin

a freithy yill

full moon ― 

raising

a frothy beer

                                   満月や泡立つビール醸し出す     

meigetsu ya  awadatsu biiru  kamoshidasu

by John McDonald, a Scottish poet

Harvest Moon ―

i look for you in

other’s poems

名月や詩の中句の中輝けり

meigetsu ya  shi no naka ku no naka  kagayakeri

by Devika Jyothi, an Indian poet

                                                              ―　Hidenori  Hiruta

I am no gamer, more like a lamer to be honest.

I play girl games on ds like sims, mystery case files and anything cute and fluffy.

Recently, I have added harvest moon to my collection. To those who don’t know me, I am a city girl through and through my farming experience is limited to a roadtrip to a few country pubs and a plantation horse ride in Vanuatu.

Sowing, watering and harvesting crops is a great way to pass the time on a computer game but when it comes to real life I would prefer to swipe that magical plastic card and have someone hand me those freshly harvested, washed, organic fruits and vegetables…

… But nothing beats your virtual cows having virtual calves, it’s so cute

Come a little bit closer
Hear what I have to say
Just like children sleepin’
We could dream this night away.

But there’s a full moon risin’
Let’s go dancin’ in the light
We know where the music’s playin’
Let’s go out and feel the night.

– Neil Young

]]> http://gypsyzingaro.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/carl-sandburg-where-have-you-been-all-my-life/ Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:34:10 +0000 Janis Alanis http://gypsyzingaro.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/carl-sandburg-where-have-you-been-all-my-life/

So I have had the lucky break of grade 4 class being cancelled for the Harvest Moon event thingie being held in our gymnasium… so I decided to blog a bit… (Yes… Harvest Moon like the amazing Nintendo game… which you can get on either DS, Gameboy (Advance/Color) & Wii.

The kiddies all made wassabbiees (scarecrows… and I know I am not spelling it right) for the event which was fun. 70 odd kids running around making 7.5 foot scarecrows was quite interesting… and with this I will like to propose a small though about Korean society:

Children are treated like citizens at an early age

I mean the kiddies are half-baked essentially… some of them have only been out of the womb for 4 and a bit years which is really only 1460-1825 days old… most of my kindergarteners especially dont even have their own personalities yet. They are completely blank… its kinda scary…

But from grade 1 in English Class we do activities where students use adult scissors… and they use them like its nobody’s business too. If you try and help them they will either cry, stop all together (you want to do it! you do it all then!) or complain about being helped.

Students are told what to do… like loading cars or school buses without any supervision whatsoever… just like… ‘go move enough food for 100 people into the buses… ask a friend to help’.  They clean their classrooms and gather other students just like an adult would – its actually quite extraordinay.

So we are making wassabbeees and the grade 3ers are on their lonesome for a bit… so you had like 5 kiddies trying to hold up a 7.5 foot monster (the kids all drew scary faces on the heads) which had way too much hay in the clothing… and instead of helping them carry them I said ‘… put it over there’… I think I am officially a Korean teacher now haha

But yeah entrusting kids with responsibility at a young age and not babying them makes holistic adults and great students.  I mean the only reason why grade 3 knows how to tell the time in English, basic sentence structure, continuous as opposed to past is because – when I ask them to do something – they just do it… I even taught them word form before they learnt in

Anyways… now we have wassaaabbees everywhere in our lil town… and harvest is almost over. Hay stalks are collected into a neat lil teepee stance all across the rice fields. Lets say in the 5 km radius round my house there is 120 fields… for about 120 bundles of hay each… thats a lot of hay hanging around.

The grade 6ers are angsty and unfocussed… they had their grad photos yesterday so teaching them straight after was a bad idea. I spent an hour making a cool little worksheet for them for next week and then subsequently scrutched it up and through it out with my end-of-day paper trash… great…

For reference this is how off I am when saying ’scarecrow’ in Hangeul…

허수아비 = [heo][su][a][bi]

Oh… I brought up Wasabi… cos Im off to Toyko in four (4) weeks to see my aunt Fey as well as Li & Mel – cant wait! Ramen, octopus balls, wasabi! themed restuarants… crazy TV shows… hmmm

I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t live up to my own request.  This is the inside of my fridge at the moment, with Harvest Moon and Hornsby’s Hard Cider.  autumnal flavors at their best.  Friday afternoon I was walking out of my building and promoters for Illy Espresso were handing out cases of their new Espresso drink.  I was wearing pink tights and leather boots, and probably am their target demographic, so they gave me a case and asked me to pose with a can.  Me trying to kick my coffee addiction has obviously not been helped by this.  I am now a happy woman with my fridge stocked with essentials for fall.

While working in LICM’s Communications Office, I have been researching “mommy blogs”.  There are some f***ing disturbing material on mommy blogs.  Like this …a Childbirthing Education Doll that some one MADE.  Some one out there in the world THOUGHT this would be a cute idea and MADE it.  IT EXISTS.  I’m sorry for posting this photo.  It is disturbing.  My mother does this kind of crocheting but made cute animals for my sisters and I when growing up.  Now, I will never look at homemade crafts the same way again.  Ugh.  Click on the image to see more photos – including the baby with the umbilical cord attached.  GAH!  There are also a LOT of blogs about keeping sex alive after having kids.  While I agree that mommy bloggers are a powerful force to be reckoned with, after reading many I have reaffirmed the fact that I will not be mature enough to have children for a few years.

On a better note…guess who is going to CMJ?

THIS LIL LADY!

I also had a pleasant little revelation last night as I was gallivanting in the LES and Brooklyn.  I use to have a habit of romanticizing a past I was never alive for.  The ’60s, Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory, speakeasies…..and then I realized that in the future, there will be people looking back and wishing they were living during this time.  Every young, alternative generation does the same thing – we work hard for the creative jobs we love, we aren’t so high maintenance that we wouldn’t drink the shitty beer once in a while, we will forego sleep and money to see a film/band/club/party/friends etc. amazing enough that will change our perception of life forever, we know that we won’t be around forever, so we take advantage of the time we have now.

which is how I’m convincing myself that I should forego sleep and money in order to see as much of CMJ as possible this week.

Yellow, somewhere over Minneapolis / St. Paul, Minnesota, October 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

gassing up the plane
yellow sun on horizon
I’m running on fumes

restless night owl
wings clipped over the Midwest
sleeping in mid-air

voicemail remains full
apologies to callers
delayed housekeeping

wings bobbing in sun
to avoid motion sickness
touch wrist pressure points

Northwest bites the dust
D-E-L-T-A imprint on cookie
“Skymiles with Biscoff”

ankles and joints swell
somewhere over Ohio
depressurizing

smoldering remnants
of the way it used to be
cause a lot of pain

nothing can contain
my rattling restless spirit
banging in the night

Liz rises at 5
and defrags my Toshiba
gift from the heavens

BWI
destination Baltimore
home of Ace of Cakes

high altitude yawns
saturate before using
low oxygen lungs

overweight luggage
travels with Baggage Angels
checks and balances

strange things worry me
laundry, shoes, and broken glass
where is my Space pen?

clouds dance on wing tips
full of milk and sky cookies –
I’m hungry to write

opening the door
family collectibles
hide in my closet

in for a landing
sun shines over Baltimore
gloomy clouds below

______________________

Note: All is well on my travels. Wrote these haiku on the plane yesterday morning. So much has happened since I arrived in Pennsylvania. Feels like I’ve been gone a week. My sister made sliced pork with peach glaze, mashed potatoes, green beans, and Southern banana pudding. My mother made chili, grits, and took me shopping for Fall outfits. My brother and Liz helped me out with a small glitch in the BlackBerry modem. All fixed now.

Tomorrow morning we start the 10-12 hour drive down to Georgia. Will try to check in as we roll over the Mason-Dixon line. We will travel through quite a few states before hitting the Savannah River. Will try to keep in touch. Writing and photography seem like the right things to be doing. Grateful for the opportunity. More as I know it. Time, time, time, time, time.

And the New Moon. New beginnings. Some call October’s Full Moon the Blood Moon. Prepare for the cold dark months ahead. Honor your ancestors. Let go of what is unnecessary. The veil between the worlds is thin.

-posted on red Ravine, Sunday, October 18th, 2009

When I was a kid, I found the song “Shine on Harvest Moon” haunting. What does “I ain’t had no lovin’ since…mean to an 8-year-old? Pretty scary stuff! I got that the weather was changing and there wasn’t much time for this lovin’ stuff, so better get to it while the harvest moon was shining. That made sense, but what did that have to do with harvesting?

A “Harvest Moon” designation goes to the full moon that occurs closest to the Autumnal (fall) Equinox when there is less time between sunset and the moonrise than at any other time of year. The Harvest Moon usually comes in September, but sometimes it will fall in early October as is did this year, occurring on October 4. The harvest Moon used to be a necessity for farmers who harvested into the night. Now their behemoth machinery light up the night so that harvesting can continue regardless of daylight hours.

Just about every culture has its Autumn festivals. In China, the Harvest Moon or Mid-Autumn Festival celebrates the time when the harvest moon is full in the sky, signaling a time of abundance after the harvest. In America we celebrate the harvest when it is basically over (Thanksgiving). That makes sense to me. So let’s celebrate our harvest (as small as it may be) and rejoice in the abundance in our lives. Sing along with me……………………………..

Shine on, shine on harvest moon,
I ain’t had no lovin’
Since January, February, June or July.
Snow time ain’t no time to stay
Outdoors and spoon,
So shine on, shine on harvest moon,
For me and my gal.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joiseyshowaa/

So I have a lot of work I need to get caught up on from my long weekend… btw Dallas was AMAZING! I will slowly be updating you all on the crazy busy exciting things that went down this weekend

For starters, while chilling at my cousin’s house one night, him and Luke decided to start playing their guitars and one of the songs they played was so sweet. I just knew we had to add it to our wedding playlist.

What are some must play songs on your wedding playlist?