Final Curiosities for Chapter 15

This final pages only have one main curiosity: the doctor shouting "help" in Finnish.

At this point of the story where these guys come from and what they have been through should be quite clear even though I never fully explained their background in details... I play on your ability to use induction instead of the usual deduction method (that is also rather misleading and brings to assumptions rather than conclusions).

This chapter was quite tough to unravel: it's about assumptions.

I admit it, I am a big enemy of assumptions. When somebody tells me "I just assumed" I want to slap them in the face... usually I either get in trouble or my life will turn into a living Hell for a couple of weeks.

I'd rather have people ask me first or at least gather enough informations before coming to a conclusion.

Usually that happens for lost ability to focus or laziness - very often that will force me to work twice as much to fix the problem - because instead of thinking backward, using induction, searching for the source at its start people uses what is immediate and recent and therefore come up with their own solution... by using deduction.

What's the difference between deduction and induction? Deduction works like this: it rains, the floor will be wet. Induction works like this: the floor is wet, it must have rained.

In short what Sherlock Holmes uses is an induction, not a deduction: elementary my dear Watson. :D

Add on top that most of the times when you point out the fact that the deduction is actually damaging you I often hear this answer: gee, I was trying to do you a favor.

Now, some people are quite transparent and state what they want. I am like that. But I swear that whatever I sad for the first 26 years of my life must have been in Turkish Ottoman because for the sake of my future and many other things my life was complicated and turned into a nightmare. Hence with the best intention the worst damages were procured.

After that I decided to remove myself from all the people who wanted to do me a favor and my favorite line became: do me a favor, don't do me a favor!

I have been living by myself since I was 17, found true independence only at 25. It was hard.

So since this is a theme so dear to me I wanted to put it in the comic. Translate it in the lives of our pirate friends, and show just how much troublesome altruism can be when it does not meet the other person's demand.

I wonder if anything like that happened to you as well.

The Pirate Balthasar - Chapter 15 - END

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Chapter 15 C curiosities

Here I am with the curiosities for this past release.

The curiosities, this time around, concern mainly just one thing: Catulli Carmina.

If you are enrolled into classical studies, in high school and afterwards during University, you cannot avoid Catullus.

I never went for classical studies but my best friend did and she was the one who introduced his poetry to me when I was but 16 years old and I fell in love with the guy.

He is funny and romantic... just my type of stuff!

The Carme cited in the comic goes like this:

Lesbia mi dicit semper male nec tacet umquam, de me: Lesbia me dispeream nisi amat.
Quo signo? Quia sunt totidem mea: deprecor illam assidue, uerum dispeream nisi amo.

The translation, done by me in a very sucky sucky way, is what Kane is reading to Castalia.

There are plenty of good poetries in his book of Carmina, including the most wonderful "Odi et amo" and of course poem 5, "Vivamus mea Lesbia" which is the one where he goes: "give me a thousand kisses, then one hundred, then a thousand more, then a second hundred...." - in short to the point that they share so many kisses they will lose count.
He's sweet.
My favorite is still the one where he gets very very upset at Marrucino for stealing his kerchief! It's hilarious!

Anyways, this is the kind of stuff I was reading at 16 and still follows me around after more than 20 years. It's true love.

The Pirate Balthasar - Chapter 15 C

They find my luggage, may the gods of the seven seas be praised!

I am going to celebrate by releasing 2 hours earlier!

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Chapter 15 B curiosities

Sorry it took me very long. I was supposed to post them yesterday but they fumigated my area in the morning - to my surprise as there were no sign nor email sent regarding this thing (in fact I had to redo my laundry because it was too late when I realized the smoke had smoked all my clothes already) - so I was forced to stay indoor and could not come downstairs to check my internet and post the curiosities.

So here we go today.

More than a curiosities this is a clarification (I hate it when people fight over things in the comment area, people can have opposite opinion and still share the love for the same things, I believe).

What happens here? This is a very traditional technique used in old comics that was taken from movies, it's called: Cut away.

In short when you flip a page there are two possibilities: either the scene continues from the previous one or you jump in time and location.

When the second thing occur you cannot go back to the subject of the original scene so you cut to something else that could take place at the same time as what we don't scene happening on scene.

I can't remember what famous director said that: a story happens between cuts and life happens during the ellipses. :D

So what happened here, in the end is that Kane took Castalia away from the treasure room and I decided not to show it. I've decided, instead, to use the sky (a visual symbol) to show the outdoor without specifying where the outdoor was.

It's not the first time I leave you to your own induction. It's because I simply cannot stand the spoon feeding going on in contemporary storytelling: it's completely unnecessary and readers are not stupid.

Also I am all for action-reaction. I might show you the event first and the outcome later. Putting them together flattens storytelling out, it's like giving the solution before the problem starts.

Pifo asked for something and the doctor wants to be assured that Kane agrees.

Apparently not only Kane agrees but gives Pifo instructions (after getting rid of his brother, whose queer is of no use to Pifo's problem).

Which leads us back to the first scene where the doctor gives Pifo what he asked for... and what he asked for needed Kane's permission.

This page has a haiku structure. :D

As for what the doctor gave him.... my guess would be anything based on olive oil. When you read about ancient history there is always something about sex and olive oil (not to mention some types of infused olive oil where considered aphrodisiacs).

Lubricants are as old as time for Greek Love, even though it might not have been officially accepted in some ancient societies - like the Romans - (and in some occasion persecuted - but especially in cases when the behavior was not considered appropriate)... it was, in facts, just strictly regulated but part of the culture and everyday life. Most of the times overlooked. Many many times it was the main topic to excellent writing too (see Catullus).

Why leaves and not pages?

Because a leaf has two faces and those faces are called pages.

So what Kane is trying to say is that not only we have many pages in our books... we have many leaves: there is double face to a leaf.

Like a medal has two faces. In short he is telling her that the same emotion and the same thought can have 2 faces and these to faces could be contradictory. Kane believes in opposites coexisting.

And this is it for this week, sorry to keep you waiting.

I would like to thank the people who already send me their Pirate Trinkets for the Pirate Day celebration! :D Moaaar moaaar!

The Pirate Balthasar - Chapter 15 - B

It's release day, let me post it now before I get so busy and tired I might forget. As usual you can click on the title of the post to go and read it on Smack Jeeves.

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Chapter 15 curiosities

Countdown reset. 11 days to go to next release, I hope you enjoyed this one.
The calendar is now set for the whole chapter 15 but I must fix it for chapter 16 (as I shifted the next breakdown).

But now... time for the curiosities of the week.

Cheese goes crack! That's because it's firm. In Italian that would be called: formaggio stagionato (which means "seasoned" as in... old.)

The most famous is probably the Parmiggiano kind, or as they call it in English... Parmesan Cheese (it's 2 years old).

My guess is they are eating Pecorino... let me tell you, you put some honey and pepper on Tuscan pecorino (my favorite type, although I should prefer the Roman type being from nearby Rome) and it's heavenly Heaven. In Sicily pecorino is mild and goes through several stages (from soft to firm). The medium one, called Primo Sale is typically salt-less and it's ideal on Sfincione pizza.

So my guess is, being Cat a sweet-tooth, they are eating primo sale! Droool. It's soft enough to be cracked bare hands, makes a crack sound but it's soft enough and juicy enough and not too salty... so it can be eating with some nice bread. I love it!

This is a silly thing... you might have noticed that Callista's heart does not go badump badump... it goes tutump tutump like somebody banging on a door or against a wall.

It's a knocking sound.

Reason for this is that she does not feel the sound in her chest but in hear head, that's why she cannot sleep. The noise is keeping her up.

Heartbeats felt in your chest make your heart flutter as if it wanted to escape the rib-cage. When you feel it in your temples and ears you are feeling a different form of excitement and it's the type that will keep you awake at night.

Pon pons?

The correct English spelling would be Pom-pons, it comes from the French //pompòn//. Now in Italian that became phonetic pon pon and somehow more onomatopoeic (I don't know I feel the "n" have more of a bouncy bouncy feel to it ha ha ha).

Currently Tonno is not doubting the fact that they'll be using Pom-pons for gymnastics. It's trying to figure out what they are by shaking them and the sound he hears (the one you see in the sfx) is pons pons, hence he is wondering: pon-pons?

Sex strikes are an often underestimated form of protest.

The doctor calls it embargo XDD which is far worse because you are supposed to cut all contact with a particular Country in an attempt to isolate it.

I have a feeling he'll go from embargo to strike quite soon.

The Pirate Balthasar - Chapter 15 A

They must have done something to the campus server again because it was almost impossible to navigate yesterday (cookie conflicts everywhere I go) and it is still impossible to access Deviant Art.

Of course, as usual, you can click on the title of the post to go and read it on Smack Jeeves.

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Preview?

I don't have anything to post, today... mhhh... mainly because that mermaid thingy is taking a lot of my time (and I am on page 39 of chapter 15, trying to finish the chapter as soon as I can), plus the update will be going up soon.

So I will post these 3 images from chapter 15 - which has a lot of Cat and Callista but... I'd rather not show muahahahah.

So, on the side a few funny things will happen and these are some them.

Any guess?

Have a good Week End

Alright guys... 10 days is a lot to wait for the next update....

But the next one is also the one that will close the chapter so: what will happen next? Who's on the cover for chapter 15?

Initially I thought Cat and Callista would be on the cover of this chapter as well... then I counted the pages again and found out they would be on chapter 16 instead.

So how about we put Pifo and Quoque for once? Since their relationship is also cementing day by day? They're growing up ;_; sigh sob... my babies are growing up ;_;