Back in the water!

[MarkShot]

An example of my meager Chinese writing practice:

家姊，

你有空的時候，生來我們的房间。我給你看我怎麼寫中文。｢用電腦｣

拜拜。

[MarkShot]

Speaking of water.  Right now, we would probably be evacuating from Hurricane Sandy.

Well, despite that our house is still in the path, we are 13,000 miles away which is about evacuated as you can get!

[Staggerwing]

An example of my meager Chinese writing practice:

家姊，

你有空的時候，生來我們的房间。我給你看我怎麼寫中文。｢用電腦｣

拜拜。

Google translates that as:

Jiazi, when you have the time, born of our room. I'll show you how to write Chinese. "Computer bye.

'born of our room'?  ???

[Oche]

From my setup off of Hitachi.  Note, in the second screen shot ... the fish impact count down timer ... and the bottom of the screen my OOD reporting "Dud torpedo, Sir!".  That is really upsetting after such a great attack run!!!

I miss that TDC station...With the "Rig for Red" light looks even better.

If you get instructed to do a Recon Mission or a Lifeguard mission please take some screenshots, i miss those too.

[MarkShot]

Staggerwing,

You caught my mistake.  I am writing Chinese using a system from the PRC that allows input phonetically.  It's called pinyin.

So, I type "sheng" and it gives me a character.  But there are many characters which correspond to the same phonetics, but that have different meanings.  Now, generally, the IME (Input Method Engine) on Windows picks the right one.  Think of it like the thumb typing engine under an iPhone, but on steroids.  However, occasionally, it will chose wrong.  At which point, I should bring up a list of alternates.  I failed to realize I used the wrong character.

I used:

生

to give birth, when I meant:

上

which this whole example is off, since it is "shang" with a slightly different sound meaning to come up.

The mail was meant to say, "Big Sister, When you have time, come up to our room.  I will show you how I am writing Chinese.  (with a computer)"

[MarkShot]

BTW, the reason Google comes up with "jiazi" for

家姊

is that the above is really spoken Cantonese (meaning eldest sister).  Proper written Chinese uses only the Mandarin dialect.  But, of course, as I speak Cantonese I tend use Cantonese expressions.  Further, my big sister, wife's friend is Cantonese and a lot of Cantonese from Hong Kong tend to write like they speak despite what is considered proper.

So, if I had used:

大姊

Google would have done a better job of it.

[MarkShot]

Going back out on patrol ... but first to all those in Sandy's path stay safe ... were it not for a week, I think I would have been more or less on her landfall.

[Staggerwing]

Thanks for the lesson. I doubt I'd have a snowball's chance in Hel of learning more than a bit of any kind of Chinese alphabet.

[MarkShot]

It would be easy if there was any form of alphabet, but instead there are 40,000 characters (pictographs) and you need know, at least, 2,000 to be literate.  Most words are combinations of two or three characters.  To give you an idea of how these things combine.  However, pinyin lets me create these characters with phonetics and keyboard.

電話 = electric voice = telephone; dian hua

電腦 = electric brain = computer; dian nao

電風扇 = electric wind hand fan = fan; dian feng shan

[LongBlade]

It would be easy if there was any form of alphabet, but instead there are 40,000 characters (pictographs) and you need know, at least, 2,000 to be literate.  Most words are combinations of two or three characters.  To give you an idea of how these things combine.  However, pinyin lets me create these characters with phonetics and keyboard.

電話 = electric voice = telephone; dian hua

電腦 = electric brain = computer; dian nao

電風扇 = electric wind hand fan = fan; dian feng shan

I lived in Japan for a while. Never learned to write, but I could read simple signs and such.

Chinese is far more complex. I don't envy you for that task. But I do like the fact that you speak Cantonese. It should make the other dialects seem simple by comparison.

[MarkShot]

He he he ... one of the advantages of being a captain of sub in a video game is the ability to fall asleep on watch.  :)

Nothing to report from last night's surface barrier cruise along Hitachi.  I am surprised that there hasn't  been any air activity around the Japanese home islands.  If this was SH2/PA or AOD, I would have found myself being forced down frequently due to AC sightings.

[Nefaro]

Nothing to report from last night's surface barrier cruise along Hitachi.  I am surprised that there hasn't  been any air activity around the Japanese home islands.  If this was SH2/PA or AOD, I would have found myself being forced down frequently due to AC sightings.

If it were vanilla SH4, you'd have aircraft flying over every two hours, no matter where you are.  :P

One thing terribly annoying about the newer SH'es, and one of my first adjustments made.

[MarkShot]

I had turned down the number air bases (floating AC spawn locations) in SH2/PA.  Although possibly realistic, it was just a pain having to crash dive so often.

[Oche]

He he he ... one of the advantages of being a captain of sub in a video game is the ability to fall asleep on watch.  :)

Nothing to report from last night's surface barrier cruise along Hitachi.  I am surprised that there hasn't  been any air activity around the Japanese home islands.  If this was SH2/PA or AOD, I would have found myself being forced down frequently due to AC sightings.

Pacific Aces is a very good mod and still makes up for a fun campaign, the constant AC patrols are really annoying for the fact that you don't get enough time to Crash dive to safe depth but that can be the least of my worries, the one thing i hate is the laser guided depth charges, I remember modding the depth charge accuracy so that the cans explode at random depths instead of ALWAYS exploding at the exact depth of your sub, i will have to get back into that.

[MarkShot]

You can either hack the generator templates or post process the generated campaign files to reduce AC frequency. SH2/PA was itself very moddable. :)