Nice site illustrating the artisanship behind the goban
I had come across this site which is all in Japanese. The company's name translates to Heron Mountain (鷺山). Google's translation tools doesn't do the best job of rendering it in English.
The site, however, gives you an opportunity to see the artisanship that goes into making a high-quality goban. Four of the most interesting pages illustrate:
In other news
Work is slowing down, but not by much. My company is still dealing with many material shortages. That's good news (since it means that customer demand is strong) but it's demanding a lot of micro-management. Needless to say, it also makes it hard for me to study or play Go.
ChiyoChan was upset when she got the details for the next round of the spelling bee. It fell on the same date as one of her basketball games. Even though these elementary-level leagues are for fun and development, she still didn't want to be absent and let her team down.
Her coach, Angela, and her teammates came to ChiyoChan's rescue. They signed a WNBA basketball with their wishes of support and presented to her in a mini-ceremony during practice. It is enshrined on her nightstand and she's now feeling amped. That wasn't just a thoughtful gesture; it was an empowering one. Way to go, girls!!
Blessed be the ball. Perhaps it shall bring thee great fortune.As we've learned, ChiyoChan's next round of competition isn't distict-wide; it's regional. That means she's competing against champions from all of the elementary and middle schools of Northern California.
This is one of those interesting instances where, as a parent, I prefer to let her call the shots and see where her ambition leads her. I've already told her that she has nothing to lose if she doesn't make it into the next round because it's usually an 8th grader that represents Northern California to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC. She still wants to take it seriously and we'll be doing drills together.
posted by ChiyoDad @ 9:04 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Your attitude is really heartening! She's lucky. I suppose you've already seen "Spellbound" a few times?
g-fav
Hello g-fav! Actually, we haven't seen Spellbound and we didn't know of the video until after ChiyoChan won the last round. We've added it to our Netflix queue.
These competitions are great for encouraging children to broaden their vocabularies and for giving them yet another possible goal to aspire for.
For me, part of the fun has been introducing her to the etymolgy of words as I learned them in Ida Ehrlich's Instant Vocabulary back when I was a teenager.
ChiyoDad,
The translation of the site that demonstrates the production of a Go-ban is very funny. Here is the translation for the link to see how they produce the lines:
"Until the checker board it is possible, the graduation"
Thanks for pointing out the site. I've always been interested in the process and would go on tour of a Go-ban production facility at the drop of a stone.
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