---
title: Miscellanea
language: en
ref: misc
translationKey: misc
disable_feed: true
---

Here are some miscellanous things I do.

## Conlangs

<dfn>Conlang</dfn> stands for *constructed language*.  Many people created
conlangs for hobby or as linguistic experiments.

I was inspired by the conlangs in <i>Inheritance Cycle</i> and <i>The Lord of
the Rings</i>, as well as others like Esperanto, Dothraki, Toki Pona, et al and
conlang from time to time as a hobby.  None of my conlangs reached its
maturity, though, mainly due to loss of copies and lack of time.

Some of my conlangs:

- [Hàäsdáïga](/haasdaiga)
- [Ravna](/ravna)

## Books

I'm not the bookworm I used to be, reading mostly mainstream books. Some books
I read and liked:

- <i>Dế Mèn phiêu lưu kí</i>, a famous children book in Vietnamese about an
    arrogant cricket who learned humility and altruism during his journey.
- <i>The adventures of Valya and Karik</i>, a Russian children book (my copy
    was a Vietnamese translation) about the adventures of shrunken children in
    which they learn about small animals around them.
- <i>Sans famille</i>, a story about a child who had to leave his family for
    poverty, though now that I think about it, it sounds like children
    trafficking and child labor.
- <i>Nineteen Eighty-Four</i>, a dystopian tragedy that is often mistaken as
    criticism of socialism, while the actual object is authoritanism and mass
    surveillance.
- <i>The Hobbit</i> and <i>The Lord of the Rings</i>, the well-known fantasy
    franchise
- <i>Inheritance Cycle</i>, often labeled as rip-off <i>Star Wars</i> by haters
- <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>, a book that's supposed to be satire but I didn't
    know enough to understand these deep meanings.
- <i>Le petit prince</i>, a novella with a childish theme but discuss many
    aspects of life in a lighthearted way.

Books I'm reading:

- [XKCD what if](what-if)
- [Ellana][ellana] (<i>Le Pacte des MarchOmbres</i> series) (French)
- <i>The Necromancer</i> (<i>The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel</i>
    series)
- <i>A Storm of Swords</i>(<i>A Song of Ice and Fire</i> series)

[what-if]: https://store.xkcd.com/pages/if-you-re-looking-for-the-what-if-book
[ellana]: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL24210815W/Le_Pacte_des_MarchOmbres_-_Ellana

## Comics

Reading comics is my pastime.  I follow several webcomics, some of which you
may have heard of:

- [xkcd](https://xkcd.com): nerd stuff
- [SMBC](https://smbc-comics.com): more nerd stuff, and usually less concise
- [Oglaf](https://www.oglaf.com/): silly and occasionally NSFW comics
- [Dinosaur comics](https://qwantz.com/): a 5-panel comics with only dialogues
    changing

I also enjoy drawing every now and then, not that I want to be an artist or I
draw well.  I just find scribbling something fun.  I recently decided to post
[my scribbles](/comics/) on this website.