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Thursday, July 30th, 2009
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1:12 pm - Sharing a moment with J.C.
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I was listening to Ulysses (ALT) today... nothing new, I love that poem, I listen to it often enough. But today I cried. It was so pretty. I don't think I could ever write something so perfect.
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| Saturday, July 25th, 2009
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2:50 pm - In Which It Was Supposed To Be The Other Way Around
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I have a bad case of the Poor. And so when I lost track of my poor red headphones I was looking for a place to get a set on the Cheap. The Green Zebra suggested Big Lots, and so today I betook myself there. Holy crap. I have never seen so very many Cheap As Free things. Of course, I went for a ten dollar set of headphones and came out with seventy dollars worth of EVERYTHING EVER. And the only bummer was the new flashlight I bought which... doesn't work. I should take it back later today. But I've got some cleaning to do first.
I bought two new pillows (16$) and four new pillowcases (12$). This is the first step on a path to getting myself an actual bed.
TCE
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| Friday, July 24th, 2009
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6:02 pm - Fiat lux...
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Holacrap.
A fuse blew in my apartment, and I all, found the fuse box, and figured out which one it was, and made the light go again.
That was at once terrifying, exciting, and... masculating? Is that a word?
TCE
EDITS: I've also noticed that Conan O'Brian says 'This Is True' and other various affirming statements a lot... when he actually means that something is true (he then goes on to add something that is, contrariwise, NOT true). You know you've been reading too many Roman Historians when the phrase 'This Is True' automatically makes you think 'This Is Not True.'
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7:18 am - Buh?
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I'm not really listening to the radio, but I thought it just said that Pres./Michelle Obama ate at the Corner last night.
TCE
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| Saturday, May 16th, 2009
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5:55 pm - Star Trek
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There's a movie theatre in Charlottesville which is ONLY playing Star Trek. Star Trek: Digital and Star Trek: Non Digital.
I'm really amused.
I'm also going to go abuse my brain with Angels and Demons. I read that book while I was in Rome, and I'd really love the good memories I have of my Rome semester trampled on.
TCE
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12:08 pm - Ha!
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I just saw the season finale of 30 Rock. Best. M*A*S*H. Joke. Ever.
I had to rewind it about seven times just to listen to the line over and over again. I was like, he didn't actually just say that, did he?
Also, when looking for some movie to put on to drift off to sleep to, the Cowboy and Indian genre should be avoided. You will be almost asleep before an unending tirade of ululations and gunshots will wake you up.
TCE
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| Saturday, May 9th, 2009
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5:47 pm - The hair! The short!
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| Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
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6:20 pm - Summer themes
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I know it's summer because I've stopped sleeping with blankets on. It's not that it's that hot, yet, but in the evenings it just gets unbearably warm in the apartment. Well, not unbearably, but it certainly feels better to be sleeping without a blanket. The only downside is that it's cold in the mornings, so I wake up chilly. Later in the summer this will NOT be a problem.
I started taking walks this semester; not walks to get any particular place, just walks to get me moving around a little bit every day, or, well, almost every day.
I picked out a path that's three miles long according to Google Maps, and have decided that's going to be my summertime walking route. My goal is to do the three miles every day. I've done it the last two days in approximately the following chunks: One mile to the corner for lunch, one half a mile to the Library for Greek, one mile and a half home again. We'll see if it keeps up. But two points at least establish a straight line, right? Or am I thinking of some other sort of math?
TCE
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| Monday, April 27th, 2009
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5:39 pm - Yikes!
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So I took my Greek quiz, after much hemming and hawing. Hawwing? Anyhow, I came out from the office where I was taking the quiz and I smelled something burning, so, like you do, I poked my head into the TA office to laugh at whoever had burnt something in the microwave. They let me know that there was a fire down on JPA. I go to class. Yikes.
I take the bus home after class, and they won't go down JPA because of the fire. I get off on Stadium road and start up the hill. JPA looks fine, but imagine my surprise when the street that my apartment's on has been blocked off to traffic.
And there were two firetrucks surrounding the corner of the building in which my apartment is housed.
Yeah, there was some panic.
It turns out to have been a brush fire over by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) meleth's apartment. Nobody was hurt. But crap, that was scary.
I can't imagine what the day's looking like from meleth's perspective, first Neil Gaiman and then the smoke blocking out the sun outside her apartment.
TCE
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| Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
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2:26 pm
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Exams, Day 6.
Latin Commentary.
Estimated Chances of passing: 25%
Yeah-- it was bad.
Tacitus. I thought I'd be okay commenting on Tacitus. I was wrong. The other option was Cicero, which was just ten sorts of not happening.
The other passage was okay, Catullus 64. Blah blah epyllion, blah blah disobedient ekphrasis.
But if Prof. Woodman sees how I butchered the Tacitus passage, which is a pretty good bet, I will fail.
Ugh.
And now am feeling sickly and crampy and need sleep. But I've got a big quiz tomorrow, of all things.
TCE
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8:36 am - Wow.
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Do I ever feel unprepared for this. More remarkable is how little I mind. Still waiting for the moment of panic. Until then, one of my recent favorite poems.
Never until the mankind making
Bird beast and flower
Fathering and all humbling darkness
Tells with silence the last light breaking
And the still hour
Is come of the sea tumbling in harness
And I must enter again the round
Zion of the water bead
And the synagogue of the ear of corn
Shall I let pray the shadow of a sound
Or sow my salt seed
In the least valley of sackcloth to mourn
The majesty and burning of the child's death.
I shall not murder
The mankind of her going with a grave truth
Nor blaspheme down the stations of the breath
With any further
Elegy of innocence and youth.
Deep with the first dead lies London's daughter,
Robed in the long friends,
The grains beyond age, the dark veins of her mother,
Secret by the unmourning water
Of the riding Thames.
After the first death, there is no other.
Dylan Thomas, "A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London."
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| Monday, April 20th, 2009
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5:16 pm - It's worse than that...
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After a momentary bout of euphoria in the wake of today's exam, by brain has crashed. I tried to talk intelligently about Lucretius today. Hell, I tried to talk intelligently about whether I was sitting down or standing up today, and failed. No wonder nobody ever passes all four exams. Three and my mind is a puddle of goo. And I had stuff I was atually counting on reviewing tonight... mrrrgh. Well, at least today's was lovely. If I suck at tomorrow's I'll be sad, but not too sad. I can take it again.
Collapse time now.
TCE
current mood:  blank
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| Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
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2:37 pm - Ugh.
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If you're not sure the salami is still good, not even a late-night craving for salami should compel you to try it.
In other news, I felt well enough yesterday to go out to a film, so I did. Stopped at Basil on the way, and got there around 6:45 to choose from among the films starting around seven. And oh, there were so many movies to choose from. Iron Man, which I was shocked was still playing, which I wanted to see when it first came out. Hellboy II, which I hear is excellent, though I never saw the first one. Several other movies that looked appealing. In the end I opted for a film I'd only heard dreadful things about, but had wanted to see ever since seeing the previews on TV at Cindy's house: The Happening.
I went online afterward to read some reviews of the film, because I was confused. I mean, it wasn't a great film, but it was certainly better than a lot of them. I'll go behind a cut, now, for those who haven't seen the movie yet and who might want to be unspoiled about it-- though there really isn't anything of note to spoil.
( Why I liked the creepy, creepy movie. )
TCE
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| Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
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12:52 pm - Travel plans and the rest.
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Travel plans keep getting pushed back and back. I was leaving yesterday morning, no, yesterday evening, no, this morning, wait, no, waiting on word whether it'll be tonight or tomorrow morning. Guess which I'm thinking?
Travel plans which are dependent upon other people are inconvenient in this manner. But that's okay, 'cause I've had laundry to do, and sitting here like 'I could be leaving ANY MOMENT' is a great excuse for me to watch House instead of do anything useful. Fortunately I'm done with season two, now, except for the last episode, which I'm hesitating looking at because it was the first episode of House that I watched in its entirety and the reason I never wanted to watch House again.
Other sad news: The webcomic Minus is finished. While I don't think drawing a piece out past artistic inspiration is a good idea, I will miss my Thursday glamour fix.
( Read more... )
TCE
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| Monday, June 30th, 2008
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12:35 pm - Redcap Dreams
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Last night's dreams were weird and terrible. Writing down what I remember before I forget even more.
- Mel, Mom and I are in Grammie's old house talking about gas prices when Mom mentions that it doesn't matter because at midnight they're going to re-set all the gas prices to some reasonable rate. Midnight tonight? I wonder, but no, she's talking more about that metaphorical midnight that symbolizes the end of the world. I'm wondering who's going to buy gas after the world ends when the world actually starts ending, bombs dropping and Mel's trying to get in touch with Vince on the phone, but the lines are out. I try to head down into the basement and then realize that it's a dream because Grammie's house didn't have a basement. I wonder why I didn't figure that out being in Grammie's house at all, since she hasn't lived there in, what, six years? I wake myself up and wonder how many houses in the US still have bomb shelters. Wouldn't it suck to buy a house with a bomb shelter and then have the world end while you're away on vacation?
- Mel and I and a group of other people get lost on foot in NVA... we can see 66 but nobody will stop to give us a ride. We're in the middle of a swamp full of weird monsters and poisonous plants, and horror-movie-esque all the random people we're with die one by one. Mel and I finally get picked up by the police and taken to a house where everyone else is waiting for us. Miranda is acting really weird and when I look she's got these translucent spidery barbs growing from her fingers, which I think are poisonous. Mel tells me that it's normal at that age. I swear I think I've had that last part of the dream before.
- There's a competition where three guys are locked in three cages, around five feet fall, five feet wide, and eight feet deep, and the first one to eat everything inside wins. I'm just a spectator, and I pick a guy to watch. I only remember he started with a bucket of huge sea urchins and worked his way to the back where there was sitting a family of six (mom, dad, four kids) and their family cat. He was wondering how he was going to tackle the last bit of the meal, and decided to eat everyone's earlobes first, for some reason. I wondered whether he'd have to eat the cat's fur, too.
TCE
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| Sunday, June 29th, 2008
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2:41 pm - Late Update
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If anyone was wondering where I was, or whether I had just fallen off of LJ again, three and a half weeks ago, now, I got the call that my grandmother was in the hospital and was going to be taken off of treatment as per her advanced medical directive (no treatment if she wouldn't be able to recover to a certain quality of life). The day after I left included an exciting afternoon of driving two hours to Moneycar's place to stay the night and then driving forty five minutes back (I was speeding a little) because I got the call that they'd taken her off of the mask that was keeping her alive and she had a few hours. But when I got to the hospital, they hadn't taken off the mask, since they decided they'd keep it on until my aunt could get back from her 25th wedding anniversary vacation in Hawaii.
Marcey got here, we took her off everything, and Grammie lasted another week and a half. On no food, no hydration, and minimal oxygen. She was a tough old bird. When Marcey decided to stay and wait instead of go back to Chicago and wait, I decided to stay with her, since Grammie was the last surviving member of her nuclear family besides Judi, my aunt with early onset Alzheimer's, who really is basically not with us anymore. It was really hard on her, and I didn't want her to be alone for it.
Add to that the time for the viewing and funeral, and then the time I stayed up in NVa because Mel and Vince and the kids were still there, and I got back to C-Ville this past Wednesday night.
I'm doing okay, getting to work again, the usual. I feel... changed, of course, but I can't quite put my finger on whether for the better or the worse. I'm hoping it's the former. Anyhow, sorry for not keeping folk updated. Love you all.
TCE
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| Monday, June 2nd, 2008
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5:28 pm - The best thing ever.
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So I'm finally done with my semester, my last paper's finally finished... I was really happy about it for a while, but my works cited is really... meagre. And when I was reading through it before turning it in today I couldn't help wondering whether it made any sense. But it made sense while I was putting it together, and I probably need a break from looking at the thing, but I'm really excited about it and hope to talk to the prof soon about working it up into a dissertation. There's a lot to do for it, but I sort of have ideas about what those things are. I am way too excited about this paper.
Other than that, let's see. Summertime depression has officially kicked in, but it's not quite to the point of kicking my ass yet. I think I need to take a trip next weekend to fend it off. Gas prices are about to go over four dollars a gallon and the instrument has yet to be invented that could measure my indifference. Maybe because I don't drive... anywhere. So if I have to splurge to fill up the tank before a trip? Not that I should be wasteful, but it's not as bad as all that. Speaking of not being wasteful, I've been AC-free this summer, so far. I've turned on the fan a few times, but for the most part I've just been keeping the lights off and shades drawn and living in my cave, trying to fend off the heat. I made a bold claim to myself that I wasn't going to turn on the AC this summer. It's going to hit 90 this week, though, so we'll see how that goes.
I'm getting sick, too. Scratchy throat, stuffy sinuses. Nasty stuff. Been chugging lemonade in an effort to rid myself of it. I need to go the the grocery store, badly. I've been eating at home so far this summer; I think I can count the number of times I've been out/ordered in a meal on one hand. Crud. Nope, can't. Six. But it's better than my finals-era diet of going to the corner twice a day.
Sorry I haven't been around LJ since finals. I'm probably not going to be going through a month of back posts, so if I missed anything I should know about, probabaly best to make comment upon it here.
Hearts!
TCE
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| Friday, May 9th, 2008
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6:37 am - Bowls
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I found some ridiculously cheap pasta bowls at Kroger, say, four for ten dollars, so I dutifully bought four of them. This was... months ago, at this point. Anyhow. I bought the bowls because all the bowls I had at that point were soup bowls, and soup bowls are actually mildly unfortunate to try to eat pasta out of (though hardly as unfortunate as trying to have it on a plate).
Well, the pasta bowl was just the thing, and, what's more, I find that eating just about anything is easier from a pasta bowl. Including sandwiches. I just put all the fixins up along one side of the bowl and put a hunk of bread in the middle and put it all together as I go.
Bagels are likewise great in a pasta bowl. Mashed potatoes are slightly less so. But I was glad for the purchase.
Except for one thing. I bought four of them, and ever since I bought them I've only ever used one. A simple process of wash bowl/eat from bowl/wash bowl/eat from bowl seems to work pretty well. And since the pasta bowl has become my main article of ceramic ware, I think I've used about three other dishes in the last half of this semester.
I'm like Diogenes with his cup. Soon I'll figure out a way to eat mashed potatoes using only my hands and I'll be rid of tableware forever.
It's kind of depressing, though, buying a set of four bowls because that's typical family standard and then reminding yourself that oh, yeah, you never actually have dinner with anyone other than yourself.
I've got to get going. Yesterday was a wash due to a virus scare on my computer (I kept thinking that the thing was tricking my virus scanner, so I had to sit and watch it closely while it scanned my systems for upwards of 14 hours). I don't know what the glitch was, but I'm hoping there isn't still a virus in here somewhere. The just-updated virus-protection program's 14 hour scan caught nothing, and the computer has been behaving since. So I've got to go finish grading myth journals before the little ones take their final exams.
TCE
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| Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
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11:47 am - Extension dance
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For the first time since I've been at UVA I actually considered asking a prof for an extension on a paper. And then last night we got an e-mail offering an extension to the entire class until the weekend. Which is cause for much rejoicing in the land of Dessa. I was just inspired to write this paper (as opposed to some other crappier paper ideas I was kicking around trying to make work) last week, and so, with the imminent threat of needing it done by 5 PM today removed from overhead, I went home and wrote a bit more and then slept and slept and slept. I'm still nowhere near done, but I think it's going to actually be good when it's finished. I'm hoping to get mostly-done tonight, then spend tomorrow doing bibliography/editing in between grading myth journals.
Senecasenecasenecanotreallyseneca.
And lots of incest. I want to call this paper "The Elegiac Lives of Emperors."
TCE
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| Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
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10:56 am - Imperator.
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I've been pondering on the great unanswerables recently, and I think I've changed my mind as to one of them. Was Julius Caesar a Roman Emperor?
Technically? No. The institutions of the Empire were hammered out by Augustus, and in a much more elegant way than Caesar was trying to do it.
But when you get right down to it, Augustus only came to power through the amassed dignitas he inherited from Caesar. The republican period ended with one man supreme in dignitas over the rest of the state, via his family's creation of a huge clientela in the 90s, via his massive martial victories, and yes, even via the infamous clementia through the fault of which he died. Our Prof considers this clementia to have been a Rather Bad Move, for the reason cited above. But really, isn't it better (within the system of dignitas) to have worthy people owe you big than to have no worthy people around at all? Those Romans who hadn't been part of his clientela before now were, whether they liked it or not. Look at Cato. He knew where the beans fell. He was Caesar's creature, and he couldn't bear to live in such a state. It's hardly surprising that the tyrranicides fashioned themselves after a Greek model: they were doing something openly un-Roman. They weren't killing a tyrant, they were killing their patron.
There was nobody in the end who was not part of Caesar's clientela, and this is perhaps a more essential definition of an emperor than one based on imperial institutions. To be by far the greatest in dignitas, and to not only have the most clients, but to have everyone as a client. This dignitas, passed down to Augustus, was augmented and cemented by another civil war and thorough foreign conquests, and Augustus then set this amount of dignitas in stone along with the borders of the empire. Nobody is allowed to conqer further and add dignitas to the system. The system has all the dignitas it wants, and all of it goes to the emperor, who acts as patron for the entire state. Of course, after Nero did his best to waste the imperial coffers both of dignitas and gold, subsequent emperors had to make foreign campaigns, no less to fill the former than the latter.
In this sense, even if we can't technically call Caesar an emperor, I think he deserves the title for finally tipping the dignitas scale so far in his favor that he became a god.
TCE
EDITS: I can't believe I still remember this song. (To the tune of 'Clementine')
Gaius Julius
Caesar noster,
Imperator,
Pontifex,
Primum Praetor,
Deinde Consul,
Nunc Dictator
Moxque Rex.
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