in aula mea ignis tua est
Jun. 26th, 2006 07:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timerippleWednesday, June 14, 2006
It is wonderful here. The only thing that could possibly make it better, my dear friends, is if you were all here with me. Well, okay, there are a lot of things that could make it slightly better, but that’s the only significant one. There are crazy people and eucalyptus trees, and despite somebody’s attempts to turn Telegraph Avenue into a yuppie paradise it retains a very definable aura of cheery sketchiness.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Apparently, insofar as I understand Dylan Sailor’s presentation of Tacitus, the Roman Empire is the Borg. Who knew?
Monday, June 19, 2006
I have found Teh Bookstores. (Some of them.) Yes, I bought books. *hangs head* But they were pretty, and hard to find elsewhere, and ... yeah, two of them were Shakespeare, with Kinuko Craft covers (Henry IV, Part 1 and Julius Caesar, if you’re interested *cough*Melanie*cough*). I found Johnny Cunningham’s orchestration of “Peter and Wendy” this afternoon at Rasputin. OMG so good. I also worked on Sleeping Beauty and had a look at Goat-Girl, The Sequel yesterday when I should have been reviewing interrogative pronouns. Today, I peeled some orange goo off my jeans. I wonder what that was all about. I also bought an electric toothbrush, but cannot use it without thinking of K.G.’s story (I think it was K.G.) about an electric toothbrush, her college roommate, and morning bathroom routines. Nevertheless, I am enamored and have left the automatic rice cooker (it is brokenhearted and calls me five times a day. Fortunately I do not have an answering machine).
There are some very odd people here. I should probably not say that, as they may one day read this, but there it is.
Also, I can say “Woe is me!” (O me miseram) now (apparently there is an accusative of exclamation. Who knew?). I don’t know what I expected. Nobody ever says they’re happy in Plautus.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
I saw a film called “Merci Pour Le Chocolat” this evening. It was... wonderful? It wasn’t about chocolate at all, but about ... well, I’m not sure what it was about, but it was good, and it definitely wasn’t about chocolate. It was about a chocolate heiress and her pianist husband, and pianos, and children who may or may not have been switched at birth, and children disappointing their parents, and always the possibility of ambition, and manipulation, and coffee cups. Watching a French film is like getting new glasses. Everything’s very clear and sharp and a little off-balance.
Alternatively, that might just be the new glasses talking.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Today I was stalked by a mad squirrel while peacefully minding my own business, sitting on the grass and trying to make flash cards. It tried twice to take a chunk out of my backpack, and performed incredible acrobatics in midair when I shook a plastic bag at it. I wanted to ask if its crazy was contagious, but I should really not plagiarize the brilliant Cleolinda Jones.
Monday, June 26, 2006
The thing about Latin is that after a while, everything sounds like a pick-up line. Today we were given a cartoon with most of the speech-bubbles blanked out. My group’s filling-in of the situation went something like this (italics supplied by cartoon; as you can imagine, I came up with most of the dialog):
SOME OLD GUY, who is apparently a DRUID: Staphyla! Ueni huc, Staphyla!
(Me: Damn. Can’t type macrons. Oh well.)
Some girl, henceforth to be known as “STAPHYLA”: Quid est, o Druida noster?
DRUID: Ecce! Te magnum Euclionem cognoscere, rex simiarum auarum, uolo!
Some fat guy with a braided mustache, henceforth to be known as EUCLIO, King of the Monkeys: Nouem fana auri plena habeo!
STAPHYLA: Quid te dabo? Nam aurum teum uolo.
DRUID: Non uos audio. Quid dicitis?
STAPHYLA: Huius quinque coronas dabo, et summum optimum unguentum.
EUCLIO, King of the Monkeys: Euge! Unguentum amo ualde!
DRUID (to STAPHYLA): Quid facis? Audire non possum.
STAPHYLA: Illum decipio. Unguentum “optimum” putidum est, et tanti aurum pulchrum quanti fungum unus.*
SOME DOG: GRRR!
STAPHYLA (waving): Ualete!
*we haven’t actually learned how to use this expression; I was just copying the forms out of our fake Plautus. Feel free to correct the grammar if you are so inclined, but before you skewer me, roast me like a chickpea and feed me to the goats, please remember that I’ve only been doing this for two weeks.
What we intended to say:
DRUID: Staphyla! Come here, Staphyla!
STAPHYLA: What is it, O our Druid?
DRUID: Look! I want to you get to know the great Euclio, King of the Greedy Monkeys!
EUCLIO, King of the Monkeys: I have nine shrines full of gold!
STAPHYLA: What will I give you? For I want your gold.
DRUID: I don’t hear y’all. What are y’all saying?
STAPHYLA: I will give this guy five garlands, and the very best ointment.
EUCLIO, King of the Monkeys: Excellent! I love ointment very much!
(THEY shake hands, looking pleased.)
DRUID (to STAPHYLA): What are you doing? I’m not able to hear.
STAPHYLA: I’m tricking that guy. The “best” ointment is rotten, and worth as much beautiful gold as one mushroom.
SOME DOG: GRRR!
STAPHYLA (waving): Bye, guys!
Signing off for now.
It is wonderful here. The only thing that could possibly make it better, my dear friends, is if you were all here with me. Well, okay, there are a lot of things that could make it slightly better, but that’s the only significant one. There are crazy people and eucalyptus trees, and despite somebody’s attempts to turn Telegraph Avenue into a yuppie paradise it retains a very definable aura of cheery sketchiness.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Apparently, insofar as I understand Dylan Sailor’s presentation of Tacitus, the Roman Empire is the Borg. Who knew?
Monday, June 19, 2006
I have found Teh Bookstores. (Some of them.) Yes, I bought books. *hangs head* But they were pretty, and hard to find elsewhere, and ... yeah, two of them were Shakespeare, with Kinuko Craft covers (Henry IV, Part 1 and Julius Caesar, if you’re interested *cough*Melanie*cough*). I found Johnny Cunningham’s orchestration of “Peter and Wendy” this afternoon at Rasputin. OMG so good. I also worked on Sleeping Beauty and had a look at Goat-Girl, The Sequel yesterday when I should have been reviewing interrogative pronouns. Today, I peeled some orange goo off my jeans. I wonder what that was all about. I also bought an electric toothbrush, but cannot use it without thinking of K.G.’s story (I think it was K.G.) about an electric toothbrush, her college roommate, and morning bathroom routines. Nevertheless, I am enamored and have left the automatic rice cooker (it is brokenhearted and calls me five times a day. Fortunately I do not have an answering machine).
There are some very odd people here. I should probably not say that, as they may one day read this, but there it is.
Also, I can say “Woe is me!” (O me miseram) now (apparently there is an accusative of exclamation. Who knew?). I don’t know what I expected. Nobody ever says they’re happy in Plautus.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
I saw a film called “Merci Pour Le Chocolat” this evening. It was... wonderful? It wasn’t about chocolate at all, but about ... well, I’m not sure what it was about, but it was good, and it definitely wasn’t about chocolate. It was about a chocolate heiress and her pianist husband, and pianos, and children who may or may not have been switched at birth, and children disappointing their parents, and always the possibility of ambition, and manipulation, and coffee cups. Watching a French film is like getting new glasses. Everything’s very clear and sharp and a little off-balance.
Alternatively, that might just be the new glasses talking.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Today I was stalked by a mad squirrel while peacefully minding my own business, sitting on the grass and trying to make flash cards. It tried twice to take a chunk out of my backpack, and performed incredible acrobatics in midair when I shook a plastic bag at it. I wanted to ask if its crazy was contagious, but I should really not plagiarize the brilliant Cleolinda Jones.
Monday, June 26, 2006
The thing about Latin is that after a while, everything sounds like a pick-up line. Today we were given a cartoon with most of the speech-bubbles blanked out. My group’s filling-in of the situation went something like this (italics supplied by cartoon; as you can imagine, I came up with most of the dialog):
SOME OLD GUY, who is apparently a DRUID: Staphyla! Ueni huc, Staphyla!
(Me: Damn. Can’t type macrons. Oh well.)
Some girl, henceforth to be known as “STAPHYLA”: Quid est, o Druida noster?
DRUID: Ecce! Te magnum Euclionem cognoscere, rex simiarum auarum, uolo!
Some fat guy with a braided mustache, henceforth to be known as EUCLIO, King of the Monkeys: Nouem fana auri plena habeo!
STAPHYLA: Quid te dabo? Nam aurum teum uolo.
DRUID: Non uos audio. Quid dicitis?
STAPHYLA: Huius quinque coronas dabo, et summum optimum unguentum.
EUCLIO, King of the Monkeys: Euge! Unguentum amo ualde!
DRUID (to STAPHYLA): Quid facis? Audire non possum.
STAPHYLA: Illum decipio. Unguentum “optimum” putidum est, et tanti aurum pulchrum quanti fungum unus.*
SOME DOG: GRRR!
STAPHYLA (waving): Ualete!
*we haven’t actually learned how to use this expression; I was just copying the forms out of our fake Plautus. Feel free to correct the grammar if you are so inclined, but before you skewer me, roast me like a chickpea and feed me to the goats, please remember that I’ve only been doing this for two weeks.
What we intended to say:
DRUID: Staphyla! Come here, Staphyla!
STAPHYLA: What is it, O our Druid?
DRUID: Look! I want to you get to know the great Euclio, King of the Greedy Monkeys!
EUCLIO, King of the Monkeys: I have nine shrines full of gold!
STAPHYLA: What will I give you? For I want your gold.
DRUID: I don’t hear y’all. What are y’all saying?
STAPHYLA: I will give this guy five garlands, and the very best ointment.
EUCLIO, King of the Monkeys: Excellent! I love ointment very much!
(THEY shake hands, looking pleased.)
DRUID (to STAPHYLA): What are you doing? I’m not able to hear.
STAPHYLA: I’m tricking that guy. The “best” ointment is rotten, and worth as much beautiful gold as one mushroom.
SOME DOG: GRRR!
STAPHYLA (waving): Bye, guys!
Signing off for now.
