Hoover Ball. Fun to say, fun to play.
2004-05-20 11:33 a.m.
At the end of kung fu class last night Sifu had us play Hoover Ball. Hoover Ball is a game that was created for President Herbert Hoover when he gained weight after taking office. It�s sort of like volley ball played with a medicine ball. We played with two teams of two people with a seven pound medicine ball. In my enthusiasm for the game I nearly took out a ceiling light. Luckily I didn�t or it would have meant 100 push ups.
I can totally relate to this.
3 People have tried to sell me Viagra
Scisne Latine?
2004-05-19 9:44 a.m.
Letaboo asked me an interesting question. How do we know how classical Latin was pronounced? The Romans have been dead for a long time and languages change and evolve. This got me thinking and doing some research this morning. It turns out that we do know how classical Latin was pronounced, primarily because we have a plethora of classical writings including grammar books. Interesting, eh? Michael Covington from U of Georgia has a nice short .pdf file that explains it better than I can.
Here are a few of my favorite Latin phrases that you can work into your conversations today:
Noli me vocate, ego te vocabo.
Don't call me, I'll call you.
Re vera, potas bene.
Say, you sure are drinking alot.
Romani quidem artem amatoriam invenerunt.
You know, the Romans invented the art of love.
Recedite, plebes! Gero rem imperialem!
Stand aside plebians! I am on imperial business!
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.
I have a catapult. Give me all your money, or I will fling an enormous rock at your head.
Academic whims and fancies.
2004-05-18 11:53 a.m.
With summer looming ahead and people writing about school and graduation I�ve decided to make a confession. I did not walk when I got my BA. Primarily because I had no friends at college. How whacked is that? Everyone has friends at college. OK, I had two friends but one had to leave school because of a scary stalking situation and the other one moved home to Shelton, WA to marry a lumberjack (not making this up). I socialized with local deviants off campus: the losers, the drug addicts, the drop outs. I would have a whirlwind of a good time during summer and breaks when my posse would come back into town from Eastern Washington. I lived off campus in part of an old Victorian house.
No, school was for studying. My academic interest were so varied that I didn�t graduate with a minor, although I was pretty close to getting one in Classics. For grad school I had big dreams. I wanted in at Princeton�s Classical Archaeology PhD program. Of course, I didn�t have the grades for Princeton. Plus I�m not a minority, I have no extracurricular activities unless you count drinking, dancing and trashy novel writing, and I had no money. That didn�t stop me from getting Harvard�s schedule of classes and drooling over the English department listings.
I think about pressing on further than an MA at times. I�ve toyed with the idea of going back to school to become a Physician�s Assistant and working in health care. Sometimes I think about just learning Latin in a classroom setting rather than trying to teach myself on the bus with flashcards. Plus it would help with the pronunciation. Then I think, oh hell, just get a novel published and your life will fall into place.
I can dream. I can dream.
1 People have tried to sell me ViagraTake Five.
2004-05-18 10:02 a.m.
Inspired by Merlin�s List of Fives here are a few of my own.
Five TV shows your Tivo should be recording for you:
1) Family Plots (AE)
2) Touching Evil (TNT)
3) Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law (Cartoon Network)
4) Law and Order SVU (NBC)
5) Colonial House (OPB)
Top five songs played on my iPod this week:
1) Uncertain Smile � The The
2) Pretty with a Pistol � Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack
3) Thrill in my Blood � Dave Vanian
4) Psychomania (live) � Damned
5) As the Rush Comes � Motorcycle
Five things I do every morning at work:
1) Order my grande shot in the dark at Seattle�s Best
2) Check all my e-mail accounts
3) Update this blog
4) Surf
5) Get down to business
Five favorite pieces of clothing:
1) New Doc Martens
2) Long black pencil skirt
3) RL jeans
4) Black leather boots
5) Short black leather jacket
Five things I hate:
1) Getting hit in the face
2) Not being able to sleep
3) People who can�t navigate the escalator
4) Forgetting to bring my iPod to work
5) How nervous I get around cute boys
You would think...
2004-05-17 9:38 a.m.
You would think that with a such a nice weekend I would have been productive and gotten things done. Wrong wrong wrong. I managed to be social on Friday night but the rest of the weekend was a wash. I spent most of it on the couch working on my novel, reading books or sleeping. I got nothing productive done and did nothing physical. I don�t think I even went outside to get the mail. This inertia can�t be good for me. I�m good once I get out into the world, it�s just the motivation is not there. Everything feels way too taxing and what�s the point anyway. Blah blah blah.
On a happier note, the girl I share the parking space with is out for the rest of the month so I get to drive to work for the rest of May. Hurrah! No bus! The only thing I have to smell in the morning is my own lightly perfumed body. How nice. My meeting this morning was also cancelled which means I can get some work done today.
Here�s a picture I took on Friday night as I was walking to the Barley Mill Pub. It�s the dragon (dog?)Tracy says Lions guard temples - guarding the front of a Buddhist Temple. I love walking past there, they have a beautiful garden and there�s always incense burning out front.
