My copy of Stoppard's Arcadia has the most hilarious markup I've ever seen in a second-hand book. Somehow I missed it when purchasing it from Goodwill originally (there are some large blank sections), or probably wouldn't have acquired it; it does make the text difficult to read smoothly. However, it's well worth it for the hilarious incongruity ( Read more... )

I started the day by reading this aloud to someone in Greek, and then stumbling through sightreading the translation. (My more polished translation is below.) It was good.

Ἐπὶ μὲν ἄρα τὸ ἀπολογεῖσθαι ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀδικίας τῆς αὑτοῦ ἢ γονέων ἢ ἑταίρων ἢ παίδων ἢ πατρίδος ἀδικούσης οὐ χρήσιμος ούδὲν ἡ ῥητορικὴ ἡμῖν, ὦ Πῶλε, εἰ μὴ εἴ τις ὑπολάβοι ἐπὶ ( Read more... )

See above. (Or, more accurately, I'm going to Safeway, then I'm baking a cake.)

I'm not normally much of a meme participant, but it's late Sunday afternoon, I'm being procrastinatory, and it occurs to me that I haven't read nearly enough non-classical books in a very long time.

bonobo23 says: "List the 20-odd books you have personally read that have been most influential in your life. By personally read, I mean that we aren't talking ( Read more... )

I've had this quote up as my away message for the last few weeks. (I'm always away, and topical quotes are more interesting than a blank statement of "I'm doing homework, as always, but here if you want".) Every time I reread it, I like it more.

"This seems to me the cardinal flaw in Plato's theory. It does not provide for love of whole persons ( Read more... )

When I first came home to Portland in July, I was apprehensive of starting to ride my bicycle again. I hadn't been on a bike in seven months-- excepting a day in Lucca and a night and a day in Ravenna, and those weren't exactly on busy streets-- and I thought I'd be out of shape, uncomfortable, unsteady. After all, relearning to ride a bike my ( Read more... )

Tomorrow would be the first day of school, but it's Labor Day, so I have one more day before classes start. I might head down to campus, but it's more likely that I'll spend my time working on stuff out or at home; I have things I need to do, and campus'll be a festival ( Read more... )

It's 12:30 in the morning and I had a lovely last day in Rome, including dinner at the Centro, but now I'm nervous and freaking out about tomorrow-- I reorganized my stuff as much as possible, and confirmed as best I could that the baggage rules for my flight are actually 2 bags at under 23k each, but I'm not totally certain that my bags are under ( Read more... )

So I'm in Rome, which simultaneously feels utterly normal and familiar and incomprehensibly strange. My Italian has come back easily (though I have to override the urge to say 'hi' and 'thank you' in Greek, those being the two phrases I used most commonly), and I feel as comfortable in the city as I ever have-- a little more, in some ways, since I ( Read more... )

The heat continues, with the temperature easily over 100 in the shade and over 115 in the sun every day. It's making the last week of digging even more intense than it might otherwise be-- and the last week of digging is, by nature, somewhat stressful. There's not a question of whether or not we'll finish digging the "collapse layer" in our ( Read more... )