the burden of inaction

A lot of the lyric poetry we’ve been reading in class deals with...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:17:00 -0600

A lot of the lyric poetry we’ve been reading in class deals with how short youth is and how awful being old is. Mimnermus practically says ‘I hope I die before I get old’. Semonides of Amorgos, in the following poem read and translated by Edmund Keeley, takes a somewhat more optimistic approach: when you know that life is short (and this is pretty hard to know, since young people think they will be young and awesome forever), go do fun things. At least that’s how I’m taking it.

The man from Chios called Homer said a beautiful thing:
“The generations of men are like the leaves of a tree.”
Few mortals who’ve heard this take it to heart:
all men carry the hope rooted in their youth.
While mortals are still living in youth’s lovely flowering,
light-headed, their hearts cling to many vain things:
they won’t grow old, they’ll never die,
and being healthy, why give sickness a moment’s thought?
Fools to think that way, they don’t yet know
how quickly time moves for mortals, how short the young days.
But since you know this now that your end is near,
treat yourself entirely to what good things there are.

from Poems Out Loud.

"τοῦ μὲν θανόντος οὐκ ἂν ἐνθυμοίμεθα, εἴ τι φρονοῖμεν, πλεῖον ἡμέρης μιῆς."

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:23:00 -0600

“τοῦ μὲν θανόντος οὐκ ἂν ἐνθυμοίμεθα,
εἴ τι φρονοῖμεν, πλεῖον ἡμέρης μιῆς.”

- (We would not think of the dead for more than a day, if we had sense.)

Semonides puts his two cents in on Corey Haim.

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-3-7)

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:46:16 -0600

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-3-7):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

Two things I have learned in two years on Tumblr: People on...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:14:00 -0600

Two things I have learned in two years on Tumblr:

People on Tumblr are great, and holy crap! I might get to hang out with Tristan IRL!
When you go scuba diving, do not wear an ill-fitting mask. Otherwise, you might breathe in instead of out when trying to clear the water out of it, and next thing you know, your mask is full of water, you can’t see, and you’re breathing in such a panicked manner your regulator pops out of your mouth and you almost die an ignominious death off the coast of Athens.

Photo from Drag Ball ’09 by Ma’ayan Plaut. Word is, Drag...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:34:00 -0600

Photo from Drag Ball ’09 by Ma’ayan Plaut.

Word is, Drag Ball, Oberlin’s equivalent to a Spring Formal (though we have that too) or a prom, isn’t happening this year due to lack of student interest. This makes me sad.

Although it shows how the students only really care about something when it gets taken away. Drag Balls don’t happen without a lot of hard work, people, so don’t be surprised when very few people put in effort and nothing comes out. You gotta fight. For your right. To paaaaaaar-ty (all decked out in your friend’s dress or suit as the case may be)!

It is funny, the things we get all riled up about.

Am I doing it right?

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:16:00 -0600

Am I doing it right?

It is a beautiful day in Chicago today. So naturally I am sat inside an Einstein’s Bagels at...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:25:00 -0600

It is a beautiful day in Chicago today. So naturally I am sat inside an Einstein’s Bagels at the University of Chicago campus while my friend is working at her cancer research lab dissecting mice and saving lives (I seem to have a disproportionate amount of friends in the sciences, in great contrast to the frippery that is the Classics), while I am begrudgingly translating Tyrtaeus (or trying to, but not very hard), and surreptitiously judging the people buying hazelnut lattes.

Now that I’m no longer applying to UCLA or Berkeley because the way their fellowship works precludes me from ever getting any money from them, ever (the prof at Berkeley I wanted to work with called my advisor up and told him that their fellowship depends on you getting California residency after one year, which, as a foreign student, I am never going to get, and I will think of that as the reason they rejected me and not because I don’t know any Latin), U of C is my top choice for grad school when I finish with Vanderbilt.

SPRING BREAK! WHOO!

The best part of watching the Oscars: this Modern Family...

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:07:52 -0600

The best part of watching the Oscars: this Modern Family preview.

Too bad there wasn’t Casablanca on it.

"It’s always the children who say ‘Sir, sir, what’s the point of geometry’,..."

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:24:00 -0600

“It’s always the children who say ‘Sir, sir, what’s the point of geometry’, or ‘what’s the point of Latin’, that end up having no job, being alcoholic, and they don’t notice that the ones who actually find knowledge for its own sake, and pleasure in information, in history, in the world and nature around us, actually getting on and DOING things with their fucking lives…it’s an odd thing.”

- Stephen Fry in QI.

jhnbrssndn: Let’s Explore Ohio Coloring Book (via What Makes...

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:58:50 -0600

jhnbrssndn:

Let’s Explore Ohio Coloring Book (via What Makes The Pie Shops Tick)

One summer I had to go through 30 years’ worth of materials like this. Reading Ohio tourism literature from 1974 is oddly fascinating.

I am a bad daughter and remember to call home maybe once a...

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 21:02:00 -0600

I am a bad daughter and remember to call home maybe once a month. I like to claim the price of calling as an excuse, though (calling the Philippines is expensive! Plus, when your parents suddenly move house and change numbers and don’t tell you until two months later it gets harder to contact them via phone, but that’s a story for another time). However, now that my mom has finally figured out how to use Skype, I have no more reasons not to call more often.

Plus, this way, I get to see Gucci (my sister named her, that should tell you a lot about her), the family shih-tzu, who I am convinced is made of magic. She has been lost/stolen twice and made her way back, she has been hospitalized several times for various reasons but has survived like a champ, and she is really really adorable. I am a cranky person, but within two seconds of seeing Gucci I melt into a pile of ‘Aww yess you are just the bestest doggie ever and I loooove you’

Spring break! My return to the Midwest continues next week, as I...

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:11:00 -0600

Spring break! My return to the Midwest continues next week, as I visit a friend of mine who has promised to spend every waking moment taking me to good places to eat in Chicago, which will make me fat, but happy. I haven’t been there since I worked in Evanston in summer 2007, and I can’t wait.

(via)

US to charge tourists $10 for permission to visit

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 11:30:17 -0600

US to charge tourists $10 for permission to visit:

The US yesterday passed a new law designed to boost dwindling numbers of foreign tourists – it will start charging them for the privilege of entering the country.

Woo-hoo! But I can’t go anyway. I wish I could attend both the...

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:36:00 -0600

Woo-hoo! But I can’t go anyway. I wish I could attend both the ASCSA and the AAR summer sessions; however, I had to pick one, and I chose Rome. (I will probably go to Greece also anyway. Besides, I need to go to Gla.)

Then again, as my former advisor (who was also supposed to be my group leader in Greece) likes to say, ‘If you’re having a tough time choosing, that probably means there is no bad choice’, which doesn’t work for all situations, but it does here, so.

Photo

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:36:00 -0600

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-28)

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:47:19 -0600

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-28):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

This is me when I returned to Nashville. I can’t breathe or...

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:11:39 -0600

This is me when I returned to Nashville. I can’t breathe or hear, and I’m currently confined to the sofa nursing my sorry self with soup and many cold medicines, which means I am in a drugged haze. Pink elephants!

Touché.

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:50:00 -0600

My facebook status: I went to Oberlin and all I got was this stupid flu.
Prof’s comment: Now Eush, you know that in Oberlin, there is only SMART flu.

Dammit Oberlin

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:03:36 -0600

Dammit Oberlin

I must be back in Oberlin

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:16:34 -0600

I must be back in Oberlin