effable twaddle.

A+ courtside reporting, Brad

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:43:00 -0500

Brad Gilbert: Do you have a tweener between your legs?
Novak Djokovic: No. I have something else between my legs. Don’t worry, I won't show it to you tonight.

Give 'em hell, Tristan. Make us proud.

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:41:17 -0500

loscheiner:

Good luck at your first day of grad school! I’m really excited for you. I’m sure you find this hideously embarrassing, so I hope it is reblogged by the masses for all tumblr nerds to see.

Did somebody say ‘hideously embarrassing’?

So I've been seeing posts about the lack of minorities in certain graduate programs.

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:03:00 -0500

I don’t want to hijack the conversation, but I thought I’d share my experience anyways. ~~I don’t know how to use Read More on Markdown, so if this is TL, DR.~~ Never mind, I figured it out.

Since my chosen field boils down to ‘the study of dead white males and the things they did while drunk’, I notice this a lot—and since I’m an international student, and have been for the past five/six years, I’m doubly a minority in most situations. It almost goes without saying all of my professors in Classics have been white. I went to a small college with a tiny Classics program; you’d get 3 or 4 people in the upper-level (300- or so) Greek or Latin classes—probably more in Latin though, but not much more. From the get-go, I was pretty much the only non-white person in any given Classical language class, or one out of two if my friend, who was half Thai, was in it. (I’m not counting the history or civilization courses, because those tend to be bigger and attract a wider variety of people.) And the further along I went, the smaller the classes became, and fewer non-white people in them.

And now that I’m in a graduate program, with the exception of one student last year who was half Mexican, everybody in my program is white. So was my summer program in Rome—with the exception of a high school teacher in Indianapolis who was, get this, half Filipino. She remains the only other person of Filipino descent I’ve ever encountered in Classics. Random.

Most of the time it doesn’t really matter, I guess. Right now, I’m quite hard-pressed to think of a situation when it matters that I’m the only non-white person in this program. But it does get awkward when, for example, someone says that it’s ‘stupid’ that the Classics are dying because of ‘multiculturalism’. What do you say to someone who thinks trying to study other cultures (including yours, probably) is killing the foundations of Western civilization?

I don’t know, I’m really just talking out of my ass right now. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m probably so used to being the odd one out that it’s almost natural and I never really think about why that is, or how it affects my experiences.

Photo

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 08:27:42 -0500

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-8-29)

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 03:38:14 -0500

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-8-29):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

Terracina. It was one of my favorite days.

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 16:17:00 -0500

Terracina.

It was one of my favorite days.

Good things that can happen when you go to Centennial...

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 22:44:16 -0500

Good things that can happen when you go to Centennial Park:

Gets your ass off the couch
It was a lovely evening and the dancing was fun to watch
The Parthenon looks great at night
The sounds of fireworks in the distance
You can get olives from friendly neighborhood Tumblrs (they are delicious—thanks so much!)

Homer's Account of My Trip to Greece.

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 17:07:00 -0500

Homer's Account of My Trip to Greece.:

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man who bravely sought,
in fair Hellenic isles, respite from labor’s
endless stress and taxing working hours
Many unknown cities he saw, and their hotels,
many missed connections he suffered, much
upsetting turbulence and vile airline food.
Tell now, Muse, how valiantly he strove
against the blocks and barriers of unkind fate.

In my case, it would be more like

Sing the rage of her who, that one time,
Almost could not leave the shores of Greece
Because the visa extension she had requested months prior
Had been held up by the vicissitudes of bureaucracy
And then, upon boarding, was delayed for five hours.
Begin, Muse, when she had to fly to Frankfurt then Munich,
Before she could finally alight at frickin’ O’Hare.

We hit Kroger. I have olives for you. Come to the park tonight to collect!

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:12:52 -0500

I am so there.

betterbooktitles: Plato: Symposium This is the only work of...

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:34:08 -0500

betterbooktitles:

Plato: Symposium

This is the only work of Plato I can read without being angry. I’m just not that invested in Greek philosophy.

Dancing Goat coffee, we meet again.

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:45:00 -0500

It must be the first day of classes.

Quick change—unofficially auditing Lucretius instead, then...

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:13:51 -0500

Quick change—unofficially auditing Lucretius instead, then taking Trojan War for credit. Look at this fucking schedule—I don’t have to be conscious until 11 am on Mondays and Wednesdays, then three-day-weekends every week. Yes.

I can’t wait to take notes some more.

superfluidity: betterbooktitles: Homer: The Odyssey

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:26:08 -0500

superfluidity:

betterbooktitles:

Homer: The Odyssey

And, just for fun, these are notes I took at the Temple of Mars...

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 23:01:28 -0500

And, just for fun, these are notes I took at the Temple of Mars Ultor this summer. Can you tell at what point I started falling asleep?

While I was cleaning up my flat, I found last year’s...

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:46:53 -0500

While I was cleaning up my flat, I found last year’s notebook.

Kate Bush - Cloudbusting But every time it rains ...

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:51:00 -0500

Kate Bush - Cloudbusting

But every time it rains
You’re here in my head
Like the sun coming out
Ooh, I just know that something good is going to happen
And I don’t know when
But just saying it could even make it happen

Far be it from me to be dead to Six…here is Gucci and me,...

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 21:01:00 -0500

Far be it from me to be dead to Six…here is Gucci and me, Christmas 2008-ish.

Well if this email concerning my ‘memorable’...

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 17:33:48 -0500

Well if this email concerning my ‘memorable’ recommendation to the Rome summer program didn’t just make my month, nothing will (even if it is all lies. If anybody made Classics cool again, it was the fantastic department, although a friend of mine and I bribed friends and acquaintances with baked goods to attend our Honors talks, that may have helped?).

I’m not sure if I should be posting screencaps of people’s emails to me on Tumblr, but this was just too flattering not to. Thanks for the ego boost, former advisor!

I can’t ride a bike. My college application essays were...

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:49:45 -0500

I can’t ride a bike. My college application essays were all about how I couldn’t ride a bike. And three years ago, visiting Caitlin here in Ojai for Christmas, I tried, but then face-planted at a major intersection. And one time, I straight-up biked into a ditch beside the Oberlin bike trail.

Well, today, Caitlin made me get on one again. Here is me not faceplanting. Hooray!

The next four months: Seminars Latin Epigraphy Homeric...

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:40:00 -0500

The next four months:

Seminars

Latin Epigraphy
Homeric Hymns

Just for funsies

Lucretius

TA-ing (in blue)

Latin 101.2