November 26th, 2004 § 0 Comments § permalink
nina321 gently reminded me that I haven’t updated this for a while, and I thought I’d do a roundup. So let’s start going backwards, and see how long it takes me to get bored.
Today’s been a fairly pleasant day of work and semi-work. Morning of Pali, which I’m liking more each week, and really annoyed that I don’t get an exam in it. Then I spent a couple of hours this afternoon reading Ovid, after helixaspersa inadvertantly reminded me that of the existence of Latin poetry. The good part was that I remembered more Latin than I’d expected. The bad part was that I’d forgotten how tedious all the killing-people bits are. And the bonus was this wonderfully comic translation of somebody being attacked with a spear:
fronte tamen Rhoeti non inrita cuspis adhaesit
‘Yet the tip, not without effect, lodged in Rhoetus’ forehead’
But perhaps I’ve just been away from classics too long, and I’ve forgotten the particularly latin translatorisms.
Clock turns back another day….
Thursday. Peculiar, but very ego-boosting. I found out that I’m having an article published in the same journal as Stephen Hawking. (and Kurt Vonnegut, and Naomi Klein. And Hawking’s writing about international law rather than theoretical physics, and it’s not a journal in the peer reviewed sense. But it’s good enough for me!). And then, to cap it off, I got interviewed on a South African Islamic radio station. Which was nice.
The other good bit of Thursday was Alec, Rob and Dave singing silly things at Candle Club. Their college ‘rawhide’ is even better with music and practice, though I think there was too much noise for many people to hear the lyrics. Also, somebody played ‘zombie’ by the Cranberries. Which was wonderful, because I’ve been vaguely wondering what it was for years, and now I know. In fact, I’ve been wondering ever since I heard it about 10 years ago on a schoolfriend’s mis-labelled tape, which convinced me that it was something by the Crash Test Dummies. I don’t mind so much, since it introduced me to one of my favourite groups, but it’s nice to find out what the song really was.
Right. Bored with the past now (mainly because I can’t remember doing anything on Wednesday). Onto the future, which holds…
Tonight: Stay at home. If I’m keen, I’ll do some sanskrit. If not, I’ll put some more stuff onto Per’s cunning new website. And I’ll probably spend an hour or two pissing about on msn/lj/irc (so keep me company!).
Then tomorrow, I’m heading to London for the Indymedia 5th birthday party. Which should be really great: Penny Rimbaud, Rhythms of Resistance, and lots of happy anarchists (*). And my sister is coming down, entranced by the prospect of seeing George again (**). Plus, I should get to see some of the cambridge activist diaspora, who, with a couple of honourable exceptions, haven’t spread themselves anywhere more exotic than London.
Sunday: back to Cambridge, where we’re doing one of the ‘social events under a thin political veil’ that are P&P’s greatest talent. The veil is ‘buy nothing day’ (***), which is us stop buying things for the sake of buying them. The social event is half a dozen of us somewhere in the town centre, with juggling, face-painting, music, origami, rigged twister, and whatever else people bring along. You should all (yes! all half-dozen of you!) come along and have some kind of fun.
Right. That’s the update done – back to stealth mode.
* who, for the record, don’t include me. Despite what an amazingly large number of people think, I’m not an anarchist. I just think they throw the best parties.
** also for the record, they’re just good friends. And even if they weren’t, i don’t understand why people want me to keep my sister segregated from interesting men.
*** or as Josh would like it to be, ‘steal something day’. Josh is an anarchist, though not one of the anarchists who throws good parties. I think it’s what happens when you get your ethics from postmodern critical theory.
November 18th, 2004 § 0 Comments § permalink
Yes, I know things are dire when you’re getting your laughs from dictionaries. But I have a supervision with a lexicographer each week, and I’m coming to realise just how depressing a job it is. The following is about the height of bitchy fun you can manage on the way:
KHUJHRAHA: H khujhrAHA khujhraha [prob. khujhra=khujra =khujla, rt. of khujlana, q.v.+ aha = S. ak+kH], adj. & s.m. Stingy, niggardly, miserly, sordid; — a niggard, miser (syn. kripan; ka njus; Shakespear’s Dictionary has `stringy’ instead of `stingy, — a typographical error, no doubt; Forles copies `stringy,’ and adds `ropy,’ in which he is followed by Bate!).
(from Platts’ Urdu- Classical Hindi- English dictionary. Thanks to John for pointing it out)
November 10th, 2004 § 0 Comments § permalink
The amount of time I can waste on LJ is miniscule compared to the amount I can waste getting angry and self-righteous about Iraq. But I’m quite proud of how this week’s procrastination turned out, especially given that it’s something almost nobody else is paying any attention to.
Read my rant (or in Word format)
[the legal bit turns out to be wrong in detail, but broadly correct in impact. I’m too lazy to update it tonight]
November 10th, 2004 § 0 Comments § permalink
You’re all invited to a gathering on Saturday at my house, in celebration of the coming of second night of the new moon, the passing of 317th day of the year, the first birthday of the Iraqi ministry of the environment, my abandonment of Sanskrit grammar, and any more ridiculous excuse for a party you can come up with in the next three days. Or, for those in the reality-based community, the officially sanctioned reason is that we were going to have a two-month-overdue housewarming party, but were too disorganised to sort out anything big. So this is my mini-replacement and you are the chosen few. A few mundane details:
WHEN: this Saturday, any time from 7.30
WHO: you, and whatever friends/partners you want to bring
WHERE: 24 Priory Road, which is near the Cam, just behind the end of Midsummer Common. There’s a map at http://tinyurl.com/6tpqz
BRING: drinks would be good: bonus points if it’s something other than wine. Snacky food if you want something to engulf (I’m not cooking). And whatever fun things you want to inflict on us all (many, many bonus points for anyone who does turn up with fun things)
November 10th, 2004 § 0 Comments § permalink
Just got permission to abandon my earlier dissertation plan of tedious things about Sanskrit grammar. Out with word boundaries, padas and angas in Panini’s grammar (right but repulsive), and in with tantric buddhism (wrong but romantic). So I get to do some Pali, and look incomprehendingly at pretty things in Tibetan and Chinese, and work in some theory, and generally have a bit more fun.
I’m sooo excited. I’m going to read lots of crazy things, and learn to fly, and smite my enemies, and attain full and final liberation in a simple twelve-step program.
Off to make some index cards…
November 8th, 2004 § 0 Comments § permalink
because I’m so far behind, another wasted half hour doesn’t even matter…
» Read the rest of this entry «
November 4th, 2004 § 0 Comments § permalink
I have a new favourite comedy lecture series, to replace the 14-part ‘landmarks in German comedy’. Next term, Dr L. Kassell is giving four lectures entitled ‘How to live forever‘. Page 193 in the reporter, if you don’t believe me.
November 3rd, 2004 § 0 Comments § permalink
Sam’s pretty pissed off, but only an overexcited Mark Morford stream-of-consciousness rant can cope with the sheer horrendousness of the election:
You want to block it out. You want to rend your flesh and yank your hair and say no way in hell and lean out your window and scream into the Void and pray it will all be over soon, even though you know you’re an atheist Buddhist Taoist Rosicrucian Zen Orgasmican and you don’t normally pray to anything except maybe the gods of really exceptional sake and skin-tingling sex and maybe a few luminous transcendental deities that look remarkably like Jenna Jameson.
November 2nd, 2004 § 0 Comments § permalink
After that, a couple of beautiful things.
Firstly, necro_angel has put up three lovely new photos.
Then I came across this hilarious “Jerry Springer does philosophy” spoof. Perhaps it just appeals because I live with a critical theorist, my best friend is an analytic philosopher, and I’ve spent far too much of my life talking to Josh. But who couldn’t love this:
Todd: See what I have to put up with? Do you know what it’s like living with someone who sees sex as a metaphoric demonstration of the anti-feminist violence implicit in the discourse of the dominant power structure? It’s terrible. She just lies there and thinks of Andrea Dworkin. That’s why we never do it any more.
November 2nd, 2004 § 0 Comments § permalink
[political rant below the cut, to spare the uninterested]
100,000 dead in Iraq