|
|
Saturday, May 14th, 2005
| |
10:14 am - Good news
|
Good News #1: I passed my master's exams. Yes, I am officially a master of classical studies. Now to start studying for the comprehensive exams...
Great News #2: In the last couple of months I've met and completely fallen for the most incredible woman. And she LIKES me. SHE likes me. she likes ME (and I *know* she likes me).
Excuse me while I float away....
current mood:  accomplished
|
|
(12 comments | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, April 24th, 2005
| |
5:28 pm - Why you need to read The Mysteries of Pittsburgh....
|
|
| Saturday, December 25th, 2004
| |
11:59 pm
|
|
| Thursday, December 16th, 2004
| |
12:24 pm
|
You're *not* friends. You'll never be friends. You'll be in love till it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends. Love isn't brains, children, it's blood... blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it.
--Spike, "Lover's Walk"
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, April 29th, 2004
| |
11:38 am - I'm official!
|
Okay, so it's been awhile since I've updated...but I just wanted to share this little piece of excitement:
http://www.upenn.edu/registrar/timetable/latn.html
It's official! I have my own section of latin next year! And my name is in the timetable! How cool is that?
Maybe I'm making a big deal out of nothing, but I'm *so* excited to finally be teaching. So if you happen to know anyone at Penn who needs a class... send 'em my way! :)
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, January 26th, 2004
| |
9:10 pm - sorry for the long absence. only time for a quiz right now. hehe
|
You are a Theory Slut. The true elite of the
postmodernists, you collect avant-garde
Indonesian hiphop compilations and eat journal
articles for breakfast. You positively live
for theory. It really doesn't matter what
kind, as long as the words are big and the
paragraph breaks few and far between.
What kind of postmodernist are you!?
brought to you by Quizilla
|
|
(5 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, December 29th, 2003
| |
3:59 pm
|
|
| |
3:55 pm
|
Objectivists
Circle I Limbo Oprah
Circle II Whirling in a Dark & Stormy Wind NAMBLA Members
Circle III Mud, Rain, Cold, Hail & Snow Scientologists
Circle IV Rolling Weights Creationists
Circle V Stuck in Mud, Mangled River Styx Osama bin Laden
Circle VI Buried for Eternity River Phlegyas George Bush
Circle VII Burning Sands Republicans
Circle IIX Immersed in Excrement Dick Cheney
Circle IX Frozen in Ice Design your own hell |
|
(comment on this)
|
| Sunday, December 7th, 2003
| |
11:48 am
|
You are Kermit the Frog.
You are reliable, responsible and caring. And you
have a habit of waving your arms about
maniacally.
FAVORITE EXPRESSIONS:
"Hi ho!" "Yaaay!" and
"Sheesh!"
FAVORITE MOVIE:
"How Green Was My Mother"
LAST BOOK READ:
"Surfin' the Webfoot: A Frog's Guide to the
Internet"
HOBBIES:
Sitting in the swamp playing banjo.
QUOTE:
"Hmm, my banjo is wet."
What Muppet are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Friday, December 5th, 2003
| |
11:27 pm - Everything in its right place
|
Just a few more days until I come home.
I managed to get through my hell week. I was really worried about my paper-presentation for the greek comedy class, but it ended up being a smashing success. The prof. told me that he was particularly impressed with my new reading of a completely overworked passage. I have to rework my paper talk into the official paper. Hopefully I'll get that done this weekend. We had our last meeting for the class (where half of the class did their presentations) at the apartment of this guy who audits the course. This person should receive a life-time achievement award. Just for living. He's elderly and in his life he has been a two-time Olympian (fencing, in the 50s), a neurosurgeon, a teacher of ancient greek, an art dealer, and an all-around decent human being. He's one of those people who have plenty of money, but his money goes right back to the community. That's a person I can respect. He has an incredible apartment on Rittenhouse square (in the regency building), full of incredible pieces of art, including an actual Rodin sculpture. But just a completely unassuming sweet old man.
I just couldn't manage to get the advanced readings stuff read this week, so I feigned sickness and skipped. I actually I was sick, my stomach felt horrible. We were given a take-home final (give yourself three hours, no dictionary). I did it this morning; the latin was pretty easy, the greek SUCKED.
Yesterday night a few of us from the comedy class went out to dinner with a visiting scholar. Free Indian food. :) The visiting scholar was a lively british man, complete with the nervous British-stutter (what's that all about?) . He led an informal session today. It was great. We met in this seminar room at the library that was absolutely *gorgeous*. We snarled at Ralph for not managing to get that room for the actual class (we were relegated to a not-quite-as-gorgeous-but-still-pretty-nice seminar room behind the gorgeous one). It was an incredible moment, sitting in this gorgeous room around an equisite wooden table and discussing Aristophanes' Frogs. It was a moment of absolute "ivory-tower"ism, but I can't pretend like I didn't love it. We all left from the session realizing how much we've learned and particularly impressed with our ability to spar with a very renowned scholar about issues in the play.
A few friends and I are planning to have a pot-luck dinner/movie watching tomorrow at my place, but it might get cancelled due to snow. We've already seen a few inches of it. The city is beautiful with the snow, though it will likely get disgusting soon. We're expecting up to a foot of snow tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be too bad, because I really want to hang out with these people tomorrow.
And now I'm curling up with a mug of hot chocolate and the book I'm currently reading (Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye). Cheers, all.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Sunday, November 30th, 2003
| |
4:16 pm - Thanks for the giving
|
Got home yesterday from KC; short recap of my break.
I had to get up at some ridiculous hour to get ready to catch the 5:30 train to get to the airport in time for my 7:30 flight. Arrived in KC rather exhausted. Tiffany picked my up from the airport and took me home. Wednesday was my mother's birthday (I got her a copy of Aristotle's Children; she likes to read), so we went out for mexican and saw Love, Actually (actually pretty awful - Playing by Heart is essentially the same movie but much better). I went and picked up my C-Pap on Wednesday, also. It's the machine that keeps my air passages open at night so I don't stop breathing. It looks really funny - a small gray shoebox sized box with this long vacuum cleaner type hose that attaches to a mask that goes over my nose, but damn is the sleep nice.
Thursday was the first thanksgiving in I don't know how long that it was just my family; every year there's always a friend or significant other that joined the meal. It was really nice that it was just us. I helped my mom cook and then we ate. Yum yum yum. I went over to T's grandparents house that evening and played games with her family. I think I made an okay impression. When I came home my sister's boyfriend was over (he's from nebraska, but goes to american with her).
Friday one of my dad's old friends from seminary (from seminary in India at that!) happened to be in town, so he came over for breakfast. Once again LOTS of food; my mom went all out. Tiffany and I went out with Liz and Tim later in the afternoon. We ditched the sis and her boy and went to La Dolce Vita and drank coffee, ate dessert, and just *talked*. It was really really nice and very needed. We went out with Curtis and Whitney that night; god I didn't realize how much I missed them until I saw them. DTE's CD (the working version of it) sounds *amazing*.
And then I came home on Saturday. I didn't do much yesterday. So far haven't done much today, either. I'm so ready for break. I miss Tiffany like mad; I miss whit and curtis too. I told Curtis it would be cool if his band had a gig while I was home. This week I have to write a greek comedy presentation, do one more ridiculous rapid readings assignment, do a rapid readings take home, and write a greek comedy paper. THEN I COME HOME FOR A MONTH! I'll be working part-time, which will be nice. I'll have lots of work to do when I'm home (mainly writing a greek grammar paper and working on the reading list), but just to be able to see my friends and Tiffany and my family is going to be so wonderful.
current mood:  stressed
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, November 19th, 2003
| |
1:58 pm
|
|
I was told there would be apocalyptic, end-of-days, women-and-children-first, the-end-is-nigh, the-horsemen-approacheth, save-yourself-for-the-dark-lord-has-arisen style thunderstorms. I see none. I am disappointed. I think I'll make green bean casserole.
|
|
(5 comments | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, November 16th, 2003
| |
3:26 pm - weekend update
|
Comme d'habitude, I feel the need to do a little update. This weekend has been full of greek. Read 200 lines yesterday (approx) and trying to get through another 300 today. I have to have an abstract for my paper by tuesday. My hope is that if I manage to get everything read today, I can spend all day tomorrow working on the abstract. I've actually been quite happy with the level of my productivity - I hope I manage to retain this level of work for the rest of the semester. It's been too long since I've written papers, so it's something I have to get back into the swing of. I promised Tiffany that I wouldn't bring any homework with me for thanksgiving break, but I'm starting to wonder how logistically feasible that actually will be. Hence the massive working now.
I treated myself to brunch today. I went to TenStone and had some muy yummy (whoa, muy yum, nice palindrome) mango pancakes. Quite filling, so much so that I have leftovers for dinner (wooh! the little things that excite me). I've been listening to Bill Hicks on and off - flippin' hilarious! Though there are times when he makes *me* feel uneasy. Quite an accomplishment
I got an email from my dear dear professor/mentor/inspiration from KU who helped me with the whole Indian lit thing that I did. That was exciting. I'm going to try to get together with her over winter break. Frightening that it's only about three weeks until my first semester is over. Frightening! On that note - back to work!!!
current music: Point of No Return
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, November 9th, 2003
| |
9:17 pm - 10,000 years...
|
...will give you such a crick in the neck.
I don't know why I had the sudden desire to update my now decaying lj. But what the hey.
I can't pretend that there's a whole lot going on in my life. My first semester of graduate school is coming to a crashing halt in a few weeks. In that time I have to write two papers and study for this insane exam that the rapid readings professor is going to give us. My focus has been nil. This last weekend I've done *nothing*. But friday was fun.
See, there's six new grad students this year. Six in classical studies, five in ancient history. So elevn total (just in case you don't have a handy sixth finger or toe to help with the counting). One of them happened to spend nine months in India on a fullbright. So I was joking around one day and mentioned that we should throw a bollywood movie night. Three months later, we do it. Somehow or other it becomes the big event for the semester. Lots of people came, lots of fun was had. Bit of a journey, though, as the electricity on his block went out about half and hour before the party was supposed to start. Of all the days, of all the blocks in center city, his went out! We ended up chowing and chatting at his place and then went somewhere else to watch the movie, which happened to stop working about 2hrs into it (yeah, typical 3 hr movie). But a good time was had by all.
And then saturday I did crap. Today I woke up finding no clean underwear or socks. So I did laundry. And besides that nothing else. I think I've hit some kind of rut, but that's okay. I think I'll manage to pull myself out of it. I really love my colleagues and I love my apartment, but it gets lonely. I had lunch with Sylvia a few days ago, which was really nice. You know, to connect with someone who knew me before this year. I'm pretty close to a couple of people, but I really don't talk about the past. And I don't really feel the need or desire to, either, which is nice.
And that's about all. Time to clean out fridge (I think I have some Salami that's going bad) and do dishes.
I love Philly, but I miss Kansas. Thought I'd never say that.
current mood:  blah
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, October 29th, 2003
| |
12:01 pm
|
|
| Monday, September 15th, 2003
| |
7:42 pm
|
Good greek word to know:
KRAIPALE (pronounced: CRY-pah-LAY)
definition: an all-night drinking party
(and by extension)
the hangover resulting from such a party.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| |
3:26 pm
|
|
I was just looking at kansan.com. Kinda made me nostalgic for ku. Imagine that. Not that I don't love Penn. It's raining here. I know this because I can look outside the window from my study carrel (yes *my* study carrel) in the library. I really have to say that Van Pelt is *so* much nicer than Watson. SO MUCH. Well, back to Aristophanes.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Saturday, September 13th, 2003
| |
2:46 pm
|
|
| Friday, September 5th, 2003
| |
2:41 pm - caffeine buzz
|
I just had my first experience at the graduate student center. So nice of them to dedicate a building just to us li'l ole grad students. Plus free coffee. Mmmm...
I received an email from emily (rapid readings prof), who said that she was glad that I came by and told her that it's been awhile since I've done greek or latin, because otherwise my quiz results would have really made her wonder. Ouch. Needless to say *much* studying to be done. Other grad students made me feel better by telling me that she was a little unfair with the diagnostic quiz (namely, no dictionary and no context for what we were translating) and a little over ambitious with the amount of work she wants us to accomplish.
We're having a little wine and cheese reception this afternoon. Sometimes it's great being in a snooty field. I've also discovered that there are other members of the long-distance relationship club in the department, one whose partner is all the way in china. At least I'm not alone in my lonelitude. Yes, I did just say lonelitude.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Thursday, September 4th, 2003
| |
6:22 pm - omnia mihi lingua graeca sunt (it's all greek to me)
|
Hey everybody...
So classes began yesterday. After a very frightening moment with greek epigraphy, i determined that it was best for me to stick with old comedy, tacitus, rapid readings, and the proseminar. In actuality, my classes began today. The rapid readings course started off with a quiz that took about 2 hours - translate 6 passages, three greek, three latin. Needless to say I sucked donkey balls on it - so much so that I went to the prof (emily) after the class and told her how long it's been since I've been in either a greek or a latin class. After that was Tacitus today. Just your straight-forward single-author seminar. We'll be reading a lot of his minor works. The seminar is quite large, and because of that we ended up having to pair off to do presentations. I'm working with a woman who started last year (i.e. the year I was supposed to start) and we're going to be working on the usage of rumor and innuendo and tacitus' writing. My partner is way nice so it should be good... on the downside of things I'm already looking at having about 50pages of greek and latin to read by next week, and I haven't even had my old comedy seminar! 15 pages of Quintilian (latin writer, writing about oratory), 15 pages of Longinus (greek writer on oratory), and 20 pages of Tacitus (latin historian). Yeah, so that's going to suck much, but it's what I knew I was getting myself into.
So to paraphrase something some dead roman probably said at some point -
labor me vocat! (work calls me!)
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
ascanius's journal
