Chapter 5: Murasaki
“…his growing beauty and the charm of his disposition were a wonder and delight to all who met him. Indeed many persons of ripe experience confessed themselves astounded that such a creature should actually have been born in these latter and degenerate days.”
Users’ Manual: Obey The Rules. Consult The Guide. Have fun!
Long before La Princesse de Clèves, before Don Quixote, even before the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the world’s first true novel–classic and complex and psychological–was written by a lady-in-waiting in Kyoto and is titled The Tale of Genji. Known only by her nickname, Murasaki Shikibu, borrowed from a character in her book, the author penned her work in the first decade of the 1000’s while living in the Heian court. The titular Genji is a prince and the son of an emperor, a man of great beauty and talent who is especially popular with the numerous noblewomen who happen to cross his path. In the above picture Genji is for the first time seeing the young girl Murasaki, by which name the author came to be known even while she was still alive.
Lady Murasaki Shikibu in an Edo-period illustration
Despite its age and the formality of the court culture, The Tale of Genji is as vibrant, complex, three-dimensional and captivating as any novel written since. It’s little wonder, then, that upon the first publication of a complete English translation by Arthur Waley in the early 20th century, the book took the world by storm. The Colombian writer Jorge Luis Borges wrote of it, “…what interests us is not the exoticism–the horrible word–but rather the human passions of the novel. Such interest is just: Murasaki’s work is what one would quite precisely call a psychological novel. I dare to recommend this book to those who read me.” Western modernists interested in orientalism had found a work written nearly a millennium earlier that bore striking resemblance to what they themselves were writing.
The novel is usually divided into three parts with total of 54 titled chapters. The characters in the novel make frequent references to earlier Chinese and Japanese poetry and literary works, and The Tale of Genji became, in turn, a source of references for many centuries’ worth of Japanese writers. A comparison could be made to the influence and stature of Shakespeare in English-language literature; virtually everyone that came afterward owes something to the master’s writing. In his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, the writer Yasunari Kawabata said, “The Tale of Genji in particular is the highest pinnacle of Japanese literature. Even down to our day there has not been a piece of fiction to compare with it.”
“No one could see him without pleasure. He was like the flowering tree under whose shade even the rude mountain peasant delights to rest.”
Chapter 4: Yugao
–Piggy
I know I should be celebrating having my last class at BU ever, but it doesn’t really feel like the end of anything with so much work left to do…
Yet another cat has run away. This one had never gone outside before so she most likely got lost. It rained a lot last night and I’m very worried about her. Yeah, she was a bit annoying when she chewed on everything, but she’s very cute. Also, there are reckless drivers going in and out of my neighborhood constantly and a busy street right outside of the neighborhood. She has never seen a car before.
I hope you can find your cat and bring en back safely.
It has been over 24 hours since she escaped and we still haven’t seen any sign of her…
Update, she’s in the storm drain and she can’t get back up and there is no way to get her out. Lifting the lid is illegal.
Oh, no! I do hope you can find a way to get her out of there!
I know what I’d do.
call animal control / the fire department? or, really, just lift the lid – who’s going to care?
Call the Fire Department or Animal Control and see if they can get her out.
Can you figure out where the storm drain ends? My neighbors’ cat used to jump down the storm drain all the time and then walk to the place where the water went out into the ditch. If you can find that point maybe try calling her from there?
To answer IBCF’s comment on the previous thread: I’d love to show off my animation work.
GAPAs: How would I embed a video in a comment?
We embed YouTube videos on “Talk Like a Pirate Day.”* It’s a standard format. We’ve also tried plug-ins that are supposed to make it easier. They tend not to be supported and to stop working after WordPress upgrades, but I’m willing to give it another go.
* (Technically, the links violate MuseBlog policy, but it’s all in the spirit of piracy.)
Isn’t there an anti-piracy policy?
Anti-piracy?! You can’t spell “Kokonspiracy” without “piracy”!
Okay, I can’t seem to get the embed code to work, but here are two links:
https:// youtu. be/qMjbgqxqDSA
https:// youtu. be/koOcPzhhwvY
I love the animation of the lyrics in the first one! Great color and design too! Did you make these in Flash?
Thanks!
I made them in After Effects. I have done a few things in Flash though, the biggest of which was animated scenery for an opera that my school was putting on.
An amazing rendering of one of my favorite Disney songs, kudos!
Robert- The Genji post is saved as a draft. I’ll let you copy/paste it into this post so we don’t lose any comments.
Thanks, Piggy!
Very nice work, I’m impressed.
So am I Now, as soon as I get some free time, I know what I want to study into.
Who else that spends a lot of time in libraries is amused by the quirks of the Dewey Decimal System that always require the placement of books on psychic powers and ghosts next to libraries and the history of writing (001.9 “Controversial Knowledge”, 002 The Book), or gardening next to space exploration (620 Engineering and Applied Operations, 630 Agriculture)? Are there any other good juxtapositions you guys have found?
Ughhh, School tests were today. I had to get up super early because apparently teachers never sleep.
I’m sure I failed. I’m sure of it.
All bow before Queen bookgirl_me, adult supreme!
((In other words, I managed to wash window varnish out of my jeans.))
Do adults varnish their windows? If so, I’m way behind schedule.
Did you at least lacquer your electrical outlets this year?
Well, er, not all of them.
It was part of my job- I basically help out my dad with real estate stuff. Part of that was overseeing renovations for an apartment. Most of the doorframes, doors and a few windows had minor dings in them from construction, so someone had to run around with a paintbrush touching everything up before the new tenants moved in.
Painting myself was not part of the job description. It just sort of happened.
Whatever else they do, DC’s current Scooby-Doo comics are something they have unquestionably done right.
So I spent several hours today editing a doctoral dissertation. Which was surreal on a number of levels.
(As I understand it, the series of events leading to this was the following:
1. My grandfather, whose student’s dissertation it is, was too busy to get to it today.
2. Since I keep expressing an interest in technical or scientific writing and both my grandfather and father work in a relevant field, they’re eager to get me some hands-on experience.
3. The author isn’t a native english speaker, so I might actually be helpful.)
The first few pages were mostly weird because this was much more important than anything I’d ever done before, but I got over that quickly enough.
Then, along about page 13, I was rambling about how weird it was to be switching back and forth between present and past tense, depending on whether the spacecraft whose data was relevant at the moment was still active or not, and I suddenly realized that I was actively helping science advance.
I spent four hours today helping a Scientist complete her current Science so she could go on to do more and better Science.
I was a little freaked out by the whole thing before I realized that. I was a lot freaked out after.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement service’s official name for their initiative to catch smugglers of stolen antiquities is “Operation Mummy’s Curse”. That is epic.
Happy Star Wars Day, everybody! I’m sure I don’t need to explain why.
May the 4th be with you all!
We played Star Wars music in band class to celebrate.
It’s times like this when I realize just how important my mom is to me. I cannot do anything without her and she has taught me so much… I really love my mom. Right now, my mom is in the Emergency Room and I don’t know exactly why. I am worried and I miss her a lot…
That’s awful. I hope your mother ends up okay.
This past Saturday I went to a drive-in theater for the first time to see Avengers: Age of Ultron, thereby accomplishing two life goals at once.
I went with my friends in one of their cars, and we sat on the hood or hung out the windows eating popcorn watching a big screen outdoors under the rising moon. The screen was a bit washed out at first, but as it got darker it was easier to see. All in all, it was a very cool experience. And tickets were really cheap–$13 for all five of us. That’s just an amazing deal for a movie opening weekend.
I have thoughts about the movie, too, but I’ll head to the movie thread (we still have one, right?) to avoid spoiling people.
It’s hard to believe it’s already May. So many things are happening this month! I’m graduating on the 16th, then I turn 23 two days later, and then the day after that I move to NYC, and the next day start my job and keep looking for a place to live closer to there than I’ll be staying at first. So many things all at once, I’m not sure how it’s going to go, but it’ll be something.
I finished my last paper last week, and I’ve just got a couple exams to do, a project to finish, and my senior recital to pull together and do.
I’m sure I don’t need to say this, but – let me know once you’re settled in here. I am also moving and graduating this month, but I’d hate to miss you while you were local.
AP tests are a drag. As in, I’m dragging myself through them to get college credit so I can (hopefully) skip “Intro to Chemistry/Calculus/Biology” and get straight to the good stuff.
You’re taking AP chem AND calc AND bio tests?? Daaaang. I took AP bio but chickened out of the actual AP test. Good luck!! \( ^-^)/
Actually I took bio freshman year (and got a 4!!). But yeah, this year I doubled up on calc and chem. Thankfully, there was only one sort-of lab-based question on the chem free response, and all the calc free response was stuff I was strong in.
Hate to break it to you, but… they might not accept the credit and you might still have to take the full-year intro bio sequence. And you still might not be good at it. Science, it turns out, is hard! (Good luck!)
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I enjoy science, regardless if I’m “good” at it or not. I don’t mind terribly if it’s hard. That’s why I wanted to skip the intro stuff: it’s all gonna be easy at that point.
Intro college courses might still cover different stuff than AP courses, and still might be harder than you’re expecting, depending on your college and you high school AP courses. Or so I’ve heard anecdotally; I didn’t take AP science credits in high school but people who had taken them who I knew from those intro college courses said that it was just on a different level. Don’t write off intro courses as easy until you’ve actually taken them, is what I’m saying.
Thanks, this is pretty much exactly what I wanted to articulate. The intro bio sequence at my school was way harder than AP Bio, and despite having taken AP Chem I found the general chem series challenging. Likewise, AP Lit/Lang did not guarantee A’s in the introductory writing courses, and college-level anatomy in high school did not guarantee A’s in the human anatomy/physiology course here.
Basically, I did a lot in high school, and while I was adequately prepared for college I would not write off freshman year as being easy.
Ohhh, okay. The way Kokonilly phrased it at first wasn’t super clear (plus I tend to get a tad defensive whenever someone tells me I might not be good at something (even if it’s a perfectly valid point (lol anxiety what even are you trying to do))), but that makes more sense. Still gonna go for those college credits of course, but I won’t blow off my intro courses.
Thanks you guys!
“I can’t wait to read the comments on this Space Review article about a controversial topic!” Said no non-masochist ever.
For a split second there, I was expecting a Tom Swifty. Condolences!
I wonder if it would be possible to make one out of that…
Agent Lightning, your new profile picture reminds me of the graphics for some ad campaign a school in my area (or at least the ads are on the public transport vehicles in my area) is running. (just sayin, just cuz its what popped into my head yk?)(this is the random thread)(i am getting too defensive)
also of mo wilems books. don`t let the pigeon do stuff.
whats the graphic from anyways (kinda the original question i guess…)?
the punctuation & grammar is probaly cake, sorry
The graphic is one I made myself, on a whim last night! I’m not really sure what I was going for, but I like it.
I love Mo Willems books! I have two younger sisters and am pretty versed in children’s literature.
Andy Warhol?
You can tell us, KaiYves: you’re in training for a super-secret time-travel mission to the 1960s, aren’t you?
Alas, no, I am merely the daughter of an art gallery curator.
Well, of course, that’s your cover.
That’s what I was thinking.
I guess that’s kind of what I was going for. Also, the single large bird was kind of giving me a weird look.
Still hasn’t fully set in that I’m done with formal schooling forever. I’ve been done for a week, and actually, oh dear, I’ve been done for a week and (*looks around room*) this is the only dent I’ve made in getting my apartment packed up? Uh-oh. Yeah. I’ve been trying to pack, clean, and get all my furniture items sold off to their new homes (you can only fit so much stuff in a small hatchback car).
There was a point my room looked semi clean last week, then I tried to pack things and now it’s a disaster zone with item strewn about as i try to figure out how to pack up 4 years of accumulated items. It was so easy to pack up my dorm room at the end of every year. Somehow, now I’ve been settled in here for 4 years, I’ve accumulated so many more things. I’ve got over 2 suitcases full of clothes, alone, and about 6 giant blankets, a ridiculous number of textbooks, and an entire bookcase full of notes from vet school (over 20 3inch 3 ring binders stuffed to bursting with notes).
I am unconvinced that this is possible, that in less than 2 weeks my apartment will be entirely packed either into my car or suitcases to go with my family or boxes to mail home, and scrubbed clean. Mom insists it’s possible. I remain far, far from convinced.
But hopefully she is right, and I am wrong.
And it’s almost graduation, just a little over a week, and this will be the first time I graduate from anything in an official ceremony (I didn’t get my undergrad degree, and while i completed highschool i was homeschooled, so no ceremony) since preschool, which doesn’t exactly count.
And then we start our trip home, which I think will be super fantastic, and I hope I haven’t built it up so much in my head this past year that i end up disappointed. We’re going to see Mt Rushmore, and drive through Yellowstone (we did that once hwen I was a kid, but that was probably close to 20 years ago, although I remember it was tons of fun, and there was a freak hail storm while we watched Old Faithful erupt). And this will be my first time driving the Alcan, which I think should be a really beautiful drive, and especially at this time of year, when everything is turning green with spring time.
And I’m going to get to see Captain Kirk’s birthplace (yes, I deliberately plotted a course that would take me thorugh a tiny town in the middle of nowhere whose only claim to fame is that it’s the birthplace of a fictional character that hasn’t even been born for another 200 years), and have already corresponded with the curator of the little star trek/city museum there to have him open it up special for me on a day it’s normally closed, since we’re not driving through on a day it’s normally open (poor planning on my part). And I”m gonna buy some Kirk Dirt (they sell $5 vials of dirt b/c duh), and eat dinner in the bar that sports a sign (under the table? against the wall? I forget) claiming to be where Kirk was conceived lol. And I’m driving through Vulcan, canada, b/c, well, Vulcan. Duh. Sadly they changed the time of their Spock festival so that there is no chance at all that we would be passing through at that time, but such is life. We’re still going to drive through. And I’ll geek out. And it’ll be super anticlimactic, but that’s okay.
It’s gonna be great. My mom and my maternal gramma are coming with me. Super awesome mini vacation yayayay
Today in Omaha, Nebraska:
-A mountain lion showed up a few blocks from a middle school. (The Humane Society had to shoot it instead of tranquilizing it for the sake of public safety.) They’ve been popping up more and more lately.
-Someone found a (living) one-year-old in a dumpster.
-A guy in the university library was asked to be a little quieter on his cell phone, so he pulled out a knife and some other students tackled him. He pulled out another knife, and they found a third knife on him after he was arrested.
What a weird day. The pets have been acting weird all day too. Must be the weather. Some storms are about to hit.
if Omaha has mountain lions, they just went up a few notches in my estimation
Yeah, the past five or ten years they’ve started coming this far east. Some friends of mine have had one around their property lately, which they’re not happy about since they have so many animals (and small children).
A western cougar came as far east as Connecticut a few years back. They may eventually fill the niche left by their extinct cousins of the Eastern subspecies and perhaps solve the deer overpopulation problem southern New York State has, although this is dependent on humans being able to live alongside them safely without either species attacking the other.
I’ll have to keep an eye out for them.
I misread this as “if Obama had mountain lions”
Aaaand that biology exam concludes Cerulean’s first year of college! *Snoopy dance*
I am done, done done with all my my exams and papers and final projects and whatnot. Finished last Tuesday night after an astounding 30-hour all night. That’s the longest I’ve ever been without sleep, and I don’t want to do that again ever.
But now I have a breather between now and commencement. I spent yesterday reading comic books and going dumpster/recycle/donation/ discard pile-diving. It’s amazing the stuff people get rid of, it really is. Meanwhile, I have ended up with a pile of new clothing, including brand-new, never been worn boots, some extremely fancy dresses, a sunhat, and some suitable-for-work-and-interviews blouses. Also some cookware.
The clothing is lying in a pile waiting to be washed. I am reading the comic books (Watchmen and Runaways v.1). At some point I plan on going to the bookstore and buying every issue of the new Ms. Marvel they have. And go swimming in the pool once before I graduate.
If you were an 18 year old, Harry Potter obsessed individual, what would you choose as a 4 digit code for a lock? Possible numbers are 0-9 for each.
I’ve tried everything I can think of, but no luck yet so far. I’m trying to crack the number on the lock for my laptop, so that it can actually be used for its intended purpose, but it’s been a very long time since i last used it (probably 7 years), and my only clue is that given that I was at that time still only Potter obsessed, that it’s probably HP related, b/c that’s how I did all my number codes at that time.
But I can’t figure it out, and there are 10,000 different possible combos, so I can’t exactly just sit here trying each and every one. It would take too long.
Harry Potter’s birthday? Luna’s birthday? The birthday of an actor? the year the first book came out?
Dates: the dates that all of the books came out, that the movies came out, actors’ birthdays, dates of canon events, etc.
Or try 7777 because 7 symbolism.
I’d go with the first four letters of that Ministry of Magic code, personally. Which I guess would be ‘magi’, but in phone-code?
Well so I just accidentally deleted my comment and can’t retrieve it.
So anyway, y’all are wonderful brilliant people. I’d already exhausted many of your suggestions, but oxlin’s comment about Luna’s birthday, made me go and google her birthday, because I didn’t remember ever knowing her birthday, and I felt this was information I should know, because obviously she’s the best. So I googled it, and was relieved to find that I wasn’t ignorant of such vital info–her birthday is something only Rowling knows–but someone commented something about how they felt it was probably April Fool’s.
Which jogged my memory that Fred and George are born on April Fool’s, which jogged something in my brain that said that 4/1/78 sounded really familiar (aside from being their b-day).
And sure enough, that was the code. So thank you, lovely wonderful people. I will now be changing it to something else (that I am sure to forget in another 7 years).
So I’m done with finals and I guess that means I’m done with college, even though Commencement isn’t for a week and a half. Maybe I’ll feel different tomorrow. Right now, I just want to sleep.
I just found out that my parents think God named me.
Just before I was born, they say that they both had the exact same dream; that they had a daughter with my name.
I feel… celestial?
Clearly you are a cat of destiny.
That’s such a cool story! I once asked my parents how they decided on my name, and they basically said “Um… dunno, we just liked it I guess”. Meanwhile, my sister is named partially for my grandmother and partially based on a suggestion I made for her name — which, because I was 5 when she was born, was based on a children’s TV show.
My parents said they chose my name because they liked it. From my mother I got the sense that they deliberately resisted naming me after any relatives. But when my brothers arrived, they capitulated to tradition. One is a junior and the other is named after both grandfathers.
I was named for my father, who, in turn, was named after his two grandfathers. It’s nice to have a sense of tradition, but it also makes me feel a little like a software update.
Robert Coontz V2.0.1
My mother chose my name because she liked it, at a time when it was relatively uncommon. And when I was growing up, it was still relatively uncommon and whenever anyone shouted my name, I turned my head because they meant me. But according to the Social Security Administration, my name has become fifty times more popular for newborn girls within my lifetime and as a result, I now often hear my name being called and turn to meet a 3-year-old with the same name. It’s a bit confusing, but I always wish them well.
Similar experience here. I didn’t start coming across other Rebeccas with any frequency until I was well into middle age. It can be unsettling at times, even annoying, to feel so much more commonplace. My brother Ralph is probably safe on that score.
I was named after a relative on my Mom’s side of the family, aunt Sally. Everyone thought that she was a Sarah who’d been given the nickname Sally and that is how I was named, only to discover her real name is actually Sally much later! My middle name is a family name on my father’s side that my grandfather and uncle also have as their middle names.
My name is Abby, not short for Abigail, just Abby, so technically I don’t meet many people with my name. Even counting Abigails-called-Abby I don’t meet many. But in like 2005 or 2006 Abigail was in the top 5 girls’ names in America. Right now that means there are a bunch of elementary-school-age Abbys running around, which doesn’t affect me at all. But the older I get the more those Abbys will be in my peer group–so at some point I’m going to go from knowing virtually no one in my peer group with my name to knowing about a million of them, albeit ones 11 or 12 years younger than me.
SFTDP. It also feels weird giving my real name on the blog, but hey, I’m 20-almost-21 so I guess it’s fair game.
That’s pretty much what happened with my name.
Something similar happened with my name (Sophia, which became SUPER popular in the last few years– but I was Sophia before it was cool, guys).
My parents apparently had a running competition to come up with the longest-possible Indian name for me (my dad is from India), and got it up to fourteen syllables once before agreeing on Sophia at the last minute. I’m very grateful.
I do know one Sofia who’s our age! Although it is with an f rather than a ph. She’ll never replace you in my heart tho~
Meanwhile my father considered Ethelgifu for me, and that’s one name that doesn’t show any signs of a resurgence any time soon. There is another girl with my name in my class, but she spells it very differently and with either spelling it’s a relatively rare name in the US. (So is my middle name, which I inherited from my grandmothers — both have/had the same middle name.)
My cousin’s named Sofia! She’s in her late teens now. It would be super weird if they were the same person…
I have a cousin Sophia, but she’s at least eight years my senior (the first I can remember of any of my cousins on that side of the family, they were already tweens or teenagers.)
I’m in the same boat but the other way around. (Seeing as I’m eighteen I guess names are okay?) I was named Joanne after a dead great-aunt and as such I’ve never met anyone with the same name who isn’t at least fifteen years older than me, and usually substantially more than that. Joanna, Johanna, I’ve met quite a few my age, which unfortunately means that’s what everyone thinks my name is.
I was just looking at the top names from 2014, and Abigail is again in the top 10. I commented earlier that I hope some of them become Abigails-called-Gail, but thinking now about what you have Rebecca have felt, maybe I shouldn’t hope that.
^^ my name is rather uncommon. The only time I met anyone with my name, it didn’t count because it was spelled a little differently. But whenever I hear anyone call a name with a similar ending, I get confused. Well not any more, because I know nobody would call me.
Somehow, despite having a girls’ name that’s been in top 10 of “most popular baby names” lists (Samantha), I have met very, very few other Samanthas — and even fewer that go by Samantha (rather than Sam or Sammy). It’s very odd. Considering that Samantha was the #4 baby name in both 1993 and 1994 (when most of my friends were born) and #5 in 1996 (when I was born), you’d think I know more.
That is weird. I don’t know many Samanthas, either. Maybe it’s a more common name in different parts of the country? You could look at the Social Security data by state if you were curious.
It’s not that common, but my first name is Alexa and I’ll respond to Alex, despited never having being nicknamed such. I used to be really annoyed by people’s failures to get it right, but now I’m glad to have a slightly more unusual version. I wonder what I’d have gone by as Alexandra?
Future!adult!me will probably be unimpressed, but I am so tempted to give my future kids not-too-unearthly names from various fandoms. Seldon, Arcadia, Zefram, Lenara…
Kaywinnet?
My younger sister named our youngest sister after one of her dolls.
My parents claim that three-year-old me lobbied to have my little sister named Swonky, after a seal bathtub toy I played with as a child.
Apparently 2-year-old me wanted to name my twin baby sisters Zoe and Chloe, but we didn’t because my grandma thought Zoe was a dog’s name. We have a cat named Zoe now.
I don’t recall how my parents agreed on “Aaron,” but if I was a girl I would have been called Selene, apparently.
I would have been Arthur if I’d been a boy.
I would have been Liam if I was a boy. (Or maybe Will).
My parents chose my name (Cara) because it’s Irish? (Gaelic for “friend”, which I’ve found to be quite ironic in the past.)
I think I would have been Michael if I was a boy– at least, my mom really likes that name at least and wanted to name one of my brothers that before they decided on naming them after their grandfathers.
Sometimes I wonder if there’s an alternate universe where everything is the same except I was a boy and what Michael would be like and if he would like the same things I do and if we would get along if we met.
If I was a boy, I’d have been Euan Richard. Euan because my parents liked it, Richard after my great-grandfather. When I was first told this my reaction was “ewwww!”. But I still had similar reactions to boys in general, so…
If I would have been born a boy, my name would have been Geddy, after the bassist Geddy Lee. I feel quite lucky to have been born a girl and find it quite enough that I was born on Dave Mustaine’s birthday.
I have been told that if I had been born a boy, my name would have been Kenneth Luke, Kenneth for no real reason and Luke because… Star Wars. (I feel fortunate that my middle name is not Leia.)
My parents considered naming me Lala, but changed their minds because of the teletubbies.
They also thought about naming me Hopeless, so they could call me Hope but my name would secretly be Hopeless. I like that, except Hope does not fit me.
my mother tried to name me “Lestat” after the vampire in the Anne Rice novels (she is Very into vampires) and my dad wanted to call me “Mookie” after a baseball player becuase, “it sounded funny with our last name” (which starts with ‘M’). Neither was happy with the other’s suggestion.
Somewhere between the two they got the third most popular girl’s name of the year. (I hate to break it to you but it is not actually ‘Jade’ although I still use that as an irl nickname. It does start with ‘J’ though.)
My middle name is also my mother and grandmother’s middle name, and was the name of our Irish ancestor that first came to America. Her last name was “Griffon” and I will always kind of regret that I odn’t live in a world where that got passed down, alas.
My parents did something similar where my dad was pushing hard for “Ellie” and my mom for “Talia” and so they settled on… Abby… which was nothing like either of those at all. Yours are much more interesting, though.
During the early months of my mom’s pregnancy with me, my parents were living in Charleston, SC, a town that features two rivers, the Ashley and the Cooper. My father is a Methodist, a denomination founded my John Wesley. Because of those two facts, Dad claimed that if I’d been a boy, I would have been named Wesley Ashley Lasley.
My parents were choosing between Valentine and Helmut, then decided on Conrad. I’m happy with it, it’s rare enough that I’m memorable and not confused with anyone else on a regular basis, but it’s also easy to spell and accepted as a “normal” name.
I almost got named Iris, but the decided that Fern seemed more fitting. I sometimes wonder if I would have turned out differently with a different name. Maybe I would like purple more, instead of tending towards greens.
I’ve met or heard about maybe 6 people with my name, over the (almost) 23 years that I’ve had it. Usually it’s people’s grandmother’s name. There’s also a Carter Family song “Sweet Fern”, but I think it’s about the plant, not a person. I usually forget that I have an unusual name, until I think about how strange it really is, and then sometimes I get self-conscious about it. My middle name, Aviva, is also different. It means springtime in Hebrew, which I think is cool. Sometimes people ask if I’m Jewish because of that, but I’m not.
By coincidence, I just learned of another one this afternoon, an actress from New Zealand named Fern Sutherland.
Iris leans more towards fuchsia than purple. It has a whiff of lace curtains. I don’t think you’d have been entirely comfortable as an Iris.
I think that too, but perhaps that’s just because I ended up as a hardy, green woodsy Fern?
I wonder about that, too. I’m a Gail, definitely named in reference to windstorms by my sailor parents, which seems to set one on a different course in life than if you’re a Grace, their other finalist.
On the subject of my name, I have a rather unusual and long name that starts with B, so all of my relatives would call me Bee for short. They would dress me up as a bee for Halloween and buy me bee stuff when I was a toddler.
Ironically enough, I have never gotten a bee sting. Maybe they think I’m one of them?
I don’t really know why my parents picked my first name, but my middle name, Rose, comes from my great-aunt.
It’s always interesting to hear about the names peoples’ parents considered for them. For instance, my best friend’s dad wanted to name her Africa, but her mom didn’t like that idea.
Fun facts about my name: Mom claimed at the time that she definately wasn’t naming me after anyone, but the two first names that were in the running for a girl were both out of her aunt’s name, and my middle name is her first name, which was itself a legacy.
(She’s since admitted she was delusional.)
(…It’s suddenly occuring to me that my father appears to have had no input at all into my name.)
I’m not named after anyone, so I’ve always felt a bit odd about naming after people. Like Robert said, it’s like being a software update.
My two names are the Hebrew words for joy and comfort, because my parents had been attempting to have a baby for years. So they chose a name for me that described their emotions.
In a similar vein, my twin brother and I were given names somewhat related to the fact that we were 2 and a half months premature. My middle name in Hebrew means life, because I lived.
And for those of you who’ve mentioned hearing your name everywhere: My first name is Sara, a really popular biblical name in the Jewish community and a popular Christian name and just generally a really common name. I hear my name all the time – and I will respond to a plethora of variations in pronunciation.
Yeah. That is part of the reason I still go by Sally, despite preferring the sound of Sarah. There are so many of us!
I’m named after my great-grandma, who was a Lipsi but it got anglicized to Lizzie / Elizabeth when she came over at Ellis Island. My brother lobbied to name me Egbert but fortunately my parents didn’t go for that.
My first name was just a name my parents liked, and my middle name is my dad’s first name. The only interesting part of my name is my last name. It’s a German name, and apparently my great-great-grandmother decided to change the pronunciation during WWI to sound “more American” since anti-German sentiment was pretty high. Unfortunately, all she really did was ensure that there is no human way for someone to guess the correct pronunciation on the first try. I can’t count the number of different ways it’s spelled and pronounced.
By the way, I’ve noticed that a lot of MBers on this part of the thread seem to think they’re not allowed to reveal their first names here. You are — MB rules have always permitted you to tell that much about yourselves. Some of you have even used your first names as blognames.
See, that’s what I always thought, but then everyone else seemed to think otherwise, so I was suddenly doubtful. Even though I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned what my first name is here before. (It’s Riley.)
Well, no, I do know that — it’s my own personal paranoia holding me back, not any ideas about the rules. I don’t want to run the risk of making myself too identifiable, that’s all.
I just like to live in a world where everyone only knows me as Jade! I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned my actual first name on the blog before, but honestly, it sort of freaks me out when people who I’ve gone by ‘Jade’ with for years use my given name. Not in a bad way, just a “woah what that was not what I expected” sort of way, heh.
I know I can, but I would rather not.
That’s fine, too.
According to my late mother, my name appeared to her in a dream, too. My parents were going to give me George as a middle name, but they thought better of it.
It’s a good thing they didn’t. Your brother John Ringo would’ve been upset.
Aren’t we lucky Cardinal Bergoglio chose “Francis” as his Papal name rather than “John Paul George Ringo I”?
My quartet is playing in the fischoff competition this weekend and we just found out we advanced to the semifinals! If you want to watch, we’ll be on the livestream at fischoff.org at I think 1:20 tomorrow (Saturday) eastern time.
Congratulations, Lizzie! May the odds be ever in your favor.
Congratulations!
You guys sound so good! Congrats! Also, your dress. *heart eyes*
Who won? Bet it was you.
I walked to Copley and back, saw an exhibit about maps and the Revolutionary War at the Boston Public Library, ate at their awesome cafe, and then came home via Newberry Street and bought a Star Wars mug on the way. A good day.
I know I’ve been super absent lately; my sincere apologies! I miss you lovely people. I still read/follow posts semi-regularly, but life has been incredibly hectic lately (no excuse, I know…) Four-hour harmony exam this morning and more to come in all sorts of theory classes, history of music, plus my violin one in about a month, eek.
What else? Last weekend I played in a concert with my conservatory’s orchestra – Wagner prelude to Act 3 of Die Meistersinger, Schumann cello concerto and Brahms 4th (the last particularly was a dream to play in!) So much fun.
Slightly sick at the moment but it’s just a minor cold, hopefully it won’t get worse and will go away quickly..bleh.
The Hatbox Ghost character was reinstated at the Haunted Mansion after 45 years! Good on you, Disney.
Ahem. I would like to take this opportunity to announce that this is my 6-month anniversary on MuseBlog, so…
Happy Blogiversary, Noah!
Happy blogiversary! I’m glad you’re around.
That time when I was younger and I was watching HBO or one of those channels with my mom and they were showing a commercial for upcoming movies they were going to show that interspersed clips from several of them before explaining this, so I briefly thought that Pollyanna and Touching the Void were the same movie…
So I did it. I graduated, I walked across the stage, got my diploma, took pictures…
It feels surreal. My diploma is lying right there on the table. Bachelor of Science. Most of the stuff in my dorm is now boxed up. But somehow, I can’t believe that I’m leaving.
I actually started crying at dinner over the fact that I’m leaving and I’ve graduated. College was just such an experience and I really enjoyed my time here and the friends that I made.
Last week I was still freaking out over grades and now I’m just…done. And waiting for what comes next.
A week and a half left of school. Finals begin tomorrow. Graduation is this coming Sunday DURING FINALS (WHY????? Well, I know why logistically, but WHY??????).
In the past 24 hours I have completed two 12p papers – one research, one a creative piece. Still have a 12 page music paper and a 7 page English essay, plus my History exam which is a take home, so I’m considering it a paper.
Finals: 4 this week, 1 next week, the day after graduation (again, WHY?)
When I get done with this, I am going to sleep late for a week.
And then get started on job hunting.
Good luck with finals!
Thanks so much! Two finals down, three to go!
Keep on!
I just applied for a job doing motion graphics! *is hopeful*
Three out of eight school programs (in four days) with my quartet done. We wrote our script aimed at third graders but they’ve been putting us in with everything from preschoolers to 7th graders (sometimes at the same time, which is a challenge). We end with an arrangement of Pharrell’s Happy and both schools today, the kids sang along, which made my day.
I think it might rain tonight. That would be nice. A good summer thunderstorm to wash some of the pollen out of the air and mellow the temperature a bit.
We’ve already gotten rain down here to wash the pollen away… down onto the ground where there are plain visible patches of yellow where puddles used to be full of pollen. The part of my yard that isn’t grass, is now stained yellow.
Welcome to one of Catwings’ little life updates that nobody cares about:
I seriously need to write something. And soon. I had planned on it earlier, but now it’s 11:00 PM and I usually go to bed at about 10, so I am quite tired by now. I should not keep video games and youtube videos loaded on my laptop anymore, especially when I want to write.
Do you guys have other advice for a chronic procrastinator?
I care about the life updates!
I’m a chronic procrastinator as well, but here’s what has worked for me so far:
-Switching settings, i.e. holing up in the library for example, if possible without internet
-Shifting around my schedule: personally, I’m the most productive in the late morning/early afternoon, so that’s when I try to make time for whatever’s currently my top priority
-Setting realistic goals to avoid a procrastination spiral (not making goals -> feeling worse ->procrastinating more)
-Hanging a calendar over my desk and sticking stickers on each day depending on what I’ve achieved (helps hold yourself accountable, and once I have a nice pattern going I’d hate to break it with a blank day)
-Bribes. I’m currently working on a paper that should be 25 pages; I’m getting a roll of chocolate cookies every five pages.*
-If all else fails, writing on paper instead of your laptop?
*It usually takes me a day for half a page so that’s not as lavish as it sounds
I agree that writing on paper is better for reducing distractions than writing on a computer– you don’t have the whole Internet to distract you! (This is why I hate hate hate classes where one has to do homework online. Too easy to get distracted.)
I agree so much with switching settings: I absolutely cannot get any work done if I’m in my room. I can’t work on my laptop, either. I have to use public computers where I’ll have to log into anything to procrastinate. And I can’t listen to music, either, because then I’ll end up watching YouTube videos with my headphones. All in all, it’s reealy tough working when I can’t get to a library, but leaving my room helps at least a little.
Writing down what I have to do helps a lot, too, because then I can cross it off the list. I procrastinate on both little things and big things, but seeing all the little things in a list really helps to not forget about them.
What songs would you recommend for a playlist of songs about real explorers from history? (They don’t have to be mentioned by name in the song, but it does have to be about a real person and not a fictional or generic figure.)
So far I can think of…
Armstrong (Geoff Robertson and John Stewart)
Auguste Piccard (We Invented Paris)
Calypso (John Denver, about Jacques Cousteau)
Countdown (Rush, about John Young and Robert Crippen)
Flying for Me (John Denver, about the final Challenger crew)
In Search of Amelia Earhart (Plainsong)
Mallory (The Mountaineering Club)
Michael Rockefeller (Guadalcanal Diary)
Song for Tingmissartoq (Bill Stains, about Charles and Anne Lindbergh)
Terra Nova (iLiKETRAiNS, about Robert Falcon Scott)
I would include “Our Retired Explorer” by The Weakerthans, but it’s not really about Ernest Shackleton, it only mentions him. There probably are songs actually about him, but for some reason I’ve never thought to look…
Lost in the Blue, by the Minstrels of Mayhem is about the Columbia disaster.
Does Iron Maiden’s Brave New World, said to be about Otzi the Ice Man count?
Do you mean the title song from that album or “Stanger in a Strange Land”? Wikipedia says the former is just about the novel of the same name, while the later was inspired by “talking to an explorer who had had a similar experience of discovering a frozen body.” If the song was written in 1986, it would predate Ötzi’s discovery, but it might have been inspired by the discoveries of the bodies of some of the Franklin expedition members in the Canadian arctic in 1981-82.
Jethro Tull’s “For Michael Collins, Jeffery And Me” and maybe Stan Rogers’ “Northwest Passage”.
Oh yes, I found “Northwest Passage” shortly after I posted that, and it has been stuck in my head for the past day and night.
I’m going back and forth of ABBA’s “What About Livingstone?”, as it doesn’t really talk about David Livingstone all that much, it just uses him as a metaphor.
I looked at the sidebar for probably the first time in a few months just now (sorry, anyone who was born in April…), and:
” May 22, 2015
Dodecahedron’s 9K Day”
I still remember being excited for my 7K day – I think I made a post about how it was “only about two years until 7777”.
Time flies and I’m getting old. (though I am eating reheated nutella pizza for breakfast, so maybe not as old as I’d like to pretend)
Also: do the GAPAs manually calculate K days? I feel like this kind of thing is the reason programming exists, and I immediately started thinking about how I would use certain Java libraries that I’m familiar with, were I writing a quick program for that.
However, it does remind me of a joke I saw last month that I still think is hilarious: “Hate daylight savings? Become a programmer, and you can hate time zones EVERY day.”
Since it was bothering me to not know exactly how to do this, I looked it up, and now I’m sharing. It’s one line in JodaTime, and a simple one at that.
DateTime nineK = new DateTime(1993, 11, 27, 0, 0).plusDays(9000)
Actually, it’s plusDays(8999), because you don’t have a zero day: the day you were born was your first day on Earth. (I’m in charge of the calculations. I don’t do them in my head; I use a spreadsheet.)
All this made me curious about how many days I’ve been alive, so I used an online calculator. I have been alive for 9,598 days. Wow.
I have been alive for 9147 days, according to Wolfram Alpha. And my 10K day is apparently September 14th, 2017. (I used the 9999 calculation method and Wolfram Alpha.)
♩♫ Nine million nine hundred eighty-six thousand minutes… ♪ ♬
wait annie I thought you were a year younger than me (’91) and all of the online calculators are telling me ~8700 days
yeah I’m definitely like two years younger than you – 1993, as I said. a quick back of the envelope calculation (365 * 21.5) says I should still be under or around 8K…. I did think it seemed somewhat odd that I was suddenly so old, but I chalked it up to all those major life milestones I’ve hit in the past six months.
Robert – is it actually someone else’s 9K? or my some-other-number-of-days-anniversary?
I’ll check. Maybe I mistyped a numeral. GIGO, as we used to say.
Sorry about that, Dodecahedron! In fact, your 8K day falls on October 22. Your 9K day won’t come along until July 18, 2018. I’ve corrected the calendar.
You know what they say: easy come, easy go…
It’s almost hilarious how unaccustomed the Bay Area is to inclement weather. Today we’re getting some scattered thunderstorms (i.e. <5 claps of thunder, though in fairness they were pretty loud, and a bit of lightning) and moderate rain, and the following has occurred:
– The power has gone out (twice so far, but the lights just flickered…)
– Traffic spiked with confusion from the lights going out
– Several fire alarms have gone off for no apparent reason (lightning? thunder?)
– The wifi has gone out (gasp!!!)
Everyone is freaking out. Coming from Minnesota, it's almost cute.
And I'll go ahead and make the pun: chaos rains in the Bay Area
Going to college in Nebraska, it was always fun to watch the students from warmer climes run out and buy parkas as soon as the temperature dropped below 50 degrees.
current obsession: https:// youtu .be/ 2ZC4t_jCM54? t=38m10s
from about 38:10 – 39:10. The harmonies (heart flatVI happy fantasy moment) are just somehow so incredible it’s magical. I just don’t get how Beethoven does it, again and again and again – somehow he does the simplest thing and it captures the sublime perfectly.
also I listened to about six different recordings before I found one where I liked how they did this part
Graduation tomorrow!!
had honors convocation and commencement rehearsal this morning, honor’s ceremony (I’m getting this year’s prize for chamber music) is later today and graduation is tomorrow. Then the moving truck and moving guys are coming on monday, hopefully at the same time, and taking all my stuff away, and I have my last lesson :(. Then on Wednesday I leave and fly to Omaha and then Thursday I start my new job. I turned on my phone today and it was like “Five days until your flight!” and I was like urk. It’s the biggest change I’ve made since I came here six years ago (and that was one of the best decisions I’ve made). It’s really exciting but I’m also kind of scared and I just really really really hope moving goes smoothly. Everything’s happening so fast.
Other thoughts: graduation caps are really weird. I mean, flat square piece of something on my head, what? is there a way to make them look attractive?
also, I’ll officially be a Master of Music. Does that mean I can stop practicing now?
I believe we both know the answer to that question.
I put a giant space squid on the top of my grad cap in glitter glue!!!
I mean. I also dressed up as a dragon for graduation. so.
ALSO IF/WHEN I DRIVE BACK TO CHICAGO AFTER MY SPREE IN THE DESERT HAS CONCLUDED (ah crap i keep meaning to write about that here and not having time) AND I PASS THROUGH OMAHA I WILL COME BUG YOU OR SOMETHING, if you’re playing then I’d love to see you!!
YES YOU SHOULD even if you’re not driving back to Chicago. We can go out for steaks or whatever it is people do there.
we have to give our caps / gowns / hoods back
So I hear I’m going to Grad School this summer. And I hear Omaha is between My Parent’s House and Grad School.
so I hear that I’ll have an apartment in Omaha this summer. I also hear that it’s going to have a futon people could stay on.
Apparently it was my 6-year blogiversary on Monday. Huh. That means I was 12 when I first posted here.
Y’all sure make this a nice place on the Internet to stick around in.
So do you!
I went to the MFA with my family today and saw the Hokusai exhibit– I’d really love to have a book of the 36/46 views of Mount Fuji.
Ack, both my parents looked at their family trees online and found that their family had lied to them. O.O My mom was told that her dad was Native American, but it turns out he’s actually French… And my mom was told that she wasn’t at all Irish, but it turns out that she is a little bit Irish. My dad found that his dad isn’t actually his dad and he’ll never know his real father. :/ Family history sure is crazy… With all that was found, I conclude that I am American, French, Irish, German, African, and British… O.O Perhaps there is still more to it though. My mom hasn’t gotten the actual test to prove what the website shows yet…
Had my graduation ceremony thing today. Mortar board caps are super awful (and unflattering with hair) and while mine stayed on throughout he ceremony, two girls lost theirs during the ceremony while they were being hooded.
So I had thought I might cry and be emotional, but I didn’t. The ceremony (only 2 hours) seemed to drag on forever, and by the time it was over I had a bad headache (I think because it was so caking hot and with the robes on top….). My tassel kept swinging into my mouth/up my nose/into my eyes (like actually touching my eyeballs).
This was the first grad ceremony I was part of, since I was homeschooled and then didn’t complete my bachelors prior to starting school. It was kind of anticlimactic. It still doesn’t seem real that I’m graduated and done with school.
But anyway, I have my diploma, and I am now officially a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. So that’s cool I guess.
Way cool. Congratulations, Dr. Luna!
Ehhhh….what’s up, doc?
Congratulations! You’ve made it!
Gradjeeatin’ tomorrow. I won awards in both my major and minor, which is really nice. My graduation dress and shoes I found in a freepile the other day. The only thing I’m worried about is that the dress doesn’t have pockets, which is annoying, especially since I know I’m going to be an ugly-crying mess when it comes time to say bye to people. It’s super pretty though! And I’m going to wear heels, which is exciting. I never wear heels, but these are really comfy oxford/wingtip style low heels that fit perfectly and are basically brand new.
There’s going to be a lot of adjustments, and one of them will definitely be getting used to not being able to find free clothes all over the place.
My cat gave birth! There are three of them and I think the father must have been a bit orange because the kittens are grey/black and white and orange, not just grey and white like Pangur. They’re so tiny, and I saw her carrying one of them around in her mouth which is something I’d read about but never observed.
I’ve had a problem where our mother cat kept grabbing the kittens and carrying them away to somewhere we couldn’t reach them. XD It was hilarious!
My graduation is tomorrow morning, which makes absolutely no sense in the context of my life, compared to the lives of acquaintances who are also graduating in May, but who finished finals a few days ago. Everyone on social media is like “senior week, wooo, what a great four years” which is something I can’t really relate to at all, and it’s kind of isolating. I chose this path, and chances are I’d feel isolated anyway, but still.
On the plus side, I am 100% ready to brag about my accomplishments to people I haven’t seen in six months (although I admit to disappointed that I wasn’t named salutatorian or valedictorian, since after all I did have a 4.0 – part of me is like, leave some honors for someone else once in a while, do you really need to demonstrate superiority in every way? and the other part of me is like, is that even a question? of course I need to demonstrate my clear superiority)
At my college, they chose a PoliSci major to be valedictorian, because they figured he’d be better at speechmaking. Which was probably true, but it irked me that people who got 4.0s in much harder majors were passed over as valedictorian.
Hmm. The whole concept of valedictorian kind of bothers me. I do think that people should be rewarded for hard work, and sometimes GPAs reflect hard work and sometimes they don’t. I’m not sure that valedictorian and speech giver should be the same person. At my school, a hood was presented to the person with the highest GPA among the BAs, and one with the highest GPA among the BSs. I don’t remember how we selected who gave the speech, but I think it had to do with good speech giving skills.
As for my part, I remember from my graduation 3 years ago feeling rather upset that I hadn’t gotten any kind of cum laude or honors. In retrospect, I did a lot of work and had just done a major accomplishment, but there was a bit of a tinge of constantly comparing myself to my high school summa cum laude (or magna cum laude. Don’t remember which is which but I had which ever one is the second to highest, not the highest one) and tons of cords for things like NHS. I dunno. I focused too much on that perhaps. I do remember enjoying the graduation day, though. (Minus the packing all my stuff afterward… That was less fun!)
The student speaker for our vet school graduation was chosen via class vote (ie, popularity contest) not GPA. Although incidentally the girl who was selected was second in the class in terms of GPA (one of only two to graduate summa cum laude).
I’m my class’s valedictorian (high school) and I really wish we’d chosen the speaker via a popular vote. I don’t want to speak at all, and my suspicion is that there are people with lower GPAs who would have appreciated the chance.
At my high school, you had to try out before a panel of the administrators to be one of the speakers at graduation, which I think is a decent system. Going by GPA or popular vote doesn’t guarantee that the person is actually good at public speaking.
My high school had an easy grading system (all A’s counted as 4.0) so we had around 10 or so valedictorians. For the speech, anyone could submit a speech to the graduation committee and they’d select one male and one female speaker.
So I just went to graduation at my undergrad school and therefore actually know how the graduation speaker is chosen. It seems to be that each person who is interested submits their speech to the senior class officers (who’ve been elected by the senior class), which seems like a good idea to me.
I don’t think high school valedictorian speeches are a thing in Australia, or at least not at my school. We graduated on a different day from getting awards – there was one students-only event where we all stood up and wore robes and got our certificates, then on the morning of our formal night we had the other thing. The school captain and maybe the other captains got to / had to speak, but that was it. Having that role tended to be a major hit to your grades, and in my year she did seem pretty normal academically. I was Dux and didn’t have much to say at that point that would have been a good idea to.
Is there any way to help or to at least ease Bipolar disorder? I’m seriously worried about a Bipolar friend of mine.
therapy, medications
Correction: A Bipolar friend that lives across an ocean from me.
graduated! therefore, naptime now
also I have awful hathair now
nap report: good until drum circle started outside
It must be hard to be a guard at the Stewart Gardner Museum when the number one thing visitors talk about to each other and ask you questions about is the robbery that happened 25 years ago. My family didn’t ask any questions, because my mom and I know most of the details ourselves, but we were still talking about it amongst ourselves because my brothers had questions. I hoped the guards couldn’t hear and wished we could have had the discussion before or after our visit. It’s one of those “never live it down” things.
I never wished psychometry was real as strongly as when I looked at those empty frames and wanted to know where the paintings are now.
Museblog seems to be my go-to place when I have nothing else to do. When I’m looking for something to do and open my bookmarks to find something, I automatically go to Museblog as first choice, even when I’m not thinking.
I’m done with college. Wow.
Happy birthday, Fiddler!
Move went surprisingly well this morning – everyone came at the right time, there was parking, stuff was loaded really really quickly. My place feels so empty now and i can walk around without banging into a box… now I just gotta clean the place and then find a new apartment in a different city.
Day 1: Left my apartment this morning. Drove to Riverside, Iowa, geeked out and took. So. Many. Photos. Spent all evening sorting and sharing them with my sister and other relatives who wanted them all, and sorting out which ones of the (209 total photos between Mom and I) I wanted to share to Voldynet–only 79 made the cut. That’s more photos than I’ve ever put on there in the whole time I’ve had it.
Off to bed now, so I can be up to go see the Voyage Home Museum tomorrow, per special arrangement. Excited!!!!
I’m finding that I can relate to Dilbert much more than I used to, and I’m pretty sure that’s not a good thing.
Watching “Raiders of the Lost Ark” with my brother J…
*There is a fly buzzing around antagonist Dr. Belloq*
J: “He’s got a bug on him.”
Me: “He *is* a bug.”
J: “You’re not wrong…”
A very slightly divergent Raiders AU where Tanis wasn’t lost to history in a sandstorm but had already been excavated since Flinders Petrie like in reality (it’s just that nobody had gotten to the area where the Well Of Souls or Map Room were), and the Germans forced Pierre Montet out of his existing excavations, so the intel came not from the decoded cable but from Montet leaking this info to the British out of anger and possibly personal grudges against Belloq (like Indy is the *only* person he ever ripped off…)
(The movie would not really play out any different except for one or two lines or dialogue, it would just reflect the fact that there were actual WWII-era excavations at Tanis.)
I guess Cleveland wanted me to stay, because on the way to the airport my taxi got a flat tire on a bridge on the interstate. Oy.
Ambiguous syntax in The Smithsonian Book of Air & Space Trivia that is confusing me:
“[The Messerschmitt Me262] flew 193 km (120 mi) per hour faster than a Mustang P-51…”
It flew 193 kilometers per hour, WHICH WAS faster than a Mustang could fly, or it flew 193 km/hr faster than a Mustang’s top speed? Is there supposed to be a comma between “faster” and “than” or not?
*Looks up*
Google is telling me that the Me262’s top speed was 870 km/hr, while the P-51’s was 703 km/hr, so I guess the later reading is correct and no comma is needed, even though that would be a difference of 167 km/hr, not 193… Why not just list the top speed straight out and avoid this ambiguity?
11:22 pm, EST, Wednesday May 20th, 2015
I emailed in my last final, a take-home history final. It was the last final of my undergraduate career.
After pulling an all nighter last night and working on this last final on three hours of sleep, I have officially completed all of the requirements for my undergraduate degree in English Creative Writing.
I’m slightly freaking out right now
Congrats! Now get some well-deserved rest!
[Warning: may contain minor spoilers for two of H.P. Lovecraft’s books]
So, after reading all the way through The Call of Cthulu earlier this morning, I’ve just completed reading The Colour out of Space. I found myself getting really into that, to the point where I found myself slow my reading when the characters started dying off. Even the horse. Although I do have one thing to say about it (I know it’s a bit too late for reviews, but I guess this is just my opinion.
I found myself getting out of the part at the end, where the light consumes the entire house and farmland, and “explodes” and all that. I found that I couldn’t picture it properly in my mind, or I felt that I wasn’t able to imagine it how Lovecraft intended his readers to. A piece of advice for other writers to avoid that popped into my head after reading, and it is; if you are going for abstract and unusual in your stories, try not to be too abstract, otherwise your audience will not be able to grasp what you mean by certain things. Lovecraft was an excellent writer (well, for his time; many things he did in his stories probably wouldn’t pass the grammar standards of today, but whatever) but he kinda crossed the line of “too unnatural” with that scene. I think.
Besides that, both books were absolutely phenomenal and kept me in suspense the entire way. I now understand why Lovecraft has so many fans even today, and cannot wait until I can read more
Decided after a meltdown last night to take a chemistry SAT Subject test and not the Math II. I think I’ll do better with chem, because the material is more recent and I tend to fall into math multiple choice “traps.” So hopefully I’ll get over 700, which would make three SAT subject tests over 700.
Crying is tiring. I was tired all day today. And I’ll probably be tired tomorrow, since it’s the Health Fair (outdoor club fair sort of thing with lots of people), then volunteering at the library. Please stop the world, I’d like a snack break.
I sorted some of my things today, and found myself wishing again my bookshelves had four shelves instead of three so that I could store more books.
So I got my GED! (passed all subjects With Honors so that’s cool I guess?)
Awesome! Congrats!
I shaved my head today. I’d wanted to for a while and today I went out and did it. There were a lot of reasons, but mostly sheer curiosity.
I truly believed I’d be strong enough to face people’s reactions. I don’t know if I was right. Evidence is not pointing to ‘yes’.
Thinking about the first women to wear bloomers in public makes me feel braver.
Coincidentally, I shaved the right side of my head recently. I applaud you for having the bravey to do the whole shebang!!
Thank you! I’m sure your hair looks great. Sometime I want to do the long hair on one side and shaved on the other, but that wouldn’t have worked this time ’cause it wasn’t much more than an inch long anyway. Just long enough to be fluffy.
It’s getting close to a week now, and I am so glad I did it. The first two days were hard, and I was terrified of going out anywhere and I refused to even check the mail. And I learned that maybe all those fairytale virtues that we all believe we have? We don’t always have them. I wasn’t as brave as I thought I was.
Then on Sunday I went out into public to buy a book and nobody stared or aproached me or anything, and I felt braver. And my friends greeted me with compliments and encouragement and didn’t totally reject me, and the last of my fear dried up. I think practically everybody knows now, and the worst I’ve heard is ‘Your new hairstyle is… interesting.” The most hilarious was the time I ran into a family we’re friends with, and both of the daughters independently greeted me, glanced up at my scalp, and proceeded to compliment my dress.
It’s very exciting and one of the single most educational things I’ve ever done, and I love it. A couple months from now, it’ll be gone, and I’ll probably be glad to have my hair back, but I’m so glad I did it.
In the past 24 hours:
– My sister got engaged
– I got accepted by the seminary
– I wiped my old laptop’s hard drive and installed Debian
– I visited the neighbors’ cats
– I made an omelette
Other things also happened. These were the important ones, though.
Congratulations to both you and your sister! (On the omelette especially, of course.)
Thanks! The folding was a bit avant-garde but the texture turned out very well.
Fingers crossed, I think I found a place to live. Super nice duplex in a neighborhoodly part of town.
Crazy to think that I’ve only been gone from Cleveland two days.
omg I submitted my rental application ten minutes ago at 9:30pm and he hasn’t gotten back to me omg am I not going to get it omg
I hate waiting so much
Does any other woman out there know that discouraging moment when you see a man with better hair than you?
Just a man? Most people of any gender have better hair than me.
I am the same.
Sorry, not me. And I’m sure your hair is awesome.
Don’t worry.
I changed my hairstyle recently to try to emulate Ed Elric from the Fullmetal Alchemist anime. Also to be less in my face when I wear it out.
I went bowling at a new alley with P and his friends. Such fun, I hadn’t been bowling in years, but I did pretty well. There was an arcade, and I played Skee Ball with P and then Avengers pinball. We were going to play air hockey, but the machine was broken. Alas.
Wait- did I just barely miss my 5k day?
Hah, I was a few hours late.
Guess who might be getting their very first bank account today?! Me!
I know a lot of people who spend their money right away, but I managed to save enough that a bank account was nessisary! 
Yay!
I got a 2060 on my SAT, which means I’ll probably retake it, but I got a 12 (out of 12) on the essay! Hooray!
That is amazing, congratulations!!!! And good luck on the retake, whenever you take it!
Spending the night in Fremont, Ohio. Greetings to all MBers in the Midwest!
Things that I had to stop and think about to remember recently:
– Whether biology is a science
– Which direction gravity acts in
I’m doing a lot better with the chemistry review book than I was with the math review book, so that’s a good sign.
My family watched Legally Blonde 2 last night. Pretty good, although I liked the first one better. Elle Woods is an inspiration.
Have you seen the musical yet? It’s on youtube, and it’s even better than the movie!
Home for a week, read four magazines, three real books, and one book of comic strips. Ah, vacation.
Well folks, I have a Monday-Friday, 9-5 job that pays above minimum wage (which is good, since it also comes with a fancy-schmancy hour each way on a commuter train to get there and back). I’m still trying to wrap my head around a boat job that’s just 9-5, maybe by the time I head out of here it’ll make sense.
It’s weird to think about college in the past tense.
The NYC subway is pretty scary, but fortunately so far I’ve had enough common sense and “whatever happens, happens” attitude towards it that even though each time I come and go from work I end up on different sections of platforms (or completely different platforms entirely!) I’ve not managed to get too lost or anything. I’m sure that’ll happen at some point, but it hasn’t yet, which is encouraging.
Welcome to the world. Or, in your case, “Oyster”.
Well, my school’s Spanish department is organizing a trip to Cuba. So that should be interesting.
Cool!
I know this is a stupid question, but I wanna know the answer, would milk curd if you drank it and then drink juice right after? I kinda drank both. XD
I suspect the curdling process would be largely overwhelmed by the complex chemical reactions going on in your stomach.
I’m very interested in the digestive system, and occasionally I accidentally spill details to my friends and end up grossing them out.
I know what that’s like.
I JUST REALIZED tomorrow is the 25th. Lilacs don’t grow here but plan for tomorrow is towels + hard-boiled eggs. (and exams. exams!)
46, 47, 51, 54, 62, others that I missed- I feel that. Quite a bit. Also, hello, old friends.
-A
HI, Grady!!! How are you?
Doing quite alright. Settling in to the highly unsettling life of postgrad life. Special someone moving in with me tomorrow (yikes need to cook a wheat-free dinner and get the house spotless for her mother), largely unemployed but doing manual labour for my landlord at a decent wage, and the entire summer ahead… Also apparently my hometown senator is running for president?
-A
Lots of good, then! I’m so glad! (How’d your move-in day go?)
Thank you for your service, veterans.
And especially, thank you for your service, those who never had a chance to be a veteran.
Hey folks! Haven’t been around this weekend because I’ve been busy talking up Polly Shulman (and other folks) at WisCon, the Feminist Science Fiction Convention. (Er meaning I’ve been mentioning Polyhymnia’s work. As far as I know, she wasn’t there. (But she should be in the future!)) It is great fun, but also tiring. I was on two panels, though. One, Beyond Hogwarts, was about magical learning apart from Hogwarts (Which is when I mentioned the Grim Legacy and The Wells Bequest. Another panelist immediately agreed and said she lived near Polyhymnia! So that was fun.) The other panel was Books We Loved When We Were Twelve. I mentioned: The Westing Game, The Blue Sword, The Hero and the Crown, Diana Wynne Jones in general, John Bellairs in general, Fly By Night (as one that is out now that wasn’t out when I was twelve), Chasing Vermeer (also not out when I was twelve).
John Bellairs and The Westing Game, yesyesyes…
I didn’t know what to make of Chasing Vermeer and I still don’t a decade later (I re-read it two summers ago). It’s certainly experimental and the idea of solving a mystery based on only intuition is unconventional, but I’m still not sure if it really *works* for me or not.
I just applied for a job as a Tribble Artist. As in, someone who photoshops tribbles into other Star Trek pictures. This is not a joke.
Is it not a drill, either?
Does that make you a Tribblemaker?
Yes it does.
Gosh, I had the worst nightmare ever, and I have nobody to go to for comfort… It literally had everything I fear… And at the end, I was forced to watch helplessly as one of my close friends was killed… DX …I know the others were killed too because they weren’t in safety with me and there was no escaping from what looked like a much bigger Majora’s Moon.
I’m sorry, GCA, I hope daylight helps fade it even if no other means of comfort is available.
And I finally understand why people hate me and abandon me. It’s because I’m so darned annoying and selfish. No matter how hard I try to shut up about myself and just talk about what the other person wants to talk about, the conversation some how gets turned back to me complaining about things that I could easily fix but don’t. (The other night, I had a whole group chat get sick of me and kick me out.) sometimes, to be honest, even I get sick of seeing myself typing out the same complains over and over again. I’m not good at following advice either so there isn’t really any way to fix this problem…
I’m going to agree with Bookgirl here- it’s quite likely that you’ll mature over time. Being conscientious of what you say is certainly a good start. Consider that a lot of us have been in the same position. I for one can relate to your anecdotes. Soon this version of yourself will be merely a fragment of the distant past.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee has just crowned co-champions for the second year in a row!
In response to GCA-DS’s unmoderated post: Maybe it will magically disappear on it’s own? I’m not joking: a lot of teens/tweens set my teeth on edge just by existing (loudly). But when I was that I age I acted exactly the same way. It mellows out over time
Indeed, I think present-day me would be annoyed by younger me if we were to meet as strangers.
If I look back at anything I wrote when I was younger than… 14? 15? I cringe. I was really annoying as a tween/young teen (ha, I’m going to look back on these posts later and cringe again). It was almost made worse by the fact that I was in all these extracurricular activities with seniors and juniors in high school as a 12-year-old. Now that my younger sister is approximately that age, and I can see how annoying she is, I have repeatedly apologized for my behavior.
It’s totally natural to be totally self-absorbed at that age, GCA-DS (not that you are, necessarily) — everyone is so wrapped up in their own problems and insecurities, and only later do you realize that no one scrutinizes you nearly as much as you do.
When I was 12 I thought I was extremely special and that my antics were fun and “omg so random11!!!”. You grow out of it.
I’m sorry I made you relive those posts earlier today. I’m embarrassed of a lot of my early posts, both here and on other sites. I was WAY too extraverted and overenthusiastic.
Haha, no need to apologize! We all were WAY too something.
Wow, that’s almost exactly how I feel in real life now, except for the part about doing a ton of extracurricular activities with high schoolers (although I did play the clarinet in the high school pep band as a seventh grader during the basketball season this year…) But here on Museblog, I feel like I try to suppress that part if me so I feel and sound more mature compared to all of you older people. Unfortunately, this means that I barely post anything ever.
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GCA-DS, like everyone else has said, the odds are greatly in your favor that you will grow out of this and figure out where you stand in the world and, while you may continue feeling uncomfortable sometimes, or often, I have complete faith that you’ll figure out coping strategies for it all. Being aware of the things you do is a really good start, and you’ll figure out how to make changes so you can be closer to the person you want to be. It’s hard and messy and really sucks, but I’m sure you’ll come out triumphant on the other side. Until then, MB is a really good place to stick around and get all that gunk out of the way, because the folks here have a tendency to be very forgiving and helpful. *hugs and squids*
~~~
I’m probably going to Minnesota in two weeks! I found plane tickets that aren’t too horribly priced! I can get time off! I can go see my girlfriend graduate! I haven’t seen her since January, and even though she’s going to be on the East coast this summer, we’re both on different boats and hers won’t be in NY very much.
Okay this is really cool and I’m so excited and I don’t mean to really brag or anything (not that my achievements are that much compared to all of you fine people) but today at my (small) town’s Saturday market
I made over $100 dollars total by busking on my guitar for about four hours. I’m pretty try sure that’s about three or four times minimum wage. My repertoire is only five pieces, too! I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but I can’t wait until the weekend is over so I can put it all in the bank. Did I mention all of the money is in the form of one dollar bills? I’m so excited! My parents keep telling me not to let it go to my head. This a pretty regular gig for me, too, since as long as it’s not raining, I’m pretty much sure to be there every Saturday. I’m saving up for a trip to Spain in 2017 with one of my teachers and some peers. The whole trip is ~ $3200, and my parents said that if I make half of that money, they’ll pay for the rest. At this rate, I should meet my goal by the end of the summer! I’m so excited! Okay I should probably go to bed now. Yay!
Cool, Noah! I hope you raise enough for the trip!
That’s so cool! Busking sounds great. I have no skill at any portable instruments so I’m always rather impressed by folks who busk. And Spain sounds awesome! Where in Spain will the trip be going?
That’s great, busking is so much fun!
The Pyramids were hardly visible from the battlefield at the Battle of the Pyramids, the Hundred Years’ War lasted more than a hundred years, and the Battle of Bunker Hill was mostly fought on Breed’s Hill. Military historians are bad at making things.