Congrats to Flip
Well, one person guessed on my mystery quote from two posts ago, and that person — Flip — got it! I was not expecting anyone to properly guess Sir Gawain and the Green Knight on that passage… it is pretty tough considering it was in untranslated Northern Middle English. (The other quote, of course, was the opening to the Canterbury tales). That means Flip now has 10 asisaid points. Flip is going to force me to come up with an even harder challenge now!
At any rate, I always think comparing the Gawain poet's writings with Chaucer's is interesting. It is remarkable to consider that both of them were writing in “English” at the same time period and in the “same” language, and yet one is remarkably hard to read — well, Chaucer ain't a walk in the park either, but Gawain is almost too far removed from modern English to even comprehend without the aid of a translation.
Here is the current asisaid point lineup from past “point contests”:
- 20 pts. Christopher.
- 10 pts. Flip
They can redeem their points at the nearest asisaid point vendor. “It's not everywhere you want to be.”
Speaking of Languages
Writing that last post reminded me of how much I wish I had a talent for learning languages. I've always had a dismal track record in that respect. I have been somewhat successful with Koine Greek, although I have a long way to go before I can comfortably read any Greek thrown at me — inflections continue to cause me trouble (it is the curse of thinking in English, I guess).
At any rate, I got to thinking about the languages I really wished I knew. Going from my present base, I'd love to eventually extend my reach into Homeric Greek as well. With those two down, I'm fairly certain I could read anything written between the Illyad and the Book of Revelation without too much trouble. I might actually accomplish this one of these days.
I also wish I knew Latin. Yes, it isn't terribly practical, but it has a certain mesmerizing elegance that surpasses other languages and I wish I could truly enjoy it. Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum videtur. 1 And, let us not forget carpe carpeum. 2 I also wish I knew Italian. Dante's Divine Comedy is quite possibly my favorite piece of literature of all time (outside of the Bible) — I'd love to be able to read it in its original magnificence. That's not terribly practical either, I know… I can probably justify Latin far more easily… but, hey, its not like I'm actually running out to learn it right now.
On a more practical front, I recognize, as I noted in my last post, the coming importance of Spanish. It is said that Spanish is easy to learn, although I'm not jumping in just yet to do so. However, it would probably wise in the future to do so. It would be pure icing on the cake that I could read stuff like Pablo Neruda's poetry and Jorge Borge's short stories in their original tongue.
Given, as I noted above, my poor track record on this, I'll be lucky just to expand my Greek vocabulary, but I do hope someday I have the time and determination to become multi-lingual. It would be nice.
1: Anything said in Latin sounds profound.
2: Seizing the carp.
At the Library Today
I was at the library today looking for some books when I ran across an early history of the United Church of Christ (from 1962, if I recall correctly). That being just five years after the merger of the E&R and Congregational Christian Churches, I doubt the author had any idea just what the organization he was so pleased to see come about would amount to. Despite being outside the UCC for six years now, I still feel connected to it and saddened by its decent into heresy. The UCC is the decedent of the very churches of the Pilgrims (literally) and some of the very earliest Evangelical Germans to come into the United States.
It could have tapped this rich heritage to do great things for God in the U.S., but instead it continues to sink in the theological swamp it willingly entered. I wonder if that author ever would have imagined the UCC would become most closely aligned with the Unitarians or if he thought it would promote goddess worship. I doubt it. I doubt most of its founders would have guessed that.
Hrmf.
Well, this week is deconstructing itself in a polite fashion. Nothing bad has happened, but I'm about three days behind on projects. sigh One of these days, I will be on schedule!
A glimpse into the future, in 2044: Well, this year is deconstructing itself in a polite fashion. Nothing bad has happened, but I'm about three years behind on projects. sigh One of these decades, I will be on schedule!
Sounds about right, right?
Getting Stuff Done
Windows, Windows, Windows. Well, I got the final computer taken care (mostly — I need to check into where the Microsoft Office CD for it went), no thanks to Windows XP which formatted over itself once mid-way through the setup process. Now I just need to call Microsoft's friendly operators to get permission to keep using this $180 product after the end of the next 30 days. Did I ever mention that I don't like Windows?
Invoicing. I'm still waiting to get that invoicing problem fixed. The owner of the company that makes WHMAP is personally working on it for me, which is nice. Clients seem to be getting invoices, which is another big plus — afterall, if that doesn't happen, invoicing software isn't too useful, now is it?
Paper trail. In other news, I also have almost finished a piece dealing with philosopher John Hick's view of the multiplicity of religions. For anyone bored and looking for a way to kill a few minutes, I might just post it online. One paper down, one half-way done, two a quarter of the way done, one not started and three weeks to go. Not too bad.
A Bunch of Things, A Little Time.
I want to expand my review of the Italian Job, mention the other movie I saw this weekend (free Showtime was fun), wrap up my political coverage, look back on my long ago UCC series, and several other things… but time doesn't permit doing so tonight. So, here's what you can do if you are just “crushed” by this announcement: make up your own post for me using amazing psychic powers to read my mind and figure out what I was going to say! Then post it in the comments so everyone else knows too.
Yeah, I know what you are saying… I don't believe in psychics either.
Busy Day, lots of Computers
Well, I was busy today — and look to have ample reasons to remain busy tomorrow — working on computers. I have three from church or a related organization that need help, plus I had been planning for a long time to help a family friend get a new computer (which we accomplished today). I think its getting to be time for church to hire a part time IT person or something — we have too many computers that keep breaking (thanks to Windows).
sigh I like to help, but those three computers staring at me are more than I was looking for right now. There are days I wish I didn't know how to do computer repairs…
Moving Forward
The bad day that I cannot really talk about continued on through the rest of the week. One component of that day has to do with a problem that I talked about earlier this year (but won't bring up specifically here because there will be nothing gained by it), which has grown and a new set of back stabbing — as Ed perceptively picked up — has ensued.
The far worse part, the one I was directly referring to in the other post is totally unrelated and doesn't have anything to do with backstabbing or the like. The impact of it will reverberate for sometime, although I have come much more to terms with it over the past few days. God will have His timing to wind things back up for me, and I am confident that He will. That is sometimes hard to tell one's self, but I believe it to be true. In the mean time, I'm attempting to use some of the resulting meloncholy as a “muse” for writing — so far, it has helped, albeit not on any writing of any real use at this time.
