Swiftly Flying Swallows

I had almost forgotten that I have a web log and that I have friends with blogs of their own. Sophmore year is an all-consuming endeavor, despite those of you who scorn my "squishy" humanities courses. Now that my "three Goddamn essays due on the same friday hell week" is over, I find myself in a slightly more comfortable position, except that midterm examinatinons are beginning in earnest.

How is everyone else's school year going? The increasing latency of web logging has led me to believe that most others are at least as busy as I am, but if anyone actually reads this thing, grace me with a comment or two so I can feel important. Plus, I just saw the South Park version of Great Expectations which involved robot monkeys and Ms. Havisham creating a Genesis device to give herself immortality. Anyone out there in blogger land who lives near Portland, please, for the love of God, contact me to go hang out or game or something; because I'm getting institutionalized on this damn campus.

Finally, like Megaman games? Do you like the song Bohemian Rhapsody? Curious as to what the hell I'm talking about? Then check out the "Titanium Rhapsody."

Skyline Swaying in the Breeze

So, I haven't updated in a while because, well, school is really busy. Due to my two 200 level English courses and my History course, I read over 100 pages every day. Plus, I have lengthy logic problem sets on top of that; all of which keeps me pretty busy considering I stop to play video games, socialize, and play tons and tons of ultimate frisbee (the definitive college sport). For those of you who may be mildly curious as to what I do, here's an example of some of the work I do in Major Periods and Issues in English Literature. College English courses are not so kind as to give you translated texts when reading Middle English works such as Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, so the student gets to do all the fun themselves. This is part of a larger stanza from the prologue to the Wife of Bath's tale. A small group, including myself, were given five minutes to translate a relatively easy passage. Here's the original middle English:

I trowe I loved him best for that he
Was of his love daungerous to me.
We wommen han, if that I shal not lie,
In this matere a quainte fantasye:
Waite what thing we may not lightly have,
Thereafter wol we crye al day and crave;
Forbede us thing, and that desiren we;
Preesse on us faste, and thanne wol we flee.
With daunger oute we al our chaff are:
Great prees at market maketh dere ware,
And too greet chepe is holden at litel pris.
This knoweth every womman that is wis.

Not too bad, considering some of the other older works we've translated. But it's really difficult when you're being timed. Here's my shitty translation; I focused more on presevering the original meaning and word order than the poetic meter and rhyme that you will find in professional translations.

I thought I loved him best because
his love was hard for me to get.
We women, and I shall not lie,
In this matter have a strange fantasy:
Whatever thing we may not easily have,
Will cause us to cry all day and crave;
Forbid us a thing, and we will desire more;
Press upon us fast, and we shall flee.
We carefully show our wares:
Great crowds at the market make our wares more expensive;
And too good of a bargain is of little value.
This every wise woman knows.

I suppose I should appreciate all of the work I'm doing and the new things I'm being exposed to, but this sort of work is really tiring considering I have to translate hundreds of lines for each class. I'll try to put a more interesting post for those of you who are less concerned with my academics in the future.

Breach Hull, All Die... Even had it underlined

So, for those of you who ever try to contest me on religious grounds, I have a wonderful quote from South Park which pretty much sums up my attitude; you know, if I were a Black and White-style evil God.

"It is sometimes hard in times like these to understand God's way. Why would He allow nine innocent people to be run down in the prime of their lives by a senior citizen who, perhaps, shouldn't be driving? It is then that we must understand that God's sense of humor is very different from our own. He does not laugh at the simple 'man walks into a bar joke.' No, God needs complex irony and subtle farsical twists that seem macabre to you and me. All that we can hope for is that God got His good laugh and a tragedy such as this will never happen again."

There it is, folks, the true nature of God's tragic humor.