Media

Last night we watched Hum Aapke Hain Koun with the Cooks, all 206 minutes of it.

Earlier that day I had gone to the library to drop off Elisabeth's books which were due. Suffering through this onerous task, I managed to get home with only three books checked out--these having to do with the Gilbreth family.

In the movie, people prayed. Naturally. No big deal. The gods are part of the plot, answering prayers and giving guidance. In the books and the movie, family is immensely important. In HAHK, a young couple in love is willing to be separated and heart-broken because they believe that their duty to their family lies in following that path. In the story of the Gilbreth family, the children know that money is a worry to their mother, so they forego even their usual pleasures and spend only half of what she had budgeted for them. They look out for her and she for them, all striving to grow and help one another.

Then you turn on the television or open a newspaper. Thousands killed by nature, dozens and hundreds by man. Hatred streams across in politics, lawsuits, and violence. Ignorance and immaturity rules sit-coms and celebrities, everything pointing to sex and self-gratifying relationships. You get to take a break from these by pithy attacks of commercialism. Want, need, must have.

I am sure my own frustration with "the current age" is by no means unique, but it needed someplace to go.

With all the "I want"s around, I want to want less. I want a better example of behavior for everyone (including me) to follow. I want another thing, too, but that's already come as it's time to leave work and go home to my dearest husband.

Yes, Dear

"... when I lost it, because I'm an idiot--"

"Yes, dear, I know."

My husband needs to work on the timing of his "yes, dear" responses or he's gonna get beat up. *sigh* Except that my attempts to beat him up simply amuse him.

Temporary Executive Assistant

I am finally comfortable with my week-long job now that I have realized it is simply an array of four-dimensional games of tag. With lots of "It"s.

The tricky part is that if a particular "It" doesn't tag back, you're "It" again. This would be bad if you had more to do.

Currently I have tagged everyone and won't be "It" until tomorrow unless they tag me today. Which they'd better, because I stay here for another two hours, and there are only so many crosswords I can get through before I see black and white squares when I close my eyes.

Banana Bread

Some people can bake without getting batter all over the counter, the pans, the floor, their clothes, and themselves.

I am not among their number.

Polyphony

I'm-a gonna have to find out more about this polyphony stuff. I loved singing it with Dan Stowe at ND in Collegium Musicum. In trying to find the name of the composer for those, I tripped across another couple of names I've found I like: Thomas Tallis and Giovanni Gabrieli. More later, for all you fans who hang from every word.

Update: Guillaume de Machaut is one of the composers from Collegium; another is possibly Josquin de Pres. I like the idea of the Loose Canon Chorale, but I can't tell for sure until I've heard them. Harumph.

Decisions, and How to Make Them

"After two years the debts will be paid off and then I have two options: go back and get my master's or get prgenant. I think I'll let my ovaries decide."

- Elisabeth

Latin in my spam, courtesy of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo

My spam sends me Latin to translate. There's some picture for the usual spam medications. I wonder what the connection is between the medicines and Augustine's Confessio.

1 "quis ego et qualis ego? quid non mali aut facta mea aut, si non facta
2 est egestas humanae intellegentiae, quia plus loquitur inquisitio quam
3 est medicina tua. potuimus putare verbum tuum remotum esse a
4 peccatores, tu autem, domine, cui reconciliare volebant, immortalis et
5 velles, quo consilio dilatus sum, ne tunc baptizarer, utrum bono meo"

I tried translating it (of course to little avail) before realizing what it was.

Translation by F. J. Sheed:
1 "Who am I and what kind of man am I? What evil has there not been in my deeds, or if not in [my] deeds ..." - IX.I
2 "Thus it is that so often the poverty of the human intellect uses an abundance of words: for seeking uses more words than ..." - XII.I
3 "... Thy medicine is [of more power]. We might well have thought Thy Word remote from ..." - X.XLIII
4 "... sinners; You, Lord, to whom they wished to be reconciled, are immortal and ..." - X.XLII
5 "... [if] You wish [to tell me,] to what end was my baptism deferred? was it for my good ..." - I.XI

So. Is this weirder or less weird than the Lorem Ipsum gibberish? Did some group of spammers program their spam generator to pick through Augustine's Confessio, or were they simply feeling uninspired and *cough* naturally looked to Augustine?

This deserves an Oslo award in any case.

For those of you not in on the joke, an Oslo award is bestowed on that which provokes a response of: "What the?" This response was provoked in the Oslo airport, whose floor asks in large, inlaid gold letters (in English): "Are you where you are? Are you not where you are? Go to where you are and I will meet you there."