While studying abroad in Athens last spring I took a philosophy class. We read rather a lot of Plato, and I came to strongly suspect my professor modeled himself after Socrates.
...But for the most part I'm convinced he knew nothing, and as men filled, not with wisdom, but with the conceit of wisdom, his rambling lectures became a burden to me and the rest of the class.
Kind of a shame, really. Studying Plato in Athens should've been fantastic.
I've had the book sitting on my shelf since Christmas, but hadn't gotten to it because I was reading something else (by Charles de Lint - pretty sweet), and then classes started again.
But now I have to read it. Newbery Medals are perfectly good excuses to put off more boring reading - I mean, The Graveyard Book is practically academic now. Right? Right?
Again, and as always, thank you so much for these annual posts. I am sending the link to this page to my Medieval Britain professor, because he began class today with words remembrance. And I will make my own annual 11/11 post on my blog, referring readers here as well as doing some reflecting of my own.
I'm only 22. I do not know why something that happened 90 years ago matters so much to me. But it does. So thank you.
I studied abroad in Greece this past spring. In an attempt to stay informed, I picked up the International Herald Tribune as often as I could. Now, this was still in serious primary season, but I was struck by the number of opinions, both by guest columnists and in letters to the editor, expressing how inspiring it was that Barack Obama was even running for president, let alone that he might be elected. I had not appreciated how much it could mean to the rest of the world, if he - as a biracial man - were to become president of the United States. How much that alone would change how we as a nation are perceived. Sitting in my apartment in Athens, I discovered I was more than a little inspired, myself.
I only have one thing that I feel is truly and completely irreplaceable, and that is my stuffed giraffe I got for Christmas when I was two (from Santa, of course). He and I have been together ever since. We've shared 20 years of history, and that's longer than I've been with anyone else, except my parents.
I have a couple other things that I would like to keep for a long time, because they too are attached to many memories. One I only recently discovered I possessed: a tiny notebook wherein my late grandmother recorded all of the romance novels she read, from 2002 - 2007. (She died this past January.) Some have comments, like Good book, or, in the case of one I lent her, Not too good. Icky ending. I can hear her say that, and it makes me smile.
I also have a Nalgene bottle that's gone basically everywhere with me since the 9th grade. I feel a little naked without it.
Delurking for a moment, here...
NelC at #12 - I noticed that as well. It seemed like McCain hardly even turned his body toward Obama, let alone made eye contact with the man.
Patrick at #15 - thanks for those numbers. That was my impression, as well, from watching the wiggly lines on CNN, but it's nice to see something a little more concrete.
The pundit folks were worried about Obama's ability to debate well. I'm biased, but I saw, for the most part, a man who was articulate and rational, who did more than hold his own against John McCain. (And was it just me, or did McCain's slow, measured way of speaking annoy anyone else?) I don't know who "won" the debate, but I don't think people will question Obama's ability as much, anymore.
As I read this, I opened the NY Times front page in another window, and saw this story.
One seems to answer the other, no?
Nix @ 66 (Does it less confusable in non-transliterated form, or once you understand the underlying rules?)
No.
This is from the kid who's taking Arabic 001, though. Half the time it still devolves into lines and loops for me.
No cloves! I approve.
My grandmother made the best pumpkin pie in the world. When I told her as much, she sort of snorted/shruged and said she follows the recipe on the can of "punkin", except she "don't put no cloves in". I love my grandmother. (I suspect the fact that she also makes her own pie crust probably helps a great deal.)
A.J. @ 85 (and Lori at 108): Wounded Knee comes to mind, for me. Granted, only 300 people were killed (yeah, only 300), but that event is still very present in the minds of the Lakota and other Native peoples today. (Cf. Ghost Dance by Bill Miller.)
Terry @ 111: I have only just begun to learn about Attaturk (yay, college), but he strikes me as an incredibly perceptive man.
Fidelio, JamesE and coffeedryad, thank you so much. I've written those down and will look them up.
I've actually compiled a playlist based on the songs several of you mentioned here, as well as some I know (Richard Thompson's "Dad's gonna kill me", for example). Napster has Britten, but not the War Requiem. I'll keep an eye out for it elsewhere.
Thank you!
Xopher: Indeed. I choose my words (and my exclamation points) knowing this.
Julia Jones @ 73: Oh yes. Wilfred Owen especially. In fact I was just looking up the book Michael Walsh at #53 mentioned. Abebooks does have it, and I am thinking that maybe that would be a good Christmas present for myself.
(Some people ask for iPods for Christmas. I want a WWI poetry anthology.)
Xopher @ 71: Thank you. My next step is to inspire this passion in others. (I am young! Nothing can stop me!!)
Xopher (64), I am not sure I can explain. I am young; both of my grandfathers, while veterans, fought in WWII; I don't seem to have any direct connections with anyone from WWI; yet I find that the Great War has the ability to move me more than virtually any other event - certainly any other war - in history. (And I'm majoring in past events.)
I took a class my freshman year of high school called Art and War. I thought it was all pretty cool - the Egyptians, the Romans, David, even Goya - until we got to World War I. I will never forget sitting on the round artclass stool, staring at slides of Otto Dix's work, and feeling something shift inside me. Without going all wishy-washy on you, I connected with Dix, and the other war artists, and with the stories my teacher told, so much that I found myself looking up Dix on the internet and showing his sketches to my parents, and I searched the library (in vain, mostly), for books on World War I. My teacher recommended All Quiet on the Western Front. I rather hope you've read it, because I do not think I can describe that book without spluttering "It's just incredible!" or other unhelpful things. In any case, I read it in about a week, and walked around in a daze afterward. I took another class my senior year called War Writings (my high school was/is really cool, by the way), in which we read stories produced around the time of war, and/or as a product of war. We read All Quiet... as a class, and I loved it again.
It feels pedantic to say that I am fascinated by World War I, and it feels weird to say I love learning about it. I am, and I do, but not in the mostly-academic way I like learning about, say, the Crusades or the writings of Thomas Aquinas. It goes a lot deeper than that.
What I most appreciate about these annual posts here on Making Light is that they tell the stories of the war, by people who were there. I do not find that very often, at least in this country. (I do find textbooky works by people who interviewed other people who got their information from other people, and oh here's a time line and some photos, but that's another story.)
I let this get quite long, and I'm not even sure I explained myself, but the bottom line is still Thank You.
Thank you so much for these posts. I won't explain here how much it means to me (all twenty-one years of me), but it does, and I thank you.
Woo-hoo! He really is a poofter!
I'd been seeing Dumbledore fanfic for years, but it wasn't until book 7 that I saw any I would actually want to read. If you get my meaning.
Maybe this is an obvious one, but Ward Churchill.
(It wasn't obvious to me until a few months ago. I'd never heard of him when I started reading one of his books, and made the mistake of implying to a research librarian that I was taking that book seriously. Not something I will do again.)
My mother's sister was killed by a DUI in 1977. Her car only had lapbelts, and she was wearing hers, but upon impact she rammed into the steering wheel, which essentially cut her in half on the inside. My mum maintains that if the car had had a shoulderbelt (and an airbag), I'd have an aunt today.
In my family, the car does not go into gear until the driver confirms that everyone has belted up.
As for helmets ... I've tumbled from bikes and horses enough times to wonder why anyone would not want to wear one.
I'm hoping it's okay if I ask a question about secruity programs, too. I'm a student at a university which has provided my PC with free Symantec stuff. I use my computer primarily for composing papers and blogging, so I'm not very familiar with What's Good and Not Good in terms of software. (My brother is very much a computer person, but he has a Mac, and never misses an opportunity to point this out.)
Last week I received an email in my spam folder (it's web-based) that will not delete. This has never happened to me before. And then I find out from reading this thread that Symantec/Norton is, apparently, crap. Alas!
I've got tabs open for ZoneAlarm and PrevX right now. And I really have no idea what I'm looking at. But I don't want a crappy virus protection program, and I don't want any more of those undeletable emails. Since all of you together seem to know about fifty thousand times as much as I do, could I get a little help/advice?
(If this is out of line, or whatever, that's cool. I can always venture down to the unversity IT office.)
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 3 |
| 2008 | 5 |
| 2007 | 13 |
| 2006 | 11 |
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