Confessions of a Misanthrope Gone Mild

Writing about me, you, and the distance between us. Voraciously curious, occasionally obsessed.

[geekagora]

Frequently Used Tags

My Frequently Used Tag page has stopped working so I'm going to just tag this post with my most frequently used tags. Click and you shall find, etc. I'll try to figure out a better method eventually.

[elizabethaethertownusa]

I’ll not have you filling his head with pretty fancies … he’ll be a YouTuber like his brother and his father, and that’ll be good enough for him

[elizabethaethertownusa]

Later the mother rushes through the dark of the driveway, squeezing her shawl with one hand, gripping the schoolteacher’s arm with the other, whispering fiercely: Can ye truly learn him? Do ye think it not merely a thing of dreams? Had I any choice any choice I’d not send him back to that studio

[professorerudite]

***I'm not a classicist. I currently teach The Aeneid in translation and have taught The Iliad and The Odyssey in translation in the past***

My thoughts on Nolan's The Odyssey:

This was a good film to get students interested in Ancient Greek history, archaeology and literature. If kids will want to read The Iliad and The Odyssey, that's fantastic 😊

Things I enjoyed: Helen and Clytemnestra. Fuck Agamemnon! 🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️

Seeing Sinon my sneaky Greek getting the Trojans to accept the horse. Sinon is in book 2 of the Aeneid.

The horrors of war both in Troy and at home. The defiling of the Temple of Athena.

Everything with how they handled the storytelling from Telemachus and Odysseus

How it was more like Troy with the "psudo-historical realism" over mythology. I guess. I get why he chose that approach.

The idea of the "sea people" destroying the Bronze Age only to realize they themselves are destroying their beliefs and customs. Interesting concept. I guess.

Pronouncing Telemachus correctly. Thanks.

Things I did not like: Athena doing jackshit. She stops the Ithacan war at the end of the poem.

Calypso and Circe not being magical sexy ladies who manipulate men. What the hell?? Lotus with Calypso makes no sense! Make my nymph goddesses sexy badasses!

Virginal Odysseus??!!??? Riding off into the sunset like Frodo for some reason????

No silly or comedic relief?-- Not getting the drunk dude falling off Circe's roof telling Odysseus to bury his body...No-Man?? Polyphemus???...Nausicaa?! Naked Odysseus showing up on the beach

I wanted Hermes telling Calypso to let Odysseus go.

I wanted Odysseus seeing his mom in the underworld. You could show Argos dying but not Odysseus's mom?

What the fuck was going on with the Laestrygonians in pseudo-medieval armour?

No father-son bonding in slaughtering the suitors? 🥺

Bottom line: I can reference it in class, will still use clips from Troy instead. Hope it sparks interest in classical studies. 1997 tv movie is more accurate to the epic poem

Also -- I still hate Odysseus and think he's a narcissist who deserved what he got. I SIDE WITH THE TROJAN REFUGEES.

[geekagora]

Also a quick thought in passing: important not to tolerate any disrespect from a certain type of "gifted" male, particularly American born and bred. They never grow out of it. Confront it immediately, and only one strike allowed. Most of my friendship regrets involve giving such fellows a reasonable leash instead of a lash, etc.

[geekagora]

Good Porches Make Good Neighbors

A rather elderly woman in a wheelchair was outside her apartment today in the apartment building I live in. We chatted for a little while. I assumed it was too hot for her to be inside. I then went on my way.

It got my attention a little, the way good porches (and bad A/C tbh) create the right conditions for neighborly chit-chat. It's the right amount of "I might be busy" but also "the right neighbor will be invited up the steps."

The third space concept has been stretched a little thinner than it should have been. We just need a space where people have some defenses available to being accosted by randos, but also can open the door wide enough to see and be seen. Maybe that's why people who live in dorms (I never did, long story) miss college so much: one can negotiate and define that hazy socialization zone much more easily.

I've been struggling with this a bit myself. I've been open for socialization to a somewhat alarming degree (I'm going to go back in time and hit the "Anyone, anytime, anyplace" me from New York with a quick slap). I've also been cautious and reserved to an infuriating amount (you may hear me make a cutting or inappropriate joke, but only after one (1) decade of friendship is complete, etc.). How can I/we build our digital and real-life porches correctly?

[geekagora]

You've Got a Slow Car

It's July 19th, and my summer is more than half over. And I've accomplished very little...except remembering that I have friends and family that love me and that I love. That counts for quite a bit!

However, I still feel lashed by the demon of productivity (or is it an angel?). It's a frustrating trait I have. This reminds me of when I, in the throes of grad school angst, got my IQ measured and found out that I was just smart enough to fit in the range of IQ needed for a PhD...by 3 points. Now of course I recognize that the test and the stats were not actually that authoritative.

But basically I have enough smarts to feel a sense of responsibility to "do things," and I often sardonically remark to myself that having about 10 IQ points loped off the top a few decades ago would have made me a lot happier. There's just enough gray matter and flashes of thoughtful insight to condemn me to reaching for those isolated intellectual peaks. And while I've outgrown a lot of my boyish competitiveness (don't have peers who go to Harvard Law, kids), I still find myself competing against the ghosts of what I could be.

So here's to doing enough in the next month to quiet the voice. I told my friends I would take the LSAT and write several creative works. Those are reasonable summer goals. What is your productivity demon/angel mad about?

[blackboard-monitor]

ask game for aging tumblr population

what's your favourite kitchen appliance?

do you have a collection of anything?

what's the best job you've ever had?

what's the worst job you've ever had?

what's your favourite piece of furniture and where did you get it?

what's your go-to recipe when you want to make something that requires minimal effort?

are you married or do you intend to get married?

do you have kids? do you want them?

are you on good terms with your parents?

do you have siblings? do you hang out with them?

do you vote?

what's the biggest purchase you've ever made?

what are your hobbies?

what's a hobby you'd like to get into?

do you collect anything?

how long have you known your oldest friend?

are you a member of any clubs or associations?

have you ever changed fields in your career or education?

how many wisdom teeth do you have and have you had any removed?

what's your favourite beverage?

do you have any living grandparents?

do you have nieces/nephews/godchildren/other kids in your life that aren't yours?

what's the coolest place you've visited?

what's your most recent degree and has it been useful to you?

would you rather own a dishwasher or a laundry machine if you could only have one or the other?

do you make a list before going to the grocery store or just wing it?

what's your favourite household chore?

what chore do you hate the most?

do you have houseplants and how are you at keeping them alive?

what's your living arrangement? (who do you live with, in what kind of building, do you own or rent or other?)

[true-bean]

[vintage-tech]

Another moment to remember Cheddar Meatloaf, my orange boy.

Photo from 2003.

[crazy-brazilian]

[nutsacktorturer]

Female HP Lovecraft

[mr-deep-downer]

[geekagora]

LA Travels

Part 2

[caffeinewitchcraft]

Writer Gothic

-You discover a new document in your “completed” folder. It’s 20k words of fantasy and adventure. You have no memory of writing it.

- You take a sip of your coffee and set it down to type. After a moment, you take another sip only to find the cup empty. You have written ten words.

- You go to take a shower and discover writing on your skin. Dialogue, character description, tips for edits. You don’t remember bringing pen to flesh.

- The cursor blinks at you. You blink back. Time stretches as you blink, back and forth, back and forth until, at last, you both stop blinking entirely. Nothing gets written.

- The same word appears three times in the same paragraph. You edit them out, only to find them, again, three paragraphs down. You close your laptop and decide to go shopping. You stare at the word flashing by on the way to the store. You feel followed.

- Your pen carves vicious corrections onto a printed copy of your story. Later, you will not remember the way you grit your teeth while editing or why calling a character effervescent is “superfluous.”

- There are words scrawled on receipts, on post its, on torn out scraps of paper all over your room. You recognize your handwriting on most of them and choose to ignore those bits in handwriting you do not.

- Your mom asks about your day. You do not know how to explain the exhaustion in your bones or the way your neck aches with the weight of eyes you’d tried to leave on the page  or the way your fingers are still typing phantom words against your thighs. You tell her nothing happened.

- Your roommates are concerned. You have not spoken in days. You wonder who it was you were whispering to last night as you scratched out another outline at the kitchen table.

- Your computer screen goes dark while you stare at your last sentence, trying to think of where to go next. You did not know that your lips could curl like that or your eyes could look so black.

[geekagora]

LA Trip

Food and friends, Part 1.

[worldofultimategaming]

World of Ultimate Gaming

[oldmanpeace]

New York City, 1968.

[geekagora]

Cliche Snaps

So cheesy, but I did love the view coming into LAX.

[nemfrog]

Coal mine transport facility, Königsborn, Unna, Germany. Die Form: Zeitschrift für gestaltende Arbeit. 1.1925-1926.

Univiersity of Heidelberg