Saturday, August 30, 2008
Since I have nothing new to say....
This last week was extremely busy.... rush to work, rush to school, back to work, rush home and make dinner, eat dinner, clean up dinner, do homework until we crawl into bed exhausted.... repeat. If we weren't eating dinner at my parent's house twice a week I don't know if we'd even be eating at all. I'm hoping things slow down a bit, but if they don't you won't be hearing from us much this term! In the meantime, here's a picture of our fabulous new lamp that my mother found for us at a garage sale. I show it off because every time I come downstairs and see it it makes me happy. I'll probably come up with a name for it here pretty soon. In our living room there is no overhead lighting and I'm hard-pressed to find lamps that will illuminate it sufficiently in the evening. But this lamp does the trick!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The "Dark Ages"
This is my (Christine's) first week back at NSA, and it's my last year! Joel doesn't start until next week, but he has to put up with me spending every night this week doing homework, since I already have a good deal to accomplish. But I thought I'd take a break and blog about something interesting that we discussed in Mr. Grieser's senior traditio class today.
One of the instigators of the Renaissance in the fourteenth century was a poet named Petrarch. As a poet, one who deals with words, his primary concern was preserving and improving language. Since Petrarch spoke Latin, he had to find a reliable source to learn from. And so who does he turn to to polish his Latin skills? The greatest orator of the Roman world, Cicero. Petrarch found himself constantly referring to the ancient Romans for examples of eloquent Latin with a rhetorical flare. Consequently he regarded the Latin language after the fall of Rome as barbaric and uncultured. This, of course, inspired his linguistic reform, and it also brought about an important three-part division of history in Petrarch's mind. The ancient Greeks and Romans lived in glorious Antiquity as free people (Rome was the great Republic and the Greeks had their city-states) who were able to pursue and cultivate the arts. But after Rome fell the arts witnessed a steady decline, and so Petrarch coined the time from Augustine up to the 14th century "The Dark Ages". Now Petrarch saw a third era of history dawning, a Renaissance, an Enlightenment.
Other people took hold of this name and ran with it. Protestants liked the term dark ages because this was the time of tyrannical Papal rule. They criticized the papacy and blamed it for the doctrinal errors that surfaced during the "Dark Ages." Voltaire and other Enlightenment thinkers liked to blame the Dark Ages on the Christians and their tyrannical and progress-stunting religion.
In reality, this is a very unfair title. There was in fact a 12th century Renaissance. Not to mention the educational edicts of Alfred the Great and Charlemagne. Yet now "The Dark Ages" is a commonly used term.
It just goes to show what can happen when someone influential coins a catchy phrase.
One of the instigators of the Renaissance in the fourteenth century was a poet named Petrarch. As a poet, one who deals with words, his primary concern was preserving and improving language. Since Petrarch spoke Latin, he had to find a reliable source to learn from. And so who does he turn to to polish his Latin skills? The greatest orator of the Roman world, Cicero. Petrarch found himself constantly referring to the ancient Romans for examples of eloquent Latin with a rhetorical flare. Consequently he regarded the Latin language after the fall of Rome as barbaric and uncultured. This, of course, inspired his linguistic reform, and it also brought about an important three-part division of history in Petrarch's mind. The ancient Greeks and Romans lived in glorious Antiquity as free people (Rome was the great Republic and the Greeks had their city-states) who were able to pursue and cultivate the arts. But after Rome fell the arts witnessed a steady decline, and so Petrarch coined the time from Augustine up to the 14th century "The Dark Ages". Now Petrarch saw a third era of history dawning, a Renaissance, an Enlightenment.
Other people took hold of this name and ran with it. Protestants liked the term dark ages because this was the time of tyrannical Papal rule. They criticized the papacy and blamed it for the doctrinal errors that surfaced during the "Dark Ages." Voltaire and other Enlightenment thinkers liked to blame the Dark Ages on the Christians and their tyrannical and progress-stunting religion.
In reality, this is a very unfair title. There was in fact a 12th century Renaissance. Not to mention the educational edicts of Alfred the Great and Charlemagne. Yet now "The Dark Ages" is a commonly used term.
It just goes to show what can happen when someone influential coins a catchy phrase.
Friday, August 15, 2008
She's only like this before a lunar eclipse
I started to wonder if kitten had gone crazy after coming into the room and finding her like this...
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She tried to extricate herself from her position, only to discover that one claw would not come unhooked from the chair top
By the time were-kitten managed to free herself, she had reached the brink of insanity
After several rounds of tummy-rubbing from her patient master, Whiskey slowly started to remember who she was.... a cute, cuddly house-pet and not a vicious were-kitten
And so she relaxed back on the chair in a normal cat position.... her vacant, exhausted eyes were the only signs of the terrible battle that had waged within.
The End.
€
She tried to extricate herself from her position, only to discover that one claw would not come unhooked from the chair top
By the time were-kitten managed to free herself, she had reached the brink of insanity
After several rounds of tummy-rubbing from her patient master, Whiskey slowly started to remember who she was.... a cute, cuddly house-pet and not a vicious were-kitten
And so she relaxed back on the chair in a normal cat position.... her vacant, exhausted eyes were the only signs of the terrible battle that had waged within.
The End.
The Great Hornet Massacre
Joel got geared up and attacked the hornet's nest which was underneath our house. He was very brave, the hornets were very angry.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Apologies
I do feel bad that we haven't posted in a while.... it sounds lame to say that it's been a really busy week during the summer, but, well, it really has! So here are some highlights for you out of town relatives who might be interested.
I'm still plugging away at thesis work (on Tom Wolfe and the New Journalism of the 1960s). I had a meeting with Dr. Atwood who gave me very helpful tips and helped focus my paper more. A few nights ago I wrote a record ten pages in one night. It was an adrenaline rush, and definitely helped me on my way to finishing up. I'm defending it at the beginning of October. Scary!
Joel has been cleaning up our front yard, using his strong muscles to scoop ugly red rock out of our side yard and the front of the yard and all around the base of our house. The last owners really liked it I guess. We however do not, and plan on replacing some parts with grass and some with bark. I think it will look a lot nicer. We also are planning a trip to Lewiston to Home Depot to get new paint for the exterior trim and the door. No more pale aqua green, hurrah!
Joel is officially done with his summer class (woohoo!) and will no longer have to put up with some of the silly assignments he was required to do. For a fraud examination class there was surprising little fraud examination taught. So now he has a good three weeks before U of I starts to enjoy a homework-free summer.
I had an interview on Friday for a job at Montrose Academy as an Elementary Latin teacher. They're a very small private Christian school here in town who were in need of teachers for this upcoming year. It's an easy teaching job, I only have to lecture for one hour one day a week and then the students do independent homework for the rest of the week. I've already had one interview and things look promising. Now I just need to meet with the board and I should be a teacher in the fall. Salvete discipuli!
Mom and I picked out fabric for my quilt on Friday, which is a definite step in the right direction for quilt-making. I love the two fabrics and will post pictures as soon as I'm done!
That's about it for now. NSA starts in two weeks so I'm getting mentally prepared for one last year of school. Both Joel and I are excited to be done.
I'm still plugging away at thesis work (on Tom Wolfe and the New Journalism of the 1960s). I had a meeting with Dr. Atwood who gave me very helpful tips and helped focus my paper more. A few nights ago I wrote a record ten pages in one night. It was an adrenaline rush, and definitely helped me on my way to finishing up. I'm defending it at the beginning of October. Scary!
Joel has been cleaning up our front yard, using his strong muscles to scoop ugly red rock out of our side yard and the front of the yard and all around the base of our house. The last owners really liked it I guess. We however do not, and plan on replacing some parts with grass and some with bark. I think it will look a lot nicer. We also are planning a trip to Lewiston to Home Depot to get new paint for the exterior trim and the door. No more pale aqua green, hurrah!
Joel is officially done with his summer class (woohoo!) and will no longer have to put up with some of the silly assignments he was required to do. For a fraud examination class there was surprising little fraud examination taught. So now he has a good three weeks before U of I starts to enjoy a homework-free summer.
I had an interview on Friday for a job at Montrose Academy as an Elementary Latin teacher. They're a very small private Christian school here in town who were in need of teachers for this upcoming year. It's an easy teaching job, I only have to lecture for one hour one day a week and then the students do independent homework for the rest of the week. I've already had one interview and things look promising. Now I just need to meet with the board and I should be a teacher in the fall. Salvete discipuli!
Mom and I picked out fabric for my quilt on Friday, which is a definite step in the right direction for quilt-making. I love the two fabrics and will post pictures as soon as I'm done!
That's about it for now. NSA starts in two weeks so I'm getting mentally prepared for one last year of school. Both Joel and I are excited to be done.
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