writing is making me happy these days. written quite a few shorts in the past year, working on a novel. going to do some writing tonight.

I've been having a lot of discussion about this with my brother, actually.

A lot of translations give out a set of cues to us, the reader, that they are using "archaic language", or other strategies, to say "this was a long time ago, and this is the image I want you to have in your head."

But the problem is that, like the music you hear every time Romans show up in film and television, they're in no way accurate to what things were actually like. They're just a set of cues that have been set up by more modern media, and our exposure to has told us that "those french horns mean Romans". We've been attempting to translate Beowulf into our perception of medieval speech as run through an academic English professor's verbiage. Considering that it was the sort of thing to be told around the drinking table, and was written down in that way, translations like that make very little sense.

Basically, we're already not translating "faithfully", and arguably haven't been since shortly after the poem was written down (if the original was even totally faithful, to begin with, but that gets into a whole other set of questions). This is a fundamental issue with translation, and especially translation of poetry - translate literally, or tell the story, or meet in the middle somewhere. they are two finite points that cannot both be satisfied fully. Headley herself weighs in on this in her preface, which is worth the cost of admission in and of itself without the translation.

If this gets dated, the correct response isn't to go back to the old translations (save for reference), it's to translate it again. And again. It's got to live, and it's got to be in the vernacular if it's truly going to be relevant and not left to the dusty corners of libraries and the drudgery of English Lit curriculum. Indeed, I'd pay money to get even the first two dozen lines or so written in as many common vernaculars as possible. Army guys around a table, steelworkers on lunch break, the Tuesday night sewing group, the activist group at a meeting, and so on.

The story is in the telling, after all.

I always forget that I have that browser plug in that turns millennial into "Pesky Whipper-Snapper" until an article like this shows up.

   Something beautiful died last night. 

   It was inside a man,
   a man who had changed himself
   to change his family
   to change his city
   to change his country
   to change his world.

   A cancer had grown inside him.

   not a metaphorical cancer,
   a literal one.
   eating away at his brain, 
   stealing away, slowly, quietly,
   the man that we once knew,
   and yet he did not show it.
   
   He refused to show it.
   Because he wanted to change the world for the better.

   Leave it better than he found it.
   Maybe that's pride.
   Maybe that's the eternal desire for immortality out of body
   Maybe that's all you can do when you know your expiry date
   Maybe it doesn't matter.

Idunno, man, these grammar conversations are crazy to me.

I steal a descriptor from my friend, who is in linguistics, and describe myself as a Grammar punk. To quote them:

"Language is inherently based in communication- it is understanding in structure, not structure for structure's sake

If you understand what someone is saying and choose to be difficult about it for the sake of correctness, you're being a loathsome pedant."

The point of language is to be understood, and to me it doesn't matter what length of dash you use. Yes, the semicolons are incorrect, and they do prevent understanding. But dashes?

And like, I'm in a Historical Performance program. It is the subset of classical music for musical pedants. They have arguments about the correct amount of commas needed in their tuning, and where your 3rd and 6th intervals should be depending on time and location in Europe. Despite that level of daily pedantry, the concept of em vs en vs hyphen in a real world situation is still a bit mind blowing to me.

I've recorded a couple of things recently. I don't know if i shared them here. One's a cover, one's original. Please excuse my voice. I hate it, but it's the only one i have.

I just bought this killer dress from Killstar, it's prob my fave right now. I also like the stuff I have for my Concert Blacks (what I wear onstage for orchestra) - I have sort of a black cardigan, then a a sleeveless black tunic dress and some leggings. It definitely feels like a "power outfit" for me.

As for being trans in Canada vs. the States, It's very much about where you live. Canada is of course generally more safe because of trans protections,some of which are still being passed through legislation. If I was beaten for being trans it would be considered a hate crime here, unlike in some parts of the US.

Having said that I would feel more comfortably being visibly trans in a Metropolitan American city than I would in small town Saskatchewan or Alberta (no offence Alberta. Full offence, Saskatchewan). Being trans and out can be dangerous everywhere, though, especially if one doesn't "pass" (defined elsewhere). It can be hard to get work, old workplaces can become toxic. There's a reason so many trans women, especially trans women of colour are in sex work - Sometimes it's the only work that will have them. But that means being a person in danger in an even more dangerous line of work (due to laws around sex work but that's a convo for another time) - it can be a deadly way to live. 7 trans women have been reported murdered in America so far this year, all of them women of colour. If I remember correctly, someone worked it out a few years ago as trans women of colour having a 1 in 8 chance of ending up murdered - I couldn't cite a source on that, but considering their percentage of population they certainly do get murdered a lot.

Music's going pretty good! I have been getting more orchestra gigs lately, which feels good.

this weekend I'm working. UGH. trying to do the job of two prep cooks all by myself.

How do you doxx a public personality anyway?

The same way you Doxx anyone else, really.

- you post their Drivers License and passport on a hacked version of that person's website. This actually happened in this situation.

- You post their private home address

- You post their private phone number

- you post their private email

- you post their real name If they perform under a pseudonym (like many hollywood actors do because of weird name rules or because they want to distance themselves from famous family)

I can't specifically comment on that situation. However I hope you don't disregard this article just because you disagree with Serano's reading of the situation.

Frankly the more i've been reading up the Jones/Yiannopoulos situation, the more I am inclined to believe that if Yiannopoulos didn't incite the doxxing, he definitely fanned the flames and made the situation worse on purpose. Then again, He believes that people like myself are worthy of derision So I don't really care to believe in the better angels of his nature.

Take care of your tickers, folks. It can happen to anyone - you don't even need to have had as crazy of a life as she had.

good luck, friend. try not to become a statistic, and I'll try to do the same.

YOU'RE GONNA EAT LIGHTNING, AND CRAP THUNDAH! YOU'RE GONNA BE A VERY DANGEROUS PERSON!

I don't know if I fully fit in theme, but this is what came out, lil.

there are a few things about me that you should know.

   When I visualize myself,
   I see a flower inside a vast cavern.
   clinging to survival on the precipice of possibility,
   the water droplets of hope washing my face.

   When I see myself in a mirror
   on late nights, in half dark and in hurried glances
   I recognize a stranger: not myself,
   a tall Ent with a beard of moss
   and a faerie held safe in his body.

   When I say "I have Dysphoria,
   I'm depressed, I hate myself."
   I am holding, in the pit of my gut,
   a desire to tear off my own ill-fitting skin
   like rings on a tree, stripping myself down to a smaller,
   more youthful core, an attempt to turn back time
   and right the wrongs of a life so squandered.

   But I don't do that.

   I thrive on promise, and hope,
   and the sound of wind through the quaking aspen.
   the emerald beetle bores its holes in me, 
   but I will compensate for the loss and be greater for it.

Pabs:

Remember that creativity is the greatest skill one can have - the ability to take a take a bunch of disparate ingredients and turn them into soup. You're a creative person already, and the greatest benefit you will receive from a place like West Point is not just time to hone your creativity and make it situational, but also how to persevere through an environment that is not always open to new and creative thinking.

In terms of scholarly advice:

1.) Say yes to as much as you can without totally overwhelming yourself.

2.)keep your study notes in the bathroom, or if communal, bring along as reading material. You're not doing anything else important with your consciousness when you're in there.

3.) find few, but high quality friends who will also help you succeed, and whom you can help succeed.

4.) go to your teacher's office hours, and do so with REAL questions.

5.) get to know the Janitors and Secretaries - these people are the keepers of the keys, and will open doors for you figuratively and sometimes literally. They are the sorts of people you DO NOT want to get on the bad side of, as well.

I'm pulling for you - we're all in this together.

Whatever gets people through daily life as an adult. Y'know, unless nonconsensually harming people gets you through daily life, then i suggest not doing that.

Seriously though, being a responsible adult is shit. Some people watch shitty tv, some people do yoga, some people do bdsm - it's all based around escaping your daily life, and daily self.

also, speaking of memes, I just found out that 8675309 is prime.

Potatoes are "pommes de terre" in french - earth apples.

... does that mean that the two points are sort of related? that's how it seems to me.

I think they're also talking about a societal trend of hypervigilance to antisemitic thought, not just one person in one place - in which case it is apples to apples. As far as I understood it, they're making the assertion that if one of their other profs made similar statement, but about say, "them wetbacks", that the prof wouldn't get the same level of discipline.

Do I believe that? no. Do I believe that they believe it? sure. Who's in a better place to say? fuck, Idunno.

In a lot of ways I kind of wish that I'd not really said anything because I'm not exactly enamoured with the whole "privilege" thing and don't ever use it in my personal life. I mean, I think it's a good idea to talk about, and to use as a tool of self-betterment, but using it against other people is garbage.

So, my thoughts about this are thus:

Some people need faith in their lives to live a fulfilling and whole life. Some people don't need that, or find that fulfillment in other places. Whatever gets you through the night, to quote the song, is the most important thing.

I was not raised in faith, and when I tried organized religion, i found my morals did not jive with the morality therein. I also don't see the evidence for a higher power or afterlife. Where I live, in Canada, church doesn't hold the sway it once did even 50 years ago, and most people I know personally are either not a person of faith, or don't attend an organized church on the regular - it's just not part of our culture at this point.

There are a couple of broad realities that one needs to confront when they are a person of faith living in and navigating our modern world:

1.) Just because you are a person of faith does not mean that you have to deny the validity of scientific ideas. Science and faith have intermingled successfully for hundreds of years. Indeed, the Catholic church was a huge element in the scientific world via the Jesuits (including the current pope).

2.) There are millions of people in the world who are of a different faith than you, or of no faith. They are, as a whole, frankly uninterested in what you believe and just want to go about their daily business. Proselytism is the second worst thing about people of extreme faith.

3.) there are lots of details of faiths that do not jive with a secular society. Christianity, for example: LGBT discrimination, in particular, is included in some of the more archaic parts of the bible along with slavery, women being possessions, not wearing clothing of mixed fabrics, not trimming beards, etc. The things to remember are that these are not (and frankly never were) core tenets of the faith. They are an extant example of what life was like when the bible was being written, translated, and condensed.

Religions of all kinds are, at a fundamental level, guidelines for life. How one should treat themselves, treat others, and treat the environment around them.

I don't think this is what you wanted, but that's the thoughts I had when reading your post.

'Those feelings you feel are real. talk to a doc, and research "transgender"'

Also, pick up the double bass NOW. Tom in North Bay is a really good teacher, listen to him.

would you make him wear a suit?

another link here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/brussels-airport-explosion-reports-1.3501831

This is a whole lot of bad news not just for Brussels, but for the tide of humanity attempting to escape from Syria, for the tone of dialogue in the American Presidential race (as if it wasn't bad enough). The fallout from this is going to be catastrophic.

My heart goes out all people affected.

fucking good. as kb says, never never gawker ever.

have you shared on hubski about your startup yet?

HIF about the prequels:

They could have been SO great, and they just fucked it so bad. despite Machete order helping, they were worse than I remembered. I am intrigued to watch the Clone Wars now, because a lot of people have mentioned that they are much better than the prequels and flesh out the storyline.

It's probably cheaper than what they already spend on benefits, or the same. and then people can choose to spend it on what they want.

Idunno if I think it's a good idea, but that's the logic.

arr, tng, do ya sail the Steven Seas?

could be fun. I know we're doing Star Wars V on sunday as well!

Nice to meet you Brian!

How are your bees these days?

waves

Hi Al!

"I credit Hubski with 100% of my academic success" - Galen 2015

Vote Galen 2016 everybody.