Fun & Games Got in to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia just last night. Just had the delightful spectacle this morning at the breakfast buffet - religious police came and took away some Arab tourists for eating during daylight hours. The Arabs were kicking and screaming and protesting that Arab custom permits travellers to eat. The Malay religious police answered that since they were doing it in full headscarves, they Another test Again, from my mobile phone this time Sent by pfingoACTIVE . Testing Let's see if this email to blogger thingy works... Soapy Ear This is going to sound strange. Three time out of four, as I'm getting out of the shower and drying myself, I notice I've omitted to rinse the soap off my right ear. This is odd, as I'm meticulous about rinsing soap suds off everywhere else. It's almost as if I have a little line in my ROM that says 'please forget to rinse right ear so you will then have to get back under the shower when you've Learing Latin Euro-Centric? Cardinal Hamao of Tokyo appears to think that learning Gregorian Chant and Latin prayers is Euro-centric, and 'impossible for Asians'. source here Gee, Eminence, what, we slitty-eyed yellow-faced Asians aren't capable of learning Latin? Talk about racism. As a Classicist and a teacher of Latin, I find this highly offensive, and I'm sure those of my students who are Asian will think so too. I Sweet Beatrice! Beatrice, the idealised muse of medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri, is still winning hearts as young singles from around the world leave notes on her tomb in an 11th century Florence church seeking her intercession. That's curious. When I visited her tomb, there were no such notes on it. Must be something new. I did say a little prayer there though, figuring that a lady who was able to Χριστὸς Άνέστη! You’re St. Jerome! You’re a passionate Christian, fiercely devoted to Jesus Christ and his Church. You are willing to labor long hours in the Lord’s vineyard, and you have little patience with those who are less willing or able to work as you do. Your passions often carry you into temptation zones of wrath, lust, and pride. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers! Quizzes! What Fantasy Archetype Are you? The MentorYou are the prestigous Mentor! You're akin to Gandalf (Lord of The Rings), Merlin (ARthurian Legend), Obi Wan Kenobi (Star Wars), Aslan (Narnia), Door (Neverwhere), Dumbledore (Harry Potter) and Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander (Wizard's First Rule). You are wise and knowing, and know that there is not much time left for the Unlikely Hero to defeat The Totally Had a most curious dream the other night. Was somehow travelling through some tropical former spanish or portuguese colony- could have been south america, philippines or even goa. Balmy weather, tropical rivers, somewhat third world, the usual. Passing by some rural cathedral, noticed some outdoor marble tombs of sainted early bishops of the place. Don't ask me why these were outside the The song lyrics found in karaoke videos can be great fun. While misspellings are common, once in a while they are absolutely screamingly funny. One line from Bette Midler's 'From A Distance' originally goes 'and no one is in need', and in the karaoke goes 'and know one is in me'. This could either sound awfully philosophical or awfully raunchy. Of course, at three in the morning, when one is Oimoi kakodaimon! An wearing my King's College tee-shirt out. Someone noticed the coat of arms and asked me 'i didn't know you were from raffles institution!'. I'm so insulted! Oimoi kakon! Oimoi talas!---This post was made with a trial version of BlogPlanet, a photo blog client for mobile phones. For more information visit www.blogplanet.net. Created: Wikipedia article on John Mauropus (Ioannes Mauropous), 11th C. Byzantine scholar, poet, and bishop.---This post was made with a trial version of BlogPlanet, a photo blog client for mobile phones. For more information visit www.blogplanet.net. 25th. Bah. Felix dies natalis mihi. Pfftt. Convivium meum, et lacrimabo si volo! Ha. Seriously. Wasn't a bad one at all. Slept in, brian neu took me to lunch at Mezza9 at Hyatt. Then I was able to sit and read while smoking my pipe, at Starbucks, for a good few hours. Hung out with graeme for a bit, before having dinner cum matre patreque. Post caenam, read most of the evening, then decided to do some Delicious Irony Muslims violently protesting against a perceived accusation that Islam is a violent religion. The irony of this... is something you can't make up. Get over it. It was an academic discourse. The reaction by some Muslims is totally over the top. Should we no longer be allowed to quote if the quote is not to their liking? And does their reaction not show that the quote is actually right? Where Cæna Simplex A simple dinner. Bread. Cheese. Jam. Tea. Bread: Sourdough Rye Bread. Cheese: Le Marechal, a new-ish Swiss cheese that's nutty, salty, and tangy, a bit like young Parmesan (Parmigiano). Jam: Sour Cherry, from Persia. Tea: 龍井 (Lung Ching or Longjing), a green tea favoured by Shanghainese, as well as by those from Kêangsu (Jiangsu), Kêangnan (Jiangnan) and neighbourly provinces. I may have a Your Geek Profile: Academic Geekiness: Highest Internet Geekiness: Moderate Movie Geekiness: Moderate SciFi Geekiness: Moderate Geekiness in Love: Low General Geekiness: Low Music Geekiness: Low Fashion Geekiness: None Gamer Geekiness: NoneHow Geeky Are You? Egyptian inscriptions saved by a mouse Egyptologists are being urged to dump their pens and paper and go digital. The hieroglyphics that cover the columns and walls of Egyptian temples are in danger of washing away. Groundwater constantly seeps into the stone on which they are engraved, depositing a corrosive layer of salt on the surface as it evaporates. Yet despite the danger that the precious inscriptions could soon be lost, Rabbit! Rabbit for dinner! Welsh Rabbit, that is =) Ach. Simple food can be such a joy. Your Extroversion Profile:Assertiveness: Very HighFriendliness: Very HighActivity Level: HighSociability: HighCheerfulness: LowExcitement Seeking: LowHow Extroverted Are You? Does It Really Matter? So there I am, merrily imbibing post-cænal drinks, when I realise 'oh, it's time for my evening medication'. I then say 'excuse me a second' and take the pills. Friend then looks oddly at me. Friend: 'Errrm... it's not good to mix medication with alcohol... if you want, I'll get you some water for that...' Me: 'Sweetie darling, I've been merrily drinking away all evening and will be continuing Ach, the joys of technology. Now we can find the good old missals, greek and latin grammars, academic works, lexica and suchlike as public domain scanned pdfs on the internet and can have them printed cheaply and easily, aiding the dissemination of knowledge. O, o, totus floreo!---This post was made with a trial version of BlogPlanet, a photo blog client for mobile phones. For more information Readers will not be surprised to hear that computer gaming is not something I do. Warcraft, DOTA and suchlike, are unknown to me. XBoxes, Playstations... Don't register on my radar at all. Even the Nintendo craze of the 90s completely passed me by. Sure, I still play Weiqi/Go, Chess, and Latrunculi on my little Powerbook, but the last game with any degree of complexity i played on a computer was Linguistics thought (I'm very random like that): The number of Sanskrit & Indo-European words & cognates in Malay (basically a Polynesian language, iirc) never ceases to amaze me. Malay for almond is badam, which is pure Sanskrit. Malay for hour is jam (soft j as in 'jelly', long a as in 'father'). Can't remember what IE or Sanskrit for hour is, but Persian & Armenian both have zham ( In case anyone's wondering, I've just managed to get this confounded mobile phone blogging program working again- It's been on the blink since last march. Hurrah- I'll be a little more regular with blogging now that it's really convenient to use this program. It's called blogplanet, if anyone is interested, and works on most colour-screen mobile phones that have a gprs connection. Great fun.--- Have been into Youtube and Google Video for a few weeks now, and discovered an easy way to convert those silly .flv files into a more easily-viewed format. Mind-boggling really, the range of stuff available. From Ethiopian Orthodox services, to drunk college students doing silly things (embarrassing and aplenty), to entire lectures on various topics. What really got me going were clips from the This is from April last year... --- On nightbus home, after Passover dinner at Daniel Hadas' place. Now i know the 'real' Jewish Passover isn't till late April, but his family are Roman Catholics of Jewish heritage, and as Easter is the Christian Passover, they're celebrating it on this day. Was stuffed beyond bursting, and the 4 cups of wine certainly had their effect! This is the second This is from March last year... --- In cab on way... This is from March last year... --- In cab on way home from heathrow now. Other people get some stunning babe or a gorgeous hunk next to them in the plane, or even an interesting person. I have to get a huge bearded smelly biker for 14 hours from bangkok to london. Hah. More later when i get home- this is just the first mobile phone blog entry in britain...---This post was made with a trial Have just had lunch with my parents at Kampong Gla... Have just had lunch with my parents at Kampong Glam, the oldest malay-arab enclave in Singapore. The street names are distinctly Middle Eastern- Kandahar St, Baghdad St and Arab St are some examples. The arab community in Singapore hails mostly from Hadhramaut in what is now Yemen, and they've been here since the founding of Singapore in 1819, and although their arab identity and use of arabic Quizzes! Discworld: Which Ankh-Morpork City Watch Character are YOU? Lord Havelock VetinariTake this quiz! Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code Ag... Silver You scored 44 Mass, 40 Electronegativity, 63 Metal, and 10 Radioactivity! Congratulations, you are one of the only things that can kill werewolves. In addition to that, you are Please, Please, Don't Let This Turn Into World War IV (or III) I'm sure my readers will know of the horrible events unfolding between Lebanon and Israel (and possibly even Iran and Syria next). This could very well turn into World War III (or IV, depending on whether one sees the Cold War as WWIII). Lord, grant us peace in our time, and preserve the holy places! [image from Paróquia Melquita de Nossa Senhora do Líbano] Our Lady Of Lebanon, Pray For Us!