04 VI 2002 - 21:05 - quotidianus17

Yes! Finals are over and all I have now to worry about is... my... final Latin project. I could indeed be more free of stress, but I'm thinking that with three of four exam-type things over, I have a right to feel relieved.

Today, I went to visit the dentist, and learned conclusively that:

tall gums + short roots + laziness = loads of gingivitis fun!

Yep, today's lovely session of pain involved gum bleeding and discussion of many scary pictures. Also the warning that my gums now are worse than my father's gums now (and he's lost a lot of his teeth). We'll see how this turns out.

Oh, and the dentist blamed this also on heredity (tall gums, short roots, tall pockets, lots of fun gingivitis potential). Apparently, I got lucky (eyesight rapidly growing worse, will not be legally blind anytime soon but on the other hand my brain supresses what it sees out of one eye almost all the time).

Here's what I have so far for my Latin project:

Interea currus Phoebi decurrit ab arce [at]
heros mansit volvens altum corde dolorem
Concubar ergo puellam misit carmine dulcem
iam victura dolorem animos maerentia pectora mulcet
frustra immotum ancilla amplectur identidem adivit

Tomorrow at 9:30 AM I should have a 2-page essay describing any difficulties I had with the composition of these lines as well as how I have grown closer to understanding the nature of Vergillian epic poetry. On the whole, I'm inclined to write that I really have no better understanding of how to write in dactylic hexameter and that my best line is good only because the second half repeats a phrase common throughout the Aeneid to describe grief. Having written this, I will proceed to listen to all fifteen of Shostakovich's symphonies as I lie transfixed on my bed by the power of his intervals.

Somehow, I don't think that bears any relationship to what will actually happen. No, not at all; instead I shall slave away to produce two more lines of substandard Latin that would have made a ten-year-old Roman go into hysterics and write about how much I loved the process and how I now have some of a sense of how difficult it must have been to write in dactylic hexameter when half the words in the language don't fit the meter.

I went to see Spider-Man with my sister last night. If I think about the plot or the dialogue too hard, I want to burst out laughing, but the special effects were cool, and at some level I'm a sap who likes to have empty, ridiculous dialogue and oddly developed love stories shoved down my throat. Also, I wasn't in a mood to think too hard, since I'd just had two finals and the movie began at 10:30. It might have been a subliminal message present in Tobey Maguire's torso that made me enjoy the film, but I think it was just that it wasn't too taxing or irritating. So.

Apparently Amy is going to be going with me to the Indigo Girls concert (13 July, Greek Theatre, UC Berkeley).

My thoughts grow increasingly fragmented. Time to write my report.