Cross stitching in comparison to other types of embroidery isn't hard, but it still involves two skills I'm severely lacking: counting and spatial estimation. These deficiencies are all too apparent when it takes me five minutes to add $3 tip to an $18 check. Or in Mario and Tomb Raider when I fall again... and again... and again. Cross stitching takes a picture and puts it into box form: little Xs that together create an image. For uncreative people such as myself, there are endless amounts of patterns out there to copy from flowers to animals to the abstract. But they require you to be able to count — "How many Xs wide is the red thread before I use the blue thread?" — which is second-guessed because I can't "feel" the size of something — "Is that really seven stitches? It doesn't look like seven. Lemme count. Okay, that's seven... I think? Maybe I counted wrong."

Consequently I fuck up all the time and then have to rip out the thread and start all over. Cross stitching is a time-consuming process. It's like Civ in a way; you're concentrating on what you're doing and vaguely become aware of this odd light in the room and suddenly realize it's dawn. But at least at the end of two hundred turns in Civ I feel like I've done something: Towns have increased, science is researched, culture is generating, and my military is rocking. After three hours with cross stitching you think to yourself, "Well, that circle's done. Oh wow, there are... Christ... seventeen more? Seriously?"

And yet I'm enjoying myself immensely. I don't know what it is. Perhaps it's because it's a simple task to focus on without any multitasking, without any pressure, without any distractions, just you, the needle, the thread, and the fabric. It's a wonderful way to turn away from the hectic world around you. Until you're punching yourself in the face when you realize you counted the amount of stitches wrong and have to rip out eighteen circles to start all over.

But hey, if I improve maybe I can start on awesome shit like this.

In German the other day we came across the word Indianer, which one of the students translated as "Indian." The teacher made clear that this stood only for "Native American" and a South Asian Indian would be Inder. Being distanced from the situation, he said that there was no need for political correctness for the Germans. That, and the phrase "Native American" is way too long.

I stopped him right then and there: "Are you seriously telling me 'Native American' is too long for you to say? What about your word for pollution? Umweltverschmutzung. Declaration of independence? Unabhängigkeitserklärung. Speed limit? Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung. There's no way 'Native American' is too long for you guys."

Thank god the Germans had already removed the longest word in their language from the dictionary — Rindfleischetikettierungsueberwachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz or "law delegating beef label monitoring" — so I wouldn't have to repeat that in class.

I don't know why the fuck the NYPL's website can't keep me logged in. All they allow the computer to remember is your username, but the PIN each and every time has to be inputted. If it were a bank website, all right. I can understand that level of security. But this is the New York fucking Public Library. What the fuck information in there is so vital that they decided it was too unsafe to allow a "keep me logged in" feature? The fact that I have Calvin Trillin's Deciding the Next Decider on my "Already Read" list? Or that they're holding D. C. Munro's The Kingdom of the Crusaders for me until Monday? Or that William Rosen's The Most Powerful Idea in the World is due on the 12th? In the grand scheme of things this is just a minor annoyance, but after a while you start thinking that you have more private shit on Gmail and that allows you to remember the username and password.

I'm in the middle of reading and I come across this sentence: "He entrusted this task to a canon of Saint-Quentin named Doon."^* For some reason I was overcome with the urge to yell out "DOOOON" really loudly. Unfortunately I was in a quiet room filled with people. Not a smart decision on my part.

Thank god didn't know this clergyman otherwise I'd be screaming that each time I saw him.

^* Marc Bloch, Feudal Society Volume 1: The Growth of Ties of Dependence, translated by L. A. Manyon (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961), 28.

That's what a traditional house looks like in the Philippines, which is hit every year with horrible typhoons, so the idea is even if the water levels reach three feet your home is all right. And with good reason; every now and then Ate Neneng asks me to scour the internet for news articles, videos, and pictures for the latest Manila flooding. Except it's difficult because I get the Manila flooding of '09. Or '12. Or the one that happened last month. And the month before that.

Thanks to the Spanish and American influence, Filipinos have moved away from this type of structure to something more western: ground floor, basements, concrete. Those were designed in a temperate zone and are completely useless in this situation. Ate Neneng annually has to send money to the Philippines to pay for the flood damage. Looking at that picture though, I have to wonder how great the traditional houses are. For one, it looks like it will blow away if hit with high winds. Mom has told me that once she saw a straw roof get ripped off during a storm.

However with modern architectural knowledge, I think the stilts thing could still work. I mean, we've developed skyscrapers that can sway in an earthquake; why can't we create a stilted house that's well grounded, can sway during a storm, and sans the grass roof? Why hasn't this caught on in the Philippines? It's a poor country, but surely there are architects there. After the fourteenth time in one year that you're draining your house of water, surely someone has to say, "Enough is enough already."

For those of you who are wondering... sorry, I haven't updated my tumblr in a bit because it's asking me to log in again and I forgot my password and am too lazy to reset it.

I always feel weird when people thank me for sending them thank you cards because thanking them back would result in a perpetual cycle of thanks.

I think what I learned from this is Boston wants to be special.

http://www.leasticoulddo.com/comic/20130921/

Because the West is currently dominating the scene, whenever we deal with the Middle East militarily it seems like kicking an opponent who's already down. Not that Middle Eastern countries don't have its own power, but it doesn't have the effective fighting force to really invade us back. Which is why Sohmer projected our current feelings back onto the Middle Ages and the Crusades: It's westerners once again invading the Middle East and they should just leave it alone.

I took a just war theory class, and there was one guy there who remained steadfastly isolationist. Toward the end of the term, the professor put a bunch of dates on the board: 637, 711, 732, 902, 1453, and 1529. Being the only historian in the room, I was the only person who was able to understand his point: the fall of Jerusalem (637), the fall of Spain (711), the Battle of Tours (732), the fall of Sicily (902), the fall of Constantinople (1453), and the siege of Vienna (1529). For several centuries it was the Muslims who were attacking the West, and the West was getting its ass kicked. Look at Tours and Vienna on a map. That's pretty fucking deep in. Back then there was no choice about being isolationist because the Muslims were coming for you either way. Some historians believe they never ventured further into Europe because there was nothing useful there.

Besides having misgivings about empire being completely anachronistic in 1099 for both sides, to the crusaders it wasn't conquering the Levant so much as reclaiming it. That's why it's called the Reconquista of Spain rather than just the Conquest; the Christians were taking it back from the Muslim invaders as they would for the Holy Land. And if they could, they'd take back the Roman Empire, which if you can recall was all of North Africa too. Yeah, think about that: Egypt back in the day was known as the cultural center of Christianity, even surpassing Rome and Constantinople. St. Augustine, the dude I can't shut up about, is from modern-day Algeria. The Byzantine Empire traditionally gathered its fighting force from Anatolia, which is in modern-day Turkey. Christianity was deeply entrenched in all of those locations, but it's hard to imagine it now because the Muslims invaded.

We can't pretend we've always been the assholes in this situation. Because if we're gonna demand a live-and-let-live policy, what the fuck were the Muslims doing around 1099? Oh yeah, attacking the Byzantines. The Crusades started because the Byzantine emperor sent a letter to the pope asking for help against the Seljuk Turks. He got more than he asked for, but it's not like western Christendom one day decided to just up and leave for Jerusalem. We can't take our modern-day situation and apply it to the past. It doesn't work.

I was gonna post something, but my fingers are fucking freezing and I'm gonna go back under the covers now.

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For me Latin is the hardest language to translate because they were capable of condensing a lot of information into few words. For example, amans puer means something along the lines of "the boy who is currently in the midst of loving." And they would just throw that in the middle of a sentence casually, so I'd end up writing long strings of words to fully express what the author was saying. I try to make it succinct as possible with limited results. Whenever I read other people's attempts I see them falling into the same pattern, and consequently I find Roman authors to be somewhat difficult to read; it's very prolix with the main sentence punctured with subordinate clauses.

That however doesn't explain this. I'm reading a 1917 translation of Caesar's The Gallic War, and I'm trying to figure out of if translator's using an archaic meaning that I don't know or if he just fucked up:

The next day, or ever the enemy could recover from their panic and rout, Caesar led the army into the borders of the Suessiones.^*

Can someone please explain to me what the fuck that first part of the sentence means? "The next day, or ever the enemy could recover." Is the comma in the right place? "The next day or ever?" But that doesn't make any sense because it's either the next day or not. It's not forever. It's gotta be "ever the enemy could recover." Can someone explain that to me? I'm literally looking to the Latin to figure out what the hell the English is saying. That's fucked up. This was translated in 1917, and it's gone through countless editions since then. No one has stopped and thought, "Maybe we should edit that because it makes no goddamned sense."

^* G. Julius Caesar, The Gallic War, trans. H. J. Edwards (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979), 107.

If you ever looked at my writing, you'll notice I use a plus sign for "and." For example, "I went to the store yesterday, + I saw some hooligans there." It's weird because I can't remember why I started doing that. I remember it happened some time in high school, but beyond that I've got nothing. Why the hell did I sit down and think, "You know, I'm tired of writing out the entire word 'and.' We have a perfectly good ampersand but fuck that. I'm going with a plus sign." I don't even fucking like math.

In Old English right now I'm translating Biblical passages. We have so much Anglo-Saxon written material partially due to a king back in the 800s called Alfred the Great, who for various reasons enacted a translation program of important works, one of which was naturally the Bible. Back then the Vulgate Bible was the preferred Latin translation of the church. The Vulgate has lots of problems in it, probably because it was a rush job by St. Jerome, and it's not quite an accurate representation of the Greek. However that's what Alfred had -- I'm willing to bet money no one in England could speak Greek at that time -- so the Old English is basically a translation of an already not perfect translation.

Now onto my textbook. The editors were kind enough to juxtapose modern English on the opposite page, but they decided to select the King James Version. Okay, I know that these fuckers are British (the publisher's in Oxford) and it's the Anglican Church, and you've had all these problems with the Catholic Church in the past, but Jesus Christ why did you choose the fucking KJV? It was translated directly from the Greek. You understand, right? It edited out all the problems from the Vulgate. So I'm reading the Old English, finding a sentence that doesn't quite make sense, turn my eyes to the KJV, and realizing that fucking sentence isn't worded the same way or just doesn't fucking exist. Thanks, the modern English you've given me is completely useless. Let me give you an example. In the Old English it says, "The angel said again to Abraham, 'I myself swear, says the Almighty, now that you did not wish to spare your only-begotten son, and my terror was to you more than his life..." The KJV says, "And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time and said, 'By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not witheld thy son, thine only son..." Okay, they have the same sense, but when I'm literally translating word by word here I need something more accurate than that. For one, the KJV has all these phrases before the angel even starts speaking. Then the Old English has something about the terror that the KJV doesn't have, which by the way was a really difficult sentence to translate and would've been great to have in modern English.

The editors must've realized they fucked up because below the KJV they threw in the original Latin Vulgate, which is to me an even bigger dick move. One, you're assuming I know Latin. I know for a fact in many British schools (your target audience) Old Engish is a requirement for English majors, who definitely didn't study Latin. Two, it proves you know you made a mistake and only did the minimal amount of effort to rectify it. You could've just fucking put an modern English translation of the Vulgate instead of sucking the KJV's cock! Or if you didn't feel like paying copyright, you could've translated it from the Latin yourself. Obviously you can read that shit if you slapped it in Latin on the page. Or if you were too lazy, there's always the free Douay-Rheims translation. I know it sounds really French, but I'd rather take that than the KJV.

It really pisses me off that people use the KJV to this extent. Like, go to Barnes & Noble. The entire Bible section is pretty much that. Why do people love it so much? It's written in an archaic English and for fucking King James, who had an monarchical agenda, and translation reflects that. I'm not saying it's a horrible but it's still not the greatest out there. And for situations like this it's fucking useless.

Me: You know how "fruit" has a Latinic root? Well, the Saxon word was wæstm. I see why we changed it.
Devin: What do they say in German?
Me: Frucht or Obst.
Devin: Why did German add consonants? Was the word too pretty?

Bureaucracy at its finest.

I knew that we could encounter difficulties when replicating our house because of different standards and building codes, but it affected us in ways I didn't expect. Because literally all that was left of our house was the facade and the party wall,^* this isn't considered a renovation but a completely new project and consequently lots of our old features can't be grandfathered in. For example, the vent for our washer/dryer used to go out to the driveway, but now the code says it has to be so many feet away from a driveway and window, which means now we have to build a chimney to the roof because that's the only space we can put it.

Particularly problematic right now are the front windows. None of my friends spent much time there so you probably don't remember, but it was leaded stained glass. Now the building code demands energy efficiency, i.e. double-paned windows or windows that are two panes thick to create more insulation. We can't have two pieces of stained glass right next to each other or it'll ruin the effect, so what we're doing is sandwiching it between two pieces of regular glass, meaning it'll be three-panes thick and more lead. The weight is such that our double-hung windows probably won't be able to take it and won't stay up when we open it, so now we're discussing whether we should turn it into a casement window.

Yeah. When they tell you there are surprises in construction, they weren't fucking kidding.

^* That sounds more awesome than it actually is.

Today was primary day, and without looking at any of the exit polls or whatever I expect de Blasio to win. I haven't been paying much attention to the campaign so far because I'm not registered for any party and just need to weigh between the Democrat and Republican (and one Independent) candidates, but from what I've gleaned is quite a bit of hostility toward Bloomberg. I'm surprised because I didn't realize so many people hated him so much. Yeah, okay, I have a lot of issues with several of his policies, but I feel overall he helped the city, ran it well, and was a good mayor. I'm trying to figure out if the candidates are just demonizing Bloomberg because it's necessary to show how they'd do things differently or if the majority of the city disagrees with me.

Okay, the biggest strike against Bloomberg is term limits, which apparently is why everyone hates Quinn because she facilitated him ignoring that rule. Other reasons people have thrown out there is she's Bloomberg's crony or she'll be just like him. To say something like that means that you dislike him. Okay, he's done some stupid shit like the banning coke, trying to put a stadium in Manhattan, and I'm still on the fence about what's he's been doing to Times Square and Harald Square, but I think his good deeds have overridden it. The city is definitely a better place than it was when he first started in 2002, and he was organized and calm during his biggest crisis, Hurricane Sandy. (And I think Irene too if it were bigger.)

What I'm willing to admit may generate this hostility is the stop-and-frisk policy, which I am against. His staunch defense of it in the face of antagonistic public opinion is a negative mark in my book. I can see his standpoint, but the policy is so open to abuse and is particularly grating toward poorer communities that in his position I would look into modifying its use or other methods. In his defense the crime rate has reduced so much that we're one of the safest cities in the United States, and stop-and-frisk may have contributed to it. I don't know; I haven't read the literature. But if you're upsetting so many of the people you're supposedly representing, you're supposed to do something about it.

Is it because I'm from Manhattan? Bloomberg is probably like Koch in a way and Manhattan-centric, so maybe I've only seen the good side whilst the outer boroughs decay. But I don't know. I feel Bloomberg doesn't deserve all this vitriol regardless of his policies. As he's going out, I can definitely say I liked him more than Giuliani. No doubt about it.

Man, I didn't realize McGruder explained it so well, right down to the type of guns.

Alex stayed over the weekend and plowed through Silent Hill 2 for me. My only experience with the Silent Hill series is the first in the late 90s, but I couldn't remember anything besides fighting was extraordinarily difficult. Well, it was nice to see that continued with its sequel.

I definitely have to say it deserves the encomium it receives. In terms of gameplay, it's not amazing; it's more or less attempting to find keys to access the next area. The fighting is awful but the enemies aren't particularly difficult. It's only because you're stuck in an enclosed environment with crappy camera angles and a protagonist who can barely swing a bat properly.

But what it excels in is plot, storytelling, and atmosphere. It's interesting to start the game thinking something is wrong with the town itself as well as the other people you meet, but as the game progresses you wonder whether it's James the protagonist who's insane. And once the secret is revealed in the hotel, all the crazy shit you saw before suddenly fit together, like the theme of punishment and innocence in the prison.

The makers knew how to fuck with the human psyche. For example, visibility was practically zero with the fog outside and the darkness inside causing our fear-ridden imagination to run wild. Or they would accustom us to a certain musical track whenever an enemy was around and later on just play that track constantly so we would be hyper aware of our surroundings and tense. Or they would allow us the entire game to have the flashlight, radio, and bat as something dependent to cling to in all this madness and finally take it away to make us feel more naked and alone than ever.

The other two victims of the town, Eddie and Angela, don't really expand James as a character, but I feel the game would be less without them. It shows how Silent Hill affects other people, and other possible ways it could've ended for him. And it added to the mystery and unease because the way they speak it's as if they and James aren't seeing the same things, alluding how Silent Hill is different for every person, depending on their sin. James is a complex and sympathetic character; although you don't condone his actions, you can understand his mindset and frustration.

I spent most of the game fiddling with my phone because I couldn't mentally take what the hell was happening on the screen. Alex already beat the game himself years ago, but even he felt emotionally drained at the end of it all. That's how fucking awesome it is: Even if you know the plot twist, it still affects you on a mental level. Five fucking stars. I don't regret asking Alex to play this for me one bit.

So during the entire fight with the table boss I kept on asking, "What the hell is up with this wall? It's so weird. Why are those pistons there? I can't get over it." When I looked it up later, it was supposed to be symbolism for Angela's dad and brother raping her. ...Well then.

Also, as Alex said, the two most lucrative jobs in Silent Hill would be locksmith and elevator repair man. It's like a 90% broken rate there.

I'm playing the Animal Crossing game for the 3DS, and the suicidal tendencies of the bugs is absolutely astounding. I can somewhat understand their willingness to jump into the sea when I'm chasing after them with a net like some sort of deranged maniac, but sometimes I'm not even doing anything. I'm just sitting there, minding my own business, fishing for carp or something, and then suddenly this scorpion in the distance just runs off the bank of the river and splashes to a watery death below. Not tthat I mind less bugs in the universe, but I'm thinking maybe we should hire a therapist for them.

(Forgive me if I've spoken about this before. I do recall writing this in a letter, but I can't remember if I discussed it on xanga.)

I'm currently translating Jordanes' Getica, which I'm certain none of you have ever heard of, so I'll give you some details. As with many ancient and medieval writers, we know very little about him, but from what we can gather he was part of the barbarian tribes invading the Roman Empire in the 500s. At some point he converted to Christianity and became a secretary to a military commander in the Roman army. Later in life he wrote Getica or by its real, fuller name De origine actibusque Getarum (On the Origin and Deeds of the Goths). Perhaps he wanted to get in touch with his roots a bit.

If you want to talk about the later Roman Empire and early Gothic history, he's one of the most oft-quoted sources I've seen. However each book I've read always handles him cautiously, saying it's uncertain how truthful or accurate Getica is. Now that I've started translating him, I see what the fucking problem is. He starts off in his introduction by mentioning Getica is just a summary of a longer work by Cassiodorus, the SparkNotes version if you will. He then admits he's only read Cassiodorus' work twice, doesn't own it, and can't remember it all but assures us he's keeping in the spirit of it.

Are you fucking kidding me son? You've only read this book twice, which you yourself say is volumes in length, and are writing a summary? Imagine reading War and Peace, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, or À la recherche du temps perdu twice and then writing a whole fucking book about it. Yeah, I could only give vague impressions myself. You know that Shakespeare project I had two years ago? I can't fucking remember the plot for some of them anymore. And those are short plays. Who knows what dense shit Jordanes had to wade through.

What's worst is Cassiodrus' book is lost, so we have nothing else to compare to. This is all we've got, which is why Jordanes is such an important source even though his material is dubious. I wonder if he knew how important his work would be whether he'd sit down and read it for, I don't know, a third or fourth time at least.

Of course the mayoral election is on everyone's lips, but there's also the comptroller and public advocate. For those that don't know, the comptroller's in charge of our assets and the public advocate listens to citizens' complaints and tries to address them. (Our current comptroller and public advocate, John Liu and Bill de Blasio, are both running for mayor.) Out of everyone in the mayor's office, this is the person who'll take over the position if the mayor gets shot or something. Do you understand? If Bloomberg was Obama, the public advocate would the equivalent of Biden. How the hell did this happen? I'd imagine it'd be the First Deputy Mayor. That's, you know, the fucking deputy mayor. That's the person who knows what the hell is going on. Don't get me wrong; public advocate is still an important job. But it'd be like, I don't know, if Obama gets shot the Secretary of Energy suddenly becomes president. We as a people would cock our heads and go, "Huh? When did we decide on that?"

So why did we decide on that?

[01:45:34] gtaex2739: there's something coming out in japan called Resident Evil: The Real
[01:45:47] gtaex2739: that one looks like it will be more fun cause it actually involves guns
[01:45:55] gtaex2739: and you're not guaranteed to win
[01:46:07] gtaex2739: also
[01:46:13] gtaex2739: i know this has probably been said a million times already
[01:46:40] gtaex2739: but what the fuck is it about the japanese that makes it impossible for them to do an english check
[01:46:56] gtaex2739: all you have to do is have 1 dude on staff who you go to and ask, does this make sense?
[01:47:02] gtaex2739: no? ok then we'll change it
[01:47:08] gtaex2739: instead you get resident evil: the real
[01:47:24] gtaex2739: that should be our business
[01:47:42] gtaex2739: we literally just proofread 1 titles for things
[01:48:07] gtaex2739: does this title make sense?
[01:48:09] gtaex2739: no
[01:48:11] gtaex2739: the answer is always no
[01:48:26] gtaex2739: or we just lie and say yes to make our lives easier and collect a comission
[01:49:15] Dun 4 Hire: We could also ask them what they intended in Japanese and say we translated it for them
[01:49:23] Dun 4 Hire: And make up something completely different.
[01:49:30] Dun 4 Hire: "Resident Evil: The Final Kick-Ass."
[01:49:56] gtaex2739: resident evil: ultimate dildo
[01:50:23] Dun 4 Hire: Resident Evil: Search in the Red Light District.
[01:50:40] gtaex2739: Resident Evil: The Anus Within
[01:51:08] gtaex2739: Resident Evil: Snake Vagina
[01:51:45] Dun 4 Hire: "You know, we wanted to name it just Resident Evil 7."
[01:52:07] Dun 4 Hire: "I know, I know, but trust me. This is why numbers are so trickly in English. A longer way to say 7 is 'snake vagina.' "
[01:52:22] Dun 4 Hire: "It sounds more professional."
[01:53:34] Dun 4 Hire: Actually, isn't Resident Evil supposed to be Biohazard?
[01:53:37] Dun 4 Hire: What the hell happened there?
[01:57:10] gtaex2739: yeah.
[01:57:12] gtaex2739: yeah
[01:57:54] gtaex2739: Resident Evil: A Glimpse through the Translucent Window
[02:07:28] gtaex2739: Resident Evil: Glimmer of Semen
[02:08:26] Dun 4 Hire: You could go on for hours with this shit.

I'm not really against unions because I saw what they brought to the common American worker in the late 19th- and early 20th-century. But in recent years there has been a push back, particularly from the Republican party, as governors in Minnesota and other Midwest states tried to break them. While I feel that unions are integral to improving conditions and still are, I can fully appreciate complaints about their corruption, tactics, and obstruction.

One union that's really pissing me off nowadays is the New York cabbies. Fuck them. I am so sick of their shit. When Bloomberg announced these new green cabs that service anything outside of downtown Manhattan, I flipped my shit. Why the hell do we need a two-tier system of cabs when the ones we already have can, you know, just fucking cover the whole goddamned city like they're supposed to?

I also love how they try to drive out any sense of competition. Not only did they try to prevent Uber from entering the city, they also passed laws that makes it illegal for a car service to pick up someone hailing it. They can only take orders via phone. YOU FUCKERS ARE NOT DRIVING UP HERE. WHEN THE FUCK DID YOU LAST SEE A YELLOW CAB IN THE SOUTH BRONX? WE LITERALLY HAD TO START A WHOLE FUCKING GREEN CAB JUST TO FORCE YOU LITTLE SHITS TO GO THERE. WHY STOP CAR SERVICES WHEN YOU'RE NOT EVEN TRYING TO COMPETE WITH THEM ANYWAY?