Tomato Soup

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Saturday, October 16, 2004

I was so right.

Some of my classmates like to use cant instead of chant, referring to what you do with the psalms. They are convinced that this is correct usage; I am convinced that they are mistakenly comparing it to the (correct) form cantor, for "a person who chants".

I was so right.

I looked it up at dictionary.com, and not only does cant not mean the same thing as chant, but the latter refers to precisely what a cantor does. And the former has a rather derogatory sense. "To speak in a whining voice, or an affected, singsong tone." and "To make whining pretensions to goodness; to talk with an affectation of religion, philanthropy, etc.; to practice hypocrisy; as, a canting fanatic."

(And you know what's really cool? I know why we have both the c and the ch forms. We get chant via the French development from the Latin that gives us cantor. It's so cool when language makes sense.)
Sarah - 8:21 PM - 0 comment(s)

Thursday, October 14, 2004

The best thing about having a website...

...is when you check your stats and find someone who came to your site entirely by accident who stayed and looked around. Usually this involves Google. I get random hits for search terms like "matrix name generators" and "judging costume contests", and most of the time they take one look and leave.

Most of the time, when you're searching on Google, you're looking for something specific and you don't spend much time on sites that are obviously not what you are looking for. So it's neat when you notice that you have apparently caught their attention and introduced them to something new.
Sarah - 9:50 PM - 0 comment(s)

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

My room isn't dark.

They replaced the blinds. Yay! Instead of huge (and immovable) black blinds that I could never open, I have lovely new white blinds (four, two for each of the double windows, so they aren't as heavy). The difference is incredible. I can actually see in the middle of the day without turning the lights on.

Of course, I had to spend a certain amount of time last night cleaning and removing items from the window sills (which are so broad that you practically have to put things on them) so that they could get to the blinds, but who's counting?
Sarah - 11:38 AM - 0 comment(s)

Monday, October 11, 2004

In case you were wondering...

...here is a photograph of one of my gloves. Alas, I cannot photograph both of them at once and still hold the camera. (They really have to be on my hands. They really don't look like anything when they aren't.)

For those of you playing along at home (Heather), they are very easy to make. You figure out how wide your hands are (mine are about four inches) and check the guage of your yarn to see how many stitches you need to get that size. The cuff is 2-2 ribbing and can be as long as you like, just cast on and knit a bunch of rows (no need to join into a circle). The rest is stockinette stitch. When you are done, you seam up the side and leave a large opening for your thumb. To separate for the fingers, you crochet a row along the top and between the fingers you crochet the front and back together. Very easy and very warm. (Also they look pretty darn cool.) You don't absolutely have to connect between the fingers, but they stay on better (and they stay warmer) if you do. Ideal for typing and taking notes in overly air-conditioned areas.

Just for the heck of it, here's a brief rundown of my weekly schedule (so that my references can make more sense):
Monday - Class at the crack of dawn and the end of the afternoon. Choir. (Chapel before lunch, Mon-Wed and Friday).
Tuesday - Class all day.
Wednesday - Class all morning. Visitations in the afternoon. Choir.
Thursday - Class all afternoon. Evening chapel with eucharist.
Friday - Class all morning from 8:00 a.m. until unch at 12 noon.
Saturday - Sleep. Study. Prepare children's sermon.
Sunday - Church. I serve as assisting minister. And I do the children's sermon.]

I'm in about six classes, which is why some folks (i.e. everyone who isn't in my classes) don't see much of me these days.

I have two midterms this week, but neither of them concerns me nearly as much as the New Testament quiz.
Sarah - 1:10 PM - 0 comment(s)

Sunday, October 10, 2004

I finished my gloves.

The fingerless ones, that is. The left one still needs stretching a bit, so I'm practicing typing in it. They are otherwise very comfortable. The slight awkwardness is a big improvement over typing in my driving gloves.

I have three midterms this week. Well, actually, one of them is really a New Testament quiz. (But guess which of the three I am most concerned about. If you said "the quiz", then you were right.) Forget studying—I have some serious reading to do in order to be caught up on the material.

Yesterday afternoon, I forgot to make a copy out of Sundays & Seasons for the prayers. So this morning, of course (doesn't it always work like this?), the pastor was not there and no one had the keys to her office, so I couldn't get at her book to make a copy. I ended up just pulling a bunch of petitions out of the front of the Lutheran Book of Worship. Lovely resource, but I don't think I'll be doing that every week!

I have a headache. I have had a headache all weekend. It probably comes from having slept on the concrete floor at the lock-in Friday night (which was otherwise fabulous).
Sarah - 6:53 PM - 0 comment(s)

Thursday, October 07, 2004

I need videos.

Sometimes I need background noise. Something light and distracting that I can turn off. The television is not much use. All that's on is crime drama. Every. Single. Night. Always. It's usually either CSI or Law and Order, or both. I have nothing against these shows in principle, but they always leave me feeling vaguely dissatisfied because Nero Wolfe would eat these people for breakfast—actually, he wouldn't bother, because they're usually pretty boring cases.

This is what happens when you only have CBS and NBC.

Sarah - 10:30 PM - 0 comment(s)

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

Yikes.

We got our History of Christianity exams back today. Seriously. We just took the darned thing on Thursday, and it was all short answer (read: long answer in short space) and essay.

I got a 101.
Sarah - 4:11 PM - 0 comment(s)

Monday, October 04, 2004

But it's just wrong...

I should be studying for the Gospels quiz tomorrow (and when I say "quiz", you can think "test", at least), but instead I've been working on linking French and English Tolkien articles.

The problem is that when I come across blatant errors, I just can't ignore them. I can't. It's too painful.

Someone put that ''Arwen'' in Sindarin means ''princesse'', which is just nonsense. It is, I suppose, just vaguely possible that there is some French translation out there that makes this claim, but I'm sorry, my French isn't perfect, but I know what ''princesse'' means, and how you get from ''noble maiden'' to ''princess'' is not immediately clear to me. The connotations of royalty (or, rather, the lack thereof) are extremely relevant in this case. Since French lacks neither a word for "noble" or "maiden" (especially since "woman" is a perfectly acceptable alternate translation), I don't see what the problem is.

*sigh* Gospels. Hebrew. Gospels. Coming, really. Gospels. (Mark, specifically. *sigh*)
Sarah - 9:56 PM - 0 comment(s)

Friday, October 01, 2004

Loooong week.

Yesterday was the first History of Christianity exam. Sheesh. They are legendary. The entire junior class spent all week studying and worrying and putting everything else on hold. It's over now, though. My hand still hurts, not so much from the amount of writing as the speed of writing due to the relatively short time.

Of course, I've fallen even further behind in everything else. Guilt trip, guilt trip, guilt trip.

I talked to Heather! And Kat called and left her number! (I'll call later, when it is free.) And yesterday Ashley called me!

I'm trying to update my archives for this blog, but it keeps timing out. *sigh*

Regarding the images at the bottom: If they don't show up, try forcing a refresh. (You usually hold down shift and maybe control while refreshing.) I think it's a caching issue from when the site was down.

Heather: Have you set up that frame loom? Do you have any pictures of it? I did some serious work on my scarf yesterday, and it's coming along quite nicely. I finally found a supplemental weft yarn that I can live with (it's actually about the same color as the original "dark" warp yarn), so I can make progress again. I'll take some pictures later.

I found a fairly simple pattern online and I'm knitting fingerless gloves. (People keep making fun of me for that. People who don't live in the dorm, that is.) It doesn't really have fingers at all, it just stops and then there are openings—I picked the most basic pattern I could find because I want it to go quickly so I can wear them.
Sarah - 1:51 PM - 0 comment(s)

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Archive (leftovers)

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