I should TOTALLY be studying

Ok, so I should TOTALLY be studying right now as the title of this post says but I've reached that point that I like to call "avoidance". It's when you know you should be doing something but you find yourself doing all sorts of random things to avoid doing that one thing... in this case it's Seneca... sorry Dr. M! Anyway as Rachael always posts on her favorite show Supernatural, I am going to post some of my favorite things for you all.
Favorite painting of all time: Have any of you seen this?

Fav pic of the moment:


Have a good weekend!

OMG! O.O

I have to share this... I was just getting ready to finish up my Latin homework for tomorrow and checked my e-mail one last time. Sitting there waiting for me was a comment for my own blog, pertaining to this post.

In that post, I figured out the Latin exorcism rituals that they use a lot of the time in Supernatural and I attempted to translate them after completing Latin 2 last Spring. Now, I know some of the translation is wrong, but I'm pretty sure the Latin transcription I constructed is correct. Anyway, so I got this comment:

"Hi there! I'm Keith R.A. DeCandido, author of the Supernatural novel Nevermore, and I just wanted you to know that this post was IMMENSELY helpful in the writing of a particular scene in my upcoming second Supernatural novel Bone Key. Your name and blog URL are in the acknowledgments and everything. Thanks much!"

I don't know if this guy is serious or totally bs-ing me, but if he is... I'm just... totally blown away. *squeals*

~Rachael

Alexamenos Grafitto

I was looking for some nice vulgar grafitti from Pompeii, but I came upon a different kind of "vulgarity". Perhaps you have seen this elsewhere, it is very famous evidence for the reception of Christianity in 1st century Rome. This is the Alexamenos graffito (also known as the graffito blasfemo) inscribed on a wall near the Palatine hill in Rome. It is generally thought to be the earliest known pictorial representation of the crucifixion of Jesus. Apparently two slaves (or otherwise "lowly" individuals), one of which was Christian (the Alexamenos guy), got into a heated argument about the new faith, and the non-Christian put this up with the Greek words: "Alexamenos respects God." Greek was pretty much the second language spoken in Rome, but I don't recall any other Greek grafitti (I am sure there are, just not well-known ones). Tracy, I know this has very little to do with your original question, but I just wanted to share with you this famous evidence that predates even the earliest persecution of the Christians.---EM.

time line ?s

One of the reasons I decided to take Latin as my language was because of my interest in the health field. Right now, besides Latin and the courses in my major, Communication, I am taking 2 classes in the College of Public Health (my minor). Survey of Human Disease and Medical Terminology. In the Med Term class, it started with where the words come from... we all know Latin is a huge source as well as Greek, French, Old English, and many other languages. Latin and Greek seem to be where the majority come from, no surprise. It went on to say that it uses late, middle and new Latin as well as vulgar Latin.

My question is what is considered late...middle...new Latin? And what about Vulgar Latin? I think it would be very useful to be able to cuss in Latin! Gosh knows I've used a few English cuss words while doing my Latin homework. Maybe if I used a few Latin expletives I could more easily get into the Roman mindset.

Tracy

So... We all know that my favorite show is Supernatural on the CW, as I have oft posted of it before, right?... It's been on a cruel and drawn out hiatus since the beginning of December due to the Writers' Strike. But this next Thursday, it's back! 9pm. CW. Set your DVRs. (LOL! I know you won't, but I still think you should at least think about it.) This week's episode is called "Malleus Maleficarum" (which references this). So indeed, the Powers That Be of Supernatural love me; they made the episode title Latin (because up until two weeks ago, the published name of the episode was "Witch Hunt").

I was just sent an e-mail with a link to a video clip from the episode. No Latin in it. But I'm too excited not to post it everywhere I can, just because. So if you'll indulge my obsessions a moment:



If you watched it, but you don't watch the show, you might not have understood what was going on there because this clip was really random. That's okay. I just couldn't stop myself. I'm sure there will be some kind of Latin in this episode. There are evil-working black-magic-type witches who live in Massachusetts in it. It seems they've hexed Dean... And if I have anything to do about it, I will post clips of scenes with Latin in them sometime the week after next probably. Facere quod in se est and all that.

After two more new episodes, near the end of February, there will be another episode of Supernatural with a title in Latin. That one is "Jus In Bello." "Law In War," ne? And that will be the last new episode of Supernatural until the Writers' Strike ends. I'm sad about that, but excited to see it.

~Rachael

why latin is important

It is clear that many politicians never learned Latin while they were in school. If they did, maybe the future tense would not be such a difficulty for them:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=147534&title=bushs-future-tense

(i would suggest copy/paste...I really don't understand how to make links clickable, or how to make them play. Used to, I think, but not anymore!)
I find it hilarious that our prez can make such a blunder, in front of the army and on t.v. It reminds me of something I would do, trying to learn a foreign language, not really in speaking my native one.
-Stacy S.

My days of sanity are numbered...

My apologies for the hiedous pun (and for subjecting your brains to the following image). Again my manuscript class has a nice example of Latin as it pertains to what we're studying in Latin II: Roman Numerals! Check out this late 5th century chronicle leaf:



It's a page from a "complete" history of the world as assembled by St. Jerome. The Roman numerals on the page correspond to years (reckoned by referencing Abraham) and there are references to the goings-on in the classical world around that time.

What's really cool about these numbers is that every 4 instances of a year, you can see "OLYMP" which corresponds to the years in which the Olympics were held.

And I thought translating the exploits of Quintus was difficult...

I'm taking a course on Medieval Manuscipts and I just had to share this little exercept from the Vergilius Vaticanus:



Amazingly after staring at the text for a few minutes I was eventually able to tease out a few words here and there (I spy a "cyclopes" in the first line!) and after a few hours and many tears later, I managed to transcribe and partially translate this sucker.

I just want to take this moment to thank the editors of our textbook for providing spacing and punctuation...

~ Sara C.

Hey, Dr. M... As I'm sure you noticed, I totally missed class today. I overslept and by the time I got on campus it was 2:20. I was going to come by and talk to you after class was over, but then I realized you had class today until 5. I was just wondering what the homework was so I will be prepared for tomorrow. Thanks!

~Rachael

Very Helpful

Hello everyone! It's the start of a new semester which means new and exciting things in Latin. Being the dork that I am I found an awesome verb conjugation site. I am not sure if you all have heard of it but it's called Verbix. I found it extremely helpful for those really weird and frustrating verbs like esse, posse, ferre, etc. It gives a complete chart of the fully conjugated verb in every tense, mood, etc. It even gives gerunds and participles. I'm pasting the info below. I hope you find it as helpful as I do!\\

Verbix:

http://www.verbix.com/languages/latin.shtml


Anne