Oh yes, I'm a sinner!

Looks like I'll be joining nenar in the City of Dis. It must be the place for Classicists... us good ol' heretics.... ;) (And yes, I knew I'd get a high score for glutton! But how I got a high score for violent, I really don't understand; none of my answers indicated violent in any way shape or form. *sigh*)

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)	Moderate
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

Take the Dante Inferno Hell Test

Buffy Inscriptions

Just in case anybody's curious, ( Spoilery for Empty Spaces )

Ouch and all that jazz

OK, I now believe that acanthae are members of the thistle family. Despite their soft appearance when they flower, those flowers are each supported by a bract(? I think that's the word) which is surmounted by an incredibly sharp thorn. It drew blood. It was painful. "I put my hand in some soft bush, thinking the sweetest flower to find; I pricked my finger to the bone and left the sweetest flower behind...."

In other news, I am currently slightly radioactive. (Yay!) This is thanks to the radioactive oatmeal and orange juice that I consumed this morning. (Yay!) Last time it was a tuna sandwich, though, which was definitely tastier. This oatmeal gave a whole new meaning to the word 'gruel'. Anyway, the reason for this was a gastric emptying test. Unlike at UCLA, at Berkeley they let you lie down during the test. When I was examined at UCLA, I had a crashing codine headache which was making me incredibly nauseous, so I really could've done with not having to stand up every ten or so minutes for 1.5 hours in order that they could scan me. Today, on the other hand, I got to take a nap, while they scanned me continuously. :) Which leads me to why "Dancing Queen" is stuck in my head: at one of the points when I was half waking up from my semisomnolent state (OK, there're probably a few too many halves in there, and I'll leave Boyd to tell me what fraction I have thereby produced), the music in the background was "Dancing Queen." Which means that it not only registered, but got somehow hypnotically engrained in my brain. Or something. I actually found myself humming the song before I consciously figured out that's what the background music was. Damn them, why do they have to play ABBA? But, to be fair, it's far far far far far better than Britney Spears' "Oops I did it again," which was stuck in my head yesterday for some ungodly and equally unknown reason.

Right, time to go make my presence known on campus. Really. I'd much rather be sitting at FSM with my friends than sitting reading livejournal....

Meme-spreading

Given the obvious potential of livejournal for spreading memes, I thought I'd try to spread a couple of my own.

The first one, scorf, was really invented by friends of mine. But since they don't have livejournals (*cough*), I guess the responsibility falls to me.

Scorf: a useful term for referring to any of the assorted small citrus fruits which are related to oranges, such as tangerines, satsumas, etc. Originally, the term was derived as a slightly muddled acronym of "Small Round Orange Citrus Fruit," but was later given the back-derivation of "Satsuma, Clementine, Or Related Fruit," which is a generally pleasing false origin.

OK, I've now completely blanked on the other meme I wanted to spread. If I think of it, I'll edit this post. Anyway, go spread the meme! It is a good meme, and memes are good!

And, lastly, an amusing comment just made by a fellow classicist:

"With both computers and breathmints, the general trend is to make things smaller and smaller these days..." (- P.L.)

Delayed reaction: Excitement!

Anselm sent me a copy of Crusade, which arrived a couple days ago. This is not only intrinsically very cool, but it also has me in the acknowledgments, which is just a very strange and wonderful concept. Doubly happy because I thought it wouldn't be out until June, and this means I can have it and read it before skedaddling off to Europe this summer. (Though perhaps reading it at Carcasonne vel sim. would be more appropriate, I dunno. Just don't want to lose it!)

So now the trilogy is complete, which leaves Anselm with no excuse to flap about it. :)

Ooh, I had a thought! (Only one, though.)

"Empty Spaces" is, I'm almost certain, quoting from the Queen song "The Show Must Go On." (It's now been banging around my head without me quite noticing ever since we started saying the title out loud, in an attempt to get me to notice it. But having thought about it now in light of the episode's events, it makes lots of sense.) This may be already obvious to everyone else, but I've now come up with it too, so I'm feeling proud, and try to knock me down gently if you must. ;)

But the words of the song are so appropriate, I think it must be the case.

( Lyrics )

More meme-ing

Depending on whether I give my realistic dream job (teacher/professor) or my other dream job (singer), I come up with

( witch )

or

( elf )

respectively.

In other news, convinced P5 to run through Daemon tonight on the grounds that it's Walpurgisnacht (thanks, emidala!). But I don't think it makes up for the fact that I'm not in Oxford right now, and it's May morning, and I should be staying up all night and going to G&Ds and having random conversations about toggles and woggles and pressing through the crowded High Street in an attempt to get as close as possible to Magdalen Tower to listen to the choir singing madrigals. I can't believe how strange and remote that feels, when I've been doing exactly that for the last four years. No Morris dancers with traditional cake and bells on (the cake's not on them, they've got the cake), no trying to find somewhere serving breakfast that's not got eight million people waiting already to sit down, no laughing at random drunk students wandering hazily through the streets in somewhat dishevelled black-tie. No !Paul in his multicolored dressing gown. Now I'm just getting morose, so I think I'd best stop writing this entry and post it.

OK, wow. They actually had apathetic as a mood! I was going to type it in. Given the last part of the post, though, possibly 'gloomy' would be more accurate.