how sad, and yet true

(This quiz is also from Amy, who has a new (I take it, Mac) computer.)

I am not thrilled with this result. On the other hand, realistically thinking about myself, I might be described fairly as a “protocol robot”.
Oh, well. Maybe I will rebel next week.

Your result for The Star Wars Personality Test…

Threepio

You scored 38% airiness, 84% squishiness, and 53% edginess!

According to our patented Jawamatic^TM technology, you are most like See-Threepio (C-3P0) in personality.

Threepio, being a protocol droid, favours traditional values. Programmed for etiquette and protocol, he is always concerned with doing what is proper and expected, caring for people’s material needs above all else. He is methodical, value-driven and practical at his best.

Threepio is, in a word, diligent.

(The polar opposite of See-Threepio is Artoo-Detoo.)

The eight profiles are as follows:

• Han Solo
• Yoda
• Chewbacca
• Threepio
• Artoo
• Darth Vader
• Luke Skywalker
• Princess Leia

Take The Star Wars Personality Test at OkCupid

Thank you, Amy

“The beauty of the world has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder.” [Virginia Woolf]

Ain’t it the truth? One of my two virtual friends from the midwest posted this.

I had a really good laugh this week, and realized how long it has been. As I was laughing, I was observing this, and I let myself laugh long and loud, filling the air with HA HA HA HA and hee hee hee hee.

I am sorry Virginia Woolf saw so much anguish as to want to die. I want to take away from her example the thought that sometimes you just have to step back from the edge of the river.

The Great Quillow

The Great Quillow is a book for children by James Thurber, illustrated by Doris Lee. We had a copy in our house when I was growing up. It is about a town tormented by a giant and saved by the town’s toymaker. It’s one of those stories in which an eccentric and ingenious old man, beloved by children because he makes toys for them, is wise enough to think of an eccentric plan that requires cooperation and preparation, but which works.
I have wanted this book for a while, and even ordered it from Amazon, only to discover that it did not have the illustrations by Doris Lee. I finally found it on ebay and it came today. Here is the illustration that I really needed:

That is Quillow. Isn’t he lovely?

not my best ever

I finished a watercolor yesterday. It’s not my best, in the sense that I am not overjoyed at how it came out. It’s okay.
I think I need to keep drawing, to keep up the pressure on myself to make pictures.
I am not in a midlife crisis, but I am in mid-life. I have done some things and not others, and I have “passed” on some opportunities I might have had. I am very sad about some things that have happened (example: my brother’s death), and very glad about others.
This is the time of year when the days are short, reminding us of the shortness of the time we have to be here in this life. It will soon be over. I said to Paolo the other day, “Life is an expansion of perception.” This naturally left him a bit perplexed. I explained that ten minutes can be very, very long or we can slip through and wonder how we got to ten minutes later. The sensation of a lifetime, of all of a lifetime, is an expansion of the perception of time.
Why do I need to keep drawing? Because I can do something that I think is okay. And I need to be able to do something that is okay, just okay, and be all right with that. I get a lot of gratification about my pictures from my family and friends, just as I get a lot of gratification from my students about the kind of teacher I am, but dealing with myself is not always that easy. The times I can say to myself that something I have done is okay are not so many. And the times I can accept a result that I consider to be “okay” are even fewer. And that second part is my honorable project.
Here is my okay picture:

I ask myself which one was my best ever. Quite often, the answer is this one:

Maybe I like it because it’s Alder Brook. Several of you will understand.

not an academic

I went down to the uni today to see a younger colleague talk in a conference she had organized. She did a very good job, as usual, and her English is always very impressive.
Three things struck me: going into a room filled with my students, who all say hello and smile is gratifying, and also the sincere thanks from one of them for talking to her about her problems about six months ago. Also, I am struck by the fact taht I am old enough now that I can speak up and say something intelligent (that IS the classroom where I am usually the boss of 25-75 people, so I ought to be able to speak up in it), together with the fact that speaking up like that makes me have muscular spasms all along my back. And, finally, I am struck by the conclusion that I REALLY don’t mind that I never became an academic, in the sense of being a person who does research and publishes it and gives talks about it at conferences. I really, really don’t mind not having done that.

Good thing. It’s way too late now.

the swine flu pandemic is much milder than expected

swine flu pandemic milder than expected: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121184706&ft=1&f=1001
I think we knew this, but it’s always nice to get confirmation. Here in Italy we get alarming and reassuring accounts on alternate days, depending on whether they are trying to get us all vaccinated or trying to make us still love our elected officials in spite of the fact that they are total dooooshbags. They really can’t decide between inciting hope that they can save us and instilling gratitutude that the world is a safe and lovely place.
You see, they bought all that vaccine with something called squaline in it (which sounds like “squalo” = “shark”), and people are scared to get vaccinated. This is the first time many people have thought on a broad scale about things being added to vaccines to make them more effective, or about drug testing in general, and everything they hear scares them. Plus, doctors and nurses are refusing to get vaccinated, and the Minister of public instruction, who is a very public figure, and is pregnant, has refused to get vaccinated. The people who decided to buy all that vaccine are really between a rock and a hard place.

when you fill Piazza San Giovanni, it’s a million people

They say that when a demonstration can fill Piazza San Giovanni, it’s a million people.
I didn’t go to Rome today to protest against Berlusconi on No-B Day, although I do think he is “the” problem, together with organized crime, in Italy today. I do not do well in crowds, and fortunately, today there was quite a crowded situation. My husband and his sister and some of our friends went, and they said that Piazza San Giovanni was full.
The police said there were only 90,000 people. How can two groups be in disagreement on a factor of ten? That’s Italy, for sure, and Berlusconi will surely try to bury this event from public view.
But it was an amazing demonstration. No official representatives of political parties were allowed on the stage. The color purple was the color of the demonstration, since it isn’t the color of any political party.
It was a very purple demonstration. Here is a photo from Ansa:

And here are two cuties from the Corriere della Sera website:

I heart wikipedia, again

Only Wikipedia can tell me, quickly, the reasoning behind the word “soprintendenza” in Italian bureaucracy, and the fact that exhibit and exhibition have two different meanings in British English, but not in US English, which is why it was news to me. The exhibit is the individual work of art, whereas the exhibition is the whole set of works on display.
Who knew?
I love translating. It teaches me so many odd things.

plus and minus

plus: I see an airplane flying out of the the Capodichino airport and wish I were flying somewhere. You have no idea how big this is, unless you have flown somewhere with me.
minus: slight headache, slight cold feeling in my body, slight snot in my nose tells me I may be about to pay my dues in the flu season.
I thought my daughter was quoting someone as saying “Got a kinaysha?”, but it was about echina…. however the f* that is spelled, coneflower that heals what ails you. I should go find it and take it, but I’ll probably take a nap instead. Going out for pizza tonight.

’tis the season

Here are this year’s terracotta “village people” for my family in the US. They took off this morning.

The post office was relatively painless. Lots of people sighing and whining, but aren’t there always, at the post office, anywhere?

We are having great weather, after a rainstorm that cleared the pollution away, at least for a short time. It will rain again in the next few days, so that should help. Yesterday there was a lovely sunset. I didn’t go outside for it, but observed from here:

I have a bit of translation going on, and the correction of a long poem about Galahad, which really communicates less than nothing to me. I have been dealing with family some bureaucratic junk, also. And I set up the exam booking system for our students. I started doing this last winter, and it works pretty well now. On the day of the exams we have a list of the people who are expected to come. This may sound like something you would have, but it never was before. It makes us look more organized than we really are, and a professional appearance goes a long way.
I feel that I don’t know my goals. I think they are changing. One goal that I did do something about was to paint, and I did finish two watercolors that I like.
I think I will take a walk, once I deal with this other errand that I have to deal with. I don’t want to mess with my ankle, since it seems to be delicate still, but I also don’t want all my walking to be walking to work. That is just too sad.