Twilight series vampire topoi (WARNING - SPOILERS).

One of my friends pointed out after seeing "Van Helsing" a few years ago that a new topos in vampire mythology is that werewolves and vampires hate each other - a theme that emerges in the Underworld series, I believe, and definitely also in (the latter three books of the) Twilight series.



Also something that's coming up is vampires causing pregnancies - it happened in Angel with Darla (can't remember the ins and outs of that one, though), in "Van Helsing" (drac and his wife have tons of sex, but since they're vampires, the babies are always born dead), and then in Twilight (Bella's pregnant by Edward in "Breaking Dawn", and the babies something monstrous, but I haven't gotten to the actual birth scene yet).

Shorts.

The other day I was wearing my navy blue polo shirt and my white shorts with small navy blue stripes on them, and midway through my day at school I look down, and there on the left outside pantleg of my shorts is all this black spots, almost like from ink (but the pen in my bag was not leaking).

Bike pedal.

So, about that bike pedal -

On Monday I was going to a bbq like a 30-min. bike ride north of me with 5 cobs of corn and 2 tall PBRs in my backpack, and I was stopped in the righthand lane of the intersection at a light about halfway there, and when I pushed down on the right pedal to go when the light change, it broke off and my foot hit the pavement.

So, I immediately pulled over and took a look at the pedal (it was fucked), and then I biked my one-pedalled bike all the way the rest of the way (it took an extra 10 minutes), pushing down the good pedal and then when it was at the bottom using my other foot to push the stub where the other pedal was down s other so the good pedal rose up again so I could push it down and bike.

After the bbq, I got a ride home with a friend who had a truck, and I so I threw my (broken) bike back there.

2 things I've learned...

2 things I've learned this past year that I really don't like are -

1) Open mike-style guitar-and-someone-singing music.

I never thought about it, but I started to avoid it when a friend invited me to his performance.

2) Open air music festivals on temporary stages.

The sound systems suck, there's usually too many people, and then there's the whole consumerist atmosphere of the larger festival (shit to buy that no one needs, food on disposable plates, etc. - which, though, I already knew that I hated). The other night I was going to go see George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars play at a local festival where there was $15 admission day-of, but I was at a bbq further north and my bike pedal had broken off and my friend who I was going to go with decided not to go since a friend of hers she hadn't seen in a while was coming through town briefly and randomly and they were going to go grab dinner, and I decided to stay at the bbq and not go by myself, and that made me realize that if the same band was playing only in a different place, I would be there in a heartbeat, and the difference was the place.

'Si', se puedo discuebrer la etimolojia.

I've always wondered where the Spanish "si" for 'yes' comes from, and then the other day I came across the name of Peter Abelard's major work, the Sic et Non ("The Yes and No"), a list of propositions from different respected authorities that he set out for students to harmonize.

As I understand it, while in classical latin you used to repeat the main verb of the sentence to say 'yes' -- i.e., if someone asks you 'are you going?', you say 'i am going' -- in Medieval Latin the word "sic" ('In that way'/'thus') took over the function of 'Yes', and from it we get Spanish 'si'.

Addendum.

I also find it a little bit depressing that kingdoms can last for 200+ years, and all you have to know about them is the name of the major dynasty.

Most people from history you only know one thing about, too, like "Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire and founded Alexandria." Isn't it said that people who are whole people and are so much more than one thing they did are collapsed into one sentence, if that?

Studying History.

This is how I've been finding out I study history effectively -

1) Know how to identify what's descriptive language, and what's evaluative, and then how to describe accurately and how to think about what sources to look at to question the story being presented...

2) Identify key narrative arcs and the events/people/dates that tie them together, e.g. Muslims entered the Spanish peninsula in 711/712 and Charles Martel is important since he represents turning them back in 732, and he also represents the ascension of the Carolingian line, which culminates with Charlemagne being crowned emperor in 800.

3a) Go into in-depth historical studies only you have the basic outlines firmed up, and always think about how they question/modify/confirm/retool the big narrative arcs.

3b) When you read primary texts from a period, always ask, "What is the greater historical context and how do I see it surface in this text?". So many times, texts can be 'a peg to hang a fact on', e.g. the Benedictine Rule can show you what kind of stuff monks would read and why they read it in their mention of worthwhile books; and, anyhow, when you go on to teach a primary text in class, that's the one thing you have to always bring up, context context context, as you try to help students figure out the thoughtworld of the text.

My debit card expired.

I went to use my debit card at the bank the other day, and it was expired as of the 1st day of September. Now I'll have to go get a new one.