GYTHERRR?

Bent spectacles. Only slightly, but they don’t grip my head properly any more. Outstanding. The people at the place have a thing they can do things with, though, so that’ll work out as it inevitably will.

Speaking of things that worked out as they inevitably will, we have one of these ‘coalition governments’ that are so popular EVERYWHERE ELSE IN EUROPE. I myself was so refreshed not to have Mr Brown as PM that I didn’t bat an eyelid when Mankar Camera-on stepped into his shoes.

I’m not totally happy with the coalition agreement. For one thing, the Lib Dems have agreed not to vote against Trident, and have also accepted a referendum on electoral reform. Good old non-binding glorified opinion polls. Who knows, maybe the Cons will honour public opinion. Of course, if public opinion is wrong then they shouldn’t. Because that would mean democracy is stupid. They have agreed to restore certain civil liberties, such as the right to protest and they’ve promised to expand the remit of the Freedom of Information Act. I haven’t seen any mention of the Digital Economy bill, but since both the Tories and the Lib Dems were keen to point out how rash and hasty was the passing of said bill, I’m sure a review of it will be considered and placed on the long-term schedule, eventually.

We’re back in Birmingham now, but it was lovely to have had a fortnight at home. We didn’t get much time to spend with folks such as Robin and Graeme, and the Paranoia game never happened, but it was nice simply to be back. Now the thesis proceeds in earnest, with my first mini-deadline… sleepline? Anyway, in a couple of weeks. That’s fine. I probably should have done more while at home but on the other hand I’d rather have spent that time being At Home and then have a bit more pressure in the next couple of weeks than have been working so hard I may as well have been in Birmingham anyway.

Quelle excitement! Amy and I both received our Discworld Convention stuff! Although I didn’t see any actual tickets or confirmations of membership or anything like that, other than a letter saying “You’re a member, cheers” which isn’t official enough for me. I hope that Mr Pratchett makes an appearance; it would make my year to meet him, even if he isn’t signing books. It would make my year to be in the same room as him. I’m not usually a devotee to people, and I’m normally quite capable of enjoying someone’s work without becoming a moron at the thought of meeting them, but Terry Pratchett has had such a formative role in my life that I feel as though I owe him my identity, to an extent. After one has read a few of his books, one begins to think in a particular way about the world. I am very grateful to Emily for introducing me to Discworld, because I know it’s had a similar effect on her and it’s one of the many things we have shared, and continue to share. We even share the memory of a quite bad production of Maskerade which was not all that bad, but featured ‘Gytherrr’ among its sins.

I have missed role-play while I was away. Two sessions of Paranoia and one of Vampire, and I’m especially irritated about the latter because apparently Shit Went Down, one of the results of which is that Izzy’s character is now Prince. Not bad. Not bad at all. She’d better not fucking kill me this time. No grudges, Izzeh. No grudges. Sniff.

Not too long to go until the Latin school down in Somerset, so I’m keen to brush up. I’ve been patiently scribing all of the vocabulary we should have learned this year, and hoping that it’s all going in because with everything else I don’t have much time to actively absorb it. By the way, note how I am still splitting my infinitives. That, dear children, is because English doesn’t have an infinitive. Latin does. Greek does. French and German and Italian and probably every other language does. We don’t, so get over it. We have two words, and the thing about two words is that sometimes people like to put things into the middle of them. So there I draw the line. I’ll use ‘will’ and ‘shall’ wherever I remember to do so, I’ll use who/whom, I/me, he/him &c as correctly as I am able (note &c, also; I’m growing fond of the little bugger), but I’m not going to bother about a ridiculous Victorian convention of trying to make English seem More Classical by agreeing that we do really have an infinitive, yes, and should treat it as such.

That was a bizarre sort of rant.

Part of the brushing up is a meeting of some of the Latin chaps to pick through Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis, although I think that Lapis Philosophi sounds better and is probably more in keeping with classical word order. It’ll be far too super cool. Seriously. Speaking of super cool, I’m currently wearing a cord around my neck from which is hanging a small cage, in which is a D20. Clearly I’m trés chic.

Amy and I went to Oxburgh Hall last week, which was good fun. The downside to this not being the Child Season is that there are no cool musket people and such. And of course the National Trust (and Tussaud is very much the same in this regard) do not seem to understand that YES I, AN ADULT, WOULD LIKE TO TRY ON PERIOD COSTUME, THANK YOU. There was a Sherlock Holmes hat at Warwick Castle, though, so that was okay.

Mmph. Bed and such. Everybody must send Amy the good luck thoughts, for she begins her new job tomorrow and it is our duty to wish her well.

PS: I worked out that the motto of Hogwarts, Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus means “the sleeping dragon  is never about be tickled” OR, perhaps more humorously, “the dragon that never sleeps is about to be tickled”, or even better, though far less likely because of word-order, “the dragon that is about to be tickled is never sleeping”. I’m pretty sure that’s correct, but everyone on the internet seems to think that it does mean ‘never tickle a sleeping dragon’. I submit that in fact it would be ‘noli titillare draconem dormientem’, because that’s an imperative instead of the indicative original, but I invite a discussion on the subject with someone more knowledgeable. Seriously, it mystifies me that the given translation predominates, and I presume that there’s some nuance that I have not yet been taught.