Random File Time

Back in the innocent days when I began this blog, I would sometimes post random files from the neglected scrap heap that is my "My Documents" folder.

Older and wiser, but still hoping for some good,-old-fashioned public humiliation, I will thus try the experiment again.

[Clay picks the file. He purses his lips.]

Hmm. The document seems to be from my sophomore year of college. It's a translation from my second-year Latin class. I have no idea if it's my translation or transcribed from somewhere. It's from the Aeneid, I think. Or it could be from some Latin workbook.

Whatever the case, it's full of multisyllabic, myth-laden names. "Enjoy."

I.

Greece waged war against Troy;
The tenth year they took Troy prisoner.
Many Trojans fled from Asia,
After many labors they came into Italy:
Of these the leader is Aeneas, son of Veneris.
There the Trojans disembarked,
And plundered cattle from the fields.
Latinus, king of those lands, joined battle with the Trojan troops:
By battle Aeneas is victorious, and makes peace:
Then he gives his daughter Lavinium to Aeneas in marriage.
The Trojans found a city:
Aeneas calls it after the name of his wife, Lavinium.

II.

After the death of Aeneas, Ascanius the son ruled.
This man relinquished to his mother Lavinium, rich city;
This town was named Abla Longa.
After the death of Ascanius, Silvius ruled.
After Silvium, many kings ruled.
At great length, Procas was made king,
The father of Numitori and Amulius.
Numitori, who was eldest, was chosen King by Procas.

III.

Twin sons, it is said, were to Reae Silvia and the god Mars.
Amulius, angry and alarmed, orders Silvia to be bound,
And the infants to be thrown into the river.
By chance the river flooded its banks:
And so men were not able to approach the river.
They arranged to expose the infants in the nearest pool.
A basket, in which the infants were exposed,
Floated hither and thither.
Soon, nevertheless, the river receded within its banks,
And the basket was left on the dry bank.
After that, a thirsty wolf approached form the hills,
And heard the crying of the twins.
The wolf approached and the infants suckled,
She licking them with her tongue.
Faustulus, master of the royal stock,
Found the wolf with the infants.
Faustulus brings them home
And gives them to his wife Larentiae.
Thus the twins were raised by shepherds.

Brace Yourselves

I've started an alarming new trend with my diary.

I'm not writing it in cursive anymore. Print all the way, babe.

More on this exciting information as it develops, Chuck.

Diet Pepsi Ingredient of the Day

Phosphoric acid.

Milestone of Sorts

My other blog, Verse A Day, hit the three-month mark yesterday. I'm proud of the little booger. I didn't expect it to do much of anything, but the site has become part of my daily routine. I look through my notebooks for some lines to revise and post, or I go into a deep creative funk and produce a poem on the spot.

Whatever the case, there really is a verse a day up there. OK, so a few times I've been on the wrong side of midnight. But the poems are all there and mostly on time.

My task right now is printing out those poems and taking a critical look at them, with an eye toward sending them somewhere or to someone. What happens after that depends on where or to whom they're sent. I could twist my grammar into even tighter knots, but I guess I'll ahead while I'm quit.

Mr. Dylan Also Sez:

"One look at you
And I'm out of control.
Like the universe
Has swallowed me whole."

Mr. Dylan Sez:

"You may be a state trooper
You might be a young Turk
You might be the head of some big TV network"

But he says you're still going to have to serve somebody. Hmm.

Where Are We Now?

Three days since the last entry to this blog, that's where.

So what have I been doing?

Going back to work. The week off whizzed by, but once I returned to the office, it felt as though I'd been gone for months. Seeing folks nearly every day creates a certain workplace intimacy. You've all been through the same heckish days and have horror stories aplenty to share.

But I was gone. And I didn't know the stories. I'm having to learn the new ones.