Tv Ne Cede Malis Sed Contra Avdentior Ito

Rohrbacher wrote a comment on one of my drafts in the pietas section about one of the Ross quotations I used. The quotation is: "We must keep in mind, as we encounter the 'pious' hero, that there is nothing in the Roman concept that suggests religious or spiritual devotion, no sense of moral or ethical rightness. Pietas means 'duty,' plain and simple" (Ross 79). Rohrbacher's comment is: Boy, this seems a little strong, don't you think--no sense of moral rightness to be pius?

I'm not sure what to do with this. First, I don't know whether or not I agree with Ross' statement fully. So for myself I'm not sure how to respond to Rohrbacher. And from a slightly different angle, just because it's strong does not necessarily make it bad. Rohrbacher does not have to agree with everything I say. To me, doing your duty may be a matter of "rightness"--in other words, it is morally good to be dutiful, but the process of being dutiful and the duty you owe someone is not necessarily morally upright. Example: respecting your parents is morally a good thing, but if you owe obedience to your family and your dad tells you to beat your younger brother, that is not morally right.

So, is Ross oversimplifying? Possibly. But I don't know how to handle that. That's all.

Thinking.

I woke up a few minutes closer to my goal time yesterday morning. Aedan and I made coffee, which was delicious. I puttered and tootled and (I think) did Sudoku for a while until Latin. On my way across campus I swung into Ham Center (Hamilton Student Center, for those unfamiliar with Novo Collegiate nameology) and I had a package slip. Since I had the time, and I figured it was the box from Mom, I stopped in at Central Receiving. Have I mentioned how awesome it is to have it in Palmer A instead of still over by the bookstore?

( Cut Because You Don't Care )

Today's been super blah. The sun hasn't peeked out from the clouds at all. I woke up at the time I've been getting up (8.45ish) and went back to sleep only to wake up again about an hour later. I got up for a moment, but ended up feeling sleepy and went back to bed. Aedan's movements in the common room woke me, and we made coffee. Unfortunately we chose the creme brulee flavor. It smelled weird, and when I tasted it it was weird. So that didn't really get consumed. I haven't done much today. I made a brief attempt to do some readings on the Aeneid, but I was just like: "oh, look at that" and it wasn't very productive. The rain has been awesome, mostly because of the thunder. That will never get old to me. Thunder is always great. The only things I've done, really, were to make a brief Marriot (i.e. Ham Center food services, again for the uninitiated) run with Suki and Paul and then again to take Paul to X to drop off another book.

Paul proposed a 4th edition one-shot D&D game in the near future. I volunteered to play a hexblade character along with Aedan, so that Paul can test his stats. I'm looking forward to playing a new character.

( Why does Liu Bei have the villain hair? He looks seriously scary. The very fabric of the universe is being twisted. Gasp! )

I was going to say more, but I ended up talking to Mom and Dad on the phone instead. Sucks for you.

I had some great idea for Gato icons. I need to fix photoshop. Loves.

I met with Rohrbacher earlier today. I was a little nervous, even though the tone of his email was not scary at all. It went pretty well, I thought. He was concerned about the short time frame, but other than that he seemed positive. Hooray!

It is hot. I killed a spider. I have a customized Prince of Tennis mood theme. Woot. I am doing pretty well. I had a bagel for breakfast. It was so good. I love bagels. I have some more cleaning and organizing to do, but not too much. I figure most of the rest of it can happen as I go, but I do need to put some clothes and such away.

Jesse might not go underway tomorrow, which I would like. I like being able to talk to Jesse. I miss him. I don't even know how to say how much I miss him. I say it so much that it starts to lose meaning.

I also miss the puppies. All warm and little and cuddly. But Jesse says they're peeing at the drop of a hat now, so maybe I left at a good time. On the other hand, I would've liked to watch Sheets and Finnegan grow into dogs and see if maybe I'm less scared of them. I hope Heather doesn't let Justin have a puppy. Shmuck doesn't deserve one.

Oh, I have giant post-its. Win.

(P.S. Look at Dan being all cheerful. Awww.)

I came across some random quotes and stuff in my notebook, as well as some that I had forgotten to post. Yays. Oh, not all of them are funny, though.

( witty cut here )

John Moore (x-posted to john_moore_says):

"Buy Miller's beer. It makes you drunk!"

"Language is adjusted by them to make it easier to sell the absurd."

"Isn't it funny how nobody quotes god...and when they do, it's scoundrels like myself, atheists using it as literature. And when they do, nobody gets it!"

"That's what I do, I try to create people with whom I can have a conversation."

"You could be prime minister of Germany, or you could be shot!"

David Rohrbacher:

"We're laughing about it 'cause we're immature."

"I don't think she [Aphrodite] came down in a flapping penis-mobile." (on the Latin penis/sparrow euphemism)

"I dunno, here's a gorilla."

"[Olisboi] pop up a lot...Let's say more than the word 'dildo' in the collected works of John Milton."

"Well, I guess we can talk about penises now."

"Things that are small and delicate are prettier than things that are big and...dangly."

"You can't say 'the penis got stuck in the vagina' so you say 'the banana got stuck in the tail pipe'."

"...medieval Ugandan sex..."

ROHRBACHERISMS!

"What if Socrates is his [Aristophanes] soul mate? That would be kind of an eight-limbed monster that would be fun to hang around."

"I am your slave. I'll do anything for you. Please step on my body."

"Couldn't sex be good even if it didn't help you with your trigonometry homework?"

"I want you to be moral when you grow up, let me do this action to you. It'll help the state, let me touch that."

ALSO, from Christina and Chris the other night: "Don't insult the vagina washers!"
"Is there a personal story behind that?"

YAY!

Ok, just stumbled across these. Wish I had the quote about the Athenian-style democratic state of Rohrbacherstan, but I don't. Oh well.

"Item #9000 in why the ancients were cooler than we are: None of our storage devices have naked men driving a sharpened, burning stake into someone's eye."

"Soon we're just going to be hopping on one leg...a nation of pogo-sticks."

"Technically speaking, I do in fact lack a horse."

"No, you're guilty you sleazy vegetarian."

That's all the Rohrbacher you get until next semester, so relish while you can!

John Moore-style Silly: "This is where it went wrong. Right here! Fundamentalism creeping RIGHT IN!"

"Outside the wall with you. But first--put some clothes on! [...] Who told you you were naked? God hates knowledge in humans. [laughs] [...] Wouldn't it have been fun not to know that you were naked?"

David Rohrbacher-style Silly: "It's like a hidden identity. Declensional man!"

"No smoking food, You can have as much food as you want, as long as it's not ACTUALLY on fire."

"Catalina is like the name of a salad dressing [...] and it's a pink one."

"This cigarette tastes fine, but it hasn't conquered anyone." (about "veni vidi vici" being printed on packs of Marlboro cigarettes).

(as the cigarette) "I've conquered you! Now you're hooked on nicotine and must smoke me forever!"

Dan Cotter-style Silly: "I was camping outside of Fresno with a bunch of Australian ninjas..."


(P.S. Ohhh, the icon goodness.)