My mother's current away message sounds like one that should come from a teenager: "So this then is the challenge: when do we have sufficient distance to witness patterns, to be outside the picture; & when are we swept away in illusion to exist only in the here & now?" And she had an emotionally intense conversation with Will that got her all frustrated- about the same subject that I've been listening to and getting frustrated with for the last 4 years. Go figure.

Today was another busy day, but after my first 2 less than successful attempts, I managed to get to the Student Union when there were actually people there, so my posters for BORG are slowly getting up on campus.

More excitingly, I found out that Professor Davidson is just as much (or more) of an arabic grammar fiend (well, enjoyer of) as I am. She finally cleared up my question about whether a predicate following /kaena/ (imagine the a and e there are joined to be an IPA symbol as in "can") (that's the very "to be") takes an /u/ (a damma) or an /a/ (a fatHa). The answer is the latter, which seems odd from Latin-based grammar, since in a noun-sentence it takes a damma, and in English, it's not considered a direct object. But in Arabic it is, because the verb "to be" isn't any different from other verbs, when it's used. Having an explanation for this makes me much happier- but Mom's book on different languages is wrong: it suggested that the answer was the opposite. But as Professor Davidson and Franck agree, I'll go with them. *Babble about Arabic over*.

My trip to the library was both particularly triumphant today, and also a bit weird. The triumphant part was that I actually found the books I needed this time (Ok, they were in Judaica Reference, but still- it happens rarely enough with me and that library, with the exception of parts of the Mezanine and the Creative Arts library- which explains why I try to do papers that keep me in those areas, and why I run up and down the library stairs so often). The weird part was that while I was copying my scholarly commentaries on Zechariah 5:5-11 for my paper for Professor Wright, this guy came up to me, starts talkign to me (ok, not So strange thus far), but seems really either not entirely with it (drugs? psych stuff?) or not bright enough to be in college. He didn't seem like he was quite hearing me all the time, and inserted random obsenities in a very casual meaningless way, which always annoys me. It was kind of odd. He wanted me to come help him with his psych 1a studying. SO I tried to help him use his textbook and other resources, but it was like he wasn't hearing me, so I carefully got myself away. But the experience was spooky.

From: [identity profile] shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com


Am I understanding correctly, then, that direct object nouns take on a fatha in Arabic? I haven't been keeping up with the language nearly enough for that to be useful, but one never knows when useless information may come in handy.

Maybe we need to get you some creepy psych student repellent. Does it come an aerosol cans?

From: [identity profile] debka-notion.livejournal.com

Re:


You do indeed understand correctly. Furthermore, subjects take a damma, and gerunds and prepositions take a kasra. You now know the basics of the full declension systems.

Aerosol isn't so good for teh environment, and it's awkward to carry around- does creepy psych student repellent come in regular pump sprays?

From: [identity profile] shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com

Re:


Most aerosol sprays made in the US don't use CFCs anymore. I think it may be an EPA requirement or something. I'll see if I can find a pump spray. Actually, have you tried Skin So Soft? It repels insects, and Terri's grandfather invented it.

From: [identity profile] debka-notion.livejournal.com

Re:


Hmm- that's reassuring, but I guess I'm still paranoid about them, possibly since I don't know if I've ever used an aerosol spray in my life. I'll have to try the skin thing, given its qualifications- but I don't know if it would work on creepy psych students: they're a lot bigger than insects, and for all I know might have a stuffed nose.
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