As previously mentioned, I want to focus upon a statistic first surfaced at the conclusion of my note explaining a data issue which messed up the analysis of my previous hundred books read. At that time I noted that at the then-current pace of 4.58 books per day I would need 106.5 years to complete …
Author Archives: mysterious6030
Music Methodology Migration
or, Minuscule Mind Misses Mark, Mixing Music Movies More, Must Ameliorate Material Maintenance I must rescind my previous note that I had listened to 110K iTunes items, as I have discovered methodological problems which can no longer go unchallenged. I found the problems — or rather, found the problems to be intractable — whilst preparing …
Friday Vocabulary
1. bema — platform for public speaking, esp. in ancient Athens Heady though it must have been to ascend to the bema, a new-formed philosopher assumed great responsibility when promulgating his doctrine, as the several prosecutions (and many more accusations) for corrupting the Athenian youth indicate. 2. prodromal — premonitory (symptom) The sufferer of …
Analysis: The 3rd Hundred Books
or, More Findings of No Ultimate Interest As I said last week, I have now read 300 books of my collection since I started tracking my reading back in June 2015. Now follows a shallow analysis of the books in this last hundred books, eschewing (mostly) reference to books in the “Comics & Graphic Novel” …
Peccavi: Not Actually 110,000 (was One Hundred and Ten Thousand Songs (110,000)) [UPDATED]
NOTE: Due to recent (6 April 2019) changes in methodology, we can no longer support the contention that we have listened to 110,000 iTune tracks. In addition, the use of the term “Songs” in the original title of this post was misleading. Details to come in a new post describing the underlying problems with the …
Friday Vocabulary
1. apostrophe — rhetorical figure wherein the speaker digresses and pointedly addresses some person or personified object But twenty-first century man has made hash of all rhetoric, and even Childe Harold’s apostrophe to the sea has been overtaken by modern humanity’s ability to pollute even the oceans themselves. 2. marge — margin And thus …
300 Books
This morning I finished my 300th book since I started tracking such data back in June of 2015. The book which pushed me over this milestone was the surprisingly good anthology 101 Famous Poems, originally published in 1958. (Hence my surprise.) This book had been sitting in the meditation chamber of my bedroom for some …
Friday Vocabulary
1. palestra — (ancient Greece) place devoted to public teaching and wrestling and athletics Epicurus knew well how divisive his teachings were and preferred to instruct his followers at his home, shunning outdoor schools such as the Academy where onlookers would kibitz as if at the palestra. 2. ataraxy — state of freedom from …
Friday Vocabulary
1. valetudinarian — person obsessively concerned with his or her poor health Their daughter caught what I call the valetudinarian disease, her parents worrying her so about any possible vector for germs in her environment that she seemed to have built up no resistance whatsoever to even the simplest illnesses, and thus she was always …
Friday Vocabulary
1. clepsydra — ancient timekeeping device using discharge of water to measure time; water-clock Like water through the clepsydra, so are the days of our lives. 2. frass — insect excrement The spider webs behind the appliances were spotted with frass that betrayed the unseen life forces which threatened the old homestead. 3. …