In Irish class last night we saw a video about Irish Television. It is interesting to see how new Irish words are formed to deal with 21st century life. In modern Irish the term for “soap opera” is sobalchlár, literally “foam program”.
I have been reading Seán O’Fáolin’s The Great O’Neill: A Biography of Hugh O’Neill Earl of Tyrone, 1550-1616. Hugh O’Neill led the last and greatest Irish revolt against Queen Elizabeth of England. Continue reading
haddayr and I were pleased to see two of our friends from our Irish Class stop by colgaffneyis camp. We introduced them and showed them around. c_nocturnum showed one of them how to wear a greatkilt, and bullettheblue sold him a bonnet that twolodge had made.
Another visitor was a computer consultant I know from work and his wife. Recognition was delayed a second because of unfamiliar dress: I had never seen him in shorts and T-shirt, and he had never seen me in a kilt. One of those “he looks familiar…” moments, then I recognized the corporate logo on his shirt.
I also saw one of my Carleton folk dance connections, who came by with his wife and child. He works for the college now, but Farmington is at least as easy to reach from Northfield as from the Cities.
Out every evening ….
Monday — Irish Class
Tuesday — Loading colgaffneyis trailer, and a belated birthday dinner. See here
Wednesday — colgaffneyis Dance Guild. Also begin packing for the weekend.
Thursday — Set up colgaffneyis camp at the Minnesota Scottish Fair.
Friday — Go to the Fair. Dinner there and camping out for the night.
Saturday (All day) — The fair itself. The weather should be much better than last year.
I spent my lunch hour at the Hennepin County Law Library. Not for any legal business–I brought some of my Irish books and notes there to prepare for tonight’s class. If I had stayed at my desk somebody would have interrupted me. It was pleasant and productive. I like libraries.
I was looking at the back cover of A Learner’s Guide to Irish, by Donna Wong. At the end of the usual blurb about the author I read this:
Her publications include articles about early and Modern Irish literature and Táin Rúttapaca Cuailnge, a creative and health-conscious retelling of Táin Bó Cuailnge.
Bó is “cow” in Irish.
We are watching An Grá Faoi Ghlas in my Monday night Irish class. We saw Mír a Deich (Part 10) last night.
There was nothing like this in my High School German or College Russian classes :-)>
Left work early with a bad cold, and am missing Irish Class tonight. I feel bad about that. I have missed two classes this April, while I only missed one in the previous year. But I have no energy, and I certainly do not want anyone else in my class to catch my cold.
No energy–other good things about Charles City which I want to mention, but deserve more discussion than I can manage now …The crossbow with the purpleheart stock in the SCA camp….the woodworker there who, like me, is a disciple of St. Roy (but he is far more advanced)….The trebuchet….the nuns with the Irish Gaelic Prayers (mia_mcdavid can say more about them).
So I get home from Irish Class at 9:20 PM and check my e-mail. I am being reamed out for restoring a database from the wrong time….Well the right time did not exist. The database at that time was gone. That is why we have backups. If they want more up to date backups, they need to pay for more up to date backups. TANSTAAFL.
With that in mind, I went ahead with tonight’s tasks. These went as planned (in fact, faster) and my employer’s web site was back up quickly. I am feeling a little bit better after the e-mail conversation with the colleague who was doing her part in the night’s work: She was cordial and appreciative.
I had my Blackberry at Irish Class and could have checked it there. I am glad I did not. I was not properly prepared and felt like a compleat idiot several times (my mind totally blanked on irregular verbs), but I still came out of it in a good mood. It would have been a shame to let work spoil it.
From Hilbert Space to Dilbert Space, and beyond 