Blogging Changes

I’ll be posting less about news and politics, and perhaps more about some of my obscure and ever-changing interests, which this month happen to be ships of World War Two and learning ancient Greek.

As far as current events go, I remain interested in reading about them, but I no longer have any great certainty about, for example, what we should do in Iraq or which candidate we should elect in 2008. Blogging, like any public commentary, calls for some element of advocacy. Or one could be a neutral aggregator of eclectic news of interest. Maybe I’ll do some of that.

But slogging away on news and politics, opining on Iraq, debating torture & immigration, castigating the “other side” of the political aisle for what they said or didn’t say about matters like the commutation of Scooter Libby’s sentence, at this juncture, has lost much of its appeal. Being disappointed in the Bush administration and by the events in Iraq, and being duly chastened for having been so completely wrong about such issues in the past, is a big part of this.

I greatly appreciate the interest and readership and comments by all of you, and while I wholly subscribe to “it’s my blog, not yours,” it seems that a brief explanation is in order, before a such a change in focus.

So, if you suddenly see unfinished translations of Xenophon’s Anabasis in here, that’s the explanation.

Comments

  1. Dreggas wrote:

    It’s all good Commie, and who says some of us aren’t interested in WWII ships etc.?

    Posted 03 Jul 2007 at 11:10 am

  2. BloodSpite wrote:

    That will actually rock.

    Count me game ;)

    Posted 03 Jul 2007 at 11:22 am

  3. Grim wrote:

    I think I’ll like it well, too.

    Posted 03 Jul 2007 at 11:50 am

  4. rho wrote:

    Why ancient Greek? I’ve been (very) slowly trying to learn to speak modern Greek, but only for vacation purposes.

    Posted 03 Jul 2007 at 11:57 am

  5. commissar wrote:

    I wanted to read Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey in the original.

    As it turns out, there are at least three distinct dialects of ancient Greek: 1) epic or Homeric, 2) Attic or classical, and 3) koine or New Testament. The consensus seems to be to learn Attic first, and then move on to Homeric.

    Xenophon’s Anabasis has always been the recommended first full book for a student of Attic Greek to read.

    Posted 03 Jul 2007 at 12:02 pm

  6. Dreggas wrote:

    I had started to learn german for ***** and giggles, didn’t have time though. I actually would like to learn some of the ancient languages though, just to say I did.

    Posted 03 Jul 2007 at 12:19 pm

  7. canuckistani wrote:

    I’ll stick around. Ships and planes are always interesting, and although I don’t read Greek, I know enough about ancient Greece to at least follow the discussion.
    Will you be keeping up the cheap shots at Canada?

    Posted 03 Jul 2007 at 12:25 pm

  8. DavidC wrote:

    I’m interested in anything concerning World War 2, or military history of any type. I was at one point most of the way thru a PhD in military history until I was forced to get a real job. Ancient Greek history is also interesting. Learning Ancient Greek is out for me though, although I admire anyone who takes on such a project.

    Posted 03 Jul 2007 at 2:13 pm

  9. DavidC wrote:

    What in particular interests you about WW2 ships? Are you focusing on naval architecture, naval warfare, or something else?

    Posted 03 Jul 2007 at 2:16 pm

  10. BloodSpite wrote:

    Actually, Comm, discussing the trials, tribulations and resources of learning Ancient Greek might not be a bad blog topic either.

    And I’d love to see what resources your using in regards to learning it.

    For what it’s worth while attending the language school in Monterey at the expensive of tax payer dollars for my second language, I found a good book that assisted me called “How to Learn Any Language” by Barry Farber.

    Not exactly “Attic Greek for Dummies” but it was a help anyway

    Posted 03 Jul 2007 at 2:45 pm

  11. Redhand wrote:

    WWII ships, huh. Don’t forget the Allan M. Sumner (DD-692) class. I served on one of these, USS Douglas H. Fox (DD-779) in the early 70s.

    Posted 03 Jul 2007 at 2:49 pm

  12. commissar wrote:

    David,

    Using the pictures from the 1943-45 Naval Recognition Manual as a base, I plan to cover the five major powers of the war: United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, and Italy. As the manual was designed specifically for recognition, it includes classes of warships, not individual ships. Thus, all the ships presented here are lead ships of their class.

    You can see how far I am here.

    I’ve scanned the pages for the US, UK, and Japanese navies, and have added text to most of those (all US, most of UK, just Japanese destroyers).

    So, I have some more scanning to do (Germany and Italy) and researching/writing more articles.

    Oh yes, the Recognition Manual covers classes, and since I’m using the lead ship of the classes so far, I don’t have ANYTHING yet on some of the most famous ships: Arizona, Missouri, Yamato, and the carriers at Midway.

    Posted 03 Jul 2007 at 2:50 pm

  13. commissar wrote:

    Blood,

    I started that here.

    Actually, I’ve been studying and drilling the grammar and vocabulary since November. I found that the activity itself was hard enough, and time-consuming enough. To blog it in ANY presentable way … would have been tough.

    At this point, now that I am actually reading an interesting, significant book (altho translation is still slow for me) … that might be worth blogging.

    Posted 03 Jul 2007 at 3:03 pm

  14. canuckistani wrote:

    Don’t forget the third largest Allied navy.
    I was a regular vistor to the HMCS Haida when it was docked as a floating museum in Toronto.

    Posted 03 Jul 2007 at 3:31 pm

  15. Grim wrote:

    Commie,

    If I may offer a suggestion, you may find that it is easier to learn two allied languages at once, than one language alone. That seems counterintuitive, but it works: the fact that you have two similar (but slightly different) sets of vocabulary means that your brain builds extra connections supporting the memory of each word. As a result, you can achieve a proficiency faster by studying (say) French and Spanish at once, than by trying to learn one, and then the other.

    You might wish to try learning Modern Greek at the same time as Attic Greek. Not only will you get the benefit of those extra connections in your brain, but you’ll have a language you can use for travel as well aso one that gives you access to Plato in the original.

    Posted 03 Jul 2007 at 5:50 pm

  16. CDR Salamander wrote:

    Commie.
    Hey it’s Politburo Diktat 3.0!

    Anabasis is a great start, in any language. Just don’t read it while making clicking sounds with three empty mini-bottles you have in your fingers while saying, “Xenophon, come out to play…”.

    I promise not to make comments like “Clearchus may sound like Petraeus - but I hope Petraeus has a better ending….”

    I’ll still be with you - after all, when ending up a Staff tour, I have been known to walk to the pier and yell “Thalatta. Thalatta!

    I’ll try to link to you now and then for Fullbore Friday when you grab a good ship story. A cheap plug, this Friday’s FbF will be a ship a relative was the Commanding Officer of - its only CO.

    Posted 03 Jul 2007 at 9:11 pm

  17. Alon Levy wrote:

    I’m too much of a language geek to leave this place when you start posting about your ordeals learning a new language.

    Iraq isn’t the only thing that’s interesting in the world… just blog about whatever fancies your interest, Commie.

    Posted 04 Jul 2007 at 12:36 am

  18. Bill from INDC wrote:

    Commissar -

    but I no longer have any great certainty about, for example, what we should do in Iraq

    This might surprise you , given my debating points here with you and some of your commenters, but me neither, brother, my neither. Or let’s just say there is a lot of equivocation in any position.

    or which candidate we should elect in 2008.

    I can opine on a few we shouldn’t elect!

    Best of luck staying away from politics! Donuts to dollars you start having dreams about Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney within 2 weeks.

    Posted 04 Jul 2007 at 12:29 pm

  19. BloodSpite wrote:

    I have to agree with Grim here.

    While I took Russian in Monterey, our instructor often doubled in to Ukrainian. Both because of the Slavic similarities but because the root had many similar words. It was a nice distraction that kept us from pounding our heads on our desks in frustrations over patronymics ;)

    Posted 04 Jul 2007 at 12:52 pm

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