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Dear Reader: this is the first in what I hope will be an ongoing series of posts on etymology, philology, and just fun with words. I used to blog about strictly Classics stuff, as I was trying to blog professionally and pursue a tenure-track career. Now it’s just fun and I like geeking out about words. So here’s the first of, dis volentibus, many. Enjoy.

So I was thinking recently of the marvelous shields throughout Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes (aka Septem Contra Thebas, aka ἑπτὰ ἐπὶ Θήβας). The Septem was part of the prolegomena to my dissertation, where I looked at Polyneikes’ homecoming to Thebes, which only truly happens at his death. I spent a lot of time with the play, mostly with Polyneikes’ shield, but the other shields are also really fascinating. I was talking to a friend about all this recently, and found that I was interested in exploring the rest of the shields in the play.

Last updated 29 Oct 2024

Last updated 10 Dec 2025: Removed GB Color & Wii sections; removed/updated a number of games

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a long while now. The last fantasy book I read was Melanie Rawn’s Dragon Prince, and it made me think a little more critically about reading fantasy in particular. I’ve read many such books over the course of my life, and (almost) always enjoyed them. Some are definitely better than others, to be sure. Now you’ll probably know most of the ones I’m mentioning here, but some may be new to you, and lesser-known. I’ll start with some of the first ones I read, and then go from there.

I hate endings. Well, not all endings, but endings can be sad at times, and so sometimes I hate them. I was thinking about this earlier because I just finished the whole run of a podcast I’ve dearly enjoyed, Ghosting Around. I’ll talk a bit about the podcast and why I love(d) it so much, and then we’ll talk a bit more about endings, liminality, &c.

N.B. This is an old post from the previous iteration of this site. I’ve tweaked a few things here and there in the entry, but they are mostly unchanged. My previous website was more of a jobs site, so a lot of the entries are Classics-centric, and that won’t necessarily be the case going forward.