In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral

[sovay]

(In which I attempt to offer an alternative to all the actually useful good news I've been posting around here lately.) Some months ago, fleurdelis28 and I were under the impression that we had created a Model of a Modern Major-General Meme. I have now discovered from lignota that someone with an OKCupid! account not only had the same idea, but the quiz-fashioning skills to implement it. I hope you share with me the realization that this is seriously disturbing. There are just some things that shouldn't evolve in parallel.

That said, these results amuse me highly. I'm betting it was the washing list in Babylonic cuneiform that did it.

The Very Model You are 61% the model of a modern Major-General

Congratulations! You are the very model of a modern Major-General. There's still room for improvement, though; even Major-General Stanley isn't perfect.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 34% on stanley-ness

Link: The Modern Major General Test written by touleontos on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Comments

[zdenka]

Ha! An idea! signy1 posted sadly in my journal that she couldn't find a good text in Babylonic cuneiform. I said I would use my new library skills to look for her -- but maybe you could recommend something?

[sovay]

What kind of text do you want? For teaching, I learned out of Richard Caplice's Introduction to Akkadian, but I've also heard good things about John Huehnergard's (admittedly brick-thick) A Grammar of Akkadian. I'm not sure one could self-teach out of either, but I've never tried. Under such circumstances, however, I might be forced to recommend Huehnergard: Caplice is almost too terse to make sense. He's not incomprehensible, but professorial clarification really, really helps.

For reading, I have to say that I'm biased sharply toward Ištar's Descent, Gilgameš, and Nergal and Ereškigal, mostly because those are the mythological texts I've read in Akkadian; although the Neo-Assyrian ŠÀ.ZI.GA ritual was also pretty cool. (I'm sure that if I'd read more, I'd have more to recommend.) Off the top of my head, I can't think of any washing lists. But I could write you one.

[zdenka]

Since it is signy1 who wants the text and not I, I will relay the info to her and suggest that she consult you. Cool -- thanks!

[hans-the-bold.livejournal.com]

If you want to teach yourself Akkadian and the cuneiform it's written in, I'd suggest Huehnergard's "A Grammar of Akkadian". The Caplice book is excellent for an actual class, because it can be covered in a single semester (IF you have an instructor). But it is too terse. Huehnergard's book also has a companion volume with the answers to the exercises, which helps with self-teaching. The only drawback to Huehnergard is that it is thick and filled with details that aren't essential to learning the language (most professionals, including myself, keep a copy around for reference), but this is a minor quibble.

And people who study Akkadian become instantly better looking, so it's worth the effort.

[zdenka]

Thanks! I will tell signy1 you said so. Especially the last part. :-)