Tuesday, December 18, 2012

How it all started...


I am on a never ending quest to try everything and know everything. Even though this is impossible, my hope is that it helps me to grow and expand my horizons. I love collecting hobbies and learning little bits of information. 
Very similar to my hobby collecting. I've always admired people that seem to know about everything. My grandfather was like that. He was amazing at games like trivial pursuit. I want to know about everything I can. I have so many questions and not enough answers. Hope you find this page equally as interesting. As always, I'm up for suggestions. I love doing research.

I should probably mention that this is my first blog, and that I'm really excited about getting started. So, since this is my first post, I thought it only fitting to share what made me want to start collecting hobbies and knowledge. 

"I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General" from Gilbert and Sullivan's 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance

I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical.

I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.

I'm very good at integral and differential calculus;
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous:
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's;
I answer hard acrostics, I've a pretty taste for paradox,
I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus,
In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous;

I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies,
I know the croaking chorus from The Frogs of Aristophanes!
Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore.

Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform,
And tell you ev'ry detail of Caractacus's uniform
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

In fact, when I know what is meant by "mamelon" and "ravelin",
When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a Javelin,
When such affairs as sorties and surprises I'm more wary at,
And when I know precisely what is meant by "commissariat",

When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery,
When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery
In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy
You'll say a better Major-General has never sat a gee.

For my military knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventury,
Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century;
But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

2 comments:

  1. So you're saying you're not just a General, but a Modern MAJOR General...nice...

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    Replies
    1. Once I learn the kings of England, the historical battles, and calculus...yes. lol

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