Kiva Free Trials

[quinara]

Apparently Kiva.org is doing free trials? I don't know what a 'free trial' on Kiva actually involves, but if you're interested in funding micro loans for business start ups (etc.) around the developing world, now's the chance to try out Kiva's system for free!

http://kiva.org/ladieshomejournal

It says they're going to run out of the sponsored free trials pretty quickly, so the link may stop working at some point.

In other news, I'm reading the first Harry Potter in ancient Greek. Couple of chapters in and it's going OK - funnily enough (or probably not surprisingly) it's the names and necessary neologisms (for televisions etc.) that are the most confusing thing. On the other hand, the Dursleys live on 'the street of the myrtle trees', and this continues to tickle me...

Comments

[quinara]

According to the author here, the primary model is Lucian, who was writing in classical/Attic Greek at the same time as koine was getting going - and I would agree that it's mostly classical, but with enough neologisms and odd appropriations that it doesn't perfectly align. (Petunia Dursley keeps turning into a tragic heroine when she says 'oh dear', which is quite funny.) Of course, I spend most of my time reading Homeric Greek anyway, so I actually find it quite hard to tell the difference between Attic and koine... It's possible I'm not in the best position to judge.

If he can read either, though, it might be worth a try! The Greek keeps most of JK's sense of whimsy, but a lot of the silliness seems to be dulled down so far.