Today ...
...has been a good day for really random thoughts. I don't know where they are coming from, but many of them are history related.
-I've been reading Stephen Turnbull's Samurai and the Sacred. In it there is a picture of a statue of Otomo Sorin. My first thought was that he looks like Vladimir Lenin. (And my high school history teacher who also looked like Lenin, but that's a subject for another day) At which point I decided that fanatical Leninist Catholics would be so much more awesome than what we have right now. And I'm not even sure how fanatical Leninist Catholics would work. And no, I will not write that fic.
-Speaking of Lenin, 2 1/2 hours is way too long for a history discussion session. Especially when there were only 100 pages of reading this week. Most of that technical discussion about the problems of getting the Soviet nuclear program started that you wouldn't understand unless you are a nuclear physicist, which none of us are.
-If Hanbei's intention (Basara-verse) is to leave Japan stable enough that Hideyoshi can use it to take the world... isn't conscripting the entire male population between the ages of old-enough-to-fight and 30-something a really, really bad idea? If you leave it that way for any time at all, even in a pre-industrial country you're going to completely undermine your country's infrastructure. If there are no men out there working your economy collapses, not to mention leaving yourself open for mass famines and the like. ...You really shouldn't think about Basara too hard, should you?
-For those of you who live in the US (and maybe some outside it), you know how people talk about how your average citizen knows nothing about the US constitution and what it says? I while ago I had a conversation with my 11th grade cousin. She was concerned that Bush could run again in the 2012 elections. ...I had to calmly explain the 22nd Amendment to her. I know that, at least in the state of Indiana, US history (Civil War-Present) is 11th grade curriculum, and you don't normally take Government/Civics until 12th grade... but you ought to know basics like that. I know I'm a bit of a history nerd (and I will admit I did have to look up the amendment number, I don't actually know them all off the top of my head) but you should KNOW these things by 11th grade. You're, like, a year away from voting. That's scary.
-I've been reading Stephen Turnbull's Samurai and the Sacred. In it there is a picture of a statue of Otomo Sorin. My first thought was that he looks like Vladimir Lenin. (And my high school history teacher who also looked like Lenin, but that's a subject for another day) At which point I decided that fanatical Leninist Catholics would be so much more awesome than what we have right now. And I'm not even sure how fanatical Leninist Catholics would work. And no, I will not write that fic.
-Speaking of Lenin, 2 1/2 hours is way too long for a history discussion session. Especially when there were only 100 pages of reading this week. Most of that technical discussion about the problems of getting the Soviet nuclear program started that you wouldn't understand unless you are a nuclear physicist, which none of us are.
-If Hanbei's intention (Basara-verse) is to leave Japan stable enough that Hideyoshi can use it to take the world... isn't conscripting the entire male population between the ages of old-enough-to-fight and 30-something a really, really bad idea? If you leave it that way for any time at all, even in a pre-industrial country you're going to completely undermine your country's infrastructure. If there are no men out there working your economy collapses, not to mention leaving yourself open for mass famines and the like. ...You really shouldn't think about Basara too hard, should you?
-For those of you who live in the US (and maybe some outside it), you know how people talk about how your average citizen knows nothing about the US constitution and what it says? I while ago I had a conversation with my 11th grade cousin. She was concerned that Bush could run again in the 2012 elections. ...I had to calmly explain the 22nd Amendment to her. I know that, at least in the state of Indiana, US history (Civil War-Present) is 11th grade curriculum, and you don't normally take Government/Civics until 12th grade... but you ought to know basics like that. I know I'm a bit of a history nerd (and I will admit I did have to look up the amendment number, I don't actually know them all off the top of my head) but you should KNOW these things by 11th grade. You're, like, a year away from voting. That's scary.