(no subject)
I FINISHED MY PAPER.
I was up till 5:45 this morning finishing it, and I had to get up at nine to get ready for class, but I FINISHED IT. And then I went to take a test at eleven. UNIVERSE FAIL.
But I got to go home, and take a nap, and then I went with my mom to see a lecture at my school on Cornwallis vs. the mosquito, and the effect of malaria on the outcome of the American Revolution. It was very cool! Basically the dude's argument was that Cornwallis decided to break the stalemate by heading south towards Charleston, and ended up in low country with his forces getting ravaged by malaria. The Americans, who had been around malaria all their lives (apparently the average soldier had had malaria about twenty times! That is crazyness!), were resistant. Also, there is no vaccine for malaria, and the only treatment (Jesuit bark) was crazy expensive and also the Spanish were blocking its export, whereas Washington's forces, when getting ravaged by smallpox, could get a vaccine and be resistant for life. (Which Washington mandated, incidentally. 2% of everyone who took the vaccine died, and he made it a requirement for his entire army. Yowch.) So anyway, Cornwallis was losing his army fast, and then he got ordered north in case the French headed to New York, and *then* he got stuck in Yorktown when the French blockaded the harbor there instead, which was unfortunate because guess what kind of land was around Yorktown? That's right, swampy marshes. Mosquito country.
The guy was definitely wavering out on the speculative end of scholarship, but as he himself pointed out, he's written lots of work scrupulously based on careful documentation that didn't say anything the documents didn't say, and he'd earned the chance to wander out to the edge a little. And I can respect that! Especially since his focus these days is on ecological history, and that is new and different.
Also? We went out to dinner afterwards at my restaurant, and while I was there one of my coworkers asked me if I really wanted to work my shift tomorrow night, or if she could have it. I was like, "Why no, actually I just can't stand to be parted from my closing shift that means I leave at nine in the morning for class and get back at ten at night and only make thirty dollars, I could not possible give that up!" And then she laughed at me, but you know what? I DON'T HAVE TO WORK TOMORROW. Instead I get to come home and go back to sleep, and that? That is a win all around, folks.
I was up till 5:45 this morning finishing it, and I had to get up at nine to get ready for class, but I FINISHED IT. And then I went to take a test at eleven. UNIVERSE FAIL.
But I got to go home, and take a nap, and then I went with my mom to see a lecture at my school on Cornwallis vs. the mosquito, and the effect of malaria on the outcome of the American Revolution. It was very cool! Basically the dude's argument was that Cornwallis decided to break the stalemate by heading south towards Charleston, and ended up in low country with his forces getting ravaged by malaria. The Americans, who had been around malaria all their lives (apparently the average soldier had had malaria about twenty times! That is crazyness!), were resistant. Also, there is no vaccine for malaria, and the only treatment (Jesuit bark) was crazy expensive and also the Spanish were blocking its export, whereas Washington's forces, when getting ravaged by smallpox, could get a vaccine and be resistant for life. (Which Washington mandated, incidentally. 2% of everyone who took the vaccine died, and he made it a requirement for his entire army. Yowch.) So anyway, Cornwallis was losing his army fast, and then he got ordered north in case the French headed to New York, and *then* he got stuck in Yorktown when the French blockaded the harbor there instead, which was unfortunate because guess what kind of land was around Yorktown? That's right, swampy marshes. Mosquito country.
The guy was definitely wavering out on the speculative end of scholarship, but as he himself pointed out, he's written lots of work scrupulously based on careful documentation that didn't say anything the documents didn't say, and he'd earned the chance to wander out to the edge a little. And I can respect that! Especially since his focus these days is on ecological history, and that is new and different.
Also? We went out to dinner afterwards at my restaurant, and while I was there one of my coworkers asked me if I really wanted to work my shift tomorrow night, or if she could have it. I was like, "Why no, actually I just can't stand to be parted from my closing shift that means I leave at nine in the morning for class and get back at ten at night and only make thirty dollars, I could not possible give that up!" And then she laughed at me, but you know what? I DON'T HAVE TO WORK TOMORROW. Instead I get to come home and go back to sleep, and that? That is a win all around, folks.