The oak tree was cut down last week. I wasn't here to see it, which is good, because I was much more sad about this than about any of my pets dying. True, I've only had hamsters, they only last about two years anyway. But that oak tree had to be about two hundred years old, give or take...I mean, looking at the stump now..."stump" is a poor word. ( Read more... )

So zooming forward from Ancient Rome, I am now firmly in the AD and reading The Complete Idiot's Guide to American History.

Why?

I started reading The Dreamer webcomic. And realised that all the other commenters were American and knew exactly what was going on here in the Revolutionary War. I knew that they were having a revolt. Against the British.

S ( Read more... )

I have returned from Rome, and cool things were seen.

A lot of cool things I think are only cool to an ancient history nerd. I held everybody up in the statues section of the Vatican museum, like "Ooh look, it's Hippocrates!!!" and so on. Fortunately my friends are nerds too, or I dunno what I would have done.

So it's hard to know what to share, ( Read more... )

Nearing the end of the Julius Caesar books, and I'm looking for more. Yes. More books...if I'm going to do my creative writing dissertation on historical fiction, I need to know what's been done. Julius has been done to death I'm sure. I couldn't write about him anyway.

I was reading the bit where he starts on Britain, and suddenly felt strangely ( Read more... )

I feel I must rant. It might help.

I'm doing a creative writing dissertation next year, and I'd like to do historical fiction set in ancient Rome. Obviously, makes sense to know what's been done, so I've started reading Conn Iggulden's "Emperor" series, about Julius Caesar. It's saved by the fact that it is historical fiction, and Julius Caesar had ( Read more... )

I've started up a journal,
( Read more... )

My sun-striped legs look less zebra-like today. I'm wearing trousers anyway, because the sun heard that
( Read more... )

Friday nights at Crossline the Soup Kitchen are my least favourite. There's not a proper meal served, it's more a social thing, so the homeless have somewhere warm to sit and something to do other than get drunk somewhere.

Having said that, this evening was awesome. I was just chatting to John and Anthony, and John was more cheerful than I've ever ( Read more... )