Why am I awake

Feb 08, 2010 02:48

Scholar examines reports of solar eclipses in the Middle Ages



1310, on the last day of January, at the 8th hour at Avignon, there was an eclipse of the Sun and it was unusually eclipsed, and was remarkably scintillating. There appeared just as at nightfall a single star, according to the opinion of the crowd.

The above is snipped from that article, and is an excerpt from a medieval chronicle. One of the things that I've now and then heard people say about the middle ages is that they were fascinated/horrified/made wtf by eclipses and other such phenomena. I think this idea might have something to do with eclipse being used as a plot device in Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. But even in that particular story, it isn't the eclipse itself that's cause for worry, but rather the character's assertion that he is powerful enough to blot out the sun at will. Anyway, I find it kind of interesting that in real-life rather than legend medieval chroniclers occasionally wrote about them in such detail.

Still feeling incredibly nonsocial. SORRY GUYS. I guess I'm still in a funk.

To ease my woes I have been pretending to be a Scandinavian country on the internet. What is this I don't even. Hetalia, I love you, but you make my life weird in very subtle ways.

I have also made plans with pentatonikk. We are going to go to Wales. We will travel to it on the back of a giant magical talking fish, and have many adventures along the way, and it is going to be glorious.

Also, hi, it is 2:30 AM and I have an essay due on Tuesday morning and I am nowhere near even close to being halfway finished. Fuck me, what is this. HOWEVER at least it's on something that I know somewhat about. Though I do wish I hadn't left my copy of Shepherd's edition of Le Morte Darthur back at my mum's place. Though I'm also doing the presentation on this, and since I'll be visiting her soon, I'll be able to grab it while I'm there.

I was doing French today, and I kept getting so drawn out by the accent used in the program, because it's so French. Goddamnit, I'm used to hearing oui as "ouais", not "oui", and hearing it as "oui" is so damn jarring. Also, when I was learning it in school, we learned more informal forms of some phrases, rather than the formal. So, having the program tell me to write it as "Comment allez-vous?" rather than "Comment ça va?" throws me out of the whole thing and makes me go WUT. Ehhh that's the only one that really jumps out at me at the moment, though there are others. A lot of this is like, really really basic stuff, stuff I already know. But I'm still glad I'm doing the super-basic stuff first because there is a lot of stuff I forgot, or didn't know, like that there's an accent over the i in "s'il vous plaît". Back in high school I never bothered to take note of the accents because I am a horrible person.

Oh snap, it's getting late. I wonder what the French equivalent of "Oh snap" is. Or other equivalents! HEY PEOPLE WHO SPEAK STUFF OTHER THAN ENGLISH, PLEASE TELL ME WHAT IS THE EQUIVALENT PHRASE FOR "OH SNAP". I love the phrase because it's kind of like "oh shit", but not really; it seems it implies a more suddenness, like the sound of snapping, or being unexpectedly hit in the face with something.

... I think I really need to get to bed.

fml, medieval, wtf, insomnia, flailing, yay, school, roleplaying, languages, spam, life

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