Tag Archives: Personal

It’s All Greek to Me!

 

Image result for greek ruins

Physical representation of my writing discipline.

 

Gather around the hearth, my friends. I have a story to tell!

There was once a proud blogger who panicked when she realized that she was about to reach 100 published posts. This was a crowning achievement, she thought, and so she wanted to do something special to celebrate this momentous occasion. Perhaps I should do an extensive essay on my blog’s tagline and prove it do-able — 

Because even monkeys can write a paper on Misogyny, Aristotle, and Middle Age Europe.

Oops, yeah. That blogger is me.

I have a tendency to buckle under pressure, especially when it is self-imposed. I envisioned this research being something akin to an amateur thesis, the scope of it so grand! I was ramping up to it with my posts such as Illuminating the Dark Ages, and had another planned to cover the contentious Great Man Theory, and then to round out with a state of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages before I hit you with my epic take.

But, alas, I have failed to do so. Not because I can’t write it–but because I can’t commit to doing it. I don’t feel like it. History for me is a muse and he takes me through various phases of interest and right now, I must admit, my headspace is about nearly 2,000 years in the past from where I need to be in order to successfully pull off this ‘golden post’.

Yeah, I’m talking about Classical Greece.

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Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey came out and if you’ve been following my blog all these years (Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!) you know already that I’m versed primarily in Classical Antiquity. So for a role-playing video game with an open world concept functioning like a sandbox where the developers researched every painstaking detail to fill their map with as close to accurate representations of historical locations as it is possible for any of us to know–I’m all over that in a heartbeat.

The consequence being, however, that this is pretty much all I feel like writing about right now. Which brings me to the problem with this ‘Golden 100 Post’. I haven’t updated my blog in the past month, despite an interest in doing so (just not on the purposed topic I had planned!) because I’m literally 2 posts away from hitting 100. Well, now 1 away with this one. With my proposed celebratory essay, this didn’t leave room for me to dabble and post about anything else! So, to allow myself the freedom to again write about anything in History that I find fascinating (or humorous) enough to share with you–I’m going to let myself off the hook on the celebration post. I’ll get to it when I’m good and ready! I can certainly still clap for myself on reaching 100 with or without the sweating over a research essay I’m not earning a letter grade for!

So in the meantime, you can expect some Ancient/Classical Greek inspired posts from me as I continue to gallivant around in a video game and am reminded of things I’ve always wanted to touch on our look into deeper for myself. And the good news is, I’ll get to introduce you to Aristotle a bit more too before I start retroactively blaming him for a bunch of bullshit.

Thanks for sticking around with my general assholery and lack of a coherent update schedule–I’m about to get a little Greeky with it.

 

 

Versatile Blogger Award!

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The lovely https://simplydeeindc.com/ nominated me for the versatile blogger award! Simply Dee is refreshingly honest and open about writing and pursuits of passion,  lives adventurously, and manages to keep a positive and motivating energy through it all! I love keeping up with and reading about her life and latest explorations, and I think all of you will too! She’s also the sweetest blogger I’ve come across on this site and if any of you need a little more light in your life, go visit her blog and hit that follow button! Now onto the rules–

The rules for the versatile bloggers award:

  • Thank the person who nominated you with a link to their blog
  • Share 7 things about yourself
  • Nominate bloggers for the award

I’m usually talking about dead people on this blog and not myself, so this should be fun!

  1. Believe it or not, I was absolutely terrible in high school. I know, I know, what I do here is basically glorified homework, so it might come as a shock to all of you that I hated doing it in actual school. Growing up, I was the perfect teacher’s pet version of Hermione Granger and enjoyed getting my straight A’s, but then Teenager Me happened. I got kicked out of AP American History because I refused to do the book report on Killer Angels. My European History teacher pleaded with me to do my homework because I was straddling a C in the class but was killing every test. It also bothered her that I wasn’t taking her AP course and my reason for not was, eh, homework. Once I got to college, however, I started to have a bit more fun with it and after I graduated, created this blog to help feed my need to continue researching and learning more!
  2. My favorite Historical Figure is Marcus Aurelius, yet I’ve never done a post. I’ve mentioned him off hand a few times, and his son Commodus is one of my most popular posts on here. But Marcus Aurelius was more than just a Roman Emperor and I really fell in love with him when I picked up a copy of his meditations at my local bookstore forever ago. He was thoughtful and considerate of himself at all times and detailed his journey with philosophy in his journals. He was raised on Stoic teachings and was incredibly humbled by them. I’d love nothing more than to sit down with him over coffee and pick his brain a bit!
  3. If I could go back in time to any era in history–I wouldn’t. People ask me this question often when they find out how much I love history, but I gotta say–I’m pretty firm in my content existing in this timeline. As a woman, I stand the best chance of having the freedom to chase my dreams now than I ever could at any time in history. Now, if I were able to go back in time as an invisible omnipresent being then we have ourselves a real thinker!
  4. I have seen Mad Men all the way through more times than I can recall. I can’t explain it other than this TV show is just perfection. I never thought I would particularly care to see an American 1960’s period piece, as you can see, I’m pretty much exclusively endowed with Classical-Medieval fare, but here we are. I’ve seen them so many times, you could name a particular quote or scene and I will know exactly where you are and will be able to immediately discuss with you. I don’t even particularly care for Don Draper but I love all of it, even when the characters break my heart.
  5. I have history blind spots and I’m not happy about it. My friends come to me a lot with history questions, and I love it, but there is so much that I don’t know! Entire periods of history I know only basics of, areas of the world where I couldn’t tell you heads or tails what happened there unless it had something to do with something I DO know. For example, I can’t cover much of anything Eastern Civilization unless we want to discuss The Golden Horde! I know it’ll take a lot of independent study, but I’d love to fill the gaps I have one day.
  6. I have over 5 books in various stages of completion and I’d love to finish one! One thing you should all know about me by now is that I’m a terrible procrastinator with plenty of lofty ideas I struggle to complete. So it’s probably not a complete shocker that I’ve got a handful of book ideas on the back burner. Since I was a kid, it was always a dream of mine to write one and have people read it–J.K. Rowling was my hero, after-all. I have a lot of work to do, but one day I hope to have one finished and ready to go!
  7.  I’m a rule-breaker. And always have been! So watch me leave and wave off this last fact with a…oh, crap, wait!

 

And now, for the blogs I nominate for this award:

http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/ 

https://lovetravellingblog.com/

https://stridetheearth.com/

https://nonwashablegamer.com/

http://brendaknowles.com/blog/

http://the-history-girls.blogspot.com/

https://ordinaryadventures44.wordpress.com/

 

Happy blogging, everyone!


UPDATE!

So, I’m a little preemptive in saying that I’ve had this blog for about a year now.  But, let’s be honest, what work was I really going to do from now to April?

My main goal in starting this blog was the hope that I would learn something about History that I couldn’t ordinarily do on my own. I was hoping to update frequently and cultivate an audience that would be able to teach me something new about whatever topic I was covering. I secretly wished someone would correct me and not just treat me like a Wookiee. I was hoping I wouldn’t win all the time and that whatever bias I was harboring would stand corrected.

But that didn’t really happen. At all actually.

I wasn’t really all that into updating either. I learned A LOT of crazy cool history stuff in preparations of many unpublished entries. I just never felt like sharing it with the rest of you and that’s a real shame. A real dick move. A real Commodus move. I even went as far one point in contacting my old professor and discussing the merits of the Lead poisoning in Rome theories and how it related to wine consumption, which basically ended up being a total annihilation of this one scholar’s ideas and we left it at that and I never published a word but learned a lot. I even got caught in a mistake like I always wanted. I was using Pliny the Elder as a source without the forethought in realizing the time difference between his lifetime and another sources. I was like, “Duh! Pompeii and Pliny would have been far gone and scorched by then making this source entirely irrelevant to the argument!” The main thing is, I didn’t bother sharing any of the amazing things I dug up and that defeats the entire purpose of keeping this blog.

One of the coolest things I looked into was the accuracy of Prima Nocta and I would say that I get a couple hits on that one daily. And that’s just from people being curious and searching for themselves on whether or not it was a real thing and stumbling across my page for answers. I want to see more of that stuff. I want to be that go to informant for the casual historian. And there was even one incident where one of my posts circulated around Reddit’s TodayIlearned which left me feeling frightened at the sudden and enormous site traffic that happened over night and really quite honored.

So instead of being a lazy asshole, which has become my new life statement as some of you who follow other deeds of mine know by now, I’m going to attempt to follow a more strict updating schedule on this blog. Once a week I want to squeeze in a full-fledged research project, one historical figure profile, and the rest different forms of interesting things in history. I’ve got my days planned but I’ll leave them a surprise for now.

My new goal now is just to finish what I say that I’m going to do. Which for now is update Monday-Friday. So if I don’t, call me out because dang I can’t keep getting away with this anymore.

See you tomorrow.

Introduction

I’ve always had a love affair with history. Since I could remember, I had always been really interested in Ancient Egypt, from Ra to mummification, to the Pyramids and what I imagined to be Ramesses II’s dazzling pectorals. I crushed on King Tut and desperately wanted to chisel a sand castle out in the Sahara. Oh, and make loads of papyri with scribbled Hieroglyphs for the word “poop”. (Speaking of, anyone know the ancient Egyptian word for it?)

As I’ve only slightly matured into a 22 year old who still dreams of historical studs and laughs at dirty jokes and phrases, I have a more widespread passion for all things, people, places, and time. When asked the question, “What is your favorite period in history?” I used to confidently state, “Any and everything from the dawn of civilization up until the 1950’s.” And than Mad Men happened. Now I appreciate things up until the 70’s.

I’m no expert and while I’ve taken a handful of college courses, I still find myself stuttering out a barely audible, “Uh, urg, well it’s there.” when confronted after an anti-Edison snark filled tirade. In fact, one of my goals in creating this blog aside from nerdgasming all over my spare time is to MAKE myself an expert rather than a regurgitating info machine. That’s what teachers and calculators are for, kids!

Speaking of, one of the people in my life I look up to and respect the most was my history professor for four years (I stalked her course list like a Mongol at a cabinet convention). And while she knew heaps of information, my favorite part about lecture was when someone asked a question and they were met with a thoughtful answer that always put the timeframe and mindset of a life of people in perspective. She knew what she was talking about and she understood it. Even better was when some smart-mouthed punk would have the gall to argue and she would verbally bitch-slap that shit down with years and years of resource accumulation and fine, yes, I had a girl crush, okay?!

So basically, if you’re reading this, you’ve stumbled upon an ambitious endeavor from a casual fan of history with the explicit goal of becoming an expert on a wide array of subjects and themes pertaining to the discipline. Since I have completed my standard Liberal Arts degree and am currently in between schools slinging coffee at a bookstore in my spare time, stretching and exercising my brain is a must otherwise all that familiarity with research and learning will dry up faster than the Temperance movement. I will be researching and studying completely random ideas and topics in History, reading chapter books, and otherwise blogging on anything that piques my interest and philomathic yearning.

So if you’d like to join me on this little adventure and nerd out with me, please come in. My friends grow tired of my history chattering and do not find my jokes amusing. If you’re here to factcheck, correct, or otherwise berate my drudgery, flame on. All I ask is that you provide sources because this is, after all, a learning process and I am a fellow douche so try harder.

And now let us begin, as Julius Caesar once said, ” I came, I saw, and I totally got stabbed 33 times by some brute.”

Cheers!