So yesterday was the first mid-term of the term. It wasn't quite a breeze, and there was one question that at first I read as a trick question. (Sparta only had one colony, and the question was about where Sparta had colonies), but otherwise there were only about 10% or so that I wasn't pretty sure I got the right answer for.

I made bread again yesterday. Yumm. I had some friends over for supper and was expecting them at 5:30, so I tried to aim to have everything done (including pulling the bread out of the oven) at 5:30 which was on the late side of when I was expecting them to show. Unfortunately the bread came out at 5:00 and everything else was ready by 5:20, leaving me with cooling food when they showed right at 5:30 and it took a few minutes to get settled down. I guess that shows me that I need to time things better.

I've been so busy lately that I haven't really been up on the news in the world, but I noticed this a few days ago. Slashdot was reporting that Pixar (maker of Toy Story and Finding Nemo) has parted ways with Disney as a distribution channel. I think it's about time. I'm sure they can find a distribution channel that'll carry them with better terms for Pixar, while not shading the expectation that, Oh this is a Disney movie, like say, Beethoven or some other "family" movie, which generally end up either being boring or trying to pull heart strings just make you want to wretch. (Don't get me wrong, Disney's cartoons are generally well done but some of their stuff I can sit and watch end to end.

Since I did my Greek Society midterm on Friday, I was expecting this week to be relatively relaxed. No dice, apparently. I've still been just as busy as normal, but I'm not reading the textbook for that class anymore. I finished it.

Wednesday night was a movie night for my department. We watched a 1930's version of Cleopatra. What I can definitely say is that the '90's have nothing on the '30's on skimpy outfits in movies.

Last night, I went to listen to Heather Dale. She's got a really great voice and when she's playing the keyboard, her fingers are moving very lightly. It's quite mesmerising to watch. Most of her songs are about the King Arthur legend, which was how I heard about her concert. My only complaint was that her songs were all so sad. At least, I found them so.

Last week, I was accused of not having a vice. Well, originally, I was asked if I have a vice. Then when I answered 'Probably,' it was assumed the answer was actually no. I don't know why it bothers me. Sure, I don't do a lot of those things that Mother always said not to do, but I must have a vice, right? Everyone has them. It feels like I'm missing out on something by being thought of as though I didn't. Nothing I can think of seems to fit the bill. Am I that boring?

The Toronto Star (see link at the side) reports that some Iraqi wanted Al-qaeda to get a civil war started between Sunni and Shi'ite, all with the purpose of getting the US out. I'm really thinking he hadn't thought his plan through. If the plan succeeded, and the country was so violent that the US would be forced to pull out, Iraq would be a mess of civil war. Most likely, Iran would step in on the side of their fellow Shi'ites. Quite possibly that would be followed by invasions (or military aid) from Sunni nations to the West. The civil war would then be an international conflict between Arab states proving (at least in the minds of many Westerners(say the US President)) that Arabs really are savage and need a civilising force. After a few years of having their nation torn apart in the war, Iraqis would welcome a UN peace-keeping force, made up of Americans, Europeans, Japanese, Australians, New Zealanders, and others: the very type of people the report writer assumedly wanted out of the country. If I were to guess that no Iraqi would want that, I'd have to come to the conclusion that the report was made up by the Americans who "found" it; however, publicising something like this might just convince various Al-Qaeda operatives to try it anyway. It seems odd to me that the Americans would risk that, whether the report is real or not...

The weather's been so nice recently. I keep smelling spring on the wind. It's a nice smell. The rabbit that I saw yesterday looked rather confused as well. He was completely brown: must be expecting spring soon.

The US has diplomats in Libya now and Libya is expected to soon return the favour. Wow! This is a big difference from the '80's. Apparently Colenel Gaddafi doesn't want what happened to Mr. Saddam to happen to him and has opened his country to "unconditional" inspections.

All this week, I've been getting up an hour earlier than the day before. The idea is to be on time with the Netherlanders when I arrive in the Netherlands Sunday, or at least close to them. It's been working okay, except that for the first couple of hours after getting up, I'm too tired feeling to do anything useful: so no homework gets done. I think I've had the least productive (school work wise) week this term. I've shown up to all my classes (first week I've been on time for all my early classes too), but for actually doing research for my essays is just not happening. I'll have to start them after Reading Week. Unfortunately, my Later Roman History prof wanted our bibliography the first week back. I've got it partly done, honest!

I'm leaving tomorrow evening. In the morning I'm going down to Brampton to attend an RTT (Regional Training Time, check out NCMI to find out what they're about) then after lunch I expect I'll be able to get a ride down to the airport without difficulty. We take off at Midnight Netherlandish time (6:30 here) and arrive at around 8am (2am here) Sunday. I'm wishfully desiring to sleep on the plane but when you're flying economy, you take what you can get. From there, I'm going to be looking around Amsterdam for a day and a bit, then taking trains across the country to where the LTT (see NCMi's website for more details) is being held. I'll try to take lots of pictures and such like. Hopefully I can scan them or something after I get back and let everyone see.

I made it back from Holland. I've got to get some sleep.

It still feels like it's much later in the day than it actually is. What's nice is that evenings are well lit for me now. Unfortunately, it means that the sun doesn't get up until hours after I do. Hopefully I can get back onto a better schedule before too long.

Last week was downright amazing. I met a whole lot of new friends. I can't really describe it all through a mere text interface. I got to taste some high quality cheese and various other things. I brought back some Dutch and Belgian chocolate. Yummy.

It's something. You'd think I'd be all excited about my trip and want to tell everybody about it. And I did and do. Unfortunately, the last week I've been recuperating from jet lag of a very long day on Saturday, and trying to get back into the schoolwork again. Typing up stuff is not a favourite pastime. Remember, I hate writing essays. I'm doing research for an essay right now and that's why I'm not typing. :)

This is somewhat of my bibliography. I'm posting it not because any of my readers will find it interesting, but because it's currently the easiest way to store it online.
R.C. Blockley. The Fragmentary Classicizing Historians of the Later Roman Empire
D. Brooke. Private Letters, Pagan and Christian
E. Clark, ed. Women in the Early Church
A.H.M. Jones. A History of Rome through the Fifth Century. v. II, the Empire
N. Lewis and M. Reinhold. Roman Civilization. Sourcebook II: The Empire
M. Maas. Readings in Late Antiquity
R. Macmullan and E. N. Lane, eds. Paganism and Christianity 100-425 CE.
F. Meijer and O. van Nijf. Trade, transport and society in the ancient world. A sourcebook.
Kraemer, R. S. ed. Maenads, Martyrs, Matrons, Monastics
J. Shelton. As the Romans Did
V. Wimbush, ed. Ascetic Behaviour in Greco-Roman Antiquity
*E. Gibbon. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
J. D?Arms and E. C. Kopff, eds. The Seaborne Commerce of Ancient Rome.
M.P. Charlesworth. Trade Routes and Commerce of the Roman Empire
P. Garnsey, K. Hopkins, C.R. Whittaker, eds. Trade in the Ancient Economy.
P. Garnsey, C.R. Whittaker, eds. Trade and Famine in Classical Antiquity.
W. Goffart. Caput and Colonate. late Roman taxation
W. Goffart. Rome's Fall and After
K. Greene. Archaeology of the Roman Economy
A.H.M. Jones. The Roman Economy
Michael McCormick. Origins of the European economy : communications and commerce, A.D. 300-900.
J. I. Miller. The Spice Trade of the Roman Empire, 29 B.C. - A.D. 641
K.D. White. Roman Farming
S. Williams. Diocletian and the Roman Recovery
C. Wickham. ?The other transition: from the ancient world to feudalism,? Past and Present 103 (1984) 3-36
C. R. Whittaker. Land, city and trade in the Roman Empire.
G. K. Young. Rome?s eastern trade: international commerce and imperial policy, 31 BC- AD 305.
Here's to hoping that I'll actually get this essay done in the next three weeks before it's due.