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February 14th, 2009
 | 08:53 am
Happy Lupercalia everyone. Flog your women for fertility all day for free!
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May 6th, 2008
 | 10:12 am
Let it be known to those whose habit it is to admire the disregard of authority, that there may be great men even under bad emperors, and that obedience and submission, when joined to activity and vigor, may attain a glory which most men reach only by a perilous career, utterly useless to the state, and closed by an ostentatious death.
-- Tacitus, Agricola
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May 1st, 2008
| 10:11 am
Hooray for the weekend after seven straight. They cut our hours yet again. I thought more business meant more hours. Odd how that doesn't seem to be the case sometimes. Our assistant manager will be working part of the nights with us. He says he's doing it because things aren't getting done to his satisfaction. I think it's a good idea. Now he can see some of the things that go on at night, and why things aren't getting done.
Scipio molted again. There's a little shrimp suit lying crumpled on the bottom of his skullcave. The water won't quite clear up. I did a water change last week, and thought that would do it. I probably will do another one. The hornwort is growing like mad. It took a couple of months for it to catch, and Frankie has uprooted and destroyed most of it, but three of the stalks that are left are have almost reached the top of the tank. I can't wait to get a gigantic tank to put all kinds of shit in there.
It's fucking snowing for three hours now. In May. Today is one of the Festivals of the Bona Dea. Where can we find a pregnant sow? I ordered some books for the wifey, and some Roman shit for myself: some cookbooks and some books about the army from 100 BC to AD 200. Isn't that the right positioning for those abbreviations? I downloaded Tin Soldiers: Julius Caesar. This is the best game I've played since before I got tired of Madden NFL. I'm going to buy the vifey a new computer too. Hers is dead.
Send me love.
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April 25th, 2008
| 12:09 pm
News for the day:
After Near Extinction, Humans Split Into Isolated Bands
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080424-humans-extinct.html
About 150,000 years ago, humankind split into small groups—living apart for a hundred thousand years before "reuniting" and migrating out of Africa, a new gene study says.
The Future of Sports
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/080425-space-station-sports.html
Astronauts, by necessity, work hard in space. But during their precious time off aboard the International Space Station (ISS), some spaceflyers are picking their brains to come up with the future of space sports.
I started to watch Caligula, the one with Malcolm McDowell, and realized I was no where near stoned enough. Have you seen this? I'm definitely sitting down next weekend and watching it.
Brand names 'as old as civilisation itself'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml;jsessionid=0LECYUVDXYG0NQFIQMFCFGGAVCBQYIV0?xml=/earth/2008/04/23/scibrand123.xml&site=30&page=0
Bottle stops used five millennia ago in ancient Mesopotamia (today's Iraq), the birthplace of cities and writing, carried symbols that marked them out as the earliest evidence of branded goods.
nite nite
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March 31st, 2008
| 07:02 am
I'm sad. I bought Battle Line for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ninvampiress and me to play, because it seemed pretty simple and easy going. After reading the rules, I've decided that the game just sucks. It's pretty much gin rummy with hoplites. meh. I also bought the abridged rule set for the Great Battles of History line of games, to go along with Caesar - Conquest of Gaul which I already have. I figure I'm not going to find that many people who will play. If I use the simple rules, it might not scare quite as many of them away.
For all of you who hate managers on principle, I'd like you to try being one. I spend the first 15 minutes of each shift listening to my crew bitch about how much they hate work and why they can't work that fast tonight because [insert excuse], which is almost always their own damned fault anyway. Then there is the bitching because we don't have enough crew to cover absences and emergencies, but when a new person gets hired, the bitching turns to getting fewer hours each. I also love when they get pissed because I have to ask if they did what I told them to do (don't you trust me?), go check to see, and find out they lied to begin with. That goes along with me passing on specific tasks from the store manager--e.g. ordering a specific product, and getting offended that I don't trust them to do their job. Sorry, but you're not perfect, and guess who gets in trouble if you make that mistake? They complain about other people doing the very same things they do themselves. They think it's OK to resolve issues through revenge and spite. Everything is always me me me me me. Poor, poor, you.
If you hate your manager, look at yourself and see if you aren't part, if not almost all, of the problem.
Scipio is now in the 30 gallon tank with Frankie and Buzi. He has a new skull to live in which is probably three times as big on the inside as his old one. We're using the old tank to grow green cabomba so we have an excuse to leave it set up. Frankie keeps eating the leaves off of the ones in the big tank, so we can grow extra. Unfortunately he's eating it a lot faster than it grows. He shredded the hornwort we bought earlier. There are only a few tufts left. I keep shoving the bits that break off into the gravel. It sort of looks like grass when it starts growing.
We need and can't find popsicle trays to make juicesicles. Someone send us some. :)
And finally, the perverted picture request of the day: Make yourself up to look like a cat and send me pics of the result.
Toodles.
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March 15th, 2008
| 01:34 am
Today is the anniversary of the day Caius Iulius Caesar was treacherously murdered in the Forum days before he could embark on his Parthian and/or Dacian campaigns by those he called friend and son.
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March 11th, 2008
| 07:27 am
Several years ago I picked up a copy of Romans Without Laurels by Indro Montanelli at a used book store, and just now got around to reading it. I wish I had read it when I bought it. It would have made a very good introduction to Roman history. It covers most major events and players from before the founding to the fall, giving enough detail for it to make sense, but not so much that it gets bogged down. At times it's even slightly funny, especially for having been written in 1953. I don't like the way he often uses US dollar amounts rather than sestertii, etc, but I got over it. Any of you who have an interest in Roman history should read this.
From the introduction:
What makes the history of Rome great is not that it was made by men different from us, but that it was made by men like ourselves. There was nothing supernatural about them. If there had been, there would be less reason for us to admire them. Cicero and Carnelutti, the famous jurist, have a lot in common. Caesar as a young man was an utter blackguard, and all his life remained the woman-chaser who used to comb his hair over the top from the back and sides because he was ashamed of being bald. Augustus did not spend all his time like an automaton organizing the empire, but also having trouble with his colitis and rheumatism, and he very nearly lost his first battle against Brutus and Cassius owing to an attack of diarrhea.
And check this shit out:
Exquisite frescoes in the house of Augustus, the first emperor of Rome, will go on show after a 40-year restoration project. The modest villa, which stands on Palatine Hill overlooking the Forum was discovered in the early 1960s after a dig uncovered a small fragment of painted plaster.
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January 11th, 2008
| 04:58 am
Woohoo for 9-day weekends. I won't exactly call it a vacation, since I'm not going anywhere, but at least I don't have to go to work. We're going to spend the time looking at houses, sleeping, and frolicking together. We found a couple of houses yesterday we liked. Don't get excited; we're just renting until we build our credit up enough to buy a house.
I found the auto-tag feature on WinAmp. I'm in the process of fixing all the tag information. When that's finished, I'm going to figure out how to use it with my iPod. Have any of you done that? How did it go?
Presently I'm smoking, watching Family Guy, and reading Caesar: Life of a Colossus. What are you doing?
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January 8th, 2008
| 09:47 am
Hi. Iced tea rules. Work sucks. My wife ate most of my chocolate Christmas bear, but I didn't want most of it anyway. Inventory is tonight. Two of the crew have never been through one, so we have to deal with that. Hooray. I hate inventory.
What is your favorite historical period? What do you like best about it? Would you like to live there? What character would you like to have been, famous or not?
I would probably choose Rome, sometime close but prior to 180AD. The Empire was at its greatest, and there had been relative peace for almost two centuries, give or take a civil war or two. I would like to think I would have been in the legions, hopefully well decorated, and making my way towards Consul. Yeah, we'll go with that.
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August 8th, 2007
| 09:21 am
It's amazing how much better I feel after sleeping 50% of a three-day weekend.
Last night one of the guys called in. It was his last night. It's "funny" how often that happens, no? So two of us were stuck with enough work for five people. If we would have had another hour apiece, we probably would have made it. Oddly enough the manager wasn't pissed. He even said he'd make sure someone got it worked before tonight.
I am now the proud owner of this. ninvampiress bought me a nifty posh frame for it and everything. I'll put it in the library of the new house. I'll probably put it in the current library just so I can look at it. It's Gaul circa 59-50 BC.
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June 27th, 2007
| 10:06 am
I'm looking for a place from which to buy wall size maps of the ancient world. Most of the places I've found were pretty steep in price for anything of decent size. I did find one nice map for $35 (24" x 36"), but I'd like something larger. In particular I'm looking for the Roman Empire in AD 117, Gaul during Julius Caesar's campaign, and Alexander the Great's empire. However, if I find something else along those lines that I like, I won't be picky. Thanks in advance.
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June 22nd, 2007
| 11:48 am
I assure you it is no threat. Snows always melt.
--Mark Antony, Rome
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April 11th, 2007
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