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Oct. 13th, 2006 09:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrissaWoke up at 5:00 a.m., hurting and hungry. Blerrrrrg. Went and took drugs, ate yogurt, crashed out again and slept like the very dead until nearly 8:30. Hurrah!
My mother, now going into her third consecutive day of Hero of the Revolution status, suggested boxed stuffing mix as something soft and solid and savory to eat. She has been feeding me for awhile and is wise in the ways of queasy![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mrissas. (Just to note: she understands that boxed stuffing mix is not the same as real homemade stuffing. So do I. But it's something markgritter could buy and make for me fairly quickly, and under the circumstances it tasted like manna. sosostris2012, take note. If you get to the point where you really really really need carbs, this will keep body and soul together quite satisfactorily.) Also I think time is healing these wounds, so I guess the old saying is not too far off. I still don't feel fabulous, but this morning is progress over yesterday. Yay progress.
You were all very entertaining with yesterday's questions, so let's try any of these that catch your fancy (here or on your own lj):
Do you have a period of history, a region of the world, or a space-time combo that intrigues you in particular? Are there particular historical figures who catch your fancy? And hey, do you have any books to recommend about your own special obsessions?
Do you have a talent you're just discovering or just starting to use? How's that going? Or do you not believe in talent, and you're training yourself in a skill you feel anyone could do with study/practice? Or a mixture of both?
If you could pick one household task to have a brownie do for you for the rest of your life, what would it be?
My mother, now going into her third consecutive day of Hero of the Revolution status, suggested boxed stuffing mix as something soft and solid and savory to eat. She has been feeding me for awhile and is wise in the ways of queasy
mrissas. (Just to note: she understands that boxed stuffing mix is not the same as real homemade stuffing. So do I. But it's something markgritter could buy and make for me fairly quickly, and under the circumstances it tasted like manna. sosostris2012, take note. If you get to the point where you really really really need carbs, this will keep body and soul together quite satisfactorily.) Also I think time is healing these wounds, so I guess the old saying is not too far off. I still don't feel fabulous, but this morning is progress over yesterday. Yay progress.You were all very entertaining with yesterday's questions, so let's try any of these that catch your fancy (here or on your own lj):
Do you have a period of history, a region of the world, or a space-time combo that intrigues you in particular? Are there particular historical figures who catch your fancy? And hey, do you have any books to recommend about your own special obsessions?
Do you have a talent you're just discovering or just starting to use? How's that going? Or do you not believe in talent, and you're training yourself in a skill you feel anyone could do with study/practice? Or a mixture of both?
If you could pick one household task to have a brownie do for you for the rest of your life, what would it be?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 02:36 pm (UTC)General cleaning up and putting things away where they belong. Trash in the trashcan, cans in the recycling, junk mail in the trash, shoes in the closet, coats on a hangar. All the clutter-clearing that I never have the energy for anymore, and that makes it impossible to get a space clean and tidy.
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Date: 2006-10-13 02:41 pm (UTC)Dishes. Hands down - dishes dishes dishes :)
Do you have a period of history, a region of the world, or a space-time combo that intrigues you in particular? Are there particular historical figures who catch your fancy? And hey, do you have any books to recommend about your own special obsessions?
Anything Irish or in the Renaissance :) I *do* have a book of short stories related to Renaissance Faires - I have to go home to get the reference though :). The Wild Irish was a great historical fiction book about Grace O'Malley and Queen Elizabeth. Always nice to include both obsessions :)
Do you have a talent you're just discovering or just starting to use? How's that going? Or do you not believe in talent, and you're training yourself in a skill you feel anyone could do with study/practice? Or a mixture of both?
I *always* feel like I'm just starting to use/practice/hone my skills in music...particularly violin. I do feel that I have a talent for it - but talent alone is not enough. It takes skill as well which can only come with practice. In that respect, I do feel that most anyone *can* play a musical instrument, though all may not be right for some ;) - and I don't think that it's limited to a certain deadline age by which you *have* to start. I think anyone can pick up an instrument at any time and learn. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 02:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 02:57 pm (UTC)And while I've got your attention here, I'd also like to recommend The Modern Historian and From Dawn to Decadence by Jacques Barzun.
2. I'm just starting (in fits and starts) to take up visual art. Right now I'm working in collage, very strongly under the influence of Nick Bantock, but I'm also attempting to learn to draw.
I'm of sort of a mixed mind on talent. In my theory, proficiency in a skill can be ranked competence < excellence < exceptionality. I think an "ordinary" person can reach competence in any skill with practice and excellence with much practice, while a person with talent in that area can reach excellence and exceptionality with the same amount of work.
3. Folding and putting away clothes, hands down. I can't say why, but I really find that to be the most irksome task.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 03:21 pm (UTC)I got drivers license (after 3 years of lessons) two years ago. And it is incredible how much more one can do when having a motor and wheels. How much metal body makes up for ones own body giving up - I now think is either unfair to call powerful cars penis-substitutes for middle aged men ... or I am a middle aged man myself, just not aware of being one.
Sometimes I act nasty from just the joy of it: "Take it, lungs! You cannot stop me from moving fast, fast, fast for long distance now!" Having power to move fast is such a gift!
The above does not mean I am giving up on my love story with public transport, it is just that I never knew what it felt like to be fast and powerful before driving a vehicle myself. And of course I now secretly dream about having a chance to drive an 18-wheeler or to operate an excavator one day(yes, I did have to do some shoveling as a child and it was always too hard for me. Why would you ask?)
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 03:45 pm (UTC)I'm teaching myself to make wire and bead jewellery - I don't think I have a particular talent for it (which is not to say that I don't believe in talent), but I think I should be able to develop a reasonable competence. I'm having trouble finding time for it at the moment, though.
I think I would like a brownie who was good at cleaning the cats' litter tray, or perhaps dusting. One is nastier, but the other takes longer.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 03:52 pm (UTC)Recommended books: The World of Late Antiquity by Peter Brown (quick and easy intro to the period), The Barbarian Conversion: from Paganism to Christianity by Richard Fletcher (the period from a religious perspective), The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization by Bryan Ward-Perkins (a tonic for Peter Brown's excess of optimism).
Brownie task: Dishes. How do I have a never-ending pile when I live alone?
Talent/Skill: critical thinking. I'm a good synthesizer, but not necissarily a good analyzer. I find that I always need to ask better questions.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 04:19 pm (UTC)This is a tricky one. I keep thinking I have an answer, but then I think, "What about this other...?" and it doesn't seem so special. The three I keep coming back to, though, are North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean ca. 100 BCE-250 CE, the rise of universities in Western Europe, and modern Iran.
Are there particular historical figures who catch your fancy?
Bible translators. Any time, any place, any language.
And hey, do you have any books to recommend about your own special obsessions?
God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible by Adam Nicolson and Honeymoon in Purdah: An Iranian Journey by Alison Wearing are both good.
If you could pick one household task to have a brownie do for you for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Taking out the trash. Can't stand it, and it's hard for me to do it in a way that accommodates what I can't stand about it.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 04:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 04:29 pm (UTC)As for history, I like Mesoamerica, the Vikings, Japan, the Celtic countries, Renaissance England, the classical world, and Egypt. I refuse to name off books I recommend because I'd be here all month. ^_^ (I am, however, thinking of doing a Nonfiction Year of recommendations on my site at some point in the future.)
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 05:29 pm (UTC)I used to be really interested in the end of the era of Wales as a fully independent nation ... I went through a lot of era/region phases as a kid. *G*
2) I think I might have a little bit of an art talent, but a lot of art is just practice and learning to see. But I don't use it, even though I want to, so it's kind of depressing.
3) Either cooking or keeping everything tidy. Probably the latter, because I'm impossible at it. But the former would free up more time and mental energy.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 05:30 pm (UTC)I guess I have a few. I don't have one that I think of as my favorite. I like colonial-era through early 20th century Asia, because there are some great stories and personalities that came out of there. I like the eastern Roman Empire.
Do you have a talent you're just discovering or just starting to use? How's that going? Or do you not believe in talent, and you're training yourself in a skill you feel anyone could do with study/practice? Or a mixture of both?
I think writing could fall into this. I have done enough to know that I like it, but I'm really only trying to be serious about it for the first time. Writing fiction, that is. Writing for games is pretty different.
If you could pick one household task to have a brownie do for you for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Household repairs. Even if the brownie didn't bring its own materials, it'd save us a ton.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 06:35 pm (UTC)Talents: I am learning to be a researcher. I am discovering that I cannot avoid literature searches, however much I dread them, and that enthusiasm will not make up for not doing work. I've also realized that I'm good at plants.
Brownies: Vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, floor cleaning of all kinds. Not because I hate it, though it's not my favorite thing to do, but because I haven't trained myself to see the dirt yet. I haven't vacuumed or swept in months because it just doesn't occur to me. I'm a horrible housekeeper in this respect.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 06:54 pm (UTC)Talents: I'm getting pretty good at spinning (but I nearly pinched off the head of an otherwise well-meaning colleague who came to my office the other day and breathlessly said, "I need to come see your spinning wheel! I'm so impressed, Princess Aurora!" I was hard pressed to remember that she meant well and not to tell her to shove the Disney crap straight up her orifice.)
Brownies: If the brownie could take care of my semi-annual summer/winter clothes swap, including closet reorganization and being ruthless enough to throw away beloved items that no, honey, don't fit anymore, that would be swell.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 08:09 pm (UTC)We have tried to convince my grandfather that it is not too late for him to learn to play the piano, but at this point I think he has remained unconvinced for long enough that we're going to have to give up.
New Mouse
Date: 2006-10-13 08:13 pm (UTC)B
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Date: 2006-10-13 08:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 09:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 09:29 pm (UTC)A talent: I'm discovering an awful lot of skills that I need to learn, mostly about managing teams... but I don't think I could call those talents with a straight face.
A brownie: Keeping things organized. It used to be the dishes, but I've realized that my apartment continually accumulates junk.
Or possibly, recruiting other brownies, to handle more household tasks. Then the senior brownie could teach me something useful about managing teams.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 10:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 10:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 10:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 10:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 11:13 pm (UTC)i would pick the dishes. i don't particularly hate doing the dishes, although i don't like it, but it has to be done EVERY day or so and ALWAYS will.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 11:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-14 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-14 06:25 am (UTC)Armchair Historian
Date: 2006-10-14 07:07 am (UTC)Egypt also fascinates me. Its history includes the rise of one of the first nation-states, a blending of religion and politics, and an ongoing obsession (or perhaps only acceptance) with the role of death in society. "Gods of Ancient Egypt" by Barbara Watterson was a good reference book for the origins of major deities, linked to the original time and area.
Unlike Manchester, I'm not sure if I would read Watterson's book for pure fun. If you see it at a store or a library, I would recommend flipping through. William Manchester has written a number of books and is (or was, now deceased) a prominent historian. He's very readable.
For pre-Renaissance literature, I would read Dante's "Inferno," written the century before the Renaissance took off. Also, the Renaissance does not get to England and the Continent for a hundred years after the Italian one. I don't know what was read then without checking an encyclopedia. If I read one book again written during the Italian Renaissance, it would be Machiavelli's "The Prince." I consider it a valuable guide to pragmatic politics.
The Greek city-states and the Roman Empire are also of much interest. "The glory that was Greece, the grandeur that was Rome." I see a lot of lessons and parallels in today's politics from Rome, but I have a lot of exploration to do on Roman writing. I do recommend the "Meditations" of Marcus Aurelius as a good source of stoic philosophy. I find it comforting and readable in small doses. It used to be regularly taught in schools last century and is still a classic.
For Greek reading, I'd say "The Illiad" and "The Odyssey are the starting points for literature. I can't say I'd recommend Virgil's "Aeneid" as a Roman epic. Maybe it felt too consciously crafted to give the Romans a source of national pride? But Homer is beautiful. There are many good translations, though Lattimore is the one I remember, I think.
Re: Armchair Historian
Date: 2006-10-14 12:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-14 12:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 07:24 am (UTC)This is an interesting question. I think the closest I come to thinking like this is a general fascination with the beginning of things: the development of spoken language, the development of systems of record-keeping, the founding of cities. I'm interested in tipping points, I suppose, when grunts and gestures become language, when deferring to the wise elders and strong hunters becomes government, when towns become cities. Right now I'm reading... uh... that book about oysters by the guy who wrote Salt and Cod, that's probably enough data for someone to find it, and it's got this extensive section on the founding of New Amsterdam and how the natives ate oysters and how the Dutch ate oysters and then how the British came in and ate oysters and the things that piles of thousand-year-old oyster shells can tell us about the people who made them and oysters being shipped through the Erie Canal as soon as it opened and it's all endlessly endlessly fascinating.
Do you have a talent you're just discovering or just starting to use? How's that going? Or do you not believe in talent, and you're training yourself in a skill you feel anyone could do with study/practice? Or a mixture of both?
I'm sufficiently bitter at the moment that I don't really have a non-bitter answer for this. (Bitter answer: At the moment I seem to be working hard on developing my innate talent of avoiding consequences until they bite me in the ass.) I do believe there's such a thing as innate capability for excellence, which then needs training in order to achieve excellence.
If you could pick one household task to have a brownie do for you for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Away-putting, except that I wouldn't trust any brownie to be able to figure out exactly where I want things to go.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 01:12 pm (UTC)And I picked brownies rather than human help because they could be magically perfect at whatever task. Of course, if you don't know exactly where you want things to go, that might be a higher order of magic.