As you all know I have been completely inactive from the UNRV community for roughly a year and a half. When I say completely inactive, I mean it in the most literal sense. I haven't even kept up with friends that I used to often talk to outside of the site. Specifically Tom Isabella aka 'Gaius Octavius'...
He called a couple of times last year when I was completely indisposed and his messages were increasingly distraught in that he felt he had offended me and had lost my friendship. This of course was not the case but for a variety of now seemingly ridiculous reasons I never did return his calls and let him know.
I got the note from his wife Jean in late August last year about his horrible trip to ICU where they drained a liter and a half of fluid out of his heart (caused by metastatic adeno-carcinoma) and the loss of his left leg to gangrene because his circulation had pretty much shut down there.
I sent my regards to him then and knew that he had made it home (under hospice care) in early September last year but my own family was going through a very rough time then and I did not follow up with Jean about Tom
I have come to realize something during my recent vacation that I should have known or sensed all along... What with my natural aptitude at sailing and swimming, my love for the sea, my providential naval service & induction as a 'Shellback' (servant of Neptune), my choice of Nauclerus as a title here at UNRV, etc...
My run of bad luck lately may indeed be because I was forsaking the signals that I was perhaps all along a beloved son of Poseidon and have not been honoring Patros Genethlios as I should; an unfortunately easy thing to do when one is living hours away from the sea.
I'm writing this down in my blog here because there are enough of my friends here that will read this with understanding and without judgment or without thinking I've lost my marbles.
Anyway, the first few days in Jamaica were rough. A wicked north wind grew from a nuisance on Saturday (17th) to a full out gale by Monday night (19th) where the swells crashing on the cliffs were sending waves of spray up to and over 30 feet high. It became quite dangerous to go anywhere near the cliffs. The locals said a north wind like this was rare and many speculated it was being caused by the weird winter weather in the States.
Most everybody of good repute was saying it would definitely last until Thursday before it would calm down due to the strength it was showing.
I was determined for it not to last that long because I wanted to swim/snorkel off the cliffs and knew the sea would only be safe 24 hours after the swells had calmed. Rough seas churn up all the critters and push big hungry things towards shore
...and that bang was made by me hitting a wet, hard bathroom floor...
Yep, Saturday I slipped in a hotel bathroom and hurt myself pretty bad; dislocated a shoulder (may have broken it, getting it x-rayed this afternoon), smashed my face & broke one of my teeth.
The pain has not been fun. Can't get to the dentist just yet as mine is out recovering from surgery of his own.
At least I was able to see my regular doctor yesterday and now have a decent prescription for the pain.
Here's to hoping that 2007 is a considerable improvement on 2006...
Before I conclude the narrative of my journey to Hades to retrieve Gaius, I have to take a moment to share the reason I have been a bit scare this week.
I went to the mountains for my sister
While in communion with Hermes Diaktoros during the recent consummation of a vow, I have come to learn from the blessed conductor that a recent soul under his charge was none other than our own esteemed Neapolitain: Don Tomasso! :stretcher:
But alas! His poor wretched shade is stuck at the Plutoneum with no coin on his tongue! :nopity:
I am gathering up my gear hoping Persephone sends welcome, and I will be off to retrieve the ill prepaired Da
Oh Lord Apollon Parnopios!
What have I done my Lord to engage your wrath!
First poor Sufflavus is taken in vicious sacrifice and now a pestilence enshrouds my home that rivals the very breath of Typhon!
At every turn amongst my walls the putrescent emanation of death confronts me!
Not a room is free of the abhorrent presence of those macabre agents of decomposing flesh,
Those corpulent flying factotums of filth!
Oh Lord Apollon Parnopios!
What wretched effrontery have I perpetrated to deserve this vexation?
Nowhere can I find the source of spoilation,
Only the baneful torment of the malodorous smell and shrill sound of sibilation...
Begrimed I am in supplication my Lord,
Please lift this curse from my house,
Please let me find the source in order to expell the quandry from heart and home,
Please oh Lord Apollon Parnopios!
:notworthy:
My back yard is swarming with varmints as has been previously mentioned. However, since my neighbor the cat lady has been away during some construction on her house, her out door kitties have also been absent
So, it has now been almost 24 hours that the Perseus-Tufts database has been corrupted and non-functional.
I am like a diabetic without insulin, a manic-depressive without lithium, a colapsed lung patient without a respirator... You get the drift.
I continue to promise myself that if I ever have enough cash laying around to become philanthropic; Perseus Tufts will get it.
In the Blue -vs- Red Thread, I treatised a mantra. The following is more specifically what I was refering to (written in the 2nd Century BC):
"Thus the only hope still surviving unimpaired is in themselves, and to this they resort, making the state a democracy instead of an oligarchy and assuming the responsibility for the conduct of affairs.
Then as long as some of those survive who experienced the evils of oligarchical dominion, they are well pleased with the present form of government, and set a high value on equality and freedom of speech.
But when a new generation arises and the democracy falls into the hands of the grandchildren of its founders, they have become so accustomed to freedom and equality that they no longer value them, and begin to aim at pre-eminence; and it is chiefly those of ample fortune who fall into this error.
So when they begin to lust for power and cannot attain it through themselves or their own good qualities, they ruin their estates, tempting and corrupting the people in every possible way. And hence when by their foolish thirst for reputation they have created among the masses an appetite for gifts and the habit of receiving them, democracy in its turn is abolished and changes into a rule of force and violence.
For the people, having grown accustomed to feed at the expense of others and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others, as soon as they find a leader who is enterprising but is excluded from office by his penury, institute the rule of violence; and now uniting their forces massacre, banish, and plunder, until they degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and monarch.
Sound vaguely familiar?
I have two lovely plants (umbrella plant and some other tropical doodad) that are spending the summer outside so they can grow nice and big and strong.
Problem is that my resident squirrels don't seem to understand that there are no buried acorns in them!
Lately I've come home almost every other day to find the potting soil ravaged; my poor little plant's roots naked and exposed.
Phase 1 for thwarting their barbaric little advances is a nice layer of cayane pepper on the soil. But it seems that Jupiter Pluvius has a different idea today . It is pouring rain now and I think that my 'heated' little message will be diluted.
I must find some alabaster or sandstone and get to work on a Priapus. The joyful one of the phallus may be my only hope.
Does our vainglorious Emperor not know that perception IS reality in most cases?
It seems not, when the Pew Research poll indicated that quite a few Europeans think the US has become a dangerous loose cannon, he goes and tells them they are absurd.
Way to go buddy! That's bound to make them rethink their ill conceived outlook! Popularity polls should start heading for 99% in a matter of days!
Instead of the usual video on the screen behind the performer projecting what is on stage, Beck had an elaborate marionette stage recreation (even with their own working stage screen behind them).
Every thing that occured on stage during the show was completely mimicked by the puppets, down to the smallest detail. Not least of which was when the band sat down for dinner on stage while Beck did a couple of acoustic songs...
The whole thing was clever, artistic, awesome and entirely hilarious.
What a great freakin show.
I am going to see Beck at the Tabernacle here in Atlanta tonight. :pimp:
I just happened to be lucky enough to get a pre-sale invitation and was on the ball enough to buy tickets at 10:00:01 AM on the morning they went on sale & 00:00:05 seconds (or whatever) before they sold out.
I am extremely pumped. I have only seen the funky little white man once; at Bumbershoot in Seattle in 1997. That was awesome & I have no doubt that this will be too. He is quite the entertainer.
So it seems our intrepid Atlantic traders of the Bronze Age weren't satisfied with Iberia as the southern trade terminus; they ventured into the mid-Mediterranean...
There was a metal-centric trade network where (what I'll call) proto-Lusitanian/Tartessian traders linked up with Cypriot merchants through Nuragic-Sardinian intermediaries. Their Iberian jumping off point was where one might expect it; trading towns established on the coastal rivers closest to Pityusae & the Balearics.
It seems from the Archaeological evidence that (now this is only late Bronze Age mind you) they traded tin for scrap bronze & (of course) some status goods. The scrap was reworked in workshops adjacent to the aforementioned towns and then redistributed back home & along the Atlantic network proper.
This enlightenment speaks volumes to my previously held conviction that the Phoenicians didn
Boy did I just hit a jackpot...
Thanks to the Amazon.com marketplace I was able to pick up:
Encounters And Transformations: The Archaeology of Iberia in Transition (Monographs in Mediterranean Archaeology) for $15; which new runs $130.
The jackpot is not really in regards to acquiring a book that is normally out of my price range but what is in it. I have to admit I was expecting yet another book written from a Judeo-Centric view that Iberia wasn't squat or worth studying until the period of Phoenician orientalization onward (and that even that was fueled in turn by Assyria ).
Thank the Gods, I was wrong! Holy cow there are some amazing essays in there!!! The one that has taken me straight to Elysium so far has been: "A Thorny Problem: Was There Contact Between the Peoples of the Sea and Tartessos" by Dr. Manuel Bendala Galan. I mean, I've seen scattered, terse, matter of fact remarks before about Mycenaean interaction with Iberia well before the Phoenicians ever arrived on scene but never in such detail by a Spanish archaeologist, in a university funded compilation!!
I can not wait to read all the essays as I have no doubt I will arrive at the end with a completely illuminated view of the Iberian Bronze age and what that meant moving into the 1st Millennium BC.
Like one of the essays I skimmed over that went into depth about the connections between central Italian & Southern/Western Iberian archaeological data from the 3rd & 2nd Millenniums BC... Oh and the essay on Iberians in Sardinia...
The only thing that irks me is being reminded by this amazing publication of essays that there is incredible information out there trapped behind big dollar signs...
Most of what I read and most of the new books I purchase is still focused on my long term primary project (novel...).
The secondary, somewhat big project right now would have to be my Ligurian article that's been in the hopper for months. Though it's mostly complete I've put it on the backburner. I became concerned with the simple fact that there is not much out there on the Ligurians (especially online) and I know that once it's published it will mostly likely draw those odd few people (like me) that want to know more about them like gnats to a bug zapper.
In that vein, I don't want it to be half baked; I want it to be judged as seemingly definitive and so there are more sources that I want to capture (of which I like to see for myself and not take another's word for it). This takes time & money, both of which are at a premium.
My big 'however' right now though, is that I feel myself gravitating into another small sidetrack
The Mercurius mosaic had run it's course. Though I still really like my first avatar I used here; the Ulysses (Odysseus) cameo, I needed a change.
That being said, I think I've found a keeper with my new one. Given the motif (which I hope all will recognize...) coupled with the meaning of my forum name I find its ironic humor quite appropriate.
On a different note, I'm reading Lionel Casson's book Travel in the Ancient World currently and it is superb. I will submit a lengthy review to the site but I will say here that I think it should be in everyone's library who is interested in ancient history. It was first written in 1974 and is still perhaps the most diffinitive work on the subject.
It's almost 2 book in one as he covers the ancient explorers quite thoroughly as well as general travel in the Bronze Age up to Late Roman period.
On an even more different note, I pulled my thigh muscle really bad last week after it had just healed from 2 weeks ago. I've never had a pulled/torn muscle hurt that bad. I've been loopy on muscle relaxers since Friday and it still hurts; it is getting better though.
So, I had a great time in Jamaica. Fabulous.
Getting there and back was an absolute nightmare as I had to end up renting a car to Ft. Lauderdale (from Atlanta = +9 hours) to be able to catch my flight and again on the return. That was not in the plan. Especially monetarily...
I came back this week to a flooded basement and a missing cat (luckily not for long) and a week long Advanced Engineering refresher that was really just a misuse of my time. Furthermore I am having to host a 30th Birthday party (girlfriend's sister in law) at my house tomorrow for someone who did not find mine important enough to come to. (Petty grievance I know... ) But the amount of time, money & effort I have had to expend this week on it has caused me to feel more stressed post-vacation than before.
So what's the cherry on top?
My home computer died yesterday. I'm hoping its the power supply (as apposed to the mobo). I think that because I only put this power supply in there a year ago after similar symptoms (junk obviously) but could be more sinister. The problem is, it is not within my budget to troubleshoot at all until the end of next week at the earliest.
Anyway, I hope everone is doing well. I've missed UNRV!
So, on Friday I leave for Jamaica... :pimp:
Going to Negril for a week for some fun in the sun and relaxation. I will eat conch fritters and drink Red Stripe for all of you.
Oooooh I can't wait to catch up on some reading in a tropical location!
