beboots: (Canada "discovery" history)
[personal profile] beboots
 Good evening, everyone! Happy Valentines day, for those of you who celebrate it! 

First, a brief link recommendation. If you've never heard of Postsecrets, you should definitely check them out: essentially, people send in anonymous postcards with their secrets on them. Some are sad, some are quirky, some are touching, and all are absolutely awesome. This week they have a Valentine-themed series of postcard secrets for you to look at. This one was my favourite: 


Furthermore, the Edmonton Journal (which, along with the National Post, I read almost every day to keep up with news about the world) apparently held a contest for the best Edmonton-themed Valentines cards, most of them poking fun at the city. This particular one was my absolute favourite, mostly because I had to cross that bridge five days a week to get to Fort Edmonton this past summer. It was murder during rush hour when it was down to one lane. >_<; It's been under construction for at least two and half years.

For more, see here!

As a side note, I did celebrate this Valentine's Day as a single person. Here's hoping that I shall find my true love in the coming year! :) I should mention that I mostly enjoy Valentine's Day because it also doubles as my dearest mother's birthday! We have flowers and chocolate about the house, then, regardless of the state of our personal lives. :) Happy birthday, mother mine! Now, tomorrow is the holiday I look forward to even more than the events of St. Valentine... Cheap Chocolate Day! Celebrated: wherever chocolate is sold!

On a final note... I actually began writing this post in response to the lovely surprise left for me at [livejournal.com profile] atla_valentine. I hadn't realized that people would leave me messages! :)  They made me smile. Therefore, my original plan had been, in response to people writing lovely flattering things about the history dorkery that goes on in this journal, to write a post about some of the crazy little tidbits I've been learning about in my History of Translation class... which just so happens to be what I'm studying for at the moment (even as I procrastinate reviewing for the midterm to write this post). I'll get around to that very soon! It will still happen!

I did, however, just have a thought. Maybe I could do something completely and utterly crazy and unprecedented. I could... do a history meme. I want to share the love with you guys. I love telling historical anecdotes; I like to think I got quite good at it while working at Fort Edmonton. Maybe no-one will want to play with me. I will still tell crazy history stories to the world! Just give me a direction, guys. :) What do you want to hear?

It shall be a shameless effort at trying to emulate the cool kids (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE), only instead of fanfic, it will be random history tidbits, in the style of the posts that have appeared in this journal before.

THEREFORE, what I resolve to do is ask you, the readers, for history prompts! Ask me a historical question: anything you like. For instance: "who is your favourite member of European royalty and what was the most interesting thing they ever did?" "What do you think is the silliest reason a war ever started?" "What is the most unusual historical artifact you have ever seen in person?" "What can you tell me about Canada's participation in such-and-such a war?" It can even be something like "tell me the craziest thing you know about the 17th century/the bubonic plague/aboriginal history/etc., etc., ad nauseam." I shall even search for an appropriate image to accompany the historical blather! 

If I don't know the answer to your question, I resolve to use my research skills and access to university databases to find the answer! You may get more coherent history squee if I've heard of the topic before, though. I have studied European history across the ages, some East Asian history, and lots of Canadian and American history, but still, don't let that limit your selection! I suspect that if you ask me something about the history of medicine or the French or English languages you will get extra-long anecdotes. Indulge your curiosity, and I will try to be interesting in return! :) 

Date: 2011-02-17 01:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beckyh2112.livejournal.com
Yeah, I've read about the writing. Hadn't known that about apothecaries before, though.

Interesting book recs! Oooh.

Date: 2011-02-17 02:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beboots.livejournal.com
What's your favourite ancient East Asian history tidbit? :D

Date: 2011-02-17 02:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beckyh2112.livejournal.com
Uh. Not so much knowing of ancient East Asian history, actually. I've done some brief surveys of the period in China, enough for me to figure out the story I wanted to tell needed to be set further in the future.

Date: 2011-02-17 02:31 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beboots.livejournal.com
I took an East Asian History to 1400 course in the first semester of my first year. Super interesting, but lots of it was just China... because China was such a powerhouse and influenced a LOT of what happened with its neighbours at the time.

I also took an experimental course called "History of China and the West" which was absolutely fascinating.

Date: 2011-02-17 02:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beckyh2112.livejournal.com
Yeah, at my university? Once you get past the world and American history survey courses, if you don't want to take courses on the Civil War, you have to be extremely lucky to get into the class 'cause there's usually only one or two sections per semester. D:

Did love my class on Eastern religions. Absolutely fascinating. (Asking me to recall things? Probably difficult. My brain tends to file stuff in very general terms, unless a story is super-interesting. So I can talk about, say, Buddhism [I was paying attention that day!], but not so much with significant historical Buddhists.)

Also, I had the bad habit of using the campus wifi during class in uni. I am amazed I still got as good as grades as I did.

Date: 2011-02-17 03:31 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beboots.livejournal.com
I think about history as one gigantic series of novels with a ridiculous number of sideplots and spinoffs and books written from alternate POVs and... yeah. I think of it in similar ways to what I do about really long series, getting to know all of the "characters" and plotlines... For things like European and North American history, it's getting to the point of filling in the blanks, or what I call "anchoring" certain information within larger plotlines. Like, in my history of translation class, we learn about some of the early English translators (including Chaucer!), whom I fit in by thinking of them as pre/post-Black Death, etc. I'm not sure if that makes sense. >_>

Wifi is so useful. And distracting. Luckily, I write my notes with good old-fashioned pen and paper, so it's pretty obvious to the teacher if I'm whipping out my iPod touch to check my e-mail in class, so I'm slightly less tempted. But before and after class, during breaks? When I really should be getting some readings or research done? D:

Date: 2011-02-17 03:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beckyh2112.livejournal.com
A lot of my recent history stuff has been in terms of daily life, mostly for writing purposes and because it's awesome. So I can talk a decent amount about life in Rome (please don't ask me to), but not so much about the history of Rome beyond the very obvious stuff. I need to get back to reading my straight history books.

I had a laptop for taking notes on. This was not a good plan. >_>

Date: 2011-02-17 03:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beboots.livejournal.com
Another thing I do is think of history in terms of people and anecdotes. Some historians don't like that - they need theory to back everything up, and that anecdotes are just cherry picked, etc.,etc... but I really do see the value in personal accounts and personal stories as both representative and unrepresentative of a whole.

... I may also get this preference from working at Fort Edmonton, which is nothing BUT the lives of everyday people.

Date: 2011-02-17 03:49 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beckyh2112.livejournal.com
The concept of theories being important to history weirds me a bit. The personal accounts and the personal stories, the archaeological evidence, what you can glean from what people wrote of themselves and the art they created of themselves (biased as it will be), that's what makes up history.

I wish I could work at Fort Edmonton. Or at the Homeplace on the Land Between the Lakes. D:

Reminds me, I love Assyrian rulers tendencies to write on the walls about how awesome they are. There is one whose name I forget who put down a rebellion, then went and put up "images of his majesty" everywhere in the no-longer-rebelling province, along with details of his campaign to put down the rebellion.

Date: 2011-02-17 04:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beboots.livejournal.com
EXACTLY! I really don't like historians who heavily rely on theory. I'm of the impression that theories and models are just that - representations - and they are by nature imperfect. To apply something to a theory you're going to have to do a bit of shoehorning. I believe that theories therefore distort the telling of history, to a greater or lesser extent depending on the situation.

Living history museums are AMAZING. (Also, the job posting is now open: you could totally apply and move up to the Great White North! :DD )

"I love Assyrian rulers tendencies to write on the walls about how awesome they are." OMG YES. I love how confident and unafraid they are of putting these things into stone. Also, LOTS of lion hunts to show off their manliness.

Date: 2011-02-17 04:20 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beckyh2112.livejournal.com
I'd rather read about what actually happened or what we can know about what actually happened, than read most theories and models. I think, the more limited in time and place and purpose the theory is, the more likely it is to work. I could also be misunderstanding what you mean, but that is just me.

... No, babe. Not financially secure enough for that.

You are making me want to go dig out those Assyriology texts I found on Project Gutenberg.

Date: 2011-02-17 04:23 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beboots.livejournal.com
Project Gutenberg is AMAZING. <3

Date: 2011-02-17 04:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beckyh2112.livejournal.com
It so is. :D Especially since they let me download stuff in epub format, so I can just stick it on my ereader.

I need to be immortal, Boots. I need more time to read. D:

Date: 2011-02-17 04:29 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beboots.livejournal.com
Precisely. One of the things that scares me most about dying is not being able to FINISH everything I want to do - and a lot of that is a giant reading list that just gets longer and longer every year...

Date: 2011-02-17 04:30 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beckyh2112.livejournal.com
I like to think Heaven will let me read all the books and go all the places I want to go, but I do not know. It frets me.

I would be a terrible Buddhist. I do not want to let go of samsara.

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