Hahaha, you can never go wrong with a coffee break.

Yup, got everything. *Puffs away.* Good Kaf, and I haven't brought any Seanchan with it. *Grins.*

Good. Procrastinating. How ya doing?

*Sprawls down and takes out tobac pipe.* Hey y'all. *Tamps and lights, puffs.* @Liitha Good place, thanks! I've got some Kaf with me, too.

Truth: I've eaten at Denny's and kind of liked it. Good breakfast 🙂 But, I suppose I'm an expat, now, and so my delicate New Orleans taste for cuisine has been smothered from eating what is considered food in the UK. Dare: No one's thrown a snowball at Cross yet!

*Sneaking in.* Does anyone want any Kaf?

Light saber.

Yes. The "Valid" plague in AD 858 was horrible because: 1. "Valid," the adjective, means strong as in describing God's strength strong: eg., a "valid" argument cannot be argued with. 2. So, Luke 21:10-11: "Then he said to them: Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 And there shall be great earthquakes in divers places, and pestilences, and famines, and terrors from heaven; and there shall be great signs." So, other events, we've got a: a. Valid earthquake. b. Just about the weirdest tree you can ever describe. (Sign) I'll include the description below because I think it's funny. c. A wolf that appears in a church then vanishes. (Sign) d. Abbot Louis of St-Denis was captured Easter Sunday. (Sign/nation/kingdom/people.) e. I should have put in my first post that there was a little civil war between the king of what's now France vs. the king of what's now Germany. 3. So, this "valid" plague was a sign too. (Pestilences). __ The tree: It had no leaves, but instead of boughs it had little tiny branches like blades of grass, thick-spread in places but longer, and instead of leaves it had things shaped like triangles and in colour like human nails or like fishbones, quite tiny and attached to the very tips of the grasslike branches as if they had been stuck on from outside, just like those little things made of various kinds of metals which are fixed on to sword-belts or on to the body-armour of men or horses by way of ornament.

Thanks! Again, haven't been able to do all that much. I sent in 1 and 3 a few weeks ago, but UofE has just simply stopped. I'm not sure where Alan and Bill went before, but this past week teacher strikes came: a fight between admin and faculty. The first came two Marches ago, and it was eerie: I finished the first draft of Chapter 1 early March, but couldn't do anything for the rest of March because the school was shut down and so I couldn't reach Alan. Thanksgiving I went to practice golf for the first time in weeks, and am standing so much straighter I wasn't half-bad at it. My coffee with Polly was, (unsurprisingly), unsuccessful. I'm still wondering how "might need a wife soon" wasn't a hint, but I got it wrong. Lots of good fish in the sea, though. It's also turned icicle-cold this weekend, and the gaming urge came back a few hours ago. I quit regularly smoking nine years ago by going cold-turkey, and by six weeks, the addiction had mostly vanished. It's been more than two months, now, since I deleted everything, so you'd think it would be gone, but nope. A good thing to do on icicle-cold winter nights, and I go out again on many weekdays. But I can't see how to start playing again without the danger of it swallowing me. I'm not in the shadow, anymore, though, and so wondering whether I can dip my toe in it again. To the PhD, though: Let me ask you whether this argument makes sense: The "valid" plague of AD 858 was baad, and I know this because the Annals of St Bertin took it as one of many signs and a possible warning of an an impending Apocalypse. 1. The adjective "valid:" Every time the Latin Vulgate uses an adjective beginning with "valid" (meaning tough, strong, etc), it's associated with God's strength. And see, today, you can't argue against a "valid" argument because you're arguing against the strength of God. 2. In 858 the author writes about many other "signs," starting with a "valid" earthquake, always considered the wrath of God in the Middle Ages. Next, the "valid" plague. Then, a weird-looking tree washed onshore, a wolf appears then vanishes in a church. Finally, the grandson of Charlemagne, Abbot Louis of Saint-Denis, was captured by a Viking on Easter Sunday 858. 3. So the plague was a sign, too. How do y'all like it? Now, the last bit: Abbot Louis of St-Denis, is the one I'm least sure about as a sign. The Annals of St Bertin say that he was captured, and that the Viking was able to demand a ransom so large it impoverished churches. They do not give the date he was captured: the first argument is that he was captured on Easter Sunday, but a second that's come up lately is sometime in 857 and he was released in February/March 858. I'm certain Abbot Louis was captured on Easter Sunday, though, not 857. The fact he was Charlemagne's grandson isn't unimportant, but the reason I'm sure of this is because the ransom impoverished churches.

Congratulations!

Well, fairly recently life changed dramatically. MANY things happened that made my life significantly better and might (finally!) make some of my life make sense! And that's due to a massage therapist named Vicky. My life has been...unusual, to say the least: head injury age 3, hip rebuilt age 12, summer age 17/18 a back surgery for a curved spine (called scoliosis) that ultimately did little, Katrina visited my city at the end of that summer when I still had a cane, epilepsy started a year and a half later at an airport age 19, although the full ones were few in number and haven't returned in 9 years, now, they've just been frustrating since (listening/reading/talking problems during them), physiotherapy beginning before physiotherapists had learned how to stretch properly (they finally did by the time I left college May 2011, but I didn't see that until 2011), so I wasn't able to cry during Katrina, but had to relearn that skill during college, and still need LotR Shire music to be able to let go fully , you get the drill, but I was still a leader during Katrina's aftermath and never got into anything illegal, like so many friends did. I've stayed a loner since, though, and have had plenty of other emotional issues. The trauma started leaving in May, though, and I haven't had even bloopy reading/listening/talking problems in more than a month now. I honestly think, with body and mind entwined, the fact so much trauma stayed and epilepsy came comes down, ultimately, to the fact I couldn't stand completely straight. Again, mind and body are connected: confidence makes you stand straight, standing straight gives you confidence, and the opposite is true, too: you don't stand straight when you feel you're awful, and you feel awful because you can't stand straight. And the fact I survived all the above and am still remotely sane should have made me confident a loooong time ago, but, until May, nope. The fact I can stand straight, now, though, is thanks to Vicky. This doesn't begin as a happy story, actually. Day after Christmas last year, I was playing golf with a close friend who's also my physiotherapist back home, John. Unfortunately, during the game I injured my left arm and got tendonitis. And it wouldn't go away. This was majorly inconvenient, because although it wasn't bad enough to incapacitate me, the only arm I can use atm is my left. And so, in March, I finally looked into massage therapy. After a few times looking at my left, she asked if she could look at my right hand. Of course, I said yes. And things began releasing: one after the other after the other. And so I completely signed up. My hand isn't completely open yet, but it's well on the way and everything's been INCREDIBLY weird. As she's been working on my entire right side, things have continued to be released. If you have quiet nights and drink a lot of water after an appointment, things can continue releasing for a long time afterwards, and for me, at least, it can sometimes keep on going well into the next day. In early May, one afternoon after a massage therapy appointment things kept on releasing so much that I watched my upper body straighten in my bathroom mirror, and it's continued to get straighter each appointment. My lower back has been more difficult, but it's still straightening, and I grew an inch taller 3 October. This past Saturday I put in "Today I..." that I might be getting rid of the limp naturally because my knee has become more flexible. I sometimes feel like I'm emerging from a shell since I'm not unhappy anymore. I've been one of the most oblivious men there has ever been, but, again, standing straighter, being more confident, that is going, too. When you think poorly of yourself, you think everyone else must think poorly of you too, and you've missed many things because of it, like a girl dropping to a friend in a conversation where you're the only male member that her mother is unhappy she hasn't found a boy yet. Confidence is its own thing, you've become more attractive, but hindsight tells you you always were, and you begin to notice that, at least by this time, many girls can't seem to talk when you're around and when the same girl drops that she thinks you might need a wife soon when you tell her you're staying, you finally notice it. It's so wonderful to know I've been an idiot, always! And I'm fairly sure that much if not most of this: the physical healing, happiness, and the fact I managed to ask this girl to coffee and am not completely sure it won't work, is, again, thanks to Vicky.

Well, I'm thankful for many things: we always talk about 1) life, 2) family, 3) friends (thanks!), 4), jobs (or PhD), etc, but there are plenty of tiny little things to be grateful for, too, starting with the simple fact we're able to thank each other.

@Elgee: I wouldn't be completely surprised if I chose it because of that. Reading major papers, I've sometimes wondered how many reasons for deciding, say, Yorkshire, are invented. I had to givee a reason why I decided to study the Early Middle Ages instead of any other time, and I've always thought answering that is akin to answering why you love someone. The REAL reason I'm studying the Early Middle Ages is because I read Horrible Histories: The Measly Middle Ages by Terry Deary when I was 10 and loved it. I'm one of four boys and we all read it MANY times. I think my mother still has the copy, if it was torn apart and barely readable when I last saw it. The reason I'm studying the Vikings is a bit more nuanced and well-researched, because that's where I found the link, but I imagine two other parts were that I read Terry Deary's Vicious Vikings at age 13 and that Alan is the head of Scandinavian Studies here at UofE. The reason I gave in my dissertation for the Early Middle Ages was, of course, that it wasn't well-researched. Haven't been able to do much this past week and haven't been able to think all that well. Deciding to change your life isn't easy, and it got even tougher after Wednesday night. (Read Today I... for reasons. Whatever happens, you can understand why that could throw a man into a loop for a few days.) 29 February is drawing closer every day. Now I've started beginning to stitch things together, I've got a lot of work, but it seems to mostly be work, thankfully, just polishing away.

Thanks. Today I got straghter again at massage therapy, and believe it or not, I think my limp might be going naturally as I'm standing straighter/becoming more flexible. Polly looked so surprised when I said hello to her Wednesday night! I'm fairly certain I've missed one hint from her a year and a half ago, (yay hindsight!), but there are many types of hints about many types of relationships, and I can't see this as anything but a special hint. (You can imagine I've micro-analysed it since--still am while writing this). When I began the micro-analysis after coming home Wednesday night by writing my mother to ask whether she thought I did the right thing in asking her for coffee, she wrote back YES! And, I do want to buy a ring someday.

Last night, I was at a Bible study, and I was talking to a girl who I've always really liked a lot, if I've never thought further than friend, and haven't seen in a few months. While I was talking about how complicated PhD deadlines and visa issues actually are now I've decided to stick around here in Edinburgh, she says, "Dan, seems like you might need a wife soon." (emphasis mine). Soon after, I asked her to a short coffee Tuesday, and she said yes. Oddly enough, in the last week or so I'd been missing and thinking about her specifically as the type of girl I could see myself finding a life with, if I haven't had my heart set on her herself. I was unable to sleep last night and unable to work today. (And so am writing on this board instead of correcting footnotes, lol.) I don't want to misread this, and if I am reading this correctly, (understandably), I really don't want to make a mistake here. She's a lovely young woman.