I haven't put up a post in while and so for those of you who know me, but don't know what I'm up to, I shall let you know that I shall be off to Warwick in the fall to continue my studies. So, start saving and planning for a big visit!

Moving on, yesterday I was formally introduced to this magical enterprise called "Cultural History". Perhaps you've heard of things like "military history", "social history", "political history", and so forth; well, this is, dare I say, the "latest" such historical trend. However, this is a way of looking at the world that started perhaps as far back as the 19th century and Germany, but really took off in the 20th century, and yes, still in the west. Historians, for reasons that I won't go into, but are probably to some degree self-evident, are always slow at jumping onto band-waggons such as this. Basically, "cultural history", or CH as I shall henceforth call it, is an interdisciplinary approach that involves the use of a multitude of different materials, such as texts, and sculpture - and which smacks of the Classics discipline in general - to try and get a sense for how people from different cultures view the world. The underlying premise is that from birth, one's culture is continuously shaping how we view our world and make sense of everything around us. While objects may have a "scientific existence", how we perceive them is still shaped by our cultural experiences. As a comparison, the professor who enlightened us about the world of CH told us about this tribe somewhere in Asia and the word butterfly. If we are asked to describe a butterfly, we would probably describe its colours, its shape and so forth. Someone from this tribe - whose name escapes me - would describe in considerable detail the dimensions of this little creature, but completely ignore its colour. Why? Because they have an entirely different concept of colour.

Anyway, this mind-altering enlightenment may just cause me to shift my research focuses, or those that I had planned, in the future. In fact, I suspect that I already some sort of concept of the Romans, that is, they saw the world differently from us. In fact, some of my "ideas" revolved around this sort of stuff, only, only it was only "stuff" and wasn't as clearly defined, that is, this interest, as it now is. So, praise Jebus! I am Charlotte Simmons!

Moving on, that last reference will probably throw most of you off and so I shall tell you that it's a reference to fabulous new novel by Tom Wolfe entitled, "I am Charlotte Simmons". This is a book that anyone who's been to university, or perhaps college for that mater, can identify with. I may not be finished with it yet - it's quite long at over 670 pages in the hardcover version - but so far, I've been mightily impressed. Charlotte Simmons, surprisingly, is the main character, and someone I could see myself falling madly in love with had she not be a fictional character. As an aside, we'll ignore the fact that she's from a small town in North Carolina, conveniently like one of my closest friends at school.... The only problem is that this beautiful, innocent, and startingly intelligent girl is finally starting to fall victim to the evils that exist on the Canadian or American university campus. Still, compelling stuff that I highly recommend you go out and read. In fact, I'm quite happy with myself for "rediscovering" the wonderful world of meaningful fiction.

And with that, I bid all of you adieu. Time to fail some more 1BB3 essays. Keep on rocking in the free world, peace out, and God bless America, and nobody else!