He's more machine now than man...twisted and evil

But there's still good in him. I can feel it. I am referring of course to George Lucas, who has found it in his cold heart to release the original theatrical versions of the Star Wars trilogy on DVD. See the official Star Wars website. Of course there is a catch. The unaltered original films are merely 'bonus material' added to the re-re-re-release of the dreaded special editions, version 2.1. I will of course buy them, increasing George Lucas' bank account which by now must rival Scrooge McDuck's money pool. I wonder what other special features will be on the discs.

Sci-Fi Wasabi

Yo! Sushi is a dangerous restaurant. Kat and I went there for dinner Sunday night. It is a sushi restaurant where the patrons sit at the bar where fresh sushi passes before them on a little conveyor belt. You take whatever you fancy. The plates are colour-coded, and each colour is a different price. Lime is £1.50, blue £2, orange £2.50, pink £3, purple £3.50 and black £5. When you're done, your waiter/waitress counts up the plates and gives you the cheque. If you're not paying attention, you can rack up a heavy bill. This is quite easy to do when the sushi is particularly good, which it was. Except for the fact that the staff were eager to go home and began shutting down early, it was a highly enjoyable experience. It was the best sushi I've consumed on this side of the Atlantic. I am simultaneously thrillled and afraid that there is a new location of Yo! Sushi here in Leeds.
After sushi, Kat and I wondered along the Thames and across the Golden Jubilee Bridge, where I took this photograph:
This picture does not accurately portray the weather at the time. It was windy, and chilly, and threatening to rain. Not surprising considering the location, but still unpleasant if it is the last day of April.

I finished and sent in the travel grant to the Royal Historical Society for the conference in Iceland. I spent all day today working on it, and received an excellent reference from one of my supervisors. I should find out if I will receive it by 19 May. Keep your fingers crossed! Now all that is on my agenda is that book review, a paper for the conference, and that other paper to be published. The other co-authors and I have set and cancelled meetings three times since our last meeting, because as each appointment approached we had to admit to each other that we hadn't actually done anything with our portion of the piece. We were supposed to meet today but postponed again until next Monday.

My final Latin class, ever, was today. I've been doing Latin for two years now and am happy with my level of proficiency. In class we read some fairly easy quasi-philisophical text titled Vir Speculativus. I will continue studying Latin via the postgraduate reading group, but no more classes. And of course I'll use it in my thesis. This may be the last class I ever take as a student. I hope not.

I tried a new recipe for dinner last night, beef panang. It was delicious. The recipe calls for thin strips of beef cooked in coconut milk and red curry paste, with some fish oil and brown sugar. I added some broccoli and green pepper and served it over rice. I think it will be a new regular dish in my repetoire.

Sultans of Swing

I'm glad that this week, one of the busiest I've had in months, is drawing to a close. The meeting with my supervisors on Wednesday went very well and saw much inspiring discussion about where to go with my research. Yesterday's symposium was a resounding success. So tonight I shall stay in with Kat and watch Batman Begins on DVD, an early birthday present. Tomorrow will be grocery shopping, working on my thesis, and a shift behind the concession stand at the Hyde Park Picture House (whose website has curiously been down for a few days now). Sunday Kat and I are going down to London to catch an exhibit, Gothic Nightmares, at the Tate Britain, and an early birthday dinner for me at Yo! Sushi, both of which I'm very much looking forward to. Our return train will be arriving in Leeds at 2am Sunday night/Monday morning. Fortunately, Monday is a bank holiday, so we can sleep in.

Ramble On

So I thought I'd share what passes for humor among post-graduate students in medieval studies. In the UK, Easter Break lasts for one month, and we get no other holidays during term time. Over break, my classmate, Zsuzsa, went back home to Hungary. She left some of her library books here in Leeds, in the post-graduate shared office, AKA the Le Patourel Room. While in Hungrary she received an email notice from the Brotherton Library stating that one of her books was due back soon:

Brotherton Library
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
0113 343 5663
20-04-06

Medieval Studies FT
Zsuzsa
INSTITUTE FOR MEDIEVAL STUDIES

Dear Library member,
Another customer has requested this item. Please return
by the due date below. The item is not eligible for renewal.
A fine will be payable if it is not returned by this date.
Thank you.

Kantorowicz, Ernst Hartwig,
The king's two bodies : a study in
CALL NO: Philosophy M-4.2 KAN
BARCODE: 30106000745306
Brotherton Main level DUE: 26-04-06
DATE CHECKED OUT: 07-02-06 05:41PM

8:59

Zsuzsa's solution to returning the book in Leeds while still in Budapest was to email the following message to all other post-graduates in the Institute for Medieval Studies:

Congratulations!
You won!

Participating in the 'Work for Zsuzsa' communal programme you are eligible for the amazing new challenge: The Great Dungeon Experience!

Grab Ernst Kantorowicz and you might be the lucky runner-up for the next round!

All you have to do is find him on the top shelf in LePat and dunk the King's Two Bodies in the gaping orifice of the Great Hall of Brotherton.

Enter our amazing medieval-themed sweepstake by collecting the most dragon-points and gremlin powerscores!

Who knows? You may be the next winner who will have the opportunity to spend an entertaining night out with Leeds's only Hungarian celebrity!

Unbelievable!

You may even be eligible to enter the bonus mega-challenge and end up paying for the superstar's snakebites* too!

Don't miss it! The chance of a lifetime!

To enter the sweepstake report on your successful mission to our headquarters in Budapest.

Many thanks for participating.

To all those not wishing to be involved in the project: sorry for spamming.

The Zsuzsa

*A snakebite is a type of alcoholic beverage, consisting of blackcurrent juice and cider.

Communication Breakdown

So, I had a presentation yesterday evening that didn't go as well as it could have. Just as I began to talk I became very nervous, and consequently abandoned the sequence of my speech. I managed to recover after a couple of minutes, and apparantly aside from the shaky start, the paper was well received. I think the pretty PowerPoint slides I used impressed them. However, I'm a little ashamed about having been so nervous. After all, I presented a paper for a conference at King's College London last month, and I wasn't nervous about that at all, even though that was a more intimidating venue. Ultimately, I just wasn't as fully prepared as I could have been. That will not be the case for the conference in Iceland. The conference organiser requires all papers to be submitted beforehand. So, I've got to finish writing my paper, the travel grant application, the book review, and the other paper I owe to that editor.

Valhalla I am coming

I'm going to Iceland! I found a travel grant that I am eligible for, and really cheap tickets at Icelandexpress.com. So I purchased the tickets, and hopefully I will get the travel grant. The grant is from the Royal Historical Society, and the deadline is May 8th. It was difficult finding a travel grant for which I am eligible. Many funding bodies only give you grants if you already have a PhD. Also, being an American studying in the UK limits my eligibility. Now all I have to do is renew my passport and transfer my visa.

From Roman Provinces to Barbarian Kingdoms

Although it is mid-April the mercury in the thermometer is still hovering just above freezing. We had a brief warm spell last week but now it's back to miserable.
I went to the train station this morning to get tickets to Liverpool for Friday. The university is shut for Easter, so Kat and I are taking a day trip. We'll be going to the Lady Lever Art Gallery, which has many pre-Raphaelite works of art. That evening we'll be taking a ghost walk tour of the city, run by a company called Shiverpool. Maybe we'll see the grave of Eleanor Rigby. Kat and I have been on many haunted history tours in a few cities, including London, Dublin, Edinburgh, New Orleans...and others that escape me at the moment.
I got a surprise in my inbox this morning. A couple of months ago I read about a conference this summer in Iceland on saints and geography, which is closely related to my thesis. I emailed the organiser and asked about the cost and whether or not any travel grants were available. The organiser emailed me back with more details and asked how it related to what I was doing. Being in Iceland, the costs were a little high, but the papers being presented had a technologoical focus, discussing the use of databases, something that is very relevant to my current work. So I wrote back explaining what my thesis is and what I'm working on. The organiser replied and asked if I could give a paper. I explained that I would love to attend and present a paper, but only if I managed to get some sort of travel grant, because I am poor as dirt. I didn't hear anything after that for some time, until this morning a mass email about the conference appears in my inbox. It includes more conference information about travel and accomodation, and the conference schedule. Listed among the speakers giving papers is me! I guess I was accepted, and I think I should start looking for travel grants. The good news is if I go, I can recycle the paper I plan to present to the University of Leeds Medieval Group in two weeks. But I still have a book review to write and work to submit to my supervisors. Oh, and I just rememberd that other paper I owe to an editor.

After Rome

ho hum. I'm meant to be working on my thesis, but the temptation of the internet is too strong a distraction. I've got too much work to do: a book review, a presentation in two weeks, a database to build, a supervisors meeting quickly approaching, travel grants to find, and Guildor to frame for it.
Kat, my wife, and I saw The Princess Bride on the big screen last night, as part of a kids film festival. I don't know but I don't think I saw it when it originally ran in cinemas. Also saw The PianoTuner of Earthquakes. Very strange, like David Lynch meets Jan Svankmajer.
Saturday saw a great live show at the Royal Park Pub, with Frances Rodgers and Curtis Eller, both fantastic musicians.