Ramble on, and nows the time, the time is now

Whats annoying is having so much historical knowledge in my head, but without having an overall context to tie it all together. The other day, whilst running on the running device (I have no idea what the instrument is really called, only that I start with 15 minutes on level 15 'fat burn+' before I move onto the next curious device), my mind a-wandering, as seems the norm when one is sweating monotonously, I began to dream up a table of events for European history, it has to be European history as I don't know as much about the history of the rest of the world, and anyway my screen is not very wide (though I'm thinking of buying a new screen soon as I'd like to do painting on my own computer instead of only practicing at work) so I can only fit seven columns and have room to actually write anything and they have to be interesting to me. I imagined; the year, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Denmark and Other to cover the rest of Europe and the world. In each column, major events in the history of Europe, pertaining to my personal interests, Order Teutonica, the Normans, the Rennaisance, the Medici family, galley warfare in the mediterranean, Imperial Rome, Art history, Valdemar Sejr and the Northern Crusades and so on, with links to maps, lovely old Wikipedia and any interesting pictures which might shed light on the various Kings, Queens, battles, inventions, etc. I'm not too bothered about modern history (like everything post 1900) as most of it is so drab and depressing, and I already have a fairly good idea of what happened when and in conjunction with what. This idea deals mostly with the period between the foundation of Rome and the end of the Victorian era. Quite a lot of history, but sometimes difficult to get a grasp on what happened in one place as at the same time as events in another place. For example, the Venetians introduced coffee into Europe in 1615, just one year before Keplar was charged with practicing "forbidden arts" by officials in Württemberg. Theres no Burkesian connection between these events as far as I can see, and without Wikipedia, I'd never know it. With 'moifs wonderful overview of European history' I will be able to place events in different countries into context with each other. I've already begun and been suprised to note that Valdemar II Sejr was king of Denmark just a few years after the death of Richard I Cœur de Lion was King of England. That must have been a great time to be a war mongering bastard! Once I fill in the Germans, Italians and French, I'm expecting more curious juxtapositions of popular tyrants and their glorious fields of carrion. Especially curious is that Richard's crusade holiday to the Holy Land slides right in between the two big Danish crusades (the Wendish slaughter of Valdemar I and the Estonian campaign of Valdemar II). The latter is especially interesting as its when the Danish flag is said to have fallen from the sky at the battle of Lyndanisse, though I maintain Dannebrog is just the Crusade Banner of the Holy Roman Empire (the Germans) which must have been all over Estonia in those days with the Teutonic Order bringing baptism or death to the grateful heathens. The Battle of Lyndanisse took place in 1219, four years after Magna Carta was issued in England. Odd to think of these two events, each pretty significant in their respective countries, as being contemporary.

Meanwhile, life is still good. I haven't weighed myself in a while, but I can see the differences and they are starting to be profound. I'm guessing I've lost about ten kilo's and my daily uphill ride to work, whilst still leaving me drenched with sweat (though thats as much to do with the extra winter clothing) is nowhere near as strenuous as it once was, and I have started to cruise by other cyclists with something akin to contempt. Every once in a while some younger fellow on a racer passes me by and I urge Betty to go faster. Sometimes it develops into a silent race, but usually I lose these. Betty is so fat and lazy.

Taking my Wacom to work has meant I have the time to play with it, whilst I'm working of course *cough*cough* and some right minded nerds to call upon in case I run into problems (see my latest post at JRC-1135 for an example of what I've been up to). I really ought to have a domesticated nerd, sort of like a little bespectacled geek in a kennel whom I could call upon to sort out my numerous computer related problems. Its intolerable to have to sort out such things by myself.
I've given thought to the idea of self publishing Rocketman but so far it still seems more like late night induced fevered fantasy than a viable proposition. Thats never stopped me before though. I love pointless projects that require vast amounts of preperation, for dubious purposes and scant results. Thats how Rocketman came into being in the first place.

And now, listen to the music below because why not?