![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eve_primeFaced with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
keyboard_monkey's Paean to Ennui, I find myself inspired -- nay, obligated -- to counterbalance its presence in the universe with an occasional journal of things that are, well, interesting and positive. At least to me. In theory, I'll write (from time to time) about things I've seen, read, heard about, or otherwise been amused or intrigued by.
Where to start? Well, on Saturday I read "The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek," by Barry Cunliffe, the prehistory expert at Oxford. I'd been intrigued by Herodotus mentioning Britain as semi-mythical islands where tin came from, but I'd had no idea what his source for the information was. Turns out this Pytheas, a Greek from Marseille, had actually travelled there by about 320 B.C. Cunliffe thinks he probably took an overland route to the Atlantic coast of France, then along the coast (by local boats) to Brittany, across to Cornwall, up to the Isle of Man and the various Scottish islands to the Orkneys, probably over to Iceland, possibly back to Jutland, and then back to England and down the French coast again. Amazing!
Today is my half-year birthday, and it rained really hard for part of the day, which was quite nice to listen to from inside the house. I guess that's all for now.
keyboard_monkey's Paean to Ennui, I find myself inspired -- nay, obligated -- to counterbalance its presence in the universe with an occasional journal of things that are, well, interesting and positive. At least to me. In theory, I'll write (from time to time) about things I've seen, read, heard about, or otherwise been amused or intrigued by.Where to start? Well, on Saturday I read "The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek," by Barry Cunliffe, the prehistory expert at Oxford. I'd been intrigued by Herodotus mentioning Britain as semi-mythical islands where tin came from, but I'd had no idea what his source for the information was. Turns out this Pytheas, a Greek from Marseille, had actually travelled there by about 320 B.C. Cunliffe thinks he probably took an overland route to the Atlantic coast of France, then along the coast (by local boats) to Brittany, across to Cornwall, up to the Isle of Man and the various Scottish islands to the Orkneys, probably over to Iceland, possibly back to Jutland, and then back to England and down the French coast again. Amazing!
Today is my half-year birthday, and it rained really hard for part of the day, which was quite nice to listen to from inside the house. I guess that's all for now.