I let myself get way behind in Classics over the last few weeks. Between quizzes and midterms in Econ and Accounting and general random insanity, I let a bit of reading slide. I made up most of it tonight, and mostly now have Lucretius to finish.

Lucretius was this Roman philosopher around the 4th century BC who wrote "On the Nature of Things." It's Epicurean philosophy about the nature of the universe, and essentially combines quantum physics with accepting death and the world as the way things are. That's actually an awful summary, but my main issue is that it's a tremendous slog. It's a prose translation of a poem combining physics with philosophy. I am interested in neither topic. I just want to read more Livy :(

<Alicia> I'm not listening to you anymore [about directions]
<Tom> *singing* Prog-ress....
<Sam> Now we're getting places.

:(

may or may not have gotten lost literally a dozen times between Vancouver and Seattle.

I did find the site on Friday night though.

Yesterday, I got up at the crack of dawn to play Diplomacy with the Swing Kids. 8:45 is literally the earliest I have woken up in months; yes, it is nice to have a late morning/early afternoon class schedule.

I got there at ten and kibitzed and learned the rules while we waited for everyone else to show up. The battles (two boards) for world domination commenced at eleven. I was Germany and quickly took Denmark and Holland, setting up nonaggression with Russia and England while I tried to figure out what to do with France and Austria. Italy and myself attempted to take Trieste, but that didn't work out, and so me and England decided to take the North away from Russia while he was preoccupied dividing up Austria with Italy and Turkey. Things got awkward when I realized England was going to instead stab me. I anticipated the stab and supported Denmark with Kiel, but I thought that England would only stab with two units, either simultaneously attacking Sweden or moving into the Norwegian Sea and setting up to take Sweden next year, because anything else would leave Russia way too far ahead. Instead, I got it to the hilt (three units, including Sweden) and Russia kept everything in the North. Damn. I spent the next year anticipating England's attacks and defending, then got Belgium while he wasn't looking in the fall, bringing us back to parity. Unfortunately, Italy and Russia were around eight or ten at this point, Turkey had been stabbed, Austria was long done, and France was halfheartedly trying to do things in the Med but failing, so five and five was not nearly cutting it. We tried to take Sweden but England misordered, and when we did  they moved to Norway and England didn't anticipate and attack Norway from the North Sea. Italy and Russia kept expanding. I moved into France but had all my builds tied up, so my gains weren't getting me anywhere. Russia rebuilt in the North and stabilized, and I began working with Italy on a draw against Russia. Then I went to dinner and Jon took over, and I'm not sure if he was successful or not.

I liked the game, although it took forever to play; it's simultaneously interesting and frustrating, not because of stabs but because if people aren't playing as optimally as you anticipate you can get into all kinds of trouble. I think if England and I had gotten Russia in the North that things would've become a lot more interesting with fleet movement in the north as England and I inevitably prepared for stabbing. Didn't work out that way, though. I also didn't realize how I needed to free up my build centers, and didn't place enough importance on fleets. Oh well; next time.

Sigh. If you're going to have a Facebook and a Myspace, I suppose one might as well go all out and get a blog, too.