There's a new book coming out by Joyce Tyldesley, entitled Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt. Already out in Europe, its U.S. release date is soon, and from the review...

...Octavian staged it? O.o

There are some tweaks to be made and final terms to define, but I'm basically done translating Anna-Maja Nylén's article on the Sture shirts into English. There are a few sticking points.

Den har 2 st. upptill till intet avsmalnande veck nedsydda med efterstygn. I have figured out that there are two pieces at the tope, and that the sewing was backstitch, but the till intet avsmalnande veck is getting me. Is it "not tapering," but widening?

Have figured out that pipkragen and kvarnstenskragen indicate types of ruffs, differentiated by size. Have not yet determined what a krusförsedda collar might be, other than it indicates a high collar like that in the Sture shirts.

Apart from these, it's really just rearranging the English to be more readable, so runolfr's people can make sense of it.

"Your thesis was approved by Council and Board on 26th November.... I will resend the letter and graduation details today."

Er...well, apart from the 2008 thing...I guess that's good news.

If one is discussing the "skjort" separately from the "tröja", would the latter be an overshirt or jerkin? The author of this modern article on 16th-century pieces seems to be using "tröja" interchangeably with "jackor" but I can't be entirely certain she's discussing the same garment. Is it possible to use "tröja" and "jackor" in such a way?

Note to cat:

I know that the printed sheets coming out of the printer wiggle so attractively at you, but my Ph.D. committee is absolutely not going to accept "My houseguest cat ate it" as an excuse as to why I haven't made my revised-yet-again submission deadline. Kindly sod off for the next two hours while the second copy prints.

Oh, and I already fed you. Don't you go crying to whomever wakes up next that I've been neglecting you so frightfully, as that is a dirty, dirty lie.

Halfway through editing the final chapter, I have 77,333 words on 295 pages, not counting the bibliography. Still working today, while I have the motivation.

ETA at 21:00: Have finished my own edits, and have 77,630 words. From here, I have some comments from my supervisor on which to follow up, but it's all tweaking from here!

I managed a workaround to get Photoshop CS2 working in Vista ("You're trying to do something intelligent and useful! Cancel or Allow?"), so I've edited my maps. Chapter 6 is finished and off to the supervisor. Edits made from comments for all other chapters. Word count well over 76,000 words.

Could I be done by the end of the month? Fingers crossed.

Two more sections in Chapter 6 to finish. Word count well above 75,000.

Even having cut significant portions, I'm still well over 74,000 words.

Trying to keep up my motivation. This is the make-or-break chapter, and I've been putting in 18-hour days most days of the past couple weeks on it. My mental hamster wheel is running overtime, and I worry that it may be getting away from me. There's an end in sight, but I'll have to play Indiana Jones to get there.

That's what archaeology is all about, nej? ;)

I've managed to finish revising both the York and Waterford sections of my chapter on Ireland and Britain. This is the sixth chapter I've rewritten of the 7 overall to be included in the manuscript. I'm up to 72 245 words on 317 pages, though it'll take me another bit to finish this chapter. Am definitely on track to finish by the end of April.

I'm also finally getting into the Dublin material; this is the bit that's scared me to rewrite, as my examiners were particularly hard on these sections. Am not certain that my changes are exactly what they were asking for, but I'm doing as best I think I can from this side of the pond. Having finally located some of my bravery I've deleted a whole section and added several new pages from material I've finally managed to track down.

Why, yes, I've been working all weekend. Why do you ask?

Submitted the seventh chapter for comments yesterday. Today, I revised the chapter detailing methodology, which meant broadening some of my definitions (hopefully in ways that don't call my sample size into question and detract from the validity of the set I've already discussed) and including details of the selection process that I hadn't, previously. Will re-read the "context" chapter tomorrow, to see if it actually needs any edits; my examiners hadn't even mentioned it at all.

67,823 words in my master draft.

Binding this dissertation has been a circus of the stupid. I had to order A4 paper from Amazon because none of the retail stores around here stock it. Then, I finished one black inkjet cartridge, went through an entire new one, then had to finish using a third. The local office supply/bindery, once I talked to the not-stupid person behind the counter, said they'd be okay to bind A4, but that most of their machines were out of service. I called the next nearest local one, and they don't bind in store. Being referred to a third, they refused to bind that paper size. Going back to the first, the not-stupid employee had already gone home, and the really dense girl wanted me to leave everything overnight. I really hoped it wouldn't come to this.

Would someone in Dublin be willing to have me post both loose volumes over with a cheque for the costs, take them to be soft-bound, and send them with the abstracts to the TCD Graduate Studies Office?

I'm applying for an assistant professorship at Montclair State University. Wish me luck.

And happy birthday to tullgogh.

Received post from TCD Graduate Studies today, declining my application for funding for my research trip to Scandinavia. [insert creative invective here] At least I still have the €200 from the Grace Lawless Lee fund, and can make a claim from the department for some reimbursement for travel expenses, so all is not lost. It's just going to cost me more, personally, than I'd really have liked. :o/

I hate rejection letters.

I've been working with the Codex Hardenburgensis, today--specifically, with King Magnus Håkonsson's Laws of Norway from c. 1275. The manuscript looks fabulous, but it's difficult to read, even with some paleographical training. While I'm okay with Viking-Age Old West Norse, the language here has developed slightly, and I haven't encountered much of the vocabulary before. I've pieced together some of the text's idiosyncrasies, e.g. rounded r ligatures becoming more frequent as the text progresses, using y for i, not writing the h, dropping the t in the reflexive ending zt, &c. but it's really slow going. Am going to see if I can't manage to find the one English transcription that was done in 1935....

Had a small conference at the University of Limerick on Saturday, so I day-tripped: took the first train out and the last train back. Having gotten up a 4:00 (due to DH's "faithful watchdog") I was a bit shaky while giving my paper, but I think it went well. At least, I only got very vague questions about Viking topics not even remotely related to my paper. (I mean, the manufacture of bone combs has nothing to do with Scandinavian colonial kingship!) Would anyone else consider this a success? It seems to confuse people until I explain that evidently my audience couldn't find anything obviously wrong with my own work.

Got to see a bunch of people I hadn't in a while, and met a few more historians I hadn't. Sat around in the pub with the lads to watch the Ireland vs. France rugby match. Rounds of Guinness for a few hours, along with alliterative paper titles and generally erudite conversation. I need to do that more often.

And no, I didn't really see Limerick while I was there, so I don't have pictures. All I saw was the campus, really.

Definitely had an "Oh, shit" moment today, in rereading the paper I'll be giving at the IHSA Conference in Limerick this Saturday. I'd stated, pretty definitively, that Ireland didn't have evidence for breaks in settlement continuity. Realised today that I'll have to talk about Kilmainham/Islandbridge, which has been canonically accepted as the possible site for the earliest phase of settlement at Dublin--I can dodge that one with the evidence Linzi Simpson has been finding south of the "Dubh Linn," which would indicate 9th century settlement around the area of Dublin Castle and Ship Street Great. Unfortunately, though, I might not be able to dodge the Woodstown-Waterford connection very smoothly, though there's just no evidence to prove or disprove the connection.

At least I realised I'd have to mention both of these!

Went to UCD today because their library has things that TCD hasn't, like the issue of Norwegian Archaeological Review that Trinners was supposed to get and never turned up. And about fifteen journals I haven't had access to yet. And a couple dozen books that I couldn't find except through inter-library loan. I hunted down a book today where I found all but 15 of the 173 pages immediately useful to my work. You see where this is going.

So, not only does the library have Stuff, In Quantity that I need, said Stuff is also readily accessible on shelves, where you can walk right up and look at it. No dockets, no waiting a day for delivery--it's just there! Novel idea, that. inannajones, you should so get an ALCID card, if you haven't already.

In addition to the fabulous library, the campus itself feels a lot more like an American uni campus. It has huge expanses of open, green space (a lake, with fountains!); large, modern buildings; a covered mall (i.e. walkway) in the centre of the campus; concrete blocks covered in posters; a bookstore on campus--a lot of things that Trinity doesn't have. I'm not saying it's better, it's just more American, though the familiarity is refreshing.

The down side of this is that it takes about an hour and a half to walk to the appropriate library on UCD's campus. (Was a monkey and couldn't find the right library--went to the architecture library instead, though in my defence the architecture library is where they house Archaeology Ireland. [go fig]) It's a pleasant walk, with really swank houses and a view of the Dodder River, which is so much more picturesque than the Poddle by my house. I should just really take the bus, especially when my feet are in such bad shape.

...have you ever worried about whether you will unexpectedly meet clients/students outside of work, when you're dressed the way you like (whether that's goth, SCA, punk , &c.)? What do you do about it?

I haven't worried too much about running into my students outside the classroom when I'm gothed up on a Saturday night, because until this year I hadn't taught any mature students, but I worry that the mature students might find it too strange. I feel like I can't necessarily wear what I like because of the need to maintain that professionalism for them.

So, even after all that freaking out...got that journal article back, covered in ink. I've been given about four names of people to whom to speak on the topic, criticisms on several of the authors I've cited, and points made on the particular evidence (introduction of mortar, etc.) I've used to support the topic. On the one hand, huzzah for getting so much input (this is exactly what I've wanted all along--maybe I just wasn't screwing up so badly, before) but on the other, it's pretty much killed my interest in publishing it, because there's a huge amount of work to be done on it before it's publishable, and it's v. tangential to what I'm actually doing. Yeah, I knew it wasn't fabulous. Feel rather annoyed at having spent so much time in Princeton over it, but I've written to the JIA editor to apologise and say I'll be delayed for a couple months, and that I'll get something to him in a couple months' time for next year. Maybe I'll just submit half of "chapter 6", instead. Don't know. Need to concentrate on lesson plans for tomorrow, anyway.

Have been attempting to get some work done on Norway. There just isn't that much on Norway in the library, so I'll probably end up having to go to Cambridge, especially since I can't necessarily rely on ILL; had lots of trouble with that for the Danish material. Hate the thought of having to spend more money and go to a different foreign country in order to get my work done, but it may be necessary.

Yesterday, had to chase housemate's dog back into the back garden, then was chased by neighbours' huge monstrosity of a German Shepherd. Add to that the plague I've had all week and the stresses of pinching pennies so hard they bleed (have put off refilling my meds until Friday, when I can afford them)...genuinely wish I were back home, especially for the hugs.