elanya

So, I decided to cave to the current trend and write some porn based on one of my games. I hope that when it is finishd, it will prove to be disturbing. It certainly should be. I started writing it tonight, but have only gotten to introduce one of the priciple characters. I'm at the introduction of the second. I don't think that it will necessarily be very *long*, because of the nature of the encounter in question, but I hope that it will be creepy. It would be easy to see as just gross, but I'm hoping I can take it to another level. That next level should be 'sick'. I'm just curious whether I'm capable of it, and also, maybe people will never ask me to do this again ^-^

In other news, I mailed stuff to England today, and it was damned expensive. So I hope you peopel all know how much I love you. But I would have felt bad coping out because of the expense. Also, I have to thank Andrew fr volunteering to take some stuff to Waterloo for me. I have stuff all ready to go now, and what I can't fit in his backseat, I guess I will have to ship on the bus. he only problem is that I dn't know if I can afford my bus ticket :o Well, I'm sure I can scrape up the cash for it somehow. I probably would be okay if I had remembered to get the money from xypharan that he owed me from other people's Christmas presents before he went to cuba. Oh well. Actually, does anyone know when he is supposed to get back from that? I'm kind of wondering what my bus trip will be like, as far as stop overs go. I suspect I may have one in Montreal and possibly in TO, and it would be nice if there were people around in both/either place of I did. Maybe I could even plan it that way on purpose, hmmm...

Also, I accidentally gave away a copy of my dissertation. I hadn't really intended to, but whatever. I left in with one of my professors, who I visited yesterday. He can pass it around, I guess, to other people who might be interested. He was very interested in the set up of the program I was in. I think that letting him have it is kind of like saying that I'm willing to stand behind the ideas in it. I mean, I did pass the course, with a decent (if not astounding) mark. I got a 67 on the dissertation proper, which falls into the "Sound, competent, methodical and convincing work that includes relevant examples, is balanced and objective, has a sound logical structure and is free of major errors/ Shows the aqusition of advanced academic and vocational knowledge within a specialized subject area, and the ability to investigate original problems and questions comprehensively and accurately" category (60-69). I would have liked to get at least a 70 (Work of exceptional quality that shows considerable flair, deploying comprehensive and sound knowledge targeted to the assigned problem, with evidence of wide reading beyond assigned texts, and free of all but minor errors / Exhibits considerable originality and demonstrates excellence in mastering a body of advanced knowledge, coupled with logical and well-supported argumentation and delivered to a professional/publication standard of presentation), but I'll survive.

The actual comments that I received on it are as follows:

1. You have clearly undertaken extensive and thorough research on what is a very interesting topic. Some areas (required?) slight classification. you talk of a 'Golden Age' of Piracy, without precisely defining this. What about Elizabethan Privateers, condoned by the state?
The biggest problem was that archaeoligically, this is a very Margical topic. To really have pulled this together you needed to integrate the symbolism on flags more effectively with your numerous (and very good) parallels. Do temporal/regional differences in gravestone design mirror those on pirate flags? what other inages of death (i.e. coffins) do we not see on flags? Nevertheless, this was a well researches and enjoyable dissertation.

2. Fascinating topic, well-researched, although without much arch. content - nor were the implications of the flags for pirate identity + society fully discussed.

3. This is an interesting topic, and a variety of sources has been examined. You are clearly familiar with the material, and you have done a good job searching out parallels for the flag motifs. But you could have done more with these parallels - especially the tombstones. They are not really integrated into the text, and you don't analyse them in any depth. You might have explored the issue of the sector(s?) of society from which pirates came - were they liminal groups prior to their pirate activity? What happened to pirates when they died? Are there pirate burials? There should have been a table of contents. Excellent illustrations and good appendices.

So there you have it. I can accept these cricticisms, mostly. I would have needed a lot more time and lenght to handle all of those extra expanded topics, and in some cases the information might not have been relevant, or would have been a fairly complex question on its own, and not necessarily archaeological in nature (especially in the case of the third commentor). I would have liked to do more with the tombstones, but they were elusive. Commentor 2 is the one I rile at the most, but I think that was the external examiner. It is marginal archaeology, but it is still dealing with examining the past from a material culture perspective, and the implications for pirate society and identity were kind of the whole point and I think discussed pretty damned well. And I do define the Golden Age (though notprecisely.... it isn't a precisely definable period), and the Elizabethan privateer lie far on the outside of it. I think that people just have funny ideas about pirates, maybe.

Anyway, as I said, I'm happy with it. I'm afraid people over here won't understand what I'm doing though. Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

Yeah, I had meant to do this rant at some point. I don't know how it is related to the initial topic of this post, which was Sluagh porn. I think I'm going to go to bed now, and leave my creepy story for a time when I'm slightly more awake. And yes, I do still have a copy of my dissertation, and I have all the files as well. Though if someone has a burner that I could get them put on to disck with, that would be groovalicious. Arr.