No sleep? No problem!

I'm tired.

I'm also in class.  The teacher is talking about our papers.  He's been talking about our papers for about 15 minutes now.  He's telling us how to analyze primary sources.  I'm not really hearing him.  He keeps throwing in Arab names.  I don't speak Arabic.

Somewhere in there I keep hearing words like "sources" and "Richard Lionheart" and "French."  Oh, and "court historian."  I know they're supposed to make sense.  I know it. 

Hey, I heard the word "evaluate."  That's a scary word.  It implies critical thinking.  The scary part is the thinking. 

Critical is mean.

Why is critical good in school but bad in real life? 

Is critical good or bad in fake life?

What is fake life anyway?

I'm tired.

I think I said that already.

I finished my take home midterm, though.  It's all printed out and shiny in my bag.  I also scored 8/10 on my quiz.  Pretty good for not having time to read the chapter.

I had a lot more energy at 6 a.m. this morning.

I'd like to get back to learning about Alexios Komnenos and Byzantium.

Hey look, we're talking about Byzantium again.

I'm taking notes.  They're fun. 

Now we're talking about John Komnenos.  His sister tried to oust him from the empire and stick her own husband in there so she could rule.  His sister was a power hungry maniac, but she was pretty cool.  Actually, I don't know if she's a maniac yet.  I haven't written my paper on her yet... or done any of the research. 

John Komnenos married a German.  Her name was Bertha.

I thought about naming a goldfish Bertha once.

John stuck his sister in a nunnery.  She became a writer. 

That's a good life's lesson.  When world domination plans fail and you get imprisoned in a nunnery, write about how awesome your dead dad is.

Armenians had kingdoms of their own in Mesopotamia, but they were also in Egypt.  They were also in Crusader armies.  Armenians!  They're everywhere!

In the battle of Myriokephalon, the Byzantine army got wiped out by walking through a mountain pass when there were Turks around.  That wasn't very smart.

I wonder what Myriokephalon looks like with Greek letters.

I'll have to have Clarke set up Greek letters on my netbook.

Clarke is in the Bahamas right now.

That's okay, because it's in the 50's here.  When he gets back it'll be in the 30's.  Ha.  Ha.  Ha.

There were robins on the way to school.  I think it might be almost spring.

Almost spring isn't as nice as spring.  Almost spring tends to be cold and muddy, without the green grass or the flowers.  It's my least favorite time of year, because I spend it missing the snow and wishing for flowers.

And bunnies.

And rainbows.

And sunshine.

How I miss the sunshine!

Actually, I don't really know what I'm talking about, because it's sunny outside right now.

But, I'm not outside.

I'm in a classroom.

Is the vitamin that you get from the sun Vitamin D?

That's also the vitamin you get from whole milk.

I know that because they call it Vitamin D milk.  I think they figured that would sell better than "Will Give You A Few Extra Calories So That You Think You're Going to Blow Up Like An Inflatable Sumo Suit" milk.  The cows came up with that themselves.

Meanwhile the goats are going on a hunger strike and refusing to eat garbage because back in ancient times everybody drank goat's milk, and they miss the prestige that gave them.

But really, goat's milk is nasty.  It's no wonder people switched to moo moo milk.

Yes I just called cows moo moo's.

Cows are also known as Cattle.  Also Kine.  Oxen are a type of cow.

There are cows on the power point.

I'm not in Crusades class anymore, by the way.  I'm in Europe in the Middle Ages.

Though there were cows on the Crusades.

Knights rode them into battle.

Actually they didn't.  That was a lie.  But they were there anyway.  I don't really know why.

My teacher is talking about David O. McKay's house.  I have no idea what this has to do with Europe in the Middle Ages.  He saw a woman in a long dress, pulling a plow, in the 1990's.  He does this a lot.  Lots of tangents about his life and stuff he sees that really has naught to do with the lecture.  He also repeats himself a lot.  I'm learning a lot about what the world was like back then, but not so much about stuff that happened.  I'm not sure which I prefer.  Stuff that happened is interesting, but separate worlds are fascinating too.  At least I don't have to know dates.

I just found out that oats are considered horse food, and not human food.  Back in the middle ages, farmers would have to set aside land for oats, which they would feed to their horses (if they weren't using oxen), which they then didn't eat themselves.

So... where the heck did oatmeal come from?

I guess oats had to learn how to roll before they could be eaten by people.

I wonder how people came up with rolled oats.

Maybe some kid stuck oats in his pants and rolled down a hill!

Har har.  Yeah, I know.  I'm tired, okay?

Holy cow, this is a long post.

Okay, I'm done now, I guess.