I have missed you, I have wanted to talk to you, I will admit this weakness, I will admit this fact. So let us add this visual element in this truly open-book type posting. The day is moving ahead and so is my paper and the moment in time when interraction becomes possible.

On a plane to LA. Reading a book on the history of Southeastern Europe from 500 to 1250. It is good so far. I am also chatting with the people next to me, and considering falling asleep. It should not be too difficult. The conference is over and I had a very good time. I also had very good feedback on the paper. It was even used (I was not there) to make a broader comment regarding Byzantine Studies inner politics. So I guess I like being part of the broader discourse. Now I need to research it a bit more and try and publish it. I think it will be my project for the next month or so. It is a good way to go back to research. The people have spoken, they are positive about it, so I need to just write it. It should not be too dramatically difficult.

The social dynamics at the conference were pleasant. I ended up chatting with a bunch of friends and making some good connections with people I will be happy to meet again. As for St. Louis, well I know it only slightly better now than last time I was here with Frixos. I went up the arch and saw the kitschy cathedral dedicated to St. Louis. I saw little else. The company was good though. The Michigan crowd gave what I think were pretty good papers. In fact it is possible to say that Michigan is establishing a pattern that wants good rhetorical skills as part of our conference performance. I like that.

I feel that the trip to the US had one negative aspect in it. The food. I felt that the moment I moved to the states the quality of food collapsed. This is unfair to the states yet, the conference food was horrific and so was whatever else I ate in town. Admittedly we did not sample the best of St. Louis, yet the symbolism is potent. Cross the border and things will suck. I think I need to go out for dinner tonight once back home. I am still in a plane. Now I just need to switch the lap top off and simply sleep. Off I go.

So, I am evidently safe at home after a log day. More tomorrow. Tomorrow has come and I have this picture I just discovered thanks to a friend to add to this posting. It should go to a new day posting yet I am happy to let it trail after the American Experience. After all the americans invented the internet did they not?

[The emperor sent] to me from among his most delicate dishes a fat goat, of which he himself had partaken, deliciously stuffed with garlic, onions and leeks; steeped in fish sauce: a dish which I could have wished just then to be upon your table, so that you who do not believe the delicacies of the sacred emperor to be desirable, should at length become believers at this sight!

Reading on Byzantine food. The reason is not academic, yet I think that ultimately I will be able to better present Byzantine social life once informed about this subject. Other than that I am sleepy. I cannot wait to go home and sleep after my physical. The crazy Vancouver weather is slowly conducting some of the clouds to the far side of the horizon, letting precious rays of sun through the grey veil. I wonder how it all looks from the areas that must already be under the sun, like UBC and the sea. I wish I did not have to be here. Still, another 40 minutes to the doctor's appointment. Not that I am counting

Election day. It is strange to even say that, while sitting on the other side of the fence without the right to vote. Not that I am claiming it. Nevertheless it feels as if I am part of this process even as I stand excluded from it. It is really ironic what one ends up wishing. Pure spite and instinctual hatred of the posse rulling the country right now makes me wish to join the Democrats in celebration of some sort of victory. Yet, realistically, what can I expect from a compromised party fielding veterans as candidates? Who was the genious who thought that the way to change a militaristic approach to politics was to run a campaign on macho presence and military salutes? I do not expect Democrats to scale down military spending, in fact they promised to increase the size of the army. I do not even expect them to cut expennsive pet projects like the F-22, for these things are already too well established for spineless politicians to attack. I only expect them to project a more humane, less arrogant form of violence. A more tempered imperialism, one which combined with their diminishing world role may eventually lead to the end of American empire in a less than cataclysmic manner. For if we leave things to republicans, the eventual implosion will be potentially lethal.

Anyways, other than that, state of happiness. State of general exuberance and of course state of stress. You cant have a good thing without fearing you will lose it to all those factors out there that are conspiring against continuity. Still day by day, week by week one may hope to create safety around comfort (ooops this sounded like an American political slogan). I need to do a final edit of my lecture before I leave. So I will post this and be on my way. Have a good day, whether you are heading to the überlab, a Romanian environment-shredding factory, a Greek computer-software company or the world's headquarters of money-grabbing and money-creation. Cheers to all.

So, this is a first for this blog. I think that I am fascinated with this character Constans II, emperor of Byzantium. I had never really thought of him in any serious fashion. He is one of those characters, who fall through the cracks of historiography as unfortunately he comes at a time with relatively limited sources. Yet think about it, this man left Constantinople and moved to the west, feeling that the empire's future lay there. Think of the implications of his move. How Roman his choice, how revolutionary his approach. Contemplate a history where Constans is not murdered. Where the east keeps going on under his son and where the young emperor - only 37 when he was murdered - succeeds to reinforce Byzantine lands in Italy and Africa through the introduction of the "Theme" system in those territories.

Think of Italian thematic armies defending the land against the Lombards with the same guerilla techniques developed to fight the Islamic armies of Mu'awiyah. Think of a consoldated Byzantine Italy south of the Po. Of taxes levied effectively and of Sicily and Africa forming a line of defense against the Islamic armies. Think of a Byzantine Empire that continues to exist as a dual Latin-Greek state keeping the Roman imperial ideal firmly in its hands. Where does Charlemagne fit in that model? Well, we will never know as a servant of Constans murdered him in his bath in Syracusae in 668. One disaffected servant standing, hands bloodied, on the course of history. I guess what I am developing here is probably anathema to a view of history based on grand movements predicated on economic and social developements and longue durée changes. Well, who cares, speculation is easier in people-centered history. And tonight I wish to speculate.

Just came back from watching "Death of a President." An odd film. For all that I see what it is trying to do, I am not sure I enjoyed it that much. Even as a documentary (a fake one) it was almost too cheesy. Of course it can be argued that it is the cheesiness that conveys the message. Yet, what is the message after all? That responses to terrorism are dangerous, that the state finds its victims and ignores reality? Is it a questioning of the right to resistence or the forms of resistence? Is it even a critique on the medium itself of the media and of their way of depicting events? Can we say that the choice of mocumentary in itself is a mean to study the creation of reality? I do not know. The fact that those questions emerge attests to the success of the film on some level. The fact that I left with a feeling of so what, despite the questions is proof of problems in the attempt. As for the pretty Minoan ladies, they are there simply because I like them, they did not have a part in the film.