Written By Appolonia
May 16, 2022, 9:08 a.m.(8/26/1017 AR)
Returned from wintering (all right, I am late) in Ischia only to find my dearest darling Maubert off on some sort of shenanigans. Very well, more covers for me.
Written By Appolonia
Aug. 9, 2020, 9:42 p.m.(10/22/1013 AR)
I believe I may have developed a way to understand the human personality in a concise way. I will say more after lunch.
Written By Appolonia
Aug. 7, 2020, 3:01 a.m.(10/17/1013 AR)
Sometimes I wonder about all these things that happen, about which no concern should be paid.
Written By Appolonia
Aug. 2, 2020, 9:36 p.m.(10/8/1013 AR)
Would you rather have a lot, but others had a little more; or would you rather have a little, but more than everyone else?
Written By Appolonia
July 12, 2020, 7:58 p.m.(8/22/1013 AR)
Hummouz - a Eurusi salad. Very good with bread. Keeps well.
Ingredients: One half-pound chickpea; one fourth-cup juice of lemon; three cloves of garlic, minced; two tablespoon olive oil, clear; half-tablespoon cumin; dash salt; two tablespoons clean water; dash ground chili atop
Seethe chickpeas until slightly soft. Spread in pan, roast in oven until slightly browned. Grind all in mortar and pestle until consistency is a uniform paste. (Best results with Setarcan molcajete.)
If available, add one fourth cup sesame seed paste for improved and authentic flavor. However, this commodity is far more dear for us than it is for the Eurusi.
Ingredients: One half-pound chickpea; one fourth-cup juice of lemon; three cloves of garlic, minced; two tablespoon olive oil, clear; half-tablespoon cumin; dash salt; two tablespoons clean water; dash ground chili atop
Seethe chickpeas until slightly soft. Spread in pan, roast in oven until slightly browned. Grind all in mortar and pestle until consistency is a uniform paste. (Best results with Setarcan molcajete.)
If available, add one fourth cup sesame seed paste for improved and authentic flavor. However, this commodity is far more dear for us than it is for the Eurusi.
Written By Appolonia
July 12, 2020, 7:55 p.m.(8/22/1013 AR)
Relationship Note on Kiera
Even if you don't arrive with a date, does not mean you cannot have one when you leave...
Written By Appolonia
June 21, 2020, 8:01 p.m.(7/8/1013 AR)
I have found the knife for me. Or at least, someone else did. How wonderful.
Written By Appolonia
June 13, 2020, 3:25 a.m.(6/19/1013 AR)
I think if I was born in the Mourning Isles, I would have been squeezed tighter - perhaps I would have taken a better shape, perhaps it would have reduced me to curds and whey.
Written By Appolonia
May 27, 2020, 8:03 p.m.(5/14/1013 AR)
But in all gravity, I have seen this term thrown around. It is, I think, perilous to call others "neo nobles" too casually.
It makes sense, of course, to acknowledge that some persons have joined the ranks of the nobility within their lifetime or recently. These are like our junior siblings, in a way; they have joined our ranks but they will have habits and patterns of thought that differ from our own. In many ways this is the entire point of the operation, I imagine, to bring in new views and to refresh the blood.
Acknowledging this is sensible...
__BUT__
It would seem uncouth to lean on the matter in great detail. Perhaps unwise. To tell someone they cannot have a thing is a matter, perhaps a detrimental one. But to render unto them a thing - and then say, aha, but not entirely, and perhaps not at all - is another matter entirely. You introduce a gap. You set yourself high, and they low: and the wise may note that there has never been a tale of an avalanche going uphill.
It makes sense, of course, to acknowledge that some persons have joined the ranks of the nobility within their lifetime or recently. These are like our junior siblings, in a way; they have joined our ranks but they will have habits and patterns of thought that differ from our own. In many ways this is the entire point of the operation, I imagine, to bring in new views and to refresh the blood.
Acknowledging this is sensible...
__BUT__
It would seem uncouth to lean on the matter in great detail. Perhaps unwise. To tell someone they cannot have a thing is a matter, perhaps a detrimental one. But to render unto them a thing - and then say, aha, but not entirely, and perhaps not at all - is another matter entirely. You introduce a gap. You set yourself high, and they low: and the wise may note that there has never been a tale of an avalanche going uphill.
Written By Appolonia
May 26, 2020, 11:24 p.m.(5/13/1013 AR)
When, do you think, does one exit the "neo-nobility"?
Ten years?
Fifty?
Seven generations?
Thirteen?
Ten years?
Fifty?
Seven generations?
Thirteen?
Written By Appolonia
May 26, 2020, 2:38 a.m.(5/11/1013 AR)
I wonder if every nation is like this, once you get inside.
Written By Appolonia
May 24, 2020, 9:58 p.m.(5/8/1013 AR)
This entry marks the end of an era, I think, though perhaps a small one.
I will have another, anon. Probably.
I will have another, anon. Probably.
Written By Appolonia
May 16, 2020, 6:57 p.m.(4/20/1013 AR)
The charters of the corsairs of Ischia prior to our adoption into the great family of Pravus are interesting reading in these trying times, and there are some facts in these charters that recur. Let me share a prototype, a sort of example that would not be too different yet elides all the small details that make them all so interesting.
"Given that all of the Treasure shall be taken in common and shall be divided into shares; that the Captain and the Master of Sail shall receive two shares; that Carpenter, Surgeon, Wainwright, Forgeman and Cook shall receive one and one half; that Serjeants one and one quarter; and every sailor at arms shall receive one; and that all who receive injury in the Fight shall be duly compensated," thus and such, with values given for proportional hurt - loss of a toe being valued less than loss of both eyes, and so on.
And further, that "All shall have common access to provisions and drink, save in times of Lack, whereupon a retrenchment shall be made for the benefit of all."
In my views, we are now, in a sense, all the crew of this great ship, this Compact. As a scholar and a student I could not claim, thus, more than one and one-half share in justice, and so I will be resolving to dine sparingly. I do not have arms to raise against Want, but I do, I am told, have two Kings and sixty Dukes to share. (As a memorandum to historical scholars, this refers to FORMS OF CURRENCY THEN COMMON. Also, AHOY FROM 1013.) I shall, therefore, submit them to the relief of the Poor beneath the broad unfurl'd wings of Our Faith (not the part with the swords).
"Given that all of the Treasure shall be taken in common and shall be divided into shares; that the Captain and the Master of Sail shall receive two shares; that Carpenter, Surgeon, Wainwright, Forgeman and Cook shall receive one and one half; that Serjeants one and one quarter; and every sailor at arms shall receive one; and that all who receive injury in the Fight shall be duly compensated," thus and such, with values given for proportional hurt - loss of a toe being valued less than loss of both eyes, and so on.
And further, that "All shall have common access to provisions and drink, save in times of Lack, whereupon a retrenchment shall be made for the benefit of all."
In my views, we are now, in a sense, all the crew of this great ship, this Compact. As a scholar and a student I could not claim, thus, more than one and one-half share in justice, and so I will be resolving to dine sparingly. I do not have arms to raise against Want, but I do, I am told, have two Kings and sixty Dukes to share. (As a memorandum to historical scholars, this refers to FORMS OF CURRENCY THEN COMMON. Also, AHOY FROM 1013.) I shall, therefore, submit them to the relief of the Poor beneath the broad unfurl'd wings of Our Faith (not the part with the swords).
Written By Appolonia
April 19, 2020, 8:46 p.m.(2/22/1013 AR)
Oh! I also had some new boots made, for travelling. I asked they use nails of steel, since I suspect I shall predecease these boots.
Written By Appolonia
April 19, 2020, 8:45 p.m.(2/22/1013 AR)
I have begun doing some simple experimentations in alchemy lately, to satisfy my curiosity on the particles of matter, and because I have no better occupation when it is so dreadfully cold out.
I look outside of my window and I look back at these glass bowls and I wonder, sometimes. When the particles are put into a particular fluid they will often sit and then they will gradually reduce in their visible size. They will, with the aid of fire or manual stirring, dissolve and disappear from view. When this happens, the fluid has changed. A simple example, O Posterity, would be to take some refined sugar and stir it into boiling water.
My thoughts turn outwards, when I do this, betimes. I see people speak with heat and passion. Sometimes I try to bring my custom to a shop and am gently informed that I am not welcome. I am in other cases reminded of injustices and imbalances in the nature of other events. In yet others, I am shown increase; and in others, death and decay.
At times I wonder, and I suppose I write this to nobody in particular.
A tree may live a thousand years, and there are great tortoises in the islands that are said to have lives far beyond those of man (though perhaps not of elf). Other creatures may have similar spans of life; though I do not know what sort.
Are there eyes to whom we are but particles of life, vivid specks of blood, dissolving in oil of vitriol? Are there hands that mind the crucible's flame, or draw the glass rod round? When I dissolve the powdered stone in the aqua regia, what would the fragments experience? Would it be horror, for them? A holy apotheosis?
Or would the stone perceive it as the nature of things?
I look outside of my window and I look back at these glass bowls and I wonder, sometimes. When the particles are put into a particular fluid they will often sit and then they will gradually reduce in their visible size. They will, with the aid of fire or manual stirring, dissolve and disappear from view. When this happens, the fluid has changed. A simple example, O Posterity, would be to take some refined sugar and stir it into boiling water.
My thoughts turn outwards, when I do this, betimes. I see people speak with heat and passion. Sometimes I try to bring my custom to a shop and am gently informed that I am not welcome. I am in other cases reminded of injustices and imbalances in the nature of other events. In yet others, I am shown increase; and in others, death and decay.
At times I wonder, and I suppose I write this to nobody in particular.
A tree may live a thousand years, and there are great tortoises in the islands that are said to have lives far beyond those of man (though perhaps not of elf). Other creatures may have similar spans of life; though I do not know what sort.
Are there eyes to whom we are but particles of life, vivid specks of blood, dissolving in oil of vitriol? Are there hands that mind the crucible's flame, or draw the glass rod round? When I dissolve the powdered stone in the aqua regia, what would the fragments experience? Would it be horror, for them? A holy apotheosis?
Or would the stone perceive it as the nature of things?
Written By Appolonia
March 29, 2020, 9:59 p.m.(1/8/1013 AR)
I have been reading so many of these old things I have forgotten to make my own. Hello, future historians: I am doing well and am very busy with this and that. The winter is awful, but it always is north of the Lyceum. I'm told it hasn't even really started yet. I am considering hibernation.
Here is a question for all of you readers: If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
Here is a question for all of you readers: If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
Written By Appolonia
March 8, 2020, 9:58 p.m.(11/22/1012 AR)
At last, we have finalized the manuscript... the main text, anyway. A wholly ignorant man at arms is to read it to see if we mangled anything, and then it is off to the scribes. Is this what having a child feels like?
Written By Appolonia
March 1, 2020, 7:24 p.m.(11/8/1012 AR)
One of the little quirks of the Eurusi language - ask me, dear reader in the future, how I know; of course, you will know already - is that it does not match the alphabet of the Compact precisely. I cannot tell whether they have developed their letters in a different way from our own, but some things are quite difficult to bring over.
An example will serve. There is a letter that was used in some regions of the Northlands and which matches the particular sound that we might render "th" as in "throw," "Think," and "there." This sound does not quite exist in many other languages, although the "th" letter did not become part of our standard script.
In Eurus, there are several regional groups - our equivalent of the Lycene, very loosely - whose names are quite crisply rendered... in Eurusi. At my current count there are seventeen mostly-accurate spellings of one, and a potential of ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN of the other. I will not attempt to render those here.
An example will serve. There is a letter that was used in some regions of the Northlands and which matches the particular sound that we might render "th" as in "throw," "Think," and "there." This sound does not quite exist in many other languages, although the "th" letter did not become part of our standard script.
In Eurus, there are several regional groups - our equivalent of the Lycene, very loosely - whose names are quite crisply rendered... in Eurusi. At my current count there are seventeen mostly-accurate spellings of one, and a potential of ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN of the other. I will not attempt to render those here.
Written By Appolonia
Feb. 23, 2020, 10:11 p.m.(10/22/1012 AR)
I feel very secure in this undershirt.
Written By Appolonia
Feb. 16, 2020, 8:42 p.m.(10.27388351521164/9.337476851851854/1012.7728236262676 AR)
Does anyone have any Eurusi phrases they would find very useful to know? We're preparing a crusaders' special supplement to the grammar.
By we I mostly mean me, but we do have a lot of help...
By we I mostly mean me, but we do have a lot of help...
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.