A Busy 24 hours

Well, lets see.

Monday, 7pm, first official meeting of the robotics team.  Various organizational stuff.  Should be a strong group this year.

Tuesday, 5am.  Got up to be ready at 6 for Vindolanda signup.  You have to be quick on the mouse to get a spot.  Success.

Tuesday morning.  Spent with a grand kid.  Doing play stuff.

Tuesday 4pm, Robot School.  Hitting the home stretch now.  This was the assignment board.  They did get it running and the paddle mechanism operating.  All wires now better secured.  We had a vote on the robot's name.  It shall be known as.....Jeff.  I don't know why.

Here is some frenzied end of session work to get it operating.  There are two sessions left, and plenty of shoring up and tweaking ahead.  But the basic mechanisms all work.

Oh, there's some kind of election going on as well.  Probably others will have things to say about that.

Capricious Thoughts

Sometimes I enjoy questions without answers.  They make you think.

Consider the word Caprice.  It means a sudden change of mind without apparent motive.  It turns up in French in the 16th century, apparently arising from an earlier Italian word, cappricio.  But where did that come from?

Some say it references goats (capro) and their tendency to frisk about in random fashion.  Or, perhaps it combines the words for head (capo) with riccio, a complicated word meaning curled or frizzled hair.  Having one's hair stand on end does not quite seem like caprice, but it is the sort of experience that might change your mind.

Seasons Change. Dogs? Never.

There's a Far Side cartoon I've always really liked:

Honestly, I think it sells "Bob" short.  Ever since wolves snuck up to the stone age campfires and started trying to be helpful, they've been playing the Long Con.  "Hey, take care of us and we'll protect you from danger".

Right.  What exactly do dogs bring to the table as compared to sturdy cave people who have spears and the use of fire?  Well, they can still bark their fool heads off in response to perceived threats....  Right, Hank?  The Enemy is inside the perimeter!!!!

Here's Hank's response to me making the dreaded Lawn Mower move.  Not run mind you, just move.

Well, he's sure giving it his best effort.  With the strange transitional weather we are now experiencing it won't be long before I'll be running the even bigger, noisier Red Machine.  I test started it right after I finished mowing/mulching.  Strangely Hank ignored it.  Guess a dog has to know his limits.

Tolkien and the Romans Part Two

 

 

This odd looking thing is the Ring of Silvianus.  It was found by a farmer in 1785.  The front has a recessed portrait and the letters NVS and VE.  This is a signet ring, designed to be rolled onto hot wax and leaving a raised "signature".  Around the band is the inscription SENICIANAE VIVAS IN DEO.

Although this contains a typo and some sketchy grammar it essentially says:  "Seniciane lives in God".  It is the sort of saying that was current in early Christian communities in the 4th century AD, which is the presumed date of the ring.  

There is no actual documentation that Tolkien ever saw the ring or knew about it, but he was both very erudite and a bit closed mouth about his work, so....maybe.  But he does factor into the story.

In the early 19th century, and about a hundred miles from where the ring turned up, a "Curse Tablet" was found.  These are folded up bits of lead with an inscription on them.  Usually you'd hire someone to fashion it, dedicate it to a god, and leave it in a sacred place.  This one reads:

For the god Nodens. Silvianus has lost a ring and has donated one half [its worth] to Nodens. Among those named Senicianus permit no good health until it is returned to the temple of Nodens

Here's a sketch of the tablet.  

Note the name Senicianus.   Silvianus sure thought he'd swiped a ring, and for it to be a matter of importance it sure would not have been a bronze trinket.  The inscription on the band would be new, but the rest would probably be original.  

Tolkien was consulted on the collection of artifacts that included this tablet, and wrote a detailed report, particularly with regards to what sort of deity Nodens was.  He did not mention the ring, but the man who commissioned the study was aware of it and I think would have mentioned it.

It's an interesting theory.  Is this where JRR got the idea of a ring that would be a curse to those who stole it?  And of course from the perspective of Sauron, all future possessors of The Ring would have been thieves.

As theories go it is nice and neat.  Too neat.  Senicianus apparently was a fairly common name in 3rd century Brittania.  It even turns up on other curse tablets!  And Tolkien - remember he was not a particular fan of Roman stuff - was said to be more influenced by Nordic sagas in which cursed, magical rings - occur.  And perhaps by The Ring of Gyges, as mentioned by Plato.  It was also magical and gave its owner the power of invisibility.  I don't think the Silvianus ring does that, but I do note that there do not seem to be any photos of museum curators trying it on!

For a more scholarly look at the tablet and ring question I refer you to one of my erudite excavation colleagues who runs a site on the Roman Inscriptions of Britain.  He thinks there is no link. 

One final thought.  The Ring of Silvianus is unusual in that it is too large to wear on a normal finger.  It seems to have been designed to wear over a gloved hand.  Odd.....and if Peter Jackson's writing and research people knew about this artifact and worked it into the movie, well, I salute them.

Tolkien and the Romans Part One

As of this writing I am in limbo regards excavating in the UK next year.  We'll see if it works out.  I confess, my mind does wander back frequently to the stone ruins of Roman forts.  It's very thought provoking.  

Of course I'm not the first person to feel this way.  One of the earliest descriptions of the ghostly ruins of Roman Britain is called "The Ruin".  Written in the 8th or 9th century and included in a later compilation of works, it sums things up nicely.  Here's the first couple of lines:

"These wall-stones are wondrous —
calamities crumpled them, these city-sites crashed, the work of giants
corrupted. The roofs have rushed to earth, towers in ruins."

Of course it was written in Old English:

Wrætlic is þes wealstan, wyrde gebræcon;
burgstede burston, brosnað enta geweorc.
Hrofas sind gehrorene, hreorge torras,

If you pay very close attention a few of the archaic words make sense.  "Wyrde" has become Weird, a word for Fate that Shakespeare dredged up for his "Weird Sisters".  "Gebraecon" evolved into "broken", and "Torras" for towers.  But what about that word "Enta"?

If it seems a bit familiar its because J.R.R. Tolkien borrowed this word for Giants for his Lord of the Rings "Ents".  Later in the poem the word of "Orthanc" also appears, and became the name of Saruman's tower.  

By some accounts JRR Tolkien was not a big fan of the Roman Empire.  That being said, he certainly baked elements of Rome into The Lord of the Rings.  The kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor being split and one conquered, basically reflect the Eastern and Western parts of the Roman Empire.  Even Gondor (ok nerds, Minas Tirith)  as a city with Seven levels of Walls has a bit of the "Seven Hills of Rome" in it.

And what about The One Ring?  It is after all the central plot device for the entire trilogy, and is what links it to the earlier Hobbit.  We shall cover that next time...

Walking along the River

My dog Hank is an endearing simpleton.  He knows what he likes.  He likes these things a great deal.  Most everything else gets ignored.

One thing he likes a lot is: Walks.  With the delightful fall weather, and lack of rain, I've been able to take him along the rocky shore of our local river.  As there is nobody else around I can even let him off leash.  I'm looking for things I like.  Artifacts for instance.

But sometimes when I wander in new places I encounter the unexpected.  Check out this short video clip....

Huh.  So why would there be a bubbling fountain of water just showing up 30 feet off shore?  Perhaps a great Kracken is about to rise out of the water?

Well, no.  Turns out we were walking along the steep bank atop which stands the city's water treatment plant.  There must be an outlet pipe extending out into the river.  Not as unpleasant as a sea monster.  Why, there were not even odors I could detect.  Maybe Hank could.  Smells are another of the things he likes a lot.

Homesteading Home Stretch

The Homesteaders have had marvelous weather here in the home stretch.  The project was delayed a bit by the rains of June, but to have weather like this in the second half of October is a blessing.  

Fall colors with off grid power, solar panels and neatly stacked fire wood.

Or if you prefer, fall colors and ongoing work...

Much of the current work does not photograph well.  Drywall finishing for instance.  But my assignment was not inside.  It was necessary to add a layer of insulation under the floor.  The house sits off the ground - but not very darn far - so one person could crawl under while the other fed rolls of insulation in to be secured.  Hot, tedious work while lying on uneven, hard ground.

It's always fun to work hard alongside your children.  Unexpected conversation topics are frequent.  Such as...why are rolls of insulation called bats?  Well, it is a delightfully obsolete word that refers vaguely to rolls of cotton that had been pounded with bats, or batons if you prefer.  The name just stuck around for rolls of insulation.

OK, then what about brickbats?  A brickbat is a partial brick.  Here a little "Stonehenge" of brick leftovers has been set up on the picnic table.

Brickbat means a partial brick.  It comes from a middle English word meaning a lump or piece.  Perhaps related to the sense of things being hit or knocked with a stick.  In more recent years it has acquired another meaning.  Severe criticism, as in things like theatrical reviews.  Evidently brickbats were popular things to throw during riots and protests.  In more recent times they have turned up in the imaginative comic strip Krazy Kat, a personal favorite of mine.

I must admit feeling a greater kinship with Ignatz than with Krazy.