Lightning update (for I have to leave to work soon!)
♥ Did a photo-project documenting my whole Sunday. Click the photo to see all the photos. This was first thing when I woke up--note how amazingly pokey my hair is! It's kind of awkward. The handsome cat is my baby Pepin.
♥ I am wearing my 'Reading is for awesome people' t-shirt today and it makes me want to talk about what I'm reading.
The Devil's Horsemen: the Mongol Invasion of Europe
This books is kind of dry but I'm really enjoying it. I've always had a wierd fascination with the Mongols and Genghis Khan in particular. I don't know why; they were astonishingly brutal. It's been rad to read about how organised and relatively modern their army was! No wonder they were so successful at fucking Europe, because in the Middle Ages Europe was so ridiculously backwater compared to pretty much everywhere else. Their military techniques were hopelessly outdated and most of their armies were untrained serfs forced to fight, whereas the Mongol army (at least the part that was Mongol, not made up of conquered tribes) was more like the Roman army--very organised, well trained, with strategies the other armies couldn't match. Granted, one of their strategies was massacring villages to make a point, but as far as military history goes--they knew their shit.
Plus, I kind of love horse-worshipping cultures. I was one of those horse girls when I was growing up. I grew up on a farm and we had horses--I was even lucky enough to get my own pony, for Easter no less! Reading about horse sacrificing (like the Celts) and seeing a horse skeleton (in my DK encyclopedia) always gave me the eeriest feelings. Anyway, reading how horses were everything to the Mongols, and how they gave their battle horses utmost respect and wouldn't ever eat them, but they would sip blood if they needed to, was kind of rad. It's really interesting for me to think about an entire culture completely based around a single animal that they revere and live with and eat and use for money and companionship and represent in art (like the Scythians did). It seems like the only thing we are obsessed with in our culture is money, and it's beautiful and romantic to me to think about loving an animal instead.
♥ Kind of fittingly, today's Canadian Music Corner feature is Corb Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans. I love country music so freaking much, and I kind of love Alberta. Here are two songs of his; I like the second better but they're both about cavalry, like the Mongols! Yay. 'Horse Soldier' even mentions the Mongols.
♥ Irinka and I went to Joshua Tree last weekend. Photos to come soon!
♥ I have some clothes for sale in the SG Sales group. Here's the thread to check it out! Three never-worn items! Sounds good, right?
♥ Uproot and I are making a spur of the moment trip to Arizona to visit grandparents + other relatives this weekend. We're going from Friday-Monday and we'll be in Prescott and Flagstaff. I am super excited! We will go through Sedona, too, and it looks super beautiful. It's supposed to storm so maybe we will even see thunder + lightning! I miss living on the prairies because I love huge rolling thunderstorms that rush into town and build up quickly out of a clear sky and thunder that shakes the windows and wakes you up in the middle of the night.
♥ time to catch the bus! Yikes.
♥ Did a photo-project documenting my whole Sunday. Click the photo to see all the photos. This was first thing when I woke up--note how amazingly pokey my hair is! It's kind of awkward. The handsome cat is my baby Pepin.
♥ I am wearing my 'Reading is for awesome people' t-shirt today and it makes me want to talk about what I'm reading.
The Devil's Horsemen: the Mongol Invasion of Europe
This books is kind of dry but I'm really enjoying it. I've always had a wierd fascination with the Mongols and Genghis Khan in particular. I don't know why; they were astonishingly brutal. It's been rad to read about how organised and relatively modern their army was! No wonder they were so successful at fucking Europe, because in the Middle Ages Europe was so ridiculously backwater compared to pretty much everywhere else. Their military techniques were hopelessly outdated and most of their armies were untrained serfs forced to fight, whereas the Mongol army (at least the part that was Mongol, not made up of conquered tribes) was more like the Roman army--very organised, well trained, with strategies the other armies couldn't match. Granted, one of their strategies was massacring villages to make a point, but as far as military history goes--they knew their shit.
Plus, I kind of love horse-worshipping cultures. I was one of those horse girls when I was growing up. I grew up on a farm and we had horses--I was even lucky enough to get my own pony, for Easter no less! Reading about horse sacrificing (like the Celts) and seeing a horse skeleton (in my DK encyclopedia) always gave me the eeriest feelings. Anyway, reading how horses were everything to the Mongols, and how they gave their battle horses utmost respect and wouldn't ever eat them, but they would sip blood if they needed to, was kind of rad. It's really interesting for me to think about an entire culture completely based around a single animal that they revere and live with and eat and use for money and companionship and represent in art (like the Scythians did). It seems like the only thing we are obsessed with in our culture is money, and it's beautiful and romantic to me to think about loving an animal instead.
♥ Kind of fittingly, today's Canadian Music Corner feature is Corb Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans. I love country music so freaking much, and I kind of love Alberta. Here are two songs of his; I like the second better but they're both about cavalry, like the Mongols! Yay. 'Horse Soldier' even mentions the Mongols.
♥ Irinka and I went to Joshua Tree last weekend. Photos to come soon!
♥ I have some clothes for sale in the SG Sales group. Here's the thread to check it out! Three never-worn items! Sounds good, right?
♥ Uproot and I are making a spur of the moment trip to Arizona to visit grandparents + other relatives this weekend. We're going from Friday-Monday and we'll be in Prescott and Flagstaff. I am super excited! We will go through Sedona, too, and it looks super beautiful. It's supposed to storm so maybe we will even see thunder + lightning! I miss living on the prairies because I love huge rolling thunderstorms that rush into town and build up quickly out of a clear sky and thunder that shakes the windows and wakes you up in the middle of the night.
♥ time to catch the bus! Yikes.
VIEW 19 of 19 COMMENTS
ladyexxa:
And shit, I wanna see pictures.
wadewalker:
I'm reading about the Templars right now. It's bizarre. 