Children... *shudder*
So there's a small child crying outside my window. Probably 2 years old-ish.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT? I live on a University campus. In study bedroom flats. There is NO REASON for a small child to be here, crying outside my window, disturbing my work (or lack thereof, I've been unbelievably unproductive today...). And this isn't the first time. It's been happening at least once a day for about a week now. If those parents can't shut their child up, they should get it the hell away from the rest of us who are all here trying to do work. What was the University thinking letting a family with a small child like that move into the studio flats in this block? Christ. I sure as hell didn't want to give up my summer, many thousand pounds tuition and a few thousand pounds for the privilege of living in this tiny little room to be here to work on my dissertation, so I'd like to actually have a decent atmosphere in which to do it.

Did I mention I don't particularly like children anyway, so crying children make me want to throttle something?

So what else is new in my life... not one hell of a lot. The sunburn from a few posts back is now peeling... which is great, if you're into that sexy dead-snakeskin-type look... My hangover still, three sleeps later, doesn't seem to have entirely gone away, so I'm praying that I'm not actually getting sick at all. That'd be the last thing I need right now, especially after the illness in Paris...

Dissertation is going well-ish. I need about 3700 more words, but I've run out of things to say. Unless anyone knows what the symbolism behind burning heretics is - so far I've found out that it's a derivation of old Roman law, but that doesn't tell me WHY Christians used that particular form of execution for heretics. Anyone? Anyone? Yeah, I didn't think so. I'm not having any luck, my supervisor isn't having any luck... The Catholic Encylopedia was no help... Very frustrated.

Oh, there was a thunderstorm this morning at about 2. It was great - thunder, lightening, everything. These are pretty rare over here, you're more likely to just get a bunch of rain spread out over the day, and the occasional nasty 20-minute downpour... For a while it felt like I was back home, sleeping through an Alberta thunderstorm...

I Am Reading
Academically: Rifling through "Medieval Heresy" by Lambert in the hope I'll answer the burning question... hahaha... burning question... I'm punny...
For Fun: Innocent Traitor (Alison Weir)
Pile of Books on my Windowsill: 7 - 2 read, 1 half-read, 2 flipped-through, 2 unread.
5 Responses
  1. I love the thunderstorms, I hate kids at amusement parks (even the amusement parks created for children), and peeling is sooooooo much fun! It's like watching a car wreck-gross and fascinating!


  2. Oh, and no clue about persecution of heretics...Need to know about modern trials and punishments-rape, genocide, ICCt, I'm your girl.


  3. genderist Says:

    Symbolism is great because it's free roam to make things up... the Christians were so anti-heretic that the best way to get rid of the heretics was to burn them, which both protected the Christian creed and reinforced the fear in the flock -- of both burning in hell and falling from the grace of the church. "Burning" them would bring a little more fear of hell, of not following the doctrine, to real life.


  4. Sarah Says:

    I'm going to suggest the obvious, but what about that witchhunters hand book written int he 14th of 15th C. Oh, and have you been able to obtain any manuscripts from the Inquisition? First hand sources, like diaries/journals...
    We have been short on thunderstorms, but i share your dislike of children, although as one coworker pointed out, its often the parents and not the child who are to blame.


  5. bipin Says:

    good luck with yr dissertation. you've got a nice blog going on here.. will keep visting.