When You Are Ill, You Play

Yup,

I've been most of the weekend home-bound, with a stupid cold/cough that won't let me go, and feeling pretty miserable.

It was a good time, thus, to rescue my favourite games and install them in my less-than-brand-new laptop and play in the sitting room, while cudling my cat and watching some movies.

Thus, I rescued from oblivion Praetorians, Chariots of War, Gates of Troy, Centurio, and Rome:Total War (not in that particular order, actually, but, well... Also, I feel bad enough to ask you to search their webpages yourself, sorry)

Let's go in that particular order (which is memory, not preference):

• Praetorians is a RTS game where you are one of Iulius Caesar's legati (generals), through several missions, during the War of Gaul and the Civil War. You also play a legatus of Crassus in his particular catastrophic Eastern campaign. Things I like about this game is the feeling of being there you sometimes get, plus action, when happening, is really thrilling, specially the siege missions (both the ones where you gotta take a fortress or where you gotta defend your camp). The battle system is comfortable (similar to Warcraft, but you don't get resources, instead you occupy towns, and people is there slowly growing over time, which simplifies things), but not quite realistic, particularly because troops don't run away (most of your units will stick fighting to the death, which is particularly frustrating, specially with cavalry, because you know they could get away easily... grrr). The units aren't particularly realistic, and cohortes are of 30 units, while alae are of 12, where you will need a fairly big scenario to complete a 10 cohortes legion, so you don't really have great battles, but brief combats... It's cool, anyway, and artillery rocks ;) I didn't really played a lot to this one this time, because I had the others, and it requires a fairly constant attention, which my brain wasn't ready to provide...
  
  
• Chariots of War, one of my favourites, indeed, simple yet thrilling. It's a turn-based strategy game, which is easier to follow when your brain's gone jelly; I started a Complete Campaign as the Kushites, and so far I am virtually master of all the South Nile: problem is I gotta get out of there by fighting Egyptians and other tribes, and resources are scarce once you venture far from the river... It's actually harder when you start on a corner, because no matter what you do, all your neighbours end up hating you, hehe...
  
  
• Gates of Troy it's the continuation (actually a patch, enhanced version of Sparta) of CoW, and it's so much better in many things: you get ships and navy battles, better diplomacy and trade, and finer control over units, plus fighting grounds are huge in comparison: still, it's pretty Greek-centric to me, when I like to play as so many Asian cultures, sigh. I played one of the big campaigns with the Romans, who start from Illiricum/Epirum, and actually managed to win, with lots of cheers and whistles... Next time I'll get the opposite corner and play the Persians... ;-)
  
  
• Centurio is an old DOS game where you start in Italy and gotta get the whole Roman Empire, provice by province... It's kinda fun, specially because battles are based on morale, and you generally have little control over it, beyond the local neighborhood of the general, who has charisma and voice; it's descriptions are a bit silly, and it's diplomatic system is, well, silly, but it's fun, and if anyone knows how to finish a chariot race, please tell me!
  
  
• Rome: Total War, well, I have Shogun: Total Wars and it's Mongol expansion (I have lost the first CD, grrr...) and I liked it quite a bit, specially some Mongol cavalry missions... Could be better, but it's okay. R:TW, however, is nonexistant: I have yet you find a computer that has enough graphical support for it: I would sacrifice some graphics and play the rest of the game, I don't need the uber-super-trooper graphics, damn!

Well, also managed to read a bit, and study even less... My brain is still, basically jelly, and I feel like... you better don't know...

Anyway, what about you? Do you have any opinions on those games, do you have any srtategy games of your own into your favourites? I'd love to get one of these to let me script it somwone to simulate some battles, it would make writing The Lybian and Revolt! so much easier and fun! hehe...

Lastly, also watched some Jamie Oliver programs over the TV, (you have his webpage in www.jamieoliver.com), he's absolutely brilliant, and a delight to watch: direct, simple, effective, and fun to watch and learn! You'd really like to taste my Caesar's Salad now that I know how to do them (yum!)... Completely superb.

Well, that's all, happy Summer (Bealtaine and that, Samhain for those in the South, hello over there!) and take care...

KALLISTI!

International Day of the Book

So, how was yours?

Mine was a bit of a rush, but nice, overall: after Irish class, we walked down to the town center, where the main bookstores were open until midnight, and music concerts and bands were playing, among many other cultural acts related to books.

We got some books and comic-books: Green Lantern Corps: Recharged (how can't you love a superheroes comic-book where you have all the variety of species as you could get races in the Persian Empire? And where the power is your imagination? You can't, obviously :-), books 1 and 2 of the Spanish edition of Full Metal Alchemist manga (really cool), the first instance of Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet, by Arthur Conan Doyle, and La vieja sirena ("The Old Syren") by Spanish writer and Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) of the Language member José Luis Sampedro, an author I am starting to really like not just for his writing, but also for his thinking... We also got a couple of books about the real life of the author's cats, which are written in a very interesting point of view: the cats'.

I'm waiting a bit for the 'bigger' book safari, anyway, when the Old and Used Book Fair opens shortly, hehehe...

Last weekend, also, was interesting because we were in Cuenca, a beautiful town in Don Quixote's famous La Mancha, declared Humankind Patrimony by the UNESCO, with gorgeous landscape, wonderful gastronomy and really tight slopes! I went to the Archaeological Museum, of course, and got lots of pictures, including many remains found in nearby Segobriga, which was a very important town in Roman times, as intermediate point between Complutum (nowadays Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid; which articulated the trade from NW Hispania, specially gold and silver mines; and trade from Caesar Augusta) and Carthago Nova, with its harbors. I couldn't go there (shame!) but it has a wonderful amphitheater, and an almost "complete" circus, and a pretty decent forum, with lots of statues, and so... Really cool! Remnants of the old Almozarab castle (Alcazar), and old medieval town wall that's intimately mixed with the "modern" houses...

We got great weather, and a great time, indeed! We'll be back, yup!

So, how was yours?

KALLISTI!

ADDENDUM (the next day): OK, some afterthoughts, actually... I'll try to edit and post some of the pictures I got, not just from Cuenca but also from those other wonderful places, full with archaeological treasures, I have visited, it may be a monographical pictorial edition of de praeterito tempore... Just let me some time to organize it all, and then to get some bandwidth for uploading them...

And regarding La vieja sirena, the book's about an unusually beautiful and mysterious woman (hence the syren), in the Egypt of the III Century CE, and about her really hard life through the Roman and Persian Empires and how she interacts with, sometimes, unique individuals. . . Well, I'm in page 117 of 711, actually, so you can imagine I can't really say a lot about it... What I can say is that the author has taken special care in exposing the inner world of the main characters, specially the starring, of course, a woman of any names (basically, every time she's sold or kidnapped she gets a new one) and no definite identity; this shows even through the writing, sometimes even the punctuation reflects this inner world, with sentences riding on each other like thoughts in a shaken mind . . . It's not, however, confusing, but after a page, you get the twist of it and becomes natural and it's like a dimension slip, it fits.

The writer is a really good one, and it's shown in his mastery of the language, almost poetical in some fragments (the inner space ones): clear and direct, but effective and complex without becoming pedantic (as a counter-example, the writer of Tartessos, which I've mentioned before, writes in a somewhat pedantic way, he uses a very cult language, but it gets a bit really heavy sometimes, it makes reading it really tiring, and I'm used to old spanish and know quite a handful of anachronistic words myself!) and he's done his research homework so far with good marks: he even manages not to overwhelm the reader (which I have yet to master!) and that's, definitely, a sign of a master.

If you can find it translated to your language, keep an eye on this blog, because I'll probably recommend it to you very soon!

re-KALLISTI

Updating...

Long time no see, yes, my fault.

Life's got some kicking, I won't moan, though, but... :-P

I've been re-reading my current WIP, Revolt!, to get the twist of it, and I must say I've really enjoyed my description of the battle of Lade! (even if it may be wrong that I say so myself, but what the...) I'll have to review it, of course, but it's got rythm, it's got intensity, the personal twist I learned from writers such as Oden, Durham, and others (where I naturally tend to the aerial, omniview kind of battle description, too much Chariots of War, I guess, hehe). One question, though: I depict some classical trierei maneuvers, like the periplous (etc) and reading in other places (actually a translation of Herodotos's Histories I got in dead tree the otehr day), I got the notion that those maneuvers might not be used at the time of the ionian rebellion... Opinions? I think those could be perfectly used, even if the high numbers of epibatai in some ships may point to a more conventional assault-on-the-waters kind of warfaring...

Second, I saw a book just published in Spanish, written by Michael Ford Curtis, which'd translate back to English as The Sword of Attila, and reading from the back cover, it looks like it can be pretty interesting (not like the one I saw that looked like a love story between Attila and Honorius's sister, argh). Any recommendations? (it's hardcover and about thrice as expensive as it will be on pocket edition...)

I'll try to update a little bit more frequently, and participate on your blogs, I have an ontry on Gabrielle's pending...

KALLISTI!

QVOD NATURA NON DAT SALMANTICA NON PRAESTAT

I.e. 'what character doesn't give, Salamanca (i.e. culture or study) won't provide'.

This is the motto of the town I've been at this last weekend, the old Salmantica (nowadays Salamanca), the oldest University in Spain (founded in 1218) and one of the oldest Universities around...

It's a very nice motto in a really beautiful stone city. Character can't be learned, and attitudes come from our fabric, not from our learning process (now we could discuss if the socialization process is a part of our fabric as a social animal or not, but we won't do so at the moment, uh?).

It was a very nice weekend, we celebrated lots of things in a single row: coming of Springtime (and Ostara), the officiality of Irish in the European Union, and St. Patrick's Day, the national day of Éire (with green t-shirts that had a huge patch with a seamrog and the sentences, in a very nice gaelic font faces "Tá Gaeilge Agam... Agus Tusa?", and "Lá 'le Pádraig" which roughly say in Irish: "I can speak Irish, and you?", and "The Day of Patrick's Festivity")...

I got a couple tons of pictures, I'll post some when I have them sorted and scaled, but there are tons around on the web, anyway... I also got a couple of books, in one of the many book stores of this Universitarian city:

• one is a historical fiction novel written by Spanish writer Jesús Maeso de la Torre, Tartessos, which is about, um, well, the end of the Tartessos civilization (it was a very successful civilization sited in the south of the Iberia, around the Columns of Herakles and the Tyrian town Gadir, and it was swamped by Carthage in (or around) the VI BCE Century after Tyre started to lose strength in controlling its Lybian colony.)
• Hic sunt Trivium, Quadrivium et novum Sexivium, a small book written in "latinam linguam macharronice", published by the Spanish University of University of Caesar Augusta (i.e. Zaragoza). It's a very nice book I found in a kind of rummage sale, flea marcket organized by the Hound Defense Association in Salamanca; they were getting some funds for their cause, and I felt happy to help them and get this very nice book in exchange... I hope they get their goals, it's a real shame what hunters do to their hounds when they don't require them anymore...

Great weather (freezy nights, but at least it was sunny days: yesterday it was snowing at sunset in Madrid!), great feeling (I usually get this when I'm in a primarily University-Town, you know it's like youth, culture and easy-goingness are harmoniouly coordinated in those towns...), the people was very nice, food excellent, the views great... I will certainly remember the visit!

Now, you've been travelling a bit around, alright, what more have you been doing, dear Excalibor? Well, I've been studying, Japanese to be more precise (well, a small pet peeve of mine since my tender youth, and I have recently got tired of reading subtitles while watching Bleach, which I certainly recommend if you have never read/watched it!). I've also been reading about the History of Turkey, about the Mongols and Chingis Khan, and my Irish classes are going well... Oh, yeah, my novel(s)?

Um...

I've re-read what I've written of Alaric: horrible writing, but very nice story so far (short, OK, but kind of nice anyway). I'm still feeling tempted by it... But the star of the moment is Revolt!, and about it... I will definitely leave the Persian wedding for a later time! It's horrible! I can't work out a believable dialogue between the bridegroom-wannabe and the father...

Thus I'll skip it and get down to the recuperation of the Ionian towns and nearby islands, the failed Thracian expedition of Mardonios's and the Second Expedition that will lead us to Marathon and the end of the first draft (pending some Yaunâ part and the damned wedding...)

I'll try to get to it ASAP, but studying and life in general gets in the middle, grrr...

Anyway, I'll let you know!

KALLISTI!

PS- happy Spring and happy Autumn! (depending on which hemisphere you are actually living!)

GALLIA·EST·OMNES·DIVISA·IN·PARTES·TRES

No, I'm not reading C. Iulius Caesar's De bello gallico, but Rex Warner's Imperial Caesar.

It's pretty interesting! Gaius Iulius has always been one of those historical personalities that irremediably attracts me and, at the same time, I absolutely repel. I am, after all, and despite my efforts to stay socioculturally and anthropologically neutral whe studying History, a product of my times.

When I think of the great heroes of the past, specially the military/political ones (not the only ones I hold dear in my heart, but we are talking about the greatest of them in impact, and let's face it, money makes the world go 'round), I find a mix of fascination and abomination that I find particularly confusing, but irresistible: Kūruš (Cyrus the Great), Dārayawauš (Darius I the Great), Bagābuxša (Prince Megabyzos), Perikles, Aléxandros (III of Makedonia, the Great), Hannibal (Barca of Carthage), Pyrros (of Epirus), C. Marius, L. Cornelius Sulla, Cn. Pompeius Magnus, C. Iulius Caesar, M. Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Fl. Claudius Iulianus, Alaricus, Attila, Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi (Saladin), Chinggis Khan... All of them share an equal amount of brilliance and countless deaths.

When a modern author (or researcher) dives into such a personality (who was, invariable, a product of his time) I have found that they can fail absolutely, of make a wonderful job, in understanding the personality of the individual in his own time and circumstances. I found that in Gisbert Haefs' Hannibal, or Alexander books, in Gore Vidal's Julian, and I think I'm finding it in this book as well: a deeper connection between the superficiality of brilliance in battles and political maneuvers, and the personal circumstances that pushed them into a direction or another: even the biggest are helpless against the winds of Fate, and we assist to their triumphs and (almost invariably) ultimate demise with anticipation and--at least me--awe.

What do I think of C. Iulius Caesar? Well, I've read his most important books, and some of them with some intensity in parts (including the original latin), and I have read his life several times: the world is as it is today because of his. If we are forced to pick a few men and women that became capital, pivotal points in History, he would be one of the most important points (it's actually a very difficult question, because it's hard to separate cause from effect and new effects as they become causes, but I think we can all agree that, for one reason or another, C. Iulius Caesar was a pivotal point in ancient times, the same way Attila and Chingis Khan were in the middle age, or Napoleon in modern times...). At the same time he was the by-product of a long series of events that we can, ultimately, trace back to pre-History. Some things I can clearly and openly admire; others, however, make my heart feel crushed: I live different times (probably the cruelest, bloodiest times in all History so far)... But I think I can sort-of become a Roman (or a Gaul, or a...) of the Late Republic and like or dislike some things, but also understand him. And I think I'm gonna enjoy the book.

I'll let you know... :-)

KALLISTI!

Meme time!

(what a stupid use of such a deep concept, but it's kinda standard, anyway...)

So, what's been of me? Not much, sadly, lots of reading (wonderful reading) but not much writing... Gotta take the thing by the horns, as they say, but I'm too emotionally tired as of late to get my hands on the keyboard... I will probably skip an entire chapter on the novel and simply keep pushing, the missing parts will come later...

I'll let you know when I'm back again...

In the mean time, Scott Oden made this thing (but was so kind of tagging no one), and Gabrielle did it as well, but she was not so kind. However, she didn't tag me, and so I'm doing it (convoluted? Hehe, ever watched House? I'm dead simple... :-P )

Hope you enjoy it, I will try to enjoy it (at least I'll try not to scream and cry in my misery and, ... ahem... I will stop. Now.)

Straight Historical, Historical Mystery, Historical Fantasy, Historical Romance, or Time Travel?
Straight, undoubtedly (ironical, uh?) I enjoy the occasional Mistery or Fantasy if it's well constructed, but I get tired of them pretty soon, even if I'm the writer...

Historical Figures as Main Characters or Purely Fictional Characters in Historical Settings as Main Characters?
I don't mind... Sometimes I really enjoy the real ones, but others I feel them encased, contrived, and prefer the freedom of a fictional PC... In my historical settings, anyway, most of the guys are hypothetical (specially if your only source is Ktesias!) and I'm sure most of my favourite authors are in the same ship...

Hardback, Trade Paperback, or Mass Market Paperback?
Any, although the lighter the better, I commute with my whole writing office with me, enough weight with my own stuff!

Philippa Gregory or Margaret George?
Uh?

Amazon or Brick and Mortar?
Amazon, because Spanish libraries suck... Really.

Bernard Cornwell or Sharon Penman?
Uh?

(Not repeated, it's a different kind of 'uh?' but I got off font faces... Cornwell promises, but after reading Patrick O'Brian, it will be some five-years before I probably read him... no offense intended... as for Penman... mmm... uh?)

Barnes & Noble or Borders?
Mmmm... Neither, but I think I would enjoy Borders if I could go to one... Been in B&N in Sheffield, UK, some 10 years ago, it was okay...

First Historical Novel You Ever Remember Reading?
Not really sure, actually... Probably The Three Musketeers, by Alexander Dumas, but who can remember these things (besides Gabrielle, I mean)?

Alphabetize by Author, Alphabetize by Title, or Random?
First time, by author and subject/historical period (title is irrelevant, I order by size, so the bigger ones are in the bottom of the stack, or in the sides of the shelf), then Entropy takes its reign... I guess the right answer, time averaged, would be "organically evolved"...

Keep, Throw Away, or Sell?
Keep, keep, and keep... If I lend you a book, you can wear a badge showing your proud to the world...

Jean Plaidy or Norah Lofts?
Uh? (third kind of "uh?", yeah... lots of blissful ignorance in here, but I reject most books by time period or guts, that's why I gotta write them, nobody else does!)

Read with Dust Jacket or Remove It?
Either, even without covers and even without pages (at least until my Palm battery died horribly last year...) If they come with 'em (dust covers, I mean), I don't usually tear 'em off (but they are usually left in a very pityful state)...

Stop Reading When Tired or at Chapter Breaks?
Stop reading when I am forced (i.e. whe the train stops and I gotta get off, for example). Good contextual memory here... :-)

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”?
It's still a dark and stormy night, in which hemisphere do you actually live?

Buy or Borrow?
Buy or not read at all... Who has time to visit the Public Library? Lucky you!

Buying Choice: Book Reviews, Recommendations, or Browsing?
Browsing, Guts, and some (very few) recommendations... Remember, I'm the one writing the books I want to read and nobody actually writes for me!

Dorothy Dunnett or Anya Seton?
Uh?

(repetitive, I know... Let's sort this out once and for all: Patrick O'Brian, Gisbert Haefs are my heroes... Stephen Pressfield is very enjoyable, same with David A. Durkheim (at least his "Hannibal" was), and a certain Scott Oden's never failed my hopes, let's see with his Simba of el-Qahira (sorry, couldn't help it... hehe ;-)

I forgot a closing parens, here it is ----> )

Tidy Ending or Cliffhanger?
If I didn't love Stanislaw Lem... This is History, it's never tidy, not ended... But tiying some knots for the reader is nice, after all...

Sticking Close to Known Historical Fact, or Using Historical Fact as Wallpaper?
As close as sources, time, knowledge and hurry allow: you can't get swamped in research, you want to read the damned novel, after all! (this is, you have been forced to write it, at least finish one off, damn me!)

Morning Reading, Afternoon Reading or Nighttime Reading?
Commute time, mostly... W.C. is my second reading place, and the most intimate one, as you can imagine...

Series or Standalone?
I don't mind some series (just a few, and not too close between them), but I guess I prefer standalones... However some series are too good to resist (O'Brian, for example)

Favorite Book of Which Nobody Else Has Heard?
Revolt! Hehe, OK, I was joking... None at the moment, but let me think harder, I'll let you know...

And, for the Grand Finale, I tag everybody: I tag googlebot, Pierre, Queen Megumi, my little brother, Gisbert Haefs (I know you must be reading!), Gabrielle and Scott (again, hehe), and basically all of my 7 readers... Feel free to reply in here if you lack your own blog (liar... tsk, tsk, tsk...) or if you'd prefer it to be kept off my pawns... which sounds like a pretty intelligent thing to do, anyway...

KALLISTI!

From Lisboa with...

Well, I promised to tell you what other books I got in Lisboa, and here I go:

• As naves de Calígula, by Maria Grazia Siliato, an italian writer who I've also seen published in Spanish, sporting the original book title, Caligula. It looks pretty interesting and, well, I guess I felt appealed...
  
  
• Os Guerrilheiros da Morte ("The Guerrilla of Death") by Manuel Pinheiro Chagas, a Portuguese writer, professor, Navy minister, historian, ... in the XIX Century. This book was written in 1873, and it seemed a great way to know about Portuguese HF authors (a classical, no doubt!). The story starts in 1807, in Ajuda, Portugal, just before the French invasion (by Imperator Napoleaon Bonaparte). I couldn't find many other HF Portuguese writers, to say the truth (no doubt they are out there, but maybe they aren't being sold these days of bestsellers and high noise-to-signal ratio), and as a huge fan of Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey and Maturin's saga (that's Master and Commander and the other 20+ wonderful novels, for those of you who may not know) I can't but give it a fair try...
  

That's all (I also got a Portuguese grammar, and a dictionary), althoug these holidays I also got some Star Trek books, and some other books of History and all that... Lots to read, no doubt! Happy, happy, joy, joy 2007! :-)

Laters and kallisti!

PS- what's the proper English rendition of Portuguese guerrilheiro, Spanish guerrilleros? Guerrilla fighters? Merriam-Webster online apparently defines 'guerrilla' as the men themselves, instead of the activity...

O Regresso de Tróia

Where have I been?

I have been in Lisbon! :-)

And I loved it! I have declared myself lisboeta at heart.

Really.

I took a ton of pictures, including a lot of St. Jorge Castle, with its impressive views over the Tejo (in Latin, Tagus) river; Belem's Tower, which is really beautiful! (and we had a misty day, it was pretty magical watching the ships and the huge bridges slowly appear through the mist over the river...), I'll try to post some of them for your enjoyment...

I also enjoyed the Lisbon life (despite my relatively bad portuguese, I talked and chatted and... hehehe :-) and went shopping! FNAC, more exactly (in Spain we have celebrate a Christian festivity, I forgot which, in which Three Sage Mages went to Bethlem and gave little Jesus gifts, so we get gifts in this day (Jan. 5 through 6)--- I got some books in Portuguese as self-gifts :-) (actually, I managed my S.O. to gift them to me! hehehe... I gifted her a Portuguese Grammar Intro and Dictionary in exchange, which looked really fair to me, and it is)...

And I am currently reading (alongside several children tales in Irish and the Esperanto edition of La Ŝtona Urbo), O Regresso de Tróia, by Lindsay Clarke, which apparently is the second book about Troy by this author.

I didn't know this but as I already have several 'Illiad'-based HF novels, I thought I could enjoy an 'Odissey'-based one... :)

I also got other HF books, but I forgot, I'll let you know when I'm there...

And that's all, not a lot of time on Internet, actually... My novel (Revolt!, remember?) and a more intense and socially more travelling, real life isn't giving me a lot of time to follow blogs or anything else...

I'll keep you updated...

KALLISTI!

Daedalus

Happy New Year everybody!

This I found on Gab's livejournal, and I thought: "hey, why not give it a try?"

Thus, as this year first post, here you are, my magnificent score (ahem! :-)

Daedalus 66% Extroversion, 66% Intuition, 27% Emotiveness, 71% Perceptiveness

You are most like Daedalus. You are extremely clever and inventive, but your methods can be very unorthodox. When faced with a setback, you're more likely to try to defeat it with sheer determination, rather than finesse. You're argumentative, but don't tend to take debate personally (actually, it's fun for you, and most people don't understand that). Regardless, you are a wellspring of mechanical ingenuity, and would make a fantastic engineer or inventor. You can be extremely loyal in relationships and freindships, and you're extremely professional. You're also pretty grumpy. Famous people like you: Thomas Edison, James A. Garfield, Walt Disney, Benjamin Franklin Steer Clear of: Hermes, Apollo, Icarus, Aphrodite Seek out: Atlas, The Oracle, Prometheus

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on Extroversion You scored higher than 99% on Intuition You scored higher than 99% on Emotiveness You scored higher than 99% on Perceptiveness

Link: The Greek Mythology Personality Test written by Aleph_Nine on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

KALLISTI!