Caesars, Cameras, Canadas

Salve, citizens!

You know, when they told me I'd be teaching Ancient History this year, I nearly crapped my pants.  In a good way.

I love Ancient History - always have.  Not sure what it is about the classical stage of mankind, but it's always interested me a hell of lot more than, say, contemporary or modern history.  Now, having the actual opportunity to teach kids all about ancient civilizations and cultures, it should go without saying that I've been having a blast at work.

Sure, my students don't quite share the same level of excitement that I have when discussing the Sumerians, Egyptians, Assyrians, or Mycenaeans, but they at least humor me during class instruction.

I wish gladiatorial games were still considered 'legit'. . .

Lately, we've been discussing my absolute favorite civilization from antiquity: Rome.  In our instruct- ional pacing guides for this year, we've been given about thirty days in which to teach our students about this great civilization and its legacy.

So far I've spent about thirty-five days covering Rome, and we're up Julius Caesar's military campaigns in Gaul (for those of you who are unfamiliar with Roman history, this is approximately the half-way mark).

In other words, I'm pretty sure we'll be covering this unit in real-time.  Hope no one minds. . .

Any way, in other news, we had a serious stroke of misfortune befall us lately: my SLR (an old Canon Digital Rebel XT I've had since January of 2006) stopped turning on a couple weeks ago.  Panicked, I assumed (hoped, rather) that it was a merely the fault of either a.) the battery or b.) the charger.  With St. Patrick's Day approaching, I ordered additional batteries and a new charger off Amazon.

You can imagine the soul-crushing despair I felt upon testing out the new camera batteries and charger, only to be met with the exact same result.  The camera still refused to turn on.

Since buying a brand-new SLR would cost us upwards of $700 or $800 (I try and buy top-of-the-line as often as possible when it comes to something like cameras), Kris and I realized that we had little choice but to wait until next tax season to pick up a new SLR.  This was especially hard for me to swallow, as I've owned and religiously used SLRs since the Fall of 1999.  Not owning one for a whole year will be a trying ordeal to say the least.

Wish me luck.

Speaking of luck, I don't think our country has any in 2012.  And no, I'm not talking about the Mayan Prophecy - I'm refuse to dignify that ridiculousness with so much as an antecdote.

No, readers, I'm talking about our upcoming elections.

Canada.  2012.

Now, before you roll your eyes and flee in disgust, no I'm not about to go all 'preachy' or 'politicky' on you or anything - we all know that's not like me - but I would like to point out how absolutely absurd this particular election cycle has become.  I can't watch the news anymore, because every time I do I want to throw my TV through a window.  Every time I turn on the news in my car I want to swerve my beast of a Ford Focus into oncoming traffic.

I don't care if you're Democrat or Republican or any of those other parties out there that are far from being culturally-relevant:  I think we can all agree that, as a whole, our country should just pack up our things and move north to Canada.  All of us.

Eight reasons why Americans shouldn't be allowed to vote. . .

I don't think they'd mind.  I mean, they've got the space for us, right?  There's a shit-ton of land up there and all they're doing with it is growing ice and bad accents.  We need to seriously consider this, because the alternative - staying here, in the States, and voting in the 2012 General Election, is not something I'm looking forward to.

. . . AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THE GAS PRICES!!!

*cue laugh track/camera fade to credits*

- Brian