Translation of below: We stole the idea of stealing Saint Nicholas from the Venetians. They suck. We rock.

When Alexius was Emperor, and the foreign and infidel hordes that had migrated through the Roman Empire were being pacified’ and the bold Normans who had voyaged thither had been beaten and dispersed, certain citizens of the city of Bari, moved by a divine inspiration, purposed to sail in their merchant ships to Antioch, a city situated in Coele, in Syria. This they undertook not for selfish profit, but for a laudable and praiseworthy work – a work worthy of mention, O the marvel of it! For it delights my heart and what I have to say will soar aloft on lightsome wing. For they had the intention – and bless them for their prudence, bless them for their good choice! – instead of pursuing mercantile and selfish interests, to cast anchor at Myra and remove the manna-receiving and fragrant remains of our blessed, thrice-happy and inspired Father, and so, this accomplished, to possess and take pride in him as in a great fortune and inseparable treasure. Now, this was, as a matter of fact, the purpose of our Venetian brothers also, even though the deed had been accomplished by the men of Bari. For blessed is not he who begins a thing and does not finish it, but blessed is he who says and does and accomplishes good. In such wise it was, then, that they who heard of the plan of the Venetians were the first to attain the favor. For though the Venetians were bent on taking that goodly treasure and bringing it back to their homeland, the good God did not allow it so to be accomplished, but their plan and its fulfillment was given to the men of Bari, while the conception of the Venetians developed unaccomplished and unactuated .

You have to be pretty darned disciplined to not do everything.

My iPhone is a camera, a phone, an iPod, a movie player, an RSS reader, an ebook reader, gaming platform, and blogging device. The problem mostly being that it’s hard to not want to do all of these things at once. Listen to a song, play solitaire. Reading a book, quick, switch to look at Twitter. Oh! An email just arrived!

Instead of reading books, I tend to read wikipedia articles at night, or play solitaire in the bathroom. (No jokes about that! I swear! Literally the game of solitaire!)

So I’m seriously considering getting an iPod again. I have a digital camera. While lugging these things around is a pain, I also miss reading whole books in big chunks. I haven’t stayed up late to finish a book in quite a while, and I find I’m missing it.

It’s not a technology issue, it’s a usability issue. I read whole books on my old Sony Reader PRS-500. It was convenient to carry, and the interface was pretty nice. And that was pretty much it. No constantly checking the news.

I might get a cheap, refurbed netbook, more because I think they’re cute than anything else. Also, my computer collection demands it. Refurbs can be found for less than $200, so sale of the iPhone would probably cover it. And I’m thinking of getting a shuffle or something for music.

I thought the internet was killing my reading habits, and it is. I just hadn’t realized that it was my iPhone that was doing it.

This is one of those weird things I like: nationalism and it’s influence on historical imagination. Specifically how in the Balkans it’s impossible to talk about linguistics without talking about nationalism. Romanians claim their language has an ancient substrate from Dacian, Greeks get all pissy about the Macedonians calling themselves Macedonians, and the Macedonians get pissy when the Bulgarians claim that the Macedonians are speaking Bulgarian. And oh, how it goes on and on.

Not that we North Americans are too much better. I’m still morally convinced that in two hundred years every white man and woman will be convinced that they’re ‘Cherokee’ and that the ‘American people’ have lived on these lands since the beginning of time. Read any American history or literature textbook and tell me I’m wrong.

But it’s not always the case that Deep Sociological Insight is the sole thing to be found when reading about the influence of modern nationalism on historical consciousness. Sometimes you just get pure fun like this man from Bulgaria who

…claims to be an expert in linguistics, cryptography and transcendental analysis…

[From Gradeshnitsa tablets - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

If you want more backstory, read on and follow the many links for a quick explanation. But really, I’d just like to savor the words transcendental analysis.