What Is It With Me And Papers?

DR. BIBBEE!!! YOU DID IT AGAIN!!!

Why, oh, WHY, do you have to assign another paper right when I was trying to do my English paper? Gah! At least you picked a topic that I can discuss intelligently without looking at a book beforehand: the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. How I love to make fun of those crazy Roman emperors.

Seriously, my high school world history book was awesome. Most of what Dr. Bibbee has taught us sounds familiar (no offense meant). And it loved the Roman emperors! In fact, I think it blamed them the most for the fall of the Roman empire, along with the people themselves. Rome prospered when its people worked hard, worshipped gods that embodied natural virtues (and crusaded against Moloch of Carthage, to whom children were burnt alive in sacrifice), and had to fight for survival. When they became masters of the Mediterranean, they developed a love of luxury that I think ultimately killed their empire. Roman citizens no longer wanted to work in the army, so they hired barbarian auxilliaries. Etc., etc.

The rise of Christianity, however, didn't kill the empire or even help kill it. The empire's attempt to kill Christianity killed the empire. You would think the bad guys would learn, but noooo... 2000 years of trying to stomp us out, and we're still around. I think someone from that time even noted it: "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christianity." And they were right.

I was a little annoyed when Dr. Bibbee said Christians did not serve in the Roman army. Out of all the points I could have brought up with him, that was the one I chose. Incidentally, tomorrow is the FEAST OF ST. MARTIN, WHO WAS A ROMAN SOLDIER BEFORE BECOMING THE BISHOP OF TOURS. Take that! He's the most famous for cutting his cloak in two and giving half to a begger, who then appeared to him that night as the risen Christ, saying, "Martin, stil a catechumen, has covered Me with his cloak."

Ha! Today, by the way, is the feast of St. Leo, another awesome guy. Let's put it this way: Attila the Hun was advancing on Rome. The emperor, too cowardly to do anything against him, tried to leave the city and was killed by the citizenry for his efforts. (Ha!) Pope Leo, meanwhile, takes charge and goes out to parley with Attila. Attila agrees to the pope's request to spare Rome. Later he mentioned that the whole time he was talking with Leo he could see a man standing next to the pope, threatening him with a sword if he did not do as the pope said. Leo was very devoted to St. Peter, the first pope, you see...

Yeah, the popes got the papal states over a period of time, largely because they were the ones who actually DID SOMETHING when the last few Roman emperors fled.

Anyway.

Soooooo, I did the outline for Dr. Bibbee's paper yesterday. Today I did the first draft for my English paper, which, if I haven't mentioned it, purports to demonstrate that saturated fats and cholesterol do not cause heart disease. Yes, laugh at me. Then go google the Myogenic Theory of Heart Disease and make faces at the words 'myocardial infarction' while I laugh at you. (By the way, 'myocardial infarction' seems to mean 'stuffing the heart muscle' in Latin. I'm sure it doesn't, but it looks that way. Personally, every time I see 'infarction' I have a mental image of a fart gone horribly wrong and imploding in the heart... but then I have two younger brothers, so that's probably expected.)

And, yes, I wrote the whole paper today. It only took me 6 hours. I write better in one sitting.

An annoying fact: I have German tomorrow at 9, and history at 1. Dr. Diaz was completely awesome enough to cancel chemistry for Veterans' Day. However, that does leave three hours for me to kill in the middle of the day. Perhaps I'll lurk in the library again. I prefer lurking in the library to the Guillot. (GUC, to those of you who STILL don't know the building names... You know who you are... Your guilty smiles give you away...) Lurking in Lafayatte (ooh, nice alliteration) is okay too, even if I am magnetically attracted to the piano and it will probably take a crowbar to pry me off of it.

There's an idea. I can bring my piano books tomorrow (well, some of them) and play something OTHER than the eleven thousandth rendition of Fuer Elise. I do love the song so, though, primarily because it's got my name, but surely it gets old after a while? I have a Star Wars book. :)

In Pace Christi,

Elyse