First things first

I should introduce myself.

How to do this...

I could start by saying I'm an archaeology student. That would certainly be true, but it's also sort of a copout. I'm a lot of other things too. Not just me I guess. No one is just one thing, neither to himself or to others.

And what happens if I drop archaeology, what would I be then? A *former* archaeology student?


I guess it's better to say what it is I do and how I spend my time. If you could then find an appropriate title for me, I'd appreciate it.

I study archaeology. Specifically Late Bronze Age Aegean archaeology, with some Near Eastern thrown in. People think archaeology is just digging stuff up and doing Discovery Channel specials. Not exactly. A career in archaeology also requires writing, a lot. And a lot of reading, much of it in other languages (German, French, Italian, Greek). I'm not going to tell you I'm fluent in any of these languages because that would be a lie. I can pretty much stumble through them with a translating dictionary. People say it gets easier as the years go by, and I guess it must. I can't imagine people would stick with it as long as they do otherwise.


You'll remember me mentioning that there's a lot of writing in archaeology. That's a gross understatement. Archaeology requires a *shitload* of writing. And not completely imaginitive writing either. Most of it's pretty dry stuff, as is most academic writing. And necessarily so, I'm told. Someone, I don't know who, has famously described archaeology as "an exercise in extreme bookkeeping." That about sums it up.

Which leads me to another pasttime of mine. All that dry, research intensive writing has given rise to a rather productive streak of sci-fi writing. Almost like afterbirth. Or perhaps more accurately described as a coping mechanism, an outlet for my rather fertile imagination, which I must ruthlessly suppress to turn out the academic stuff. If I just go full bore on the academic stuff without giving my creative side a little playground where it can run and frolick and try to see pictures in the clouds, I go nuts. That's not speculation, that's a fact.

So I'm working on a Star Trek novel. Are you done laughing? Good. I'm working on a Star Trek novel, and a few other non-sci-fi short stories which may turn into novels. Some of the short stories are based on my personal experiences, but sadly I'm not yet ready to be truly honest with myself about the most interesting things that have happened to me. Comes with time I guess.


As you probably surmised for yourself, I'm a Star Trek fan. I like all of it pretty much (except for "Enterprise" I draw the line there) but I'm pretty fanatically devoted to the Classic series, around which my novel centers. I'm also into reading the (K/S) slash-fiction stuff, but I've yet to generate any myself. My novel is decidedly un-slashy.

I love to travel. That doesn't make me special, but I do love it. And when I don't get to do it for a while, I miss it terribly. I always go alone. I do think that that makes me different from most people. Most people like to travel with friends. I love my friends, but when it comes to travelling, I find a solo journey most rewarding. It gives me the freedom to make a lot of bad decisions and go off on some really ill-considered adventures, either on my own, or with strangers. And that's when I learn the most about myself and about my surroundings. If you want to read about my first time in Greece, you can check out www.mytb.org/libba.

As I'm writing to you, I'm listening to Pandora, just as you yourself may be doing. I started out on there about a month ago with a Johnny Cash channel, determined I wasn't going to get hooked on country music. Well guess what. I'm hooked on old-school country music. Dumbfounding, how I can grow up in the South and be repulsed by country music and suddenly, after being out of the South for 5 years, I suddenly discover that I've been a nascent country music fan all along. Damnedest thing.

But country is not my only musical fascination, by any means. I also love Classical, Jazz, Blues, Rock (Classic and more recent Metal). I happen to be absolutely enthralled with Amy Winehouse. Say what you want, the girl can belt. And there's always Leonard Nimoy. Don't knock it until you've heard him do "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town." Seriously, youtube it. Also, Shatner's album "Has Been"- talk about honest. And just damn good.



The music I like usually has one or a combination of the following qualities: earthy, honest, aesthetic, frivolous, quirky. And none of these qualities have I found to exclude any of the others. Some of my favorites fit into an honest/frivolous category. I just want to take this opportunity to say that I think "Convoy" by C W McCall make a cute novelty rap song. Someone needs to get on that.

I'm also pretty taken with Greek music, mostly old laika and rembetika, but I've recently discovered some contemporary Cretan artists that are phenomenal (Stellios Petrakis, Vasillis and Mitsos Stavrakakis, Ross Daly, Nikos Xylouris, Paris Perysinakis etc etc). I don't understand everything they say, but I've made a pretty intense, private study of modern Greek, and I hope one day I can call myself fluent. But that day is very remote indeed.

Well I think that's quite enough for now. I'll try to be more regular about updating this blog than I have been in my previous attempts at keeping one. I once allowed a cactus to die. My negligence sometimes takes on quasi-mythical proportions.