Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned

So, the TAG presentation. Standing in a room full of people who knew more about archaeological theory than me, and talking about something that involved the Bronze Age and 1950s Japanese gangsters. It seemed to go off quite well: no-one threw anything at me, or stood up and denounced me as a charlatan.

One disappointing thing was that there was no question and answer session after my paper, due to almost everyone else overrunning by 10 minutes. On the one hand, this was a relief, but it also made it hard to gauge how my paper had gone down. Two people did, however, come up to me afterwards and tell me they’d enjoyed it, which was good. Even better was the mooted possibility of publishing the session, or at least making it available on the internet.

And I do love TAG: papers about Crowleyite occultism in a disused airbase in Surrey, the Minaret of Jam in Afghanistan, and archaeology on the moon. Plus meeting up with lots of people I hadn’t seen in a year.

Have a good Christmas! Hopefully it won’t be too long before I see you all.

Apply Some Pressure

The nerves about my presentation next Wednesday are starting to kick in. At least the presentation is 20 minutes long now. My only worry is that it's rubbish and people will think I'm an idiot.

Also problematic is the Q&A session which follows each paper. What do I do if someone asks me a question I don't understand? Which is to say: "Any question involving a word ending in -ism, or referencing a French philosopher."

On The Web

The other day I was watching the second Harry Potter film, and I noticed that it featured yet another Giant Spider Who Is Up To No Good.

It made me think that there should be a film about the prejudices faced by a giant spider in the world today. The protagonist would be a giant spider who wants to live a normal life, but because people have been told by storis that Giant Spiders Are Up To No Good, he can't. When he goes to the shops, people run screaming into the road. He can't visit a pub without people trying to trap him under an enormous glass, and so on.

The spider would, of course, have the voice of Eddie Izzard.

Never One To Ignore A Bandwagon

My blog is worth $2,822.70.
How much is your blog worth?

It appears that this blog is worth more than either Emily's or Jen's. Go me.