Living History through the eyes of mental_floss

mental_floss is not just a slick magazine, it's a great online resource for those of us who like to think we are smarter than the average bear. In fact, from their "What is mental_floss" page:

For the record: mental_floss magazine is an intelligent read, but not too intelligent. We're the sort of intelligent that you hang out with for a while, enjoy our company, laugh a little, smile a lot and then we part ways. Great times. And you only realize how much you learned from us after a little while. Like a couple days later when you're impressing your friends with all these intriguing facts and things you picked up from us, and they ask you how you know so much, and you think back on that great afternoon you spent with us and you smile.

And then you lie and say you read a lot.

So, I've just discovered them: they are funny, and intelligent. How did I find this oasis of smartness in an otherwise vast ocean of internet pablum? Why, they've blogged about Living History of course! And you know I just love to blog about things that make the SCA look good. OK, I blog the bad press too, but only if it's funny...

They touch on Celts, Vikings, Romans, SCA, and even the Revolutionary and Civil Wars! So does that mean that re-enactors are now considered smart? Will "living history" enter the lexicon of coolness?

For all I knew, we were just the nerds who played D&D too much as kids. But now I'm smart. AND cool!

Are you one of those dark ages types who likes to get smarter by actually reading real printed materials? Well, then check out the magazine mental_floss today! I bet you'll get a bonus to your intelligence, and if you play your cards right, you might even get to level up!

Medieval Bloggers and the "Scribe" conspiracy

I've been writing on this blog for over 3 years now. While I cannot say I was one of the first bloggers to cover medieval subjects, I can say that there are a whole lot more of them now than when I started.

The more, the merrier, I say! But it's weird. I'll see a new blog pop up in my occasional search for medieval news online, and lo and behold there's yet another blog that looks just like mine (which is why I changed to a three column layout earlier this year).

I chose the "Blogger" platform for two reasons:

1. It was free.
2. It had a really nice medieval looking template called "Scribe."

Apparently, #2 is the same reason many other medievalists have joined Blogger when they could have just as easily used LiveJournal or WordPress.

Well, I thought I'd do a quick review of several other medieval bloggers' sites who use the same template I do. Just for fun. And also because I would like to expose this conspiracy. Someone is profiting from this...I just know it!

Anyway, here's several conspirators and my observations about them...

Got Medieval - Nice catchy name! I enjoy the medieval personal ads, and the definition of 'medieval' at the top of the page. 2 Points for good humor and some extremely cool online finds. Grade: B+

UPDATE on 02/05/09: Got Medieval left behind the Scribe Template quite some time ago. Huzzah to the new look! I'm jealous...

The All-Grain Evangelist - Another SCAer! And he brews beer. He's created a nice large graphic header on the top of his blog, and even changed his favicon. Smooth coding there, fella! Lots of nice brewing links make this a good jumping off point for brewing research. Grade: B

Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog - OK, huge points for writing in Middle English, but it does get a bit tiresome on the eyes pretty quick. A medieval illumination image changes this version of "Squire" enough to differentiate it from most of the others. Big site stats and aggressive merchandising prove to me that the four folks behind this blog are pretty marketing savvy as well. Grade: A

The Blue Lady Tavern - From her description: 'Visit with Leofwen of Eoforwic, the proprietress of the Blue Lady Tavern, and hear all the news, gossip and word about the town in this 8th century English watering hole -- by historical novelist Nan Hawthorne.' Boy does she write. And write. And write. It's good, but you'll need to set aside some serious time to take it all in. Not much customization to the template or enough images. Grade: B-

The Medieval Warfare Blog - The writer sure doen't stray too far from his path. It's medieval warfare and nothing else. I mean nothing. No images, no customization and scant few offsite links. Needs some 'spice' I think, but I'm really sick of seeing this same design over and over now....Grade C:+

Dianne's Medieval Writing - While I can empathize with the authors desire to live like they did in the old days, she shall receive the same grade as the aforementioned Medieval Warfare blog for nearly the same reasons. And Dianne, if you ever read this, please for the love of all that is Holy, use a bigger font! Grade: C+

New 3-Column layout!

Google, in their infinite wisdom, has upgraded the free Blogger service to include much more layout freedom. Of course, if you simply click 'upgrade', you lose any previous customization, but the handy little CSS boxes make hand-coding a breeze now!

After much tinkering, some swearing, and a few scares (like nearly deleting my whole blog) I have achieved 3 column nirvana!!

Look at all this space! I've moved some things around, added some new stuff, and deleted some old, crusty, underperforming links.

Let me know what you think.

Hate it? Love it? Couldn't care less? A pox on you then.