What I'm Reading
Latest TTC course was War, Peace, and Power: Diplomatic History of Europe, 1500-2000 by Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius. Pretty good. More up to date than the title suggests, covering events up to 2006. Takes a diplomatic angle to the history of Europe over that period. This makes a change since he emphasizes the human elements: the personalities of rulers and negotiaters have a bigger role than in some of the rather impersonal histories of the period.

Follows various themes through the period: balance of power, realism versus idealism, and the question of the primacy of domestic policy.

Pretty good, worth a listen.

What I'm Watching
Saw Glengarry Glen Ross on DVDs. American real estate agents are thrown into shock when the boss threatens to sack all but the two best closers of the month. Seemed quite well done but didn't really seem to add very much to "Death of a Salesman". Probably worked better on stage.

Museums
Saw the Pompeo Batoni exhibition at the National Gallery. Highly competent but somewhat cheesy 18th century allegories, history paintings and portraits. Great eye candy, though it feels a little soulless.

OBLF
Feels like cheating, but my flu-type-thing seems to have taken me back to my pre-Xmas weight.

Not sure whether to keep going for a bit. Would be nice to cut down on the seemingly irreducible spare type. However it seems to be irreducible: I suspect the rest of my body could be practically skeletonized without affecting it.

MLP
Genesis returns some data.

Working at Google sucks.

Dating your props.

YouTube

Ignis Solus(8 min):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC_aGQyFETU

Ben Folds: Zak and Sara (3 min):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAVuK5efP4Q