About Me

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I am a carbon-based life-form on the North American landmass. I do not argue with dragons, for I know that I am crunchy and taste good with ketchup. :)

Seriously, though, I live in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, and work both as a freelance writer for the local paper every so often (the Palos Verdes Peninsula News) as well as as a computer tech at a dot-com firm in Los Angeles. In my off hours, I like nothing better than to curl up with a good book. I usually have at least three going at once, and juggle between them. (I try not to go too high in number though, or the different books get jumbled -- once, for three days, I was convinced that Athos, Porthos and Aramis had fought Hitler! :P )

As the boxes say below, I have an interest in Old English history, but in general, I'm interested in most historical areas. It's just the times of Caesar and Alfred the Great that I've gravitated to more than any other.

I've been hit by a vandal recently. This is all I have to say about it: "Never give in — never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense." -- Winston Churchill

and

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." --attributed to Winston Churchill.



Machado de Assis (1839–1908) was a Brazilian novelist, poet, playwright and short-story writer, widely regarded as the greatest writer of Brazilian literature. In 1897, he founded and became the first president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. He was multilingual, having taught himself French, English, German and Greek later in life. Machado's work shaped the realist movement in Brazil and the birth of the Brazilian republic made Machado become more critical and an observer of the Brazilian society of his time. Generally considered to be Machado's greatest works are Dom Casmurro (1899), Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, also translated as Epitaph of a Small Winner) and Quincas Borba (also known in English as Philosopher or Dog?). In 1893, he published "A Missa do Galo" ("Midnight Mass"), often considered to be the greatest short story in Brazilian literature. This photograph of Machado was taken by the Brazilian photographer Marc Ferrez in 1890.Photograph credit: Marc Ferrez; restored by Adam Cuerden

Articles started

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Noting too major yet:

 This user is a member of the Middle Ages WikiProject.

Books I'm reading now

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