Tagged: masq2
Forgotten Figures: Imhotep
No, this Imhotep is not the priest from The Mummy (1999). Imhotep was an ancient Egyptian man who took a simple enough idea that had developed over the centuries and turned it up a notch to create what was then the world’s largest stone building. He is forgotten by all but Egyptologists and amateur enthusiastic historians but in his own time and for centuries afterward, he was a legend as an architect and healer. Eventually, he would become a god.
One of the few images of Imhotep, currently housed at the Louvre.
Background
Imhotep lived and came to prominence in the reign of Djoser, which happened circa 2650 B.C. His origins are largely unknown but classical historians put his town of birth at Gebelein, which was south of ancient Thebes in Upper Egypt. Still others put his birthplace at Ankhtow, a suburb of Memphis in the north (Lower Egypt). So I think we can safely say that no one has any firm idea where this man came from. What we do know is that Imhotep was born into a fascinating and complicated time.
This was the early period of ancient Egypt, before all the famous pharaohs like Ramses II and Tutankhamun. No, those people lived in the 19th and 18th Dynasties respectively while Djoser is considered the first pharaoh of the Third Dynasty. These people lived more than a thousand years apart and Egypt was not yet the powerhouse it would become in the New Kingdom. Narmer had united Upper and Lower Egypt circa 2900 B. C. so the country was fairly new when you compare it to what it would eventually become: a three thousand year long relatively successful regional power. The art compared to the Middle and New Kingdom art was basic and architecture was just in its infancy but Imhotep would help bring along a sort of renaissance that we would call the Pyramid age. That’s still a little farther off in Egyptian history than we’ll cover today, however.
My 2015 Blogging Goals
Yesterday I looked back at my 2014 blogging goals post and was happy to discover that I actually achieved most of what I set out to do. In part due to luck, but also due to hard work and the fact that I set realistic, measurable goals. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about goals is that they have to be measurable so you can plan toward them or you’ll never actually get things done.
So here are the things I want to achieve in 2015:
1. Reach 2,000 followers.
I started the year with 1,156 followers so I don’t see this as an unreasonable goal. Once I get my posting back to a consistent pace I’ll of course attract more people (and get fewer unfollows) but I’d also like to dabble in social media a little more. Maybe start a Pinterest or Instragram account; I still refuse to use Facebook. Being more active on social media can’t hurt, that’s for sure.
2. Get back to posting every day.
I fell short on the ‘post every day’ motto that I lived by for nearly two years and I think it’s time to get back on that. It’s not a difficult thing; I’m still reading just as many books as I used to but I got lazy about reviewing them. There’s really no excuse for this and so my goal for 2015 is to post something every day and not just have huge blank spaces on my calendar where I keep track of posts. I’m not going to do reviews on the weekend just to make my goal but I will do more discussion posts, Lazy Sunday posts and keep on doing more articles. Hopefully that greater variety will motivate me a little more.
3. Hit the 750 reviews mark.
Right now I have written and published 595 reviews over the nearly 3 years of my blog being active. By the time January 13 (my blog anniversary) rolls around I should hit 600, which means that I’ve averaged 200 books read and reviewed for three years now. I’m hoping to keep that streak up but I also realize that I’m going to be way busier this year than I usually am in my personal life. So I think 150 books reviewed in one year is a reasonable goal.
4. Write more and a better variety of articles.
I’ve already started on this resolution with my Forgotten Figures series, but I’d also like to take things up a notch. I want to publish a variety of articles on topics like blogging advice, the challenges of being a book reviewer, industry news and such. Heck, maybe I’ll sneak in a Game of Thrones article or two in time for Season 5 so I can get a monster spike in my statistics just like last year. Who knows? All I know is that my goal is to write at least one well-researched article per month, preferably two.
5. Clear my review requests and open up submissions again.
I’m actually doing pretty well on this one so far, having reviewed four of the 14 books I said I would from my last round of submissions. I think this is in part because I’ve been pickier about what I’ll accept. I really only accept requests that I really think I will like so it hasn’t really been hard to motivate myself to make time to read the submissions. So my goal this year is to read and review those last ten books and open up limited submissions once again. I can’t say yes to everyone, so I will dependably say yes to a few people.
Well, these are my blogging goals for 2015 and I hope to look back in January 2016 and say “I achieved all 5 of my goals”. None of these are unreasonable so I think with the right amount of motivation and effort I can actually do all of them barring any unforeseen catastrophic events in my life.
But what I want to know now is this: What are some of your blogging goals for 2015 (yes, you are more than welcome to link to your posts!)? What do you think of my goals?
The Mad Reviewer Reading and Reviewing Challenge 2015 Sign Up
Well, last year’s reading challenge is over so now it’s time for the 2015 Mad Reviewer Reading & Reviewing Challenge. A huge thank you goes to the amazing Diantha Jones for designing the lovely challenge button you see above for the third year in a row. If you’re participating in the challenge, you can grab the button above. Here is the HTML for it:
<a href=”//themadreviewer.com/2015/01/02/the-mad-reviewer-reading-and-reviewing-challenge-2015-sign-up/” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://i1164.photobucket.com/albums/q574/DianthaJones/MRRC2015Final.png” border=”0″ alt=” photo MRRC2015Final.png”/></a>
Once again, the challenge is the same as last year:
The Mad Reviewer Reading Challenge is to read and review (either on Goodreads, Amazon or your own blog) 104 books in one year starting January 1, 2014 and ending December 31, 2014.
I’m fully aware that not everyone has time to read 104 books which is why I’ve created different levels of the challenge that you can aspire to:
1. Mad Reviewer: 104 books in one year. (2 books a week all year.)
2. Crazy Reviewer: 52 books in one year. (1 book a week all year.)
3. Slightly Sane Reviewer: 26 books in one year. (1 book every fortnight all year.)
4. Sane Reviewer: 12 books in one year. (1 book every month all year.)
RULES
1. Self-published, independently published and traditionally published books are all completely acceptable. Whether you read print copies or ebook copies makes no difference at all.
2. No audiobooks. I’d prefer people to read the books themselves, not have someone reading to them. Audiobooks can absolutely be a valuable tool for busy readers but they’re not really in the spirit of this challenge.
3. I don’t have a sign up form but if you intend to do this challenge you must post a comment below so that you’re officially signed up.
4. You can review your books on any site. Your own blog, Goodreads, someone else’s blog, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc. The point is just to review the books you read!
5. The last day you can sign up is July 31st of 2015. I’m not taking any more entries after that, sorry.
6. The draw for the 2015 prizes will take place in the first few days of January 2016. This will give everyone time to tell me they’ve finished their chosen level and I’ll have time to actually verify the reviews. I’m not chasing people around like I did in 2013; especially not now that my challenge includes 50+ people. So at the end of the year, in December, head on back to my blog and tell me through the Contact Page or my submissions post I’ll have up on December 30th.
If you have a blog it would be great if you could use the button at the top of the post designed by the lovely Diantha Jones for me. (She also designed the 2014 version and my banner.) If you would like to keep track of your progress using a side bar, I find that this one worked well for me in 2014:
<div id=”progressbar” style=”background-color:black;border-radius:13px;padding:3px;width:104px;”>
<div style=”background-color:orange;border-radius:10px;height:20px;width:0px;”>
</div>
</div>
0/104 books read
In order to use this sidebar, all you have to do is change the first bolded px length to however many books you’re reviewing that year (104, 52, 26 or 12) and when you review a book, you change the second bolded px length to indicate it. So if you’re amazing for 26 books and you’ve reviewed 13, your bar would look like this:
<div id=”progressbar” style=”background-color:black;border-radius:13px;padding:3px;width:26px;”>
<div style=”background-color:orange;border-radius:10px;height:20px;width:13px;”>
</div>
</div>
13/26 books read
If you need anymore help with the progress bar, let me know via my Contact page. I’m not the most tech savvy (which is why credit goes to Mark Lee of The Masquerade Crew for designing this bar) but I will try my best to help.
PRIZE SELECTION
Anyone who completes the level they stated as their goal will be entered into a draw. How many entries you get will be determined by what level you’ve achieved:
Mad Reviewer (104 books): 4 entries
Crazy Reviewer (52 books): 3 entries
Slightly Sane Reviewer (26 books): 2 entries
Sane Reviewer (12 books): 1 entry
I know life gets in the way of reading and reviewing frequently, so what I offer to people who don’t complete their goal is a second chance of a sort. Say you aimed for Crazy Reviewer and only reviewed 30 books. Since you reviewed a minimum of 26 books you can still enter the draw as a Slightly Sane Reviewer. That way you’ve at least achieved a level of the challenge as well as had your name entered in the grand prize draw where I’ll be choosing a winner and three runners up. (This second chance applies to any level.)
HOW TO SIGN UP
Just post your name, the link to where you’ll be reviewing your books and the level at which you want to participate in the comments below! I’ll be posting a separate list of all the challenge participants (and their goals) as the comments flow in. If you could also publicize the challenge using Twitter, Facebook, your own blogs, etc. that would be great. The more the merrier!
Forgotten Figures: Zenobia
Of all of the people to cross paths (and swords) with the Romans during their thousand year empire, Zenobia of Palmyra in particular stands out. She has long been overshadowed by the more famous women who took on Rome: Cleopatra and Boadicea. However, as you’ll see, she was every inch the political genius and warrior queen that her predecessors were. If Emperor Aurelian (who we covered last time) had been a weaker man, she may have even succeeded in her venture.
Background
Palmyra was a desert city along the all-important trade routes to the east that would become the Silk Road in later years. As such, it could have protection monopolies and charge tolls on the incoming and outgoing merchants. It was a wealthy city nominally conquered by Rome but really the Romans let them govern themselves quite readily—not that they had a choice as you’ll see in a moment.
Rome of the third century A. D. was not the powerful imperial Rome of its glory days. Rather, the empire was in chaos due to a game of musical chairs with Emperors, economic chaos as inflation ran unchecked and barbarian hordes seemingly coming from every direction. Did I mention there was also a plague going around killing everyone too? It was a tough time to be a Roman and eventually because of it, the emperors ruling in Italy just could not handle things. The empire split into three sections, essentially. Odaenathus in the east, Postumus in Gaul and Britain and Gallienus in central Italy. Due to the revolving door of emperors during the third century, this situation would not last long though. Continue reading
Forgotten Figures: Aurelian
Lucius Domitius Aurelianus—Aurelian to modern scholars—is one of the most famous men you’ve never heard of. What I mean by that is he is remembered as an absolutely amazing Emperor within Roman history, but the average person has never, ever heard of him. That’s a shame because as you’ll see, Aurelian deserves to be put up there with the more recognizable Augustus, Trajan and Hadrian.
A bust of Aurelian.
Background
Aurelian is not as familiar to our modern ears because he ascended to the throne during what’s known as the Crisis of the Third Century. This crisis of political, economic and social factors is a confusing mess of events for modern historians trying to piece together a coherent narrative and not much is actually known about it. What is known, however, is that during this period, the Roman Empire split into three distinct areas ruled by different emperors and pseudo-emperors.
This period is not the high point of Roman culture, believe me. The written word was rarer, there were severe manpower shortages throughout the empire as the plague made its rounds and emperors rose and fell with alarming frequency. In the so-called Middle Empire of the time, the Emperor Gallienus ruled until he was assassinated by a military coup led by Claudius, who would later earn the title Gothicus for his campaigns against the Goths. Unfortunately, Claudius Gothicus likely succumbed to the plague killing his men, leaving no clear successor and a bunch of ambitious, seasoned military officers behind.
In the western Gallic Empire consisting mainly of Britain and Gaul, a man named Postumus had been ruling wisely and justly. He was beloved by his troops and the people he ruled over because the Western provinces had been neglected by the emperors in the central Empire. And when Gallienus, the current central emperor tried to launch a military campaign to retake the provinces, Postumus repulsed him twice. He was no dummy and managed to maintain his hold over the Gallic Empire for around nine good years.
In the East, a man named Odaenathus had been the de facto ruler for years. His main strength was that he was keeping the Sassanids in Persia from retaking territory they had lost to Rome centuries ago. Odaenathus was also no dummy and had a sphere of influence over most of the eastern provinces, including Syria, Egypt and Asia Minor. He ruled from the trade city of Palmyra, which had grown influential as it was one of the last main stops along the silk road before traders entered Persia. As such, it could charge taxes and create protection rackets that made the city obscenely wealthy. When Rome’s influence was degrading in the East, Odaenathus seized his opportunity to extend Palmyra’s influence over the surrounding provinces and although he officially had the approval of Gallienus, Gallienus couldn’t have dislodged him if he tried. Odaenathus was too smart and too powerful.
A map of the three different ’empires’ that had split from Rome during the crisis years.