200,000th View of Wig Wags

A moment of celebration for the 200,000th view of Wig Wags that occurred sometime today. Many thanks to those who have stopped by.

Ahem.  Carry on…

OH and thanks to Gabriel Pollard for the photo.

On Change

Heraclitus, 1628, Oil on panel, 85.5 cm × 70 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Wasn’t it Heraclitus who said that “nothing endures but change?”

Change has certainly been afoot again at my workplace. We have a large reorganization/downsizing underway, something that is occurring in many organizations across the globe. I have been reassigned to a new but old role, one that returns me to a position I thoroughly enjoy albeit with added responsibilities. I have been buried in the tasks of staffing and all of the firestorm of activities that accompany organizational shift.

That said, I have had to postpone my class, “Civil War Strategy and Tactics” until the term starting in early May. On the bright side, I may be able to catch up with some reading.

Link Updates

Over the weekend, I added quite a few links to the right navbar which I use to keep myself organized. Here’s a quick run down of several of the new adds. There’s a theme in here somewhere….

• Links to all state historical societies
• The Historical Maritime Society
• Smith’s Master Index to Maritime Museums (WOW!)
• Portsmouth Historic Dockyards (GO if you get a chance!)
• Five excellent new links to sites related to slavery filed under “Slavery Links”

New Blogroll Adds to WigWags

I’m pleased to add two sites to my blogroll.

First The Tipsy Historian which you can access here. I’ve enjoyed reading it for the first time today, particularly the post on the Lost Cause Mythology.

And secondly, a fellow student blog called History Rhymes here which is blogged by Alex Seifert, a history student at the University of Wyoming. His focus is postbellum 19th century American History. Alex Rose’s blogroll over at The History Man pointed me in Alex’s direction so merci beaucoup Mr. Rose.

On History Grad Student Fitness…

     News flash…

Graduate students in history sit on their backsides and read…a lot.
I’ve noticed the impact on my fitness level.
I have found a solution…
I plan to walk while I work, read, and write.

LifeSpan TR2000

I just bought one of these bad-boys… and it was worth every penny. Quiet, easy, and tilts up and down. Did a ton of research before I bought it.

My laptop fits perfectly on a small board that I lay across the arms. And my new Thai Book Rest from Levenger’s (my favorite store for all things for readers) fits perfectly so that I can read away while I walk.

James “walk-while-you-work” Levine (Mayo Clinic), has become my new fitness guru…

New Page – “the wars”

I’ve added a new page to wig-wags titled, “the wars” which you can access here or on the sidebar any time. I am in the third week of a core course, “Studies in U.S. Military History” (see “The Courses here for more detail on this an other courses I’m taking at the American Military University). I am convinced that there has been mention of at least 20 – 30 “wars” so far in this class. I’m losing track. So as has been my practice on wigwags, I’m creating a page to log information I want to collect for reference, add to as I find more information, and be able to jump to quickly. I should have started this page with the first chapter read in the course!

I’ll begin with a chronicle of America’s wars. I will add to it as I discover and have time to post. I may also create sub-pages to dive into each war in more detail. I have a bit of catching up to do so won’t start “at the beginning” but rather where I am in my reading (War of 1812). But I’ll eventually get them all filled in. If interested, please come back from time-to-time to that page as I’ll hope to update regularly.

As always, I’ll try to make the page as visually interesting as possible.

Photo: Battle between the frigates HMS Shannon and USS Chesapeake off Boston during the War of 1812; detail of a lithograph by J.C. Schetky.