most excellent adventures

1. ate lunch with an old, good friend today and very much enjoyed myself. had a great calzone and cinnamon knots!
2. visited my mom today at her job and it was pretty funny/fun. it's weird knowing that i was in that same place only six years ago.
3. just hung out with the family tonight. very interesting dinner conversation.

okay, so favorite in this sense means more like "most interesting to me." these moments are all filled with bloodshed and heartache and devastation, but they are what interest me most in history. the revolutionary war is probably one of favorites because...i am an american? it's just such a cool moment in history. the cause! the uprising! the war! the victory! the death and birth! i think the whole process of overcoming the might of the british and defeating an empire to claim our own country is so cool. and it worked! but really, how cool is that. we transformed the global status quo and reshaped how weaker nations saw themselves. the true strength of character that it took to win the revolutionary war still awes me and makes me very thankful to the forefathers of my nation. i'm a huge history buff for WWII for two reasons: the holocaust, and the psychology behind the war. the holocaust is a terrible and fascinating thing to study--the enormity of the holocaust and the unimaginable horrors victims experienced are overwhelming. but to try to understand why and how it happened is so crucial for the present and future generations. building off of that, the psychology of WWII is fascinating. how hitler mobilized his nation, how he conquered other nations, how fdr got support for the war, and how the interactions of all these different people and places came together for the most terrible war in history--all that just intrigues me. the reason that i love the roman empire (a very long time span) is because it was pure power combined with novel concepts about government and leadership, that melded with new intellectual and religious movements, as well as ideas about art and society and war. so much happened! and so much changed! the roman empire was absolutely huge and the roman influence from then until today (and beyond) is shocking. i  mean, they invented concrete. how much more influential can you get? and that's just for starters! their influence spread much further and much wider than just concrete. i took a roman art class this semester and it really opened my eyes to just one facet of roman society. i think it's crucial to consider the beginning of society--and while the romans were definitely not the first, they were early on and massively important. thoughts are always welcome...