Norse in Greenland, Leela is back, and I'm gonna be a gamer again

In Climate Change in Human History class today we watched a fascinating episode of Secrets of the Dead that was about the Norse colonies in Greenland. It turns out that they starved out during a time of climatic cooling. (I always want to write climactic, but that means something different. Although in this case it might still be kinda appropriate.) The Inuit on Greenland at the time did not starve because they subsisted on hunting rather than on stock that they raised. It turns out that the church of the Norse might have been the real cause of their demise because it discouraged them from learning hunting and fishing from the Inuit (a religious ritual for the Inuit) and it possessed the hunting and fishing rights for the society. When the small ice age happened, the Norse overgrazed their pastures and therefore did not have enough hay storage to overwinter their animals indoors as was their practice. It is truly sad that archaeologist don't find more wild fish and game bones in the settlements. Sadder still, they found evidence of an elkhound that had been butchered for food. I can't imagine how difficult life must have been for these people if they were reduced to eating their hunting dog.

On a much more cheerful note, my friend Leela is back from her week spent on the streets of San Francisco and is none the worse for wear. She keeps apologizing for not being able to tell me about it and really explain what she learned and I keep telling her that I don't expect her to be able to tell me about it. Some experiences just take time before you can really distill what out what you want to say about them. Mostly I'm just glad that nothing went horribly wrong. I suspected that she would be fine as most people simply assume that it is more dangerous being homeless because they don't know what it's like. I think that some situations are more dangerous than others, but I have great faith that if you respect people and do your best to remain confident but open, you can be safe nearly anywhere.

I'm currently writing this while I should be working on my Paleo paper, but I swear that I will make more progress on it in a moment. I did manage to make a good start on it yesterday. I still only have one page out of the required 12, but judging by how well the ideas were flowing while I was writing yesterday, I have no worries about managing to write it in time as long as I take the time to do it.

I'm also excited because tonight I am going to hang out with the guys and play some Dungeons and Dragons (4th ed). I'm not excited about playing 4th ed (but being as how I never really played editions 1-3, that isn't too surprising), but I do want to see the guys. This is the gaming group that I left when I went to SoDak and I haven't really seen them since. I became a part of it because of my last boyfriend, but now he isn't a part of it anymore and they have invited me to join in this new game. I really missed some of them but I'm also nervous because the last time I saw them, and actually when I first met many of them, I was in a relationship with, well, that asshole. I wonder if some of them think less of me because of it. I wonder if some of them will have trouble viewing me as anything other than the asshole's ex. I wonder if they question my sanity and my virtue (I only wonder this because when I think back, I question these things). They are all nice guys though, and I am probably worried over nothing. Once again though, I will be the only woman in a group of 7 or 8 complete and utter gamer-geeks. It is always odd. I seem to vascilate between object of interest, advice giver, milady, and one of the guys. At least it's always interesting though.