The Pope is Giving Up What for Lent? And ABD to PhD: Week 5

Why does headline grabbing news like to happen on my grading day? Last week, the body found under a parking garage in Leicester was confirmed to be Richard III and this week? Oh, you know, just a papal resignation - which hasn't happened for almost 600 years. No big. Whatevs.

OMG.

To learn more about the precedent for papal abdications, give a listen to our special edition podcast.

*Spoiler alert* I write about church councils. Unfortunately not papal conclaves, but if anyone wants to send Q, Z, and me to observe, I can have us packed in 20 minutes. The diaper bag is always ready.  H would rather go to the internment of Richard III (for the ale).

In even more exciting news, well, exciting personal news, an out of the blue technicality has now provided me with a producer credit. One of our potential podcasters - and a good friend of mine - is a member of SAG-Aftra.  Due to "new media" issues, she can podcast only if we are registered with them.  It is a really simple process, but they told her to have FH's producer fill that out and, apparently, that is me. Yes, your's truly is now the producer of Footnoting History for all intents and purposes.

Week 5

Goal: Continue to input information on 25 sessions a day into database.

Outcome: Did not happen. I think I inputted two days total, instead of the 6, which would have had the basic table completed and allowed me a guideline for my more in-depth perusal of the records (I am inputting from the calendar first and then checking the actual sources). I never recovered the will to work after my flu-cation. Then, on Friday, I thought I had mastitis, but, really, I just had a plugged duct and felt cruddy. However, my (involuntary) adjunct-cation (did I tell you all that I wasn't assigned a class for this term?) begins tomorrow and lasts a month (before I have training for another school, which just hired me), so I am going to finish a draft of this chapter. I'm going to step up my game. I'm going to make it happen.

Goal for Week 6: 50 entries a day. Complete tax table, so writing can begin next week. Make it so.

You may have noticed that my blogging has also dropped. Blame it on the flu-cation, but I might only do weekly updates for a bit as I really need to get the chapter drafted.

Richard III & My (belated) State of the Dissertation: January 2013

Oh my gosh, guys, they found Richard III. In Leicester. And they are going to give him a state funeral! And this is all very exciting and I'm *squeeing* because how can you not? And I asked H if I manage to finish my dissertation before 2014 - the estimated guess for the funeral is early 2014 - if we can go.

And, no, I'm not a Ricardian, although I do belong to the society and they have been very good to me. I don't know if Richard or Henry Tudor or a great number of many other people killed the Little Princes in the Tower. And, yes, I think someone killed both of them and, no, I don't think Lambert Simnel or Perkin Warbeck were really heirs to the throne. (Didn't you listen to my podcast?) And, as I've always - since 2002 - argued, none of it matters. All that matters is that Richard lost his crown and head and that Henry VII held onto both and what that says about (medieval) power and kingship. (If you are really interested, I can send you my senior thesis from college, which is completely about this.)

He's found! And there's your history for the moment. But let's move on to less pressing matters. At least in my mind. My dissertation.

First, I'm sorry there was no update last week. I have the 'flu. (The apostrophe is intentional.) But here is the state of my dissertation as of January 31, 2013 as well as an update for Week 4:

Weeks 3-4

Goal: My goal for this week was to finish writing up the section and to also write up a list of questions that I feel I need to address to complete the chapter.

Outcome: I have finished a draft of Chapter 3, which means the only chapters remaining to have the research written up are chapters 4 and 9. I have begun fixing up the tables for chapter 4 and was attempting to input information on 25 sessions a day, but ... 'flu.  However, my 'flu-cation is almost over, which means that I will re-start this process and my goal for the upcoming

Goal for Week 5: Continue to input information on 25 sessions a day into database.

Can I take a moment? I'm a historian. The only computer training I received was your basic gradeschool "turtletracks" thing and then typing in high school. Everything else has been learned "on the job" or by myself - via google and youtube or books. But I have taught myself how to create databases in Access and Filemaker Pro. I can create tables in word and convert to Excel. I can use Excel. Let's not think that the Liberal Arts can't include skills, which can be translated into the working world. It's life and we are all adapting to our ever-changing world, but this doesn't mean we need to focus only on STEM.

1st Footnoting History Podcast is up!

Friends, Romans, Countrymen: Lend me your ears! I come not to bury -- wait, that's not it! Oh, yeah! Pretenders! First podcast is up! 

Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck: Pretenders to the Throne? (Yes, Yes, They Were) 

Tell your friends :)

Footnoting History: Sisters (and Brothers) are Doing It for Themselves

I've been thinking - a dangerous past time, per Beauty and the Beast - and why not make my own podcast? Why wait for "Stuff You Missed in History Class" to realize how awesome I am? Plus, there's a lot of history to go around.

Realizing the amount of work that goes into this (they aren't using freelance writers for the heck of it!), I turned to some of my friends to see if they would be interested in starting a podcast series of some of our favorite stories from history and they are game. (More than game, but we like listening to ourselves talk).

Without further adieu, I give you Footnoting History, because the best stories are in the footnotes!

A weekly podcast will go live every Saturday, brought to you by a variety of historians and covering a plethora of topics! I, your fearless leader, will be giving the first one, titled "Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck: Pretenders to the Throne? (Yes, yes, they were.)" and it will become available at noon ET on February 2, 2013 - Saturday (Groundhog's Day). Set your clocks!

More information, including a daily historical tidbit, is available on our facebook page and our twitter account (@HistoryFootnote).

If you have a topic or anecdote you always wanted to learn more about, put it in the comments and we'll see what we can do :)