User:Thought/Current Projects

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I currently have three major projects in the works. One is to rework the entry on Ethelbert of Kent, an article about an important king that is suffering from lack of attention. Second is to get the Nuklear Age article up to some form of a finished product (its been there for almost a year now and it still isn't complete?!). The last is a somewhat longer term project to create to create a series of Educational templates similar to the Babel template.

Contents 1 Ethelbert 1.1 Notes 1.2 Sources 2 Nuklear Age 2.1 The Restaurant 2.2 A Birthday Party and The Crushtacean 2.3 The Court Scene and Superion 2.4 Nihel and The Final "Joke" 3 Education Template 3.1 BA IP 3.2 History Master's Completed Course Work 3.3 History Master's IC Course Work

[edit] Ethelbert

Ethelbert (or Æthelbert, or Æthelberht, or Aethelberht) (c. 552 - February 24, 616¹) was King of Kent from around 560 to until his death. The Venerable Bede lists Ethelbert as being the third king to hold imperium over all kingdoms south of the Humber river. In the late 9th-century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Ethelbert is referred to as a Bretwalda. After his death, he was regarded as a saint.

He was the son of Eormenric, whom he succeeded as king, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Gregory of Tours, who was a close acquaintance of Queen Ingoberg (the wife of Charibert and mother of Ethelbert's wife Bertha), called him simply "a man of Kent," which has led some to believe that he was not king at the time Gregory's History of the Franks was written, and that Ethelbert more likely became king closer to 590. However this claim is doubtful given that Gregory's claim does not exclude the possibility of Ethelbert's kingship, his source (Ingoberg) had been seperated from Charibert well prior to Bertha's marriage and thus was not privy to the best information, it is nonsensical for a Merovingian king to marry his daughter off to a no-name Earl in Kent, and that all other sources give the Kentish king a much earlier rule, usually around 560 C.E.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that he attempted at one stage to wrest the overlordship from Ceawlin of Wessex in 568 but was unsuccessful. His standing was advanced by his marriage with Bertha, daughter of Charibert, king of the Franks, thus building an alliance with the most powerful state in Europe at that time. Additionally, under Ethelbert, Kent had strong economic ties to Gaul, trading notably in glassware and jewelry. Though it does not appear that Ethelbert minted his own coinage, finds of Gallic currency may indicate that the area had shifted from a bartering system to a monetary one.

The influence of Bertha, who had brought her bishop Liuhard (alternately Luidhard or Letard) with her to Kent, may have led to the friendly acceptance of the missionaries from Rome that Pope Gregory I sent. Augustine landed on the Isle of Thanet in 597, and after a slight delay Ethelbert first met him in the open, out of feear that if they met in a building then the holy man might bewitch him. The exact date of Ethelbert's conversion/baptism varies since Bede never gave a specific date, but three general schools of thought claim that he was baptized by Augustine only a few days after he had landed in Kent, the first Christmas that Augustine was in Kent, or sometime before 601 C.E. at which time Pope Gregory sent him a letter welcoming him into Christianity. At the same time, a letter from Gregory to Bertha in which he chastizes her for not converting her husband sooner also indicates a date of 601. In any case, Augustine first took up residence in St. Martin's, a church that Bertha and Luihard utilized, then later established other churches began his efforts to convert the people of Kent to Christianity, or in the case of the British, to reconvert them.

Ethelbert also established a written code of laws for Kent, the earliest in any Anglo-Saxon kingdom, which provided for the protection of the Church and instituted a complex system of fines. Most notibly, these laws were written in Anglo-Saxon, while in other Germanic kingdoms laws were generally written in Latin. Additionally, while sometimes supposed to have been written with the aid of Augustine or other Roman missionaries, there is no trace of a Latin influence in the laws, even in those laws specifically regarding the property of the Church. The nature of the Law Code is evidence that Kent was a relatively organized and centralized kingdom under Ethelbert.

Ethelbert was later canonised for his role in restoring Christianity to Great Britain. Although he died on February 24, 616, his feast day was usually celebrated on February 25 so that it would not overlap with the feast of Saint Matthias on the previous day.

[edit] Notes

1. The year of Ethelbert's death may have been slightly later, perhaps 618. This discrepency is caused by Bede's comment that Ethelbert was both baptized twenty-ones years after the arrival of Augustine and twenty-one years after her was baptized. Since Ethelbert likely did not become a Christian until shortly before 601, the date of his death is also pushed back.

[edit] Sources

[edit] Nuklear Age

[edit] The Restaurant

The first several issues of the book deal, either directly or indirectly, with Nuklear Man, Atomik Lad, and Angus' search for food. Though much less epic in scope that latter arcs, this section introduces most important characters and serves to establish their basic personalities. Opening with Nuklear Man's defeat of Mechanikill, a rogue military weapons platform, it is revealed that Nuklear Man has little to no knowledge of his past. He is left with little time to ponder this, however, as Atomik Lad appears and distracts him with the promise of food via coupon. These become forever lost in a series of events that introduce Angus and Dr. Menace, as well as the Negaflux field, an invention of the bad Doctor. Noting a birthday card Nukie received from his unknown father, Atomik Lad suggests that it may be used to obtain a free cake at a local restaurant, to which the three super heroes depart for.

Once there, the three order the Daily Special (All-You-Can-Eat) only for John to discover that the original listed price was a left over from the day before and that the veritable smorgasbord of lobster that they had consumed was priced much higher and by the plate, resulting in bill that they could hardly afford to pay with ready cash or credit. The three are then forced to work off their meal, at which point Angus comes into conflict with his old work associate in the breakfast cereal industry, the Steel Irishman, resulting in a battle of vertically-limited proportions. All the while Nukie, having been sent to clean the back of the restaurant, discovers that an old barrel of cheese has evolved into a highly complex society bent on world domination, which he soundly defeats.

Due to the destruction caused by Angus and the Steel Irishman, Sheamus, all four of these superheroes are tossed out of the restaurant. In order to resolve the conflict between Angus and the Steel Irishman, they head to the Silo of Solitude, Nuklear Man and Atomik Lad's base of operations located in a nuclear wasteland. Once there Angus and Sheamus are reconciled to each other and proceed to consume enough alcohol as to alter reality itself.

[edit] A Birthday Party and The Crushtacean

Following the encounter with Shamus, Atomik Lad decides to throw his mentor a birthday party since, for the first time, the world has some idea as to when Nuklear Man's birthday is. A trip to the mall soon ensues in which Norman, otherwise known as Mighty Metallic Magno Man (or MMMM for short), is introduced. Additionally the Socially Maladusted Over-Villians Who Can't Decide on a Name are also introduced, through their reoccuring role is comparitively minor.

It is also revealed that John and Norman's choice in gifts for the Golden Guardian are directed by poor past experiences, one of which was when Atomik Lad gave Nukie a label maker, which is used to explain an ongoing gag in the text in which many objects possess a "Danger: Label" or a form thereof (such as Dr. Menace's "Evil: Computer").

Prior to the party, Atomik Lad tells Nukie to clean up the mess that he had made while watching Soap Operas. While doing so, Nuklear Man accidentally tosses a holigraphic device containing information regarding Earth culture, developed originally to aid amnesia patients, throuh a wormhole, which transports it back in time and across the galaxy. While seemingly unimportant at this point, this fact would prove significant later in the story. Additionally, the Silo of Solitude becomes sentient due to post contemporilization, reflecting the present's perception of future technology.

[edit] The Court Scene and Superion

While Atomik Lad is destracted by Rachel, Nuklear Man retreives the mail, of which is primarily fan letters to AL himself. KatKat gets a few as well, but the Golden Guardian only receives 1 letter, a court summons which he insists is, in fact, a fan letter.

[edit] Nihel and The Final "Joke"

Scarecly had the threat of Superion passed when an alien craft, generating near unimaginable level of KI fields, enters the solar system. The craft, a perfect sphere with a nuclear style N painted on it, the selfsame logo as on Nuklear Man's costume, disgourges six pods of varrying sizes, each carrying an alien determined to find an entity known as Ariel, a key element in the alien Nihel's plan to achieve freedom from fate.

During this time Dr. Genius is aboard an orbiting space station interviewing a girl of unusual KI capabilities.

Realizing that their Ariel is some sort of hero to the people of Earth, five of the aliens, Dakial, Varial, Rafial, Gabrial, and XXXX begin terrorizing those construction workers repairing the section of Metroville destroyed in the battle with Superion. True to his nature, Nuklear Man shows up, working under the assumption that the five aliens, also wearing nuclear style N's, are infringing upon his copyrights of the symbol.

A battle, somewhat akin to those from the anime Dragon Ball Z or similar cartoons, ensues. In the mean time the sixth alien, Nihel himself, tours the city of Metroville as it is the center of the Earthim, a place and culture of near mythic significance to the alien civilization that Nihel is accustomed to. During this process he is approached by Dr. Menace, who takes him back to her lab and eventually attempts to capture him inside a Negaflux field. Nihel easily escapes in a process that implies the vast extent of his god-like powers. Realizing that his goal to destroy the galaxy in order to obliterate fate, a vague force that controls his actions (and the actions of every god-like entity in the galaxy), inherently pose a danger to the Earth that she desired to control, Dr. Menace contacts Dr. Genius in order to formulate a means of destroying Nihel and Nuklear Man by necessity.

During this time, Atomik Lad, Rachel, Angus, Shiro, and Norman visit the Metroville Mall and find themselves in a Dungeons and Dragons-esq setting where the Mall's owner, Mort D. Kein, confuses fantasy for reality. Following this misadventure, they all go to the Food Court, where Nihel is soon to come.

One of the most twistedly entertaining parts of Nuklear Age is the ending. The first two-thirds of the novel set up the final third in a way that is difficult to forget. Clevinger refers to this as a "joke" because it is a "disruption of expectations", thus mirroring -- on a mechanical level -- the punchline of a joke. The "joke" is not meant to be funny, per se, but Clevinger claims that, too, as part of the joke.

[edit] Education Template

This project is not meant as a way of people bragging about their education, offering those with more greater weight in an argument. Rather, I hope that it will serve as a general resource so that people may find and contact varying levels of experts in a number of fields. Do you need to know if the journal Cell is a good resource? Someday you could just go look at the resident Wiki-Biologists with a PhD and ask them. Of course, by adding the template to one's page one would be agreeing to make one's knowledge open to others. That is why I did not include any education below University.

Education
ASU BAH	This user graduated from an American State University with a Bachlor of Arts in History
ASU MAH-1	This user is attending an American State University's Master of Arts: History program

[edit] BA IP

[edit] History Master's Completed Course Work

[edit] History Master's IC Course Work