Merry Christmas!

Did you ever sit waiting for a train and decide to pass the time in some people watching, only to be confronted with the dawning realisation that you're entirely repulsed by humanity?

Well, I've bitten the bullet and become the owner of www.ancientalexandra.co.uk

The Guardian Angels, but it's just me setting fire to any business thar puts Christmas shit up before December 1st.

New blog post tomorrow on TheShelbiad.blogspot.com 🔮

For those who want to dip their toes into the world of Latin, Malta Classics Association are once again running courses. All online, with expert instructors, and competitively priced: classicsmalta.org/lingua-latin...

'I can't express how little I care that it's your birthday.' 'I will outlive all of you.' 'Cruelty is the default mode of nature.' All things I've said to a bunch of 12 year olds this week. Teaching is wild.

I planned a once-in-a-lifetime road trip, but could Turkey live up to my expectations? ancientalexandra.weebly.com/blog/a-turki...

Here's a tale for anyone who'd like to know what I've been up to over the last year... and if you're able to help/share, I'd really appreciate it. Autistic StoryTime – Classical Studies Support share.google/0XfKZucMCoAr...

Why are all your suitcases so big? Are people packing multiple down jackets or something? Currently on a train and watching a procession of cargo crates on wheels failing to navigate the aisle through the carriage...

Regarding the Kimmel situation, an overlooked but urgent cause for concern is the fact that nobody seems to know what 'preempt' means. From the initial statement by ABC or whoever, to actual journalists deploying the word in the same incorrect sense, the implications for modern literacy are dire.

What movie do consider to be perfect? If you know, you know. It's the vibe.

I became a teacher for three reasons: to set up course management systems, worry about AI dissolving my profession, and be broke in my 40s.

'Mark Strong's voice coach inviting me to see him play Oedipus on Broadway' was not on my 2025 bingo card, but here we are...

Not sure I'm qualified for this job. I wonder if they have any warehouse jobs for people with no chill?

Psychology of Education: 'Examine Dweeks theory of normative, conformative, performative identity creation in relation socio-linguistic, socio-economic, and socio-sidereal factors; what challenges do the implications of Spoon-Marigold's transplanar model of self enactment pose to their conclusion?'

If you can, make time to watch Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron on Netflix. It's two hours long, 85% of which consists of Miyazaki at his desk or kitchen counter staring with subdued intensity into the distance. But it's also a beautiful meditation on aging, loss and creativity. Stunning.

Presented without comment...😂 www.instagram.com/reel/DNL6zVe...

Breaking: AI company shocked to discover law also applies to it just as much as to all the little people AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified - Ars Technica share.google/CcnJTES3leU2...

Half empty carriage, I'm sole occupant of a cluster of four seats around a table. Window seat. Woman comes in and sits right beside me. Not directly cross, not on the aisle seat opposite. Right next to me. Why!!!??? Sociopathic behaviour.

Still some last minute tickets left for my Folklore & Women event in Manchester on the 6th August! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/folklore-w...

What better way to get back into work than with a blog post? This is the final instalment of the Mythic Masculinities series & it's the wandering wonder himself: Odysseus! 🚣‍♂️ #classicssky #blogger theshelbiad.blogspot.com/2025/07/anci...

Free ebook! (co-edited by my brother-in-law) 🎉

A big thank-you to @joewatstein.bsky.social for pulling this together!

There goes the neighbourhood... The promise held out by AI is 'a bit shit, but much less effort'. Is that an idea people want associated with their scholarship? share.google/pMv2nbkXmLsG...

You know you made an impression at your last place of work when you visit and find your old staff pass displayed in the break room in a place of shrine-like prominence.😂

"Tourist shocked that other tourists exist, frustrated that an iconic attraction was crowded at noon in summer" www.businessinsider.com/colosseum-ro...

So pleased to have an article out (open access) this week about designing for autistic students! 🎉 Do take a look, if you're a teacher interested in accessibility... The relaxed tutorial project: designing synchronous online tutorials for autistic students www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Have a look at the face of mindless destruction, the face of the modern age. Four years each. Some will say too long, some too short. There's no way to calculate the magnitude of their offence, no firm basis from which to judge. They've destroyed something beautiful which can never be recovered.

Has anyone ever had a prolonged break for their research/ writing? I had hoped keep my head in the thesis a bit more than I have, but unforeseen family matters (illnesses, hospital stays, etc) have meant that I really haven’t touched it for along time. Any advice on returning to it?

Is the place to find all the books still completely gone? Is there anywhere else we can use?

I wish there had been something like this when I began going to conferences! Brilliant work as usual.

After announcing it at the Classical Association Conference over the weekend, today we launch our Working Classicists Guide to Event Accessibility. In it, we suggest ways to equalise access and eliminate anxieties around event attendance. Read more: www.workingclassicists.com/zine/working...

Fun fact: I was asked if I wanted to join a CA2025 panel and I couldn't because a) it's too expensive to go as an indie with no fancy funding and b) attending in '24 made me a nervous wreck. Read this guide, and use it.

Curious as to what exactly it is going to take for our governments to say, you know what, we think this might be a genocide. BBC News - Children queuing for supplements killed in Israeli strike in Gaza, hospital says www.bbc.com/news/article...

Very sick of job applications now

"The scale of institutional ownership in certain places is staggering. In Ireland, nearly half of all units delivered since 2017 were purchased by investment funds. …[W]hen the aim is to make money from housing it can mean only one thing: prices go up." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Week 238 of being glad I'm no longer subscribed to the Liverpool List. It's the kind of comfort you feel when you're tucked up warm inside listening to howling wind and lashing rain outside. Bliss.

Shocker

Welcome to England, where chanting about killing soldiers engaged in war crimes is a greater source of outrage among politicians than soldiers murdering civilians and commiting war crimes.

Apt typo: Asking a friend if they wanted to use my Trinity privileges to avail of free tickets for the Book of Kells, I advised them to let me know as soon as possible as places were in demand and one had to book a specific *tome* slot. 📖

Ten writers by whom I've read more than five novels: Emily Brontë J.D. Salinger John Kennedy Toole Boris Pasternak Oscar Wilds Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa Harper Lee Anna Sewell Lucretius Petronius

Asked Daniel Day-Lewis if there was anything in his pockets.

It's officially publication day for All Roads Lead to Rome by @rhigarthjones.bsky.social. Read my review, then go buy the book! www.workingclassicists.com/zine/book-re...

Sports Day at my school today. I intend to spend it the same way I did as a student: complaining and sneaking back inside as often as possible.

Invite me on your podcasts if you wanna talk some shit about Roman emperors.

Still time to nominate someone for a lovely prize. It's our favourite bit of the year; we love hearing about great work being done in the world of Classics and all its related fields. Go on... tell us about someone marvellous! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

If anyone has experience in getting photography permits for Turkish sites and museums, can you please DM me?ancientbluesky

For those with a Paramount+ subscription, you can now catch my television debut in the documentary Queens of Combat. I talk briefly about the Great Dover Street lady. For everyone else, it will be on terrestrial TV soon. Who'd have ever thought I'd be a talking head!?