Marius' thread!

[Valerius Claudius Iohanes]

Salvete, omnes -

And cream soda ? Are you MAD ? Honey mead, yes, but my wife doesn't brew that. We're in Belgica here, so beer it is, nothing else. Be a man, hold your nose and gulp it down. And just pretend you like it, for Xanthippe's sake (and mine, she'll kill me if I bring home someone who doesn't like her beer).

You know, Formose, I just realized that I've been sort of waiting for a couple of years to hear someone take Marius to task over that Cream Soda business!

Okay, I'll come! I'll come! Adveniam! Adveniam! And between my slave and me, we'll be toting an amphora of Falernian, a gift for the host and his household. For I expect to be drinking my share of your ale, and eating my share of that delicious chicken!

Valete!

[Aldus Marius]

*More* about Marius?? 1900+ posts, including a (re)intro, and you want to know *more* about Marius?? Aiee, some people are just gluttons for punishment, I suppose! Very well, you shall have more about Marius. Never let it be said that I kept a customer waiting!

> I'm sorry if I mistook you for a 'kid' ... assuming you were still a 'real kid' when you went to the East to fight the Babylonians and Assyrians.

Except that I wasn't. When my Reserve unit was activated for the Gulf Standoff (Desert Shield), soon to be the Gulf War (Desert Storm), I had already served for 10 years, 7 of them on active duty. I turned 30 the year after the hero parade; became homeless about six months later; and, not being into substance abuse, took the rent money I saved and put myself through college (hence that anthropology degree). Hei, it was something to do...!

That was also the time period when I "got my kit together", so to speak. I commissioned and acquired my Roman-soldier gear a piece at a time from '93 to '95. The pic you see in my avatar is from 1996. I was 34 then. But it is a fair representation of me now; I got rather worn and haggard on the street, but since my cancer surgery I've felt like I got my 30's back again, and everyone tells me it shows! >({|:-)

> ...may I dare to ask if we could keep the Formosi Furiosi line as much as possible in the pure madcap (?) comedy style ?

Umm...I thought I was? Well, maybe I'm not a very 'madcap' madman, but I have tried to make my stuff fit in. I don't think I did too badly translating my real bio into Roman terms, or at least ones a Roman could understand. Life *was* a serious business for quite a while; but that part's out of the way now, so I can get back into the off-the-cuff, off-the-wall Storyteller mode I usually save for chatrooms and such. I'll be good from now on, promise.

(Actually, when I reread that post I thought maybe I should/should have used it for RP-Marius' upcoming explanation to his companions...?)

> You are the WEBMASTER and I your humble servant.

You have that exactly backwards: As the Webmaster, I am your servant, though not so humble sometimes. I am nearly tied for time on station with Ti. Dionysius Draco, the man who held this job for the longest...but only nearly. Tibi Draco's still here, as am I; all our other Web-heads up and quit on us, and after the last one went Away I was the last one with any HTML skills whatsoever who had not already done the duty. And my skills are, shall we say, rustic if not downright primitive? Go 'head, read the Comitia-->Aediles thread and see how many awesome proposed site features are waiting for a *real* Webmaster to code them. I'm a placeholder, nothing more. But I don't see anyone lining up to take my job, so I suppose I'm it until somebody sends in a gang of ex-gladiators to chuck me out of my computer chair.

If something's not right, or you have ideas for either the Board or the Web site, please let me know. I'll do what I can, or tell you why I didn't. It was pointed out to me recently that I had not added our most recently selected Curator to the Album Magistratuum. He took office last year, and I didn't update the Album...? How'd I miss that?? But the Sodalis who reported it had known about it for some time, yet been hesitant to ping me. Amici Romani, that sort of thing is my job, my function in life, and the only purposeful thing I do all day. Don't be shy, now! An error on the site is much more embarrassing to me than a polite correction. And, scatterbrained as I am, I couldn't do this job at all without a lot of help from my fellow Boardmembers (that's everybody on the Forum).

The only things I ask for my service are (a) help with things I don't know much about, like translating pages into other languages; and (b) that people actually check out the site itself from time to time, especially if I post that I've done something interesting to it, and let me know what they think. If there's a burr under your saddle I need to address it. Warm fuzzies, of course, are also welcome, and keep me running!

In amicitia et serious fide,

[Cleopatra Aelia]

Salvete, amici Romani!

...Marius is on Facebook!!!

It's a total time-sink and I doubt I'll ever get way deep into it. But I check it every time I log on. If you're already there, look for "Marius Peregrine". (If you're not, look me up anyway, but it'll want you to register.)


In amicitia,

I tried to find you but it says there are not results for "Marius Peregrine". Did you delete your account on Facebook again? I'm registered there as "Medusa Gladiatrix".

[Aldus Marius]

Salve, mi Aelia!

I haven't gone back to Facebook since before they changed the "privacy" policy to a "perpetual ownership of every photo and message you've ever posted...you know, just in case one of your friends' grandpuppies wants to look it up a hundred years from now" policy.

I haven't actually deleted my account yet. I'm in a bit of a double bind: I have to use the service to get off it, but any use of the service after the effective date of the new rules (approx. 4 Februarius) constitutes acceptance of same. Yecchh. I'm outbound, no mistake; but I've got some tidying-up to do.

In amicitia,

[Marcus Lupinius Paulus]

I just joined Facebook last night. I'm listed as Stuart Smith
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id= ... 249&ref=nf

Anyone else here on Facebook with Medusa and Marius and Iohannes?

Stuart

[Aldus Marius]

Salve, mi Formose, et Salvete omnes!

> As to posting pictures of yourself from when you were still a young and attractive lad all over the place...

Hei! I resemble that remark! <g>

But I'm not trying to defraud anyone. (That's illegal on the 'Net, isn't it, to pose as some teeny-bopper in hopes of attracting more of same? How many of them could even hold up their end of any conversation I'd call interesting?) I actually posted that picture "all over the place" when I *was* that age (yes, I've been online that long), and simply haven't thought about it since.

But, all right...you want my Avatar to reflect my age, do you now? --Here is an image of a land-formation in a region called Cydonia on the planet Mars. It even looks a little like a maned wolf. Its geological age may be in some whole proportion to my chronological one.

Cydonia_sm.jpg

Better? >({|;-)

Ad astram,

[Formosus Viriustus]

Salvete omnes,


Nice one Marius !

I'm sure this picture resembles you more as you look nowadays than the previous one.
I'm not sure though if that will suffice to keep off all those teeny-bopper groupies that keep hassling you.

And are you sure that's a picture of Mars ? I DEFINITELY see a 2 KM wide human skull there in the foreground.

What have you been eating lately Marius ?

Oh, and thanks for clearing things up on the NRPDT ! Now at least we know were we are ! Or do we ? §8-)

Valete bene,

[Formosus Viriustus]

Salvete Marii et omnes,

Now that you have shown your TRUE FACE to the world, I'll have to follow suit, I guess.
That previous picture showed me as a young man too. And since you have pointed out that that is not really kosher on the 'net : here's how I really look like these days.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jean_Paul_Laurens_Le_Pape_Formose_et_Etienne_VII_1870.jpg

Valete bene et nil desperandum,

[Aldus Marius]

Salve iterum, mi Formose!

I've been told I remind people of this creature:

Cave Canem-sm.jpg

Considering the recent goings-on in the RP, I might oughtta keep this one for awhile, en'? >({|;-)

Bites worse than barkin',

[Formosus Viriustus]

Ave,

Marius Csr - Imp - Trib Pos XII - Cos VII - Ptr Ptriae

Allright, I give up. I surrender. I'm dead tired from dragging all those pictures and paintings around these last few days. I'm well over the hill, you know. I have to measure myself. What have you lined up next to retaliate ? The Collosos of Rhodes, I bet.

Vale optime !

[Aldus Marius]

Na, no Colossi; "Aldus Marius Has No Greek", and does not trust them when bearing gifts. I was just gonna give a tip o' the galea to my Distinguished Adopted Ancestor and award myself a Marius' Mule:

Golden Ass.jpg

> Marius Csr - Imp - Trib Pos XII - Cos VII - Ptr Ptria

Now why the hell couldn't I get the Curia to do that?? <positively radioactive feg!>

[Formosus Viriustus]

I might have guessed it. That or the horse of Troy. But since you, like my Xanthippe, don't have much time for The Greeks, it had to be a mule, of course. You call that an armistice do you ? I'll show you an armistice ! You haven't seen the last of me yet, I tell you !

And frankly, I'm terribly disappointed in your spelling Marius. 'Ptr Ptria' ? I thought you knew a bit of Latin, but I'm beginning to doubt that.

[Aldus Marius]

Oh, Sempronius...dear, dear Sempronius...of course the misspelled bit is in the part I quoted from you! And, of course, when I gaze upon your quoted post, I see that it has been edited once. 'Bout half an hour ago. To correct the abbreviation for "Pater Patriae".

Mm-hmm...mm-hmm! So that's the sort of fellow you are. Why must I owe my sudden elevation to such a man? Take it; take it all back. If the Curia won't do it, it doesn't deserve to be done.

Have said. Hmmph. >({|3-|

[Formosus Viriustus]

Who started this 'dirty tricks' campaign ? I ask. Not me. I just made you a compliment by saying you look pretty youthful on those pictures of yours one can't miss if one spends two minutes on the SVR Forum.

And next thing I know, you've changed into some Martian Werewolf Gorgon who eats 12 km tall giants for breakfast and spits out their skulls disdainfully ? So, of course, I can't let you get away with that and show you my Real Image , terrible to behold as it may be.

So you turn yourself into some Pompeyan Curr, just to transform yourself again within the shortest time into a Golden Ass ! And you expect me to play fair ? No, no, no, no, no !

'MARIVS - PTR PTRIA' you will be from now on, to your own eternal shame ! That will teach you to mess with one like me !

[Aldus Marius]

Salve iterum, mi Formose!

Umm...I don't suppose we could settle on 'Tertius Conditor', could we? A case could actually be made (see Concilium Rei Publica Constituendae forum); but as we no longer had a Senate, nobody knew who would or could award me such a thing, and it'd've been immodest to give it to myself.

Strange as it may seem, I am not a founding member of the Societas Via Romana, so cannot be a 'Pater Patriae'. I was coaxed, cajoled, and finally dragged in here kicking slightly (but not screaming) a few months after I left Nova Roma; at the time I did not want anything further to do with online Roman organisations at all, not even brand-new ones created by my friends. Understandable under the circumstances, I hope... But I'm glad I let Gnaeus Draco, Tibi Draco, Scribonius Curio and others talk me into the Societas. I'd have missed out on so much! >({(:-)

But, amice, if you ask around, you'll learn that I've always been a shapeshifter!

Canis latrans,

[Formosus Viriustus]

'Arth 'Ader : 'sssssf, ffffff, sssssff, fffff, Come to the Dark Side, my friend, Marius. Feel the Force of the Dark Side. Give up your shapeshifting and your wandering. Embrace the Dark Side. And I will make you PTR PTRIA, or even PTR PTRIAE if you prefer, if the Council won't do it. Look into your heart, deep inside. You know you have always wanted to be PTR PTRIAE ever since you became a Roman. Admit it. You know it is your DESTINY. You know that is what you were meant to be. Don't fight it. Forget your Republican dreams, join the Empire and together we can rule the UNIVERSE ! sssssfff, fffffffff, sssssssff, ffffffff ....'

(due to atmospherical interference in the transuniversal instant transmission system, the lay-out in this message may have been slightly corrupted. I.e. Couldn't bother to get it right.)

[Aldus Marius]

Salve iterum, O Nefarious Influence:

I can't be Pater Patriae; I never started anything. Re-started, perhaps, but never got a thing going ab initio on my own. I'm hopeless in the implementation department. So--no Patres over here, although the Cub thinks I'm a darn good Uncle.

But "Republican dreams"? --To give them up, I'd have had to have any. I am an Imperial Roman, specifically of the Flavian-Antonine persuasion, when a hick from southern Spain already had the Citizenship and could at least hope to sire an Emperor or two. A great deal of my trouble with Nova Roma stemmed from their Republican politicking and their Republican exclusivity; to this day, it seems, if you are not a Roman of Rome (their Rome), you are not considered a real Roman at all. Needless to say, the entire Roman-revivalist movement outside of NR finds this patently offensive, especially since "the Roman Republic Reborn" is a relative latecomer to the scene. They also claim to be the spiritual center and governing authority for all practitioners of the Religio Romana. Hubris! (OK, Marius has *some* Greek.)

So you can't tempt me with a title I haven't earned, and you can't tempt me with empire--I've got one, thanks. All that, and I still get to Wander and indulge my werewolfy nature. Oh, and don't try to corrupt me from that end, either; the Wolf is very much my better, more kindly half.

Next...? >({|;-P

[Aldus Marius]

(Oh, yes...congrats on achieving the Board-rank of Eques!) >({|:-)

[Formosus Viriustus]

:party:

Hey Marius !

Thanks ! How about that hey ?
You there still ?
Say, any news on that clock business or are we just sticking to Greek time ?
(Marius, in background ): grr - mfeg - let me sleep ! will you ?

Valete !

[Aldus Marius]

Salve, mi Formose!

Of *course* I'm still here. My Location is listed as "On Site" for a reason! But it's true that you spend even more time here than I do. Is all well at home, work, and/or school? >({(:-)

For that time business, you should be able to go to your User Control Panel (the link is under the phpBB logo). Under "Board Preferences-->Edit Global Settings" you can select the time-zone you want to use on the Board. This can be your own, Roma's, your best friend on the other side of the planet's... It's supposed to be Rome time by default, but Daylight Savings in some countries might have messed it up.

If the UCP fix doesn't help, I'll look a little further into it.

In fide,