The Secret Life of...

Hi, my name is Cartimandua. I got my name from a real historical figure who lived in Britain around 40 AD when the Romans were conquering the area. She was a pragmatic queen who decided to turn against her loyalist husband and side with the Romans. The Roman historian, Tacitus, wrote about her and the 10 other kings who surrendered to the Romans without a fight (can you really blame them, the Romans were the biggest and the best of all armies!). I don't necessarily agree with everything she did, but she is intriguing. Tacticus called her "treacherous" because of her loyalty to the Romans and said she had "cunning strategems". Okay, so it was the last thing that hooked me. Cunning strategems? I loved it! Thus, I am known as Cartimandua.

I am most frequently found lurking on a gaming forum called Apolyton. Poly (as we call it) is home to Civilization fanatics. Civilization is a PC game where you can play as a historical figure, build your own empire, explore your world (which changes with every game), interact with the historical leaders of other empires, and basically see an evolution of society from the discovery of the wheel to the medieval ages to the atomic bomb and beyond. It's addicting and fascinating and infinitely re-playable. It's my secret obsession.

On Apolyton, Cartimandua has a reputation for representing the females in a very male dominated world. I tell the guys off when they are disrespectful and intrigue them with tales of women who let their men play computer games, who don't nag, and will actually play with their husbands. This fills them full of false hopes of finding the perfect woman as they continue to live their entire lives online. It's very entertaining from my point of view. :)

I realize that I am coming across as very cynical, but it's that time of the month and the Midol is just barely kicking in, so whatever.

This morning Cartimandua got up at dawn (okay, it was 7:00, but that's close to dawn on a Saturday) to do a podcast/internet radio show. This was my second appearance, and in my opinion the first one was better. This time was fun, however, because my husband, who is known all over the internet as Alexander I, was also co-hosting with me. It's even funnier because nobody knows we are husband and wife except for the main hosts of the podcast. We really had fun.

If anyone is interested (which you probably are not) you can listen to the Polycast Christmas Special: Girls Playing Civ at http://polycast.apolyton.net/polycast/season1/
christmas2007.mp3
The one I recorded today will not be published until next week.

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