I feel good this morning...

At work, I work the overnight shift... usually 10pm-6am.

Today I'm working from 6am-2pm... so I'm sitting in the security office with nothing to do because the day shift guys do less than the night shift...

But I got a lot of sleep last night... my buddy Reid and his wife brought some pizza over to my apartment last night and we just chilled and had a great time...

They left kind of early (they're married... of course they left early... married people are lame... hahaha... jk), but it gave me the chance to go to bed early as well and I kind of liked it! I got good sleep and woke up at 3:30 this morning wide awake! 3:30 is usually my mid-day, so I felt like I was sleeping in! hahaha...

I chilled around the house, read some of the blogs I subscribe to... my favorite ones: Barefoot Roadtrip and Seattle Daily Photo. Both are great... every time I visit the Seattle Daily Photo, it makes me want to live in the Pacific Northwest more and more... it's the perfect place for me...

and every time I read the Barefoot Roadtrip, it makes me want to get out and do something outdoorsy! (Little plug for ya, pops! not that anyone but you and Danielle will ever read this...)

But I woke up, got a shower, read some bloggage (that sounds like a health issue... bloggage...), made some French coffee, ate some yogurt, some Honey Nut Cheerios (good for the heart, cancels out the pizza from last night!), and read a bit of 1 Peter all while Colin Hay's acoustic stuff was playing in the background... made for a great morning and a killer way to start the day!

Then I got in my car, turned my iPod to John Denver's "Late Winter/Early Spring (When Everybody Goes To Mexico)" and cruised with the windows down letting the 72 degree morning air enliven me even more! now that I'm at work, I went on a patrol and listened to Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence" and now, here I sit... with my Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (described in the two posts below) and this should be a great day!

Also, a couple of personal notes:

I'm going to start trying to laugh at the things that frustrate me the most... i.e. liberals, pop music, rap/hip-hop scene, overly christianeze phrases, ignorance in the church, robotic christians, horrible leaders, women drivers, california, commercials, bad acting, people who seem like they've never opened a book or watched the news in their lives, people with no common sense, people who care nothing about anyone around them, people who do whatever they want without regard to the effect it has on everyone around them, people who make messes for others to clean up, people who rush to be the first in line for everything (unless there's limited space, like being in line for tickets, etc... then all is fair!), people not using their turn signals, people who take forever to turn like they're going to flip over if they take a corner at 5 mph, people who think they're better than everyone else, people who have to talk loudly when they're talking about something they think is cool just so other people around them will think they're awesome for talking about it, people who talk loudly on cell phones, people who think they're the most awesome people in the world, clones... (i.e. people who look like everyone else (i.e. emo kids, gangsta wannabes, the new UFC wannabes, preps, girls who think they have to reveal everything with the way they dress, etc...)), people who chew gum, chew loudly, chew with their mouth open, talk with food in their mouths, breathe heavily while eating, clutter, people who always seem to have to have something wrong with them and think that their problems are a lot worse than everyone else's, people who constantly talk about their problems, people who only have negative things to say about everything and everyone (I've noticed myself becoming a little bit like this), people who are super clingy and rely on you to build them up all the time (almost like you're their crutch and their reason for living and their source of happiness...), people who always have to spread drama and cause issues within groups, Obama supporters, the media, anti-war activists, anything that has come out of Obama's mouth, etc...

wow... that's a lot of things that frustrate me... it felt good to get it all out...

I need to start laughing at these things because I haven't been... and I've been turning into a grouchy person... and that's just not me!

second personal note:

The History Channel is really getting on my nerves!!

Ice Road Truckers, Gangland, the UFO shows, Expedition Africa and the Monster hunting show are NOT history shows!! what do they think they're doing?! that's stuff for the Discovery Channel!! let them do it!

also, they need to stop stating theories as fact without stating that they're theories or presenting other theories!

okay... my rants are done... I'm having a great day! I think I'm going to make some garlic-herb chicken with broccoli and Red Lobster biscuits tonight and see if the crew wants to play Scrabble...

Egypt... more Egypt stuff...

Here's what I'm reading now!

I'm going to be reading about Egypt's history and trying to learn Hieroglyphic at the same time...

I've really started getting into Egyptology, but I don't know if that's the direction I'll take yet...

The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt by Ian Shaw, but each chapter is written by different scholars...

An incredible book containing the history of ancient Egypt, discussing all the aspects of Egyptian life... pretty excited to "dig" in...

I just have to throw this in real quick... I'm on page 50 and Beatrix Midant-Reynes is discussing the human representations during the Naqada II phase of the pre-Dynastic period and I quote, "Unlike women, men were no longer being solely identified by their primary sexual characteristics, but by a secondary sexual characteristic and the social status that this conferred on them. The beard was evidently a symbol of power, and, in the form of the ceremonial 'false beard', it later became strictly reserved for the chins of kings and gods." Booyah!

New Book

I think I've found what I'm going to talk about with this blog... it started out that everything was going to start with "This reminds me..." (hence the title), however I don't think I'm going to stick to that very well...

I think I'm going to start discussing books I'm reading...

I just finished one! Which I'm really excited about because I haven't actually finished a book in a very VERY long time...

This one is called, Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From? by William G. Dever.

Dever is a highly respected archaeologist/historian, not just in biblical archaeology, but in archaeology in general.

This book is great because he doesn't take the approach of "God said it; I believe it; that settles it!" He takes a more logical approach to the study of biblical archaeology. He discusses 5 approaches to using archaeological evidence that people generally follow. (and I know people that follow each) They are:

"1: Assume the biblical text is literally true, and ignore all external evidence as irrelevant.

2: Hold that the biblical text is probably true, but seek external corroboration.

3: Approach the text, as well as the external data, with no preconceptions. Single out the "convergences" of the two lines of evidence, and remain skeptical about the rest.

4: Contend that nothing in the biblical text is true, unless proven by external data.

5: Reject the text and any other data, since the Bible cannot be true."

(To Approach 5: a man on a train in Ireland told me, "Oh! The Bible, huh? That's a good book of myths and fairy tales!" not much of a thinker and he's probably never read it...)

Dever states, "... I shall resolutely hold to the middle ground - that is, to Approach 3 - because I think that truth is most likely to be found there."

And he does!

I know that there are a lot of issues between the facts that are found in the ground and what the Bible says, but I'm still not discounting the Bible and its message... I do believe in God and I do believe in His son, Jesus... and I do believe in Heaven and Hell... and I do believe in sin and salvation and Jesus' death and resurrection... and I believe there is a story to be told in the Bible. However, I don't believe that every story told is 100% fact... there are a lot of literary devices that the writers of the Bible used that were being used in their time in other writings to describe what actually happened...

By the end of the book, Dever has pointed out all the issues between archaeology and the biblical text... (i.e. there is no evidence for the Exodus, there is no evidence for the conquest of Canaan, there is no evidence of any hostile take over of the land, there's no evidence of a historical Moses, etc...)BUT what he discusses is the possibility that these stories are ancient Israel's method of telling the story of their beginnings as a country... as Dever puts it, a "metaphor for liberation" which is a device used commonly by ancient civilizations.

Also something to remember is that the Israelites were bedouin, pastoral hill-dwellers, so the chance of having an exact representation of their full history is slim to none....

I would elaborate on this, but I feel this is already too long... if you want me to talk more in detail about it, let me know and I will...

Learning Hieroglyphics...

I'm learning to read hieroglyphics...

trying to anyway...

Hieroglyphics: the sweet-looking writings of the ancient Egyptians.

I know what you're thinking: this guy is the biggest nerd I've (n)ever seen!

Well, yes... I am...

BUT I figure it will help me in my hopeful future as an archaeologist/historian/professor/whatever else...

This stuff is hard! Going into it, I knew that it was going to be difficult... but wow! I knew that I had to learn all the symbols and the combinations of symbols... but it somehow slipped my mind that even though we can transliterate them into what phonetically sounds like English, I also have to learn the Egyptian language in order to be able to read anything but names... although I have to say... to be able to look at a hieroglyph on a massive stone column or a piece of papyrus and be able to tell who the symbols are referring to is pretty freakin' sweet if you ask me...

anyway... there are a couple more books I need that are much better than this one such as Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs and Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian. They go hand-in-hand and I think they'll be very useful...

I honestly think Egypt will be the next foreign land I scamper off to...

Also... I found a website for buying life-size replicas of ancient artifacts such as the Narmer Palette, the Rosetta Stone, and King Tutankhamen's burial mask... those are the ones I really want anyway... hahaha... (www.museumstorecompany.com) also some canopic jars would be awesome! They're the jars that were buried with the mummies that contained the organs! hahaha! or maybe a scarab... ah... who knows what I'll end up getting...

If I had it my way...

Tonight, I'm sitting at work... I work the overnight shift, so I have a lot of time to think...
and I began thinking of the way my life would be if I had it my way...
If I had it my way...
I would own a fully restored 1979 Volkswagen Van for roadtrips and such...
I would have a wooden canoe to go on top of said VW van...
I would be living in the Seattle area (I love the weather, terrain, availability of places to enjoy the outdoors nearby, gorgeous views, a lot of rain, the folk music scene is great there, it's got a very artistic-friendly atmosphere, coffee, outdoor markets, ocean nearby, rocky coasts, evergreens, desert on the other side of the mountains, people there are used to folks with beards, etc...)
I would be teaching history/archaeology at a university and doing research while making frequent trips to the Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Greece, Italy, Saudi Arabia, etc... to do field research and excavation.
I would be working in some teaching role for a progressive church not affiliated with any denomination, because I feel that it's of the utmost importance for Christians to know the facts about the history of the Bible and the land and the cultures of the ancient near east and the problems that exist between the Bible and archaeological evidence...
I would have an apartment in the city so I could live an eco-friendly life... haha... and drive a scooter around town...
I would own a bookstore/coffe shop so I could have one to chill at any time I want...
I would be in a folk/Irish band... hahaha!
That's... that's about it...

Swore Off Blogging...

This Reminds Me...

of that time that I swore to myself I would never get a blog...
I now have two.... I fail...