Google Earth is a neat program from google.com that lets you browse an interactive globe with (sometimes) high-res satellite images. My Levantine history professor uses it in class all the time to illustrate his lectures. Today he pulled it up on the screen and said, "I love Google Earth! It's like crack!" Hilarity and firm denials that he had ( Read more... )

I'm home sick today. I don't know if this has something to do with my new contacts, or if my body had just discovered some wonderful new way of expressing PMS, but I had a headache of epic proportions yesterday. It left me feeling nauseated, weak and dizzy, and there was no way I could concentrate on doing my Late Egyptian. I woke up this morning ( Read more... )

I have before me a 2nd year review, hot off the presses. I'm getting my MA degree and moving on to the PhD program. My thesis got a grade of A from reader no. 1 and an "Acceptable" (meaning B or higher)from reader no. 2, who commented simply, "Interesting study. Several points well made. Clearly acceptable." All I have left to do now is survive ( Read more... )

The scribe who wrote this document seems to have taken a bet with his buddies on how many times he could write "Amun-Re, King of the Gods" in one text.

To wit: My advisor e-mailed me today and told me I got an A on my thesis. He also had a bunch of comments, both positive and critiquish (the latter having to do with some organizational issues, a couple of iffy translations, and my sub-par citation skillz0rz when dealing with sources in other languages -- apparently I capitalize too much). But yes ( Read more... )

Well, my the good news is that my thesis is done. And my name turned up in the "provisional list of spring MA graduates" that the department sent out today, which is comforting ( Read more... )

I had a vivid and persistant dream last night (the same subject just kept coming back to me all night!) that one of my classmates, whom I know only slightly, was run over by a jeep outside the Oriental Institute. A pretty dramatic way to go, in the National Lampoon spirit , but hardly something I would wish on Foy, who is a nice fellow and a jolly ( Read more... )

So, yesterday I saw my advisor in a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Yeomen of the Guard. I now know of his secret double life! His voice is a very fine operatic tenor. But man, that play was really a downer for G&S. I can't say I expected that ending at all. Anyway, I am now even more inspired to write a G&S style operetta set in the reign of ( Read more... )

Jan Johnson sought me out in the archives today and handed back the draft of my thesis. She liked it very much, and had only a few minor corrections to make. What a freaking relief.

For some reason, my Mesopotamian history textbook describes the domestication of camels as "a technological change." It brings to mind images of robotic camels stomping jerkily across the Assyrian landscape. This calls for some sort of icon, I think ( Read more... )