A Rose is a Stone

I was doing a bit of reading about the Rosetta Stone this morning. The article was covering the progression of the Egyptian languages... in order for all of Egypt to read the writings of the Stone, the Egyptian priests inscribed the Stone's decree in 3 languages: Greek, hieroglyphics, and Demotic. They wanted everyone to know their King was a good fellow deserving of admiration and respect.

Because hieroglyphics was such an intricate and sacred language, the Egyptians developed hieratic, which was like an abbreviated version of hieroglyphics. Hieratic was used to record some governmental and business transactions, but it wasn't used for sacred purposes. By the Ptolemaic Period,(Ptolemies a line of Greek rulers of Egypt, 323 B.C-30 B.C), when the Rosetta Stone was inscribed, Egyptians had turned to Demotic, an even more simplified version of hieroglyphics- keeping hiero sacred.

Until the fourth century A.D., the Rosetta Stone was perfectly readable. But as Christianity became more widespread in Egypt, hieroglyphics was abandoned for its association with pagan gods. Demotic wasn't a taboo language like hieroglyphics, but it eventually evolved into Coptic. Coptic was based off of the 24 letters in the Greek alphabet as well as a few Demotic characters for Egyptian sounds that weren't represented by the Greek language.

When Arabic replaced Coptic, the last frayed thread to hieroglyphics finally snapped. More than a thousand years of Egyptian history became lost in translation. Egypt made way not only for a new language but also for new politics and religion.

It was the cracking of the Rosetta code that allowed access to this lost Egyptian history.

I wonder if hieratic or demotic is the reformed Egyptian the Book of Mormon was originally written in. Any ideas?

For more info on the topic, I found an elaboration of the above info here: http://history.howstuffworks.com/rosetta-stone1.htm

The Game is Ah' Foot

Yesterday I got to photograph Alan, Stacey, and baby Noah! We braved the 100 degree heat and the neighbor let us shoot in their carefully manicured back yard! (We are in the middle of a heat wave and it isn't fun!) I am building a portfolio of portraiture and look forward to learning how to run my own business. I found a new favorite photography site today! :)

Loridorman.com

She's amazing. I want to be like her, temporally/professionally.

Happy Friday! Much love to all or any who read this!

A week ago Today.

Just want to give thanks for the great time I had last Friday- Girls night out. It's been a long time since I can say, honestly, that I had that much fun. Maybe my attitude is responsible for that:) I drove out to Erin Foxy Nuggets house and so did Erin's good friend from film school, now my friend too, Nabby. Nabs brought over garden burgers, Erin made hot chips- we talked about love, life, projects we're working on, and then we went to a Karaoke bar and sang our little hearts out! (I want to take a moment to compliment Erin on her beautiful singing voice- she's got the voice of a 40's style lounge singer- she sounds like heaven!)

We closed with a personal favorite, Don Henley's Heart of the Matter, India Arie style. We got Yogurtland afterward, upstairs, and walked to a community Dojo to watch and film young martial artists at work. We went back to Erin's place, watched The Blvd and I snapped a couple of photos of Ms. E. I loved my night with the goils. Thank You Muchly for the great evening.

Now on with my part time job search.

P.S. I can't seem to get away from school land- I started my Digital Work flow and Studio Lighting classes this week! Love the professor.

*Things that make you go Boom*

I was sitting in the computer lab on Wednesday feverishly finishing editing Corri and Karri's photo shoot when my phone began vibrating. A 310 #. No I.D. I answered. It was one of the professors in the film department. She was looking for someone to boom for her the following day in Santa Barbara. She's in the process of making a documentary detailing the corruption of the UC/CSU administrations and regents. I hesitated to accept as I have never done spontaneous boom work- all my experience is with sit-down interviews. But, she convinced me to go...(I couldn't say no to the money.)

I hopped on the freeway at 5am the next morning and sailed northward. I exited Mission St 2 hours later- record time! Found a park, went for a walk, photographed the Santa Barbara Mission- near and dear to my heart- (all 4th grade Californian children construct a miniature version of a CA mission, with gobs of help from parental units- and you guessed it- mine was Santa Barbara!)

After the morning festivities I was still plenty on time to Sharyn's accommodations.

We set up the camera- checked all equipment- she taught me about time coding and the rainbow bars that encode all the info an editor could possibly need to sync sound with picture...I ran some last minute errands as Sharyn loaded the car- We ate breakfast and drove to the shoot location.

We connected all cables, batteries, and did a light metering and balancing test- and then we dove into the crowd of protesters who had pooled outside the UC chancellor's hotel which he would be speaking at that day.

I was good for the first, maybe, 10 minutes. A little arm shake- I tried to find a position to stand in that would allow the rest of my body to shoulder some of the weight of the equipment. It just wasn't working for me- the only results these various strategies brought about were back and neck cramps. As the interviews progressed, I began to note the increasing pull of my messenger bag which had been stuffed with extra DV tapes and mammoth sized batteries-

Note to self: do not perform any work that involves raising your arms above your head for any length of time if you have low blood pressure.

We crossed the street. Sharyn had periodically let me know "sound is good!" We maneuvered almost flawlessly. This was a feat as I was connected to her camera by a 15 ft XLR cable. Unfortunately, it was at this point that a slow wave of nausea began to set in. My arms were struggling to hold position- Sharyn suggested I reposition the pole beneath me with the mic pointing up- it had begun dropping into frame- I wish this shift would have made the difference, but now my arms felt like lead pipes and everything seemed to be pulling me downward.

Mental ramblings went a bit like this: Don't throw up dawn. Hold in there ol' girl. You can do this- this interview will probably wrap in a minute- then you'll just tell Sharyn you really gotta sit down. Crap! I'm really going to puke everywhere! I feel like death! I can't do this another minute!

My left hand reached out for Sharyn's arm while my right continued to keep mic in correct position. All I could muster was a whisper. "Sharyn" She couldn't hear me. She was wearing ear buds- the only sound she was channeling was the input from the mic that was about to come crashing to the ground along with the girl gripping it.

On my second and last attempt to call her name zero sound left my lips as I had no strength with which to speak. The next thing I knew I was regaining consciousness- a white soundless blur of light broke the darkness. I heard people talking but couldn't understand anything they were saying- I began to make out the shapes of people faces and outlines of palm trees. Then the horrible realization hit me: I'm not in my bed... I', not waking up from a dream... I'm on the ground. I was supposed to be holding a boom pole! I must have passed out! NO!!!

I was being cradled in the arms of a stranger- Sharyn was barking orders at people: Everybody back up! Someone get a damp cloth for her face!

One of the protesters was shielding my eyes from the sun with his sign. Another man was praying for me...and my parents had been concerned that it would be a violent crowd.

I didn't want an ambulance to come- Death would be better than an inflated hospital bill! But I couldn't answer anyone's questions: What's your name? I shook my head yes and began to lose consciousness again.

No one ever plans to have an emergency- No one ever plans to leave their house that day only to end up on a cold metal tray, clothes being stripped away at lightening speed- please don't cut my shirt off my body- I.V.- E.K.G.- CAT Scan- they ran a billion tests on me- I was so thirsty- this wasn't in the contract- I'd gone into convulsions after I my head hit the ground. Diagnosis: Concussion. Do not pass go- Do not collect $200.

Sharyn was the perfect blend of mother and professional. I feel so bad about the whole thing and so does she. Her friend picked us up from the E.R. 3 hours later. I rode in the back seat with her friend's dog Willy licking my face the whole way to the house. I received top rate TLC. It could've been so much worse and at the same time it feels so bad.

Concussions leave one negotiating constant bouts of dizziness and nauseousness. I am taking it easy for a while. I am thankful for the wonderful staff at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital- and all those, pre and post hospital escapade, who nursed me back to life.

Raising money 4 romantic

As I exited the 405 freeway at Santa Monica Blvd, a very curious person came into view. A wild puff of golden hair swayed atop a wide blue-eyed head. A million dollar smile flashed in the daylight. He was holding a piece of cardboard with the inscription, "Raising money 4 romantic". Romantic what? I've seen some clever cardboard signs in my time, but this one was particularly intriguing to me.

He must have discerned my puzzlement for it was then that he flip the sign over, which finished the sentence: Comedy. Raising money 4 romantic comedy! Ha! I loved it!

I began jiggling with laughter! He responded by joyously jumping up and down. Non-verbal comm. It's a beautiful thing. I sat for a moment wanting to do something- roll down my window- make some sort of contact- give him a dollar! Anything! But, alas- the light turned green before I took any action aside from pushing on the gas pedal.

I thought about that young man the rest of the way to the temple, during the session, and afterward. I resolved to speak with him if he was still standing street side when I drove back to the freeway. And what do you know? Three hours later he was still there! But he was on the wrong side of the street which meant I had to get on the freeway, exit, get back on the freeway and exit- you get the picture.

Upon exiting Santa Monica a second time, my unnamed brother had shifted stations. He was now standing on the median. My heart was racing- must go opposite direction to connect- turned around- light is green- check mirror- no one behind me- Yay!
I pulled up next to him, braked, and the light turned red which gave us time to talk.

I rolled down my window wanting to give him the gift of the gospel in return for the giant smile he put on my face. "Hi. I don't have a lot of money, but I have something I feel is more valuable..." I gave him a pass along card- we had a great 2 minute convo- His name is George- he's from upstate NY and knows about the church- He held my hand the entire time we talked- As the light changed, his parting words were, "You're so loving!" That love is the Lord's love! It was incredible.

I then drove to Curry in a Hurry and met up with long lost friend Erin Fox- We digitized footage for the YSA Conference coming up next weekend- listened to favorite YouTube music vid's, and laughed as we watched the footage I got the night before of Brigham and his viola!

I LOVED TUESDAY!!!!