holy archaeology, batman

Happy Birthday, Spyridon Marinatos! Thank you for discovering the city and the paintings that I find so beautiful and so intriguing. Here's a GIS for what I can't describe adequately.

His full bio:
Born 4 Nov 1901; died 1 Oct 1974.
Spyridon Nikolaou Marinatos was a Greek archaeologist whose most notable discovery was the site of an ancient port city on the island of Thera, in the southern Aegean Sea. The city, the name of which was not discovered, apparently had about 20,000 inhabitants when it was destroyed by the great volcanic eruption of 1500 BC. Among the finds made at the site were the finest frescoes discovered in the Mediterranean region to that time, surpassing even those found at Knossos in Crete. The most famous of these murals is the “Two Boys Boxing”. From Today in Science History, of course.

more validations

Work sucks. Round Two of Validations will make everything all better...or at least cheer me up to the point where I'm not tempted to dump my tea into my CPU in an attempt to make it do what I want.


First up this afternoon is orobouros. While I can't speak as to his spinal flexibility, his mind is one of the more creative and intuitive investigators I've ever encountered. I've never once felt like he was "talking down to me", even though I have absolutely no experience with his chosen field. And, he takes really nifty pictures. Preeeetty! My rating: Mountain-top sage with DSL.

And here is lagata, modeling the very latest in grad student chic. She'd rather not hear you say that she's smart, but she really is. Like, woah. Even though she's got the brains, she somehow didn't hear the warnings that grad school is not the fun, happy, academia-playground that we all hoped it would be. But, she's doing fine, thanks, and is currently attempting to control future generations of researchers by planting subconscious suggestions now. My rating: Evil genius.

I'm sure I could think of something for galieth, but what could it be? It might be the Aura of Fluffy Calm that he carries around with him. Or the backrubs. Or the freaking out of "normal" people at the airport with the gryphon puppet on his shoulder. From the stories that I've heard, I'm not sure if I'm sad or thankful that I never had him as a GM. Why? Utter evil lurks behind that calm facade. My rating: Pirate king.

Hm...what to say about yadoking? Well, he got to meet Lemony Snicket, lucky bastard. In other news, when not falling into the despicable traps of the VFD, he spends his time on one of his few hobbies: music, writing, reading, and anything that could possibly be associated with those. Always articulate and very evil with pumpkins, I'll have my hands full with him one day when I'm trying to take over the world. My rating: Damn good competition.

My writing talents are stretched to nigh-maximum by this journal. Other people are more blessed than me: telsan is one of them. I mean, how many of us can actually say that our idol has read, signed, and is looking forward to reading more of our work?! Add into that the foxiest accent EVER, an extremely cute kitty, and an open shoulder any time you want, and you'll come close to figuring out why this guy rocks! My rating: Super-fly.

taea_dol is the reason why Dell needs to come up with some sort of keyboard squeegee. Either that, or I need to find better drool-proofing before she posts pictures or smut again. *fans self* Whether she's ranting about the hideous hose-beasts she works with or waxing rhapsodic about her Man, I perk up every time I see her show up on my flist. Canada is damn lucky to have this lady. My rating: Queen of leather, baby.

For manly might and the schlepping of heavy furniture, uniflash is awfully useful to have around the home. I don't think you can pick one up at the 7-11, though. A gamer extraordinaire, exceptionally talented artist, and utterly devoted to his wife, katie_preston, I've greatly enjoyed getting to know this character. Besides when I actually find someone who likes their steak moo-ing, I've got to keep them around. It's a moral imperative. My rating: Lord of the minis.

Sneaking in under the wire is thestormcellar. Words cannot describe what this lady means to me. If you were to put a gift for snark, appreciation for all of sci-fi fandom, excellence in SCA, generosity of spirit, and the knowledge that cheesecake makes everything better into a jar and shake them up, you might come close to understanding what it is about Stormy that makes her such a wonderful friend. Maybe. My rating: Got it together.


Any more seeking validation? Going once, going twice...

brief update

Remember last week when my back starting having shooting, stabbity pains of death? I couldn't explain why it was hurting, it was all I could do to figure out how to manage the pain. Added in to that fun was a fever that never quite went away and a general feeling of ICK.
( Possible medical TMI. Cut for the squeamish. )