I'm currently listening to today's Rush Limbaugh Show, with Walter E. Williams guest hosting. He's "interviewing" Thomas Sowell over the phone, and it's been fascinating. These are two of my favorite columnists ever. Very clear thinkers, and very clear writers. It makes me wonder sometimes if I shouldn't have gone into Economics instead. To view their columns, use these links: Walter E. Williams ~*~ Thomas Sowell.
Also, while at the British Museum recently, I was struck once more by the nature of Egyptian hieroglyphs. So I have taken it upon myself to learn some Ancient Egyptian. This is proving a bit difficult at the moment. I've got little flash cards for the 'alphabet' glyphs (the ones that stand for just one letter - this is how they 'spell' your name in Egyptian at places like this). But the other characters have been difficult to work with - on one site, the glyphs are too small to be able to really reproduce them (which is the only way I manage to learn things), and another site doesn't have the transcription for them (so that I know roughly how to pronounce them). Plus, all of the sites I've found use a completely different set of glyphs once they get past the 'alphabet', so there's no way to compare them and find missing information from one site on the next. I'm thinking I may have to wait until I get home and buy a real textbook for it before I really make much headway. I also want to learn Akkadian cuneiform sometime soon. I have mused many times that if I were not in stylistics, I would want to be in historical linguistics, reconstructing ancient languages.
Lately, I've been watching more Strong Bad Emails. I'd really quite forgotten about Strong Bad and Homestar Runner, until Katie visited. After watching a few with her, I remembered how hilarious they are. And then I played Peasant's Quest on the games page -- too fun! I strongly recommend that you check it out. Play Peasant's Quest ~*~ Peasant's Quest Walkthrough
Run the straight race through God's good grace. (20 points, plus another 20 for a movie it's in)
2 comments:
Always follow this rule--Read into the bird's mouth. Actually, one should only follow it while reading hieroglyphs (I've been banned from three aviaries this year alone).
I've always been a huge Egyptian history buff but I've never really devoted the time to a full study of the glyphs. I know, I know. It's kind of like studying medicine without learning the names of all the little squiggly bits inside the body. If you do find a good textbook please let me know.
First, the quote: The only place I've heard it is in a BYU Men's Chorus song, Fight the Good Fight With All Thy Might. I have no idea what movie it was in.
Here is more from the same verse:
Run the straight race, through God's good grace
Lift up thine eyes and seek his face.
Life with its way before us lies,
Christ is the path and Christ the prize.
[Incidentally, I can't type in these lyrics without adding the bum, pa, dum dum dum of the drums...]
As for the rest of your post, I've never heard of Akkadian cuneiform. I have no idea what that is.
I guess you have too much time on your hands if you are memorizing Egyptian hieroglyphs. Maybe we need to get that bookclub going...
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