Mr. Egypt

This was an interesting week. I got to see a lecture given by a famous archaeologist. A Facebook friend, who was previously more of an acquaintance, won tickets to see a well known Egyptian Archaeologist. I don't know if I should mention names but lets just say if you ever watched any Discovery Channel, History Channel show on Egypt, he's most likely been on it, so I'll just refer to him as Mr. Egypt. Well, this friend invited me to the lecture because he knew of my study in archaeology that, and he didn't find anyone else who knew who Mr. Egypt was. The tickets that he won were actually VIP tickets and all the VIP's got a free book to have signed by Mr. Egypt himself. So we arrived at the venue and were directed to the signing line. As we were standing there, books in hand a staff member came up to us and asked if we would like our name included when the book was signed. I thought, sure, why not? So she asked our names and wrote them on a sticky to be placed in the book. As we neared the front of the line we noticed some people were taking pictures with Mr. Egypt as they got their book signed. Well I hadn't brought a camera but my friend had so the girl at the front informed us she would take the picture if we would just circle around the table to stand next to Mr. Egypt. So as my turn came up, I followed her instructions. Let me preface this by saying, I don't know what it's like to be a celebrity but it's got to be pretty annoying at times. That being said, if you're going to agree to a book signing, you might want to show a little personality, a little appreciation to the people who have come to see you! Mr. Egypt had no personality just like a signing robot he took the book and started signing it. I circled around the table thinking maybe he'd say hello or thanks for coming when I was beside him but he didn't even stand so I scrunched down so the picture wouldn't be entirely awkward.

After the signing we settled into our seats in the auditorium for the lecture to begin. The director of the lecture appeared to introduce Mr. Egypt and with his introduction complete, the lights dimmed and a film introduction was played showing everyone how famous Mr. Egypt is. Ok, I guess it wasn't entirely about that but it did include clips of Omar Sharif saying how he used to be the most famous Egyptian until Mr. Egypt came along. As the film ended the lights came up and Mr. Egypt strolled to the podium to a round of applause and some people being elevated from their seats to applaud.

From the beginning, his lecture was all business. No "thanks for coming" or "glad to see such a great turn out". He just went straight into his lecture. At the beginning there was a brief moment of technical difficulty where his slide clicker would not progress the slides. He became obviously irritated as he barked at the director that "this should have been checked". After the problem was fixed he went through his lecture of the work that is being done in Egypt. A lot of interesting work to be sure. Looking for the tomb of Rameses VIII, narrowing on the tombs of Cleopatra and Marc Antony in Alexandria, and the building of a new museum that will be the largest museum in the world. There was a overall theme of his slide show that I noticed, pictures of him on every discovery, pictures of him with the media and pictures of him with famous people. If I had to give it a percentage of how many slides in his slide show that did not include him I would say it was about 25% (if that).

Anyway, it's not like the evening wasn't interesting but I was very aware of the celebrity that surrounds Mr. Egypt. He does bring a lot of recognition and interest to the field of archaeology which is good for both education and the importance of conservation. I might suggest a little more personable persona if he's going to agree to such presentations that involve contact with fans. However, he may not require such seeing as how 99% of the people in attendance were quite enamored with his persona. If one day I should ever become a famous archaeologist, I hope that I can look back on this post and remember the importance of personality.

Too much stuff!

I have come to the conclusion that I have too much stuff! Yesterday I spent the whole day cleaning/reorganizing our bedroom. Now, we have a small house as it is and it would appear to the general observer that our bedroom is full of piles of all sizes on some days, however, having dealt with the piles yesterday and trying to find places for everything quite unsuccessfully, I finally got to the point where I just said "screw it, this stuff is going to Goodwill!" This was mainly just clothes, mind you, and only mine, not Marc's! He has an overabundance of t-shirts that can probably suffocate myself or the dog should we fall beneath it's mountainous avalanche one day. So I did get rid of a fair amount of clothes, but as I told mom, I didn't want to get rid of everything lest I be left with my birthday suit for work. I don't think that would be very professional.

And the closet... that's a story in itself. For those of you who don't know about my house, we seem to have ugly spiders in the lower level. I mean UGLY! I looked up the ugliest of the breeds we have found and discovered it was called a sun spider (for the curious soul, follow this link and it is the last picture on the page... ugly right?!!). Well, as environmentally unfriendly as it is, I usually spray in our closet at least once a year to kill the suckers and then I find their disgusting remains all curled up in the corners. There were about 10 of them yesterday... yuck! Poised in a position similar to Aragog in the Chamber of Secrets movie. Luckily they didn't move or have thousands of others come attack me. So, up in the vacuum they went!

So, one whole day for one room! And I still have the office upstairs that is currently in disaster mode so I know that will be another day in itself. So yes, I think we have way too much stuff, or we have a lack of organizational skills. Either way you look at it, it is probably more efficient to organize when you have less stuff!

Once again I have taken leave of my blogging duties. My last semester of school got a bit hectic there for about a month but last weekend I finished the last of the major projects for this semester and it felt like such a relief! Graduation is only a month away! I've worked a long time for this and the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter! I feel like I have put a lot of things off in pursuit of my degree and I can't wait to take the next steps in my life after school! Everyone always comments when I tell them that my degree is in Anthropology, "what are you gonna do with that!" Well, whatever I want to. Whether or not I get a job in the anthropological realm, this is something that I have accomplished for myself! That being said, of course I want a job doing something that I'll enjoy. Will it be archaeological in nature? We'll have to see. I think my main goal has always been to work in a museum. The atmosphere, like being on a college campus is thick with knowledge  and it permeates with the past, the whole spectrum of humanity and before. That's where I want to be! Enough about me....


Recently, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science has been on a dig in Snowmass Colorado uncovering ice age mammoths! But I must clarify, this is the realm of the Paleontologist not the Archaeologist. As an archaeologist we often get the question "so you like digging up dinosaurs?" That's not what we do! We dig to discover the human past. From the Pharaohs of old, to the everyday residents of frontier Colorado. My interest in the Snowmass dig is because I had volunteered in DMNS's Prehistoric Journey in the early part of my education at Metro and had learned about Mammoths, and Three Towed Sloths so it was something I was familiar with. If you're interested in seeing the work in Snowmass here's the daily field reports link on the DMNS website. Enjoy!