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  <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts</id>
  <title>ancient scripts</title>
  <subtitle>past &lt;&lt; present &lt;&lt; future</subtitle>
  <author>
    <name>ancient scripts</name>
  </author>
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  <updated>2008-05-09T19:29:14Z</updated>
  <lj:journal username="ancientscripts" type="personal"/>
  <link rel="service.feed" type="application/x.atom+xml" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/data/atom" title="ancient scripts"/>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:87317</id>
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    <title>WTF!</title>
    <published>2008-05-09T19:29:14Z</published>
    <updated>2008-05-09T19:29:14Z</updated>
    <category term="work"/>
    <content type="html">I'm having one of those days where I just feel absolutely irritable and aggravated.&amp;nbsp; I have a stack of endless tasks to dig through, and the first thing I walk into the office everybody descend upon me like vultures onto dead meat, both in person as well as via IM.&amp;nbsp; "Can you help me with this?"&amp;nbsp; "This is not working, can you fix it?"&amp;nbsp; "What does this mean?"&amp;nbsp; "Guess what?&amp;nbsp; I broke that, help!"&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Usually I just take it in stride, believing that the more I answer their question, the more they'll learn.&amp;nbsp; But sometimes it feels absolutely futile, like the knowledge is just not sinking into their heads.&amp;nbsp; Or they're not trying hard enough to tough it out before coming to me.&amp;nbsp; The worst is when people just interrupt me in the middle of writing some complicated algorithm just to tell me some marginally relevant stuff or to ask me a question whose answer can be easily found by the good ol' RTFM method (you can search for that acronym).&amp;nbsp; The least they can do is ask me, "Can I have a moment of your time?" instead of just firing off their questions/demands like I'm their personal concierge.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:87285</id>
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    <title>Volcan Chaiten</title>
    <published>2008-05-09T06:59:35Z</published>
    <updated>2008-05-09T06:59:35Z</updated>
    <category term="volcano"/>
    <content type="html">Awesome and terrifying at the same time...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;lj-embed id="26" /&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:87000</id>
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    <title>Hello 1am</title>
    <published>2008-05-06T08:14:03Z</published>
    <updated>2008-05-06T08:19:12Z</updated>
    <category term="work"/>
    <content type="html">BOOM!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It blew up good.  The software release it is.  Still fixing it at 1am.  Got some duct tape...will fix more tomorrow...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Relatives showed up...at the wrong terminal...at the exact opposite side of the airport.  Alex wanted to run a different direction, so my wife and I went in opposite directions.  Fortunately SFO is actually a circle (hence the O), so everybody converged at the same point.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Good thing is that dinner was pretty good and Alex was nice enough to sit through all of it.  It's good to finally have a decent Cantonese restaurant downtown.  But why is it that other relatives invite themselves to dinner?  The bill was $200.  I paid.  Nice.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One more thing from the concert on Saturday.  Just before Dream Theater's encore, they played a fan video inspired from an unholy mix of Super Mario Brother's and Dream Theater's song "The Dark Eternal Night'.&amp;nbsp; Aptly it's called "The Dark Nintendo Night".  It's absolutely hilarious.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;lj-embed id="25" /&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:86627</id>
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    <title>Great weekend, crazy week</title>
    <published>2008-05-05T19:13:59Z</published>
    <updated>2008-05-05T19:14:18Z</updated>
    <category term="concert"/>
    <category term="weekend"/>
    <category term="work"/>
    <content type="html">So the weekend plan went without a hitch.  We got to drop off Alex at the inlaws on Saturday just after noon.  The plan is to stay at a hotel near the BART station in Pleasant Hill so we can take a train into scary Oakland.&amp;nbsp; The hotels was excellent, and we got a discreet, corner suite that we can use for any nefarious reasons ;)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We had a great dinner afterwards at a Cuban restaurant in downtown Walnut Creek.&amp;nbsp; They had a great halibut ceviche and tasty mojitos, but unfortunately something did a number on our stomachs.  That delayed us hopping on BART to go to the concert, and as a result we missed the first band (called 3) on stage.  Slight bummer, but no problem.  The main attraction is yet to come.&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a name="cutid1"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="ljcut" text="My concert review..."&gt;The next band that came on was called Between the Buried and Me (BTBAM).  It's kind of this hardcore punk progressive rock death metal hybrid, and the band was incredibly talented.  The only problem was the singer.  I don't mind growling vocals but, as &lt;span class='ljuser' lj:user='naiad8' style='white-space: nowrap;'&gt;&lt;a href='http://naiad8.livejournal.com/profile'&gt;&lt;img src='http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif' alt='[info]' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href='http://naiad8.livejournal.com/'&gt;&lt;b&gt;naiad8&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;  pointed out, he sounded like a petulant child ranting at his parents.  I guess that's what punk's all about, right?  They only had 30 minutes, so they only played 2 songs.  &amp;gt;:-)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Next up was Opeth, one of my favorite bands.  This is my first time watching them, so I was really excited.  They were incredible to see live, but unfortunately the lead singer has a cold so his singing is a bit whiny.  The sound mix sucked. I could just hear bass and drums plus a bit of guitar, keyboard, and vocals. I also think they were also in a contest with BTBAM to see how plays the loudest on tour, 'coz most of their setlist was their loudest/heaviest/deathiest ever.  To me, their best material is the stuff that has a lot more variety when they have their death metal interwoven with the mellow progressive rock and psychedelic interludes.  So I was bit disappointed at that, but at least I finally got to see them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And then Dream Theater, the headliner, came on, and as usual they gave us an exceptional show.  I think this is the fifth time we've seen them.  We used to go see them for every album, but with Alex we missed two albums, so it was great that they played a bunch of stuff from those we missed.  There's something about watching Dream Theater live.  They work the crowd like no other even when playing 10-minute long song with ridiculously technical passages.  &lt;span class='ljuser' lj:user='naiad8' style='white-space: nowrap;'&gt;&lt;a href='http://naiad8.livejournal.com/profile'&gt;&lt;img src='http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif' alt='[info]' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href='http://naiad8.livejournal.com/'&gt;&lt;b&gt;naiad8&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp; is an amateur vocalist and as usual she was blown away by DT's lead singer.  In fact, this is the first time we've seen him sing after his full recovery from straining his vocal cords after food poisoning in Cuba (wait a second...do we see a pattern here?) and damn was he good.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So overall we had a great time at the concert.&amp;nbsp; We got back to the hotels at midnight, and went to sleep by 1:30am.  I was in bliss not having the baby boy stick his foot in my ribs or my head (or even worse places).  We woke up at 10am and went to brunch in Walnut Creek at a place called the San Franciscan.  The food was good (I had crab cakes Benedict), but then it was time to pick up Alex.  So we showed up at my inlaw's house.  Alex was pretty good with them, but he was ready to go home.  So we got home and all was well.  I made a &lt;i&gt;teppanyaki&lt;/i&gt; dinner again because &lt;span class='ljuser' lj:user='naiad8' style='white-space: nowrap;'&gt;&lt;a href='http://naiad8.livejournal.com/profile'&gt;&lt;img src='http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif' alt='[info]' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href='http://naiad8.livejournal.com/'&gt;&lt;b&gt;naiad8&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp; wanted to go to Benihana earlier but the idiots wouldn't open for lunch until 1pm.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; The weekend was great, but the week is going to be crazy.&amp;nbsp; It's already started crazy.&amp;nbsp; Alex woke up at 2am and didn't go back to sleep until 5am.&amp;nbsp; So I'm pretty tired this morning.&amp;nbsp; My company is having a software release today, but I'll miss that because I have to go pick up my relatives at the airport.&amp;nbsp; A cousin of mine is graduating from UW Pullman so her brother and mom came from Costa Rica, who will then go on the coast-to-coast tour of America with stops in San Francisco and New York.&amp;nbsp; The original plan was for my mom and I pick up at the airport, but a phone call last night drafted &lt;span class='ljuser' lj:user='naiad8' style='white-space: nowrap;'&gt;&lt;a href='http://naiad8.livejournal.com/profile'&gt;&lt;img src='http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif' alt='[info]' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href='http://naiad8.livejournal.com/'&gt;&lt;b&gt;naiad8&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; and Alex in the second car because apparently my cousin at Pullman decided to send two suitcases worth of crap with her mother and brother back to Costa Rica.&amp;nbsp; So they'll have like 6 pieces of luggage and carry-on, and there's just no way it'd fit in any of our cars.&amp;nbsp; Don't you just love cheapskate relatives?&amp;nbsp; How hard is it to ship her crap to Costa Rica?&amp;nbsp; It's not like it's a real third-world country.&amp;nbsp; Jeez!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, back to work.&amp;nbsp; It's gonna be crazy.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:86350</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/86350.html"/>
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    <title>ancientscripts @ 2008-05-01T15:28:00</title>
    <published>2008-05-01T22:43:20Z</published>
    <updated>2008-05-01T22:43:20Z</updated>
    <category term="weekend"/>
    <category term="work"/>
    <content type="html">Software release day is next Monday.  Same day I got relatives flying in and I gotta pick them up in the afternoon.  This means that the rest of the crew gets to do the upgrade without me.  I think I need codeine to get sleep between now and Monday night.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Not that I've been sleeping much lately.  I've been up until godless hours working on ten man-days worth of work that needs to be done in two days.  Yeah, it's that good.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Stress, what's that?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At least this weekend Alex will be with the grandparents so we got to go to Prog Nation 2008 with Dream Theater and Opeth.  Oh yeah!  Plus we'll get a nice dinner by ourselves and a night w/o He-Who-Uses-His-Mom-As-Pillow-And-His-Dad-As-Foot-Rest.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And why am I using my Cylon icon?  Because of this:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;New Basic Element For Electronic Circuits: 'Memristor' Could Give Computers Memories That Don't Forget&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080501155234.htm"&gt;http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080501155234.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Current computer memory is either stored in magnetic wells on your hard drives (slow) or between capacitors as in main memory (volatile).&amp;nbsp; This new memristor is supposedly both fast and non-volatile.&amp;nbsp; And really small.&amp;nbsp; 5 nanometers, about the size of a sugar molecule.&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While I do nominally hold an electrical engineering degree, I have to say that EE people needs to come up with better names.&amp;nbsp; "Memristor"?&amp;nbsp; Sounds like a bad marketing move from 1999 for some failed dotcom (like the ones I was in *hides in shame*).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;OK, back to work.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:86089</id>
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    <title>Cool pics</title>
    <published>2008-04-29T00:05:11Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-29T00:05:28Z</updated>
    <category term="picspam"/>
    <content type="html">The folks at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory take some pretty amazing pictures.  The most recent one shows incandescent smoke plume at Kilauea's summit crater just before dawn.  It looks really alien and spacey, with the stars in the background.  It's a bit big so it's under a cut.   &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a name="cutid1"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="ljcut" text="Picture of Kilauea"&gt;&lt;img width="600" height="402" alt="" src="http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/update/archive/2008/Apr/20080427_2280_DZ_L.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While talking about cool pictures, a picture of mine taken pretty close to my office got short-listed to be included in the California Guide of some website called Schmap.  No clue what the heck they are, but I'm kind of flattered that somebody like that picture.  I remember that I did try to make it quasi-artistic, or at least with good composition and balance.  Whatever.  Here it is.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a name="cutid2"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="ljcut" text="Picture of Shoreline Amphitheater"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/33331241@N00/467626820/" title="IMG_1208 by AncientScribe, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img width="500" height="375" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/185/467626820_a44c778a92.jpg" alt="IMG_1208" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:85899</id>
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    <title>Sunday and what not</title>
    <published>2008-04-28T04:38:51Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-28T04:42:07Z</updated>
    <category term="spring"/>
    <category term="work"/>
    <category term="ancient scripts"/>
    <content type="html">Spring is upon us.  It was 80° F and sunny in Mountain View, California, and allergens are freely roaming the air...*eyes water* *itches back* *sneezes* &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Another sign of spring: A mommy duck and ten ducklings waddling down my street. We followed them until they safely got inside a RV lot. Alex must've really liked them because he kept saying "ducks come back!" The blue jays are also stealing the coconut husk fiber from our hanging plant baskets to line their nests. In general nature is gearing up for new life. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I even got some time to work on AncientScripts. I just added the &lt;a href="http://www.ancientscripts.com/lycian.html"&gt;Lycian page&lt;/a&gt;, and found some source material for Carian and Phrygian. Hopefully I'll be able to fully cover the whole of ancient Anatolia.&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And I just made a &lt;i&gt;teppanyaki&lt;/i&gt; dinner better than any Benihana can ever make. Hah! Rocky Aoki, eat your heart out. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If there's one thing to tamper the good weekend is that I have to read 250 pages worth of my deposition transcript to make the court reporter got all the technical lingo correctly. If there is one thing more boring than getting questioned for 8 hours by a lawyer on technical details, it is having to read the transcription of those 8 hours. Blah...&lt;br /&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:85592</id>
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    <title>And that was fun...</title>
    <published>2008-04-25T00:11:42Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-25T00:11:42Z</updated>
    <category term="laser tag"/>
    <category term="work"/>
    <content type="html">My office went out to play laser tag today.&amp;nbsp; Apparently we finally got some entertainment budget.&amp;nbsp; Still waiting for that promised Wii...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, that was really cool.&amp;nbsp; It was the first time I've played.&amp;nbsp; I actually didn't do too badly.&amp;nbsp; At least I wasn't at the bottom :P&amp;nbsp; The only thing I didn't like was the size and layout of the place.&amp;nbsp; Everybody just ended up staking out a corner on the 2nd floor and sniping everybody else.&amp;nbsp; While that's how real-life combat works it's not as much fun as running around guns ablaze like Rambo.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And now they expect us to work after that.&amp;nbsp; Bah humbug!</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:85350</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/85350.html"/>
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    <title>Opeth!</title>
    <published>2008-04-24T08:13:16Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-24T08:13:16Z</updated>
    <category term="opeth"/>
    <content type="html">Opeth has become one of my favorite bands.  They have a new album coming in June, and they're coming to town for a concert with my other favorite band Dream Theater.  I'm really excited about that.  And today they released their brand new video for their first single, &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Porcelain Heart&lt;/span&gt;.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And the gist of the video? A castle. A threesome. Kissing Goth chicks. Murder. And four Swedish guys and an Uruguayan.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;OK, it's actually less trashy than that.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;lj-embed id="24" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, it's 1am.  I just finished some work, and I need downtime.  Especially after some previous uptime, so to speak.  &lt;span class='ljuser' lj:user='naiad8' style='white-space: nowrap;'&gt;&lt;a href='http://naiad8.livejournal.com/profile'&gt;&lt;img src='http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif' alt='[info]' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href='http://naiad8.livejournal.com/'&gt;&lt;b&gt;naiad8&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; knows what I mean.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:85118</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/85118.html"/>
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    <title>More Archaeology Spamming</title>
    <published>2008-04-23T19:39:43Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-23T19:42:59Z</updated>
    <category term="archaeology"/>
    <category term="painting"/>
    <content type="html">Sorry...they're coming like flash floods today.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Terracotta army has egg on its face&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/04/21/2223137.htm?site=science&amp;amp;topic=ancient"&gt;http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/04/21/2223137.htm?site=science&amp;amp;topic=ancient&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style="padding-left: 24px;"&gt;China's terracotta army, a collection of 7000 soldier and horse figures in the mausoleum of the country's first emperor, was covered with beaten egg when it was made, scientists say.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;According to German and Italian chemists who have analysed samples from several figurines, the egg was as a binder for colourful paints, which went over a layer of lacquer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Egg paint is normally very stable, and not soluble in water ... This makes it less sensitive to humidity and moisture,' says German co-author Catharina Blaensdorf, a scientist at the Technical University of Munich.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Apparently getting that beautiful sheen on baked goods also helped Qinshi Huangti's terracota army keeps its paint for a few thousand years.  &lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;And while we're on paint, there's this:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Synchrotron light unveils oil in ancient Buddhist paintings from Bamiyan&lt;/b&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-04/esrf-slu042108.php"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-04/esrf-slu042108.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style="padding-left: 24px;"&gt;The world was in shock when in 2001 the Talibans destroyed two ancient colossal Buddha statues in the Afghan region of Bamiyan. Behind those statues, there are caves decorated with precious paintings from 5th to 9th century A.D. The caves also suffered from Taliban destruction, as well as from a severe natural environment, but today they have become the source of a major discovery. Scientists have proved, thanks to experiments performed at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), that the paintings were made of oil, hundreds of years before the technique was “invented” in Europe. Results are published today in the peer-reviewed Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In many European history and art books, oil painting is said to have started in the 15th century in Europe.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:84862</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/84862.html"/>
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    <title>Archaeology du Jour</title>
    <published>2008-04-23T19:11:07Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-23T19:13:22Z</updated>
    <category term="archaeology"/>
    <content type="html">&lt;i&gt;A nice little read about the pre-ceramic, pre-agricultural ceremonial center of Göbekli Tepe, currently the oldest known monumental architecture and sacred site in the world dating to 9500 BCE.  &lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Turkish site a Neolithic 'supernova'&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/FOREIGN01/54504074/1003/FOREIGN"&gt;http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/FOREIGN01/54504074/1003/FOREIGN&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style="padding-left: 24px;"&gt;Behind him [archaeologist Klaus Schmidt] are the first folds of the Anatolian Plateau. Ahead, the Mesopotamian plain, like a dust-colored sea, stretches south hundreds of miles to Baghdad and beyond. The stone circles of Gobekli Tepe, his workplace since 1994, are just in front, hidden under the brow of the hill.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Compared with Stonehenge, they are humble affairs. None of the circles that have been excavated, four out of an estimated 20, is more than 100 feet across. Two of the slender, T-shaped pillars tower at least three feet above their peers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What makes them remarkable are the carved reliefs of boars, foxes, lions, birds, snakes and scorpions that cover them, and their age. Dated at about 9500 B.C., these stones are 5,500 years older than the first cities of Mesopotamia and 7,000 years older than Stonehenge.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nevermind wheels or writing, the people who erected them did not even have pottery or domesticated wheat. They lived in villages, but were hunters, not farmers.&lt;/div&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:84684</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/84684.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=84684"/>
    <title>Babies!</title>
    <published>2008-04-22T17:52:10Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-22T17:56:01Z</updated>
    <category term="peregrine falcons"/>
    <content type="html">The peregrine falcon eggs at San Jose City Hall hatched last night!&amp;nbsp; Right now on the webcam Clara (mommy) is busy feeding the chicks.&amp;nbsp; Less than a day old and already ravenous (bad pun).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www2.ucsc.edu/scpbrg/falconcameraSJ.htm"&gt;http://www2.ucsc.edu/scpbrg/falconcameraSJ.htm&lt;/a&gt; (Quicktime)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www2.ucsc.edu/scpbrg/falconcameraSJ_ms.htm"&gt;http://www2.ucsc.edu/scpbrg/falconcameraSJ_ms.htm&lt;/a&gt; (Windows Video)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Birth of peregrine falcons makes an auspicious Earth day!&amp;nbsp; They were on the brink of extinction 30 years ago due to the extensive use of DDT as insecticide.&amp;nbsp; Unfortunately DDT also caused peregrine falcon egg shells to become thin and brittle, thus easily killing unhatched chicks.&amp;nbsp; Their recovery is a symbol of conservation and environmentalism.&amp;nbsp; Let's keep it up for the future!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;ETA: Looks like Clara is done feeding and is now keeping the chicks warm while they take a nap.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:84328</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/84328.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=84328"/>
    <title>AncientScripts.com updated</title>
    <published>2008-04-22T06:45:43Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-22T06:47:56Z</updated>
    <category term="ancient scripts"/>
    <content type="html">A while ago I discovered a bunch of work-in-progress in AncientScripts land.  Well, I've finished them up and uploaded some of them over the weekend and today.  The new pages are &lt;a href="http://www.ancientscripts.com/lydian.html"&gt;Lydian&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.ancientscripts.com/meithei.html"&gt;Meithei&lt;/a&gt;. I still have a bunch of "leftovers" that I need to turn into fully fleshed out pages, including Lycian, Kalmyk, Khipu, and Tangut.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:84094</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/84094.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=84094"/>
    <title>Dr Who special...</title>
    <published>2008-04-21T22:42:36Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-21T22:44:10Z</updated>
    <category term="doctor who"/>
    <content type="html">Ahoy mateys!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All my coworkers deserted me today for lunch, so I went home to make myself egg and mushroom on potato cakes with a side of mesclun.  Ahem...Sorry about that culinary tangent.  Anyway, so &lt;span class='ljuser' lj:user='naiad8' style='white-space: nowrap;'&gt;&lt;a href='http://naiad8.livejournal.com/profile'&gt;&lt;img src='http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif' alt='[info]' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href='http://naiad8.livejournal.com/'&gt;&lt;b&gt;naiad8&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp; and I watched the series 3 finale of the latest Doctor Who which was been sitting on the DVR for a week or so.  When I got back to work, I didn't feel like work, and so I bummed around Wikipedia reading about the minutiae of Dr Who until I found the mention of a special made for the Children in Need telly special.  I promptly found it on YouTube, and it was just hilarious.  A lot of self-referential jokes but what the hey.  Anyway, I know there's a bunch of Dr Who fans on my flist, so if you haven't seen it, here it is.  There's some spoiler for the end of series 3 though, although unless you've been living under a rock, you should already know about the itsy bitsy spoiler there.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;lj-embed id="23" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And yes a little eye candy for you Torchwood (*ahem*John*ahem*Barrowman*) fans.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:83746</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/83746.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=83746"/>
    <title>Dear Restaurant</title>
    <published>2008-04-18T20:30:19Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-18T20:30:19Z</updated>
    <category term="bad food"/>
    <content type="html">Niçoise salad's main component is not salt. Please refrain from using canned tuna fish that is already salted, because you'll be adding capers and olives, both of which are salty as well. And please add some acid, any kind of acid, to your dressing, because that would cut the salt somewhat. Plus salad dressing is supposed to contain acid, like lemon juice or vinegar, capisce? Cooking school 101. Here's &lt;a href="http://www.ochef.com/r189.htm"&gt;Julia's recipe &lt;/a&gt;for reference. And please taste your freaking food when you're "conceptualizing", even if you're on pot or meth. You'd find out that the salt level will leave your customers with literally a bad taste in their mouth (not to mention chapped lips and achy throats).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Don't make me send Gordon Ramsay to bust your bollocks.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:83484</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/83484.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=83484"/>
    <title>Article on Illegal Cultural Trade</title>
    <published>2008-04-18T19:03:39Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-18T19:03:39Z</updated>
    <category term="illegal antiquity trade"/>
    <content type="html">The underbelly of the historical/anthropological/archaeological world is an unhealthy illegal trade in cultural heritage and patrimony.  The scope is vast, from the poor farmer who dug up an ancient pot to sell for bit of money to feed his family, to well-organized and armed outfits that provide beautiful and unique artifacts for collectors and even museums (*cough*Getty*cough*Met*cough*).  Well, apparently the very stately and serene world of libraries and historical archives aren't immune to greed and X-ACTO knives.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;To Catch a Thief&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;How a Civil War buff's chance discovery led to a sting, a raid and a victory against traffickers in stolen historical documents&lt;br /&gt; &lt;a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/to-catch-a-thief.html"&gt;http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/to-catch-a-thief.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:83225</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/83225.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=83225"/>
    <title>Science Journalism Rant</title>
    <published>2008-04-17T19:21:54Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-17T19:22:57Z</updated>
    <category term="bad science"/>
    <content type="html">I know it's important to grab the reader with some snazzy headline and gets readership up, especially in science where the news might actually be not as far reaching as, say, how Brittney Spears has embarrassed herself, but please don't have headlines that are misleading, partially truthful, or based on inconclusive facts.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For example, on LiveScience there's an article with the headline "Humans Might Sense Oxygen Through Skin" (&lt;a href="http://www.livescience.com/health/080417-oxygen-skin.html"&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;).  However, if you read it, it turns out that oxygen sensors were discovered in mouse's skin.  The only part where human comes in is the "Mice and frogs are quite distant relatives, separated by more than 350 million years of evolution, so the fact they have these molecules in common in their skin suggests these compounds might well be found in the skin of other mammals also, such as humans."  Chances are, yes, we might be able to sense oxygen through the skin, but using that in the headline is immediately misleading.  I was expecting that they've discovered oxygen sensors in humans or at least a higher primate.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Or this one: "Faith in Prayer Kills Children" (&lt;a href="http://www.livescience.com/health/080410-bad-prayer-kills.html"&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;).  I'm not religious and certainly no fan of strange cults that prevent their children from going to the health services because supposedly prayer will heal them miraculously (soapbox: God has already sent you help...it's called doctors), which is what this opinion piece is really about, but the headline is misleading and worse, polemic. Faith and prayers don't kill children. Ignorance does. The last thing the scientific community needs to do is alienate potential readers with religious beliefs. Science and religion aren't exactly kissing and cuddling but I don't see how there can't be at least dialogue and respect for each other.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, off my soapbox.&amp;nbsp; Now sushi for lunch.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:82423</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/82423.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=82423"/>
    <title>April</title>
    <published>2008-04-13T01:00:49Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-13T01:00:49Z</updated>
    <category term="autism"/>
    <category term="april"/>
    <content type="html">It feels like Spring is teetering into Summer.  It's a lovely 87° F (30° C) in Mountain View today (feels great with no humidity). It'd be much worse if we hadn't put in the insulation in the attic last year. The house was like an oven in years past. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I'm sitting in the backyard right now, watching the sun slowly set. The garden is an amazing kaleidoscope of colors. &lt;span class='ljuser' lj:user='naiad8' style='white-space: nowrap;'&gt;&lt;a href='http://naiad8.livejournal.com/profile'&gt;&lt;img src='http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif' alt='[info]' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href='http://naiad8.livejournal.com/'&gt;&lt;b&gt;naiad8&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;  should really be a dryad because of her handiwork coaxing the garden into bloom. The birds in the neighborhood love the backyard because of the fountain (a great bird bath) and all the basket lining material that they use to build their nests. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On a different note, April is Autism Awareness Month. As you know, Alex is autistic, but he's shown great progress in the past few months in his new school. The city of Mountain View funds the autism program, but as with all things government they're always short on money. So the school has set up a Cafe Press store to sell shirts, hats, and mugs. All proceeds from the store go toward supplementing the materials used in classes. Please consider buying something from the store to help support the program.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.cafepress.com/slaterautism"&gt;http://www.cafepress.com/slaterautism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And on the third tangent, I leave you with this video.  It's a song (well, part of a 43-minute suite, really) from my favorite band Dream Theater called "Solitary Shell" about autism.  Don't worry, it won't blow your ears off.  Its decibel level is in the light rock level.&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;lj-embed id="22" /&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:81929</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/81929.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=81929"/>
    <title>AncientScripts.com updated</title>
    <published>2008-04-09T08:07:10Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-09T08:07:50Z</updated>
    <category term="ancient scripts"/>
    <content type="html">Finally, new page on &lt;a href="http://www.ancientscripts.com/mangyan.html"&gt;Mangyan&lt;/a&gt;, the only remaining indigenous script that has survived Spanish colonization of the Philipines, is uploaded to AncientScripts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And it's 1am.&amp;nbsp; Gotta sleep...</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:81762</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/81762.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=81762"/>
    <title>ancientscripts @ 2008-04-08T09:26:00</title>
    <published>2008-04-08T16:39:13Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-08T16:39:13Z</updated>
    <category term="tv"/>
    <category term="archaeology"/>
    <category term="cracking the maya code"/>
    <content type="html">The documentary "Cracking the Maya Code" about the story of the decipherment of the Maya writing system will be shown tonight at 8pm at your local PBS TV station as an episode of Nova. It's actually the shortened version of "Breaking the Maya Code", a 2-hour documentary loosely based on Michael D Coe's &lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Maya-Code-Michael-Coe/dp/0500281335"&gt;book of the same name&lt;/a&gt; (which is a great book IMHO).&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The website of the program is located at:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/mayacode/"&gt;http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/mayacode/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You can check your local TV listing at:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/schedule-local.html"&gt;http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/schedule-local.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you happen to miss the TV broadcast, you'll be able to watch it online on Wednesday.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:81401</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/81401.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=81401"/>
    <title>Happy Birthday</title>
    <published>2008-04-06T21:57:14Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-06T21:57:14Z</updated>
    <category term="happy birthday"/>
    <content type="html">&lt;span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: 16pt; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"&gt;Happy Birthday &lt;span class='ljuser' lj:user='natertatersmom' style='white-space: nowrap;'&gt;&lt;a href='http://natertatersmom.livejournal.com/profile'&gt;&lt;img src='http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif' alt='[info]' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href='http://natertatersmom.livejournal.com/'&gt;&lt;b&gt;natertatersmom&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp; aka Angela!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;May you have a most excellent day filled with hugs and presents and kisses!</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:81133</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/81133.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=81133"/>
    <title>Me duele...</title>
    <published>2008-04-04T20:52:09Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-04T20:55:09Z</updated>
    <content type="html">Mi cabeza se va a explotar en quince minutos.&amp;nbsp; Si un pedazo cae en su casa, por favor envíalo por Fedex porque lo necesito para conducir mi coche.&amp;nbsp; No hay prisa, no es necesario para trabajo.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I wonder if I speak Spanish for the rest of the day, will I get sent home?</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:80648</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/80648.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=80648"/>
    <title>ancientscripts @ 2008-04-03T20:14:00</title>
    <published>2008-04-04T03:27:12Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-04T03:27:12Z</updated>
    <category term="mathematics"/>
    <category term="archaeology"/>
    <content type="html">For all of you in the ol' US of A still trying to get your taxes filed, here's some news you can sympathize with.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aztec Math Decoded, Reveals Woes of Ancient Tax Time&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080403-aztec-math.html"&gt;http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080403-aztec-math.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style="padding-left: 24px;"&gt;Today's tax codes are complicated, but the ancient Aztecs likely shared your pain.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To measure tracts of taxable land, Aztec mathematicians had to develop their own specialized arithmetic, which has only now been decoded.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By reading Aztec records from the city-state of Tepetlaoztoc, a pair of scientists recently figured out the complicated equations and fractions that officials once used to determine the size of land on which tributes were paid.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The original scientific article will be published in print in tomorrow's Science Magazine (&lt;a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/"&gt;http://www.sciencemag.org/&lt;/a&gt;), but it's already electronically published on their website.  Turns out that this discovery was found in the codices Vergara and Santa María de Asunción, which have been seeing a lot of interest lately.  These documents detailed the land tax for each family in the Tepetlaoztoc area, which ethnically was Acolhua, a "sister" culture to the Mexica (aka the "Aztecs" as we call them).&amp;nbsp;  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What makes these Acolhua codices really stand out is that fact that they use phonetic symbols to record the family's names instead of pictograms more prevalent in other Aztec documents.  Also, a positional number system was employed instead of the usual Aztec number system (see &lt;a href="http://www.ancientscripts.com/aztec.html"&gt;http://www.ancientscripts.com/aztec.html&lt;/a&gt;). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now, in addition to these achievements, the new discovery reveals that ancient Acolhua mathematicians employed as many as five different equations depending on the shape of the plots.  As both the length of all sides were recorded as well as the computed land area, it is possible to reconstruct which equations were used.  In the simplest case where the plot is perfectly rectangular, multiplication of adjacent sides yields the land area.  As the plot gets more complicated, other equations were used.  The most complex method was to divide up an irregularly shaped plot along the diagonal, compute the areas of the two resulting triangles, and add the two areas back up.&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In addition, scientists also found special symbols for fractions: the arrow for 1/2, the heart for 2/5, and the hand 3/5, the bone for 1/5, and the arm for 1/3.&amp;nbsp; These were also used in the calculations in addition to whole numbers to calculate the total plot area.&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Central Mexico has always been seen as less scientifically advanced as the Mayas, but at least among the Acolhua people, it seems that they were just as accomplished.&amp;nbsp; This really shouldn't come as a surprise.&amp;nbsp; The most important Acolhua city, Texcoco, produced the poet/philosopher/engineer king Nezahualcoyotl, who in turn nurtured learning in his city by establishing schools of learning and created the greatest library in Mesoamerica (which unfortunately did not survive the Spanish conquest).&amp;nbsp; It's great that these codices are finally yielding their secrets and telling us the amazing achievements of the ancient people of Mexico.&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;References:&lt;br /&gt;[1] Williams, Barbara J, Jorge y Jorge, María del Carmen, "Aztec Arithmetic Revisited: Land-Area Algorithms and Acolhua Congruence Arithmetic", &lt;i&gt;Science&lt;/i&gt;, Vol 320, 2008, pg 72-77.&lt;br /&gt;[2] Harvey, H. R., Williams, B. J., "Aztec Arithmetic: Positional Notation and Area Calculation", &lt;i&gt;Science&lt;/i&gt;, Vol 210, 1980, pg 499-505.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:80562</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/80562.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=80562"/>
    <title>Ouch...</title>
    <published>2008-04-03T18:25:29Z</published>
    <updated>2008-04-03T18:25:29Z</updated>
    <category term="cooking"/>
    <category term="top chef"/>
    <category term="ancient scripts"/>
    <content type="html">Ever stabbed your finger right under the nail with the sharp end of a chef knife?&amp;nbsp; Can I say "ouch" enough?&amp;nbsp; It still hurts today, since it's like my job to type a lot.&amp;nbsp; I'd much rather burn my fingers in the oven than that.&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Advice: unless you're a professional chef, don't finely dice vegetables with only 3 hours of sleep.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Talking about cooking, anybody been following Top Chef season 4?&amp;nbsp; Looks like they have a lot of talent this time around.&amp;nbsp; I've been really enjoying the challenges Bravo is throwing on the contestants.&amp;nbsp; Quirky yet relevant, like the film theme this time and zoo theme last time.&amp;nbsp; The only bummer is that the my "home team" chefs (San Francisco) aren't performing well at all.&amp;nbsp; One, Erik, already got sent home, even though supposedly his restaurant, Circa, is quite good.&amp;nbsp; Well, who knows?&amp;nbsp; It's like Tre in Season 3 who was the strongest contestant yet got sent home early.&amp;nbsp; But perhaps one of them will be like Season 3's Casey and Dale and suddenly become a great contender.&amp;nbsp; Who knows?&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In other news, look for AncientScripts updates in the next few days.&amp;nbsp; I'll have a new page soon on the Mangyan script, a syllabic alphabet used in the Mindoro island in the Philipines.&amp;nbsp; The areas of the Pacific is something I need to concentrate on.&amp;nbsp; I also have work-in-progress for Lycian, Lydian, and Kalmyk scripts too.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:ancientscripts:79765</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/79765.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://ancientscripts.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=79765"/>
    <title>Whew...</title>
    <published>2008-03-28T19:08:23Z</published>
    <updated>2008-03-28T19:08:23Z</updated>
    <category term="work"/>
    <category term="music"/>
    <category term="ancient scripts"/>
    <content type="html">Yesterday I spent a full day in a small conference room with three lawyers and a court reporter.  By the end of the day it felt and smelled like I've spent 11 hours cramped in an airplane.  My throat was pretty shredded from talking non-stop for seven hours.  But I'm glad it's over.  In fact, I was so happy when I left with my lawyer that I said, "That was almost fun...&lt;i&gt;almost&lt;/i&gt;."  She laughed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, I'm still tired from yesterday if you can believe it.  Thankfully, it's Friday.  The weekend is coming, and hopefully I'll get some downtime.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Work is quiet today.  People are either on vacation, sick, or working from home.  Of course, there's only a software release next Monday.  Yeah, no sweat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I found some work-in-progress on my computer for AncientScripts that I've forgotten.  So I'll probably add some pages soon once I write up the usual boring drivel to accompany the graphics.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And finally, Friday music again.  This is a fun video.  Alien abduction.  Men in black.  Cheesy effects.  If only all heavy metal music is that much fun.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Artist: &lt;/span&gt;Bruce Dickinson&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Song: &lt;/span&gt;Abduction&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Album: &lt;/span&gt;Tyranny of Souls&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;lj-embed id="21" /&gt;</content>
  </entry>
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