Bread!

I've always wanted to try making bread from scratch. No knead bread has been trendy lately, so I finally went ahead and used a recipe from Budget Bytes.

It turned out really well for a first time bread. Nice crispy crust like I like. Still kind of fluffy in the middle. I made rolls instead of a full loaf today. Still have half the dough waiting in the fridge to be used in the next week or so.

There are all kinds of fun variations to try - raisin bread, whole wheat...mmmm

Dough right after mixing

Loose fitting lid for dough to rise

Rolls cooling

Omnomnom bread!

Atypical mole is atypical

See more on Know Your Meme My dermatologist just called. The pathology report came back mildly atypical. Which, for me, is probably not surprising.
Anyway, I just have to be really good about regular skin exams and protecting myself from the sun.
Yay!!!

In slightly related news, while yelling, "kiss my ass, this is a holy site" does sound very much like something I would say (and, in fact, possibly have said) I have not joined the Romney campaign. And if I said it, I was probably at an archaeological site. And joking.
Actually, I tend to make jokes about "look, sir, droids!" while pointing at all the things on site tours. Or try to get Tom to play blaster fight "pew pew pew."
And then everyone looks at me like I'm crazy.
Sigh.

Distrustful Talpid

English: European mole Talpa europaea (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Does not resemble my suspicious mole.

Finally got around to seeing a dermatologist today. I'm having major cystic acne issues, wanted my vitiligo checked out, and had some moles I also wanted checked out.

The doctor was concerned about one in particular. On my left hip/ass cheek. So, shot of lidocaine in the ass and they scraped that thing right off.
Pathology report should be back in a week. Aches a little but I'll live.

So, think of my ass for the next few days. As much as I would enjoy randomly telling people I have ass cancer, because I am really that immature, I don't actually want ass cancer of any variety.

Dermatologist was otherwise very nice, no high-pressure "buy our super fancy expensive skin care products!" or anything.

So, I have stuff that will hopefully help deal with the crazy acne (one of the few downsides of my Mirena). And I need to continue to coat myself in sunscreen, which I hate because it makes me feel all coated and sticky and weird. Buhhh.

Rest in Peace, Dr. Ride

Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Reading the NYT article is a wonderful refresher of how far gender equality has come and how much further we still have to go.
Example:

...politely endured reporters’ asking...whether she would wear a bra or makeup in space, whether she cried on the job...

I'm pretty sure that I would have had some really entertaining names to call people asking idiotic questions like that. Or remarkably snarky responses.
"Nope, no bra. Should make it easier for the topless astronauts gone wild video we'll be making in cooperation with Playboy to afford the next shuttle launch."
"My brain saps too much energy for me to menstruate. Should I start bleeding, though, I'll be isolated in the payload bay for 3-5 days so as not to destroy the guidance system with my scary lady mojo."
"I haven't cried on the job yet, but this press conference is getting me close to tears of rage. Lemme go put on some mascara and you can get a Tammy Faye shot."

On the flip side, women still have to deal with stupid-ass questions just like that.
Dr. Sally Ride was a driven, talented person and an inspiration to a generation of children interested in space flight, male and female.

Using My Degrees

Yesterday I used the hell out of my education.

Item 1:
Demonstrating that SpongeBob was one of the enemies the sun god had to face in the Underworld. Proof:

This is every bit as legitimate as the Abydos Helicopter bullshit.

Wollmeise--Skarabaus (Photo credit: lobstah1977)

Item 2:
Offering to build someone a pyramid in exchange for Wollmeise. I've never even touched Wollmeise. And damn do I need some of the Skarabaus colorway that I discovered when Zemanta spat out media related to this post.
Mmmmm, pretty, pretty yarns.
As soon as the person in question collects some gold, some limestone blocks, and some labor that will work for beer, bread, and onions that fancy pants yarn will be mine!

Jenny McCarthy and Space Hippies

Santa Bot space hippies (Photo credit: shoveling_ferret)

Watching The Way to Eden, best known as the space hippy episode. Given Kirk's inability to keep it in his pants, you'd think he'd welcome a bunch of free-love types, but, no, he's all "get a haircut and lose the interstellar patchouli."

Anyway, the crazy, self-centered, irresponsible leader of the hippies, Dr. Sevrin is carrying a highly virulent disease that cannot be cured but can be prevented via vaccine. He apparently decided not to get the vaccine and has been knowingly wandering the galaxy exposing people even though he's been told how dangerous this is.

Why does this sound familiar?
Oh, right.

Anyway, the space hippies are annoying as hell and their drum circle sucks. Wow does it suck. Damn. 1969 in LA and they couldn't find better hippies? I mean, they could have paid them in pot and let them wear their own clothes. Instead they clearly let some 50 year-old dude who was a fan of the Monkees hire these assholes. "Yep, this is totally counter-culture. Them kids will totally boogy to this."

Also, Spock jamming with the hippies is physical painful to watch.

And could they possibly have been any more heavy-handed with the whole "the planet is made of acid!" thing? Burny acid, not trippy acid. Worst trip ever.

Apparently this episode didn't suck so much in the first draft. One of the hippies was supposed to be McCoy's daughter and Kirk was supposed to be all "mmmm, space hippy." And, obviously, McCoy was going to be all "you're gonna be dead, Jim." The original writer, the awesome DC Fontana asked they change her credit to an entirely different name, in fact, because she thought it sucked so hard.

I would have cut a bitch

Zeus got all butthurt or something and we had a lightning strike near our apartment Saturday night. I actually had no idea about this, but our cable modem died, probably via the co-ax cable. Some guy in a nearby building had all his shit fried.

Tech couldn't get here until just a few minutes ago to bring us a new one. OMG no internet! We had to go buy DVDs so we could watch TV.
Actually, the upside to that is that I finally got all the original Star Trek movies on DVD as I found them for a reasonable sum.

Anyway, that was serious withdrawal. Smartphone is just not the same. Any longer and I'd have tried camping out by free wireless somewhere.

Significant Research

Jane Austen, Watercolour and pencil portrait by her sister Cassandra, 1810 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There's an invisible mummy in the background. Therefore, research!

I've been working very, very hard on course development. By watching Father Ted. Totally religious. Yes. Totally. Waaaaay connected to Egyptian religion and magic (in that there is religion and they are both set mostly on the same planet). It is absolutely, delightfully insane and hilarious, especially if you were raised Catholic. And it's on Netflix.

I've also found a beautiful Irish folk song that reminds me of my Nana and puts me in mind of how her parents and family must have felt when they emigrated. It's called A Stor Mo Chroi ("treasure of my heart")
This verse especially:

A Stór Mo Chroí, in the stranger's land
There is plenty of wealth and wailing.
Whilst gems adorn the great and the grand
There are faces with hunger pailing.
Though the road is toilsome, and hard to tread
And the lights of their cities will blind you.
Won't you turn a stór to Erin's shore
And the ones that you're leaving behind you.

I particularly like Amelia Hogan's rendition if you can find it.

And, um, re-reading Pride and Prejudice and a modern "sequel" (no, not the one with zombies). I was entirely uninterested in Jane Austen until a few years ago and now I'm all "oooooohhhhhh, get outta my way, I'm making Regency costumes..." It's at least around the same time the Rosetta Stone was found...
I've only managed Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility so far. Weirdly, I found it much easier to read and follow P&P on my Kindle than it had been in print. I'm guessing my print books had tiny characters in a weird font, maybe. Anyway, yet more reason to love my Kindle. Now if I can only learn to read and knit at the same time or convince myself to try audiobooks...

And in the process of writing this post, I have discovered a P&P sequel with an Egyptological twist - Pride and Pyramids (linkage below).

Related articles

• Pride and Pyramids Blog Tour with Authors Amanda Grange & Jacqueline Webb & Giveaway

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I'm not dead, just lazy

I've gone almost a full month without posting. Shame on me!
Part of my absence has been due to uncertainty. I'm teaching now and so I'm trying not to say anything too obvious about what and who and where and such. Really, I should probably quit being quite so paranoid.

Anyway, I was supposed to teach over the summer term but enrollment for that class was insufficient. I'm working on a fall course on Egyptian religion and magic. Ironically, that's an area where I don't have a hell of a lot of direct experience. To be honest, though, Egyptian religion and magic is more or less reconstructed indirectly.

If you're doing quizzical head-tilts now, let me attempt to explain:

Egyptian religion, like a hell of a lot of religions, didn't really have divine, revelatory texts. By which I mean, there isn't something like a Bible or Koran from ancient Egypt (or a hell of a lot of other places either). There is no tradition of a deity or his supernatural spokes-ghost dictating to a human who wrote everything down and then a bunch of people tried to interpret it and wow has that been a mess for a long time.
So, there is no handy-dandy Book of Genesis equivalent from ancient Egypt to explain how the world was created (in multiple, sometimes contradictory versions).
Nor did anyone sit down and collect the various myths and stories etc like Hesiod did for Greco-Roman mythology.

Instead we have lots and lots of art work, things like the Pyramid Texts and the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead that give us bits and pieces of information that we then try to make sense of. I suspect this is going to be difficult for some people to grasp, but hopefully I will get them there in the end.

In other news, the climate (or something) is making me retain water to a ridiculous degree. My hands and feet puff up and it's just unpleasant. I pushed way too much doing stuff a few weeks ago and am still paying for it in fatigue and general blehs.

Oreo is still enjoying being able to wander around a little on walks, but he is not so fond of the heat and humidity and allergies. The weather here has been waaaay more reasonable than in Chicago, though, plus we have central air conditioning. Yay!

Dwagon

Oreo and his hoard

Art History for the Day

A fine example of how details that seem incidental can be quite informative in works of art. Not to mention hilarious to later generations.

Shits On Fire Yo

How Did Egyptian Folding Chairs End Up in Northern Germany? - SPIEGEL ONLINE

How Did Egyptian Folding Chairs End Up in Northern Germany? - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Depending on where you stand on the theft vs. fair division of finds in regard to the bust of Nefertiti, this isn't the first time the Germans stole stuff from Egypt.

I may never fly again

Passenger's implant claim triggers flight diversion - CNN.com

First:

From the article:

Andrew Kobayashi, a passenger on the flight, said the woman was sweaty and acting nervous.
"I had briefly noticed her in the back of the plane being a weirdo," said Kobayashi, who was seated several rows further forward.

I am so screwed...
I mean, damn, when we fly with Oreo his travel case for in the cabin looks like ordinary luggage. I have no idea how many people have thought Tom and/or I were talking soothingly to a carry-on bag and feeding it pretzels.

Also, well, I'm me. If they start profiling weirdos...

Netbook: Yay, Nay, or Wait?

Every time I visit my parents (like I did last week) I wind up using my mom's adorable HP netbook and loving the super light portability of it, though it's slow and buggy running Firefox and a few other things.
Then I get home to my MacBook and remember how much I like OS X.

My MacBook is getting on in years, though, and I wonder if switching to a netbook running Windows 7 is a good idea. The cost would be roughly 1/3 less. It would be easier for me to haul around and use in various places.

I've been looking mostly at Acer Aspires with the AMD processor and Windows 7 Home Professional. They look like solid little machines, get good reviews and are on sale for a fairly reasonable price at Target.

I need a real keyboard as most of my computer use involves intensive typing. Tablets seem too limited to entertainment and basic communications.  And though I love Apple, I'm not sure I really need a machine quite so swanky or expensive again.

I do a lot of web browsing and reading. A fair amount of wordprocessing and large amounts of presentation making. I'd probably stick with OpenOffice. Streaming video might be fun, but isn't immensely vital.

I hesitate going back to Windows, though. I suppose a Hackintosh is possible, but would it be worth it? Or Ubuntu? I'd rather not spend huge amounts of time debugging and tweaking.

Thoughts?

Fun Fur Bikini

Watching Star Trek again. I think I need to reproduce the crazy lady-shaman costume (kahn-ut-tu) from A Private Little War.
Orange eyelash yarn, a complete disregard for dignity, a whole lot of spray tanner, and a cheap wig and I will have the best attention whoring convention costume ever.

I think Oreo would be an excellent mugato.

Tom refuses to take any part in my Star Trek geekery, so I guess he won't have to wear a blonde wig and buckskin vest.

Even the Romans Went Antiquing

Antinous as Osiris, wearing the nemes and the uraeus; the nose, mouth, left part of the face and major part of the bust are modern restorations. From the villa of Hadrian in Tivoli. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The villa's recreation of Canopus, a resort near Alexandria, as seen from the temple of Serapis (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Exhibit one - Hadrian's Villa.
(Actually, exhibit the only, because I'm exhausted and the stupid Topamax is making me stupider

Does anyone else find this Egyptian-style statue oddly posed? It's of Antinous, Hadrian's companion and probable lover.

Anyway, in addition to having Egyptian style stuff commissioned, Hadrian, one of the few Roman emperors to bother actually visiting Egypt, brought some stuff home with him.

This beautiful head of a female sphinx is said to have come from Hadrian's villa.

Head from a Female Sphinx. Found in Italy, said to have been in the ruins of Emperor Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, outside Rome; originally from Egypt, probably Heliopolis. Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12, reign of Amunemhat II, circa 1876–1842 B.C.E. Chlorite, 15 5/16 x 13 1/8 x 13 15/16 in. (38.9 x 33.3 x 35.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 56.85 http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/egypt_reborn/female_sphinx.php 

In addition to the lovely head of the sphinx, there is this impressive naophorous statue of the Late Period. Naophorous just means a statue holding a shrine - typically a shrine that has another statue in it. Very meta. These become fairly common in the Late Period.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Naophorous Block Statue of a Governor of Sais, Psamtik(seneb) 

Inappropriate LOL skeleton of the day

'Sup, man. Just chilling with my bro.  Been waiting, like, millennia for my Corona, dude.

Source: Photos: Human Sacrifices Found at Ancient China Complex

Thanks to Julie for pointing out this article which led me to the skeleton article.

Dear Pope Palpatine

new Pope Palpatine (Photo credit: Alx)

Warning: Probably more exruciatingly offensive than usual
Sister Simone Campbell: Vatican Reprimand 'Like A Sock In The Stomach' : The Two-Way : NPR

Dear Pope Palpatine:
That stupid shit right up there in the link is why you are currently hemorrhaging female members of the church faster than a botched back-alley abortion.
Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you people? You have climbed into bed with some of the worst hate-mongering asshats on the planet. People who used to and often still do think Catholics are the enemy right up there with Mooslims and Joooooooos (boogedy). Jack Chick, anyone?
Quit it.
I was never confirmed and haven't set foot in a church for anything but someone else's service since adulthood because of this kind of crap.
I am not a second-class human because I'm a woman. Gay people are not evil. Other views are not an automatic threat.
Grow the fuck up.

Ten-Toed Couch Sloth

The Topamax experiment continues. The last dosage increase is tomorrow. Still having migraines, but I'm supposed to give it six weeks.

I really, really hope the sleepies go away. This is ridiculous. If I stop moving I fall asleep. I curled up on the couch to read this evening, Oreo came to snuggle up and be a book rest and tummy warmer. Next thing I knew it was 8:30, Tom was napping in bed, Oreo was crying for dinner and my hand was asleep.

Topamax also causes vivid dreams. I've been dreaming about managing underfunded National Park or National Forest visitor centers with my former graduate advisor. The one who went kind of crazy. Yeah. He's nice in the dreams at least.

Anyway, this makes it difficult to work on things that involve reading because I get drowsy so quickly. Grumble. I have academic library access again, but if I pass out every time I try to read that might get to be a bit useless.

Better news: Tom found my Flowbee!!!  I cut my hair today. I like cutting it myself. I think it turns out pretty awesome. Yay!

Batman in Ancient Egypt or Menkaure Was the God-Damned Batman

It is seriously nipply in here, people!

Who wants to co-author the paper with me?
Provisional Titles:

Nipples and Fecundity in the Old Kingdom
Joel Schumacher, Batman, Egyptian Art, and Nipples
Yes, I Totally Convinced Someone to Publish This Drivel Because Someone Backed out at the Last Minute
Dude, Seriously, Menkaure is the God-damn Batman
This Topic Is No Less Weird Than What David O'Connor Has Been Publishing and Lecturing Lately

Obviously the nemes headdress is an early version of the bat-cowl. And, um, stuff.

Still taking the Topamax. As if you didn't know that.