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December 26, 2006
Christmas '06
[On location in Cumberland, Wisconsin]
I know Christmas seems to be starting earlier and earlier every year, with retailers starting to put up Christmas products way back in October and everything, but I think Christmas seems to be getting shorter and shorter every year. I know the calendar says December and everything, but with final exams and no snow it's usually kinda hard to get in the Christmas spirit and feel like it's coming up soon. Well, it was kinda the same thing this year, and all of a sudden Christmas is over and done with. 
It was a good Christmas though, with good family, good food, good presents, and a couple of entertaining dogs. Brody (Nathan & Laura's dog) and Greta (Aaron & Eve's energetic and very large puppy) were going at it several times, mostly with Greta wanting to play and Brody playing along for a little while until getting tired of it. Greta wouldn't take a hint though, and continued to pester him even after Brody had her pinned, it was pretty funny. Even with all the bared teeth they were definitely still playing. :-) Aaron also taught me how to play golf on the pool table, it's a pretty fun new game I hadn't ever heard of before.
But after all the activity of yesterday and this morning, the house was once again quiet today, so I spent most of the afternoon reading a book I recently purchased, "Unwrapping the Pharaohs." It's a really interesting book, it talks quite a bit about how the traditional ancient Egyptian chronologies are almost certainly in error, due to some dynasties being simultaneous and not sequential as originally thought. Revising the Egyptian chronologies also brings it into line with evidence from other literary and archaeological sources (Old Testament, Hittite, Assyrian and Persian records, Josephus, etc), and just makes everything harmonize and fit so much better, whereas previously everything else in the region was forced to conform to the Sothic Cycle theory of Egyptian history, no matter how well it did or didn't fit. There were a couple of bonehead typos I've found along the way and the organization is at times a little disjointed, but the information it presents is quite eye-opening and very interesting.
A couple of the interesting things the authors concluded was that the Queen of Sheba who visited King Solomon was in fact Hatshepsut, the only female Pharaoh in Egyptian history (unless Nefertiti ever rose to power, which is under debate). Also, there's much mystery surrounding the Hyksos, who suddenly appeared on the scene and occupied Egypt for a few hundred years, without opposition from the Egyptian army. Now why wouldn't the Egyptian army put up a fight against an invading force? If they were at the bottom of the Red Sea after chasing the just-departed Israelite slaves, that'd be a pretty good reason. The authors also name the Hyksos as the Amalekites, who attacked Israel shortly after they crossed the Red Sea (and thus presumably discovered that Egypt was basically defenseless), and whom King Saul hundreds of years later completely and utterly obliterated (the Bible says Saul and his men killed every last Amalekite man, woman and child), which would explain why the Hyksos/Amalekites absolutely vanished from history. History has always interested me as a subject, particularly Egyptian and Biblical history, so this book definitely caught my eye and kept me turning the pages. :-)
Oh, and I've also gotten a few photo albums from January and February uploaded to my Penn State photo page. Who knows how much more I'll get through though over break, since I have quite a few friends to hang out with the rest of break, but at least I've made a decent dent in things.
Posted by Jared at December 26, 2006 11:42 PM