I am SUCH a geek...

Christine N. · Feb 3, 2007

We had the 'geeking out' thread.

I'm geeking out over the opening night of the King Tut exhibit in Philly. Really. I'm glued to the set, watching the black tie gala and...yes... wishing I was there! I'm SO going later this year, but tonight looks AWESOME!

If I weren't a writer, I'd totally be an archaeologist. No, an Egyptologist. I've loved it since I was a kid. Think I could start a new career?

Sigh. Yes, I love Ancient Egypt. I watch every show about it on Discovery and Nat. Geo. channels.

Too bad I hate the heat. I'd melt in the desert. But I'd LOVE to read Hieratic or Hieroglyphs or Ancient Egyptian.

Next lifetime perhaps. If I could afford to take classes at Uof Penn, I'd be there.

san_remo_ave · Feb 3, 2007

Sounds like loads of fun! Will you be going to the exhibit yourself?

When I was in high school I wanted to be an archaeologist. Even did a summer study session with CalPolyTech in CA on a mission dig. It was a lot of hard work but I lovd every exhausting minute of it.

Christine N. · Feb 3, 2007

Oh YES, I am going. The tickets are 27.50 each, but I don't care. I just have to decide when we're going and get the tix.

I would SO love to go on a dig.

Carrie in PA · Feb 3, 2007

I've been on the mailing list for two years. So I'm a geek, too.

And I SO could have written your first post. I love, love, love ancient Egypt.

Tiger · Feb 3, 2007

I did the Tut exhibit when I was a teenager... It came around to San Francisco, and I was blown away. There's something about looking at artifacts that are so incredibly old. Gets the old imagination moving like a river.

C.bronco · Feb 3, 2007

That reminds me... I really liked the movie Stargate.

SC Harrison · Feb 3, 2007

Christine N. said:
Too bad I hate the heat. I'd melt in the desert.

This is going to sound like I'm a sniffy tourist, but you're not missing much. I spent almost an hour shuffling up the steps inside Cheops just to step inside the Sarcophagus room for about twenty seconds. I did step over the rope and touch the stone box as I looked inside, which didn't please the guard too much.

I have to say, the most amazing thing (to me) about Giza is the display of the Sunship. This was a large wooden vessel that dead Pharaohs were rowed up (down?) the Nile on their journey to meet Ra (or something like that). When they discovered the massive chamber this thing was preserved in, it disintegrated pretty quickly, but there is a full-size replica on display, with little pieces of the original in display cases around the ship. This ship was pretty weird. It had these massive oars on top, that were set in motion by slaves down below, using a fairly complex (for that time) system of pulleys.

Anyway, cool stuff.

Nathan Bransford · Feb 3, 2007

Hey Christine, have you by chance read Brad Geagley's books? He writes great mysteries set in Ancient Egypt.

(yes, he's a client, and yes, I'm biased, but seriously, he's great)

Soccer Mom · Feb 3, 2007

Mysteries set in ancient Egypt? I'll have to check him out. I love the topic. (Is my geek showing?) I've enjoyed the Amelia Peabody mysteries. Are these archeological mysteries or actually set in ancient times?

BTW--loved my trip to Egypt, but the Valley of the Dead was way cooler than Cairo.

ETA- Nevermind. I just googled the author on amazon and the books look great. I've ordered the first one.

BardSkye · Feb 3, 2007

The exhibit was here in Calgary a few years back and worth every penny of the ticket price. I don't think you'll regret going.

Nathan Bransford · Feb 3, 2007

Soccer Mom said:
Mysteries set in ancient Egypt? I'll have to check him out. I love the topic. (Is my geek showing?) I've enjoyed the Amelia Peabody mysteries. Are these archeological mysteries or actually set in ancient times?

BTW--loved my trip to Egypt, but the Valley of the Dead was way cooler than Cairo.

They're actually set in ancient Egypt (actually the second mostly happens in ancient Babylon, but a lot of the characters are Egyptian). The main character is an Egyptian Sam Spade and he solves crimes. The first, YEAR OF THE HYENAS is set in Thebes.

Soccer Mom · Feb 3, 2007

Thanks! I already zipped over to Amazon and ordered it.

Who's a geek now?

Uh, me. Yeah.

BardSkye · Feb 3, 2007

I think you've just made a couple more sales. I'll have to read them and I think my Dad would love them as well.

Christine N. · Feb 4, 2007

Nathan Bransford said:
Hey Christine, have you by chance read Brad Geagley's books? He writes great mysteries set in Ancient Egypt.

(yes, he's a client, and yes, I'm biased, but seriously, he's great)

Nope, not yet

Put it on the 'to read list' But the second book of my *yet as unsold* (Hint, hint) MG fantasy series is, well, not set in Ancient Egypt, but... well, it's a long story. It's a 'fake' Ancient Egypt, made to look like the real thing, inside a magic book.

I LOVED doing the research for that book. Sigh. Now I'm doing one based on Chinsese mythology, which is also fun but proving to be SO much harder - because there's just so much MORE Chinese mythology than Egyptian. LOL

Oh, and Tiger, I also saw the exhibit last time it came around... I was six. I still remember it.

PS- Nathan, saw the link to your blog from Miss Snark the other day - way to go!

PattiTheWicked · Feb 4, 2007

I remember going to the King Tut exhibit when I was a kid, and it was at the Museum of Natural History in NYC. It was amazing, and I still have my William the Hippo that I bought in the museum gift shop.

I'd totally love to go see the current exhibit as well - and my 7-year-old daughter is big into AE stuff, so we'd make it a family field trip.

Christine, you might also want to look into PC Doherty's ancient Egypt mysteries. Titles I recall off the top of my head are The Anubis Slayings and The Assasssins of Isis. I think there are one or two others as well, and they're quite good.

Christine N. · Feb 4, 2007

I just love all ancient culture I think. I'd dig myself a trip to Beijing too. A day inside the Forbidden City would be awesome!

When we went on our honeymoon, to, uh, ok, we went to Salem, Mass. In October. Yeah. Anyway, we went to the Peabody Museum. They had awesome stuff from China. Salem used to be a bustling port city, after all, and did great trade with the 'Orient'.

Sigh. (Yes, I loved the House of the Seven Gables. How could I go to Salem and not visit it and still call myself a writer.)

Christine N. · Feb 4, 2007

SC Harrison said:
This is going to sound like I'm a sniffy tourist, but you're not missing much. I spent almost an hour shuffling up the steps inside Cheops just to step inside the Sarcophagus room for about twenty seconds. I did step over the rope and touch the stone box as I looked inside, which didn't please the guard too much.

I have to say, the most amazing thing (to me) about Giza is the display of the Sunship. This was a large wooden vessel that dead Pharaohs were rowed up (down?) the Nile on their journey to meet Ra (or something like that). When they discovered the massive chamber this thing was preserved in, it disintegrated pretty quickly, but there is a full-size replica on display, with little pieces of the original in display cases around the ship. This ship was pretty weird. It had these massive oars on top, that were set in motion by slaves down below, using a fairly complex (for that time) system of pulleys.

Anyway, cool stuff.

I wanna do the whole thing - see the temple at Abu Simbel on the morning of the solstice and see the statues of Nefertari, visit the Aswan dam, see what's left of Philae and Edfu and Thebes, and the Cairo museum, and the pyramids at Giza and the Sphinx, see the Rosetta Stone and, and...

ok, I really need to get a life.

I have a better chance of getting to the British Museum. I'll just go there instead.

TsukiRyoko · Feb 4, 2007

I'm the same way with Egypt, Japan, and Africa. Whenever I turn on the Science Channel or Nat. Geo (quite often, believe me) and a program relating to any of them is on, I'm not moving until the end (this is a terrible habit to have when they're showing commercial-free marathons. No pee breaks is a killer!)

Bmwhtly · Feb 4, 2007

Christine said:
I am SUCH a geek...

No No, say it with pride.

Ol' Fashioned Girl · Feb 4, 2007

Apparently there are a lot of us 'geeks' around here!

Me, too! We went to the Ramses the Great Exhibit when it made it to Dallas several years ago - that was as close to Oklahoma City as they could persuade him to come.

SC Harrison · Feb 4, 2007

Christine N. said:
I wanna do the whole thing - see the temple at Abu Simbel on the morning of the solstice and see the statues of Nefertari, visit the Aswan dam, see what's left of Philae and Edfu and Thebes, and the Cairo museum, and the pyramids at Giza and the Sphinx, see the Rosetta Stone and, and...

Although I consider myself lucky (my trip was free, courtesy of Uncle Sam), I had very little free time in Egypt. I really wanted to go to the valley of the Kings and Queens and Aswan, but that wasn't possible. I did get to see parts of Alexandria (from a moving truck

), and splashed my hands in the Nile a little.

I just remembered something funny—me and a few friends went wandering in the Suk (market) in Cairo for a while, and, while I was standing in the middle of the street daydreaming, I failed to notice that the crowd around me had parted. I heard a noise, looked over my shoulder and jumped out of the way of a horse-drawn wagon that was moving pretty quickly. There were (I think) five burka-clad women of indeterminate age/size riding on the wagon, and they giggled continuously at me as I picked myself up out of the ditch.

Oh, well. I'm glad they enjoyed the show.

WildScribe · Feb 4, 2007

Soccer Mom said:
I just googled the author on amazon

???

I am SUCH a geek...

haz a shiny new book cover

Back at it

haz a shiny new book cover

Write All The Words!

AKA: "Gums of Steel"

I have plans...

Dances With Hamsters

Author

Crypto-fascist

Barbershoppin' Harmony Whore

Author

Crypto-fascist

Barbershoppin' Harmony Whore

haz a shiny new book cover

Unleashing Hell.

haz a shiny new book cover

haz a shiny new book cover

Forced into cell phone life

Yes, I'm back.

Hand? What hand?

Dances With Hamsters

Slave to the Wordcount