Lj archeology? Is that where you dig through the posts of those on your friends list and read the things they wrote years ago?

Seems to me that might have some risk involved. Do they make special protective suits for spelunking through the past emotional and mental drama?

Lj Archaeologists diary entry

Day 136 of my Lj expedidition through Bob's journal.

Recent posts I witnessed in the course of reading my friends list did not indicate any mental instability, but digging deeper into his Lj archives I have found some posts dating back a few years that tend to indicate a untreated diagnosis of bi-polar disorder.

At great risk to myself I am journeying forward....

DEAR LORD! It appears that Bob may, in fact, be a Furry.

Bwahahahahaha! You've been reading Howard Carter, haven't you? You've got the style down beautifully.

Spelunking into friends' past posts? *shudder* I point you to my brand new icon. I don't wanna delve into you until you're dead and buried. And then my delving is more literal. ;)

There's somebody on one of the spin-off Mattnet groups who is, in fact, a furry, though I stopped reading his posts about it before I got whether that included the more erotic possibilities for some furries. I conveniently forget the person's name because that is way more than I want to know about my friends.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope it's a most excellent one, dude.

paracoon. kcarp's husband.

He's reasonably well adjusted, has twins, and is from the part of Furrydom that likes to draw anthropomorphic animals.

Oh, you're right. He is. I enjoyed talking to him at the brunch in East San Antonio the last time you and immlass were in town.

bi-polar disorder? He sleeps with male and female polar bear furries?

Now this is starting to sound like the more sordid parts of the CSI episode I saw** where some poor furry schmuck was shot by a rancher-type one night because he mistook him for a wolf. This is also where I put my fingers in my ears and sing a rousing rendition of, "LALALALALALA!"

**why yes I did learn everything I ever wanted to know on television. why?

Hey cool!
[I have to apologise for any question or comment I'm about to make that I ought to know about already, since I've not back-read your blog. Yet. :)]

Buut the reason for my interest - my uncle is the associate curator of Greek and Roman Art at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and he grubs around on digs in Turkey quite a bit.
What area/things/whatever did you do? (Feel free to point me in the direction of your blog if its all there, and you can't be arsed explaining it again)

Glad you found a squee-worthy group!
Izzie

Pshaw - you aren't required to read my LJ archives before you can ask a question. :) Besides, my field days are sufficiently behind me that they predate my time on LJ.

Associate Curator at the Met, you say? Have I mentioned that the Met is my favorite museum to visit? Have I mentioned that I'm planning to install myself there next week when I get to NYC? (Well, AFTER I go to the Brooklyn Museum.) Turkey sounds like a wonderful place to be. I'll probably know nothing about it, but what are his main interests? As a kid, I was a total ancient history geek. My first crush? Apollo. Not the Battlestar Galactica Apollo; the Greek god Apollo. I read Homer for fun. Hell, I practically memorized every book I had on Greek mythology. Edith K. Hamilton and I were like this *does cross-y thing with fingers*.

When I was in school, I was most fascinated by boundaries and how humans adapt to change. In the New World, the end of pleistocene fascinated me. In the larger world, what first drew me into the field was paleoanthropology and primatology. I really wanted to look into the emergence of neadnderthals as well as the places in which neandthals and anatomically modern humans occupied overlapping territories. Also? The Rift Valley and the Afar Region. All wonderfully exciting times/places rife with change -- and the evidence preserved to study.

I never did make it to Africa. I had an offer to work on a dig in Mali but it was the standard offer -- we'll get you here, provide you with a place to pitch your tent, feed you...but we don't have money to pay you. I got the same offer to work on a dig in Mexico where I would have at least gotten to work with human remains. Honestly, I burned out as a student and after seeing how the university I attended treated its anthro grad students, I couldn't muster the enthusiasm for another god knows how many years of penury known as grad school. So, I worked in cultural resources management as a "Trowel for Hire" for a while.

Where I *did* work was mostly in southeast Wyoming (12,000 y.a. to historical), west Texas (prehistoric), and east Texas (some prehistoric but mostly historical) and a tiny bit of Gulf Coast work (shell middens, historical piers). That link I added to my post? The pics of people digging in flooded units and trying to figure out how to water screen clay? The joy of profiling only to realize that your dig was mostly pointless because a huge channel used to run through the site where you've placed the units? OMG - that WAS my life here in SE Texas. Finding broken ceramics and glass is so much more fun when they're invisible bits in the middle of clay clods. Heh.

Here I will shut up. I can go on and on and on about the love/hate relationship I developed with cultural resources management. If anyone really wants to know, I'm more than happy to babble but I doubt most people really, honestly care. :)

Dude, we have so much in common!
Well, insomuch as I have a passing connection to archaeology, I like Stargate, I adored Classical Studies and analysed both the Odyssey and the Iliad at school (and got an A *glees*), would be an anthropologist if I get another life after this one (currently too busy being an almost-Marine Biologist and Zoologist) ...

*stops to breathe*

...I adore primates (is that a valid link? ooh ooh yeah and see my profile for directions to pictures of mountain gorillas in the wild, baby!), am currently working on a taxonomy poster about enlarging the genus Homo to include Pan troglodytes and Pan paniscus (not my idea, mind!), I've been to Ethiopia and travelled the whole length of the Rift Valley - would have gone out into Afar and the Danakil area had it not been for security and time issues, also nearly visited the Leakey love-nest at Olduvai Gorge (but didn't dammit) on the way through...

*takes another gulp of air*

Aaaand, I think that’s about it…
Hell, if you want tenuous, I even grubbed around a shell midden as a child on a trip to Florida (are you allowed to do that?)


As for the uncle - if you are interested his name is Chris(topher) Lightfoot...
All I know is he goes on Turkish digs and marries Turkish women (#2 just left him - oops - and #1 has a daughter - my estranged cousin Sara who has English features but speaks Turkish and confuses people), and comes over for Christmas once in a blue moon. Oh, and he and my mother fight like two cats in a bag.
Unfortunately, due to above reasons, I don't really know him well enough to utilise his interesting career. *woes*
Hmm,,,this has got me thinking tho, maybe him and I would get on famously since we both dislike our common denominator: my mother. Wow, don’t think I’ve ever called her that before…

Argh, I wrote a life story. Dear God I’m sorry...

*runs and hides, but presses ‘post’ anyway cos it took too long to write to delete now, dammit!*

-- psst! You must must must go to Africa! ---

Even more than you know -- I had the opportunity while in high school to take a couple of college level courses one summer. What did I take? Neurobiology and Marine Biology. I came home and announced that I wanted to be a marine biologist. My mom and aunt finally convinced me to forego that option as even PhDs in the field in Miami had trouble finding employment.

This advice obviously didn't work all that well because the next time I decided maybe biochemistry wasn't my future, I chose archaeology. :|

am currently working on a taxonomy poster about enlarging the genus Homo to include Pan troglodytes and Pan paniscus (not my idea, mind!)
You probably know more on the subject than I do but I spent many years looking at faunal remains and studying bones. From my admittedly limited knowledge of various species's morphology, it makes perfect sense to move both chimp species into the Homo genus. Gotta say, I think gorillas belong there, too. The DNA seems to indicate a close relationship, as well. You have my vote! ;-) Well, unless there's a movement to make us Pan sapiens (which genus has primacy?). I would find it highly amusing to join the satyrs ;-) but it really would screw up my user name here.

I even grubbed around a shell midden as a child on a trip to Florida (are you allowed to do that?)
Sure! It's the theft of cultural resources that makes archaeologists hot under the collar. Just playing around on them, though? No biggie.

Chris(topher) Lightfoot...
You probably get this question all the time but any relation to Gordon Lightfoot?

Argh, I wrote a life story. Dear God I’m sorry...
I'm not! I LIKE comments. I like discussions. I'm all for it. I like having the people on my friends list be exactly that -- friends rather than just user names. :)

-- psst! You must must must go to Africa! ---
True - and I need to do it soon before I get too used to comfort and too set in my ways. I swear I can feel myself fossilizing every year. :|

And now? I'm off to look at pictures of pretty gorillas...

I'm probably going to reveal myself as incredibly stupid and/or sheltered here, but... who is Gordon Lightfoot? I've totally never heard of him before.

I LIKE comments. I like discussions.
Comments - yes, who doesn't? - but I'm not convinced you should be putting up with my late-night random waffle (particularly about family: dodgy topic, that). Oops.

Fossilising...but surely that's what all good archaeologists aspire to do. Like: musicians don't die, they just decompose. But different. Not that you are old or anything.

Hope you liked the pictures! I will get round to writing the Rwanda part of my blog one day.

I'm probably going to reveal myself as incredibly stupid and/or sheltered here, but... who is Gordon Lightfoot?
No, probably a different generation. He is a folk singer of fair prominence. He was better known to my parents' generation but I spent a fair amount of time delving into folk music. :)

Fossilising...but surely that's what all good archaeologists aspire to do
Actually, I aspire to being a freeze-dried Andean mummy. :) I want to leave maximum material to work with and I want a variety of translation dictionaries so I can be my own Rosetta Stone. :) And I want an Acheulean handaxe so that archaeologists can fight for YEARS over the significance and have feuding camps. And lots of people could get their PhDs off the controversy.

Not that you are old or anything.
Ah, I'm getting there. I don't creak yet and my joints all still work but I'm aware of time creep.

You have my vote! Well, unless there's a movement to make us Pan sapiens (which genus has primacy?). I would find it highly amusing to join the satyrs ;-) but it really would screw up my user name here.

Hee yeah, didn't think of that! I agree gorillas too but the poster had a word/space limit, so I concentrated on . Trying to find a title - first thing to mind was 'Pan or Homo' but needless-to-say that was quickly discounted. Can't have that on the wall in the corridor! ;)

Izzildor wrote, "...so I concentrated on..." and then left the sentence unfinished. Grr where'd that "chimpanzees" go?

Can't have that on the wall in the corridor!
I don't know -- that would certainly grab attention

That trip to NY you mention - wouldn't happen to be for the con would it? Whoa she's a busy bee - Teryl that is - I'm going to see her in London on 10/12th Nov. Looking forward to it, for I have heard that she is a complete fruitcake made of awesome. I guess Vancouver to NY and then on to the UK... it's all in the same direction...

Have fun and tell me about it!

That trip to NY you mention - wouldn't happen to be for the con would it?
In fact, it would!

I have heard that she is a complete fruitcake made of awesome
Hee - she is both. I mean that in only a completely positive and loving way, mind you. She is a powerhouse of energy and she seems to hold nothing back. I guarantee that any event at which Teryl appears will be enjoyable. I'm not surprised that she's globe-trotting. I get the impression that she quite enjoys traveling (who wouldn't?) and meeting fans actually energizes her. She's absolutely the best guest I've seen.

I will tell you -- and hope that you'll do the same. :)

neanderthals -- honestly, I do know how to spell it. Well, I spell it with the "h" still but how in the world I screwed it up twice and didn't notice? *shakes head at self*

Oooh, cool! I'm not an archaeologist, but have a great interest. *g* I actually belong to one or two communities, but one of them started getting tons of spam so I unfriended it a while back. I don't think I know either of these. I especially love the icon one. Just what I need...more icons! hehehe

Tell me about it! Icons are totally not what I need but I keep seeking them out anyway. It's a sickness.

Glad the archaeological one caught your eye. I tried to make archaeology icons when I first started but that thought went nowhere. Now I can just grab others' good ideas. :)

Oh awesome!! Thanks!! I have a lot to comment on in this thread, but I'm trying to get this list of payables put together because I have to get home in time to watch both episodes of BSG I've missed so I can watch the new one live tomorrow, and get some sleep since I'm sick of this sleep deprivation thing, which is of course why I'm here reading LJ at all instead of working! *blushes* More tomorrow! :)

I didn't know if you wanted to return to field work or not but I thought if so, then this was one resource I didn't have when I was looking for it. BTW, I do know an intown contracting firm that you can work through if you want to do local shovel bum work.