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Thursday, 31 January 2008

days

wow, three posts in one month! i'm going to have to start charging at this rate...

anyway, i read something today that maybe you guys are already familiar with. i thought it was pretty interesting, and i did a little bit of research on it to discover more.

ok, in the ancient world, with geocentric thought, there were seven heavenly bodies (planets) orbiting the earth: the moon, mercury, venus, the sun, mars, jupiter, and saturn. these planets were all named after gods, and one day of the week was dedicated to each one. interestingly, in romance languages, this relationship is still very obvious. actually, its apparent in english too. i'll demonstrate with spanish, since i'm not familiar with french or latin, etc.

luna (moon) - lunes in spanish - monday in english after the germanic moon god mona
mars(god of war) - martes in spanish - tuesday in english after the nordic god or war, tyr
mercury(messenger of the gods) - miercoles in spanish - wednesday in english of woden(old english) or     odin, king of the norse gods
jupiter(king of the gods) - jueves in spanish - thursday in english after thor, nordic god of thunder
venus(goddess of love) - viernes in spanish - friday in english after freya, nordic goddess of love and fertility
saturn(god of harvest) is a little different. in english, its obviously saturday. in spanish, its sabado named after     the sabbath
sol(the sun) is also different. obviously sunday in english, but in spanish its domingo named after the latin         term "dies dominicus" which referred to the celebration of Christ's birth and resurrection.

anyway, i thought that was very interesting. in ancient cultures, they also associated each planet with one of the seven metals of intiquity: iron(mars), tin(jupiter), gold(the sun), silver(the moon), mercury(duh), copper(venus), and lead(saturn).

ok, so if you read this today, enjoy your day of jupiter.

Thursday, 24 January 2008

two posts in a month... this is your lucky month. actually, i admit that my posts have been sub-par for quite some time now. it seems like the xanga world is on its last leg.

but then... i read this guy's post that was featured on the xanga site. it was way better than any post i've ever written, and then there were about 280 comments! i feel victorious if i have two comments. i'm not really complaining, but i was inspired.

now, if i just had something to talk about...

i recently read a book called Sacred Geometry. it talks a lot about shapes and their significance to ancient cultures. it went through different cultures and their geometrics in architecture and art. also, much of it had a spiritual context as well. for instance, the square represented the natural, and the circle represented the supernatural. something commonly called "squaring the circle", where a square borders a circle or a circle borders a square, represented a supernatural experience in the natural world.

amazingly, if you pulled the moon so that it touched the earth's crust. then boxed the earth into a square (2d), then circled that square. the circles circumference would pass through the center of the moon up to 99.9% accuracy.

anyway, i kind of feel that we have lost a lot of that discipline when it comes to our modern culture. i don't know much about modern architecture, but it doesn't seem that proportions and geometry matters as much as it use to. many people don't care about that either, but i feel that something has been lost.

it showed a piece of celtic art, a medallion. it had a bunch of pretty arcs and such. the book said that most pieces of celtic art had 42 reference points for their arcs. i just don't think we put as much thought into our stuff... maybe our computers do, though...

i don't know...

Tuesday, 15 January 2008

alright, so classes start tomorrow. i have to say that i'm really looking foward to it. i'm just taking the second semester versions of all the classes i had last semester. but i'm still really excited. i got somewhat bored during the break. not having anything at all to do was fun for the first two weeks. and i have enjoyed my time off, but i need something to work on.

steph's starting classes tomorrow, and i'm even more excited about it than she is. its going to be good.

Monday, 24 December 2007

O Holy Night

verse 3:
Truly He taught us to love one another
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains He shall break, for the slave is our brother
And in His name all oppression shall cease
Sweet Hymns of joy in glorious chorus raise we
Let all within us praise His holy name
Christ is the Lord, praise His name forever
His power and glory evermore proclaim
*hope everyone has a merry christmas. it truly is a joyous occasion.

Monday, 10 December 2007

Currently Reading
To Kill a Mocking Bird
By Harper Lee
see related
what's going on? its december 10th. its only 15 days until christmas, and i had to turn on my a/c, because its almost 80 degrees in my apartment! this is goofy, but i'm enjoying wearing tshirts....