Random Thoughts Showing 13,851-13,900 of 17,689

[Alice]

I've just come across this interesting Washington Post article about the beginnings of the Chinese civilization:-

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/s...

[Ace]

Fascinating Alice, are there any 'mythical' stories you can recommend? They are now Historical Fiction!!!

[Alice]

I can remember having read some folklore about that period, like 女媧練石補青天 (the legend says that during the time of a great earthquake, the sky cracked open and dumped a wall of water, leaving a big hole in it, everything on earth was swallowed up in the flood; then came a goddess called Nuwa who used her magic to sculpt a piece of boulder in order to patch up that hole in the sky. The magic did work and life was restored.) It is (or used to be) a Chinese tradition on New Year's eve to eat pancakes made from wheat flour (because the shape of pancakes resembles that piece of stony patchwork) to commemorate that event.

I don't think that folklore or others are available in English translation.

[Alice]

There's a book written in the Ming Dynasty called Fengshen Bang which has a collection of Chinese mythology, legends and folklore. The story of Nuwa (the goddess who patched up the sky) should be in there.

Wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investi...

[happy]

We just had a tornado thouch down a few miles from here and it took out all of the power in two counties. So far there is no reports of deaths.

I'm at work and we are on back up generator power

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=41582818&...

[Ace]

Scary stuff happy! I hope everything is ok when you get home.

[Alice]

Stay safe happy!

[happy]

I live in the mountains - we're not supposed to have tornados!

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

Stay safe, happy.

[happy]

Tnx all!

It touched down about 5 miles (8km) North of where I am working and as such things go a very small one - still traffic is a mess and I'm glad to be working in a place with power :)

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

I've seen a couple of tornados almost up close & personal, and I'll be happy if I never see another.

[Kim]

Glad you are safe, happy.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I know it is old news now (just catching up on the thread) but glad tornado didn't cause too much destruction and injury, happy.

A tornado in the mountains. What the heck...?

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

I'm looking out my office window wondering where I can get an order of gopher wood on short notice.

I wish it would bloody well stop raining.

[Simona]

What's gopher wood? Isn't a gopher a small, furry, burrowing mammal?

[Mark]

Simona wrote: "What's gopher wood? Isn't a gopher a small, furry, burrowing mammal?"

Beat me to it.

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

Simona wrote: "What's gopher wood? Isn't a gopher a small, furry, burrowing mammal?"

In the Christian Bible Noah built the ark out of gopher wood. Scholars have been arguing for years as to exactly what wood it was.

[May]

Margaret, you taught us all something new today!! That makes this another good day!!!

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

When I was a kid I couldn't work out how anyone could make a boat out of wooden gophers.

My dad nearly bust a gut laughing. :D

[Simona]

Yes, it sounds like a difficult task! :-P

[Simona]

AND now I'm going to search in my Bible how "gopher wood" has been translated!!!! I'll let you know. :-)

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

I await the result with interest. :)

[Simona]

Well, as it happened, we Italians cut short the problem using "resinous wood".
So now we know that wooden gophers are resinous.
Q.E.D.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Staying on the biblical theme. Good luck to anybody in the path of Hurricane Matthew. May your family, friends...and pets...be okay.

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

Terri wrote: "Staying on the biblical theme. Good luck to anybody in the path of Hurricane Matthew. May your family, friends...and pets...be okay."

And your gophers. Protect your gophers. :)

Seriously though, guys, what Terri said. Stay safe. <3

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

Not sure if everyone realises that we have a Facebook page, but we (well, mostly me) post some interesting articles across our time periods.

If you have a Facebook page, why not like us and join the conversations on there (or start one)

https://www.facebook.com/Ancient-Medi...

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Yes! Bunker down your gophers...

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Well, it is all Margaret on the Facebook page. :-D It used to be all me until Margaret came on board as a mod and then it became all her!
She is doing a much better job than I did.

I am planning on kicking the blog and Twitter back into action too. The blog by the end of this year and rebooting Twitter early 2017.

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

Good. You'll have to handle the Twitter because, unlike, Facebook, they won't let you have more than one account on an email address. :)

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

Terri wrote: "Well, it is all Margaret on the Facebook page. :-D It used to be all me until Margaret came on board as a mod and then it became all her!
She is doing a much better job than I did.

I am planning o..."

Awwww, thank you. It helps that I subscribe to a fair few history and archaeology pages. :D

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Margaret wrote: "Good. You'll have to handle the Twitter because, unlike, Facebook, they won't let you have more than one account on an email address. :)"


I hate Twitter. Thought long and hard about whether to reboot or not. In the 'old days' it used to work well with the group activities so will give it another go.

Facebook. You always find such cool stuff to post. My posts were mostly boring ol' group read and author interview posts. Lol.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Speaking of hating things. I really can't get used to the new Goodreads Home page for my profile.
It simply does not gel with the way I absorb information. I am word oriented, not image oriented. I do, after all, read books compromised of words. Its my thing.

[Ace]

Same here Terri. I changed my home page on my browser to:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic

So now I never see that silly home page...

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I'm not sure I can do that. Do you have to allow cookies for that? My cookies wipe when I close my Firefox browser so any preferences I set on GR just reset when I log back in.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Oh, no thats a different home page to what I mean. I mean my personal home page where my currently reading displays..etc.. and where peoples updates are shown.

[Ace]

Terri wrote: "Oh, no thats a different home page to what I mean. I mean my personal home page where my currently reading displays..etc.. and where peoples updates are shown."

I see. I only go to that page when I want to update the reading progress on one of my books. Hate that page.

I never log out of Goodreads haha, addicted much? Yes. I am.
I am usually logged-on on my phone, my tablet and my PC all at the same time.

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

Terri wrote: "Speaking of hating things. I really can't get used to the new Goodreads Home page for my profile.
It simply does not gel with the way I absorb information. I am word oriented, not image oriented. I..."

The sad thing is that most people are more visual than verbal, which I why I think they've made the change. I prefer words to pictures as well, and find I am mostly ignoring what turns up on my home page, unless it's right at the top and I can't miss it.

[May]

I agree.. Which is why I want little to do with "graphic" novels.

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

May wrote: "I agree.. Which is why I want little to do with "graphic" novels."

*sigh* I've just got drawn to them. I always loved Marvel comics when I was a girl. Having discovered one that combines Marvel AND history, I couldn't resist. "Marvel 1602"... what would have happened if the Marvel universe had existed in the Elizabethan/Jacobean times.

[May]

Now there's a thought...

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

It's also written by Neil Gaiman, so any resistance I had crumbled almost immediately.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

May wrote: "I agree.. Which is why I want little to do with "graphic" novels."

Me too.

I used to read Wolverine comic books in my early 20's. I can't do comic books anymore.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Ace ⚓ wrote: "I see. I only go to t..."

I do the same. I get sent to that home page when I log in. In the old interface, I first used to scroll down through updates to see what everybody was up to. Now I only glance at top two on my way to clicking the 'Community' tab in the header. Then click 'Discussions' in the drop down.
At least by clicking Discussions I get to the old page that shows Groups with latest thread posts highlighted with 'new post'.

The new interface has certainly changed the way I use GR. It drives me away from interacting with people on their updates, drives me away from playing around in my bookshelves, and pushes me just to this group.

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

Terri wrote: "May wrote: "I agree.. Which is why I want little to do with "graphic" novels."

Me too.

I used to read Wolverine comic books in my early 20's. I can't do comic books anymore."

I'm more a Doctor Strange girl myself... and I'm partial to Loki. :D

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I saw the ad for the Doctor Strange movie last night. Has Mads Mikkelsen in it...mmmmm sorry to sound like a lech, but I like me some Mads. :-}

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

I won't be going to see it. I have vision focus problems and I can tell from the trailers that seeing it in the cinema will cause vertigo and nausea. :(

So it's wait for the dvd time for me. :(

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

That graphic novel was bloody brilliant!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I can definitely see that. (The movie creating vertigo issues). Looked to be a lot of vertigo inducing activity going on,

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

Terri wrote: "I can definitely see that. (The movie creating vertigo issues). Looked to be a lot of vertigo inducing activity going on,"

Yeah. I don't go to the movies much because of it. It's a pain in the arse, to be blunt. :(

[Bobby]

Thought I was retiring but drawn back to the travel circuit by a good friend that is the director. So where do I end up?? Notre Fame-North Carolina State game in the middle of hurricane Matthew!! Will I never learn?? (I did make a good amount of money, though!)