Reviewing for the Salon

This post is to be my review for the in class salon described here.  As I study things out tonight, I will continually update this post.  I'm publishing it this way to make collaboration easier.  Any comments posted will be considered and I will update my post accordingly.

Annotated Bibliography on the History of the Dictionary

This post fills a requirement for my current Civilization class.  We were to find several sources on a topic related to printing during the renaissance.  I chose to specialize on how dictionaries changed during the years 1500-1700 AD.  I did most of my research at the Harold B. Lee Library on campus at BYU.  Below is what I found.

If You Don't Write It, It Didn't Happen

Our recent Rosetta Stone project left me with a dusty taste in my mouth.  Granted, that is probably because I spent the better part of two days carving messages into stone, and the residual dust got everywhere.  As I both carved in stone, and watched others do so, I had significant amounts of time to reflect on the lives of those people who previously would have done the same thing.  As it turns out, carving stone is tedious (who knew?) and takes a while to complete.  You want to do it right the first time, and you need to know what you're going to say, before you say it.  As our group was, in the majority, representing cultures where the only written records are monuments that have weathered millenia, it was interesting for us to decide on what we were going to write that would have been important enough to put on a stone monument.

Proving Proficiency

During this last weekend, I had the fortunate experience of being flown to Seattle Washington to interview for a prestigious internship this upcoming summer.  Huge amounts of communication, and the resources and time of many company employees were dedicated to evaluating if I constituted a good investment for my prospective employers.  In the down time on my trip, and since then, I have put some thought into how employers decide who to hire.  It dawned on me that such decisions have been around for all of written history and in many civilizations that couldn't even write.

From the Mouth of Historians

"Chance, as Conrad liked to call it---luck, or even fate, as others prefer to think---plays its part as much in shaping the destinies of races as of individuals, dispensing vicissitudes or boons alike upon the lone figure and the composite group.  Of the vicissitudes the saddest, though assuredly not the most dire, is that by which the dead are relegated to oblivion.  It is perhaps a subconscious awareness of this hazard that so often directs the steps of an indolent walker to an old churchyard, leading him to pause by a decayed tombstone, to wonder as he gazes at its perished and illegible inscription as to what manner of man was laid beneath the enigmatic slab, to speculate upon his way of life, and to regret that all traces of this once vital and alert being---even to the record of his name and life span---have now forever faded from the notice of mankind."
-Introduction to 'The Scythians' by Tamara Talbot Rice

Class Recitation of King Benjamin's Speech

Great job group 1, and great job class! This was a really cool experience, once we overcame intense levels of anxiety and stress.

Just Leave the Oven Off

Last night I found myself making chocolate chip cookie dough.  It's something I do regularly, and have memorized the ingredient list and order in which I add the ingredients.  I've done it enough to justify purchasing a KitchenAid mixer to help me do the job.

As I was absentmindedly pouring, measuring, and waiting for the mixer, my mind reached back to how I learned to make cookies.  I've done it with my Mom, I've worked at a bakery, I've continued because I was a single guy at BYU for a couple of years, and girls like it when guys make them cookies.  I've done it by hand, I've seen hand mixers go up in smoke trying to do it, I've purchased the above mixer to do it for me.  All of my own history sorted through my mind, showing how I came to be a master at the art of making chocolate chip cookies.  Then, I had to ask myself, why do I do it?

Bugler's Holiday

I recently had the pleasure of spending an evening with a friend of mine.  We both are in a class together, and were assigned to teach a skill and learn a skill that required the transfer of folk knowledge (insider know-how).  I publicly offered to share my understanding of a bugle, and how to play it.  At his first opportunity, Andrew approached me to take me up on my offer.  Please take a moment to read his blog about our evening together.

I feel that our evening was was quite well described by Andrew, and simply want to reaffirm to all readers that sharing hard-earned knowledge and skill is highly rewarding.  Also, look forward to my next post, about how Andrew taught my to play Tennis!

The Trumpet Shall Sound

"Hey, you there, ..., yeah, you, ..., you really should pay attention, ..., um, ..., alright, you're not listening, ..., well, I'm only going to do this once, ..., you're still not watching, ..., ok, don't say I didn't warn you <insert maniacal laughter here>.