July 20, 2005

"Scotty Gets Beamed Up"
6:23pm


James Doohan (Scotty) gets 'beamed up'

Is that just too awful trite to say? Anyway, the actor who played the Chief Engineer aboard the Enterprise passed away today of pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease. He was 85. Nine children survive him. So many students were inspired to become engineers because of his exemplary role, the Milwaukee School of Engineering granted Doohan an honorary degree in engineering.

I didn't watch Star Trek when it first aired, but I did watch it many years later, with Laura. I think we saw every show. The costumes and special effects were hokey by today's standards, but the plots and themes were not. Scotty is a memorable character.

July 21, 2005

"A Successful Day"
10:39pm

Oddly wide awake, I am. I arrived home after getting Julia with 'scattered energies', so I decided to work on trip pictures. Julia also felt strangely wired and played a meditation album called Rainbow Path. It was soothing, like it was massaging my spine, not so surprisingly, for it's designed to aid the chakras.

I still have many pictures from our LA trip yet to share. The following is a ceramic window tile that caught my eye for its mandala like qualities:


13th century, most likely Iranian (15 x 15 in. (38.1 x 38.1 cm)

The following is silver, but it looks brass in the lighting:


Mask of Shiva, Indian, either from Maharashtra or Karnataka, 18th Century,
repoussé silver (9 7/8 x 6 7/8 x 2 1/2 in. (25.08 x 17.46 x 6.35 cm)

I like Shiva, for he shares some qualities with Set. I wanted to see if I could learn more about the use of masks, and took to Google. I didn't learn much about masks, but I did find places selling them, as well as other exotic Indian pieces.

I found the following item irresistable:


Naga Kanya (9 inches tall, 6.5 inches wide)

Naga Kanya is depicted as half woman, half cobra, with winged shoulders, and a cobra-hood headdress. Naga Kanya is the daughter of the Nagas, who are serpents in Southeast Asian mythology considered to be rain givers and guardians of the water and the riches of the deep. Naga Kanya is a goddess of the three realms and pours her blessings of water on the worlds of the spirits, animals and humans. She is a bringer of treasures (akin to Lakshmi) but not merely of material wealth. She brings the ultimate treasure, wisdom, represented by the gem or diamond-pattern on the back of a cobra's hood or the jewel imbedded in Kanya's forehead.

And I just had to have her!

I await her arrival. Meanwhile, the car is full of gas, filled after sundown, the best time to avoid 'ozone' and fierce sun rays, the groceries are bought and put away, and I am full of rainier cherries and chocolate soy milk, which is so very rich and good.

It has been a successful day.

July 23, 2005

"Examining My Roots"
1:34pm

My National Geographic Project results came in! Here is the path of my ancestral migration, based on my matrilineal line:

Info from the project:

I am a member of haplogroup J. This haplogroup is the final destination of a genetic journey that began some 150,000 years ago with an ancient mtDNA haplogroup called L3. Haplogroup L3 occurs only in Africa, but on that continent its derivatives are found nearly everywhere. L3's subclades are most prevalent in East Africa. A single person of the L3 lineage gave rise to the M and N haplogroups some 80,000 years ago. All Eurasian mtDNA lineages are subsequently descended from these two groups, and were the first human migrations out of Africa.

The macro-haplogroup N is composed of many subclades, which are often geographically distant. Haplogroup R is descended from N and has since dispersed across much of the globe. The lineage, in its many subgroups, appears on all continents except Australia and Antartica. Subgroups preHV, U, T, and J are found in Europe and the Near East. The R5 and R6 lineages arose on the Indian subcontinent.

Perhaps I come by my attraction to Egyptian things naturally, for look where my ancestors passed through or by!
One theory is they followed the Nile River northwards.

Haplogroup J arose some 10,000 years ago (on the R line of descent) in the Near East. The members of this group were among the first farmers during a period known as the Neolithic Revolution. The lineage's early agricultural successes spawned population booms and encouraged migration from the Middle East north and west into Europe. The growth of farming was directly responsible for the rise of modern, sedentary communities and cities.

Today this lineage is found throughout Europe, with concentrations in western Eurasia - the Caucasus, Russia (west of the Ural mountain), and the region of the eastern Baltic Sea.

Looking at 'East of Baltic Sea', you can see the Czech Republic, with its capital of Prague, from whence my Mother's people came:

On the WESTERN side of the Baltic Sea is Sweden, from where my Grandmother on my Father's side traces her ancestry.

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