I just finished a bowl of homemade split pea and sausage soup and a baggie of grapes at my desk. I'm eating at my desk because I had an appointment this morning, which made me a couple hours late for work today. I'm having a hard time finding the motivation to get my tasks in order for the week...I haven't even made my to-do list yet and there were nine missed calls waiting for me when I got here. I'm really starting to get pissed about that, honestly. Is it really necessary to call me that many damn times? I feel like putting an outgoing message on my phone that says "If you are calling with a problem that you should be solving yourself but are going to attempt to pawn off on me in order to make your life easier, please hang up now, and do not try again". I had two projects recently that were done to basically make life easier for others, which, looking back, has been the majority of what I've done in the (almost) five years I've worked here. The other reason I end up getting involved in other people's projects is because the extremely over-educated staff here for whatever reason can't format information on a spreadsheet - I found out today that a PhD didn't know how to use the bar at the bottom of the screen to view a complete worksheet, and I wasn't sure whether to be amused or utterly terrified. I was handed a project last week that had nothing to do with my job anymore, but I was trying to be helpful to my old department and worked it up in a document for them - now they're referring every issue and question to me instead of the person the manager originally gave the project to. It's effing ridiculous. There's just so much to get done, and I find myself really losing interest in it lately. I just end up thinking that there aren't that many people here who care - why should I? It's so nice outside...what the hell am I doing here when I could be by the pool with a Terry Pratchett book and a refreshing beverage? Yes, I know it's the malaise talking, and eventually it will pass. But for now... :sigh:
So, whatever, I guess. I had a busy weekend. On Saturday we drove over to the home office, just to find out that the department we were going to pick some software up from wasn't open (and found out today that their supervisor says they were open...because the employees said they were - someone has fudged timesheets, methinks). There's a giant grass cow in front of the main building. I took pictures, and if I can ever figure out how to get them off my cell phone, I'll post them to fb or something. So, since we were in that part of town and decided not to waste the trip, we went to the "upscale" mall. It's amazing what a slumping economy will do to the attitudes of salespeople who previously wouldn't give someone like me the time of day. The place was practically empty, and I didn't see a lot of people actively shopping, despite the sales that were being offered. We went to lunch over near the football stadium, and in the middle of our meal the local "porn king" walked past our table as he was leaving. Between that and Hulk Hogan driving past me on the way home, my life is full of brushes with near infamy. Saturday night my husband and I were kidless, so we went out to dinner at a local restaurant that specializes in German and Austrian dishes. It was one of the best dinners I've ever had. Then, for a lack of anything better to do, we drove over to our local mall. Two malls in the same day? I don't normally make that many trips to the mall in a month, let alone one day, and I was reminded of why. On Sunday we had a new gate installed, which took a lot longer than I thought, but it looks really good and we can use the side walkway to get in and out of the yard now.
The following is for M, because it is relevant to her interests:
Italy dig unearths female 'vampire' in Venice
By ARIEL DAVID Associated Press Writer
ROME (AP) -- An archaeological dig near Venice has unearthed the 16th-century remains of a woman with a brick stuck between her jaws - evidence, experts say, that she was believed to be a vampire. The unusual burial is thought to be the result of an ancient vampire-slaying ritual. It suggests the legend of the mythical bloodsucking creatures was tied to medieval ignorance of how diseases spread and what happens to bodies after death, experts said.
The well-preserved skeleton was found in 2006 on the Lazzaretto Nuovo island, north of the lagoon city, amid other corpses buried in a mass grave during an epidemic of plague that hit Venice in 1576.
"Vampires don't exist, but studies show people at the time believed they did," said Matteo Borrini, a forensic archaeologist and anthropologist at Florence University who studied the case over the last two years. "For the first time we have found evidence of an exorcism against a vampire."
Medieval texts show the belief in vampires was fueled by the disturbing appearance of decomposing bodies, Borrini told The Associated Press by telephone.
During epidemics, mass graves were often reopened to bury fresh corpses and diggers would chance upon older bodies that were bloated, with blood seeping out of their mouth and with an inexplicable hole in the shroud used to cover their face.
"These characteristics are all tied to the decomposition of bodies," Borrini said. "But they saw a fat, dead person, full of blood and with a hole in the shroud, so they would say: 'This guy is alive, he's drinking blood and eating his shroud.'"
Modern forensic science shows the bloating is caused by a buildup of gases, while fluid seeping from the mouth is pushed up by decomposing organs, Borrini said. The shroud would have been consumed by bacteria found in the mouth area, he said.
At the time however, what passed for scientific texts taught that "shroud-eaters" were vampires who fed on the cloth and cast a spell that would spread the plague in order to increase their ranks.
To kill the undead creatures, the stake-in-the-heart method popularized by later literature was not enough: A stone or brick had to be forced into the vampire's mouth so that it would starve to death, Borrini said.
That's what is believed to have happened to the woman found on the Lazzaretto island, which was used as a quarantine zone by Venice. Aged around 60, she died of the plague during the epidemic that also claimed the life of the painter Titian.
Much later, someone jammed the brick into her mouth when the grave was reopened. Borrini said that marks and breaks left by blunt instruments on several among more than 100 skeletons found by the archaeologists show that the grave was reused in a later epidemic.
Such a reconstruction of events is plausible, as is the link to the superstitions about "shroud-eaters," said Piero Mannucci, the vice president of the Italian Society of Anthropology and Ethnology.
"Maybe a priest or a gravedigger put the brick in her mouth, which is what was normally done in such cases," Mannucci said.
The anthropologist, who did not take part in Borrini's research, said that at a time when bacteria were unknown, such superstitions were a way for the terrified population to explain the waves of plague epidemics that killed millions during the Middle Ages. Jews were also often accused of spreading the disease.
Borrini said the discovery shows that vampires in popular culture were originally quite different from the elegant, aristocratic blood-drinker depicted in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula" and in countless Hollywood revisitations.
"The real vampire of tradition was different," he said. "It was just a decomposing body."
So, whatever, I guess. I had a busy weekend. On Saturday we drove over to the home office, just to find out that the department we were going to pick some software up from wasn't open (and found out today that their supervisor says they were open...because the employees said they were - someone has fudged timesheets, methinks). There's a giant grass cow in front of the main building. I took pictures, and if I can ever figure out how to get them off my cell phone, I'll post them to fb or something. So, since we were in that part of town and decided not to waste the trip, we went to the "upscale" mall. It's amazing what a slumping economy will do to the attitudes of salespeople who previously wouldn't give someone like me the time of day. The place was practically empty, and I didn't see a lot of people actively shopping, despite the sales that were being offered. We went to lunch over near the football stadium, and in the middle of our meal the local "porn king" walked past our table as he was leaving. Between that and Hulk Hogan driving past me on the way home, my life is full of brushes with near infamy. Saturday night my husband and I were kidless, so we went out to dinner at a local restaurant that specializes in German and Austrian dishes. It was one of the best dinners I've ever had. Then, for a lack of anything better to do, we drove over to our local mall. Two malls in the same day? I don't normally make that many trips to the mall in a month, let alone one day, and I was reminded of why. On Sunday we had a new gate installed, which took a lot longer than I thought, but it looks really good and we can use the side walkway to get in and out of the yard now.
The following is for M, because it is relevant to her interests:
Italy dig unearths female 'vampire' in Venice
By ARIEL DAVID Associated Press Writer
ROME (AP) -- An archaeological dig near Venice has unearthed the 16th-century remains of a woman with a brick stuck between her jaws - evidence, experts say, that she was believed to be a vampire. The unusual burial is thought to be the result of an ancient vampire-slaying ritual. It suggests the legend of the mythical bloodsucking creatures was tied to medieval ignorance of how diseases spread and what happens to bodies after death, experts said.
The well-preserved skeleton was found in 2006 on the Lazzaretto Nuovo island, north of the lagoon city, amid other corpses buried in a mass grave during an epidemic of plague that hit Venice in 1576.
"Vampires don't exist, but studies show people at the time believed they did," said Matteo Borrini, a forensic archaeologist and anthropologist at Florence University who studied the case over the last two years. "For the first time we have found evidence of an exorcism against a vampire."
Medieval texts show the belief in vampires was fueled by the disturbing appearance of decomposing bodies, Borrini told The Associated Press by telephone.
During epidemics, mass graves were often reopened to bury fresh corpses and diggers would chance upon older bodies that were bloated, with blood seeping out of their mouth and with an inexplicable hole in the shroud used to cover their face.
"These characteristics are all tied to the decomposition of bodies," Borrini said. "But they saw a fat, dead person, full of blood and with a hole in the shroud, so they would say: 'This guy is alive, he's drinking blood and eating his shroud.'"
Modern forensic science shows the bloating is caused by a buildup of gases, while fluid seeping from the mouth is pushed up by decomposing organs, Borrini said. The shroud would have been consumed by bacteria found in the mouth area, he said.
At the time however, what passed for scientific texts taught that "shroud-eaters" were vampires who fed on the cloth and cast a spell that would spread the plague in order to increase their ranks.
To kill the undead creatures, the stake-in-the-heart method popularized by later literature was not enough: A stone or brick had to be forced into the vampire's mouth so that it would starve to death, Borrini said.
That's what is believed to have happened to the woman found on the Lazzaretto island, which was used as a quarantine zone by Venice. Aged around 60, she died of the plague during the epidemic that also claimed the life of the painter Titian.
Much later, someone jammed the brick into her mouth when the grave was reopened. Borrini said that marks and breaks left by blunt instruments on several among more than 100 skeletons found by the archaeologists show that the grave was reused in a later epidemic.
Such a reconstruction of events is plausible, as is the link to the superstitions about "shroud-eaters," said Piero Mannucci, the vice president of the Italian Society of Anthropology and Ethnology.
"Maybe a priest or a gravedigger put the brick in her mouth, which is what was normally done in such cases," Mannucci said.
The anthropologist, who did not take part in Borrini's research, said that at a time when bacteria were unknown, such superstitions were a way for the terrified population to explain the waves of plague epidemics that killed millions during the Middle Ages. Jews were also often accused of spreading the disease.
Borrini said the discovery shows that vampires in popular culture were originally quite different from the elegant, aristocratic blood-drinker depicted in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula" and in countless Hollywood revisitations.
"The real vampire of tradition was different," he said. "It was just a decomposing body."
2 comments:
so my my other best bud (who is CRAZY!) thought that this story made archaeologists heretical. can I getta whatwhat?!?!
she thought this story meant that they *believed* in vampires. um, omg.
Reading comprehension isn't her strong suit, then??
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