movies: Despicable Me 2

Over the Christmas holidays, my parents gave us a wonderful gift: they came and had a sleepover with ms. f at our house, allowing F and I to get a hotel room downtown, go out for dinner, sleep in, and order room service for breakfast. It was seriously wonderful. While we were there, we somehow scored a free movie to watch in our hotel room, and we ended up picking Despicable Me 2. We loved the first one; the second one isn't quite as good or quite as plot-driven and relies more on situational jokes, but it was still lighthearted, fun to watch, and just really enjoyable. I was on the edge of my seat a few times and also got teary a few times. Recommended.

Penn Museum Event: Gilgamesh, January 8, 2014

Last night the AW and I finally got back to a museum lecture! Here's the description:

Gilgamesh: Journeys to the End of the World
Steve Tinney, Associate Professor, Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania
Gilgamesh was a figure of legend in ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) from as early as 4,500 years ago. The tales of his travels were not only stories of adventure in places no human had ever seen, but also reflections on questions of life and knowledge. In this lecture, Dr. Tinney recounts some of Gilgamesh's greatest journeys and revisits discussions about what they meant back then, as well as what they mean today.

I really enjoyed the lecture. Dr. Tinney was a good storyteller - he used images of archaeological artifacts and ancient texts to help tell the story of Gilgamesh and his journeys. (He also used a slide of an artist's depiction of Uruk as a placemarker at different points in his lecture, to differentiate when he was going to begin a new section of discussion - he loses some points for pointing out that he was doing it, but not enough to outweigh the fact that he actually organized his lecture in the first place.) It was cool to hear what someone who can actually read Sumerian and Babylonian has to say about the Gilgamesh legend and the different ancient versions of it.

The Yearly Meme, Year 10

Year 1: 2004
Year 2: 2005
Year 3: 2006
Year 4: 2007
Year 5: 2008
Year 6: 2009
Year 7: 2010
Year 8: 2011
Year 9: 2012

( This year: 2013 )