Mid-afternoon. You sent your DNA to National
Geographic’s Geno 2 Project and it gives you some satisfaction that you have
contributed something to the future of human genealogical science. – Amorella
Like Carol’s cousin Jack C. said yesterday on the phone,
“You are on a permanent record,” and you replied with a laugh, “Longer lasting
than a tombstone.” – Well, perhaps it will not be so long lasting as a
tombstone, but who knows, at least my physical self counts for something in a
knowledge base. It is satisfying. (1427)
You might ask the question: “What use does
the spiritual have for the physical in the first place?”
1429 hours. That’s easy enough to answer: for the
learning experiences – nothing else as far as I can see.
What about for the begetting, as it were, so
that others might also share in the experiences, different experiences, but
experiences nevertheless?
1432 hours. Yes, good point – sharing the experiences in
the timely manner.
Make it a statement. – Amorella
The spiritual use of the physical environment is that
the spiritual [aspect] might learn from the experiences and also might share future
experiences through offspring.
1436
hours. This is oddly expressed.
Mid-afternoon.
You are in the south lot of Macy’s at Kenwood Towne Centre waiting for Carol to
return bathroom rugs for Kim, as they were the wrong size. You first stopped at
Potbelly’s for a late lunch. – Amorella
1550 hours. I cannot believe how crowded this place is.
I had to laugh aloud pulling in front of the south entrance and finding a place
one over from handicap parking – third car spot from the door. Talk about luck.
The day has been partly sunny which to you
is one hundred percent better than completely cloudy. You even have the
driver’s car window fully open. – Amorella
1557 hours. I will work on Dead 8. – It looks like I
might use the recent statement in this segment. I had not given it a thought –
in fact I had forgot what Dead 8 is about. Too many distractions from the
fictional Dead, that’s what real Living is in my mind anyway. Finding a parking
place was luck, but this realization is more than coincidence (also) in my
mind. Large cloud sweeping in from the west; it is immediately cooling off. Up
goes the window.
You are home visiting your Christmas tree
lights and any number of universes in your mind. Dusk has about settled into
darkness and Carol wants to see the neighborhood lights in Mason shortly. –
Amorella
1724 hours. I remember the many times we visited Carol’s
parents in Sun City Center, Florida in the 70’s into the 90’s we would drive
the city to see the lights – most people also put up small paper sacks,
weighted with sand and a candle and lit them each evening; lining each driveway
and front curb of the yard. This was quite festive to see, particularly as it
was a street-by-street common effort. I hope Kim remembers this from her youth
for her lifetime. I like the drama in single, real candlewick firepower. It
reminds me of the European Middle Ages.
You like to envision yourself as a monk in
those days but realize you don’t have the brains and temperament for it. –
Amorella
1733 hours. This is so. I would have liked to build cathedrals
though. I would have been content doing so in whatever apprenticeship suited me
in those times.
** **
Medieval Cathedrals
Medieval
cathedrals dominated the skyline of Medieval England. Cathedrals were far
larger than castles - symbolic of their huge importance to medieval society
where religion dominated the lives of all - be they rich or peasants.
. . . Cathedrals
were huge buildings - they were major long term building projects and
their cost was huge. Medieval
Cathedrals were the most obvious sign of the wealth of the church in Medieval
England. Huge cathedrals were found principally at Canterbury and York, and in
major cities such as Lincoln, Worcester, and Chichester. The cost of these
buildings was vast – but the money to pay for these huge buildings came from
the people via the many payments they had to make to the Roman Catholic
Church.
How were
such huge buildings built? Medieval workers worked with the most basic of tools
and in conditions that modern day health and safety laws would forbid. But for
all this, the most common driving force was to build a magnificent building for
the greater glory of God.
The most
obvious starting point was for an architect to be found who would design a
cathedral. An architect would also know who were the best master craftsmen to
employ – and many highly skilled men were needed.
A master quarryman; a master sculptor; a master mason, a
master blacksmith; a master glass maker; a master stone cutter; a master mortar
maker; a master carpenter; and a master roofer were employed at the task.
Each master
of his own trade ran a workshop for his own particular trade – so a master
mason would employ a number of masons who were trusted enough to be considered
competent to work on a cathedral as they, themselves, worked towards becoming a
master. These were skilled men and they would not do any labouring – unskilled
labourers who lived near to where a cathedral was being built would do this.
Many of the
skilled workers relied on other trades to keep them at work. A master
blacksmith made all the metal tools required while skilled carpenters made the
wooden handles for these tools. The number of tools required for such a task as
building a cathedral was remarkably small:
Pickaxe and
Axe, Hammer, Chisel, Saw, Plane, Brace and Bit, Sledge hammer, Auger,
Mathematical dividers, Squares and templates.
A chapter
was the body that governed how much money could be spent on what. It was the
chapter that would decide on the final design of the cathedral – and it was the
chapter that would instruct the architect on just what they wanted.
Once a plan
had been decided, the basic work of building a cathedral’s foundations started.
At Canterbury Cathedral, recent renovation work showed that the famous
cathedral was built over the original cathedral at Canterbury – i.e. the old
cathedral became part of the foundations of the new one. It was common for
foundations to go as deep as twenty-five feet underground. The building of the
foundations was a skill in itself as any errors could lead to weaknesses in the
walls above ground – especially when the roof was added.
While foundations were being laid, skilled craftsmen
worked in quarries and produced blocks of stone that would be used in the
building process. It would not be unusual for as many as fifty advanced skilled
apprentices to work in a quarry along with 250 labourers. They would be
supervised by a master quarryman. A master mason would have provided the master
quarryman with templates for the shapes required from the cut quarry stone.
Each stone would be marked to show where it would go once the building
started.
Selected and edited from -- http://wwwDOThistorylearningsite.co.uk/medieval_cathedralsDOThtm
** **
1753
hours. This is interesting. As I have build stone walls and stone laid walkways
in my time I would imagine myself eventually as a master mason except for the
mathematics involved. Perhaps I would have been better at trimming the stones
in the quarry, as the mason would have set the dimensions in advance. I could
follow a yard or other measuring stick. Or, perhaps I would have remained an
apprentice to a mason for life.
What about being a scribe? – Amorella
1808 hours. Yes. I just read that scribes did not have
to be literate, though I would rather have been so. I could do this. I love the
shape of Latin letters. I think I could have been a good scribe in time.
Evening. You both had a coffee cup of
turkey-vegetable soup and also one of broccoli topped with melted cheese for
supper. – Amorella
2042 hours. I have been reworking Dead 8 and now have
277 words but I have not completed the concept being presented. One problem is
that 35 percent of my verbs are passive. This will have to be redone, but I am
honing in on the spiritual substance Merlyn is speaking of.
This then, at least at present, makes you
Merlyn’s scribe does it not? – Amorella
2046 hours. I had not thought this before, but with this
I sense the humor in that I am (as) in the seven hundreds with Merlyn’s ghost
and in the twenty-one hundreds in flesh and blood. Merlyn’s ‘human’ spirit may
be fictional but as its scribe I am not.
You see though, in here, for the spirit, it
is the other way around. Though unreal the spirit can be consciously aware of
the significance of time and space and gravity and weight as well as human
reason and emotion pitted within the nature of survival and death. As far as
the Merlyn books the blog are concerned you begin to see from the soul’s perspective
first. It takes wisdom to acquire the essence of knowledge not the knowledge
itself. All for tonight, boy. Post. – Amorella
2100 hours. I agree. Enough for tonight. Kim got me
another book for Xmas – Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything.
I shall begin reading tonight. Here is what Wikipedia says about the work since
I remember little about it.
** **
A Short History of Nearly Everything by American author Bill Bryson is a popular science book that
explains some areas of science, using easily accessible language that appeals
more so to the general public than many other books dedicated to the subject.
It was one of the bestselling popular science books of 2005 in the United
Kingdom, selling over 300,000 copies.
A Short
History deviates from Bryson's popular
travel book genre, instead describing general sciences such as chemistry,
paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics. In it, he explores time from the
Big Bang to the discovery of quantum mechanics, via evolution and geology. Bryson tells
the story of science through the stories of the people who made the
discoveries, such as Democritus.
Background
Bill
Bryson wrote this book because he was dissatisfied with his scientific
knowledge—that was, not much at all. He writes that science was a distant,
unexplained subject at school. Textbooks and teachers alike did not ignite the
passion for knowledge in him, mainly because they never delved in the whys,
hows, and whens.
"It
was as if [the textbook writer] wanted to keep the good stuff secret by making
all of it soberly unfathomable."
—Bryson,
on the state of science books used within his school.
Contents
Bryson
describes graphically and in layperson's terms the size of the universe and
that of atoms and subatomic particles. He then explores the history of geology
and biology and traces life from its first appearance to today's modern humans,
placing emphasis on the development of the modern Homo sapiens. Furthermore, he discusses the possibility of the
Earth's being struck by a meteor and reflects on human capabilities of spotting
a meteor before it impacts the Earth, and the extensive damage that such an
event would cause. He also describes some of the most recent destructive
disasters of volcanic origin in the history of our planet, including Krakatoa
and Yellowstone National Park.
A large
part of the book is devoted to relating humorous stories about the scientists
behind the research and discoveries and their sometimes eccentric behaviours.
Bryson also speaks about modern scientific views on human effects on the
Earth's climate and livelihood of other species, and the magnitude of natural
disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and the mass
extinctions caused by some of these events.
The book
contains a few factual errors and inaccuracies. Some of these have arisen
because new discoveries have been made since the book's publication, and some
classifications have changed. For example, Pluto has been reclassified as a
dwarf planet . .
Awards and reviews
The book
received generally favourable reviews, with reviewers citing the book as
informative, well written and highly entertaining. However, some feel that the contents
might be uninteresting to an audience with prior knowledge of scientific
history.
In 2004,
this book won Bryson the prestigious Aventis Prize for best general science
book . . .. In 2005, the book won the EU Descartes Prize for science
communication.
It was shortlisted for the Samuel
Johnson Prize for the same year.
Selected and edited from
Wikipedia
** **
2118
hours. I shall enjoy this book and it should not take long to read. I love
overviews of science; actually I enjoy overviews on most any subject within my range of understanding. 
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