Storm Chasers!

I don't know how many of you watch Storm Chasers, but we're pretty big fans! We LOVE extreme/severe weather! Yes, it's a double edged sword-- frequently people and property are harmed and families lose loved ones and means of living, BUT the Storm Chasers who do it for research are doing a great service to us by learning more about how these storms form and how to predict them.

Fermbank Museum of Natural History is right up the road from us and they are a real TREASURE! They have so many awesome exhibits, recently they've had Geckos and Water, and now at the IMAX they have a Storm Chasers film called "Tornado Alley"-- we haven't gotten to see it yet, but plan on fitting it in. I was lazing around one day on Facebook and noticed the Fernbank page had a picture of the TIV-- THEN I noticed that Fernbank HAD the TIV! The TIV is the Tornado Intercept Vehicle and is SUPER cool! Sean Casey, the IMAX film guy, helped design and build this thing to withstand severe weather so they can get awesome IMAX footage and scientific data!

Rear shot of the TIV

IMAX Camera Turret

Side shot of the TIV

Cameraman's chair

Me and Marcus Guttierez-- the TIV's driver!!

Imagine driving this thing! And yes, that IS a light switch from a house!

Terra Cotta Awesomeness

Today I had the pleasure of seeing the famous Terra Cotta army of Emperor Qin, known as China's first Emperor. Since I paid an obscene amount of money for my college education, I had the privilege of attending a luncheon where Dean Micheal Drompp of Rhodes College's Asian Studies department spoke briefly about the history of the man. He is known not only for standardising language, writing, roads, currency, and weights and measures, but for unending cruelty and strictness in enforcement of the law. Dr. Drompp shared a story that Qin once fell asleep and as it grew cold, the Keeper of the Imperial Hat covered him with the Imperial Cloak. When he awoke, he asked who had covered him and he was told the Keeper of the Imperial Hat; he punished the Keeper of the Hat for overstepping his bounds and the Keeper of the Imperial Cloak for not fulfilling his duties.

Terrified of death, Qin spent his life trying to avoid it, but finally decided to build a mausoleum that would echo his greatness in life. There are a suspected 7,000 soldiers and so far 1,000 of them have been unearthed since the discovery of the first one in 1973, and the High Museum is showing around 10-13 statues from the outer ranks of the mausoleum (I tried to find a schematic of the site, but am unable to-- I'll continue to look and will update with a link when I find one) along with a collection of artifacts from the era.

The collection itself is incredibly interesting, and the audio tour that goes along with it extremely informative. Curators from the British Museum and the Terra Cotta Warriors Museum (where they live in China when not on tour) describe the rise of Qin, the different forms of money seen in display cases (pre- and post-Qin) and the weapons-- impressively preserved bronze pieces from arrows to spear tips. Stone weights and new coins follow them as examples of what Qin did for the empire. Jumping back, briefly, the exhibit introduces itself with the kneeling archer (seen to the left) which was really quite exquisite. The High's curators set up the exhibition so the warriors were not behind glass, but instead on platforms with a knee-high barrier surrounding it; this made viewing easier as there was no inch-thick glass to distort light and take away from the amazing detail on each and every one of these statues.

The detail on these soldiers is exactly what makes them so impressive. The High Museum's marketing did them a great disservice in making the exhibit appear to be a large collection of soldiers, putting out advertising that depicted a large portion of the 1,000 soldiers. People show up, see that there are only around 10 soldiers and feel like they've been gypped. The audio tour does quite a bit to emphasize the detail on each individual soldier, a different item number for each one, but anyone who doesn't realize the audio tour is free or doesn't care to take it (the majority of fellow visitors had the headsets, but there were quite a few who did not) isn't going to get that. I think that if there were a large number of soldiers, the thing that makes this exhibit so unique would have been completely lost on the public. Perhaps it is because of the marketing bungle, but everyone seemed to be really enthralled with what they saw so I think that the majority of people are overlooking it.

The final two rooms include a selection of different soldiers and one of the horses with his bridle and saddle (seen to the right). Bronze replicas of original chariots and four are at the rear of the larger room behind the soldiers as the originals were too delicate to travel; the antechambers to that room include a mockup of the workshop with workers building both a warrior and a horse from bottom up, and musicians playing to dancing cranes on a river bank (though there is an argument that the statues may also have been fishing since there is no evidence left of what they were holding in their hands-- picture of one seen below).


In all, I highly recommend the exhibit. If you don't have the fortune of an Asian Studies professor, the audio tour will more than suffice and IS included in the price of admission. Leave behind your impressions from marketing, and instead focus in the incredible detail in each and every statue. I would not suggest less than an hour to go through the exhibit, and would take more time if you have it so that you can be sure to really look at each piece and enjoy the entire collection.


All photos are from the TimesOnline UK site artle "Terracotta army at the British Museum."

Family Tree

So I'm up late (which is bad since I've been pretty good this week) because I've gotten sucked in to my mother's side of the family tree. My father's side is pretty cool, too, but I think that when you have some badass Southern women in your family, you really can't go wrong. There are also some really awesome names, for example:

My father's grandmother (Rebecca, for whom I am named)- Arvazena (middle name)
My father's aunt- Gazell
My mother's grandmother (Flora, for whom I would like to name my daughter)- Anzilly
My mother's grandfather (Flora's husband)- Tullious
My granny- Marjorie Mavorette (named for a French actress who died, Mimaw saw it in the paper and thought it was pretty)
Flora's sisters- Hettie, Minnie Leota
Flora's stepmother- Stella
Mom's dad- Leo (middle name)
Granny's sister- Maureen. I was to be named for Maureen, but my granny and mimaw and all the others were convinced it would bring bad luck-- Maureen died when she was two of influenza (1927-1929)
Mom's aunts- Della, Zelma Dean
Mom's other assorted aunts- Gussie Vera, Myra Nell, Eva Pearl, Hautie Ardilla
Mom's other assorted uncles- Theopholis Wahtheu, Byron

I know my extended family tree isn't all that interesting to everyone, but I just thought those were some really awesome names. Now I'm never going to figure out what to name my daughter-- guess I'll have to have two :P

The database I used is pretty cool, the Edenfield Database, and very well researched. I have a few blanks to fill in for them, and I'm actually going to help because they're really involved!

I was telling Krystal earlier that my favorite story is actually about Rebecca, my father's grandmother. She was Native American, her grandfather (I believe) being the chief of the Creek Nation Tribe in Colbert County (named for him, Chief Colbert) and when her husband died and she was left with a whole mess of children (six or seven? my aunt Gazell being the youngest), the state of Alabama declared that she couldn't own land because she was Native American. She camped out near her property and when the corn was ripe, she took the children and they harvested all the corn and walked to Memphis. That's right, walked. That's somewhere between 150-200 miles.

Speaking of Memphis, my Aunt Gazell was named when her father went to the Memphis Zoo and saw a Gazelle-- he asked a keeper the name of (in his opinion) the prettiest animal there and was told "That there's a gay-zell" so he went home and spelled it best he could and her name is pronounced "gay-zell".

OK, I'm going to stop boring you with my family stories and try to hit the hay-- lots of stuff to get out of storage tomorrow and then Jeremy on Saturday! Huzzah!!