Old Friends and Ancient Scripts

Hello friends!

(Trying to make this a daily ritual... Maybe it'll give me some structure in life!)

Well, it's day two of this hopefully up-and-coming blog. Pretty exciting, right? :) I learned several things today, as usual!

Old Friends

First and foremost, I learned a lot about the concept of old friends. No, I'm not talking about a 20-year-old having an elderly person as their friend; that's just awkward, but if you're into it, by all means I'm happy for you. I'm speaking of those friends that you simply can't shake off no matter how many fights and arguments you have, no matter how many differences you have, no matter how much you've gone through. You just can't lose 'em, and it's a good a thing. I have three best friends, each very different from the next. They're my friends, though, because they teach me lessons, give me new perspectives, and have been there through thick and thin. I won't name their names nor will I fully explain what recently happened between myself and one of them. We had a fight, and it was pretty hurtful, more-so on my part I think. I tend to lose control when I get angry, something I wish to learn not to do - I'll get there eventually. I say hurtful things to my loved ones even though I really don't mean to. I suppose that makes me human, though. We all say mean things. The reason for our fight derives from my worry for her, really. It doesn't have to do with petty things like selfishness, jealousy, rivalry, or differences. It may seem like that on the surface, but really my worry for her overrides all else. I love this girl. She is like family to me and, of course, I never mean to hurt her. As I think about it now, I feel pretty horrible about some of the things I said. She at first reacted just as harsh, but in the end she was really understanding of why I was upset. This surprised me. I was proud of her for showing understanding. It dawned on me, too, that even though I said terrible things, she listened because we're old friends. Maybe I need to take a page from her book and try to do the same? Probably so. Lesson is, we may not always agree, we may fight, argue, worry, lose control, hurt one another, and neglect one another from time-to-time, but we're old friends - and old friends stick together. 

Ancient Scripts

Now to the really interesting stuff! I know you guys don't want to hear about my personal life. Sheesh, who would?! It's pretty dull most days. Anywho, I'm taking a class on Linguistics right now. It's a little boring sometimes, but today was pretty interesting. Our current lesson is on ancient scripts and languages. Some of you may not find them fascinating, but some of you might! Hell, it's another thing to learn, right? I may just pique your interest. Here are some facts:

Cuneiform, one of my favorites, originally started as clay tokens around 8000 BCE in Mesopotamia. They were all shapes, had different meanings, and used for record-keeping. They were even wrapped in little clay envelopes! 

The Gothic language (no joke, it's a language) was used by Gothic tribes that were responsible for Rome's downfall. They had their own alphabet before converting to Christianity and taking on the Greek alphabet, but their language is the earliest Germanic language in history. When I first read about them, I thought of the scene in Gladiator when the Romans fight Germanic tribes in the beginning of the movie... I'm pretty sure those were probably the Goths. Cool, yeah? I think so. The picture next to this is one of them. He's a real looker. 

Last is the Brahmi script. I've always been fascinated by Indian culture, so this one really stuck out to me. Brahmi is one of the most important scripts because it is the ancestor to hundreds of scripts found in South, Southeast, and East Asia. It is also from the 5th century BCE. That's so old! Burmese, Tagalog, Japanese, Thai, Tibetan, and many others all derive from Brahmi!  

I got all of my information from www.ancientscripts.com. Go there if you found this interesting! 

Quote of the Day: 

"Forsake not an old friend, for the new is not comparable to him. A new friend is a new wine; when if is old, thou shalt drink it with pleasure." - The Bible

Random Fact of the Day: 

The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in jelly.

Love, Peace, and Happiness, 

Laura P.