The Other Post With No Name

I had a very busy day. First I went to my Chinese Civ film session, where we watched a documentary on Shi Huangdi, the first Emperor of China, and his quest for immortality. People talk about the tombs of the Pharohs, but they were nothing compared to this guy. He apparently had a scale model of his empire built underground, with the waterways and seas and lakes filled with mercury so they would look like flowing water. The ceiling, made to resemble the night sky, was set with pearls, and the whole thing was lit by oil lamps fed from giant tanks of whale oil (the lamps were supposed to burn forever). A bunch of the First Emperor's concubines were buried with him, as were most of the laborers who had worked on the tomb. The famous Terracotta Army of eight thousand soldiers guards the Emperor's spirit from the angry ghosts of all the people he killed while he was alive. Ironically, the weapons carried by the Terracotta Army were taken by peasants and used to overthrow Shi Huangdi's son five years after the Emperor's death. Only the outer chambers of the tomb have been opened so far, and Chinese archaeologists said they might try to crack the inner chambers in a few decades when they had good technology to preserve the stuff in there, but they might actually be afraid of retribution from the Emperor's ghost if they disturb him. I don't blame them. Shi Huangdi had a reputation for extreme harshness and cruelty.

Professor Kim said the class might be able to go see Hero next week, on money from the college, because the Emperor in the movie is Shi Huangdi. I'm totally not kidding. I love Bryn Mawr.

After the film session I got a manicure, then did some work and then helped at the Doublestar table at Fall Frolic. We got a lot of people to sign up with us. I had fun with my Doublestar friends and ate way too many cookies. It was great fun.

Tomorrow I'm going to Philly, where I'll probably spend most of the weekend. I don't have any really urgent work - in fact, because of my typical neurotic-ness, I'm ahead on it - so I can goof off a lot. Yay!