xmasevebaby's Xanga

The Maya Civilization

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:04:50 GMT

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Special to USA TODAY

With humanity coming up fast on 2012, publishers are helping readers gear up and count down to this mysterious — some even call it apocalyptic — date that ancient Mayan societies were anticipating thousands of years ago.

Since November, at least three new books on 2012 have arrived in mainstream bookstores. A fourth is due this fall. Each arrives in the wake of the 2006 success of 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, which has been selling thousands of copies a month since its release in May and counts more than 40,000 in print. The books also build on popular interest in the Maya, fueled in part by Mel Gibson's December 2006 film about Mayan civilization, Apocalpyto.

Authors disagree about what humankind should expect on Dec. 21, 2012, when the Maya's "Long Count" calendar marks the end of a 5,126-year era.

Journalist Lawrence Joseph forecasts widespread catastrophe in Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation Into Civilization's End. Spiritual healer Andrew Smith predicts a restoration of a "true balance between Divine Feminine and Masculine" in The Revolution of 2012: Vol. 1, The Preparation. In 2012, Daniel Pinchbeck anticipates a "change in the nature of consciousness," assisted by indigenous insights and psychedelic drug use.

The buildup to 2012 echoes excitement and fear expressed on the eve of the new millennium, popularly known as Y2K, though on a smaller scale, says Lynn Garrett, senior religion editor at Publishers Weekly. She says publishers seem to be courting readers who believe humanity is creating its own ecological disasters and desperately needs ancient indigenous wisdom.

"The convergence I see here is the apocalyptic expectations, if you will, along with the fact that the environment is in the front of many people's minds these days," Garrett says. "Part of the appeal of these earth religions is that notion that we need to reconnect with the Earth in order to save ourselves."

But scholars are bristling at attempts to link the ancient Maya with trends in contemporary spirituality. Maya civilization, known for advanced writing, mathematics and astronomy, flourished for centuries in Mesoamerica, especially between A.D. 300 and 900. Its Long Count calendar, which was discontinued under Spanish colonization, tracks more than 5,000 years, then resets at year zero.

"For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle," says Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies in Crystal River, Fla. To render Dec. 21, 2012, as a doomsday or moment of cosmic shifting, she says, is "a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in."

Part of the 2012 mystique stems from the stars. On the winter solstice in 2012, the sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way for the first time in about 26,000 years. This means that "whatever energy typically streams to Earth from the center of the Milky Way will indeed be disrupted on 12/21/12 at 11:11 p.m. Universal Time," Joseph writes.

But scholars doubt the ancient Maya extrapolated great meaning from anticipating the alignment — if they were even aware of what the configuration would be.

Astronomers generally agree that "it would be impossible the Maya themselves would have known that," says Susan Milbrath, a Maya archaeoastronomer and a curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History. What's more, she says, "we have no record or knowledge that they would think the world would come to an end at that point."

University of Florida anthropologist Susan Gillespie says the 2012 phenomenon comes "from media and from other people making use of the Maya past to fulfill agendas that are really their own."

So... What will you be doing on 21st Dec, 2012?

Happy Birthday Aaron

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:48:38 GMT

Guess what, PROJECT WORK IS OVER.
Even though I had internal and external moderators, I guess I did alright, hahaha. Hopefully I can get my BBBBBB! (then I'll be damn happy already!)

Maybe it's true I can't live without you

After Project Work Xinyi & Xinyun went to orchard to shoppppp :D Yay LOL I spent so much in one day & the real shopping haven't started yet! And orchard central is damn high and it has a super posh popular that we didn't even know it was Popular until the salesgirl asked if I had the Popular card. LOL. I shall kop from my mummy someday.

'Cos every night I have to say, goodbye

Then met part of the cliqueee (or theee clique) for dinner @ the cafe cartel! & swensen's-ed (1-for-1 deal, yay!) and I felt superduper fat after that, damnsxzxz. time to exercise SOMEONE ASK ME PLEASE before I turn into some fat woman

Boy, I hear you in my dreams, I hear your whisper across the sea

...I bought a new bed! Didn't know there was so much to consider while buying a bed. Size, softness, material, warranty, bedstead, price, etc. etc. We went from Beauty World to Courts and back again to purchase the bed. Yayyyy I'm getting a new bed!!!

When I was down I was your clown
Right from the start, I gave you my heart

Tomorrow is stay-home day (so sad huh) because I AM SO GOING TO PACK MY ROOM. Hopefully I would. And practise my piano. Wow. A day to myself! That's... quite rare since start of JC life. & probably do some homework too. :x

Good luck for those who hadn't take their Oral Presentation!

Feini, Weirong, Aaron, Sandra, Zijian, Huizhi, Jerome, Stephanie, and the list really goes on. It's the last bit, so gambatte! :)

Two is better than one - Boys Like Girls feat. Taylor

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:31:03 GMT

I remember what you wore on the first day
You came into my life
And I thought hey
You know this could be something
'Cause everything you do and words you say
You know that it all takes my breath away
And now I'm left with nothing

'Cause maybe it's true, that I can't live without you
Well maybe two is better than one
There's so much time, to figure out the rest of my life
And you've already got me coming undone
And I'm thinking two, is better than one

I remember every look upon your face,
The way you roll your eyes, the way you taste
You make it hard for breathing
'Cause when I close my eyes and drift away
I think of you and everythings okay
And finally now, we're leaving

And maybe it's true, that I can't live without you
Well maybe two is better than one
There's so much time, to figure out the rest of my life
And you've already got me coming undone
And I'm thinking two, is better than one

Yeah, yeah

I remember what you wore on the first day
You came into my life
And I thought hey

Maybe it's true, that I can't live without you
Maybe two is better than one
There's so much time, to figure out the rest of my life
And you've already got me coming undone
And I'm thinking

Oooh I can't live without you
'Cause baby two is better than one
There's so much time, to figure out the rest of my life
And I've figured out with all that's said and done
Two, is better than one

Two is better than one

----

I just talked on the phone. Haha. And I recalled some bad memories through the phonecall; funny how something that has nothing to do with the topic we were talking about can pop out. But I guess sharing does help, I do feel better now :) & I wonder, is the bad memory a trauma?

Last week of the Dreaded

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:02:23 GMT

I'm going to endure this last week and YESSSS I am done. Hey, it's actually less than a week. But then, I still have no idea if I am the "lucky" one with the C and the M. *Pray Pray Pray*

Hmmm. Today had a dry run of OP. It went okay, I guess. I just hate the Q&A Part. How to answer! Gosh. I probably would just screw up. Haha, as usual. Oh well, good luck to me! & my whole group + 0909 + other classes.

After all, I caught a falling leaf today, right? :) I probably would be lucky, but I better share it. It's scary though, that you're the first one to present in that particular session, and you set the standard, kind of. & it's bad 'cos you don't have something to follow. Aghhhh. I want my EE! (probably the only EE I can get in PW, LOL. So it can pull my grade to at least a B :x

Anyway! :) On a lighter note, I had fun today! With my classmates, hahaha. & of course LWR. I learnt that you cannot sleep in the library. D: & that now we can borrow up to 6 books per library card! I totally haven't been borrowing books to read & I'm kinda deprived ;( JOHN I WANT MY BOOKSPREE!!! ...doubt you'll see this anyway. Haha!

Shizzz I hope my flu / sorethroat (it seems to be returning, aghhhh) / illnesses all bu yi er fei! LOL! Recapping chinese today was quite... Hmmm. Interesting as so to speak? I haven't been practising Chinese for so long that forming sentences can be quite hard; let alone compositions?! ):

Woah, my brother just decided to transform his room to be "oriental" (by which he means serene? HAHAHA). Funny luh he. Oh well. Tomorrow's shopping day! Haha. Yay yay yay. :)

Ah, and I almost lost my life today. :) But somehow, I didn't mind that much hahaha.

One generation to die

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:02:19 GMT

My eyes are going to close anytime sooooon, hahaha.
(Ugh, feeling damn fat now)

Life's been... I have no idea. Days seem to fly and I'm just waiting, blankly waiting, for OP to come. And what's after OP? It seems like I don't have a plan, and I should (ASAP!!!) because the teachers keep emphasizing that we need to study, revise and do our homework. Well, I'm not going to become a mugger (but I reckon I'll turn into one soon :/) because I'm going to PLAY tooooo! Hahaha. Think Chalets, shoppings, sleepovers, outings (no sun please ) and more dates (whoooo! )! & if there's still room I should probably go buck up on my NYAA Gold (If I bother to anyway... OOPS! Hahaha)

Rehearsed for OP today and it went fairly well. BUT XINYUN YOU CAN DO BETTER!!! Come on man, last hope for B (LOL!). Let's just hope everything will be fine. :) Wonder if it's good that I set the benchmark for the rest of the people in my class (oh noz). Oh well, I guess I just have to put in my best.

I hate to be the first speaker. & unluckily, I am the one for the whole of my class. Ouch.

And oh well I'm glad that WR is finally over, after months of (un-?)slogging till midnight and over... Thanks for the hard work put in people. :)

Need. Sleep.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:37:48 GMT

I came across this Latin website, and I saw this phrase.

Koming soon - Sorry, bad joke

Think, is it really a bad joke? :P

Monday, October 19, 2009

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:47:46 GMT

Bling bling belt.

Yay to 0909!

Yay clique :D Hahah.

Learnt to say g'bye

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:41:49 GMT

I need to exercise
TONS OF IT
I'll never sms while trying to walk a jungle trail (I may just lose it, and never get it back)
I still need to exercise
& next time I go back BTH, I won't pant like shit
Or feel shitty by the time I reach the summit
...watch out! LOL.

Or at least, I hope I will :(
Really growing fat, fat and fat.

In to somewhere quiet

Can you actually recognise this place? Hahaha.

HAHA, batabatafly. -- Feini (remember Macs?)
I'm actually proud of my skills, LOL.

TO THE SUMMIT (I'm finally reaching, I'm finally reaching...)
"I'm not tired, I'm not tired, I'm not tired..." *pants like shit*
"Stop talking la!!! Just climb!!!"
"...I'M NOT TIRED!!!"

The summit

& we saw a

huge ant!!! Hahaha. I think if it lived in the city it'd already be killed, brutally. Ouch.

Then we walked down by the main road and saw monkeys. They're shy, lol! Hahaha. This one's sucking it's thumb, lol! :D

Oh well, good side is I had tonnes of fun hiking (haven't been doing so for a long time), bad side is I'm itching again!!! & one more thing is that I almost lost my phone HAHAHA. Lucky we realised when we were still hiking, or it'd have been gone. *imagines the monkey steals my phone*

& I think I need a haircut. :(

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:53:08 GMT

Hello. :)

I WILL HAVE FUN TODAYYYYYY!
HAHAHA. :D

Breathe

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:25:42 GMT

I see your face in my mind as I drive away
'Cause none of us thought it was gonna end that way
People are people
And sometimes we change our minds
But it's killing me to see you go after all this time

Mmm mmm mmmmmm
Mmm mmm mmm mmm

Music starts playing like the end of a sad movie
It's the kind of ending you don't really want to see
'Cause it's tragedy and it'll only bring you down
Now I don't know what to be without you around

And we know it's never simple, never easy
Never a clean break, no one here to save me
You're the only thing I know like the back of my hand
And I can't breathe without you, but I have to
Breathe without you, but I have to

Never wanted this, never want to see you hurt
Every little bump in the road I tried to swerve
People are people and sometimes it doesn't work out
Nothing we say is gonna save us from the fall out

And we know it's never simple, never easy
Never a clean break, no one here to save me
You're the only thing I know like the back of my hand
And I can't breathe without you, but I have to
Breathe without you, but I have to

It's 2AM
Feel like I just lost a friend
Hope you know it's not easy, easy for me
It's 2AM
Feel like I just lost a friend
Hope you know this ain't easy, easy for me

And we know it's never simple, never easy
Never a clean break, no one here to save me
Oh
I can't breathe without you, but I have to
Breathe without you, but I have to
Breathe without you, but I have to

Ohh
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...