Well here we are, three lines in to the offering formula and about to start on the fourth and last.  And here it is:

en ka en imakhy Senwosret, maa-kheru: for the ka of the revered one Senwosret, true of voice.

Sound like anyone you know?  Do you revere the colleague whose card or whiteboard you are embellishing?  Are they known for their honesty, the accuracy of their pronouncements or their karaoke prowess?  Never mind, it’s only a formula.  Let’s look at the first bit of it.

en ka en:  for the ka of.  Let’s do the easy bit first.   The Sherlock Holmeses among you will instantly have deduced that the squiggly lines top and bottom correspond to the en. 

Elementary.   And speaking of elements, the squiggly line in hieroglyphs represents the watery one.  It’s a ripple of water:

See the resemblance?  We’ve already seen wavy lines representing water, in the post on wabet.  But we haven’t had them as the actual letter n.  Here’s an original:

It’s a zigzag line.  What else is there to say?  The ka, on the other hand…

The Egyptians didn’t have souls.  Or rather, they didn’t just have single souls.  The deceased Egyptian exploded into a whole menagerie of afterlife entities:  the body, the shadow, the akh (a heron-like bird with a lamp who circled the skies with the stars), the ba (a human-headed bird that hung around the necropolis and twittered mournfully – they’ve made a comeback on the Internet lately) and the ka, or life force.

The ka had its advantages and disadvantages.  A disadvantage was that it was confined to the tomb, unlike the ba and the akh.  Maybe it kicked the ba and the akh out, so it could get some elbow room, with the body and the shadow.  Maybe that was why the ba twittered mournfully.  The advantage was that the ka got to ascend the burial shaft, come out through the false door into the offering chapel and feast upon the food and drink brought by the family or magically invoked by the passer-by.  The ka was the life force, and it fed upon the life force of the food.  But we’ve been through all this before.

The hieroglyph for ka is a pair of upraised arms, as found on the head of this royal ka statue:

What a beautiful, slender yet well moulded pair of arms and  shoulders, and delicate, detailed hands.  They didn’t always put so much work into the hieroglyphs,

although they have taken care to paint this ka the dark red colour they used for male skin (men being more likely to be outdoors than women, and therefore more tanned).  I draw my kas very simply:  three straight lines plus a little crescent at each end for the hands.

NB:  this ka is not to be confused with the ka meaning bull of a few posts ago.  Katie Hughes tweeted a good idea about that some time ago:  kh1369  @SusanLlewellyn Egyptians would be sustaining the ka (“spirit”) with ka (meat)? What a multi-purpose word! Also, is “kau” like “cow”? Easy!  She’s great at making these connections.

Zigzag Peyote Stitch Bracelet with Swarovski Crystals

A fun way of creating some zigzag into your daily jewellery.  I have made it with a few beads added on. It will be wider than the pattern ask for to add on some lengths for a more dramatic bigger look it will then also fit wider writs.  At the same time string on less beads and the same Bracelet will become less wide and shorter for a smaller writs.  The Zigzag will work out to a finished look for you to add on the clasp.  This pattern is available at “That Bead Lady”.

And after goodness, purity:

Wabet,  ”pure” or “clean” - in the feminine form when spoken, but without the loaf of bread representing the t , because it’s so obvious to those in the know that the scribe, dashing off yet another offering formula, hasn’t bothered to write it down.  But we know it’s there, don’t we?

Advanced office scribes like us will also have deduced that the masculine form is wab, and that the rather curious sumbol above is a triliteral sign conveying the sound of three letters, w a and b. 

We’ve had b before, haven’t we?  If you cast your mind back to the first line of the offering formula, when we were looking at Abydos or Abdju, one of the major cult centres of Osiris, you’ll recall that the letter b in ancient Egyptian is represented by the human foot.  And what do we have as the bottom half of this symbol?  A human foot!  That’ll be the b, then.

But what’s that spout on top, and what’s it spouting?  No, it’s not what you’re thinking.  They could draw what you’re thinking much better than that.  The upper part of the symbol is a little water pot, and it’s pouring forth a libation of purifying water.

You can see the kind of pot in full pouring action in this scene from the sarcophagus of a royal lady:

In this scene, one of the lady’s servants is pouring her a drink.  In temples and in funeral rites, water was used for ritual purification, as in this scene where a priest is pouring water over the coffin of the deceased:

It’s a shame the painting has flaked away just where I want to show you the water spouting out of the pots, but never mind.  And the blue wiggly lines for the water have come out nicely.  So, the symbol for “pure” was the standard ritual purification device of ancient Egyptian religion, the pot pouring out clean water, rendering the person or object it was poured over cleansed and pure.  Wab was also the word for “priest” in ancient Egyptian; literally, “the pure one”.

Here’s an example from a temple relief:

We already know how to draw the foot.  Then just draw a little oval on top for the pot, like an egg lying on its side, but square off the pointy end a bit for the rim.  Then draw a zigzag line for the water, arcing out of the pot in a graceful curve.

Finally -please remember all this when the office plant contractors come round and water the aspidistras.  And stop stubbing out illicit cigarettes in the rubber plants, and using the weeping fig as a receptacle for your coffee dregs, or the office party plonk.  They’ve been ritually purified.  Have some respect.

Hey Everyone -

We Have a Few Small Updates, Involving The Authors

First Off, Is Some Great News: As Some of You May Already Know, I Have The WW Username “Beluga” Again, Thanks to Cheeyong!

Also, We Have Another Small Update: Shadow Has Bought a Ninja Suit

Plus, I Would Like To Thank Everyone For Visiting Wiglington Secrets! We Have Just Reached 1000 Hits, And We’re Making Fast Progress, Thanks To Our Great Visitors! The Party/Contest Info Will Be Coming Soon, Be Sure To Check Back

All For Now,

~Beluga

Hey Guys, Shadow Here!

There is some awesome New Updates on Wiglington and Wenks! Lets Begin!

First.. The Reporting Button is now Working! Which Means, You can now Report the Bad Players who disobey the rules!

But Always Remember, Never Make False Reports! If You make a False Report, It Could lead to.. Moderators Not Trusting You or Maybe even getting Banned.

Also, Another cool Update is that There is now Frebos (Flying Pets) for Members!

About "Frebos"

Hehe, I really love the black one!

Also, This is a Perfect time to Get Membership!  And Don’t worry if you already have Membership , There will be Lots of more Benifts from being a Member coming soon!

Also Talking about the 1000 Hits.. I Want to  Thank Everybody Who Visits Wiglington Secrets! Plus, We will be having a Party Soon! I’ll Give more Details on Next Post! Bye guys!

-Shadow

Como ontem trabalhei até tarde e não pude fazer meus artesanatos, hoje somente postarei um molde de sapo que, em breve, farei. Eu achei muuuuito fofo e fácil de fazer. Até mais!

Estou cheia de ideias novas, mas elas terão que esperar. Estou com encomendas de lixeirinhas e colares de fuxicos que farei antes das novidades. Uma lixeirinha que vou fazer será com um fusquinha azul e a outra com uma borboleta branca e preta.

A foto que estou postando é de uma das aplicações novas que quero fazer, assim como o gato, vou fazer uma joaninha e depois um sapo que, em breve também postarei.

Hey There, Wiglington Users!

Well It is time For our Official 1st Contest! And All that you have to do is Find Out Which Room Shadow Is, In The Following 3 Pictures! Here They Are:

1.

2.

3.

It’s Pretty Easy! And The Winner Gets 2000 Rollars (Coins)! Also, Please Don’t Copy Other People’s Answers! And Good Luck!

Bye Guys!

-Shadow

New image in the carpets photography contest

…
Zigzag photography picture

イタリアが世界に誇るものは何か。食文化？ファッション？それだけではない。イタリアには世界に誇れる優れた先端技術がある。それを実感できる展示会「ZIGZAG伝統革新　未来を走るイタリア展」が、現在日本科学未来館（東京・台場）で開催されている。（2009年10月17日まで）

同展示会は、「日本におけるイタリア2009・秋」イベントの一環で、日本とイタリア両国が研究開発分野で交流を深めるのが目的。自転車、オートバイ、自動車、鉄道、船舶、航空、宇宙など、この展示会のキーワードである「モビリティ(移動)」分野で、イタリアの革新的な技術が凝縮された製品が並べられている。

見学者はまず、自転車やバイクなどの展示品を通じて、「ある一日」の移動の中にも革新的な技術が存在することを実感できる。奥へ進むと、より遠くへ移動するために作られた技術、さらには航空・宇宙開発技術も目にすることができる。

この展示会のもう一つの大きなテーマは「未来主義（未来派）」だが、最終エリアにはそれを象徴するように、ウンベルト・ボッチョーニ制作の「空間における連続性の唯一の形態」という彫刻がデジタルで再現されて展示されている。

この作品のオリジナルはイタリアで発行されている２０セントユーロ硬貨にも採用されている有名な彫刻。約100年前、スピードと機械文明を賛美する「未来主義（未来派）」の絵画運動がミラノから始まったが、ボッチョーニはその運動にかかわった代表的芸術家として知られている。

イタリア、モビリティの生産システムが今日までいかに進化してきたか、そして今後どのように未来へと走り続けるのか。今回の展示会で、その奮闘ぶりが見られる形に仕上がっている。（パクチー）

「ZIGZAG伝統革新　未来を走るイタリア展」公式ＨＰ：
http://www.italy-zigzag.net/

「日本におけるイタリア2009・秋」の公式ＨＰ：
http://blog.excite.co.jp/italiainjp/

日本科学未来館のＨＰ：
http://www.miraikan.jst.go.jp/

FUNERAL–a sycophantic ceremony to honor the unhonorable deceased that puts family members in the poorhouse.

INCOME–the weekly salary you give your spouse, who spends it in a day. 

PRAYER FOR PEACE–Advice of a leader to his nation,. even as he is planning another war.

RELATIVE PRONOUN–a family relative who talks in pronouns.

TRUTH–something that is hard to believe. So why not lie? It’s more believable.

ZIGZAG–A nonogenarian’s walk.

painting, stripes 2009-no.02, 16″x20″ acrylic on canvas, by alyse radenovic, at http://www.aelisheva.com

Salut!

Astazi e 1 septembrie! Prima zi la universitate si anul 2 .

Astazi am facut cunostinta cu 2 profesori noi, pe al 3-lea il mai stiam.

Prima ora a fost  Psihodiagnoza. In linii generale am discutat despre obiectul dat, am trecut inca o data prin psihologia generala deoarece o sa invatam memoria, atentia, gindirea etc. Din toate ce am inteles acest domeniu determina nivelul de dezvoltare al unor procese,  activităţi, şi însuşiri psihice. Profesoara ma bucurat foarte mult print faptul ca vom face o multime de teste, si la seminare va fi doar practica. Astazi am reushit sa facem 2 teste, shi anume:  Asociati-va cu o figura geometrica: [ au fost date doar 5 ]

Eu mi-am ales dreptunghi. De ce? Am ales aceasta figura deoarece se asimileaza cu dispozitia mea. Deci, ea poate sa fie buna, shi sa dureze, insa la un moment dat, ea poate sa se inrautateasca.Shi dupa cum laturile figurii date nu sunt de aceeasi marime, asa si dispoyitia variaza.

De fapt testul dat ma nimerit, si criteriul dupa care mi-am ales anume aceasta figura a fost corecta, deoarece dreprunghiul simbolizeaza schimbarile, in cazul meu shimbari de dispozitie.

Ne intoarcem la prima figura: Patratul – Reprezinta stabilitate, simbol al mintii inchise si al instinctelor primare, ce tin de pamant.Astfel de personae intodeauna vor duce toate lucrurile pina la capat.

Cercul – simbolul universului. Centrul cercului este intotdeauna la egala distanta de toate punctele aflate la periferie. De aceea cercul este si un simbol al echilibrului, armoniei.

Triunghiul – se spune ca e un lider, lider in toate. Am mai gasit informatie ca este simbol al focului, gindirii si sentimentului. Daca acesta este cu varful in sus focalizeaza energia in acea directie, ascendent, fiind totodata un simbol masculin. Triunghiul cu varful in jos semnifica manifestarea in materie si este un simbol feminin. Triunghiul echilateral simbolizeaza omul echilibrat.

Zigzagul – reprezinta omul creativ.

Al 2-lea test a fost : “desenati o planta” –si in dreptul fiecarei flori sa scriem: “ planta are nevoie de …..” si fiecare scrie de ce are nevoie, toate aceste “nevoi” sigur ca aveau o conotatie figurate, fiecare siboliza ceva, deci, raspunsurile mele au fost: “Planta are nevoie de…soare, apa” . C ear insemna soarele? Soarele este lumina, caldura, in cazul nostru floarea, adica eu, am nevoie de caldura sufleteasca. Apa simbolizeaza puritate, trebuie sa ma curat putin =) .Si desenul deacum la fiecare individual se descifreaza.

Hey Dinos, 

One of my friends from Chobots, ZigZag, Made us some Fan Art!

Here is the picture:

Wow, Its awesome!

Everyone should definitely visit his Blog, chobotsfordummies.wordpress.com

If you ever make any Fan Art, Send it to Fanmail@Belugaswebosaursnews.tk

Thats all the News for now,

~Beluga~

I haven’t been naming my quilts beyond descriptive terms (Tetris Quilt, Mother’s Day Quilt, Chickens, etc), maybe it’s time I start giving them names like actual pieces of art.  I finished the baby quilt for a coworker and I love it.  I know everybody always says they love whichever quilt they just completed, and it’s true.  I actually quilted this one, too, rather than tying it, doing stitch-in-the-ditch along the edges of the zigzag stripes.  It went really well.  The backing is a soft dinosaur print flannel.  Maybe next time I’ll even add a real binding!

If I could do something differently I wouldn’t add the darkest blue stripe.  My original plan was about 6 stripes longer and had another dark blue one, and when I realized the proportions would be all skewed unless I made it a lot wider also, I ended up with just the one dark stripe.  The colors in the picture aren’t exactly true-to-life, I couldn’t take a picture in natural lighting because I finished it at 10 p.m.  I considered waiting to wrap it until tomorrow morning so that I could take some photos in the morning  before work — then I realized that mornings are hard enough on me as is and I shouldn’t add anything extra.  I also forgot to add a label before wrapping it up all pretty.  Next time…

I bought some vintage vinyl shelf liner second hand a while back. I’ve been working on alternative bags for packing jewelry. I’ve tried to do recycled mail packaging before with very little success. Since it rains a lot here, I like to pack the items I’m shipping in a rain resistant package.

Above is the final version of my packing pouch all closed up. I went through several versions of the pouch before I finally found a version that I though would work for me. I thought I would show you my iterations.

I have two kinds of vinyl shelf liner, the gold and the red. My first version used the gold. I cut long strips of it, rounded off the edges, folded the bottom part up and zigzag stitched around the outside. For the closure, I decided to use paper circles riveted to the flap and pouch then tied with thread. On the first two pouches, I forgot to consider a closure for the bag. The rivets are reversed on them. I finished them then decided to do one more by riveting the circles on before sewing the pouch.

After finishing the 3rd gold pouch, I thought, “Why don’t I just use Velcro?”. So I pulled out some red vinyl shelf liner and made a few more pouches. I zigzagged all the way around, then sewed on some Velcro dots. I put a button on the flap cover up my stitching. I still wasn’t satisfied. They looked so plain!

I thought they would be great with a pocket on the front for my business card. I found some red mesh in my stash. I zigzag stitched a piece of mesh on the front then sewed up the pouch.

Also I decided that I had so many plain white buttons that I might just as well use them to make a closure for my pouch. I sewed a button to the flap and one to the mesh pocket.

Since the vinyl shelf liner is tacky on the backside, I folded a piece of paper in half and put it inside the bag. I can slip my piece of jewelry between the two halves of paper. I can slip my business card in front. Finally I can tie the ribbon around the buttons for a rain resistant package.

I’m going to talk about a suspense tool for fleshing out a plot. I first read about it years ago in Jerome Stern’s outstanding book Making Shapely Fiction. He called it “Zigzagging,” and while I see it used in novels and movies constantly, I don’t see discussed much as a technique.

Here’s how it works. Say you’ve got most of a story worked out, but there are vague spots in your plot where your narrator starts at A and somehow triumphantly winds up at B. How do you fill in that space between?

Example 1: In The Princess Bride, Inigo duels the Man in Black. Somehow… the Man in Black wins.

Example 2: In The Empire Strikes Back, Han, Leia, Chewie and the droids on the Millenium Falcon escape Hoth. Somehow… they arrive at Bespin’s Cloud City (did I mention that Lawrence Kasdan is my favorite screenwriter?)

Example 3: In a romantic example from Jerome Stern, Vilmar is about to kiss his sweetheart for the first time.

How would you write it? You know you have to give your character a hard time, you have to keep that character at the end of his rope. You’ve learned that much.

But does that mean that from point A, things get worse, and worse… and worse, the mountain he’s climbing getting steeper and steeper, until suddenly just before reaching the summit at point B, your character finds sudden success?

No way. You zigzag it.

And that means adding countless successes, and failures, and successes, along the way. The tiny victories are as important as the failures. They drive the reader’s emotions up, then down, then higher, then lower, each success and failure of growing intensity until, at last… point B.

Let’s take Example 3 first. Stern writes:

Vilmar is going to kiss his sweetheart. But he’s too shy to kiss her. No, he leans his face toward hers, but she turns her head away. She looks at him now, but he’s afraid to try again. He’s steeling himself to do it, but someone is coming. No, it’s just the wind in the leaves. Now she is nervous, but Vilmar feels bold. The church bell rings forbiddingly. They both look up. Suddenly their lips meet.

Tension is created by this rhythm.

The romance example is important. Don’t think that zigzagging is for action or thrillers only. Like Mystery Boxes, zigzagging feeds the suspense of any genre, making any story more readable.

In Example 2, the Falcon is hotly pursued by Star Destroyers. Bad! But Han pilots between them and they crash into each other. Good! But the Falcon’s hyperdrive doesn’t work. Bad! But maybe Han can fix it. Good! But there’s a field of asteroids that will smash them to bits. Bad! But wait, the asteroids squish two tie fighters. Good! But the Falcon will soon be “pulverized.” Bad. So the Falcon hides inside a big asteroid. Phew! We’ve got time for some romantic subplot between Han and Leia. But now there are mynocks outside. Eek!

This goes on and on, including a giant space worm and the Falcon posing as space garbage, before Kasdan gets the characters to point B.

(The space worm haunts me. That is a zig that I would never have come up with in a million years. Darn you, Kasdan!)

In the first example, zigzagging results in my favorite cinematic sword fight. The two master duelists continue to one-up each other, reversal after reversal — hilariously — with Inigo switching his sword to his strong right hand, and the Man in Black (who we know as our hero Wesley) topping that by revealing, likewise, “I’m not left-handed, either.”

Here is that scene.

So if you’re stuck on a plot hole, try switching gears by giving your character a success. Let the reader cheer your character on. Then, pull the rug out. And keep that up.

Zigzagging + Mystery Boxes = Mega-suspense.

For a classic example of zigzagging that’s… a classic, read the last chapter of Hemingway’s A Farewell To Arms.

I am doing a zig-zag dance here, and I would love to show you why – the new quilt top I just finished piecing!

I was trying to take a picture of this quilt top on the kitchen floor, but Angel was frisky, so I had to take it outside. Much better natural lighting anyway.

I love this quilt so much that I want to dance around the house wrapped up in it! I love the Good Folks fabrics, of course, but I really love the way the colors of each stripe blend together, almost giving it movement like a rainbow of waves. I’ve never made a quilt top like this, so it was fun to make something different. I would highly recommend this one.

It’s not completely ironed yet, but it measures 51 inches by 64 inches. Here are the two fabrics I’m going to piece together for the backing, mainly because those are the only large pieces I have in my stash from the Good Folks collection.

I am excited to do my own machine quilting on this one too! I’m planning to follow the zig and the zag with quilting lines, which should be easy enough for a beginning machine quilter like me. Can’t wait to show you the finished project!