Fears Schmears

This post is inspired directly from Chris Savage’s Savage Thoughts and it’s 7 months old.  Yes, I’m late to this party, but this party is more like a festival; it goes on and on.  I just felt it had to be shared, and not just with a simple Like or Retweet.  GO READ IT.

Everyone’s got fears, not just entrepreneurs.  Entrepreneurs are just a little crazier in that we face these specific fears on a regular basis, and continue to stomp them.  Savage’s thoughts? “It’s okay to be scared.”  And, more importantly:

“You have to embrace the fear. You have to try. And eventually, just trying matters. And suddenly you’re not afraid anymore.

Skull games! Courtesy of the Smithsonian.

Respectfully, skulls should never be played with.  As archaeologists, our minds are trained to see things as artifacts, but when excavating burials, we try to be as respectful as possible.  Playing with skulls digitally though – that ain’t so bad.  In fact, it’s very cool!

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has a Mystery Skull Interactive, where you can learn the differences between different human species, teaching you to identify them based on certain characteristics such as the size of faces, brow ridges and brain cases. Good times for kids of all ages… Thanks to ArchTools for posting this on Facebook!

I wish there was a similar database for prehistoric Caribbean folks; it would’ve been a great tool for SVG Digs.  What do you think about this guy (see below)?

A return to the circle blog

When I started blogging almost a year ago (or so), I didn’t know what to write about.  I didn’t think archaeology alone would be interesting enough to draw attention nor did I think my personal interests were interesting to anyone at all.  After a while, I found that blogging was a way to organize my thoughts, making myself transparent so that even if only a handful of readers were figuring out who I was, at least I could look back and see who I was becoming.

Then I got busy.

Busy is good!  Especially when you are a start-up consulting company in archaeology.  The daily question was always, “Will I ever get another job?”  While that sentiment keeps one on its toes, it certainly does nothing for the stress level.  So, I relaxed a bit, learned to find balance in life… and then took on a bit more than I can chew.  There goes the stress level again!

On that note, what have I been up to?  Let’s see… Calgary iFseries (yet another inspirational day of speakers), TEDxCalgary (TED talks are the best), some fieldwork (hurray) and, of course, my personal project, The SVG Public Archaeology Program (aka SVG Digs).

I will not ramble or self-promote SVG Digs.  Ok, maybe just a little.  It is a not-for-profit program that brings anyone who ever dreamed of being on an archaeology dig to do just that… on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent.  In a nutshell, we rescue and record some significant archaeology, while at the same time providing people with an experience; we just got back from our 2012 season, and for those that participated, we hope it was a good one.  Visit the SVG Digs website or Facebook page for more information… and keep visiting because we will be posting more updates as time goes on.

Thanks to everyone that made SVG Digs happen in 2012!  And thanks to Doug’s Archaeology Blog for listing us as one of the great archaeology blogs to follow!  We are among some great ones!  Guess I better write more often…