It’s time for another member spotlight! Today, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to member @Jan A. She’s a long-time member who you will have seen around the forum offering compassionate advice, kind comments, useful recommendations and beautiful photos!

Without further ado, here’s member @Jan A!

‘When invited to give some background on myself, I think the most interesting things are probably what I find entertaining. I have always been a science fiction fan, whether it’s films, TV, or books. What is striking is that some of the science fiction of yesteryear has become the fact of today.’

‘On the flip side, I am fascinated by ancient history, particularly Egyptian history, and am a member of the Macquarie University Egyptology Society. One of the majors in my Bachelor of Arts degree at Melbourne University was in history, including ancient history. Subsequently, I did an adult education course through Sydney University, learning to read basic ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, a handy skill when visiting museums and exhibitions.

‘My first career was as a secretary, after which I moved into a long-term role as an executive manager in the federal public service, including team leading, delivering training and providing written advice to the public.

‘Having a keying speed of about 200 words per minute was extremely helpful in managing the public service computer technology.’

‘At the same time, I studied psychology at Sydney University and have been a qualified psychologist for the past 20 years.’

‘Shortly after becoming registered as a psychologist, I left the public service and became a contractor under Medicare, working in medical centres. COVID-19 brought about online medical and allied health services.

‘I now work exclusively online from home. I see clients referred to me by doctors from clinics where I used to work in person, as well as doctors from various other parts of NSW. With online technology, clients have been able to attend from home or work and can continue their sessions even when away interstate or overseas.

You'll often find @Jan A on the photography forum. Image Credit: Shutterstock

‘I found the Seniors Discount Club when doing some online surfing in August 2022. What a lovely discovery! I particularly like the photos section, and I enjoy contributing to it.

Note from the Editor: You can view some of Jan's recent photography here.

‘Many of the contributions from SDC members are at an amazingly professional level. Some depict rare wildlife moments, while others display the beauty of heritage towns and vast landscapes. There is always something unexpected amongst the contributions.

‘It is such a pleasure to look through them and admire the skill involved in capturing such stunning images.’

‘One cheeky piece of advice that I learnt from reading Harpo Speaks, the autobiography of Harpo Marx (from the Marx Brothers), is "Be unpredictable: they hate that!” Predictability is boring. It also opens you to manipulation by others, whether you realise it or not! Express yourself by doing different things rather than the same thing. Great advice for a fun life. Beam me up, Scotty!’

From the Editor:
We hope you enjoyed learning about member @Jan A as much as we did at the SDC HQ! From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for being such a wonderful member of the SDC community.

P.S. I wish I could read Egyptian hieroglyphs! That is definitely my favourite fun fact I've learnt this week.

Love seeing @Jan A's photos or comments on the forum? Comment below!

 

[Suzanne rose]

I loved your story , your life sounds very filled. A psychologist would be a hard job.

Reading Egyptian hieroglyphic is a huge achievement in it self .
my daughter learnt to read and write Hebrew and hieroglyphic was and is her next to learn

 

[Veggiepatch]

You are one very learned individual. I admire that in a person as well as your love of science fiction - my favourite.

By the way, can I grab 20 of your 200 words per minute keying speed? Thanks in advance!

 

[Dennis]

What a remarkable life you have lived.

 

[janj]

loved your story

 

[Emmy Im12]

It’s time for another member spotlight! Today, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to member @Jan A. She’s a long-time member who you will have seen around the forum offering compassionate advice, kind comments, useful recommendations and beautiful photos!

Without further ado, here’s member @Jan A!

‘When invited to give some background on myself, I think the most interesting things are probably what I find entertaining. I have always been a science fiction fan, whether it’s films, TV, or books. What is striking is that some of the science fiction of yesteryear has become the fact of today.’

‘On the flip side, I am fascinated by ancient history, particularly Egyptian history, and am a member of the Macquarie University Egyptology Society. One of the majors in my Bachelor of Arts degree at Melbourne University was in history, including ancient history. Subsequently, I did an adult education course through Sydney University, learning to read basic ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, a handy skill when visiting museums and exhibitions.

‘My first career was as a secretary, after which I moved into a long-term role as an executive manager in the federal public service, including team leading, delivering training and providing written advice to the public.

‘Having a keying speed of about 200 words per minute was extremely helpful in managing the public service computer technology.’

‘At the same time, I studied psychology at Sydney University and have been a qualified psychologist for the past 20 years.’

‘Shortly after becoming registered as a psychologist, I left the public service and became a contractor under Medicare, working in medical centres. COVID-19 brought about online medical and allied health services.

‘I now work exclusively online from home. I see clients referred to me by doctors from clinics where I used to work in person, as well as doctors from various other parts of NSW. With online technology, clients have been able to attend from home or work and can continue their sessions even when away interstate or overseas.

View attachment 29430

You'll often find @Jan A on the photography forum. Image Credit: Shutterstock

‘I found the Seniors Discount Club when doing some online surfing in August 2022. What a lovely discovery! I particularly like the photos section, and I enjoy contributing to it.

Note from the Editor: You can view some of Jan's recent photography here.

‘Many of the contributions from SDC members are at an amazingly professional level. Some depict rare wildlife moments, while others display the beauty of heritage towns and vast landscapes. There is always something unexpected amongst the contributions.

‘It is such a pleasure to look through them and admire the skill involved in capturing such stunning images.’

‘One cheeky piece of advice that I learnt from reading Harpo Speaks, the autobiography of Harpo Marx (from the Marx Brothers), is "Be unpredictable: they hate that!” Predictability is boring. It also opens you to manipulation by others, whether you realise it or not! Express yourself by doing different things rather than the same thing. Great advice for a fun life. Beam me up, Scotty!’

From the Editor:
We hope you enjoyed learning about member @Jan A as much as we did at the SDC HQ! From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for being such a wonderful member of the SDC community.

P.S. I wish I could read Egyptian hieroglyphs! That is definitely my favourite fun fact I've learnt this week.

Love seeing @Jan A's photos or comments on the forum? Comment below!

 

[Brody]

Exordinary life, well done, I hope Health is a part of that for you, to be able to enjoy whatever you are doing. I think you have a lot to share with us about your varied and amazing life. I will look forward to seeing your thoughts expressed on our club site. Very nice to "meet" you.

 

[Jo Piper3]

Thanks so much for sharing. Please take care.

 

[maxesmum]

Nice to meet you,Jan!

 

[Jan A]

Thank you everyone for your kind responses.

 

[Suzanne rose]

Thank you everyone for your kind responses.

Thank you for sharing your story

 

[starrysnan]

What an interesting life. Thank you for sharing it with your friends here at SDC.

 

[Sherril54]

Thank you Jan, you have a very interesting story!

 

[SandraD22]

I enjoyed learning more about you and am impressed with your interesting life. Have you ever considered visiting Egypt and the tombs of the Pharos. Being able to re3ad the inscriptions would be fabulous. Keep the photos coming

 

[Mikeyboy2012]

Thank you for your story, Jan.

Not sure if you can help me with an Egyptian question:

The Egyptians have hieroglyphics for pretty much all aspects of their lives.

So why isn't there a single hieroglyph depicting the building of the pyramids?

Probably the most significant undertaking in ancient Egypt.

I think I know why.

 

[Jan A]

Thank you for your story, Jan.

Not sure if you can help me with an Egyptian question:

The Egyptians have hieroglyphics for pretty much all aspects of their lives.

So why isn't there a single hieroglyph depicting the building of the pyramids?

Probably the most significant undertaking in ancient Egypt.

I think I know why.

Mikeyboy2012 raises a fascinating field of research. Pyramid building has been a topic of intense interest since the Egyptian culture was made accessible by the work of Jean-Francis Champollion (1790-1832) and others in discovering how to translate Egyptian hieroglyphs. It was first thought that the pyramids were built by slaves but has since been discovered that they were built by paid workers under a type of “national service” scheme where workers served a specified number of months and were then replaced by another group of workers.

An engraved rock formation, named “The Famine Stele”, discovered in 1889 by American Egyptologist, Charles Edwin Wilbour, details the invention of building with stone, referring to Zoser and Imhotep, builders of the first pyramid, the Step Pyramid at Saqqara. The text describes the processing of different minerals and ores chemically involved in the fabrication of man-made stone or concrete for building the pyramids. The link below is for a presentation at the 5th International Congress of Egyptology in Cairo, Egypt, from Oct 29 to Nov 3, 1988. The presentation is entitled “The Famine Stele: hieroglyphs on pyramids construction.” The stele is dated to the Ptolemaic Kingdom (332 to 31BC) but is most likely based on previous written accounts. Fascinating stuff!

https://www.geopolymer.org/archaeology/pyramids/famine-stele-hieroglyphs-pyramids-construction/

 

[Jan A]

While I am writing about ancient Egypt, I thought it might be of interest to explain one reason why the hieroglyphs took so long to be translated. The hieroglyphs are not all letters such as we would use to write something. There are hundreds of them and they can have multiple purposes. One glyph can represent one whole word, such as “I” or “A” in English. One glyph can be a letter in a word, such as “k” in “kite" or “m” in “mat" in English. One glyph can represent a part of a word. A glyph can be an ideogram, i.e. a picture of the word. A glyph can be a “determinative”. This term refers to a glyph or picture at the end of a word to designate what the word means, a bit like a children’s book that has the word “cat” and then has a picture of a cat after it. In addition, there are no spaces between the words to indicate where a word starts or finishes. Let’s also not forget that hieroglyphic writing can be read right to left, left to right or top to bottom. To work out which way to read the horizontal sentences, look for which way the animals in the glyphs are facing and read towards them, known as “kissing the hieroglyphs”.

Without some kind of key to what place each glyph had in a sentence, it all looked like a mess!

Just to add to the confusion, if the name of a deity appears in the sentence, it is always written as the first glyph. This process is called “honorific transposition” simply meaning that, to honour the god, his or her name is put first in the sentence, whether it is pronounced first or otherwise. One helpful thing is that the name of the pharaoh is always placed in a cartouche, making it easy to find. Within the cartouche, there is often a deity’s name and that name always appears at the top of the cartouche. For example, one of Tutankhamun’s royal names is “Lord of Transformations Like Ra”. The glyph for “Ra” appears at the top of the cartouche in honour of the deity. It is followed by the scarab glyph which symbolizes “transformations” with 3 small upright dashes under it to indicate it is plural, then finally the bowl-shaped glyph for “lord”. This name refers to the sun god who was thought to roll the sun across the sky with the morning, afternoon and evening sky looking different at each stage, just as the scarab beetle rolls its ball of dung across the ground.

Egyptian pharaohs had different royal names, often attached to regions. These names are similar to the different royal titles used today. Also note that not all pharaohs were men. There were at least 10 women who were pharaohs in their own right. Interestingly, some official depictions show them wearing the tube-shaped royal beard. Probably the most well-known are Hatshepsut (18th Dynasty) who ruled for 20 years and Cleopatra who was the last pharaoh of Egypt. Also well-known is Nefertiti who was co-ruler with her husband Akhenaton and may have ruled as pharaoh for a short time under another name after he died. The next pharaoh was Tutankhamun.

If you would like to delve into the fabulous realm of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and learn more about the culture, you might like to have a look at the website below.

Ancient Egyptian Grammar for Beginners: A Comprehensive Guide

Unlock the secrets of ancient Egypt with this comprehensive guide to hieroglyphic grammar for beginners. Learn about sentence structure, nouns, verbs, and more!

toxigon.com

 

[Mikeyboy2012]

Mikeyboy2012 raises a fascinating field of research. Pyramid building has been a topic of intense interest since the Egyptian culture was made accessible by the work of Jean-Francis Champollion (1790-1832) and others in discovering how to translate Egyptian hieroglyphs. It was first thought that the pyramids were built by slaves but has since been discovered that they were built by paid workers under a type of “national service” scheme where workers served a specified number of months and were then replaced by another group of workers.

An engraved rock formation, named “The Famine Stele”, discovered in 1889 by American Egyptologist, Charles Edwin Wilbour, details the invention of building with stone, referring to Zoser and Imhotep, builders of the first pyramid, the Step Pyramid at Saqqara. The text describes the processing of different minerals and ores chemically involved in the fabrication of man-made stone or concrete for building the pyramids. The link below is for a presentation at the 5th International Congress of Egyptology in Cairo, Egypt, from Oct 29 to Nov 3, 1988. The presentation is entitled “The Famine Stele: hieroglyphs on pyramids construction.” The stele is dated to the Ptolemaic Kingdom (332 to 31BC) but is most likely based on previous written accounts. Fascinating stuff!

https://www.geopolymer.org/archaeology/pyramids/famine-stele-hieroglyphs-pyramids-construction/

Thanks again Jan. So are they now saying that the blocks in the pyamids were formed, not mined and shaped?

What about the logistics of moving and aligning the blocks so precisely? Something we can't do with today's technology.

According to "Ancient Aliens" program etc. shafts in the pyramids alight with the stars as they appeared in the sky 12,000 years ago, not 5,000 years ago. Hence, the Egyptians couldn't possibly have built the pyramids.

The debate continues....

 

[Suzanne rose]

Thanks again Jan. So are they now saying that the blocks in the pyamids were formed, not mined and shaped?

What about the logistics of moving and aligning the blocks so precisely? Something we can't do with today's technology.

According to "Ancient Aliens" program etc. shafts in the pyramids alight with the stars as they appeared in the sky 12,000 years ago, not 5,000 years ago. Hence, the Egyptians couldn't possibly have built the pyramids.

The debate continues....

Imagine how strong these men were.

This shows the true evolution, men's bones have become smaller and men have become weaker because of the machinery we now have.

In Egypt they have found quarries which they believe was where the stone and bricks were made to build the pyramids.
The stones themselves were mined from a quarry just south of the pyramid, and researchers believe that their journey across the desert was made easier by wetting the sand first.

They also found a cemetery which they believe are the graves of workers who built the pyramids.

A very interesting topic

 

[Jan A]

Indeed, ancient Egyptian pyramids make a very interesting topic. There is always something new to learn about them. They are remarkable in their brilliant engineering. Construction of a single pyramid could take 20 years or more. Huge stones were cut, shaped and otherwise made in various ways, hauled long distances over land and water, then elevated to enormous heights and sealed into place. The chambers and passages inside the pyramids were formed as the building progressed, an amazing feat in itself. There is some thought that we have not yet discovered some hidden chambers in the pyramids but any excavating of the internal walls is currently not allowed.

While the pyramids look rough-hewn today, originally they would have had a smooth surface mostly made of limestone sheeting long since re-quarried for other uses or simply stolen. The limestone made the pyramid shine brightly in the sun, a connection with the sun god. Pyramids had a capstone at the top called a pyramidion. In the Old Kingdom, pyramidia were made of diorite, granite or limestone and then gold-plated to reflect the sun’s rays. Thereafter until the end of the pyramid building era, they were made from polished granite.

Ancient civilizations believed the sky was a clear dome placed over the earth. The sun and other heavenly inhabitants (thought to be gods and/or past pharaohs who had become gods upon their death) ran along the dome like we have trains running along a train line. The pyramid’s great height pointing to the sky was believed to bring the deceased closer to the heavenly realm, making the transition of the soul to the realm of the gods easier, something similar to shooting the soul out of a gun pointing to the heavens.

While other civilizations built pyramid structures for religious purposes, it is the Egyptian pyramids that seem to generate the most interest. There is a lot to be interested about!