This is only the sceond cancellation I think I've ever had on me.  The first was the dreaded "she's not feeling well" when I was 5 minutes from the hotel, but this one is going to be tough to top ...

So I get to the hotel and call and this email hits as I'm tossed into voicemail when I'm calling for the room number (time on the email was 7:40p and we were scheduled for 8p)


I may have to cancel. THere is an emergency, something is headed towards the sun. Google hellion 1957. My brother sent me a photo I am sending it to you. I am scared. Hundreds of photos are posted on internet, not googleable all of them. I can call you after 8. Its supposed to hit the sun at 10 :30.


I left a couple of message but 2 hours later I haven't heard a word and now its 25 minutes to doomsday!

I'm sure someone else out there has had something crazier happen to them.  All's I can do is laugh and move on.

I have to know if it's worthwhile getting out of bed.

Either way, you're better off not seeing someone like that.  Is she s DC lady or on tour?

This guy says so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nQ9FuaHEcA

I am stocking up on groceries!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB7dxQU6OtM

6 months of food, they say!

We be FRIED!!!!

I am moving to North Korea!

"hobby" days, hours, minutes, and seconds you have left!

all the talk about the Mayan calendar ending in 2012 is, of course, utter rubbish.

the Mayan calendar consists of several interlocking calendar rounds. a number of these line up to give a long count of ~5,125 years. since the world is much older than that, the termination of a long count simply means adding 1 to the number of long counts in the calendar.

the Mayans knew this. the only authentic inscription i am aware of that refers to the long count ending in 2012 does so in the context of a dedication to a new cycle beginning.

the link included cites this inscription and also the fact that there are references to Mayan calendar dates in Mayan inscriptions that are gazillions times longer than the age of the universe.

i am very fond of Maya archaeology, it's a hobby of mine. i hate to see the Maya maligned this way.

Yea, my son keeps letting me know he doesn't have to do well in high school since the world will end as soon as he graduates!

If the world were truly ending, wouldn't you want to be having sex at the time?  I wonder what she was choosing to do instead?  

condoms are optional: there's not enough time to die.

Oh and global warming: Jesus is coming to fix it any day now, so no need to do a thing....

Herein we find one of the advantages of dealing with agencies.  If she had a scheduler, you would have received a call from that person with a more diplomatic excuse.  Sometimes I'd rather hear a lie.

Oh dear, I'm sorry this happened to you. But OMG, I just had to laugh when I read that. It was hilarious. Something is headed toward the sun.....LMFAO!!!

Good luck in your future meetings, again sorry you had this experience.

Mackenzi : )

Maligned?  Might want to lighten up a little.  Why so serious?

And we both know that myths about the Mayans cut both ways.  For decades the scientific contributions have been emphasized by archeologists while the violent nature of their society were largely overlooked.

damn, go figure, I just got all my credit cards paid off and now the world ends?  I'd rather go out with my AMEX maxed out

i guess i don't share the view that the violent nature of their society was overemphasized by archaeologists. my books (not documentary TV, ack poo) tell me it is well known that they fought wars incessantly and that they played "basketball" for keeps. i have different archaeological authorites on both sides of whether the winners or the losers got sacrificed at the end of the game.

so as far as their creating a calendar with an end date, on that point the Maya are maligned. the violence issue is separate and not to be confused.

but i digress.....

as for why serious? very unwell today. also
i am rethinking my approach to compensated companionship due to recent communiques. since my requirements are pretty narrow, i may have to resort to an ISO post.

so not all humor is lost....

*Shrug*

I must clarify that for decades, the most public of sources UNDER emphasized the violence of the culture.  Well before Erich von Däniken brought awareness among our generation.

My observasions at Chichén Itzá lead me to definitely believe that losing on the Great Ball Court meant a VERY bad day at the office.  The proximity of Tzompantli certainly seems to support that view.  

Just not sure why you say maligned in reference to the calendar.  Misunderstood, misinterpreted, misused, etc. OK, but maligned?  OMG, you are a Mayan White Night!  LMAO!

As with all great civilizations of the past, with great pluses often came great minuses.  What fasinates me is how soaring the heights of science and intellect was connected with such violence and notions that were often very barbaric.  What a dichotomy.

I only serve as a list consultant, not "The Decider".  LOL

really human sacrifice among the Maya never reached Aztec levels.

the ball game led to a team being sacrificed as a substitute for warfare. so the wars might have been much less violent, less death than ours. if in a war you have a ball game and a team loses and is sacrificed... that spares the population as a whole.

also the impact on the civilian economy is less. recall that in the 30 years war possibly 1/3 the German population was wiped out as a result of plagues and famines due to the war.

yep. i confess to be a WK with regard to the Maya.

to my list consultants (you, another dude, and a provider dudette) i thank you for your recommendations. but i think i am going to have to get very specific about criteria.

of Central/South American cultures were for his own "theories".  VERY creative and sucessful in its goal.  My point is that Chariots of the Gods served as a MAJOR source of awareness of the cultures to a generation.  Inspiring a more educated look into the cultures of course.

I don't buy that human sacrifice, in any form, is "civilized".  We all seem to be cringing over the use of words to describe the ladies in this profession, yet we are OK with human sacrifice as a means of theoretically substituting for war?  Because the source of the war would be that "we simply don't have exciting enough ballgames"?  LOL  Wars generally have causes unrelated to what these games would preclude.  Considering that they had wars anyway, it does not seem to have worked very well.  

The Romans gave us great advances.  The fact that Rome has more beautiful fountains in it than anyother city in the world is certainly to be enjoyed and praised.  And of course the reason stems from Roman advances in waater distribution.  Still, they used "the games" as a way to control perceived society issues.  I am not sure that those on the other end of battling a lion felt that "yeah, this is the pinnacle of civilization".

Egyptian, Aztec, Mayan, Roman, etc. have many things to praise.  But they have been romanticized to a great extent.  They were what they were.  I tend to look at both sides of any issue.

And hey, didn't I ask about you and criteria?  That is what us consultants do.  

-- Modified on 8/23/2009 8:58:31 PM

-- Modified on 8/23/2009 9:02:59 PM

I am going to bed.....

I am never trusting a providers excuse for having anyone drive through the hellish parking lot...aka DC traffic....find parking...(just tow your own car or print out your own parking ticket)....only to find out the world is coming to an end@[email protected] is some bullshit here!!! BULLSHIT I SAY!!!

And you won't say who this doomsday prophetess is??? I need to ask her how she stays in business....I should try that and see what happens?


NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought it was going to end last year and maxed out all my cards and then...SON OF A BITCH... no end of world! LOL ended in bankruptcy.

you rather miss the point. ritualized human sacrifice as a substitute for war spares the population. it is more civilized than war in the 20th century fashion simply because the population and economy is spared. is modern warfare more civilized than the Mayan human sacrifice after the ball game? body count says maybe not.

your conclusion that the ball game didn't work because the Maya had wars anyway is flawed. sure they had some wars anyway but in order to say the ball games didn't have a beneficial effect one would need adequate statistics.

as for criteria... asked, answered, perhaps heard, now undergoing revision.

practically every year the world is ending since the 13th century... and it never fucking does!

But as there are no statics to prove it didn't work, there is absolutely no evidence that it did work.  Population totals, distribution, food sources (or scarcities), wealth and associated welth lust, etc. (sources of war) make any comparisions to other locations and times totally futile and baseless.  There is no true evidence that proves human sacrifices averted any warfare.  It is theory at best.  Certainly most experts cite an seemingly endless supply of prisoners of war as the victims of human sacrific.  It was not just the losers of the games.  And I know that you must see the error comparing across centuries.

And Viet Nam showed us the flaw in evaluating conflicts based on body counts.  BUT if it is insisted upon as a measure, percentage of population would be a more reasonable measure.  As far as sparing the population and economy, how is that viewed from the perspective of those that were conquered?  Completely whipped out or absorbed? At least in the 20th Century Poland managed to stick around.  Ancient cultures were great because they were warrior/conquerer people to a heavy degree.

Of course we are talking of an extinct civilization, so who knows, maybe they did not war enough to really get good at it.  But to say the ballgame DID have a beneficial effect would also need the same adequate statistics fo rwhich you call.  A belief does not make it true.  

My friend, we seem to disagree and that is OK.  I am not sure I would have guessed you to be of the French Revolutionary mindset that there must always be human bloodletting.  I will never see a civilization whose core value contains human rights violations, let alone state organized murder, as a Utopian ideal.  They were great for many reasons.  But they were what they were, good and bad.

I only stand (well sit) ready to advise.

So I'm guessing that you're not looking forward to that upcoming movie "2012", that Roland Emmerich-directed winter-blockbuster-in-the-making disaster movie. :P

that record that _some_ disputes between Mayan kingdoms were settled by recourse to a ball game. so in at least those instances a war involving the general population was avoided. so the limited cases documented incline to my view.

if not body count what metric?

the admittedly uncertain population statistics (inferred indirectly) for the Mayan region show no sudden declines without drought and famine setting in. this is unlike the European experience: early 1600s Germany, post revolutionary Russia, etc.

not saying the Maya were a utopia, never said i believe in French revolutionary ideals either. that is a straw man position you put out, not mine.

i do not believe in the necessity of human blood letting, rather i prefer to see it minimized. zero would be nice. and no country is free of human rights violations, just more or less free. we have state sanctioned killings and our constitution counted some folks as fractional beings but without voting rights. no one is pure.

as for list revision..... i am writing a detailed set of requirements. sort of a RFI/RFQ for a set of BPA awards.