Had a very, very long day. Work isn't always what I'd call "stressful," but it has its moments. On Friday we were given this task -- read a lot and make some sense of it. That's it in a nutshell, anyway. And so I walked out of a meeting on Friday and began what I will from this point forward refer to as "The Three Day Trial of Pain."

Have you ever tried to come through the entire Encyclopedia Britannica over a weekend? Well, it's sort of like that. Fewer volumes, I guess, but no less tedious. What made it tough was the fact that the holidays are coming up (so our "support network" will be leaving their offices soon) and directly after that we have a big trip we have to take for the doc. Time is most certainly of the essence, and the pressure is on.

So I spent three solid days in my studio/office, combing DVDs and transcripts and extraneous source material in order to find a handful of clips that would be devastating when they were played. It's kind of like panning for gold. Big investment of time, small pay-offs.

But hey, it's part of the job. And I like my job. And I want to keep my job, so everything seems to be coming up aces for Kevin. I'm tired, but reasonably satisfied.

On another note, in an effort to take a break from all the reading, I have been doing something that always relaxes me... reading.

Yeah, it occurred to me while I was sitting in my "reading room" (aka the John) that I might just be insane. I swear, though, that I was six or seven pages into what I was reading before I realized what I was doing. It's kind of like taking a break from SCUBA diving to go for a nice swim. But at least WHAT I was reading was very, very interesting.

Let's get something straight... I'm a geek. I've embraced my inner geek-dom and I am fully capable of acknowledging that my interests and obsessions fall well within the geek spectrum. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that I would be utterly fascinated by things like archeology and anthropology.

It's very interesting to look back at how all of the various cultures of humanity have evolved over time. What makes it even more intriguing is the fact that before around 8000 years or so ago we have no real idea of WHAT was going on with our ancestors. We stumble across an odd fact here or there, but mostly we just have no clue.

Well, actually, we have a FEW clues. And they're real doozies. For example, as it turns out, there's a "flood myth" in every major ancient culture known to man. And the details are eerily similar. There are also myths that correspond with Biblical stories such as the Tower of Babel and even the story of Christ. I know I'm treading on dangerous ground here, but believe me I'm Christian through and through and I've READ some of these myths... they really do have that ring of Christian familiarity. If you think about it, the Greek and Norse mythologies both have stories of the son of the "highest" god roaming the earth and doing good deeds for us mere mortals. All that's missing is the cross.

The Mayans, Aztecs, Babylonians, Chinese, Egyptians... think of a major ancient culture and you can find similarities between it and all the others. Look at pyramids, as an obvious example. Neat, huh? They're popping up everywhere. We always think of Egypt when we say "pyramid," but you can visit them in Mexico and in a couple of other places. I think China is one of them... don't quote me on that.

All of this similarity makes me wonder if there might be some common ancient race for all cultures. It' s not a new theory, I admit. People have thought about ancient cultures for centuries (Atlantis, anyone?). So the idea is there... what about the evidence?

So, I'm talking about reading, right? Well, I'm reading a book called "Fingerprints of the Gods" by Graham Hancock. I've actually read it before... most of it. I got side-tracked somehow a while back and sort of "forgot" about it. But after finishing Wil Wheaton's book and another tome, "Stepping throughout he Stargate," I needed something to read in the... reading room.

If you haven't read anything by Hancock, I highly recommend you pick up something he's written. There's a list on Amazon.com. I have this book and "The Message of the Sphinx." Both are excellent and thought provoking. And good enough endorsements for Hancock that I'll be picking up other books by him in the near future.

I'm such a literacy advocate.

Anyway, read 'em and get back to me. I'd love to hear what others think about this sort of thing. I may consider all of this research for a book of my own. I've had a few ideas over the years that would mesh pretty well with said ancient culture. But mostly, I'd just like to meet some people who share this particular interest.

And that's a wrap.