#Terrilyn

[erazonadauwg]

Talayiah Terrilyn. WR

My first Pussy. Furry, Wet & Tight . Man I Miss Her.

[ancientstone]

Shout out to Terrilyn who's so friendly often

[narrans]

The Orion's Daughter : To Lands Beyond | Prologue

So much has happened in my life.

Where to begin…

Well… the beginning I suppose.

My name is Raina Toro, daughter of Typh Toro and Florae Toro, mother of Terrilyn Lun, and friend to the once infamous Orion, Steele Veyne.

How I came to know Steele is a story of curious origins. As a mother on my own, abandoned by the love of my life, I had to make a life of my own. I trusted the life of my daughter to a family of farmers who I had come to know and trust. Mr. and Mrs. Finch were kind people, overlooking elements of my past, and watched over Terrilyn as well as their own children as I went to work in the city.

What began as an unsuccessful journey turned fruitful once I befriended an older bookman, Caster Veil, who informed me of a well-paying position as The Orion’s Factotum.

The Orion are giants from a land far across the water, and the position would have me tending to him, giving him meals and water.

Why was he in our land you may ask?

He was accused and convicted of destroying a city called Ombre, killing dozens of innocents in the process. He could not speak our language and offered no defense, allowing himself to be sentenced in our land where he remained locked deep beneath The Turret, one of many high security prisons in our land; though, admittedly, our prisons were not meant for giants such as him.

Having no other positions able to take me, I took the position with a heavy heart.

Through my service and exposure to him, I learned he was no savage. This thoughtful, kindhearted Orion was innocent. Steele was covering for his son, Mithos, who was the true culprit. I taught Steele our language and, finally, learned this truth about him.

He told me he was paying for his son because, according to his customs and culture, it was the only way to repay what had been done to my people and redeem the honor of his entire family name from him to his father, and his father’s father, and so on.

Then, the unthinkable happened.

Steele hoped justice would be done, blaming himself for what happened, but it was not written in the stars to be so. Steele’s son, Mithos, was not satisfied with what he had done before and returned to finish what he started in the town where I had left my daughter – Creewood. I wept, asking Steele for help because I could do nothing to get there in time to save my daughter while he could, and he gave his aid without hesitation, breaking out of what was thought to be an unbreakable prison.

He saved my daughter and all of Creewood at the expense of ending his own son, which nearly broke his spirit. He survived a lethal wound through his will alone and agreed to continue serving Creewood not only to repay what his son had done, but also to earn his way.

It took some adjustment and many, including my own daughter, are still a little uneasy around Steele, and for understandable reason.

They don’t know him like I do. They have accepted him and his presence, but everything takes time.

As spring took root, nearly all saw value in Steele’s presence. His knowledge of roots and the land, tactics for making the ground yield more and shifting the rivers and streams, is invaluable to us all.

I know they all see his value and his good heart. It will just take time.

Still, after six moons, Terrilyn still seems uneasy around him. I won’t pressure her into knowing him like I do.

Still, I wish she could see what I do in him.

But that is for her to tell…

This is no longer my story.

I told my story as The Orion’s Factotum.

Now… it is my daughter’s turn.

This is Terrilyn’s story… The Orion’s Daughter, and her journey to lands beyond.

~~~~~^*^*^*^*^~~~~~

Continue

~~~~~^*^*^*^*^~~~~~

Book One: The Orion's Factotum

[shutupchan]

please consider donating to one of the many families that were displaced by the Maui wildfires. any support is greatly appreciated.

[successorsdata]

7270 Sanza Pl, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91701 - Assessorsdata.com

7270 Sanza Pl, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91701 – Assessorsdata.com

Discover 1132 W Arrow Hwy, Upland, CA 91786. The subject property is considered as a “Auto repair (& related), Garage” located in San Bernardino County. As per Assessor’s office data of San Bernardino County, CA, this property has Bedrooms, Baths, sq.ft. of living space. The lot size for this property is 98010 sq.ft. & year built: . For further details on this property please scroll down to…

[soulful-baby-deactivated2020]

Absurdity, you're lying for attention

Barely surviving, but don't you dare

Utter one word about this to anyone

Shut the fuck up or I swear

Everything you love - I'll take it all away from you

... they won't believe a word anyway

because I'm the real victim of this a b u s e

Author: Terrilyn Le Blanc. ©2020

Image/photo: title unknown, artist unknown

[painted-ursa]

Inktober day 8 - Crooked 

[themarketbeats]

Procedure and status of Marketing Research:

Marketing research and marketing research company includes the complete analysis of the market. Information regarding the nature, size, organisation profitability of different markets, changes in markets and various factors- economic, social and political-affecting those changes are studied vigorously. The main purpose of market research is to know about the consumers and the markets of its products or services.

Marketing manager has to do many jobs, but he is not expected to be a qualified researcher. He is the user of the findings of the marketing research, but he is not a researcher. At the same time, he should know the marketing research procedure. To understand the marketing problem in a better way, one must aim at marketing research through which solutions against problems can be had. The design and implementation of the marketing research project greatly depend upon the skill of the researcher. The exact procedure cannot be laid down for marketing research, as the procedure may change from firm to firm and from situation to situation.

The Marketing Research Process:

1. Defining the Problem:

In order to carry out the research programme, the researcher should know the basic problem. He must be clear in mind as to what is exactly needed. The basic problem i.e., marketing problem is given importance and not the marketing research problem. A competent researcher will not accept a research project, until he understands the problem clearly. Thus crystalizing the marketing problem is fundamental.

After identifying the problem, the researcher formulates a plan when the problem is defined. The purpose of the project determines the nature of the problem and the ways to solve it. When the researcher gets a clear idea of the problem, he analyses the situation and understands more about the problem. He analyses the marketing company, its markets, its competition etc. The informal investigation or preliminary exploration consists of getting background information relating to the problem.

2. Determining the Information Needed:

The researcher must consider the information and decide which is relevant and which is irrelevant to the study. In determining the kind of information needed, the objectives of the research must be borne in mind. The information should be necessary and relevant. If the available data are insufficient, fresh data have to be collected.

3. Determining the Source of Information:

The Source of information may be classified into primary source and secondary source. When the information is obtained directly, specially for the problem, it is known as primary data. When the information is already collected by someone for some other purpose, and at the same time is helpful to the problem on hand, it is known as secondary data (see collection of data).

4. Deciding Research Methods:

When secondary data are insufficient, the researcher has to be satisfied with the primary sources of data. The sources may be by experimental method, observation method or survey method.

5. Tabulation, Analysis and Interpretation of the Data:

After the collection of data, they are to be classified and tabulated into statistical summarization. They may be in percentage, average, ratios etc., so as to give the greatest value in the interpretation work. Interpretation is the important stage in the process of research. Correct interpretation of data makes a research meaningful.

The mean or median classifies the nature of the average respondent, and the standard deviation shows how far respondents are dispersed around the average. Tests of significance are useful in measuring whether two occurrences are related to each other. It is important, for example, to know whether a price decrease caused an increase in sales, or whether the two events just happened simultaneously.

Correlation and association provide a more sophisticated method of making the same kind of analysis done in cross tabulation. One of the most useful of these is regression analysis, which allows the researcher to estimate the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables and to determine whether or not one variable causes another.

6. Preparation of the Report:

Draw conclusions from the tabulated summaries. Conclusions, recommendations and suggestions supported by detailed analysis of findings, must be in a written form-report of the researcher.

Status of Marketing Research:

In earlier stages, the market was a smaller one. But now the gap between the consumers and the producers is wider. Competition may enter at any time in the market. Changes are always there. The taste of the buyers changes at any time. For example, the higher demand, in the past for radio is replaced by television; the higher demand for Terrilyn is replaced by polyester.

Thus, day to day changes take place in the market. Changes may occur in the market because of technological progress, expansion of markets and sales, complexity growth of market, changes in the consumption pattern etc. The changes that take place in the markets must be understood and get idea by the management. For this, the management must depend upon the marketing research as a guide. It is an aid to the management. It places all necessary facts before the management, who can shape the solution to the problems. Marketing research plays an important role in decision-making.

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/travel/bannikin-welcomes-industry-insider-terrilyn-kunopaski-to-trade-development-role/

Bannikin welcomes industry insider Terrilyn Kunopaski to trade development role

Terrilyn Kunopaski has nearly a decade of experience in Canada’s travel industry, specifically in roles with travel trade publication PAX Global Media and most recently, My Passion Media, where she was editor-in-chief of Canadian Traveller and trade-focused CT magazines.

[demiurgent]

⎇023ALT: Tailor’s Honor #1

⎇023ALT: Tailor’s Honor #1

A new serial for a new phase of Banter Latte! It’s not replacing anything, and yes there’s going to be more forward motion now that we’ve gotten through a pretty intense spring around where I am. There should, in fact, be several posts today. This is somewhere between Space Opera, speculative SF, adventure fiction, and… I guess a Western? Yeah, why not.

This post takes place in an alternate…

[narrans]

The Orion's Daughter : To Lands Beyond | Chapter Twelve : On The Horizon

**~~~~~**

Chapter Twelve | On The Horizon

**~~~~~**

“Positions seven, thirty-two, twenty-nine, forty-five, three, three, one, seventeen, fifty-five, fifty-six, fifty-four, one, nine, nine, change, sixteen, twenty-one, thirty-one, seventy-four, forty-seven, and eighty-three. Go!”

Steele was drilling me on all of the form combinations he could think of. It was a bit of a game, and it was something I enjoyed doing. The positions were numbered from one to one hundred thirty-six, and I needed to be able to maneuver and combine them as fast as possible without making mistakes.

It was a test of physical ability, mental awareness, and accuracy.

I loved it.

Sword in hand, I let my body fall into the motions of each and every position, performing them with the desired speed and accuracy of a knight or warrior from all of those stories I grew up reading.

I started with my blade in the appropriate position and stabbed it into the ground during certain maneuvers in imitation of striking down an enemy as I rolled and tumbled in the fields. I twisted and kicked, snagging my dagger from my ankle sheath and switching hands as I lashed out and punched with as much ferocity I could muster.

My voice rang out as I shouted from time to time in an attempt to sound intimidating. The wind picked up, making my flowing shirt billow and flare. My auburn hair flowed like flames of a fire off of my head. I charged forward and lunged, spinning on my heel and slashing out with my sword before tossing it into the air, rolling forward in a tumble, and catching the blade at the end as I stood and thrust once more.

Steele, watching me closely, made no movement as he watched me. I could see his keen, militaristic gaze on me. I could practically see the wheels turning in his head as he evaluated each and every movement I performed.

I had to be perfect.

There was no way I wasn’t spot on with every position!

I knew better than to open my mouth prematurely to protest, but there was some part of me that was getting antsy. Still, I held my stance in that lunge, sword outstretched and threatening to get heavier every moment.

Then, a contagious smile spread across Steele’s face. He raised his immense hands and, very lightly, began to clap, pride shining in his features. Only now did I know it was alright to break position, and so I did, exiting my exercise through the right poses and taking a deep breath. My heart was racing. Every part of me felt powerful and strong.

I did it!

Once my heart calmed, I charged forward toward Steele, my feet unable to carry me fast enough. Instinctually, he lowered his hand and let me slam into his open fingers. I wrapped my arms around his fingers as they closed around me. I was weightless as Steele lifted me into the air, propping his hand up on his leg as he sat with one leg crossed and the other propped up.

I spun around and faced him, seeing the flecks of violet in his eyes practically glowing with unspoken praise. As he spoke, he addressed me in his tongue, speaking in his native language.

“Terrilyn, you have done so well! Every movement was executed perfectly. Your stance and your energy matched our finest warriors. You would be welcomed in the Orion’s ranks as a true warrior for certain,” commended Steele. With that, the Orion leaned forward and tenderly pressed his forehead to mine.

It was a simple gesture, and it was one we had done a million times, but this time somehow felt different. This time, it felt like some kind of acknowledgement of equality. Was that some kind of test he just put me through? Some kind of warrior training test that only the Orion would be familiar with?

I wasn’t going to soil the mood with too many questions now. For the present, I was here with Steele enjoying the warmth of the sun and a job well done in my training.

When the moment ended, Steele glanced toward the ocean and then back to me, a youthful grin playing at his lips.

“Care for a victory swim?” he asked. I knew exactly what that meant, and I crouched on his palm, bracing myself for what was to come.

“Let’s go!” I shouted. With incredible speed, Steele spun from a sitting position to a standing one, giving my head a harsh, swirling sensation as he leaned forward and charged toward the water, running as fast as he could. For being older, he knew how to move quickly.

Steele’s strides shook the earth far below. I dared to lean forward and lean partially over the edge of his hand to watch the blur of bright greens and colorful flowers below. Step after step jostled my entire body, but I had practiced enough with Steele to know when to brace for each step.

The cliffs were just ahead. I felt him accelerate, and for good reason too. Steele needed to time this perfectly if he wanted to jump onto the beach and then leap into the water. His stride lengthened and then in three strides, two strides, and then one, he lowered his shoulders and cleared the edge of the cliff in a single bound.

He made one massive step on the beach, his stability wavering only for a moment, before he leapt out as far as he could. Steele’s hand clutched me to his chest, and I braced myself for the impact of the water.

The sound of Steele’s body impacting on the water was like that of an avalanche, the roar of the waves erupting out from under him as he created a whole new pattern of waves using only his torso. The water encased his fingers, and me with it, within seconds. Together, we sank down a short distance before Steele raised his hand up, breaking the surface of the water and letting me take a breath as he regained his footing and stood on the ocean bed.

I wiped the water away from my eyes and watched as Steele’s face and head emerged from the water, droplets the size of my head clinging to his hair. Playfully, he shook his hair free from the water, splattering me with a round of rain, before we both burst out in a round of chuckles and laughter. Sopping wet, I pushed myself up to my feet before glancing down over the edge of his hand and, taking a big breath, leapt into the water far below.

I plunged into the refreshing water and forced my eyes open to look into the blue abyss around me. The endless ocean extended far below to where I could barely make out Steele’s toes from where I was swimming. Maneuvering through the water, I cupped the water and kicked my legs up and down as I dove further down.

I loved being under the water. It was like I was being suspended in space, moving in three different ways instead of just two. Being completely weightless, I tried a couple of the maneuvers I did on land before I needed to come up for air.

Just as I came up for air, I saw Steele duck beneath the waves, making us eye-to-eye for a moment, before he snagged a handful of sand and followed me to the surface. The waves made it difficult, and my clothes were not helping, but I managed to make it over to the side and onto Steele’s hand where I sifted through the sand to find more shells and teeth.

We did the same thing for nearly an hour before we decided to go and dry ourselves in the afternoon sun’s light. Steele waded through the water, setting me down on the edge of the shale cliffs as he hoisted himself out of the water and onto the grassy ledge.

Happiness.

Fun.

Training.

Educating.

This is everything a life should be.

I laid backward into the grassy hill behind me, staring up at the flowers and, just for a moment, pretending that the flowers were immense, and I was small.

What a fascinating perspective.

I must have dozed off because the sun was much lower in the sky when I opened my eyes next. My momma’s voice calling for Steele and I is what caught my attention. I was about to call back when I heard some twinge of something in her voice. Worry? Concern?

Like being jolted awake by a sudden splash of cold water, I was upright and on my feet, hand on my sword, in an instant. Steele evidently heard the same thing in my momma’s voice too because he was also upright and had turned her attention toward our home.

She was running quickly from our home, her red hair bouncing and flying behind her, giving her an odd ethereal look about her as she ran.

“Mom! We’re here! What is it?” I called, looking down the road and across the fields for anything that might be the reason for her alarm. When she finally made it up to me, I glanced over her in a frenzy. She wasn’t injured. There were no bruises on her face or her body. Her clothes weren’t torn.

What happened?

“Mom?” I asked, catching her light, bark brown eyes with my own. “Take a breath and calm down. What happened?” I felt a calm settling over my body as I prepared for the worst. In reply, momma handed me a spyglass she had bartered for the last time the gypsies came to town. She pushed it into my hands and pointed to the horizon.

Confusion settled over me, but I obeyed her silent command and turned the spyglass to the horizon. I traced back and forth methodically, trying to spot what my momma had spotted. Was she looking for us and see something from home? I swept over the horizon again, much slower this time.

That’s when I saw it.

Sails.

Massive, beautiful, impossibly white sails.

I pulled the spyglass from my eye and glanced back to my momma, but noticed Steele’s reaction first.

His entire body was completely rigid. An odd tenseness settled over him, and there was an anxious energy radiating from his body.

Why was Steele nervous?

“Steele? What is it? What do you see?” I asked as I held the spyglass to my eye once again. I looked to the mast of the ship to see a crest on a white flag. It looked like four odd red crosses against a bright gold background, three on top and one beneath, while the bottom third was a smattering of white and blue triangles. I looked back to Steele, whose eyes had not shifted from the ship in the distance. Even at his age, he could still see and detect so much at such a great distance.

“Steele? Do you know what that means?” I asked.

“Yes,” said Steele, his voice low in a borderline growl. “That is the crest of Iothea – my people – and I suspect I know why they’re here.”

Iothea? Steele’s homeland?

So… that meant…

I looked back to the ship, jaw slackening ever so slightly as the realizations hit me.

That ship was from the Orion – was filled with Orion.

But why were they here?

Steele said he suspected why, but now I felt curious.

Why wasn’t he saying why he thought they were there? I looked at the ship through the spyglass and realized that we would find out soon enough. The sails were furling, meaning whoever was on that ship was coming ashore.

~~~~~^*^*^*^*^~~~~~

Continue

Previous

Beginning

~~~~~^*^*^*^*^~~~~~

Book One: The Orion’s Factotum

[cstesttaken]

It's time marketing went all in on machine learning and AI (VB Live)

The trend is unstoppable and the results are extraordinary. Learn how machine learning and artificial intelligence can deliver highly personalized, real-time consumer engagement at a significantly lower cost when you join this interactive VB Live event.

The global cognitive computing market is expected to reach $12.5 billion in 2019, up from $2.5 billion in 2014, at a CAGR of 38 percent.

“Machine learning is exploding right now,”says Stewart Rogers, director of marketing technology at VentureBeat. “We can’t ignore the hype.”

But it’s not just the growth of the market and the size of the market.

“AI technology projects at Google have absolutely exploded over the last four years,” Rogers notes. “They’ve gone from almost nothing to over 2,700 projects in deep learning and artificial intelligence — and that’s just at google. Everybody’s working on AI and machine learning. And they all have similar growth rates. They all have thousands of projects going on at the same time.”

And that’s opening up the world of machine learning and AI for every size business.

“Where we are is that now, every company can be a data company,” Rogers says. “Every company can access algorithmic intelligence. Every app can now be intelligent.”

In other words, there are immediate machine learning opportunities for businesses right now, and the results are staggering, says Terrilyn Tourangeau, Choice Hotels’ director of loyalty marketing.

“We dipped our toe in the artificial intelligence arena last year, and took a very conservative approach to what we were even considering trying, with a very small investment across a few opportunities in our digital channels ” Tourangeau says. “The promised results sounded absolutely too good to be true. Even I approached it with a level of skepticism, and I’m an early adopter of innovative technologies.”

But implementers are believers.

“The results that we saw even from that tiny investment in AI were outstanding,” says Tourangeau. “Astounding and outstanding, to the point where I was almost uncomfortable publishing them, because I didn’t think anyone would believe it.”

From that small proof of value they went all in.

“We cashed in all of our chips in this one particular arena to optimize revenue,” she says. “And this technology absolutely pays dividends.”

AI and machine learning pays marketing dividends too, says Keith Johnson, EVP of strategic data solutions at leading digital agency Wunderman.

“We see a lot of customers and clients focused on ways they can optimize the business either through growth — how they can use machine learning to accelerate customer acquisition — or how they can use machine learning to help decrease costs through operational efficiencies,” Johnson explains.

With the ability to absorb enormous datasets, machine learning systems can be trained to optimize response rates for marketing or advertising campaigns, optimize creative in real time, even how to optimize each marketing channel.

“And all of these systems having a feedback loop mechanism in them, so the machine learning keeps learning,” Johnson says. “And the more you learn, the more you learn, which really acts as an accelerator for the business and opens up opportunities to do other things.”

Jim D’Arcangelo, WhenIWork’s VP of marketing, has seen a huge push in the course of the last five or six years to harness the power of machine learning and AI for engaging new customers, acquisition optimization, and all the way through customer advocacy and churn reduction, and the market is rushing to keep up.

“Most of the pieces right now are classically driving statistics, probability and optimization,” D’Arcangelo says. “They’re largely single marketing tech stack pieces, but we’re seeing an explosion of them from basically less than 500 four years ago to nearly 4,000 now.”

Leaps in optimization and yield are incredibly dramatic, D’Arcangelo says, and the technology is growing ever more sophisticated, even more quickly.

“In terms of opportunity in years ahead, we’ll move from machine learning in individual pieces to a fully integrated smart, AI-driven system from end to end,” says D’Arcangelo. “That’s definitely in the near future. Within five, six, seven years you’re going to see most of this entire engagement through acquisition through customer advocacy continuum being driven by AI.”

And that’s just for starters.

For the nitty gritty on how you can identify opportunities for machine learning, the technology you need, and how to use AI to deliver tremendous growth don’t miss this VB Live event.

In this VB Live event, you’ll:

Learn how speech recognition impacts the SEO value on your web presence

Understand the full ROI of fully automated chat bots for artificial human interaction

Integrate deep learning into your marketing strategy to realize unbelievable lift

Stewart Rogers, Director of Marketing Technology, VentureBeat

Keith Johnson, EVP Strategic Data Solutions, Wunderman

Terrilyn Tourangeau, Director of Loyalty Marketing, Choice Hotels

Jim D’Arcangelo, VP of Marketing, WhenIWork

Wendy Schuchart, Moderator, VentureBeat

This VB Live event is sponsored by Treasure Data.

Source

https://venturebeat.com/2017/03/30/its-time-marketing-went-all-in-on-machine-learning-and-ai-vb-live/

[marcysimmons]

19th Annual Holiday Open House

19th Annual Holiday Open House

Rogers Historical Museum

19th Annual Holiday Open House

WHEN: December 7 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

WHERE: 322 South Second, corner of Second and Cherry in the Rogers Historic District

CONTACT INFORMATION: TERRILYN WENDLING @ 621-1154 OR TWENDLING@ROGERSAR.GOV

The Rogers Historical Museum is once again hosting their annual holiday open house. This year’s theme is Here Comes Santa.This free event…

[vintagerealestateaz]

New Homes

Contents

Space undergoes major changes

When lowe’s comp

New home database. compare pricing

Browse new homes

Reported how well

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Mansions For Sale Listing Buying A House In Austin, the median home price reached $320,000 in july. this article is reprinted by permission from NerdWallet. In this s… When buying a house is high on your priority list and you spot The One—the house that has everything you’ve ever dreamed of a… Luxury Homes New Homes For Sale

While the retail space undergoes major changes, the standout of the sector continues to be home improvement. when lowe’s comp…

The next time you walk into a sales center at a new home community, you may be stepping into a shipping container. In the lat…

GREENBRIER, Tenn. – A family who lost their home to a fire in May is getting a new one thanks to the kindness of community me…

Property Mansions For Sale Listing Buying A House In Austin, the median home price reached $320,000 in july. this article is reprinted by permission from NerdWallet. In this s… When buying a house is high on your priority list and you spot The One—the house that has everything you’ve ever dreamed of a… Luxury Homes New

Search Over 10,000 New Home Communities – the World’s Largest new home database. compare pricing, Pictures, and Floor Plans for New Homes for Sale.

Find new homes for sale in your neighborhood. Browse new home builder communities, floor plans, and big beautiful photos at realtor.com®

Home Finder Listing Buying A House In Austin, the median home price reached $320,000 in july. this article is reprinted by permission from NerdWallet. In this s… When buying a house is high on your priority list and you spot The One—the house that has everything you’ve ever dreamed of a… Luxury Homes New Homes For Sale Listing Buying A House In Austin, the median home price reached $320,000 in july. this article is reprinted by permission from NerdWallet. In this s… When buying a house is high on your priority list and you spot The One—the house that has everything you’ve ever dreamed of a… Luxury Homes New Homes For Sale Toll

Search for & browse new homes, houses, builders, and communities by state & city.

Apparently, the analysts at Best Buy are on to us after we reported how well the new Lenovo Smart Display works, especially in the kitchen. Now PhoneArena is reporting that Best Buy is including a com…

Scott Kish II and Terrilyn Van Gorder join new brokerage in Northeast as strategic move SHELTON, Conn., Aug. 28, 2018 /PRNews…

The post New Homes appeared first on Vintage Real Estate Arizona.

from Homes New http://vintagerealestateaz.com/new-homes/

[painted-ursa]

Long time no see tumblr. School sucks. And so does figuring out how to draw digitally lmao. I’m tired of working on this. Have a Terrilyn. She’s crazy and she wants to kill your boyfriend and your whole family. 

[travelworldnetwork]

Like clockwork, a recently discovered Arizona rock art calendar marks the passing of the seasons

By Larry Bleiberg

17 May 2018

All day the sun had been hiding behind clouds, but Kenneth Zoll wasn’t worried.

Standing in front of panels of rock art carved nearly a millennium ago, the researcher pointed to petroglyphs of snakes, coyote and deer, and singled out several concentric circles. Then he told his 100-strong audience to note the two rocks wedged into a crack above his head.

Zoll swept his arm across the entire scene. “This,” he explained, “was a way to track time.”

This was a way to track time

As if by command, a few minutes later the clouds began to part. And at 13:40, like a perfectly calibrated Swiss watch, a beam of light passed over the rocks and projected two shadows across the panel. For the next six minutes, their edge held still, just touching three circles.

Spring had arrived in Arizona’s Verde Valley.

On this day, March 20, at archaeological sites around the globe, from Mexico’s Chichen Itza to Malta’s Mnajdra temple, something similar was happening. On the vernal equinox, ancient ruins were aligning with the sun, and – whether anyone was watching or not – they were silently marking the changing season.

View image of Petroglyphs in Arizona’s Coconino National Forest were carved to track the passage of time (Credit: Credit: Larry Bleiberg)

When the sun emerged here at the Coconino National Forest near Sedona, Arizona, the crowd began to buzz with excitement. Susie Reed, a local photographer, said she felt it was important to see the rock mark this day, when the sun passes over the equator. “We keep the energy alive by coming out here.”

But until the last decade, it had been centuries since anyone noticed.

We keep the energy alive by coming out here

In 2005, Zoll, then 57 and a volunteer at the forest’s V Bar V historical ranch site, detected a pattern to the shadows cast on the park’s huge rock art panels, which are covered with more than 1,000 petroglyphs.

Could this, he wondered, be an ancient calendar?

He shared his observation with a forest service archaeologist, who wasn’t particularly impressed. Archaeo- or cultural astronomy, the study of how ancient peoples tracked the seasons and studied the cosmos, has fought for respectability. It’s hard to prove that alignment with the sun, moon or stars isn’t mere coincidence. And in the past, some advocates haven’t helped their case, suggesting that prehistoric sites could have been fashioned by space aliens.

View image of Kenneth Zoll kept careful records of how the sun and the shadows fell over the petroglyphs of the V Bar V historical ranch site (Credit: Credit: Larry Bleiberg)

But in the last decades, scholars have shown that societies once considered primitive actively monitored celestial events, and Unesco has begun to recognise the astronomical heritage of sites such as Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico and England’s Stonehenge.

And while the rock art at V Bar V isn’t nearly as grand as more famous markers, Zoll thought it too held a secret. The forest service scientist told him to observe the site for a year and then get back to him.

Undaunted, the former computer systems manager began to watch and keep careful records. “I went from high tech of the 20th Century to high tech of the 11th Century,” he said.

And what he found astonished him.

View image of Zoll believes the Sunagua people created the calendar to mark religious ceremonies and track the growing seasons (Credit: Credit: U.S. Forest Service Coconino National Forest)

Every month, as the sun interacted with the art, the rock, it seemed, was speaking to him. On the summer solstice, which falls on 21 June this year, shadows interplayed with half a dozen images on the stone. Six months later, on the shortest day of the year, the sun shone directly through a notch between two rocks.

It was agriculture that likely inspired the so-called imaging calendar, Zoll said. The Sinagua people, who researchers believe lived and farmed here between the 7th and 15th Centuries, grew corn, cotton, squash and beans. Their descendants, the Hopi people, now live about 150 miles away.

It’s a time machine for the gods

When Zoll spoke to the Hopi, he learned that the panel appeared to mark religious celebrations and important dates for farmers. On 21 April, a day associated with the first planting, a shadow’s bottom edge touches a carving resembling a corn stalk. One of the most compelling findings comes on 8 July, the end of a 16-day Hopi period of prayer and meditation. On that day, the sun perfectly outlines a figure that appears to be dancing.

“It’s a time machine for the gods to tell you it’s time for a ceremony,” said Scott Newth, an officer with the Arizona Archaeological Society, who tracks rock art across the region.

Hopi elder Floyd Lomakuyvaya, 65, said that some of the petroglyphs are the familiar symbols of tribal clans. “I feel proud because our ancestors left these marks. Every month we have different ceremonies, and different things happen. That’s our calendar. It guides us.”

And on this year on the vernal equinox, Hopis were in full-force at the rock art site. They had brought a youth group to learn about their heritage and to help with demonstrations, including an agave pit roast. The sizeable head of the desert plant was a staple for the tribe, providing sustenance throughout the year.

That’s our calendar – it guides us

Zoll has documented a dozen sites in the Verde Valley area of central Arizona that are likely to be calendars, and more than 30 others have been found in the region around the city of Phoenix, he said. Most have rock art with concentric circles, which appear to align with shadows at specific times of year. “We always wondered why we’d see the exact same images.”

He says one working theory is that outsiders travelled through the region, teaching locals how to construct the calendars. This is based on the discovery of a northern Arizona burial of a man who appeared to be a visitor because his body was larger than others found in the area. He was buried with a medallion etched with concentric circles.

View image of More than 30 other petroglyph examples believed to be ancient rock calendars have been found in central Arizona (Credit: Credit: U.S. Forest Service Coconino National Forest)

Researchers have also discovered several observation sites in the area that appear to have been used by sun watchers, tribal members who were tasked with observing the daily rise and setting of the sun. It’s a position of honour that still exists in Hopi communities, where members of the Water Clan attend to that duty. Indeed, turtles, which are their clan symbol, appear to be carved above the V Bar V rock. As the minutes ticked by that afternoon, the shadows grew more distinct on the rock face, and then they slowly started to fade away.

Zoll didn��t seem surprised that the sky had cleared just in time for the display. Early in his research, something similar occurred during a solstice. It had been overcast all day and then suddenly the sun emerged, just in time for him to record its shadow. A few minutes later, the clouds returned.

When he recounted the story later, a Hopi man offered an explanation: “The creator wanted you to see that.”

View image of According to forest ranger Terrilyn Green, the migration pattern of the common black hawk is another way to track time (Credit: Credit: S.B. Nace/Getty Images)

Forest ranger Terrilyn Green, who was supervising the equinox event, said she’s pleased how the rock art’s fame is growing, but notes there are many ways to track time.

Every year, the common black hawk returns from its winter migration to Arizona’s Verde Valley in late March. “It’s amazing. It’s like a wonderful harbinger of spring,” Green said.

And that morning, like clockwork, she heard the raptor’s call for the first time this year.

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