Whitewater Rafting on the Youghiogheny

Yup, that's me, front left, concentrating fiercely on making sure our raft doesn't flip over in the Class IV rapids at Dimple Rock, Youghiogheny River, near Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania. I went there with two of my three brothers, a nephew, Mark's brother-in-law and another friend of his. We had a blast. Perfect weather, great rapids, cool water. Very relaxing and exhiliarating, all at once.

From left to right, Grant Rodkey, Yours Truly, Mark Rodkey (obscured behind my head), Mike Kamm (mouth open...), Marky Rodkey (Mark's son) and Rick Thurman (Mark's brother-in-law). 

Ashkelon Beach, funky hat, scraggly beard, outdated glasses, pasty white skin? What could be better? I'm so un-hip, I'm hip!

So... Why Ashkelon? A little break in the action in south-central Israel, where I have directed the computer aspect of an archaeology dig for 6 of the past 8 years. Not this summer, but probably next summer. Oh, the dig is called Zeitah, and it has generated a bunch of interest in the global press as a result of a rare find: a 10th century B.C. Hebrew abecedary.
More on all that later.

Small starts, big beginnings

Well, how does one start blogging, and how is it different from the very familiar world of emailings and static web sites? I guess one goes about it in just this way: sit down and throw something on the screen and see what sticks.

After pondering that metaphor, I think my first task is to answer the question "Who is this blogger, and why does he use such bad metaphors?"

I am John Rodkey, Associate director of Information Technology at Westmont College, Director of Archaeological Computing for the Zeitah Excavation, Inc., and Grand Poobah of the Fearless Aeronca Aviators (f-AA for short), husband and father. I'll probably talk mostly about Zeitah, archaeology and data techniques associated with archaeology here, but may throw in the occasional reference to
Westmont or Aeronca airplanes, so I might as well throw you those links from the get-go.

John