Picturepocket's Blog

Tag: history

  • Unreliable Narrators 

    I’ve always found using self-reporting to be a tricky way of gathering information. I think my skepticism probably started with my experience with the Myers-Briggs test. It was all the rage in the 1990s. The test produced a four-letter result based on a bunch of questions to categorize people with personality traits. I had to…

  • Old Mexico

    Recently, my Netflix algorithm has introduced some Spanish-language content, including a historical fiction based in Mexico. Despite being our next door neighbors, I realized I was a little foggy on the details of the Mexican revolution. To better follow the story, I dug into the history behind the drama.  Like the United States, modern Mexico…

  • Genesis 50: The Final Scene

    Genesis 50: The Final Scene

    The last chapter of Genesis opens with Joseph weeping over the body of Israel. He has his father’s corpse embalmed in a forty-day process. This is an Egyptian custom rather than the traditional practice of shepherds. Joseph tells Pharaoh about his father’s death and the Egyptians weep for him for seventy days. They are honoring…

  • Genesis 47: Settling In 

    Genesis 47: Settling In 

    Joseph’s family moved to the land of Goshen, the Nile Delta. Joseph brought five of his brothers to Pharaoh and presented them. The Pharaoh agreed to them living in the land of Rameses and offered them jobs tending his royal flocks. Joseph also presented his father Israel who was 130 and said his days were…

  • Genesis 41: Pharaoh’s Famine

    Genesis 41: Pharaoh’s Famine

    Two whole years layer, the Pharaoh has a series of distressing dreams. In the first, seven attractive, plump cows come out of the Nile river followed by seven ugly, thin ones. The thin ones devour the plump ones. In the second dream, Pharaoh sees seven ears of grain growing from a stalk, followed by seven…

  • Genesis 40: Grape & Grain

    Genesis 40: Grape & Grain

    Joseph has now been in prison for a while. What’s a while? Five weeks? Five months? Something happens in the palace and Pharaoh angrily tosses two of his inner circle into prison: his chief baker and royal cup bearer. Did someone in the palace get food poisoning? The head of the prisoners, assigns Joseph to…

  • Genesis 36: Everybody’s Kids

    Genesis 36: Everybody’s Kids

    In Genesis 35:23-26 there is a summary of all the male children from Israel organized by mother starting with the sisters. Leah had Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. Rachel had Joseph and Benjamin. The servant Bilhah had Dan and Naphtali, and Zilpha had Gad and Asher for a total of twelve sons.  Genesis…

  • 90s Summers

    90s Summers

    On the Internet, people were commenting that they wanted to do a summer like the 1990s. So now you get to hear about what I remember from summers growing up.  My mom used to work during day and my dad would be home with in the days over the summer break. He worked the swing…

  • Genesis 19: Fire & Salt

    The angels that had visited Abraham arrive in Sodom and Lot greets them at the gate of the city. As evening approaches, he invites them to stay at his home instead of the town square. They are there to assess the wickedness of the city and will have an answer within a few hours. That…

  • Genesis 15: Dreams & Visions

    Abram has a vision of God saying, “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”  Instead of just accepting this, Abram questions God about his childlessness. He doesn’t understand how the promise of having countless descendants can be fulfilled without even having one kid. What gives? Now that his nephew Lot…