The rocks are a myth.
"𝑹𝒐𝒄𝒌𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒍, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒋𝒊 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏." 🪨
Petition for Emoji: ROCK: https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2019/19145-rock-emoji.pdf
By Christian Krenek, the man who gave us the rock emoji.
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𝑳𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒖𝒎: 𝑾𝒉𝒚?
Here's the short version:
🪨 Drove far, found new rocks on the way
🪨 Forgot about rocks for 5 years
🪨 Remembered a chunk of basalt when teaching about volcanoes
🪨 Students liked the basalt
🪨 I put the basalt in a clear make-up box, called it a classroom museum
🪨 Kids wanted more rocks, bought more rocks, went to rock show, bought more rocks
🪨 Rock show was cool, thought it needed more fun, outdoor festival with scavenger hunts etc.
🪨 Decided to sell rocks to make festival happen
🪨 Bought a lot more rocks
🪨 Went to places to get rocks direct from nature
🪨 6 months later, posted 4 rocks on Etsy
𝑮𝒐 𝒐𝒏…
You deserve a promo code for even making it this far. Here's the long version instead.
I picked up some cool looking rocks while on a roadtrip one year, had a little collection going. Some black rocks, some brown rocks, one that's shaped like triangle, the whole deal.
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5 years later I was teaching 5th graders about volcanoes, and I started talking about basalt. I remembered I actually had a chunk of basalt from that trip, and the kids wanted me to bring it in. Naturally, having a captive audience and the opportunity to get paid while ranting about rocks, I brought in a whole bucket of rocks.
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The kids were fascinated by the basalt, and I started coming back from lunch to find small piles of driveway pebbles on my desk. They were like those crows that bring people shiny things in exchange for snacks. Except it was mostly basalt, and not very shiny. They'd ask if it was rare, I'd just tell 'em it was millions of years old. Then they'd do a fortnite dance.
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Soon after, I experienced my first rock & mineral show. It was a great experience with great people, but I kept thinking about all the activities booths could do to make it more engaging for kids, families, and people like me, who had neither expendable funds nor self control. Decided I'd try to make a small outdoor rock/science festival.
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Scavenger hunts, games, interactive activities, and custom made fossil-dig matrix that was diabolically difficult to dig. I'd have to have rock painting, jewelry-making, science experiments, and storytelling in a planetarium tent. I hope to achieve this in collaboration with local artists, educational organizations, and small businesses, ideally making it free to attend.
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Lithorium's goal is to raise funds to make this happen, and to share some stories along the way. Buy my quartz.
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I also intend to submit applications for more rock emojis, the rest of the planets (including Pluto), at least one nebula, and the 7th color of the rainbow, which also happens to be a promo code. Thanks for reading.
(A portion of all sales will go towards my basic survival; once I get that down, I'll put money toward the event with a publicly visible fund tracker).
