Books of 2008, Part V

Yesterday afternoon I finished Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. This is the only non-Discworld book of Pratchett's that I've read, although you wouldn't necessarily know it's not a Discworld book when you read it. Death's in it, and he even speaks in all caps.

Anyway, this is a story of Armageddon. The forces of Heaven and Hell are massing, the "Great Ineffable Plan" is moving forward, but, unfortunately, there was a mixup at a maternity ward some years ago, and someone has misplaced the Antichrist child. Whoops.

This is a very Pratchetty book, which means that if you're a big TP fan, you'll probably like it. I'm not a BIG TP fan, though I've read, like, seven or eight of his other books. I wish I liked him more; I really do. I like his sense of humor, but every one of his other books suffers from pacing problems. The first hundred pages are always great, and then it's as if he looks at the audience and says, "well, now what?" Actually, it's kind of like any number of old Monty Python's Flying Circus sketches, where the humor isn't quite enough to sustain a full five- or six-minute sketch.

I dunno. I liked Small Gods the best of all his other books I've read, but I liked this one well enough. I'm not familiar enough with Neil Gaiman to be able to really detect his contributions to the story very often (though there are a few points in the story that don't seem Pratchetty enough; I suppose that's where Gaiman took over).

This isn't one of those books where you can really derive much useful "life lesson" kind of enlightenment; it's fluff, but it's entertaining and humorous fluff. And there's certainly room for that kind of thing now and then.

Groundhogs Day?

I went to the orthodontist today for the second time this week. I go back next Thursday. I am starting to feel like Bill Murray did after the third or fourth time. I just want to be mean and nasty and somehow change the course of things so drastically it will all end.

Sigh.

Some hope for Cuba?

I just saw this article. I hope that Raul is much less of a dictator than his brother was, and so far he is moving in a positive direction. Hopefully this will lead to new relations with the US as well.

Longer life

I was pretty sure grad school was killing me slowly until I read this article. The only explanation I can think of is that you adapt to being so tired that your immune system becomes stronger.

Braces

I still have them, if you haven't already heard me complain recently. I went today for another appointment. I went from appointments every 6 weeks, to 4 weeks, to 2 weeks, and now I go back in four days. It is getting closer, but they still aren't off yet. My orthodontist is trying to get them off before my conference in early April. I hope he succeeds this time.

Table Rock

I had to go up to Table Rock State Park to do some work for one of my jobs, and in order to do it I needed to spend the night. Luckily they have nice, newly restored cabins up there for people to rent, and since I work for them, I got to rent one for free. T and I have been needing a vacation for a long time now, so he took the day off and joined me up there. I had to do a tiny amount of work hanging up pictures, but we got to spend the rest of the night playing games and talking. When we woke up in the morning we went on a small hike and then headed home to go to a wedding. I got some great pictures of the trip, so enjoy.














We have to drive through a town called Pumpkintown. This is Pumpkintown's claim to fame. A giant pumpkin float. They also have a large rocking chair on the hillside where you can't sit on it.














This is the cabin we stayed in. It doesn't look like much, but it was very cute inside. It had a fully stocked kitchen, bed and bathroom linens, a fireplace, bedroom, bathroom, and a nice frontroom with a table and some cozy furniture. The screened in porch would have been nicer had it not been so cold outside.














It was raining pretty heavily the whole day, but we were inside so it didn't bother us. We couldn't see the mountain peak because it was so cloudy. It is behind this hill.















The next day we were able to at least see the peak, (Table Rock) but it wasn't exactly sunny or warm. In fact, it hailed on our little hike. We had to run through some of the streams that had overflowed their banks, and our feet got a little wet and cold.














The mountain on the left is Table Rock. The peak on the right is Stool Mountain. The rocks got their name from the Native Americans who believed that God sat for dinner each night.















This is one of about a dozen amazing waterfalls that we saw on our hike. Unfortunately, people were very inconsiderate with their litter and plastic water bottles were everywhere.

We have really come a long way

I was doing some research today that required me to look at some old files from the Civil Rights era. If you ever think that we haven't come very far in regards to race relations, you should read some of the letters of opposition to segregated areas being close to white facilities. One lady wrote that by allow Negroes into the park, you would be polluting it and forever ruining it. And if you let them use the lake to swim, the water would be forever contaminated, and the cattle or people who drink it down stream will be ill. She also makes several references to their supposed overabundant drinking problem, which apparently all black people participated in. I read several of the types of letters and the things these people believed and said are just astonishing. Luckily, there were also several people who had some common sense and decency in them to balance it out.

Will it ever end

Next week is Spring Break, and I am sure everyone automatically thinks of vacations to Cancun or some other fun and sun location. I don't think I have EVER had one of these breaks, or anything that can be in any way confused for such. This Spring Break is going to be no exception.
I already had planned to work two of my three jobs and do research for two projects that are due at the end of the semester, and make my poster for my presentation in April. (Which I have barely touched.) Well now on top of that I have just been given a mid term essay to complete for one of my classes, and the Professor I TA for just informed us that we will be grading a quiz over the break as well. I had great plans to get caught up and even maybe ahead, but in reality that isn't going to happen.
Luckily I have the task of also trying to plan my trip to the United Kingdom (England, Ireland and Scotland now) that helps me get distracted. It is far more fun to search for cool things to do, bargain hunt for airfare, and dream about all the places I can take great photos. While I am going to miss T terribly, I think this is going to be a great experience for me. We get to work on some preservation projects while we are over there that will really look good on my CV. Plus T gets to come join us the last week of the trip.
In addition, I do get to go on a small trip for Spring Break. My work is sending me to one of the State Parks to finish a project, and they suggested I stay the night. So T and I get to go do about two hours of work in exchange for free room and board in an awesome historic cabin at a great mountain area. I also bought T tickets to Blue Man Group for his B-day, so that should be great fun as well. Now is we can only get a game night scheduled in there, it won't be such a bad break after all.

Books of 2008, Part IV

Earlier today I finished The Catcher In the Rye, J.D. Salinger's classic novel of teenage alienation. Unlike most high school students in this country, I somehow got out of reading this one in school; I'm guessing the profanity had something to do with it.

Anyway, I'd never read it before. For those of you who, like me, somehow avoided it all these years, the story centers around Holden Caulfield, a directionless, depressed 16-year-old who has just been expelled from his fancy prep school and must now figure out what he wants to do with his life.

I nearly dropped out of college after my first semester, due to lousy grades and a general sense that I wasn't smart enough to figure out what to do about it. I've since learned that a great many smart kids do poorly their first years in college, due to a lack of experience with having to study. (That was definitely my problem.) The thing is, I can remember getting my crappy grades, and thinking, well, that's it, I'm too stupid for college. The idea that I was going to have to stay at whatever crappy job I had then, or choose from other similarly crappy jobs, for the rest of my career, was utterly demoralizing.

In that regard I was able to sympathize with Holden's dilemma. He was smart enough to see through all the BS inherent in school--especially high school--and he was aware enough of his intelligence to keep him from being humble enough to deal with it. Reading this book brought back some of that dread, some of that "well what now?" feeling that brought a cold lump of fear to my stomach even back then. As such, it was hard to get through it--it's depressing, and Holden isn't a particularly likable person.

I can see, though, why it's stood the test of time over all these years, as well as why it's been challenged and banned and whined about by uptight parents all that time. There's a day that comes at least once for just about all of us where we need to decide where to go, and why. It can be hard to remember that you're not the only one to be faced with these questions.

Books of 2008, Part III

This one took me a while, but a couple of days ago I finished The Dragon Reborn, book three (of a planned twelve) of the late Robert Jordan's epic fantasy saga, The Wheel of Time.

I'm late to this party, I know; all the hardcore WoT-ies (including many of my siblings and my dad) started reading these books years ago. I read the first two or three books back when I was in high school, but I stopped reading them because I would only devote five or ten minutes a day to reading for pleasure, right before I went to bed. That's no way to read an 8000-page saga featuring hundreds of characters, unique locations and storylines, intrigue, shifting alliances, and all that stuff. So I put it aside and figured I'd come back to it later.

Well, when I got back into reading for fun (imagine that!) I knew I wanted to come back and read this series. I figured it would probably be better to wait until all the books were out and then read them, but I didn't want to wait that long, and besides, eleven of the books were in paperback, and #12 can't be too far out, right? So I got the first book during a bookstore trip, and came home to read that Jordan had just been diagnosed with a fatal blood disease. It figures.

So, now, everyone knows that Jordan has died, leaving his magnum opus unfinished. According to his blog, just a few days before he succumbed to his illness, he spent the weekend telling his close family members exactly how the story was going to end. What a neat experience that must have been! Unfortunately, of course, he'll never be able to see his 20-year journey end.

The task of finishing the book, A Memory of Light, now falls to a new author--one from my hometown and undergrad alma mater, coincidentally enough. It's supposed to be released in 2009, I believe, which should give me adequate time to finish the other eight books in the series.

Ahh, but book 3 is what this post is ostensibly about, so how is it? I enjoyed it! So far, I think Jordan's series is inferior to the other great "fantasy" series I'm reading: George R. R. Martin's fantastic A Song of Ice and Fire, but that's more praise for Martin than condemnation for Jordan. Jordan has built something of staggering scope and I am excited to see all the directions he can take all these characters. Yeah, yeah, I know, I understand that the series really begins to stall around book 8 or 9, and very little happens until book 11, but I knew what I signed up for when I bought book 1, and I intend to get through the rest of them.

It is interesting to see how considerably little has happened across three seven-hundred-page books, though. It took three books for Rand, who was established as the titular Dragon in the very first book, to finally proclaim that fact openly. Three books! Some series have everything wrapped up in three books, but not Jordan's.

In addition, despite the title of the book being The Dragon Reborn, a good 90% of the story revolves around all the side characters--Rand al'Thor barely appears at the beginning and at the end of the book, where he fights another (evidently inconsequential) battle against Ba'alzamon, a being as evil as Ba'al, Beelzebub, and a demon (?) combined! Apparently!

This post sounds really critical of the book, I know, but I did like it. I'm enjoying the rapidly multiplying threads of intrigue and interweaving plot lines, even though I know those will become a source of frustration as I read further into the series.

Ultimately there's no point in picking this up if you haven't read the first two books, but if you have, you certainly can't stop there! Read this one, too!

And now I'm going to go take a shower and go help my friend move.

In my essay I will prove...

This semester I decided to do a split assistantship in order to get more funding. On top of my preservation duties I now also assist with a lower level history course. My main duties are to take attendance, answer the students questions and grade assignments/exams. I have had to learn how to grade for thesis, documentation, and conclusion so far. It was pretty interesting to see the difference between my writing and theirs. I really had too high of expectations for them, but I quickly adapted to a more realistic view. I know we all must have been at that academic level when we started college, but you don't realize how far you have come until you can compare like this.
On their first quiz I did have a few funny errors, such as assignation instead of assassination and un-PC terms used to describe minority groups. I know they worry about spelling errors, but so many of them seem to rely on the spell checker and go for the first word that is offered to them. Our goal this semester is to teach them how to write rather than memorize historical fact. So far we have gotten some of the students to respond and follow directions, but not all horses will drink when you bring them to water. The hardest part has been to teach students to write a clear, strong thesis and then use evidence to prove their argument.
This week though, the professor fell ill and because we were already behind and had an exam coming up, he asked me if I would cover his two sections. It was some what intimidating to stand in front of them and give a lecture I didn't write, but I think I did well. The other TA said that the students seemed to respond better to me, but I think that may have to do with the fact that the class is predominantly female. The other section was much quieter, but I chalk that up to the fact that they didn't know me like the other section did.
We also administered the exam today. They all knew what was to be expected because we gave them the questions ahead of time, explained the exam format, what was expected in their essay, etc. I made sure to clarify that they needed to use a specific number of sources from their reader since this was a major issue on the quiz the week before. I was getting questions and panic emails all the way up until 11pm. I also had one student email to say that she hadn't been able to acquire the reader for financial reasons. We made other arrangements, but I wish she had come to us long before late the night before.
During the exam we were careful to watch over the students for cheating and to see if we could identify any issues the students were running into. Well unfortunately I didn't catch one issue, which was another student who did not have the reader for some reason. I wasn't able to figure it out until after he had left the room, but he did email after to state that he didn't know we needed that we needed a reader. I know I had held that reader up along side the book at least twice the day before the exam to clarify that one was to be used during the test and the other was not allowed. Luckily the professor stated he would deal with that situation.
I did enjoy my experience teaching though and wish I had more opportunity to do so in the semester. I think it would be really interesting if the professor would allow me to write one of the lectures, but I don't think that is likely to happen since we are behind in lectures. I have been asked if I want to be a discussion leader next year, but my program is already setting up another assistantship for me that sounds even better.

New Bed

With T's Christmas bonus we finally purchased a new bedroom set. Since T is so tall, we decided to get a king size. In the showroom they had a queen size with a low mattress and tall showroom ceilings, so we didn't realize that the bed was going to be as big as it is. It dominates the room, but still looks good. It is so tall that I have to climb into bed literally. (Taller than my waist.) I have spent many days doing my reading for school in bed, but I wish I could spend more time sleeping in it.

Bunny

This little guy was in our yard the other day. We see him every so often. I went to go put the recycling to the curb and he didn't move an inch. He even allowed me to get this close to take the picture. I wish I had thought about using my zoom though so that I could get a closer picture.

Books of 2008, Part II

I just finished Cell, Stephen King's homage to George A. Romero's zombie movies. This was the first book he wrote since he "retired" in 2004; it's also his first since finishing his magnificent Dark Tower series. I don't know if it was finishing that series, finally, some thirty-odd years after he started it, but the writing style is much more energetic and excited than many of King's older books. The premise is very simple--one day, out of nowhere, somebody (we don't know who) broadcasts a signal over the world's cell phone networks. This signal wipes the minds of anyone who hears it and they are transformed into mindless zombies (although that word is scoffed at by one of the characters, in favor of "phone crazies," or, later, simply "phoners"). A small group of survivors comes together to stay alive and to look for word of their loved ones.

It's close to 500 pages long, but it was a quick read. King typically has a hard time writing believable endings, a problem that manifests itself more clearly in his longer books (which is one of the reasons his short story collections are so great), but I liked the ending to this one. Browsing reader reviews on Amazon and elsewhere, I see that many people didn't.

Overall, a fun read. Not as epic and well-done as The Stand, another end-of-the-world story, but that's hardly damning praise.

Books of 2008

I'm always trying to think of reasons to post stuff here, because I'm just never very consistent about it, but I got a good idea the other day and I think I'm going to try it. I have decided to blog about all the books I read this year. At the end of 2008, perhaps I'll read back through the list and see if I got anything positive out of all of it.

For the inaugural post, I have to do a bit of catchup, as I've already finished four books this year. The first was Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, by Dava Sobel. This is the (true) story of English clockmaker John Harrison's attempt to solve the problem of how to calculate longitude whilst at sea. This problem, Sobel explains, was the preeminent scientific struggle of the day. It's a great story for anyone interested in science, engineering, or history. While it's a book on what, to some, may seem like an impenetrable subject, it's a quick read, and it's written in a very accessible style. Plus, it actually happened. I enjoyed it a lot.

Then I read I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert. I was a big fan of America (The Book), the fake civics text Jon Stewart wrote a few years ago, but this one wasn't as funny as that. It had its moments, but Colbert's jokey neocon character doesn't provide enough of a joke to sustain the entire book. The constant requests to buy more copies of the book get old quick, too. Maybe if I was more familiar with such bile-slingers as O'Reilly or Coulter I would have gotten more of a kick out of it. It's amusing, but it's thin and ultimately not entirely satisfying.

Next was Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Empire, the third novel I've read in the classic Foundation saga (although, chronologically, I believe it's the fourth). It's the one that takes place directly following the events of Foundation. I read that book and Prelude to Foundation last year, so I'm now getting used to the fact that you read Asimov for the ideas, not for the writing, which is awfully clumsy. But...well, the ideas are awesome. This chapter of the series is divided into two separate stories; first, the Foundation must fight off a takeover attempt by an up-and-coming general from the much-more-powerful Empire. The second story deals with the rise of The Mule, an empathic mutant who makes it his mission to conquer, well, everyone. I liked the "Seldon crisis" scene in which we learn that the future, as Seldon predicted it, was very different from what the people of the Foundation were actually up against--it shows that, from this point onward, they're on their own, and the future is no longer certain. I am excited to see where Asimov took this story in the four remaining books.

Oh, and I also read James Lileks's Gastronomalies, which is his spiritual successor to The Gallery of Regrettable Food. I don't know if this counts as "reading" a book, because it's mostly pictures with funny captions, but I DID read it. Lileks is the man and this book is hilarious and vile. If you liked Regrettable Food, you'll like this one. Great stuff.

Okay, that's what I've read so far this year. I've also beaten the very literary Bioshock, which would have made a great book. I'm nearly finished with another book, so hopefully I'll write about it soon.

Must have made a wrong turn in Albuquerque

Last week I flew out to my old home town of Albuquerque, New Mexico. This was the first time I had been back in twelve years. My best friend Megan was kind enough to let me stay with her family while I was there. (Thanks again Megan.) It was great fun.
I flew out the afternoon of the second, and other than a bumpy flight, everything went smoothly. I rented a car and drove to her house and we spent some time chatting before we went to bed. The next morning I woke up and had to do some work for school. (Long story short, I had to watch some training videos in order to be a grader this semester and there was a problem with the video feed before I left so I had to fit it in while on my trip.) In the afternoon I went to the first sessions of the conference and got oriented to the resort. In the evening we had a banquet which had good food, but my chicken was slightly undercooked so I didn't finish the first course. After dinner we were required to attend a delegate session which didn't end until 9:45. This wouldn't have been too bad except for the time difference and the fact that I had to drive a half hour back to my friend's house.
The next morning I had to wake up early and get ready in order to be there for another delegate meeting. The rest of the day was filled with paper presentations and another delegate meeting. They had a President's banquet, which also had fantastic food, and then a reception. I left early in the reception because I had to drive again, but then I ended up staying up until one reminiscing with my friend about Junior High and Freshman year. It was a lot of fun to sit and talk like we used to back when we were younger. I am always amazed and how good friends last forever and no matter how much time or distance their is between you, you can always connect and feel comfortable with them.
Saturday I woke up and went to the last session and then came back to the house. We went to a party for a two year old that Megan's daughter knew. It felt a little odd to be there because I didn't know these people, but also because I was the only one without a child. But I had fun despite that. Then Megan and I went around town visiting the city. It has grown so dramatically that I hardly recognized it. It looks a lot better though now that the economy has picked up there. We went to Old Town, and saw the Candy Lady who has treats for the young and old. (There is an adult section in the shop.) I got some amazing turquoise earrings for a cheap price, which was my one shopping goal of the trip. We drove by my old high school, which didn't look all that different, but the area sure did. It used to be in the middle of no where and you could see it from my house on the mesa. Now it is surrounded on all sides with subdivisions and shopping complexes as far as you can see. There is also no break now between any of the cities of Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, or Bernallio. They have just merged into one big blob that stretches across the valley.
The mountains looked gorgeous though. They were dotted with snow when I got there so I got some great pictures. I sure do miss my mountains, and not just for their ability to give me driving directions. If there was anything I would change about SC, besides the humidity, it would be to give it some REAL mountains.
That night we went to my favorite restaurant, Gardunios. It was this amazing Mexican place that had huge portions and free sopapias. The food was good, but like my friend had warned me, it had turned into a chain and had lost some of its flare. The worst part though was that I had gotten my food with green chili, which they said was medium that day, and I had forgotten the difference between southwestern medium and other mediums. It was uncomfortably hot and I wasn't able to eat all of my food. (Cause my stomach still hurt from the resort food.) But I sure did scarf down that sopapia! Oh those things are great. I think I am going to have to make some homemade ones this weekend. We were also serenaded by a mariachi band that played "It's a Small World" for M's daughter.
We went home afterward and danced around with Megan's daughter who is just the cutest two year old. She is so well behaved too. My relatives kids are great, but this kid does things I have never seen a kid so young do before. Every time she threw a fit, Megan would give her three chances and if she kept on, she would send her to her room. The amazing part was, she would walk there herself without anyone having to force her to go or checking up on her. And then when she was done, she would come back out and apologize. I know have a trick I will have to learn when I become a parent.
After the daughter went to bed, we played some board games and sat and chatted. Poor Megan fell asleep before too long, and her husband and I had a long chat. We were again up until one, and I had to get up to go to the airport at four in the morning. I didn't care though. I wanted to spend however much time I could with them cause they are great fun.
The next morning I drug my tired bones out of bed and got ready. I quietly slipped out of the house and went to the airport. I was all set to fall asleep on the plane, but the lady next to me had another idea. When she first sat down I knew she was going to be bad. She stunk of garlic, cigarettes and some odor I couldn't even name. She thudded onto her seat, shaking the whole row and immediately took over the seat between us with all her Enquirers, US magazine, and other tabloid junk. (The flight had some empty seats.) I was so tired I started to fall asleep and so I stretched my legs into the space in front of the empty seat. Well when the movie started, which was Rush Hour 3, she woke me up so she could move into that seat and get a better view of the movie. Then throughout the movie she laughed so loudly it woke me up, even with my iPod on, and she shook the seats with her movements. So I did not get to sleep much on that flight, which was the longest. I didn't have much of a layover, but I did have to go from one end of the Atlanta airport to the other, which is over a mile long! So I got lots of exercise. On the second leg of my trip, I sat next to two former frat boys who were drunk and chewing gum. (You all know how much I love that.) As soon as we were in the air (literally) they turned on some Dave Chappell DVD but didn't have headphones. They also laughed loudly which kept me awake. So after I arrived back to Charlotte, I had to drive the hour and a half home. I was really tired, so by the time I got almost home I was speeding just to get there faster. I did make it home, with no ticket, and was so happy to be back. I slept for hours on the recliner and then spent the evening with T. I am still trying to catch up on sleep it feels like.
It was a great trip though and I am glad I went. It is always had to be home from T, but it was a good rehearsal for this summer. I wrote more about the trip below, so feel free to keep reading whenever you get bored.

Phi Alpha Theta

The purpose for my trip was to attend the Biennial Phi Alpha Theta conference. This is the history honors society that I am the president of at USC. I decided in the summer that I was going to attend the conference as a delegate as a way to get information on how to improve my chapter, make some contacts, and to get an idea of what we need to do to get involved next time. I figured that I would have to pay for the conference myself, but then a couple of things happened that ended up helping out a lot. First, my Public History program offers a travel grant award for a small but helpful amount and my mentor offered to let me use this conference as part of that. Then, I found out the conference had a delegate package that would reimburse some of the cost of travel for attending all the delegate meetings. The best part however, was that the History department completed a strategic plan during the fall and mentioned that they needed to support our organization to help it grow. So I wrote a proposal letter for assistance, and was happily surprised when the department head agreed to fund a sizable amount of my trip.
The conference was great in itself and would have been worth it even if I had to have paid for it all myself. Various students gave papers on a plethora of topics throughout the event, and so there was always at least one session that was of interest. The delegate sessions I attended included a long term planning committee where we made suggestions about what the organization should do to improve. We came up with many great ideas and they were well received by the National officers.
During the student papers I was struck by how little colleges teach you about presenting properly. Most of these students were undergraduates, but not always. All were instructed to read from their paper since they had been preapproved for content. This did not mean, however, that they should bury their faces in their paper as they often did. They also did not have an argument most of the time, which considering the point of the paper should be to prove a point, doesn't make sense to me.
The conference was at a resort in the middle of a nature preserve so the view was gorgeous. The hotel was also nicely decorated and had lots of great places to sit and chat in front of a fire. We had fantastic food, but the desserts were the best part. Unfortunately, they must have used MSG in their food because each time I ate at the conference instead of my friend's house I was ill for hours afterward. The desserts were worth it though.

You Can't Go Home Again

While in New Mexico, we drove around on Saturday and saw some of the old places I remembered. Nothing, was as I remembered though. The city has changed so much and grown so big that I hardly recognized any single part of it. That included my old house. We drove by to see it because when I had moved away I knew that a sub division was being built behind it. Now before I show and tell what it currently looks like, let me explain what it used to look like.
We had a one acre lot on the edge of a mesa that overlooked Albuquerque. The night lights were so beautiful and we had an unobscured view for most of the valley from our backyard. Nothing was landscaped in our backyard, but it looked cool because it was filled with desert plants. Our front yard had about twenty pine trees along one side, which had been live Christmas trees of years past from the previous owners. We had a line of Joshua trees along the street which we always joked were there to prevent a drunk driver from going through our front door. We had a grass lawn, which is rare in New Mexico, so it struggled but was at least green. To the side of the house was a rock garden that needed some attention but at least was better than bare dirt.
Now, the house looks awful! They built some weird fence that doesn't really enclose the front yard and is an awkward height. The front yard is all dirt now, and they removed all the pine trees except one. They also removed every other Joshua tree so it looks bare. They changed the door to some southwestern pine thing, but it looks like it is boarded up in contrast to the dark wood siding. They also put a metal roof on it, which is the wrong color. The most tragic part though is that the view is completely obscured by the subdivision. You can't see any of the city. All you see is the back of various houses. It is truly sad to me to see the state of my old house, but at the same time I feel relieved that we weren't there when it happened.

Merry Ecks Mas

Okay, let's roll back to Christmas Eve, and we'll start from there.

We had two of my "orphan" coworkers over for Christmas dinner, as well as two of my wife's fellow grad students and their wives, for a total of eight people. C made a ham, with a brown sugar and maple syrup glaze, and a cherry and pineapple sauce that was absolutely terrific. She's made the ham before, with a recipe for cherry sauce, but I had the brilliant idea of adding a can of pineapple chunks to that and it turned out fantastic. The ham was moist and succulent, and the sauce was fruity and flavorful. On top of that (well, no, more to the side of that) she made garlic mashed potatoes and steamed veggies (squash and zucchini). My one buddy brought the drinks and my other buddy brought the rolls--a couple bags of that Rhodes keep-in-the-freezer roll dough. They baked up really nice and fluffy and were terrific! (We are probably going to keep a few bags of that stuff in the freezer at all times from now on.) One couple brought a cheesy broccoli bake and an apple pie, and the other couple brought a sweet potato and apple casserole.

We feasted like kings and enjoyed getting to know each other. This was the first time I'd met either of her colleagues, and the first time either of us had met the wives, and of course the first time my work buddies met her school buddies, but everyone was charming and intelligent and fun, and we really had a good time. After dinner, I brought out "Apples to Apples" and "Cranium," and we spent a couple of hours playing "Apples" and eating pie. Oh, yes, the pie. In addition to the aforementioned apple pie, which was absolutely fantastic (she had even added the lattice work crust on top!), the wife made a deep dish blackberry pie and a chocolatey, graham-cracker-crusted, homemade-marshmallow-topped Smore pie. Oh yeah. All three pies were awesome, and we all feasted and played and talked until about 11:00.

We did our customary one present on Christmas Eve, which for C was a new pair of slippers and some fuzzy penguin socks, and for me was a hoodie the wife made me. She had been spending a lot of time locked up in her sewing room, preparing some sort of neato Christmas secret for me...turns out it was a really fantastic black fleece hoodie. I was really impressed at her skill--the sleeves hadn't been hemmed back yet, but otherwise it looks absolutely storebought. It has a hood, a couple of big, deep pockets, a zipper, and a drawstring, all of which look perfectly done. I told her that she could probably get a job making these in Guatemala for a nickel an hour. Yeah, she's that good!

Christmas morning we woke up around 8:00 and showered, dressed, and ate breakfast before attacking the tree. Everything was nice; my mom gave us a nice fat check and some calendars and cookbooks and DVDs and such (thanks Mom!). My sister sent us a fun board game, "Carcassonne," and a Kohl's gift certificate (thanks Ali!). I gave C a handful of books, kitchen items and DVDs, but her big presents were a new cast-iron wok, an Ipod, and a new car stereo that would allow her to plug the Ipod in and listen to it through her car's sound system. She received nothing from her brother or parents, despite sending presents to all three of them (and received but one hasty "thank you" for her trouble, by the way, making this the end of present exchange on her side, thankyouverymuch), so I was happy to spoil her a bit.

But she outdid me, I think. She got me a few books (Stephen Colbert's book, The Onion's world atlas, and James Lileks's new book (I noticed that she didn't get me any "serious" books, like she usually does, and she replied that she knew I liked to go to the bookstore when my book supplies run low, and she was right (we did that yesterday, by the way. It's always fun!))) and some nice clothes, including a really nice wool and suede coat (thank you sweetheart!).

The fun came right at the end of my presents, because the big present I'd been wanting and whining about for some time was an Xbox360. I had opened all but one present, which was roughly large enough to contain the Xbox. When I opened it, however, I found a little smoothie maker and some other small presents, rather than a fancy Xbox. I'll admit, I felt a little bit let down, but I tried to console (no pun intended) myself, saying, well, she did get me some nice things, and maybe the coat was expensive. She let me hang until she finished opening her presents, then told me to look inside the smoothie maker box. She had taken the cords and power pack and all those things from the Xbox box and placed them inside that box instead. She totally fooled me and it was awesome. I awarded her the title of Queen of Christmas and she took me upstairs and pulled my Xbox out from the closet. She kept me in the dark right up until the very end, which, my mother can tell you, is not easy to do at Christmas time. I promptly set the thing up and played BioShock for, like, three hours.

Yesterday we took my mom's check and all of our various gift certificates, as well as a Bed Bath & Beyond coupon and C's new car stereo, and hit the stores. I don't like sitting on gift certificates for any extended period of time. They're gifts, and Christmas gifts are meant to be enjoyed as close to Christmas as possible, right? So, after dropping C's car off at Circuit City to have her stereo installed, we hit Linens & Things (I really love their selection of linens, but, frankly, the Things side of the store leaves a lot to be desired. I usually go to Things R Us when I need Things), BB&B, Target, and Kohl's, in the search for new bedding for our new king-size bed. We got a big awesome comforter, a nice expensive sheet set, and we bought C a nice thigh-length raincoat at Kohl's that looked great on her. Then we drove over to the other shopping area up the street and ate lunch at the Chinese restaurant there that we both love. C had the hot and sour soup she'd been craving for the last few weeks, and we shared the sesame scallops on fried rice, which hit the spot. MMmmmmm...I wish we had leftovers.

After lunch, we hit the video game store, where I planned to buy Halo 3 and another Xbox controller with my share of the remaining Christmas money. The store, which is kind of small (it's probably smaller than any regular store in a typical American indoor shopping mall), was absolutely jam-packed with probably 50 people. While we were there, C, who had been planning to spend the rest of the money on a small clothes-shopping spree, elected instead to buy one of those Dance Dance games, which she had wanted as a fun workout regimen for a while, instead. Hey, fine with me, I said, it's up to you what you want to do with the money, so she bought it. Gamestop did pretty well that day, and not just from us, but we did our part. At this point, we still had a little bit of money left over, so we went to the bookstore and I bought a couple of paperbacks and a new wall calendar. We were in line behind an older guy, who struck up a conversation with us about his Christmas holiday. He was accompanied by his (rather cute, I might add) granddaughter, who had just graduated from college with a mechanical engineering degree. She said she's planning to do the same master's degree program I just finished (at a different school), so I thought that was kind of neat. We chatted for a little bit and I told her my impressions of the program, strengths and weaknesses, and that (HANDY TIP!!) you can watch the video lectures in Windows Media Player and turn up the speed to get through them quicker.

So that's how we spent all of that Christmas money. Thanks Mom! We bought a lot of good stuff. That whole adventure took all afternoon, so we went home well and truly tired. Then, we had a couple of buddies over to play video games, and one of them brought Rock Band. We strummed, drummed, and hummed (ha!) our way through a bunch of songs and had fun until just after 1:00 am, when he left and took his games with him. Our other buddy stayed and chatted until about 2:00, and, exhausted, we went to bed.

Today I think we're going to take down all the lights, the tree, and the other Christmas decorations. And we still have another five or six days until we have to return to work! Ha ha! I love the holidays!

Way too long

It has been such an intense couple of weeks, I haven't been able to write anything about my life.
So lets see if I can catch up. Went to Table Rock State Park a few months ago for work. It is an amazing place that made me really miss the Utah mountains. The colors were just starting to change, so I got some great pictures. I wish we could have gone two weeks later when they really started to change, but we couldn't. I went to Colonial Dorchester about a month ago. It is also a state park, but it was the former site of one of the first Colonial establishments in South Carolina.














Class finished today and my last paper is due next Friday. As you can tell from the drought of blogs, I have had a lot to do for class. Especially my Civil War history class. I took a picture of the amount of reading I had completed by the midterm. I will take another one once I finish all my papers this week. When I stacked everything up though, it was nine inches high.















And that is all I have really been up to.

Ow

I injured myself with a machine gun today at work. Sigh...I had a prototype part I had assembled, and it fit a little bit tight. When I tried to remove it, I cut a big ol' gash down one wrist on the receiver. It looks like I tried to slit my wrist. Of course, if I really wanted to kill myself, and I had access to automatic weapons, I wouldn't do it by using the corner of the weapon to slash my wrist!

I'm So Nice

What a thoughtful husband I am, one who cares far less about the big mess that's been made over the years in my kitchen as my wife collects more and more magazines than about my darling wife's happiness. One of my little projects these days involves typing up all the recipes she wants to keep out of these magazines, so that we can file the recipes and throw away all the magazines.

Anyway, I was sitting here doing that, listening to Wait, Wait..., when, without noticing, I apparently hit the Caps Lock button. Rereading the recipe, I found that it suddenly took a somewhat drastic and sinister turn:

"Straddle roasting pan across 2 burners, then add remaining cup water and DEGLAZE ROASTING PAN BY BOILING OVER HIGH HEAT."

It kind of sounds more insistent and angry all of a sudden, doesn't it?

We went to Sam's Club yesterday, where we played the new Guitar Hero game that was set up on the little display there. So...yeah, we had to buy it. We spent a depressing amount of time yesterday afternoon (and evening, and night) trading the little plastic guitar back and forth and rocking out. It's just a ludicrously, unbelievably fun way to make your hand hurt. C's lack of musical background and natural whiteness worked against her at first, and it took her a while to get the hang of it, but before long she became a demon and I couldn't get the guitar away from her. So, so awesome, and now we're considering even buying a second guitar to do the cooperative songs.

You know how, every time they remake some old movie from the 60s or 70s, people whine and complain about how "that movie's a classic! They're ruining it by remaking it!" or some such complaint? They're mostly right...most remakes are unnecessary and unwarranted.

But we're currently watching the original, 1970s version of Gone in 60 Seconds. I like the remake...sure, it's cheesy, but it's two hours of "OMG car pr0n!" with chases and fancy wheels galore, and I like it. But this original version is so cheesy, it hurts. Mike (or Joel) and the 'Bots wouldn't be out of place at the bottom of the screen. It's got some truly awful writing and acting, and it was financed by a junkyard, but at least the 1970s clothes and hair are worth a laugh while waiting for the final, 40-minute car chase. That should be pretty sweet.

So let's take stock of the pros and cons of each version:

Original: Main character played by owner of the junkyard that paid for the film. Acting proficiency: none
Remake: Main character played by Nicolas Cage. Acting proficiency: some, even though he mostly just overacts. But that's acceptable for this film.

ADVANTAGE: REMAKE

Original: Characters have to steal 48 specific cars in order to...I dunno, get some money or something. Basically just because.
Remake: Characters have to steal 50 cars to keep Doctor Who from murdering Nicolas Cage's greasy brother.

ADVANTAGE: REMAKE. Creepy evil British villain = win.

Number of characters with plaid pants or ludicrously high beehive hairdos: Original: Too many to count. Remake: 0, as far as I can remember.

ADVANTAGE: DRAW. Everyone looks ridiculous in the original, but it was the 1970s. At least that detracts from the awful dialogue.

Number of long, pointless wedding scenes featuring old people dancing badly: Original: 1. Remake: 0.

ADVANTAGE: REMAKE

Top billing in the film:
Original: The Mustang in the final scene, "Eleanor."
Remake: Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie

ADVANTAGE: Hmmm...tough one. The car still looks good 33 years later. Plus, Angelina Jolie has nasty skanky dreadlocks in this movie for some reason. ORIGINAL gets the square.

Final awesome chase scene:

Original: Awesome, but they keep interrupt it with scenes of journalists interviewing eyewitnesses about the chase.
Remake: Awesome, but sillier due to more improbable happenstances.

ADVANTAGE: I'm gonna go with the ORIGINAL on this one.

So let's add up the points: the remake gets 3 points, and the original gets 2. Plus there was a draw. In retrospect, that seems fortuitous that I evaluated the movies this way. So there you have it. Undeniable evidence that it was a good idea to remake this movie.

The Haircut

I have been thinking about getting my hair cut short again for a few months for several reasons. First, all I was doing with it was putting it into a ponytail because I wanted it off my neck and I was in too much of a hurry to try to blow dry it for an hour. Second, I wanted something that looked professional. Which leads me to the most important reason, because I wanted people to think I was closer to my age than 19.

I had to go looking for a new hairstylist because I hadn't really had one for awhile. But I didn't know how to get a really good hairstylist. I did some research as to what you are supposed to look for in a salon. I didn't agree with some of the advice, like making sure they have their razor around, but I did agree with the advice that they should have more booth space than product space. Then I asked some of my friends where they got their haircut (if I liked their cut) and found that they were either outrageously expensive ($100 or more a cut) or I didn't like the place.

One day I had gone to the grocery store, and noticed that there was a hair salon next door. I walked in, talked with the stylist available, and she gave me a tour. Immediately I liked her. She was open, honest, and blunt. She gave me an evaluation of my hair and discussed what I wanted. We had both come to the same conclusion about the style that would be best, an angled bob. So I booked a time and a few days later I came back.

She had me bring with me some pictures of my past haircuts and of hairstyles I had seen elsewhere that I did and did not like. We sat and talked about all the pictures so that she could get an idea of what I really wanted and the problems I had with past hairstyles. Based on what I had said, she decided that my bob also needed to be layered top and bottom so that it would lay flat with all the hair I have.

So she started cutting and kept on cutting, layering, thinning and perfecting until it was perfect. When she finished, not only was there a ton of hair on the floor, but the cutest haircut I have ever had. Then she taught me how to style it, because I am not the most adapt at doing my own hair. She suggested some products that will help to keep the frizz down, give volume, etc. But not once did she try to sell me product from their store.

I don't think I have ever had a haircut where I liked everything about it. Usually it doesn't lay right when I try to do it the next day or it wasn't exactly what I had pictured it would be. This haircut is totally different. In fact, I liked it more the second day when I styled it because I didn't try to tease it to give it more volume at the roots. It only takes me about 20 minutes to style as well, even with all the humidity we have been having this week. Now I finally understand why women like going to get their haircut.

Milestone

T's car finally hit that magic 50K mark. It only took him 6 years and three months.

Fun new things

These are two funny things I have bought in the last week. The cat socks have googly eyes, which make them even funnier. They were even sold as googly eyed cat socks.
The duck is dressed as a cat, if you can't tell from the flash. She has whiskers, a collar, a tail, and even has a cat nose painted on the bill. I saw it in a store and had to add it to my collection.

Management Training

Today (and tomorrow) I have been (will be) participating in a management training course. No, not anger management. Project management. It's a career enhancement thing.

Anyway, this morning the instructor had us all take turns and introduce ourselves and describe any PM experience we may have. One of the other students, it turns out, works for a major tobacco company. At the break, I went over and introduced myself as her "fellow merchant of death," and we just chatted for a little while.

I asked her if, when people quit their jobs there, they ever find they can't quit, and they come back after a few months. Do they have to try to quit again and again and again? Because that would be awesome.

For the record, she didn't seem to think that was very funny, but who cares? I did!

Weird coincidence

Check this out. This is what I've got at home right now:




(Two of these discs I sent back this morning, but Netflix hasn't got them yet.) Notice anything funny? Yeah, they're all TV shows right now, at least until we finish The Office. But anything else?

They're all "Disc 3" of each show. What are the odds of that? We didn't plan it like this or anything, either, it just happened. Huh.

Many things

Many things have happened since last I wrote.

Some weeks ago, we went to Sam's Club, where, among other things, we had the goal of getting passport photos taken. Neither of us has an active passport, and we've had the passport applications on my desk here for a while, so we figured we should get that process started. Anyway, this meant we had to deal with the people at the Sam's Club photo center. A little word of caution: if you work at a Sam's Club photo center, and you're capable of such complicated tasks as, oh, opening a browser to this page and reading this, you're more intelligent than the employee we had to deal with that day.

Suffice it to say that we waited an hour to get photos that were blurry (mine) and scaled incorrectly (Wife's). When I pointed out that we simply did not have time to restart this process, as we had a cart full of rapidly defrosting food, our employee wrinkled her nose and said, "well, it is a one-hour photo lab." Of course, the photos were taken with a digital camera and printed from a computer, which does not take an hour, but it DOES take an hour when it takes you forty-five minutes to realize you forgot to put the proper photo paper into the machine.

So we just left, furious, and got home, where Wife called the Sam's manager and told her what an incompetent halfwit he had working for him. He apologized and offered to refund our money and retake the photos for free. Great.

We didn't get a chance to get back down there until last weekend. When we got in the door, we went to the customer service desk and explained the situation. The CS woman paged the manager, and we waited and waited and waited...so she paged him again. Again, we waited...until I finally just said, "why do you need him? Just refund our money, please." Which she did. So, okay, halfway to victory here. She took us over to the photo lab and explained that we were owed free photos. The photo lab employee said "okay, but we don't currently have a camera."

! I said "so how are you supposed to take passport photos?" Her answer, of course, was something like "Duhhhhhhh..." It was kind of hard to understand her with her finger up her nose to the knuckle. She suggested that she could scan in our old photos and blow them up. Okay, great, I said, but can you get rid of the blurriness on mine? Well, uh, no. So, once again, we left empty-handed and frustrated at ourselves for returning to that idiot hive.

So Sam's photo center is now 0 for 2. At least we got our money back. Costco, I'm begging you, please come out here. If you need a place to build your store, maybe we can blow up the Sam's Club and you can build there.

On another topic, last weekend I bought some new shoes and pants for work. I got some "clog-style" Oxford shoes that are awesome. There are no laces on them; rather, tension is applied to your foot through a pair of elastic straps that hold the tongue of the shoe onto your foot, and they are the MOST COMFORTABLE SHOES EVAR. Seriously, I've never had a pair of shoes that were so foot-friendly before, especially right out of the box. They weren't particularly cheap, but they were worth it.

So I got that going for me. Oh, I understand that the bookstore in the upscale shopping mall just a few minutes up the road from us is hosting a book signing by...a gangsta rapper named Master P today. Apparently he learned how to write, or at least to ghostwrite, and he has released a book. Which he'll be signing in person today...just a few minutes from the house. I can't imagine how many gangsta thug types will be swarming on this part of town this afternoon. Oh goody.

Man, I'm glad I bought that shotgun :)

Another Day at the Office

Most people get stuck going to work in the same cubicle day after day. Today was not that kind of day for me. Instead, I got to go down to Hunting Island. It is about a 3 hour drive one-way, but man is the view worth it. I had to do some work, and work in the hot humid sun, but then I got to eat my lunch on the beach. I took some pictures for you to envy...I mean enjoy.
On the other hand, don't be too jealous. I also had to go into the maritime forest to look for a marker and had my first introduction to a tick, or should I say a nest of them. Somehow I managed not to get one to bite me though, and for that I am very thankful. (Especially to DEET.)

The view

My feet in the Atlantic

Now I have been in both the Atlantic and the Pacific. (Ignore how white my legs are.)

For the birds

These were my adoring fans. I fed them my bread crusts. They were willing to get really close to me in order to get them as well.

Graduate School

I will warn you that the first half of this post is going to be filled with whining, but I promise it gets better.
School started August 23 and I was not ready to go back yet. Well I was ready in the sense of having all of my books, payed tuition, etc; I just wasn't mentally ready. Ready or not though, it started and I hit the ground running.
The first class was Dr Casey's course on the history of anthropology theory. Even before the course had started we were supposed to have read a 600 page book, which of course most of us had simply skimmed. Each week's assignment was a tremendous section of the book along with an accompanying book that better explained the first. We were also assigned 6-12 articles that we had to provide a 2-3 page annotated bibliography on each. Our main task for the semester including teaching the course for three days on a given subject which was to include a discussion session and a project of our creation for the class to accomplish. Another task was to research another subject given to us and explain how it fit into the greater sphere of anthropology theory. That was due the second week of class.
The second class was Dr Smith, who is British elitist and is known as the hardest professor in the department. The other graduate students have told me that if you get a B+ in his course, it is equivalent to an A++. That really made me intimidated of him, and then I saw his syllabus and almost passed out right there. I had ordered the books for the class a few weeks before, so I knew there was one every week, which I was worried about being able to keep up. (I am not a good skimmer. I like to read it through.) In addition to all these books, which are quite large in themselves, we have 6-12 journal articles to read. So all told in an average week there is about 600-800 pages of reading. We also had two essays due during the semester where we explain how the readings we have read fit into the larger historiography. In preparation of being professionals who have to present at conferences, we each were assigned a book where we have to write a professional book review and then present it to class without looking at it. (He later explained we could have a few note cards.)
The next day I went to Dr Brown's class, who is the department chair. His syllabus didn't look awful except for the first four weeks where we have to do a lot of reading and site visits. The rest of the semester appeared to be guest lectures, which I assumed meant just a response paper. I was right and I was wrong. In addition to a response paper, we also have to do what ever reading they assign (which we have been told will not be given to us more than 3 days ahead of the class), and we each are going to be assigned one of the guest speakers and we have to interview them and create a discussion session. Then he also announced that he was adding a project to be completed by the end of the semester. We have to read through 20 years of a single academic journal of our choosing and describe how it has changed.
My last class, which made four for the semester, was my American Architecture course with a former coworker Mr Sidebottom. This was the class I was most looking forward to, because it was actually directly related to the field I want to enter. The syllabus didn't frighten me since we had only a 100 pages to read in a week, two tests on architectural elements, and a historical research project on a style of our choosing.
By this point I had been in school for one week and I started to freak. For some reason I had gotten it into my head that I could handle not only more classes than is recommended, but also more work at my two jobs totaling 34 hours a week. (20 is the recommended with a 6 credit hour load. I had 12 at this point.) I was spending every moment studying, and I even had to leave work early to get everything done in the first week.
I evaluated the situation and decided that since the Anthropology course was the only one taught again while I am here, I would drop that course. I also decided that I should drop my second job, which was 14 hours a week. However, when I went to talk to my second job about quitting they instead wanted to compromise. They said to take the next two weeks off, get my head around my situation, and come back to talk. They are willing if needs be, to let me only work for 4 guaranteed hours a week plus any I can salvage here and there, with the understanding that next semester should be better and allow me to work more hours again.
That made me feel better, but I am still struggling with my reading but I am getting better at skimming. It really is a talent you either have naturally or don't. I apparently don't, but people are helping me learn a few tricks to help, and I am appreciative of that. It will also get better here in the next few weeks, I hope, when Dr Brown's class starts the guest lectures.
Although I don't like the late nights, the time away from Tim, driving home in the dark from class, and the insecurity that comes with a new challenge; I am loving graduate school. I feel honored to be able to attend and get to study in depth something in which I have a great interest. There is also a great sense of community among the faculty and students. If you have a problem understanding something, you can talk to anyone and they will help you. Your opinion isn't about being right or wrong, every point has a value as long as you can express it clearly.
I have already learned a lot and feel like I am going to grow professionally more than I ever would have imagined. It has also rekindled my drive to go above and beyond, which got lost in the summer heat I swear. I have set two goals for each year which involve presenting and attending professional conferences.
I didn't imagine that it would be so different from my undergraduate experience since I am attending not only the same school, but I am working with the same professors I have known my whole undergrad career. But it is different and it takes some getting used to. Especially being asked to call them by their first names, which one of my professors whom I have known for years now is adamant about.

I guess what I am trying to say is I am tired, but happy. If you don't hear from me, now you know why. I promise I am not ignoring anyone out of spite. Also, I can't wait for Christmas break!

Two Days In

School started on Thursday again for me. I had two classes that day and they are going to be my two hardest I believe. My Archeology Theory class is the history of the field and what social trends and changes in science caused things to evolve. There is a tremendous amount of reading required and we have to write 2-3 pages on each article we read. My History 702 class is on American history from 1789 to 1877 (Antebellum era), but is not a typical survey course where we go in depth about historical events and memorize times and names. Instead we will be focusing on labor, especially slavery and the economy, and discussing how the things we read fit into the historiography. This class also has a lot of reading but fewer papers.
Friday I had my History 720 course, which is a methods class where they teach us how to be historians and give us exposure to the various careers and interests. There is a bit of reading in the beginning and a few papers throughout, but for the most part it is a discussion course.
I still have yet to attend my American Architecture course, which will be on Wednesday. I am really looking forward to this course. There is going to be a bit of reading and memorizing styles, but this will be the most practical course for my degree.
All of my professors are extremely helpful, friendly, and informative. Only one of my professors is intimidating, and I think that stems not only from the fact that he is the only one I didn't have contact with in my undergrad degree, but also from the fact that he is known as a major player in the academic world for the history of slavery.
Right now I also have two jobs. I am working my assistantship at the State Parks doing historical research for new information kiosks at some of the parks. Later on I am also going to get to go on an archaeological dig (finally) and do some preservation work. I have also kept my internship doing GIS (mapmaking) at Richland County. This means I am working 34 hours and taking four grad courses. I am going to try this for at least a week to see if I can handle it. I am not so sure about it, but I won't know until I try. I can always leave my internship at GIS, and they have told me that they would be willing to take me back in the Spring if I was interested. So we will see how well I handle it, and if it fails I will at least be able to fix the problem and not hurt my grade because it will be early enough.

On another note... the lovely football players are already at it. USC is getting quite the reputation for having football players that are always in trouble. In the last two years they have had several arrests for fighting (at games and in public), vandalism (of their own office and vehicles), gun charges, drug charges, etc. Yesterday the quarterback and two others were suspended from the first game for not attending the summer courses they signed up for, which caused them to be put on academic probation. The new graduate students and I were talking about this today and I mentioned how it will be like this all year. Right after saying that I saw the news headlines and it turns out another player was arrested this morning for bringing a weapon on campus. It was unclear whether the firearm was unregistered or not, the press made it sound like it was.
Two days in and we already have four players suspended. I think that is a new record, but not one we should be proud of.

Fun day

Today we went to Charlotte to see the Body Worlds exhibit of artistically-preserved human bodies. We both found it fascinating, although one of our buddies had a severe case of the jibblies at first and we thought he was going to pass out. But he got through it and we had a good time.

Also, tonight we watched Hot Fuzz, which had better acting, writing, directing, and cinematography, a better story, and a much bigger budget than Shaun of the Dead, but wasn't as funny. Still a good watch.

The death of evolution

I recently read Fahrenheit 451, the classic novel of a dystopian future America. Most people think the book is about widespread censorship by a tyrannical government, but that's not exactly true. In the book, the American people have, on their own, rejected books and all other intellectual pursuits. This is encouraged by the government once it becomes obvious that they can use it to repress and control people, but the root cause is the public's growing obsession with television.

Bradbury's point, in more detail here, is that the real culprit, the real devastator of American society is television. Given that this book was written over 50 years ago, I would imagine that a modern take on the story would point the finger at other forms of media, in addition to television, but for now suffice it to say that the story is about the damaging effects of television addiction.

If you've not read it recently, Bradbury describes how the government uses this massive censorship to, among other things, keep the population under control and mentally dormant. Specifically, we are told by Fire Captain Beatty, that the most popular shows on television engage the audience by requiring so little brainpower to comprehend that even the tiniest amount of consciousness spent watching them can allow the audience to feel intelligent and accomplished.

For example, Beatty describes one of the most popular television shows as being a game show in which people are asked if they know the lyrics to various popular songs. Of course, most people do, so they are allowed to feel as though they have accomplished something worthwhile, even though song lyrics surely number among the least valuable things a person can commit to memory. In that way, television strokes the ego and flatters the viewer for what amounts to essentially nothing.

Guess what new game show I just heard about? From Wiki:

Combining karaoke singing with a spelling bee-style competition, this show will have contestants trying to remember the lyrics to popular songs. In each episode, six lucky contestants will be selected from the audience to play a series of games that test their knowledge of song lyrics.

This isn't just similar to Bradbury's dire warning. It's not merely close. It's exactly the same. And if that's not bad enough, a rival network has already ripped it off with another show that appears to be identical.

Also, I have been made aware of the existence of a nationally-televised Bingo game show.

I think that part of the reason that Bradbury's work has been misinterpreted is due to the idea that it's much easier to believe in a malevolent government body deciding what's best for us all. Perhaps it seems implausible that Americans would jointly decide that they don't need books when they have Tivos and network television and other shiny things and diversions. In a nation where this soul-murdering garbage is among the highest-rated of these diversions, a nation where the endless fact-free news cycle is so busy covering the DUI arrests of various worthless dregs of society, I don't have a hard time believing in Bradbury's vision of the future.

Pathetic.

Serious Post-Potter Depression

I finished HP7 today after staying up late both Friday and Saturday nights. It was amazing. I laughed. I cried. Now all I want is more. I read everything I could on Wikipedia and I watched several of the interviews JK gave after it was all done, and I still want more. I want to know what happens right after the final chapter until the epilogue. I want to know more about the battle. I just want more.
It seems odd to think that it is done and that I can never read a Harry Potter book for the first time again. I felt the same way with Lord of the Rings, but I must admit I got more involved in these books and the personal side of each character. Especially when it came to my favorite characters, Fred and George. My favorite scene about them is during end of the 5th book. (I am sure if you have read them you know what I am talking about.)
So now I have to go back to the Muggle world and go to work tomorrow. I really wish I could stay absorbed in the books instead.

New Record

Today we hit a new heat record at 105. With the heat index from the humidity, that comes to 112 degrees! At least the air was blowing today. It has been pretty hazy and stagnant for the last few days.

HOT

Today it was 101 degrees with a heat index of 105. (That is how hot they say it feels with the humidity added.) We have a whole week of this according to the weather man. As miserable as it is normally, I can usually avoid being outside for the most part but today we had to do a site visit for an hour at a historic home and we had to dress professionally. I am also supposed to go out on Thursday searching for missing cemeteries with GIS. I think I am going to beg to have that one rescheduled after the headache I came home with today from being out in the heat.
Now I understand why Amy comes home from Dubai during the summer.

How do you reason with someone like this

One of my friends mentioned online that her son has chicken pox. I thought that was odd given that they immunize for that, so I asked her if she didn't. She informed me, and the rest of our friends via the internet, that she had not immunized her son and the reason why. She "researched" about it and found that immunizations create autism and ADHD according to this group called Generation Rescue. And on a minor note, her family has reactions to Pertussis, which I can understand being that I also have a reaction to that particular immunization. My understanding is that she hasn't immunized for any of the major ones, because she stated that when he is two she will immunize him for the big ones like Polio.
I tried to keep an open mind and read the article she sent me to read. Their research consisted of a telephone survey of nine counties in Oregon in which they asked parents if they had immunized their children and if their kids had been diagnosed with ADHD or Autism. Their findings were that boys were 1.5 times more likely to have autism and ADHD if they were immunized and it got worse the older they got. I found several flaws with this, but the two biggest were that there is no official test for either of these "diseases" and the fact that correlation is not causation.
I also went to the website for this group who wrote the article and their entire purpose is to "educate" parents about the dangers of immunizations and other instances of toxic materials such as mercury. Sounds completely non-biased to me.
It strikes me though that most of the immunizations we receive have been around for a pretty decent amount of time and you would think that something so dangerous would have been discovered by the larger medical community by now. I would also think there are far more dangerous things to worry about with a child than the small, if any, chance he gets some disorder from an immunization.

I am going to catch that bad car fairy and give him a Rita Skeeter in a jar moment

Today has not been a stellar day, especially for cars that have been parked in our garage. First, T's car started having ABS problems last week and we were going to take it to the dealer tomorrow morning. In the meantime I dropped him off to work so we could use it the least possible since it still works, but with car problems you always want to be careful.
On my way to work there was a huge car accident and it took me 1 hour and 10 minutes to go to work. Normally it takes 20-30 minutes, which isn't great but what are you going to do. I should have been early to work though since I took T in.
After work I picked him up and we stopped for gas for my car. My car was very thirsty and I was commenting on that as I was trying to turn the key. But nothing happened. No clicking. No grinding. Nothing. Not even any lights on the dash. Strange. I was just using the car. I had noticed on the way to get T that the transmission seemed like it was hiccuping a little, but I didn't think much of it because it was only up hills. We tried to move the car out of the gas stall because many other people needed to use the pump, but my car wouldn't let me put it in neutral. We looked all over the manual and couldn't find anything that told us what to do. Then we checked the fuses and they were all fine. So I gave up and called a tow truck because I have free road side assistance. We sat in the car with the windows down in the hot and humid weather watching all the people stare at us until the tow truck came an hour later. He got it on the truck with no problem but he did have to give us a jump so that we could roll the power windows back up. It turns out that in order to shift my car into neutral you have to pull the cover off of a small hole and turn your key inside. I will say again that there was nothing in the manual about this.
After the tow truck took us to the dealer we had a friend drive us home. Hopefully my car will be pretty easy to fix, but luckily it is still under warranty. We think it is the alternator. It is a little early for it to fail but who knows what kind of pressure it has been under with the three years of heavy air conditioning usage. When all is said and done with my car, we can take the other car to the other dealer across town and get that one fixed.
And since things come in threes, the fairy also burned out the light bulb to the garage door opener so we can't see in there now when you pull in at night. I am going to catch that fairy and teach him to mess with me and my car.

I want one!

Yes, that is a 105 ft high rubber duckie. And it got loose. I want it.

Very inventive

I just saw this article about a contest they hold every year for the best duct tape prom couple outfits. They are amazing. I used to make bags and wallets in high school when I got bored. They put me to shame. Plus, if you win, you get a $9000 college scholarship! Here I am busting my butt getting good grades for a few a couple of hundreds. I should have done this instead.

Being a Preservationist is Cool

I started the last of my new jobs last week and I love it. I don't get to do any of the actual preservation, but I do get to hear about stuff that is going on. On my first day I also got the grand tour, which included the vaults. In these vaults are state documents like the original charter for the state of South Carolina from the Lords Proprietors, the original copy sent to the state of the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. They are in pretty sad shape since people don't always realize the importance of documents until much later. One even had a coffee mug type stain on it.
On another note, I finally put in my notice at my weekend job. My last day isn't till the 21st of this month, but at least there is an end. I was afraid to quit because they need the summer help and it is a valuable connection for me to have career wise. But I was dreading getting up on the weekends after working a full week and all I was doing is giving tours. I didn't have anything to do with actual interpretation or preservation. But I left in a professional way and so the bridge is still there if I need it in the future. Now I just have to actually plan something fun to do with my last three weekends before school starts.