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.

Pizza

We went to the Mellow Mushroom last night for dinner. It was yummy. While we were there, two huge groups of Jehovah's Witnesses came in--one with 16 people, another with 13. Apparently there is some sort of crazy Jay-Dub convention in town or something. Ugh. Anyway, we knew they were Jay-Dubs because they had little name tags.

Anyway, when the first group came in, the hostess seemed a little concerned that they would be unable to fit them all (if you've been there, you know it's not a real big restaurant), but she dutifully went back to check and see if they could be accommodated. While they were waiting for her to return, the second group came in and I whispered something to the wife along the lines of "they can only serve 144,000 people here, so they might not be able to fit everybody."

I do, indeed, kill me. We got seated, and we went out for ice cream afterwards. Mmmm...with enough leftovers for dinner tonight, too.

Yep, I got a big new monitor Saturday! It is a 22" widescreen monitor. It's awesome! Now I've got lots of room on my desk--too much, in fact. When I took my old boat anchor off the desktop, all the papers and documents and stuff I'd stuck on it, or around it, or propped up against it, fell down, and I was forced to do something with them. I stuck them out of the way for a reason, of course.

We even watched "Heroes" on it while we ate dinner last night, and it looks fantastic. So I'm pleased. While I was at Big Box Electronics Store looking at it, I heard an old guy asking questions of one of the Sales Drones about a monitor he was looking to purchase. The old guy asked something to the effect of "does this monitor have all the software I need to install it," and the guy assured him that he'd be fine. So the old guy asks, "will this new monitor have all my icons on it, or do I need to transfer them?"

It made me feel a little pity for the Sales Drones of the world. No wonder they hassle everyone about buying their stupid extended warranties (they wanted a hundred bucks for the EW on this monitor!!) and asking for zip codes--they have to answer stupid questions like "will my new monitor have all my icons on it" all day.

No, I didn't buy the extended warranty. Also, no, you can't have my zip code. Not yours.

Computer (Stuff) Buying

Woo hoo! My stupid mouse is going out--it occasionally registers a single click as a double click, so selecting a file sometimes means opening a file instead. Or highlighting a window means maximizing the window. Anyway, we can't have that, so I get to buy a new mouse. It's okay; this one has served a long, happy life of clickery and, uh, cursor movery, so it's deserved its trip to the big recycle bin in the sky. But mice are boring.

That's why I guess I should be glad that my big ol' heavy monitor is also dying! I got this monitor--a bulky 21" CRT--from my old egomaniac boss at the job I had before I got a real one. He was always upgrading the equipment his poor subhuman employees had to work on, and I was around when he tossed these CRTs in favor of some big, shiny new LCDs, so I took this one off his hands for him. Yeah, it was a pretty nice gesture, but still, screw him.

Anyway, that was probably six years ago, so it, too, has lived a long, successful life even after it retired from engineering. It saw me through two engineering degrees and a 2200-mile cross-country move! And I suppose the cat will miss sitting atop its heat-emitting surfaces on cold days, but progress must march on.

But I digress. The monitor is doing this crazy epileptic seizure flicker move pretty regularly now, and it will, at random, turn itself off and, if I'm lucky, back on. All on its own! I suppose it may be a haunted monitor, but until it emits weird blue light, howling wind, and/or creepy moaning, or until it begins levitating, I'm going to go with the "it's wearing out" explanation.

When it started exhibiting this behavior, I was more annoyed than anything--I didn't want to go buy an expensive new monitor. They're hundreds of dollars, if not more, right!? And an LCD monitor this size will certainly break the bank, right? Right?!?

Well...not right. I began looking and was quickly amazed at how prices have come down and big ol' monitors have become very cheap! Now I started looking forward to getting an awesome new monitor. I have found two candidates for my dollars--a Dell 22" widescreen LCD and a Samsung 22" widescreen LCD. Both are pretty much the same price! How awesome?

I'm gonna see if I can find one in stock at one of the big box moron stores around here tomorrow, but if I can't, I'll order one online. Sweet!

And, yes, the thought has occurred to me to just buy a new computer, but I don't want to. I like my computer just fine, thank you.

My Cool New Project

For my State Parks job I get to do historical research on an island. It has been inhabited since the time of Native Americans up until today. It is a fantastic barrier island with lots of wildlife, great newly re-sanded beach, and a 19th century lighthouse. Today I got to go to the island to see the site and see what archive resources they have. I will be working on this project over the summer on the side and then take it up again part time in the fall for my assistantship. This is just one of the research projects I will be doing this year that will eventually lead to new interpretation at the parks and new information plaques (which are called waysides in the industry.)
I took some pictures of the island and I thought I would share.






The Lighthouse














The view of the beach from lighthouse















View of stairway up. 176 steps.














The beach. The line is the erosion line.















The marshlands.














It was so hot even the squirrels were hot.















The resident alligator.

Farewell Mr Wizard

Mr Wizard died today at the ripe age of 90. It seems odd when someone from television dies. Obviously most of us never meet the people, but those we remember from childhood seemed like they would live forever. We forget about them for many years only thinking of them during conversations about stuff you remember from childhood. But even though you forgot about them, you always feel like somehow they will continue to live in some far off land with your imaginary friend from first grade.

Perspective

I am a design engineer. I use a particular software package in my work to create and manage the designs for the products I work on. This package is extremely complex and quite expensive, and there is a worldwide community of users who use this software. I also subscribe to an email-based discussion forum for issues related to this software; mostly I use it for tips on how to do something I'm having trouble with, that sort of thing.

Once in a while the community erupts with furious nerd anger over some Controversial Crisis or another. On Crisis days, I keep getting interrupted with new emails from these people adding their input to the conversation, which becomes increasingly meaningless throughout the day as the original point someone made becomes lost under a deluge of whining and incompetent ranting. Today was one of those days.

Without embroiling you in the lurid details, it seems that the new version of the software will not be compatible with the old version of the data-management software this company also provides, and upgrading will be necessary. This kind of thing, of course, happens all the time, but this one guy was really upset about it. He wrote a passionate, lengthy email to all of us about how unfair this is and how it's really just mean of the software publisher to not think of his feelings, personally, when making this decision. He urged all the members of the community to voice their opinion on this matter, which they did, with much emotion and hyperbole, to the rest of us, all day.

This is a fairly common occurrence, but it caused me to stop and think about what kind of wreck one's life must be in to cause someone to write such a polemic about the unfair, mean practices of a large, faceless software company. I mean, this was a long email, filled with examples of how this would screw this guy over personally. I'm sure his employer would be thrilled to know how much time this dude spent crafting this epic masterwork about how the mean ol' software writers are just trying to ruin his life.

Seriously, though, I can't imagine what kind of banal existence you'd have to live to get that wrapped up in something as ultimately meaningless as this. I'm sure this upgrade business will cause some headaches for this dude, but...so what? That's just job security for you, buddy; just roll with it. (Hint: there's a reason it's called "work.")

So, take that for what it's worth. If you think your life is boring, or if it seems empty at times, at least you're not losing sleep over all the computers onto which you're going to have to install some more software next year sometime when the new version comes out.

He's Back

I hadn't heard my woodpecker banging on the house each morning so I feared he had moved on, despite the fact that woodpeckers don't migrate. I was really sad because I thought he was the most interesting of all the birds that come to my bird garden. Well today I was looking out the window to look at the rain and low and behold, there was my woodpecker. He must have just stopped pecking at our house, which I wouldn't blame him since there are no bugs in it. I kind of wish he would keep pecking at the house though because it was the only way I knew he was going to be at the feeder.

HP7

Okay, in addition to Hagrid, I think the other "major character" to die will be Ginny Weasley. That's Hagrid and Ginny. Place your bets now, ladies and gentlemen.

Motivation

We watched the movie Coach Carter tonight, which is a movie about the coach who required his team to do better than the bare academic standard. He even went so far as to lock his team out of the gym when they were not succeeding academically. It was very good.
The other day we watched Akeelah and the Bee, which was also inspiring. Both movies quoted this poem by Marianne Williamson that I thought was thought provoking:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."