home sweet homes

So Morgan and I have been spending a whole bunch of time together. Like... all of it. We really started when I had no heat/hot water and then as soon as that fixed he blew his transmission, so first I camped out at his place and then he "tagged along" with me. His house is in the fort and he spends much less time on campus than I do, so he walks back and forth. I tend to meet him at his place afterwork and then we just do whatever we need, which for students is alot of reading and computer dinking. And well, reading and dinking are rather more pleasurable when snuggled with another reading dinker.

I find it odd though, as he keeps wanting to be with me. I keep waiting for him to suddenly tire of me and want "alone time." We'll see.

Oh, and he hums. He paces and fidgets when he can be mobile or his hands are free, it used to drive me crazy but now I've just gotten used to it. But when he needs to sit and read, he hums. It's not all bad, rarely is it an earworm (rarely). Normally it's some classical choral piece, as he did fancy classical chorus in high school, so it's like I have a tenor section all to myself.

Except I've always studied in silence.

We learn and adjust.

Weekend

Enjoyed the weekend.

friday night was first friday, it was my first first friday also, and lee and rusty and claire had exhibits opening. the plan was to dress up meet up at lee and rusty's gallery (@ cumberland and gay), do the "ooh, awesome!" thing then grab food @ 7 @ the bistro and make our way down to w summit hill for claire's stuff and then hit sassy ann's for a little cutthroat action.

so i dressed up, green low cut sweater hoodie, brown tank, short denim skirt, and brown boots. i had just had my hair done, and i even put on makeup. i felt so much like an undergrad getting ready for a night out. my normal "lets go out" clothes consist of a pair of ripped jeans and a tank top. ah well. it wont kill me to get dressed up now and again.

but the others were running a little behind. lee and rusty weren't even there when we had to leave for our dinner reservations.  so we ate, shared a bottle of wine, and went back.  at lee and rusty's there was a water cooler full of wine. a WINE COOLER if you will. so much wining was had, and there were multiple people who i hadn't seen in a while so there was a bunch of catching up going on there when it was like OK! MUST GO FIND CLAIRE!

morgan was driving (thankfully) so he toted my and shannonette's arse up to w summit hill in which progress i call claire up twice, the first time thinking i had a bad connection. the second time realizing it was just REALLY LOUD where she was. she was at the crown and goose, apparently her thing was over for the night (BOO!) I felt like such a pathetic friend missing her thing, especially since when i showed up at the crown and goose to talk for a few moments i was obviously feeling the wine.

when i first got to the c&g i saw nate and adam, so i talked to them for a bit. morgan and shannonette joined me in there, so they both said hi. it was morgan's first meeting of this cookeville group, but shannonette had met them previously. i guess bringing morgan may have been somewhat transparent (bringing the current boy when meeting up w the ex-boy's bro) but at the same time i wanted to find claire.

finally found her! after running into one of our prof's, that is. i was so intent on finding claire, though, that i just gave him a half wave while trying to figure out what she was saying. i'm doing great with my personal interactions. found claire, talked for a while, left, ran back by nate and adam, and asked about a wedding this coming weekend.  then asked about the ex's plans for this coming weekend (which is also brewers jam, and yes, is where i met him last year, and i hoped wouldn't be a big deal, but with some of the emails that he had been sending me and the fact that he kept checking my blog and myspace somewhat consistently until about 2 weeks ago, i'm honestly a bit worried about what might happen if we both meet face to face utterly beer-plastered) i find that not only does he not have plans to attend brewers jam, he also does have plans for something else. so no worries there.  i just don't want drama. i'm tired of stupid boys.

any way, after that, off to sassy ann's, where i change into my jeans and chacos. it was easy as i was already wearing a skirt. yay me.

cutthroat was cutthroat. yay. i was beat, though, i had been on the move since 7AM. had done the oil change thing, the hair cut/color thing, and then the social thing, so we cut out at about 1AM.  and went home. and passed out.

zonk.

good times.

the following day the morning was spent reading, and taking a shower, and getting things together, as that afternoon there was another dnd game (yay?). i think i'm enjoying it. I'm just trying to decide if i really like spending 5 hours i could devote to school stuff with this limited tangable reward system.  after the game we hit the mall and i had to physically restrain morgan from purchasing for me an item from williams sonoma. i know, what was i thinking. dinner was lovely mashed taters and tomatos with mozzerella with olive oil and balsamic viniger. because that was what i wanted. and the trend seems to be with him that i get what i want. i can't abuse this, but with wierd food cravings while cramping, it's totally legit.

sunday was good brunch at sunspot, grocery shopping, and more reading (read that as "napping), and monday was monday.

tonight i have options. morgan might still be in town, or he might not. if he isn't i may go watch the debate with jim (where? does he have a tv?) and play www.palinbingo.com with the prez candidates. or a may go see dennis at his open mike at the pres pub. or i may stay in and read this book about fair trade coffee if i don't get it done by then.

blargh.

proudness

so i did it. finally. i made my very own myspace picture. i don't like pix of me, so i go ahead and rip off other sites. my latest picture stated that my marxist feminist dialectic would bring all the boys to my yard. the newest newest one is to the left. thank online translators for the translation. hopefully i have it right!

maybe not all, but i do have one at the moment. i don't know if it was the MFD that did it or simply the fact that i could actually speak intelligently after multiple beers on random uber-esoteric,paradigmatic-shifting, rhetoric challenging, possibly-important topics.

woot.

i also, this afternoon erased all email correspondance with people i don't like. err.... a person i no longer like. i didn't realize quite what had piled up, but when i saw something with his name on it, i dug a bit and realized "damn, don't need this mucking up the inbozzle". Hitting the "trash" choice surely isn't as cathartic as burning things, but who needs catarsis when you've moved on.

and no, me stating that i've moved on is not denial that i haven't.

speaking of moving on, back to the MFD/Beer incident... YAY!

that's all. if you haven't met him, you obviously haven't seen me in the last 2 weeks, as we seem to do many things together. i'm home alone now for the first time in a while. i should be doing laundry....

hit the disc exchange today. picked up tickets for brewers jam. not missing it for anything. there's a crew of boucoup zwanzig joining me: eric, morgan, shannon, shannon, kimberly, heather, paula, jim, and more. yay.

also grabbed a PJ Harvey CD. i blame my DE dude for hooking me on her last last summer. damn him and his lucious prematurely entirely gray hair coupled with being a band teacher and a husband and father (i think he said he had kids) with awesome tastes in knowing what i want.... in music. DAMN HIM!

ask me about my recipe for curry. and remember that the farmers market has awesome summer squash this week. it goes well with curry.

and to the Ktowners who read this excuse for a blog... i'll be at GreekFest sometime after 3. I have some brownies that need my attention until then.

update on my side

It's been good. I like being an adult, to a point.

D's plane got in just fine at 2PM on Thurs, I got him at the airport (found him before he saw me) and we headed home, did the food thing, and started to chill.  A calls and says "L (her sis) and I are going to the farm NOW" so D and I jump in the car and go meet them there. It's only when we're finished the 1/2 hour trip do I realize that I totally forgot to call Mr. J, who I had mentioned this potential trip to the previous day.  We get there, swim, dive, kayak, tree-yak (no, not really) I see my first persimmon, we ponder as to the identity of some other tree, and have some general fun.  D and I then head home after poking in to see Dancer, A's horse, and chill/catch up.  At somepoint in there, I noticed that Nece's eyes were too goopy/squinty for my comfort so I called the vet and made an appointment for 930AM on Fri.

Friday I go to the vet.  The cat has Chlamydia... again.  So we're on a round of eye drops. yay.  Then I go to work, Dave comes with me to look around.  I finish up what I need to do for our people on Tuesday, and we head out, run some errands, and head back to my place.  We hang out for a little bit, I get a few things going for the Pirate/Zombie dinner party on Sat, and I do some reading for class (yaaay... blah).

I am now becoming fully indoctrinated in economical/ecological social stances.  The current book is continually repeating "capitalism is bad because it can only happen if you don't restrict growth" "unrestricted growth is ecologically unsound." yes, I get it. let's get deeper. MORE RHETORIC! I want to be more Pretentious.  MORE EXAMPLES! I want to see how *I* can utilize these paradigms in my own stuff.  Shift it, shift it good.  The class should be good, alot of structuralism/marxism.... plenty of my buddy foucault too.

So I drag D to the brewery, where he gets to have some of the world's best stout. Mr. J joins us and we have a fun, somewhat nerdy conversation. D is a chemist, J is all about alternitive/bio fuels, and lets just say that my field requires me to understand way too much schtuff. Woohoo!  Then, we wander over to the Pub for some beer and CUTTHROAT SHAMROCK!

We hang there for a bit before others who we know join.  So there's Mssr. E (from past adventures), his new roommate Mssr. D, my girl H, her boy G, my D from NY, and Mr. J (alphabet stew!).  At which point Ben from the band sits down at our table and joins in our conversation.  That was most awesome.  I think it was even better because D came all the way from NY to see them (in a ways), and Mr. J has only seen them once before, and I told him that the show at the Grotto was nothing like what most shows are.  So we're all talking, I noticed that Mr. J got numbers from Ben, I'm assuming for his Gf as she's also a band person (haven't heard them play yet, they come in town some point in October).  Twas most nifty.

The opener band rocked.  I was very very please.  And the CtSr show was amAZing!  One girl at the show pulled me aside and asked if I was the one "doing the research on that hammer" as she recognized me from my newspaper article.  I affirmed that "ahem, yes, that is me".  I was surprised she recognized me as in that photo I hadn't brushed my hair, was hiking backwoods / off trail for a while to get to the site, and was wearing a bulky wool sweater and Carhartt's.  But whatever.  No-name-boy (or "many-name-boy") also recognized me before I recognized him.  He ran off soon, though, on what H reported as a red Harley.  He said he was going to come up and hang out, but I think that I was familiarly slipping between 3 dudes (Mssr E, D from NY, and Mr. J) and that our previous interactions over almost the whole last 10 months has consisted of bar-room conversation over mediocre beer with thinly veiled flirtations, it wasn't the most welcoming environment. Shrug. It was an ego-boost.

Cutthroat ended only after many beers were accidentally and purposely released into the atmosphere, and I decided that with the beer and the hour D needed to have his first southern experiance of Krystals. So with Mr. J in the cramped back seat of my car and DfromNY in the cramped-pulled-forward passenger seat we went and initiated D on the finer points of ittybittyburgers.

Then, everyone safely at home, I had a reprise from the St.Pat2007 CtSrShow. I looked at my feet and they were DISGUSTING. So while I didn't have the energy for a shower, I stood in my tub and washed my feet. yuck.

Next day, feeling slightly not up for it, I started working on the dinner party.
It went marvelous. The Curried Goat was not too spicy, the hot sauces were flavorful, the riceandbeans in coconutmilk were divine. The spiked fruit salad was overly intoxicating (yay) and yeah. Success. We all chatted and played apples to apples, the cats weren't overpowering (allergies in some people) and it wasn't just D and i in costume. It ended a little earlier than some parties, but that was all good, as I was exhausted. R stayed a little later (I think I bugged him or something to do so, I don't know) and I ended up starting to fall asleep in my camp chair while he and D were talking about something.... important? I don't know.

Sunday, clean up was a bitch, and know i should be reading, but D is napping and we have a Boomsday party in a bit and I'm bored. My cats are also sleeping. They look dead.

Best to all!

A rundown

It's been a busy while. I'm posting a blog that i wrote in my word processor a while ago, so if you scroll down, you'll see it dated to its creation. I have quite a few fronts to report on, though, so feel free to read on.

Cats

Boy

School

Friends

Thanksgiving

Cats -
Orion and Neci are both getting along very well. They are still vessels of boundless kittanic energy, so they keep me going and on the ball. Orion loves spicy tomato sauces as well as beans and pasta. She doesn't like, however, any meat that I cook. She just got her rabies shot, so my little bitty itty kitten has two big shiny radies tags. The blingbling of the feline world? The vet is actually surprised at how small Orion is, so we're waiting as long as possible to spay her. Probibly some point in January. As she's an inside cat, if we don't get her before she gets fertile, it'll be a bit annoying on our part, but it won't hurt her. I would rather she be large enough that she goes through her surgery safely.

Neci was spayed before I was even allowed to take her home. Granted she was with a recue group, so not actually belonging to anyone, I'm sure that the sentaments if she didn't pull through ok would be different. Neci likes to drink water... out of my glass. It doesn't matter how much is in her water bowl and whether it was just washed or not. She goes for my water glass. I wouldn't mind so much if she was also not so facinated witht he bathroom. She likes to walk the rim of my tub whether or not i'm in it. She also likes to watch the toilet, and once surprised a male in the bathroom by popping up between his legs and watching the happenings.

They have also learned that if my phone alarm goes off, I don't wake up right away. That gives them time to knock it off the table and under the bed, where I won't hear it go off again. This means that I'll stay in bed, where they are also snuggled under the covers (except for the one to knock the phone off, who i saw go right back under the covers when I did wake up once)sucking off my body heat. Neci alone, however, has learned that if she doesn't want music, she just needs to jump on my clock radio. In fact, I'm totally messing with her by playing music from my computer. She came over and started walking on the clock radio, knowing that if she does it enough, she'll turn it off.

School

I hate school. I want to be done. And the catch 22 is that it won't be done until i put in sufficient effort. I want real life again. I don't mind school, but I would love to do the part time thing. Not to put the cart before the horse or jinx me in any sort, the park will be opening my old position back up. If I get it, then I can totally and entirely do my real life job, which frustrated me to no end, but at the same time fulfilled me. I just hope that everyone will be able to put up with the exhaustion and intensity that this job gave me. I do so hope that it all works out. Losing that job, even though it was from funding problems, was a huge ego drain, and I feel so incomplete without it.

Yes, I'm one of those people who define themselves by their job. If I didn't want a job so intent and crazed, would I be killing myself at school for it? All you old schoolers know that the one thing I prided myself on was what I got paid for.

Boy

Wow - well, he's definitly proven interesting and good. Those two adjectives are horribly insufficient, but they'll provide a base. Well, he did halloween with me and with some of my friends. We started at Sr. Taco. While there, we invited his brother, his brother's wife, and another friend of theirs. So there were many people enjoying themselves. After Halloween dinner, we had planned on going out, but for some reason, perhaps because it was Wednesday, we ended up going to my place to drink vodka and play with kittens. The weekend after halloween was SEAC, and well, after past experiances with official stuff and bringing a sigoth, I was a little hesitant, but he wanted to come to the friday night dance. I figured that I had built up just enough of a reputation for myself between my past job and my time put into the department that I could introduce an "outsider" to the conference. Besides, it was local so everyone from Ktown brought their spouse(-to-be). Plus, it was not the first time for my circle to meet him. We had had a pot luck a few weeks earlier, and everyone had only positive things to say about him.

So we go to the dance and have a good time. One of my friends is in the middle of an intoxicated conversation with a rather renowned SE Archie, and as we were driving her home, we had to stay with her. He insisted that the conversation continue at the hotel bar when the dance venue kicked us out (midnight).

The following evening is the department party. I was definatly wanting to bring him to this as it's very informal anyways so it's a good venue to debut new members of the anthropology auxilary. We all dressed up, picked up two other friends along the way, and had a blast that evening. He even met and sweet talked the prof who had been giving me relationship advice before. The interesting thing is that, if I haven't mentioned it before, this guy went to highschool with two of my best friends (one in the department), and he graduated with my girlfriend's sister. At this party, we found that half of the significant others in the department (ok, a bit of an overexaggeration) went to highschool with them. This is a little podunk town abotu 1.5 hours from knoxville. Apparently they train them to put up with UT Anthopologists.

Friends

I love my friends, I really do. I do with all my heart, and I would and do do most anything for them, if I can. They've been having it rough, both the ones down here and apparently a few of the old schoolers. Guys, you'll all get it done. Remember what I always said in college: enough hard work will get you your way.

Thanksgiving.

I'm hosting Thanksgiving! So come here! I'm doing an Orphan Thanksgiving for anyone who doesn't have the time to head home. As far as I know, I'm doing meat, stuffing,sweet taters,a vegetable dish, and probibly I'll make an apple cobbler just because. I currently have 4 definate guests, and two who will be showing up later (one being the boy who had originally planned on being here the whole time, but was slammed with a family obligation just this week, so I'll deal.) I do hope that it goes well. I think we'll be so totally fooded out, that we'll be sooooo happy.


See - I update - occasionally

i'm back from the dead!

It's starting to get chilly here. Which is good. I filled up my gas tank and exclaimed "wow - finally it's feeling like fall".

So - excitement - this weekend is brewers jam. Six hours of beer drinking awesomeness with bands and all that stuff. I'm going to park by my office so I can hang out there if I get to the point of not being able to drive.

I've been doing some pleasure reading, which is bad. i should instead be working on my many many other projects. But some days and nights I really really really don't want to do anything intellegent.


Janet Evonavich - this author has done a whole slew of light chick books. The main character in most of them, Stephanie Plum, is a bond agent with plenty of her own foiables. With her pluck and the help of her boyfriend, a homocide cop, and her lust-buddy, a professional bounty hunter, she manages to bring in the bad guys. Sounds sorta cliche, but there's enough twists and jokes that it's an easy fun read.
Preferred refreashement: Laird's Apple Brandy over ice or extra strong Mojitos (I grow my own mint). Peanut Butter Chocolate Ice Cream

Song of Solomon - Awesome book that I picked up because I wanted to read something "controversial" for banned books week. I love her way of description, tossing out details that over the course of the story are not only important but create a seamless narrative and description.
The main plot is of a Macon "Milkman" Dead, the son of a well done landlord and the grandson of a well respected doctor growing up in the middle of the century in Michagan. The story follows his negotiation of his race (african-american / black) and class (upper middle) not in the general world, but in his community and his family. Once he thinks he realizes where he stands and how to improve the public's view of him (become financially independant) he, no kidding, goes on a multi-state huntfor a stow of gold his father mentioned in stories. In the search, he meets individuals who were but characters in his father's stories of childhood, causeing him to search deeper for where "his people" come from.
Preferred refreshment: hot tea and chocolate chip cookies, South Paw Light

Hocus Pocus - Kurt Vonnegut
I've always loved Vonnegut, I'm sorry. This book, published in 1990 tells the story of an ex-professor ex-soldier who loves older women, fought in Vietnam, taught at a college for disabled individuals, and is currently being held for trial for his involvement in a deadly prison break. Vonnegut writes with such wonderful detached sections that, after devoting some time, make sense. Running jokes, themes, symbolism: this book is an english teacher's paradise. And his character (telling the story) doesn't swear as his grandmother told him "profanity and obscenity entitle people who don't want unpleasant information to close their ears and eyes to you." One key theme in this book is how the character can't stand his service in Vietnam, not because of the any inhumanity, horrible sites, or anti-war stance. Instead, it is brought by the futility of the war and the public's anger of the government leading the country into such (in the end) meaningless conflict to general animosity toward the return of the soldiers. The main character is consistently jealous of World War II veterans because of the respect the country's populous gave to them. This theme is one that the many yellow ribbon on our vehicles is aimed at preventing. Some call it "patriotism light" but instead, it's supporting the safety and return of the troops and not the continual conflicts that the ruling class tends to get its lower classes into.
Preferred refreshment: Cabernet Savagnon or Pearl Pomegranate Vodka. Mochi


Class struggle! Class struggle! I just eat it up!!! Yum yum!!!

what has occured

I apologize with little sorrow that I have not been blogging. I've been busy. Since I last blogged:
My mother visited, my friend visited, my grandmother died, my house has been painted, my car was totaled, i bought a new car, i rearranged my house, i met some interesting gentlemen, and i have actually (i think) gone on a date.

It has not been relaxing in any form.

Report from the field 2

I'm typing this in the front lobby at the Crowne Plaza in Center City Philadelphia. After spending another week in the backcountry dealing with bears and generators and stinky boys (not to be sexist, but those six dudes were RANCID on some days), my coworker and I are living the high life. Valet parking, luggage delivery - all that fancy stuff. Today, we plan to visit INDE (Independence National Historic Site) and the King Tut exhibit at the Franklin. We'll take the decidedly tourist transit system, it's only $4 for the day and runs a fixed route around all the tourist stuff, so we can get from one place to the next without much difficulty. Then we get to hunker down and do the professional stuff for this conference.

After this weekend, I head back to visit the parents because its my little brother's graduation this weekend.

I hope to get some pictures from this trip too.

Check out the other two posts below this one.

Report from the field

I'm heading back out to the field for a week, but thought that I would give a quick update on the general status.

The first week that we spent out in the field was fun. It was a touch chilly in the early part of the days, but a sweater was all that was needed. This coming week should be plenty warm. I have plenty of pictures of rusty metal, so you'll get some posted eventually. I even found my new most favorite artifact. It might make its way to the blog.

The week went fine, and I have one of my two interns in. He seems like he'll work for the summer.

Now I'm just trying to get all my stuff together and put together for next week. I'll be gone, but will make it back on Saturday - maybe.

Work and Play

Also called:

• Academics
• and Search: (Alcohol OR Sugar) AND Music Result: FUN

I'm just getting so burned out on this school thing. But my book chapter is in. WOOHOO!

"I" turned in 75 pages to my prof. I'm saying "I" because I actually compiled 75 pages for the chapter I'm leading on, but contributed to a total of 4 chapters. See, this is how we're doing it:
There are four of us Historic Arch's in the department. We each have our complimentary facets of archaeology that we're most interested in: Domestic, Military, Industrial, and Bioarch/Mortuary. There are also 4 distinct time periods that we need to deal with: Proto-His and EuroSettlement, Early Statehood and Antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction. As most site reports deal with the function of the site (dom, mil, ind, biomort), it's much much easier to write a paper on a site type rather than a time period, or else everyone will use the same 80% of the reports and miss major chronological connectors and themes. So instead, we each wrote a section on our theme (mine being indutrial, natch). We got them out to each other by Thursday noon. Then Thursday afternoon we were supposed to copy/paste the relevent sections into chronological chapters. We had divided responsibility for these chrono-chaps as one to each of us. This way, we each get a SELF et al citation. Yay! plus, we are also recognized as the et al in three other chapters.

So - I get a good amount prepared for each of the chronochaps, and I get sections for my stuff, and put it together. We were all thinking we'd get 45-50 pages, right? I got 75. The whole reason: a heck of a lot of archeology was done on Antebellum sites. I keep getting criticized for the size of my chapter's draft. but, think about it. In the Proto/Settlement time: there were few people around to make sites. In the Civil War: we have 5 years worth of sites. In the Reconstruction/Victorian time: things are not as old and still standing so they don't get dug or they're not as old and people don't care so they don't get dug. The Antebellum however: HUGE population explosion, major building episodes, major buildings, plantations and increased social stratification (ie: slaves), and stuff is "old enough." Therefore, LOTS of archaeology is done in this time period.

So - it was handed in at 15.30 on Thursday. Marvelous! Why? Because I could work on my Paleo paper!

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Of course not, don't be stupid! Thursday night was the free George Thorogood concert! So - as i am quite a fan of classic rock (and free concerts and plenty of beer), I load up A and E (my apparent constant partners of crime) into my car and we head off. Well, think of the demographics of a GT concert held during a local bike week. Dirty, old, leather clad gents and their ladies drinking cheap beer (how someone would drink a 3$PBR when Newcastle and RedStripe are only 4$ is beyond me, but mebbe it's an image thing)pervaded the atmosphere. No worries. Well, before GT got on, we hung out in the PrezPub for a bit. Two beers down and a stage hand, approx 50yo and tiny as all comes up to me

Stagehand: You know, you're awfully cute?
Me: You know, that's quite a coincidence. You know why? Because every morning I wake up, look in the mirror, and say "God DAMN! Why do I have to be so damn cute?"
Stagehand: So - You like George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers. You know - Bad to the Bone?
Me: Oh please, he has hell of a lot better songs than that overplayed trite. Plus, is he going to destroy anything while he's here That would be cool.
Stagehand: Well, he destroyed Delaware.
Me: Dude, seriously. Delaware is like, Delaware. You can destroy Delaware, swing down to Rhode Island, have a long lunch, swing by the store for some milk on the way home, and still be able to mow your lawn before the kids get home from school. Is he going to destroy anything while he's here? If he's not, I don't want to talk to you.

We get back to the crowd and in front of the stage as GT is about to get on. Sidetracked, A and I separate from E in order to talk to a few other classmates. No worries, we'll find each other eventually. Besides, E was probably going to the front to take pictures (his shtick)and A and I just wanted to have fun. Well, the classmates left for more beer. A and I made our way into the crowd. We were 10m from the stage (maybe) and in the direct center. Well, the concert rocked. It was loud, it was roudy, and he was a legend. Now, as a legend, he was on his downhill slope, and he did employ some cheesy lights, but - whatev - it was GEORGE FUCKIN' THOROGOOD! And I was tempted to order the one bourbon, one scotch, and one beer. But - I had to drive.

So - concert's over - we regroup back at the PrezPub. One more beer because E ordered Newcastle and they gave him a draught. He prefers bottle. So - leftover beer is still beer, and Newcastle is nice. We're hunched against the bar, I'm sorta standing, but leaned over the bar and we're mostly huddled, talking about our problems with the opposite sex. I straighten up and get hit by a DOM (dirty old man) on with the cheesy "you're cute" thing again. I blow him off, hunker over again, we laugh. I stand up again, a new DOM shows up "You're cute" blow off hunker down. Repeat ad nauseum. I start to think about this statistically. Are we weighted because of the proliferance of DOM skewing our normal curve? Or am I suddenly this darned swan? I think it's the former, no matter how I would like to believe the latter.

But, my "favorite" was with this 500 lb 50 yo with sweat pouring down his stringy long hair:

Dude: Hey - I think I know you.
Me: Probibly not, man.
Dude: No - I know your grandmother. It's Bettie Page.
Me: Dude - seriously. While that's one of the better lines I've heard all night, you still need some practice on the delivery. Go - elsewhere.

Soon after, we left. Walking home, we saw some other classmates as they yelled from their car "WOOHOO LOOK AT DEM ARCHAEOWHORES!" Now *that* was hilarious.

Saturday (today), A and I decided to celebrate Earthday KnoxVegas style: with a free all day music festival within walking distance of our office! We slathered on our SPF 50 sunscreen and headed over there at about 4PM. We had us some funnel cakes and snowcones. Yay! Sugar! A left at about 5.30 but I stayed for about another hour. After all, Dishwater Blonde ( www.myspace.com/dishwaterblonde ), one of the local bands I really really like, was playing. Thankfully, there were really no DOM there (at least of the GT calibre), so The GT experience was not continued.

And to all who know my music preferences: Yes, I realize Wolfmother is playing tonight (right now actually) at the Bijou, but I am too poor for $35 tickets. Especially since I spent the same amount to see the King Tut exhibit when I go to Phili. No worries. I'll just see them in a few years when they play the Sundown circuit.

Well, it's 10PM on a Saturday, and I'm blogging. I think it's time to pack up and find some dinner.

I don't think I'll be doing much with music during the rest of the week. I really need to work on this Paleo paper.

Job Advice: 1

Working and schooling in three unique environments, I see a regular amount of turnover. In this, I also get to observe the actual hiring process. This week has been one of note, so I will start a (possibly) semi-regular blog feature called "Job Advice."

In "Job Advice" I will list real-life examples of what NOT to do (that's what I normally notice) to be selected for a position.

So - here we go:

1) Don't cold call the an institution you do not belong to and demand a paid internship. Especially when one has never been advertised. This goes double if one has never been offered and the institution is struggling for money.

2) Spell check your application. If you can't spell the position or the institution, you are not wanted to represent the institution.

3) Apply for the correct job. Those get tossed out, not transferred to the correct position.

4) When a recommendation letter for X states "X is a survivor," that means the hiring institution (me, in this case) should pity X. Do I look like Mr. T ? That's what I thought.

5) In your application, do not outline how you will use this position in a political agenda to destroy the integrity of the institution.

6) When interviewing, do not tell the interviewers that the institution is not suitable for its clients long term plans, and its focus should be on transitioning its clients to other institutions.

7) Do promptly return a phone call offering you a position. If you can't get back to the institution within a week, you're too lazy to have the job.

expression, responsibility, censorship, and

I was going to do a blog about the "Rape Only Hurts If You Fight It" article written by CCSU student John Petroski and published as an Op/Ed at his school newspaper. I was going to outline the nuances between the

• freedom to express a personal opinion (exercised by the author and the newspaper)
• the freedom to say one does not like the opinion expressed(exercised by the gathering student body and hordes of internetters)
• the responsibility to represent the school professionally (ignored by the author and the newspaper, offending the university and the student body)
• and the need to treat subject matter properly (ignored by the author and the newspaper, offending the many who have been affected by rape).

I was going to draw in the Journalist's Code of Ethics and the Newspaper Editor's Code of Ethics. But, I think that I just did that, and new topics have been brought to my attention that I would rather spend the blog space on.

..
more later