New Year Resolutions, sorta

I don't really *do* New Year Resolutions. It really makes no sense to me to suddenly decide that you need to change something and actually expect to break all your old, bad habits in one day that culminates the end of the stressful holiday season. Heck, the day after New Years is the national day of recuperation!

But, I do realize that I need to change a few things, and the next month will have plenty of new starts: new semester, new reign administration, new heating system.

So - I am going to propose a few changes to my current way of life. This is not seperate from the 101 in 1001 plan. In fact, it is most likely going to augment it. But I realize that I both need and want a few changes.

I've decided to break it into two parts: things I will continue through the year and things I want to get done over winter break.

So within the next month, I will set up the infrastructure for a year of:

1. Keeping my house as neat/clean as I did from April 2007 - Sept 2007.
2. Consuming consciously. This entails purchasing from local vendors and responsible companies. This includes food, toiletries, alcohol, cleaning supplies, and gifts.
3. Successfully gardening at least two food objects (ie: tomatoes and eggplants) and 3 spices/herbs.
4. Keep my bills organized.
5. Run http://gexxcooksknoxville.wordpress.com/ .

Over break I will:

1. Enroll in auto-pay for my mortgage
2. Figure out what is going on with my ATT bill
3. Clean my desk
4. Install my kitchen cabinet doors
5. Clean out my kitchen supplies
6. Install my coathooks
7. Play with my kittens
8. And generally simplify my possessions
9. Create my mother's website
10. Figure out my financial aid situation for the following year
11. Mount the headlight on my bicycle
12. Organize the basement for easy bicycle access
13. Get Orion and Neci their yearly shots
14. Spay Orion
15. Cuddle the kittens
16. and at the end.... update my 101 in 1001 blog!

Plan plan plan.... Now to just DO!

Marriage Equality Rally!

[newsbreak] Good news! Larry Summer is no longer up for Treasury Sec.  If you didn't know, he's the ex-ivyleague-pres who said women were inheantly inferior at math and science.  He even set up a home ec class for women so they didn't need to worry their little heads with all sorts of numbers. [end newsbreak]

So, Saturday was the Anti-passing of all the no gay marriage acts/props/ammendments.  Morgan and I made up posters (seen below), and he met me at the museum at 2.30PM with the plan to head right over to World's Fair Park.

Well... I head over to the museum, where I had 1PM a program to give, at 12.15.  I pull into the lot and am told that I need to pay, there's a basketball game.  I explain to the attendant that I am going to work at the museum and, not only that, I have 20 young girl scouts with parents coming at 1.  They tell me that they will need to find parking.  I respond that this is not acceptable, they were told where they could park before this, and the museum lot is to remain open for museum visitors.  Well, apparently there are only 5 spots left, and goodness knows how we'll do this.  So they call the head guy, who is very not pleased to see me.  The museum and the parking people have been at odds for as long as I've worked there.  The museum needs weekend visitors. When the museum advertises free admission and free parking, people expect that.  If they need to suddenly pay $5 to go do something free, they'll just as soon go home.  The museum loses visitors, and no one buys anything cool in the museum shop.

So he and I argue that parking a few cars in the free lot with everyone else having to pay is not acceptable.  I threaten to call people, like the museum's director, in order to give my girls a good experience.  At this point one of the original attendents comes running up and tells us that most of the cars in the lot are high school students here for visitation, and their program is supposed to be over at 12.30.  How about we just close the lot down for everyone except Girl Scouts (and other visitors, I pipe in).  That, I tell them, will work, assuming enough people leave.  What if we don't have enough spots still?  The attendants point out a bunch of open space, normally used by the daily attendant's kiosk, and say they'll park them in there.  We should be guarenteed 15 spaces between what's already open, what will open, and the informal spots.  So they change the sign to "Lot Full" and I head in hoping that the girl scouts are carpooling, like good environmentally concious individuals should.

I have 15 minutes to run upstairs, downstairs, middlestairs in order to get my 45 minute program, my 15 minute tool demonstrations, my 20 minute clay-based craft, and my 5 minute story set up.  I'm not ready on time, but that's ok, because the "Lot Full" sign confused some parents looking for the museum so they're on their way.  We get started about 15-20 minutes late.  Gargh!

We do the program, take a little longer on the initial program because they ask so many gosh durned questions, do the tools, take a quick break for me to move around the set up for the craft, make our darned clay pots, Morgan shows up, wash our hands, tell the story, and I clean up in record time.  I tell the guard the few things he needs to do (re-set some alarms, re-lock a few doors) since I don't have codes or keys.

3.20PM Morgan and I rush out of campus and over to Worlds Fair Park.  Everyone is gone!

Noooo!

So now I have two virgin signs for the next protest rally.

I'm annoyed.  Stupid parking.

Come to find out, about 120 people were at the rally, and the only counter protest was

LINK TO ARTICLE ABOUT RALLY IN KTOWN!  I really like this article.  Especially that it is written with a lean toward supporting same sex marriage and even includes religious leaders' comments supporting the equality of the right.

In other marriage-equality news:  December 5 is "No Gay for A Day" day, where the LGBT community and their supporters stay home from work.  Where I work, at the museum, we all feel that marriage should count.  The people I serve, children, would be the ones effected.  While children may repeat what parents say, they are still impressionable.  I'm conflicted whether my staying home would help.

I'm killing time before a lecture that I need to make up.  I'm hungry (I've had 2 cups of coffee and a "gourmet wafer cookie") and I'm just generally annoyed that I forgot my cell phone yesterday which indirectly led to me not realizing that I was missing lecture.  This means I need to attend with the undergraduates. The indignity!

The annoying part is that I need to go back to my house and clean, pack, and do laundry for tomorrow as then I need to get up, go to work, and then drive the 10+ hours back to my parent's house in bumblefuck, pennsylvania.

Yay, heteronormativity.



People have heard of and met my parents, and they know that our personalities don't often ... mesh.  So I'm a little worried about the days I need to spend there.  The only reason I'll be there is because my friend from high school is getting married and there's no uncomplicated/uninsulting way to find another place to stay. 

I'm tired of being told that everything I'm doing is wrong.  And just once I would like them to call me by my name.

On the bright side, my brother is state side, and he's looking for colleges so he doesn't need to go back and shoot people for a living (yet).  Hopefully by the time is college career is done things will have calmed down.  Hopefully the starting of a college career will open him to new political views which will temper some strongly impressed rural PA, super right wing values.

While I'm gone, Morgan will be watching my house and cats.  The cats will stand guard for anyone imposing on my non-present hospitality.  They will rip out lungs through the nose and draw testes through a foremen magnum.

They're dangerous.  I wish I could bring them with me.

link dump

My good dear friend Kazen, who is leaving for Japan in a few months (awesome) turned me on to Delicious. I know it's been around for a while, I just never tried it. It's pretty fun to work with. So we've been trading links back and forth for the last few weeks, and I have a tag of "blogable" articles and stuff that I think would be interesting to write about. I've had a similar bookmark folder in Firefox.

But some of these have lost their fire. And yet at the same time I saved them because I thought others would find them interesting. So here's a dump. Some are frivolous, most aren't.

• On Sexual Rights:
• "Rape only hurts if you fight it" - A college journalist claims that an editorial was meant as a satire. The problem is that a satire is supposed to be funny and thought provoking. On Women's Space the full text of the editorial is presented along with a well organized rebuttal including statements from officials involved in this issue and an exploration of the white male privilege.
• Battling the Myth of Gray Rape - This is part of the whole "she was asking for it / she deserved it" argument line. Cosmo and multiple books have addressed this "issue," where if a partner withdraws consent but the other chooses to ignore it, then "it can't be rape."
  
• Puberty is Consent - The link to the original CNN article wasn't working at the time of this blogging, so the link goes to an analysis. Basically one of those Evangalist cult preachers who marries young girls (some at the age of 8) to older men claims that puberty is the only consent that any man needs.
• Take Back the Tech - The Private is Political. But sometimes you want to keep your private as private. This site has tools, technology, and information to keep your privacy and to prevent others from leveraging power by controling your communication.
  
• On Environment
• How to use less CO2- At slate.com. This is a good list of things to do to use less CO2. It also includes links to Slate's green challenge.
• Stop Mountain Top Removal - I said: STOP MOUNTAIN TOP REMOVAL! I used to have a picture of a stripped mountain on my sidebar. This site has information about strip mining, environmental impacts, links to petitions, and activist opportunities.
• On Technology and Science
  
• The Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique - Badges! For Scientists!
• Take Back the Tech! - Worth repeating, prevent yourself from individuals using your communication technology against you.
• T3knomanser's Illegal Colors - Remember the illegal number for un/coding DVDs? T3chnomanser converted the hexadecimal number into a set of five different colors (using hex-color codes).
• Rushkoff Here - A discussion as to whether or not culture is open source.
• Speigel Online - Pictures of what new TSA body scanning software shows.
  
• On Politics
• Palin: wrong woman, wrong message - Gloria Steinam on why Palin is NOT a feminist icon.
• No Ordinary Woman -"women will truly have arrived when the most mediocre among us will be able to do just as well as the most mediocre of men" (another article on Palin)
• McCain's hero Teddy Roosevelt was more socialist than Obama - I've been saying this all along. Why doesn't it get publicity until some white dude writes about it. Talk about priviledge. It's not like Timothy Noah (the author) has any credenti.... oh, he's the senior writer.
• Callie Shell - Obama - A series of photographs from the campaign trail. Many are very personal and candid. (I'll prob do more on this one later)
• That One 08 - Using McCain's gaffe as a reason to register another domain name. And sell merchandise. Vote for That One in 2008.
  

Article: 5 Pieces of Advice for the New Paupers

Full article here.

I've been worried about the economy's myriad aspects.  I'm a student, a home owner, and my career aspects (cultural resources) are viewed by the public as far from necessary.  I'm not related to commodities (food or mineral production), or even to vice at any level (bartender, musician, exotic dancer).  Instead, I depend on the government having enough money to enforce proper resource management on development projects, which in turn depend on agencies having been alloted the money to actually carry out said projects.

Oy veh.

John Dolan's article describes lessons he has learned in leaving grad school and entering the current economic reality.  And honestly, I forsee it as a viable possibility.  I'm only unable to get food stamps because my car is worth too much (according to this article I should sell it anyway).  The primary reason for buying a house was because it was much less then renting (and still is), but with renting when things break they get fixed.  I have the limited electrical knowledge, but lack the chutzpa to risk putting it into use as possibly frying myself or short circuiting my entire house, so I have two rooms without lights (the bathroom and the laundry room), and only two of my meager heaters work... sorta.  In the winter my house is primarily heated in sections with a transportable space heater and the oven.  Work is done in bed, with two cats cuddled under the covers against my thighs.

In fact, it is sympathetic to this exerpt from the article I'm drawing attention to:

"We had only an unheated boat, and that was not enough. We woke up to the thump of sea ice banging against the hull and realized that the old world was still very much in session. When we finally fled to stay with family, we stayed in our blankets up against their gas fireplace for weeks. You won't even want food much after a while. You'll want heat itself, not the chemical middleman. You are going to realize that cold is the most frightening thing in the world."

Yeah.  Happy winter.

intermission from brewer's jam

So I do museum education.  I've had some rather.... dense groups for the last while.  The frustrating part is that these are all fifth and sixth graders who I thought would have had SOME exposure to the Civil War in their life.

Answers to "So what were the two sides in the Civil War" (I was looking for north/south or union/confederate or something along those lines)

French and Indian (ok, not too bad)

The British and the French

The Soviets and the US (maybe because I had mentioned "union" earlier)

The Indian and the Men  {---- my fave, i think

Answers to "Who was president during the Civil War, he's one of our more famous ones"

Ben Franklin

Dr. Suess


le sigh

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.

the week...

So, things have been up and down for the last week or so. I’ve definitely dealt with my share of self drama for the year, and it’s not even Valentine’s Day. In fact, my face is a damn journal of all my worries, and I’ve broken out to the point where I’ve gotten so many zits that I even have one in my EAR that won’t go away. Every now and again I get all hypochondriatic about it and wonder if it’s going to abscess into my skull. I figure that’ll be an interesting skeletal marker as well as a good excuse as to why my school work has stopped.

It hasn’t stopped, though, not at all. I’m working on a paper right now.

Anyway, my parents are coming into town this week. This is the first time my father is visiting me in TN. The occasion? My brother is graduating from shoot-em-up camp at Ft Benning. That’s right, the one time my father is taking time to come see my house is actually just a way point in congratulating his son for being able to follow directions. I’m not bitter, only frustrated. They have also tried to get me to send my cats away for the week, but it’s very simple that I won’t. I will keep the cats out of the bedroom, however, so that they can have a kitten free space. I try hard, I really really do.

So, this weekend will be spent cleaning… my house is a mess, my kitchen smells of fish, my basement insulation needs to be finished, all sorts of stuff. My motivation is that I want to have a dinner party on Saturday night. I feel like making chicken pie. mmmmmm

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

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.

Job Advice: 2

• As an intern, your first day should be spent getting to know your position. Do listen to your super, as although s/he might explain some things you do know, it's easy to miss something you did not know - especially if you don't have any experience in the field at all.
• By accepting an internship position, you have told the place of your employment that you want to be there. Keep up that idea. Do not tell your supers that you only took the position because then you would be closer to an annual music fest.
• Do not tell your super that her job is unimportant.
  

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.

OH HAI - I IS IN YUR BAYSEMENT, FIXIN YUR BOXXORZ

if you don't get the title, read the post, then click *here*

Pictures may come.

This is CrossPosted at my House's blog... eventually.

I've been trying to mow the lawn for the last few weeks, but as I haven't been home while the sun was up as of recent, it's been a little hard. So I finally get out there the other day. I'm chugging along quite well, when suddenly CLUNK chugchugchugwhhhffth th ht. The mower stops because I hit a cinderblock. Oh joy. So I let it set, thinking that time will heal the mower. It doesn't. The mower goes back into the basement, with me verbalizing my dissapointment the whole time. While in the basement, I look up at one of the windows and notice one of the neighborhood's cats walking by. I really don't mind or care. Then, I go to get my weedwhacker - the front yard will be decent looking by the end of the day, even if its not mowed. Moving to the weedwhacker, I step over my shelves.
Wait - that's not right. The shelves are supposed to be against the far wall, not fallen over with the fishbowl shattered all over the floor and the other contents scattered. I'll take care of them all later. First - the yard!
So as I go to grab the weedwhacker, I hear some puttering about going on in another section of my basement. It sounds like someone's walking around, so I go into that section and am greeted by a floor littered in bird wings and spattered in blood. I knew the cats had gotten in and out occasionally, but I didn't think they took up residence. The boxes rumble again so I look over at them and see three little kitten fluffballs. They disappear into the pile, so I wait for them to calm down and then gently disinter their home. They're in the bottom box - of course, which is filled with assorted styrofoam pieces. The three little kittens move from one side of the box to the other, obviously scared of me.

So I just let them be. and weedwhacked my yard.

I'll go down later, pick up the shelving and sweep up the glass, clean up the bird wings, and leave them some food.

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.

Metal 1

I'm going to try to weekly add a random piece of metal from one work or another.

Here's one. It's suspected to be a piece of a still. Fun fun.

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.