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

Squid!

I'm very much not a life science person. I tend to find that soft tissue is just *not my thing.* growing up, however, I wanted to be a marine biologist (among other things). And I wanted to study whales or squids. One of my top favorite movies was Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

So - what do you expect: I have been avidly following this search for the giant squids. When this 10m invertebrate was landed, I grinned and HAD to blog about it. I just always thought that it was cool.

I find it interesting how all of these giant colossal squid are actually being recognized recently. They live in antarctic waters, supposedly, but are being found in the pacific. Why are these dieing squid picking *now* as a time to reveal themselves to us? Is it ::gasp:: a direct link to global warming? Or are they over populated, sending their excess out into the world of humans?

To have the time to write a book about what is going on in squid-world, ah, I would enjoy that.

overthinking: Pool

I want to get better at pool. I have purely selfish reasons for this. Last June, at a conference, a colleague who became a friend totally kicked my arse. He played all of his balls, then played my balls, then got the eight ball in. Granted, he didn't do it continuously. We probably took about 10 turns each, but I think I only sank two balls the entire game. Therefore, he's not marvelously good.

I'm just that bad.

I will be attending a conference with this colleague in June, and our hotel's restaurant is a British Pub with what seems to be an ample amount of pool tables. Therefore another game is very possible, and I really don't want to be as embarrassed this summer.

So on Friday, A, a friend and co-student in my department, and I decided to take advantage of two situations.
1) We are both rather attractive single women.
2) I have a pool hall 50 m from my front door.

After dressing "rockstar cowgirl" style, which is appropriate for 90% of the clubs and bars in K-ville, we wandered over and snagged ourselves some cues, a table, and a pitcher of Blue Moon. As we expected, we were the only single women there. Of course others noticed it also. On many occasions we turned down offers for drinks, and one gentleman was threatened with "git yur grubby paws offa mah table afore I jam this stick up yur arse and drag you away wit' it." by me.

Where does the geeking out come into play? Surely I've become used to conversations where "liminal," "cultural relativism," and "postprocessual" are thrown about like four letter words at a junior high lunch table. Yes, I have, and that is not what I am referring to. Instead, I continually watched the movement of the balls and the angles at which they hit. One time, the cue ball was spinning in place and I mentally reconstructed the force paths, picturing the little arrows that my physics textbook used to use. I told A about it, and she laughed and told me just to play the game. The final mental link that this game which cause me to realize how much of a geek I am was when I thought of a cartoon that I once had: Donald in Mathmagic Land.

In Donald in Mathmagic Land, Donald duck learns the value of knowing angles when playing pool (three cushions billiards, to be particular), but that scene has always stayed with me. Babysitting in high school, I had a chance to watch this when I first started playing pool. Therefore, the connection was made between geometry and rebounding.

In conclusion, I gradually improved. At one point I managed to get three balls in consecutively. The whole, time however, I thought of Donald Duck as well as little blue arrows. A and I have plans to go to the Grad Student Social on Monday night and play a few games for free there. I think that I'll be able to hold my own come June.

first post - new blog

This is a new blog for me, but not my first blog.

I have started this blog for a few reasons:
1) my last blogs were rather personal, this will separate myself and any new readers from them.
2) I am starting a new chunk of my life, so I would like my blog to reflect my new mindset.
3) I would like this new blog to reflect my actual level of literacy ;-) .

So - a short introduction or revisiting of me is in order. I am currently in my second year of an anthropology MA program. I am also a home owner and I like to garden. My media foci are reflected in the side bar. The change - often. Additionally, I promise that future postings will be more personable.