The best sign I've gotten this whole year of respect or affection from my residents is this: that my doordec is still hanging.
That's right, on my door, above my peephole, there is still a little black cut out paw print with my name and position written on it in silver ink.
When you look down the hallway, you realize all the others have been torn down. Perhaps I was just an oversight. Or perhaps, just perhaps, it's a long shot but one I'm tempted to try and believe - someone said, "Naw Man, leave that one up, she's cool."
January 31, 2010
Deutsche Reisetrends
For Modern German Culture I have to give a presentation (In German, naturally) about German Travel Trends and in particular how they differ from their American counterparts. I picked the topic because it's of interest to me, and I wanted to devote a good chunk of it towards the concept of Youth Travel which I see as a fairly substantial cultural difference, but I didn't find information on Google presenting itself to me belly up, so after about an hour of halfhearted unplanned research I was beginning to get nervous.
I can't over-recommend making an outline in times like this. As soon as I started putting up 1's, 2's, a's and b's, the outline of the project fell together neatly. I have a plan, I have a goal, I have neat little topics that will be much easier to research, and a full quarter of the mental stress and work is done. My goal is to have the research done tonight, and a new organization put together including the data and specifics. If I have more energy, I'll make my powerpoint and informal script tonight - otherwise I have until Wednesday.
1.) Germans – Kings of Travel
a.) Travel culture (Goethe to Status Symbol)
b.) Proximity to cool/foreign places
c.) Vacation time
2.) Where/When/How Germans Travel
a.) Common domestic destinations
b.) Common international destinations
c.) Package Tours
d.) Public Transport
3.) Youth Travel
a.) The experiences of German/European friends
b.) My experiences
c.) Types of Youth Travel: The class trip, the friend trip, study abroad, the gap year
d.) Why Americans are Afraid
e.) What Germans/Other Europeans think of the benefits
f.) Practical Advantages German Youth Have: Proximity, Experience, Public Transport
I can't over-recommend making an outline in times like this. As soon as I started putting up 1's, 2's, a's and b's, the outline of the project fell together neatly. I have a plan, I have a goal, I have neat little topics that will be much easier to research, and a full quarter of the mental stress and work is done. My goal is to have the research done tonight, and a new organization put together including the data and specifics. If I have more energy, I'll make my powerpoint and informal script tonight - otherwise I have until Wednesday.
1.) Germans – Kings of Travel
a.) Travel culture (Goethe to Status Symbol)
b.) Proximity to cool/foreign places
c.) Vacation time
2.) Where/When/How Germans Travel
a.) Common domestic destinations
b.) Common international destinations
c.) Package Tours
d.) Public Transport
3.) Youth Travel
a.) The experiences of German/European friends
b.) My experiences
c.) Types of Youth Travel: The class trip, the friend trip, study abroad, the gap year
d.) Why Americans are Afraid
e.) What Germans/Other Europeans think of the benefits
f.) Practical Advantages German Youth Have: Proximity, Experience, Public Transport
Saturday Night
Tonight I drove out to Rocheport with Zahra and Michelle, and we met Laura and Rachel at their house for a Bollywood Night (the first one that wasn't on my territory). I think I'm up to seven Bollywood films now. I understood tons of Hindi this time around. Laura made scones - blueberry and maple with pecans and chocolate chips - and Indian spiced tea with lots of milk. It was delicious.
I came home and I was a bit high from all the sugar. I planned to go to bed early, as I have a lot to do tomorrow (today), but instead I found myself hanging out with Lingxiao and some friends in the common room for half an hour, and then chatting with Tina, and chatting, and chatting. We talked about everything, mostly the saddest stories of our lives and that kind of shit. And I suddenly realized it was almost four o'clock in the morning. Not smart. But it is Saturday, so neither is it suicidal...
The End.
I came home and I was a bit high from all the sugar. I planned to go to bed early, as I have a lot to do tomorrow (today), but instead I found myself hanging out with Lingxiao and some friends in the common room for half an hour, and then chatting with Tina, and chatting, and chatting. We talked about everything, mostly the saddest stories of our lives and that kind of shit. And I suddenly realized it was almost four o'clock in the morning. Not smart. But it is Saturday, so neither is it suicidal...
The End.
January 30, 2010
New Years Resolutions
1.) Live a Simpler Life
This is a good one because I'll probably achieve it in some way or another. Throughout my childhood I thrived in chaos and the idea of perfect order is still scary to me, but I've discovered the benefits of a healthy balance recently. I'd like to be more organized, get rid of some of my clutter - also keep better track of appointments and stuff. I'd even like my computer to run a little better, as it should if I take better care of it. I also just kept my emotions more simple and clear last semester, if that makes sense, and I don't want to let go of the lessons I learned from that. They've made me happier.
2.) Start Studying Abroad
My study abroad plans are still in limbo. I really hope that's resolved soon, and definitely by next year I'll have started studying abroad, even on the off chance that it's not next fall but rather next winter semester that's my first abroad.
3.) Start Thinking more about Journalism
Technically I still have another year or so before this becomes really essential. I'll study abroad for a year and still be firmly rooted in academia with no end in sight. I won't even start my sequence classes until I return. But I still need to start thinking about internships and such.
4.) Language Goals (of course...)
I'd like to learn some Hindi, focus a lot on Spanish and German since I'm taking those classes and probably studying there next year, and learn Catalan since I'm in that class, and, with the time I have left over, work on Faroese.
This is a good one because I'll probably achieve it in some way or another. Throughout my childhood I thrived in chaos and the idea of perfect order is still scary to me, but I've discovered the benefits of a healthy balance recently. I'd like to be more organized, get rid of some of my clutter - also keep better track of appointments and stuff. I'd even like my computer to run a little better, as it should if I take better care of it. I also just kept my emotions more simple and clear last semester, if that makes sense, and I don't want to let go of the lessons I learned from that. They've made me happier.
2.) Start Studying Abroad
My study abroad plans are still in limbo. I really hope that's resolved soon, and definitely by next year I'll have started studying abroad, even on the off chance that it's not next fall but rather next winter semester that's my first abroad.
3.) Start Thinking more about Journalism
Technically I still have another year or so before this becomes really essential. I'll study abroad for a year and still be firmly rooted in academia with no end in sight. I won't even start my sequence classes until I return. But I still need to start thinking about internships and such.
4.) Language Goals (of course...)
I'd like to learn some Hindi, focus a lot on Spanish and German since I'm taking those classes and probably studying there next year, and learn Catalan since I'm in that class, and, with the time I have left over, work on Faroese.
January 29, 2010
Lope de Vega in Norway
Today in Spanish class we were talking about love and obsession, the line between them, what separates them, and so on and so forth. One student tried to go down the line of reasoning that if you love someone and they don't love you back, that can be obsession. Most cases of obsession do have that element, but obviously that's not the full story. The teacher then put forth a hypothetical scenario: He has a wife, they're very happy, they love each other... then one day the wife leaves and says she's never coming back and doesn't love her anymore. If he still loves her, is that no longer love? Does love absolutely require reciprocation?
And so on and so forth. And suddenly I remembered something very strange that I saw in Norway. It would have been perfect to use in the discussion, right down to the fact that we're studying literature, even literature by the author of the line that came into my mind. I almost spoke up - but the problem is that I know the line only in Norwegian, and that might have been a bit awkward.
I found this in Sandefjord, which is sort of the whaling capital of Norway, in a little 'castle' made of boards and such in their park. As you can see, it's laminated and stapled on somewhat randomly... You may understand that when I saw it, it threw me back a few feet. Who put it there? And why?
Strange as it was, I hadn't thought much about it in the intervening year and a half, (I can almost say years... :P), until now. At the time I hadn't even known who Lope de Vega was, but the quote came back to me word for word in class today. Now I'm very eager to find out what play it's from, and how it's said in Spanish. Google has failed me so far. Any help?
And so on and so forth. And suddenly I remembered something very strange that I saw in Norway. It would have been perfect to use in the discussion, right down to the fact that we're studying literature, even literature by the author of the line that came into my mind. I almost spoke up - but the problem is that I know the line only in Norwegian, and that might have been a bit awkward.
Ubesvart kjærlighet er som blomster dekket av rimfrost.- Lope de Vega
I found this in Sandefjord, which is sort of the whaling capital of Norway, in a little 'castle' made of boards and such in their park. As you can see, it's laminated and stapled on somewhat randomly... You may understand that when I saw it, it threw me back a few feet. Who put it there? And why?
Strange as it was, I hadn't thought much about it in the intervening year and a half, (I can almost say years... :P), until now. At the time I hadn't even known who Lope de Vega was, but the quote came back to me word for word in class today. Now I'm very eager to find out what play it's from, and how it's said in Spanish. Google has failed me so far. Any help?
January 28, 2010
Missouri - Mark Twain National Forest
I've been reading up about our Mark Twain National Forest. There's some lovely prose on that website.
Missouri’s only national forest, the Mark Twain, encompasses roughly 1.5 million acres, mostly within the Ozark Highlands. Located across southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, the Ozark Highlands are an ancient landscape characterized by large permanent springs, over 5,000 caves, rocky barren glades, old volcanic mountains and nationally recognized streams. Portions of the Ozarks were never under oceans, nor were the areas glaciated.
A trademark of the Mark Twain is plant and animal diversity. The area is described by The Nature Conservancy as a “biologically rich ecological resource.” The eastern upland oak hardwood and southern pine forests converge here with the drier western bluestem prairie of the Great Plains, creating a distinctive array of open grassy woodlands and savannas. This rich mixture of unique, diverse and ecologically complex natural communities (some 65 in all) provides a home for nearly 750 species of native vertebrate animals and over 2,000 plant species. The number of species that are endemic or restricted solely to the Ozarks eco-region (almost 200 species) rivals those found in the tropics or glacial eco-regions.
Geologic features associated with the karst terrain and igneous outcroppings of the Ozarks provide a wide variety of interest to the landscape. There are sheer rock faces, underground caverns, natural bridges, sinkholes, knobs and caves throughout the Forest. Caves provide habitat for unique animals like cave salamanders and southern cave fish. Shut-in creeks, whose enormous rock boulders restrict flow, create nationally renowned white water kayaking and canoeing opportunities.
Due to the karst topography, there is an abundance of natural springs found in the area. The Ozarks are home to the world’s largest collection of “first magnitude” springs (those with over 65 million gallons of water daily flow). Almost 3,000 springs feed rivers and streams that flow year round. Many of these streams are so clear that ten feet of depth appears to be only one foot deep.
- http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/marktwain/about/niche_statement/index.php
January 26, 2010
Hindi Update
So, I haven't spent an extraordinary amount of time with Hindi. I had the basics of the script crammed into my head around Thanksgiving break, and then there were finals, then Christmas, then New York, and then staff training... you get the idea. However, that doesn't mean I've been totally ignoring it, either. I've really improved my control of Devanagari to the point where I'm not actively studying it by itself anymore, and I've finished the first chapter of Teach Yourself and half of the second.
When I was in Florida over break I went to a famous bookstore called Haslam's. It was big and fun to walk around, but I was somewhat disappointed by their book selection, especially in the foreign language category. I found nothing for Hindi. This was discouraging because after all, I didn't find anything for Hindi in the stores back home, either. I had taken a few things from my University library, but as much as I hate to admit it I'm spoiled and prefer more modern books, with more modern methods of learning languages. Teaching yourself a language during the course of ordinary life is enough of a challenge as it is, without having to decode old books!
My luck changed in New York. I went into an absolutely huge Borders store there and picked up both Teach Yourself Hindi and a Hindi visual dictionary. The visual dictionary must be new - it's the same brand I have in English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Finnish, and I thought I knew all the languages they offered the small independent form in, so I was surprised and delighted to find it in Hindi.
I've been going through Teach Yourself and so far so good. The recordings are a bit irritating, and I have my issues with some of the methods, but the pace of the book seems pretty good, and the examples and dialogues are quite nice. Hindi doesn't seem to be too hard, really, especially in terms of grammar and vocabulary and such. I'm getting quite good at Devanagari, finally. Zahra saw my notebook the other day and seemed impressed by my handwriting. :D For someone trying to pick it up, my advice is to learn everything en bloc. It will hurt you're head, but if you don't learn all the letters - and yes, I mean all of them - you will have no idea what's going on when you start trying to read anything at all. This is because even letters or irregular letter conjuncts that you think must be unusual cases... really aren't. For example, they teach you almost as an afterward that you add a dot to kh and j to make them a hard, phlegm filled kh and a z, respectively. When I read this I got the impression that those sounds weren't extremely common in the native language - more used to write borrowed or foreign words.
I was wrong, at least sort of - Hindi seems to be like English in that it has so many borrowed words that there's really hardly any point distinguishing them. People say this is the case about Japanese, but in Japanese you can usually guess as to which words will be imports - like technology - in Hindi I'm not really sure yet what words are imports but as an example Teach Yourself has already included two words for man, and mentioned, in an offhand way, that one is 'native' and the other an Arab import - and so far they're using the Arab import far more in the examples. (It's also the word I'd learned before).
So yeah, you will use all those letters, so just buck up and learn them. I think I finally have - I'm still uncertain of how to write a few of the conjuncts properly - and I'm proud to report that I no longer feel like I'm drawing and embellishing squiggles, except for the numerals, which still bother me. Here they are:
Not a fan.
I've started learning to type recently, albeit still using the Quillpad website. It's a little bit interesting as I've sort of learned the transliteration style used in Teach Yourself, (it helped a lot to finally have a single learning source, so I could properly get a handle on one transliteration style), and that style doesn't always turn into the write Devanagari on Quillpad, so I'm trying to watch it closely and learn how it wants me to input things. I imagine this wouldn't slow a native speaker down very much but it's a bit weird for me at least initially. For example, it took me a good 20 seconds to get it to accept any spelling I offered of acchaa (okay).
When I was in Florida over break I went to a famous bookstore called Haslam's. It was big and fun to walk around, but I was somewhat disappointed by their book selection, especially in the foreign language category. I found nothing for Hindi. This was discouraging because after all, I didn't find anything for Hindi in the stores back home, either. I had taken a few things from my University library, but as much as I hate to admit it I'm spoiled and prefer more modern books, with more modern methods of learning languages. Teaching yourself a language during the course of ordinary life is enough of a challenge as it is, without having to decode old books!
My luck changed in New York. I went into an absolutely huge Borders store there and picked up both Teach Yourself Hindi and a Hindi visual dictionary. The visual dictionary must be new - it's the same brand I have in English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Finnish, and I thought I knew all the languages they offered the small independent form in, so I was surprised and delighted to find it in Hindi.
I've been going through Teach Yourself and so far so good. The recordings are a bit irritating, and I have my issues with some of the methods, but the pace of the book seems pretty good, and the examples and dialogues are quite nice. Hindi doesn't seem to be too hard, really, especially in terms of grammar and vocabulary and such. I'm getting quite good at Devanagari, finally. Zahra saw my notebook the other day and seemed impressed by my handwriting. :D For someone trying to pick it up, my advice is to learn everything en bloc. It will hurt you're head, but if you don't learn all the letters - and yes, I mean all of them - you will have no idea what's going on when you start trying to read anything at all. This is because even letters or irregular letter conjuncts that you think must be unusual cases... really aren't. For example, they teach you almost as an afterward that you add a dot to kh and j to make them a hard, phlegm filled kh and a z, respectively. When I read this I got the impression that those sounds weren't extremely common in the native language - more used to write borrowed or foreign words.
I was wrong, at least sort of - Hindi seems to be like English in that it has so many borrowed words that there's really hardly any point distinguishing them. People say this is the case about Japanese, but in Japanese you can usually guess as to which words will be imports - like technology - in Hindi I'm not really sure yet what words are imports but as an example Teach Yourself has already included two words for man, and mentioned, in an offhand way, that one is 'native' and the other an Arab import - and so far they're using the Arab import far more in the examples. (It's also the word I'd learned before).
So yeah, you will use all those letters, so just buck up and learn them. I think I finally have - I'm still uncertain of how to write a few of the conjuncts properly - and I'm proud to report that I no longer feel like I'm drawing and embellishing squiggles, except for the numerals, which still bother me. Here they are:
Not a fan.I've started learning to type recently, albeit still using the Quillpad website. It's a little bit interesting as I've sort of learned the transliteration style used in Teach Yourself, (it helped a lot to finally have a single learning source, so I could properly get a handle on one transliteration style), and that style doesn't always turn into the write Devanagari on Quillpad, so I'm trying to watch it closely and learn how it wants me to input things. I imagine this wouldn't slow a native speaker down very much but it's a bit weird for me at least initially. For example, it took me a good 20 seconds to get it to accept any spelling I offered of acchaa (okay).
January 24, 2010
Goodbye!
This is a post for Esther, Amy, and Allan - my three friends from last semester who were exchange students. They are now back home in Germany, New Zealand, and Scotland, respectively.
Esther! My first memory of you is when you first came to live in South hall and I basically pounced on you and invited you to Stammtisch. :) It was a pleasure to get to know you. I'll always remember your sarcastic looks and out of nowhere funny one-liners. We had so much fun in St. Louis, at the Lake, and even around South hall watching Grey's Anatomy or studying in the lounge. I know I brought up Damaris a lot but I hope you never felt like a 'replacement' German - in my heart you are Esther and no one else. :) This is one of the last pictures I have of you - it's from the night before you went back home, when we were goofing around at our Bus Stop Burger King. I really hope I'll meet you again in Germany sometime soon!
Amy! You're the first New Zealander I've met in my life, and if you're any sort of representation of your country, it must be an awesome place. I loved how laid back and fun you were. I remember that you were always up for anything, whether it was playing goalie on South Hall's soccer team, spending New Year's Eve in Times Square, sleeping out on the dock, or going swimming in the lake at midnight in November. I'll remember all those epic times, as well as stocking up on loads of candy from Mizzou Market and watching Grey's Anatomy in the lounge. In this picture we were making fun of the height difference between us - even though you're not really looking at the camera I somehow feel that it captures your personality well. Good luck becoming New Zealand's top journalist! I have no doubt you'll get there.
Allan! It's hard to sum up our friendship in a short paragraph. It took us a month or two of living in the same building before we even properly met. Then, at first the only thing we knew we had in common was Indian food. After we got really lost dropping Zahra off at a friends house, we ended up talking all night, and never really stopped talking afterwards. You were there for most of my memories of last semester, but what I'll miss the most are our long walks and conversations. Highlights? Walking the MKT, your teaching everyone to Scottish dance in Times Square, watching the Missouri river freeze right before our eyes, actually seeing the mules, and, of course, running through Banjo Kazooie and Gauntlet Legends on a steady diet of India Packets and Furikake. Here we are in the Nintendo Store - oddly fitting. I'll see you soon - get ready to walk across Scotland.
Esther! My first memory of you is when you first came to live in South hall and I basically pounced on you and invited you to Stammtisch. :) It was a pleasure to get to know you. I'll always remember your sarcastic looks and out of nowhere funny one-liners. We had so much fun in St. Louis, at the Lake, and even around South hall watching Grey's Anatomy or studying in the lounge. I know I brought up Damaris a lot but I hope you never felt like a 'replacement' German - in my heart you are Esther and no one else. :) This is one of the last pictures I have of you - it's from the night before you went back home, when we were goofing around at our Bus Stop Burger King. I really hope I'll meet you again in Germany sometime soon!
Amy! You're the first New Zealander I've met in my life, and if you're any sort of representation of your country, it must be an awesome place. I loved how laid back and fun you were. I remember that you were always up for anything, whether it was playing goalie on South Hall's soccer team, spending New Year's Eve in Times Square, sleeping out on the dock, or going swimming in the lake at midnight in November. I'll remember all those epic times, as well as stocking up on loads of candy from Mizzou Market and watching Grey's Anatomy in the lounge. In this picture we were making fun of the height difference between us - even though you're not really looking at the camera I somehow feel that it captures your personality well. Good luck becoming New Zealand's top journalist! I have no doubt you'll get there.
Allan! It's hard to sum up our friendship in a short paragraph. It took us a month or two of living in the same building before we even properly met. Then, at first the only thing we knew we had in common was Indian food. After we got really lost dropping Zahra off at a friends house, we ended up talking all night, and never really stopped talking afterwards. You were there for most of my memories of last semester, but what I'll miss the most are our long walks and conversations. Highlights? Walking the MKT, your teaching everyone to Scottish dance in Times Square, watching the Missouri river freeze right before our eyes, actually seeing the mules, and, of course, running through Banjo Kazooie and Gauntlet Legends on a steady diet of India Packets and Furikake. Here we are in the Nintendo Store - oddly fitting. I'll see you soon - get ready to walk across Scotland.
January 22, 2010
Elision
My Spanish is a bit rough around the edges after taking a semester off, but thankfully we've started the semester with something that evens the playing field: poetry. And, in particular, metrics... counting syllables and rhyme schemes and everything else, making note of stress and hiatus and synaloepha.
... Synaloepha? Yeah, that's what I did, too. Called Sinalefa in Spanish, they try to translate it into some overly Greek word I've never seen before. But you know, they longer they talk about it, the more it sounds like good, old, familiar, Elision.
And before I know it we're scanning lines of verse, counting out syllables and bridging vowels together and marking whether each line is llano, agudo, or esdrujulo, and it almost seems strange to me that we're not also making short and long, not looking for double consonants that are one of our best hints, not separating the line into dactyls... because I can do this, because this is an old game.
And suddenly it's hard to make out the Spanish, hard to keep scanning lines of
Desmayarse, atreverse, estar furioso,
áspero, tierno, liberal, esquivo,
alentado, mortal, difunto, vivo,
leal, traidor, cobarde y animoso
Because as I read I feel the pounding of waves, and Lope De Vega is morphing into Virgil.
Postquam altum tenuere rates nec iam amplius ullae
apparent terrae, caelum undique et undique pontus,
tum mihi caeruleus supra caput astitit imber
noctem hiememque ferens, et inhorruit unda tenebris.
And then, it's almost as if I'm back in Latin class, and we're teasing Mir Inaamula about wanting a "good wife" more than a sports car, and some boy I really don't like and whose name I don't remember putting candy on my desk, and it's gross and sweaty from his hands, and Mr. McAllister is trying to explain things but we're all being obstinate, and then Colin (or was it the other one?) is going over to the board and writing a parody of some pop song - I don't know where he comes up with these things - and collide is becoming elide and poor McAllister thinks that's the way the song really goes and suddenly, briefly, has respect for pop culture until we all start laughing, but afterwards I can never hear the song without thinking of it. And one cold day when I leave school late and I'm the only one left in a lot too large to walk through alone, and the song comes out of the big football speakers for some reason, with a hollow sound, and scares the nearby birds into taking flight...
... Synaloepha? Yeah, that's what I did, too. Called Sinalefa in Spanish, they try to translate it into some overly Greek word I've never seen before. But you know, they longer they talk about it, the more it sounds like good, old, familiar, Elision.
And before I know it we're scanning lines of verse, counting out syllables and bridging vowels together and marking whether each line is llano, agudo, or esdrujulo, and it almost seems strange to me that we're not also making short and long, not looking for double consonants that are one of our best hints, not separating the line into dactyls... because I can do this, because this is an old game.
And suddenly it's hard to make out the Spanish, hard to keep scanning lines of
Desmayarse, atreverse, estar furioso,
áspero, tierno, liberal, esquivo,
alentado, mortal, difunto, vivo,
leal, traidor, cobarde y animoso
Because as I read I feel the pounding of waves, and Lope De Vega is morphing into Virgil.
Postquam altum tenuere rates nec iam amplius ullae
apparent terrae, caelum undique et undique pontus,
tum mihi caeruleus supra caput astitit imber
noctem hiememque ferens, et inhorruit unda tenebris.
And then, it's almost as if I'm back in Latin class, and we're teasing Mir Inaamula about wanting a "good wife" more than a sports car, and some boy I really don't like and whose name I don't remember putting candy on my desk, and it's gross and sweaty from his hands, and Mr. McAllister is trying to explain things but we're all being obstinate, and then Colin (or was it the other one?) is going over to the board and writing a parody of some pop song - I don't know where he comes up with these things - and collide is becoming elide and poor McAllister thinks that's the way the song really goes and suddenly, briefly, has respect for pop culture until we all start laughing, but afterwards I can never hear the song without thinking of it. And one cold day when I leave school late and I'm the only one left in a lot too large to walk through alone, and the song comes out of the big football speakers for some reason, with a hollow sound, and scares the nearby birds into taking flight...
Even the best fall down sometimes
Even the wrong words seem to rhyme
Out of the doubt that fills my mind
I somehow find
You and I...
Elide
Even the wrong words seem to rhyme
Out of the doubt that fills my mind
I somehow find
You and I...
Elide
January 21, 2010
Memorable Experiences Make Us Happy
"1. If you have to choose between buying something or spending the money on a memorable experience, go with the experience. According to a study conducted at San Francisco State University, the things you own can’t make you as happy as the things you do. One reason is adaptation: we adapt to all things material in our lives in a matter of weeks, no matter how infatuated we were with the coveted possession the day we got it. Another reason is that experience, unlike possession, generally involves other people, and fosters or strengthens relationships that are more edifying over time than owning something."
-http://trueslant.com/daviddisalvo/2009/12/28/ten-psychology-studies-from-2009-worth-knowing-about/
"Another reason for increased happiness in experiences, the researchers found, was that people felt a greater sense of vitality or "being alive" during the experience and in reflection, Howell said."As nice as your new computer is, it's not going to make you feel alive," he said.
Most psychologists who study the phenomenon say people adapt to a new purchase in six to eight weeks, up to a maximum of three months, Howell said. That means the initial pleasure we get from a new possession generally fades in a matter of months."
"Gifts of material possessions often become keepsakes and have sentimental value that increase with time, instead of diminishing like most material goods," Gilovich said."
- http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/10/happiness.possessions/
If this is true, it's good for me. I'm always skipping out on upgrading to a nicer computer or a new iPod because I'm saving money for trips and stuff. Sometimes I feel like I'm throwing away money on impermanent things... but then I think, "hell, life is impermanent, I'm not going to have anything /forever/. This study reaffirms my life priorities! XD
Second Day of the Semester
Yesterday was a very different day than Tuesday - my classes started early and got out early. And, I had all language classes, which made for an interesting day.
Introduction to Hispanic Literature was fine. I mean, it scares me a little bit, like News, because I know all the assessments are subjective... and there is quite a bit of work. I somehow felt that I was done with structured and graded literature analysis after high school, and then I realized that if I want a Spanish major I was very, very wrong about that. So, here we go again. I keep reminding myself that my experience in AP English has prepared me better than most students in the class. Also, the teacher seems way better than the one I had last Spring that nearly made me lose my affection for the Spanish language.
German was pretty good. I didn't know the class would be taught in German until I picked up the textbooks last week, actually, and now I find out that not only is the class taught in German, we cover some German grammatical concepts and stuff in there. The good news is that it is evidently at the right difficulty level for me, since my friend from Intermediate German II, Cori, is in the class with me. It's nice to start out with a friend. The class size is quite small, which is to be expected of the language class it is, but not really whatever it was I expected... a gentle lecture on German Christmas traditions? XD Actually I have no idea what I thought, but I have to admit this is much better for me right now, especially if I'm going to be studying in Germany. My first impression of the teacher is that I like him, but maybe not as much as Megan from last Spring. She was just awesome. Strangely I came away from the class with a strong feeling of motivation to start improving my German. I really need to beef up my vocabulary - I'm going to grab my store-bought vocabulary cards from the lake next time I go, and start using them religiously.
Catalan was awesome. I'm so excited to be in that class. The class size is surprisingly large considering that the first time the course was offered it had to be canceled for lack of interest. Here we are at take two, and not only is the room full, most of the people seem to have genuine reasons for being there. One guy is a super language geek and majoring in Spanish and French. I'm there more than anything to support the movement to advance a (any) minority language. One girl is there because her boyfriend is Catalan and his parents don't even speak English! She knows how important it is for him, and... well, how romantic, right? Another student is trying to get a grant to go to Barcelona and study the relationship between the Catalan language, politics, and football, of all things. So, this should be a good time. It's great to have Monica as a teacher again, she's one of my three favourite professors at MU. Teach Yourself Catalan is our textbooks. We're trying to get another one imported from Spain too, but just the idea makes me giggle. This morning we got an email saying to read pages 1-19 from teach yourself as homework tonight - I've never thought in terms of page numbers in Teach Yourself before... Another surprise? The course is going to be taught in Catalan. We're managing to follow it pretty well, and of course she's speaking slowly, and it's crucial that all of us have an unmentioned background in Spanish. She says it's to get us used to the sounds and feel of the language, that she knows that 3 hours a week of speaking mostly English won't get us good enough in time, that we're not expected to produce Catalan right away... which is hard, because when she asks us a question we're all super trained to reply in like form, and when our brains realize they can't do Catalan, they switch to Spanish, and she says that's worse than English... which makes sense both politically and linguistically, but try to tell my brain, or that of any other student, so.
Monica has big plans for Catalan at MU. She dreams of adding an intermediate class, maybe even a small advanced class, if there's interest. She has an idea of another teacher who could join her and supplement the department. This year we're having a Catalan Symposium here at MU! It's all very exciting, even if I'll graduate before it really comes to fruition and miss a lot of the intermediate stages while I'm abroad. I hope her plans all succeed - and it's an odd feeling knowing how much depends on this, the first class. The fact that so many people signed up is a very good start - now if we all work hard and do well, that can only help the program.
Introduction to Hispanic Literature was fine. I mean, it scares me a little bit, like News, because I know all the assessments are subjective... and there is quite a bit of work. I somehow felt that I was done with structured and graded literature analysis after high school, and then I realized that if I want a Spanish major I was very, very wrong about that. So, here we go again. I keep reminding myself that my experience in AP English has prepared me better than most students in the class. Also, the teacher seems way better than the one I had last Spring that nearly made me lose my affection for the Spanish language.
German was pretty good. I didn't know the class would be taught in German until I picked up the textbooks last week, actually, and now I find out that not only is the class taught in German, we cover some German grammatical concepts and stuff in there. The good news is that it is evidently at the right difficulty level for me, since my friend from Intermediate German II, Cori, is in the class with me. It's nice to start out with a friend. The class size is quite small, which is to be expected of the language class it is, but not really whatever it was I expected... a gentle lecture on German Christmas traditions? XD Actually I have no idea what I thought, but I have to admit this is much better for me right now, especially if I'm going to be studying in Germany. My first impression of the teacher is that I like him, but maybe not as much as Megan from last Spring. She was just awesome. Strangely I came away from the class with a strong feeling of motivation to start improving my German. I really need to beef up my vocabulary - I'm going to grab my store-bought vocabulary cards from the lake next time I go, and start using them religiously.
Catalan was awesome. I'm so excited to be in that class. The class size is surprisingly large considering that the first time the course was offered it had to be canceled for lack of interest. Here we are at take two, and not only is the room full, most of the people seem to have genuine reasons for being there. One guy is a super language geek and majoring in Spanish and French. I'm there more than anything to support the movement to advance a (any) minority language. One girl is there because her boyfriend is Catalan and his parents don't even speak English! She knows how important it is for him, and... well, how romantic, right? Another student is trying to get a grant to go to Barcelona and study the relationship between the Catalan language, politics, and football, of all things. So, this should be a good time. It's great to have Monica as a teacher again, she's one of my three favourite professors at MU. Teach Yourself Catalan is our textbooks. We're trying to get another one imported from Spain too, but just the idea makes me giggle. This morning we got an email saying to read pages 1-19 from teach yourself as homework tonight - I've never thought in terms of page numbers in Teach Yourself before... Another surprise? The course is going to be taught in Catalan. We're managing to follow it pretty well, and of course she's speaking slowly, and it's crucial that all of us have an unmentioned background in Spanish. She says it's to get us used to the sounds and feel of the language, that she knows that 3 hours a week of speaking mostly English won't get us good enough in time, that we're not expected to produce Catalan right away... which is hard, because when she asks us a question we're all super trained to reply in like form, and when our brains realize they can't do Catalan, they switch to Spanish, and she says that's worse than English... which makes sense both politically and linguistically, but try to tell my brain, or that of any other student, so.
Monica has big plans for Catalan at MU. She dreams of adding an intermediate class, maybe even a small advanced class, if there's interest. She has an idea of another teacher who could join her and supplement the department. This year we're having a Catalan Symposium here at MU! It's all very exciting, even if I'll graduate before it really comes to fruition and miss a lot of the intermediate stages while I'm abroad. I hope her plans all succeed - and it's an odd feeling knowing how much depends on this, the first class. The fact that so many people signed up is a very good start - now if we all work hard and do well, that can only help the program.
January 20, 2010
Convenience Store Onigiri... Victory At Last!
In Japan you can walk into any konbini (convenience store) and fine yummy, fresh tasting onigiri. You can find these rice balls with salmon and umeboshi (sour plum) fillings everywhere, and usually some random kinds as well, maybe regional, maybe special of the day - I've gotten Korean cabbage onigiri, little necked clam onigiri, shrimp in some sort of tomato sauce onigiri... you get the idea.
That's something I miss here in the states, especially lately. I've been craving onigiri like crazy, see, and because of my on-campus job I have a pretty hefty stipend to spend at the convenience stores on campus. There are two of them, in case you're wondering - the big one is further away and has a pretty good selection of random stuff, while the one near where I live has just the 'bare necessities' like shampoo, tissues, and bottled water, as well as a few convenience food items.
There is cereal, ez-mac, microwaveable soup, a bit of ramen, chips, lots of candy, and, for some reason, a pretty good selection of microwaveable rice, including Annie Chun's Sushi Wraps. Now, all of these items are overpriced normally and even more so at this market, but money is no object! An exaggeration, yes, but true in spirit. The microwaveable sticky white rice in these Sushi kits always comes out sticky, with a surprisingly good consistency. And, they come with a little seaweed packet too. Calling these sushi kits is a joke, but they actually don't work bad for quick onigiri.
But plain onigiri, or even onigiri with lemon, which I like, get old after a while. I started cruising for fillings I could find at the convenience store. I read that canned tuna, mixed with teriyaki sauce and salt, was pretty good, so I bought one of their 'tuna kits'. (they're big on kits, I guess - I only wanted the tuna packet, but don't worry, I used the crackers with some soup later.) I mixed the fish up with the teriyaki sauce pretty well, but I didn't like the end result. It tasted too much like... well, canned tuna.
Today I went to the convenience store again and found little egg and sausage bowls to be microwaved. I decided to give these a try... and I found that about a teaspoon of egg and one of the little bitty chunks of sausage works pretty darn good for a nontraditional filling! It's probably greasy enough that it would be gross if you took it on a picnic, but who knows? Anyway, it was quite yummy to eat fresh in my dorm room.
Of course, you can substitute any of the convenience store ingredients with better ingredients from a real store if you can/want. You will probably save money, though surprisingly this doesn't taste bad. I usually use my own rice, and seaweed if I can get it, but I have to admit that it's convenient not to cook the sausage myself... :P The main point of using all convenience store food was to see if I could do it.
That's something I miss here in the states, especially lately. I've been craving onigiri like crazy, see, and because of my on-campus job I have a pretty hefty stipend to spend at the convenience stores on campus. There are two of them, in case you're wondering - the big one is further away and has a pretty good selection of random stuff, while the one near where I live has just the 'bare necessities' like shampoo, tissues, and bottled water, as well as a few convenience food items.
There is cereal, ez-mac, microwaveable soup, a bit of ramen, chips, lots of candy, and, for some reason, a pretty good selection of microwaveable rice, including Annie Chun's Sushi Wraps. Now, all of these items are overpriced normally and even more so at this market, but money is no object! An exaggeration, yes, but true in spirit. The microwaveable sticky white rice in these Sushi kits always comes out sticky, with a surprisingly good consistency. And, they come with a little seaweed packet too. Calling these sushi kits is a joke, but they actually don't work bad for quick onigiri.
But plain onigiri, or even onigiri with lemon, which I like, get old after a while. I started cruising for fillings I could find at the convenience store. I read that canned tuna, mixed with teriyaki sauce and salt, was pretty good, so I bought one of their 'tuna kits'. (they're big on kits, I guess - I only wanted the tuna packet, but don't worry, I used the crackers with some soup later.) I mixed the fish up with the teriyaki sauce pretty well, but I didn't like the end result. It tasted too much like... well, canned tuna.
Today I went to the convenience store again and found little egg and sausage bowls to be microwaved. I decided to give these a try... and I found that about a teaspoon of egg and one of the little bitty chunks of sausage works pretty darn good for a nontraditional filling! It's probably greasy enough that it would be gross if you took it on a picnic, but who knows? Anyway, it was quite yummy to eat fresh in my dorm room.
Convenience Store Onigiri
(That Aren't Shaped Like Proper Onigiri, but Could Be!)
w/ Sausage and Egg
Step Six: Unwrap the rice ball from the bag. It should hold together well and be a dense and solid bit of yumminess.
Step Seven: Right before eating, (otherwise the seaweed gets soggy :( ), you can take some seaweed and wrap around the rice ball or cylinder or triangle or whatever shape you have. With shorter, rounder shapes, the seaweed tends to go o the bottom almost just as a place to put your fingers. But, it's tasty too. :D Alternatively with larger pieces of seaweed you can wrap up most of the ball if you want.
(That Aren't Shaped Like Proper Onigiri, but Could Be!)
w/ Sausage and Egg
Step One: Go to the convenience store and buy "Annie Chun's Sushi Wraps" and "Microwave Egg and Sausage Bowl"
Step Two: Microwave the rice by following package instructions. Then microwave the egg and sausage bowl.
Step Three: Sprinkle a tiny bit of water and salt on a big, sturdy plastic bag. Spoon some rice onto the plastic bag as shown:
Step Two: Microwave the rice by following package instructions. Then microwave the egg and sausage bowl.
Step Three: Sprinkle a tiny bit of water and salt on a big, sturdy plastic bag. Spoon some rice onto the plastic bag as shown:
Step Four: Add a little bit of topping... remember that you're going to have to roll this up, so don't put too much. These two little chunks of sausage were pushing it - normally I just put one.
Step Five: Wrap the rice around the filling, first by sort of doubling the plastic bag over horizontally, then by just squeezing and forming a good, solid shape. Don't let the filling come out by applying too much pressure in one direction. You want the shape to be very three dimensional because of this.
I realize that my shape is totally not right for Onigiri. Also, my method is sort of a gaijin (foreigner), amateur method. I'm really not very concerned - the taste is the same really and this is the fastest and least painful method I've discovered.
I realize that my shape is totally not right for Onigiri. Also, my method is sort of a gaijin (foreigner), amateur method. I'm really not very concerned - the taste is the same really and this is the fastest and least painful method I've discovered.
Step Six: Unwrap the rice ball from the bag. It should hold together well and be a dense and solid bit of yumminess.
Step Seven: Right before eating, (otherwise the seaweed gets soggy :( ), you can take some seaweed and wrap around the rice ball or cylinder or triangle or whatever shape you have. With shorter, rounder shapes, the seaweed tends to go o the bottom almost just as a place to put your fingers. But, it's tasty too. :D Alternatively with larger pieces of seaweed you can wrap up most of the ball if you want.
Of course, you can substitute any of the convenience store ingredients with better ingredients from a real store if you can/want. You will probably save money, though surprisingly this doesn't taste bad. I usually use my own rice, and seaweed if I can get it, but I have to admit that it's convenient not to cook the sausage myself... :P The main point of using all convenience store food was to see if I could do it.
January 19, 2010
A Trick of Light and Water
"Are you one of those people who dislikes science because of what it does to the "mystery" of the world? Do you think that it somehow dimishes people to try to "explain" their behavior, or that it "takes away the beauty of the rainbow" to talk about light rays passing through water droplets?
.......
Ask yourself whether it enhances or diminishes your view of (Abraham Lincoln's) achievement when you remember that he was "nothing but" a country-born, self taught lawyer? Does it diminish the achievements of the ancient Egyptians to say that they built (the pyramids) with "nothing but" the crudest of tools and measuring instruments?
............
If you look at a rainbow and then someone tells you how it came about, why should you say that "they have ruined it" by turning it into "nothing but" a trick of light and water? Why not say the opposite? Out of the utterly unpromising raw material of drops of water and the laws of refraction has come something so beautiful that it spans the sky and inspires poets to write about it."
- Nothing But or Anything But?
Marian Stamp Dawkins
India on Platter Reviews
When Zahra and I went to Taj Emporium the other day I saw a bunch of new Micro-curries, from Kohinoor, called India on a Platter. Of course I was excited by all the new Micro-curry options! I bought five of them, for some reason all including paneer (Indian cottage cheese - NOTHING like the American version). Here were my impressions:
General: From looking at the packages, I quickly found that the India on a Platter dishes, while usually not super unhealthy, especially for convenience food, were generally not as healthy as the SWAD microcurries I've come to love. It's ironic, because the boxes are covered in propaganda about how healthy they are. However, the relatively high fat contents I found may also have something to do with picking all paneer varieties. Cheese adds fat. I also found it amusing that the packages stress somewhat odd English translations MORE than the original names of the dishes. Finally, the line is apparently quite new, only about 6 months old.
1.) Paneer Makhani - Creamy Cottage Cheese. I ate this one first because I love the dish Chicken Makhani at the local Indian restaurant. I was really disappointed in the micro-curry. It was thin, watery, had only a few chunks of sort of tough paneer, and just didn't taste very good. I was barely able to finish it (but then, I don't finish things if they're truly gross) and certainly won't be buying it again. In fact, for a brief moment I felt I had made a mistake by buying 5 of these right off the bat. Coincidentally, Paneer Makhani is also the least healthy of the five I bought. Rating: Not Good
2.) Mutter Paneer - Splendid Cheese Peas. Since I thought Paneer Makhani was so thin, I went for this one next. It was the only one of the five to have anything except paneer in it, since it also has a great deal of peas. When I first started eating it the strong pea taste throughout caught me by surprise and took me a moment to fully recognize. Overall, I thought this was a great micro-curry. The sauce was thick and flavorful and there were lots of peas and paneer both, with the paneer nice and tender. This was the healthiest of the five I bought, no doubt because of all the peas, and it was also in the end my favourite. Rating: Great
3.) Paneer Tikka Masala - Smoked Indian Cottage Cheese. This one had a sort of barbecue flavour to it... probably all the onion flavour. I'm normally not a fan of barbecue, but it really worked. The gravy was maybe a little bit thin, even though on the box it describes the gravy as 'thick'... but I would definitely buy this one again. Rating: Good
4.) Paneer Butter Masala - Spicy Creamy Cottage Cheese. I'm starting to believe that everything these packages say is crap - this one wasn't spicy at all. (Shahi Paneer was actually spicier). Just one was just okay, nothing super memorable but not bad. Rating: Okay
5.) Shahi Paneer - Royal Cottage Cheese. This one was for some reason the spiciest of the bunch. I liked it well enough.... it was somewhere between Paneer Tikka Masala and Paneer Butter Masala. Rating: Good
India on Platter so far: The results were good enough that I'll be back for more, lots more in the case of the Mutter Paneer. I want to try the rest of the micro curries in this brand as well. Just stay away from Paneer Makhani, if you want my advice! ;)
General: From looking at the packages, I quickly found that the India on a Platter dishes, while usually not super unhealthy, especially for convenience food, were generally not as healthy as the SWAD microcurries I've come to love. It's ironic, because the boxes are covered in propaganda about how healthy they are. However, the relatively high fat contents I found may also have something to do with picking all paneer varieties. Cheese adds fat. I also found it amusing that the packages stress somewhat odd English translations MORE than the original names of the dishes. Finally, the line is apparently quite new, only about 6 months old.
1.) Paneer Makhani - Creamy Cottage Cheese. I ate this one first because I love the dish Chicken Makhani at the local Indian restaurant. I was really disappointed in the micro-curry. It was thin, watery, had only a few chunks of sort of tough paneer, and just didn't taste very good. I was barely able to finish it (but then, I don't finish things if they're truly gross) and certainly won't be buying it again. In fact, for a brief moment I felt I had made a mistake by buying 5 of these right off the bat. Coincidentally, Paneer Makhani is also the least healthy of the five I bought. Rating: Not Good
2.) Mutter Paneer - Splendid Cheese Peas. Since I thought Paneer Makhani was so thin, I went for this one next. It was the only one of the five to have anything except paneer in it, since it also has a great deal of peas. When I first started eating it the strong pea taste throughout caught me by surprise and took me a moment to fully recognize. Overall, I thought this was a great micro-curry. The sauce was thick and flavorful and there were lots of peas and paneer both, with the paneer nice and tender. This was the healthiest of the five I bought, no doubt because of all the peas, and it was also in the end my favourite. Rating: Great
3.) Paneer Tikka Masala - Smoked Indian Cottage Cheese. This one had a sort of barbecue flavour to it... probably all the onion flavour. I'm normally not a fan of barbecue, but it really worked. The gravy was maybe a little bit thin, even though on the box it describes the gravy as 'thick'... but I would definitely buy this one again. Rating: Good
4.) Paneer Butter Masala - Spicy Creamy Cottage Cheese. I'm starting to believe that everything these packages say is crap - this one wasn't spicy at all. (Shahi Paneer was actually spicier). Just one was just okay, nothing super memorable but not bad. Rating: Okay
5.) Shahi Paneer - Royal Cottage Cheese. This one was for some reason the spiciest of the bunch. I liked it well enough.... it was somewhere between Paneer Tikka Masala and Paneer Butter Masala. Rating: Good
India on Platter so far: The results were good enough that I'll be back for more, lots more in the case of the Mutter Paneer. I want to try the rest of the micro curries in this brand as well. Just stay away from Paneer Makhani, if you want my advice! ;)
First Day of the Semester
Today was the first day of the semester. I had Anthropological Theories of Religion at 12:30 after sleeping in ridiculously late, then lunch plus a fairly lengthy break before Geology at 3:30 and then News Lab at 5:00. This is the first time I've had any classes later than the 3-4 slot, so it was weird to be leaving class when it was dark. I came home after News, made some Onigiri with teriyaki tuna, (it wasn't very good, the canned tuna flavour overpowered the teriyaki flavor), talked to the three people who had called me during News (??? I'm never that popular!) and -poof!- it's 7:50 now and the day's over.
I can't figure out if I'm going to like the big breaks I have between classes this semester. On one hand, they allow the 'class time' to sort of take over my day. On the other, I think they'll make me more productive. In between classes I stay on campus, and there's only so much time I can spend eating, so I have time to write emails to my penpals (I was so bad about doing that last semester), do homework and readings, study Hindi, blog... really whatever other than napping, stumbling or facebooking for hours. Which is a good thing. I think.
Anthropological Theories of Religion is awesome. The classroom is really too small for the class size, but the class size is still good - around 40 I think. Enough that there can be discussions and questions asked and answered and so on. Tina's in the class with me, which is fun. The professor is Craig Palmer, who a lot of people on campus seem to love, and I think I can see why already. He's quite a good lecturer, very funny. I think the topics we're going to talk about are uniformly fascinating. One sad thing is that we're using a textbook that the professor wrote... exclusively. Apparently before this year, he had students read a lot of primary sources instead, but now that the books published, well, there's just no need. Frankly I prefer having both a textbook to bring everything together AND the primary sources. I'm thinking about asking him if I can get copies of the primary sources he used to use, which the graduate students in the class are still going to have to read. I know that's fabulously geeky but oh well. :)
Geology is... interesting. I find the subject just interesting enough to be tolerable on it's own merits. However, today was not great. The teacher is Chinese and has a very thick accent - I was able to follow it reasonably well, in conjunction with the slides and everything - but it's never really a clarity plus. But, he's also quite funny. :) The main problem is just the breakneck pace at which the class is moving. I spent a solid hour scribbling as furiously as possible as we covered chapters one and two, with basically at least a mention given to probably 10 different branches of science. We talked about geological time era's and periods, the formation of the solar system, the composition of the solar system, the formation of the earth, the sources of energy within the earth, the composition of earth, the history of the earth with the whole "Mother nature is a 46 year old woman" analogy, a really brief history of humankind including agriculture, domestication, the industrial revolution, exponential population growth, and so on, also a quick introduction to about 8 different kinds of natural disasters, their causes, examples of recent big ones, a good deal of talk about Missouri's own New Madrid fault, which natural disasters are deadliest, the trade-off between the effects of natural disasters on more and less developed countries between economic costs and lives lost... and probably a good deal more besides. Zahra's in the class with me, but we didn't manage to meet up today because I got there early and sat in the front of the room. I noticed Peter was in the class too, and my friend Jade who I met in Cross Cultural Journalism last semester. Jade came over and sat by me. Jade is awesome and funny and I loved having her in my Cross Cultural Journalism class. Having her in this class may be another matter, however. It moves so fast that any chitter chatter at all means you've missed probably two or three slides.
News? So far so good, I guess. I'm going to take the class one day at a time, otherwise I think it will scare me too much. Peeking ahead in the syllabus I see that we have to do tons of reporting, actually going out and getting interviews and so on. I frankly hate that sort of stuff - it's not my absolute favourite part of Journalism anyway, but very much improved when I feel I have some sort of legitimacy. It's going to be hard for me to bring myself to go around and ask for interviews even though it's just for a class, that I'm just a student. I don't like dragging other people into things for my grades. It makes me uncomfortable. :S Which I suppose is the point...
I can't figure out if I'm going to like the big breaks I have between classes this semester. On one hand, they allow the 'class time' to sort of take over my day. On the other, I think they'll make me more productive. In between classes I stay on campus, and there's only so much time I can spend eating, so I have time to write emails to my penpals (I was so bad about doing that last semester), do homework and readings, study Hindi, blog... really whatever other than napping, stumbling or facebooking for hours. Which is a good thing. I think.
Anthropological Theories of Religion is awesome. The classroom is really too small for the class size, but the class size is still good - around 40 I think. Enough that there can be discussions and questions asked and answered and so on. Tina's in the class with me, which is fun. The professor is Craig Palmer, who a lot of people on campus seem to love, and I think I can see why already. He's quite a good lecturer, very funny. I think the topics we're going to talk about are uniformly fascinating. One sad thing is that we're using a textbook that the professor wrote... exclusively. Apparently before this year, he had students read a lot of primary sources instead, but now that the books published, well, there's just no need. Frankly I prefer having both a textbook to bring everything together AND the primary sources. I'm thinking about asking him if I can get copies of the primary sources he used to use, which the graduate students in the class are still going to have to read. I know that's fabulously geeky but oh well. :)
Geology is... interesting. I find the subject just interesting enough to be tolerable on it's own merits. However, today was not great. The teacher is Chinese and has a very thick accent - I was able to follow it reasonably well, in conjunction with the slides and everything - but it's never really a clarity plus. But, he's also quite funny. :) The main problem is just the breakneck pace at which the class is moving. I spent a solid hour scribbling as furiously as possible as we covered chapters one and two, with basically at least a mention given to probably 10 different branches of science. We talked about geological time era's and periods, the formation of the solar system, the composition of the solar system, the formation of the earth, the sources of energy within the earth, the composition of earth, the history of the earth with the whole "Mother nature is a 46 year old woman" analogy, a really brief history of humankind including agriculture, domestication, the industrial revolution, exponential population growth, and so on, also a quick introduction to about 8 different kinds of natural disasters, their causes, examples of recent big ones, a good deal of talk about Missouri's own New Madrid fault, which natural disasters are deadliest, the trade-off between the effects of natural disasters on more and less developed countries between economic costs and lives lost... and probably a good deal more besides. Zahra's in the class with me, but we didn't manage to meet up today because I got there early and sat in the front of the room. I noticed Peter was in the class too, and my friend Jade who I met in Cross Cultural Journalism last semester. Jade came over and sat by me. Jade is awesome and funny and I loved having her in my Cross Cultural Journalism class. Having her in this class may be another matter, however. It moves so fast that any chitter chatter at all means you've missed probably two or three slides.
News? So far so good, I guess. I'm going to take the class one day at a time, otherwise I think it will scare me too much. Peeking ahead in the syllabus I see that we have to do tons of reporting, actually going out and getting interviews and so on. I frankly hate that sort of stuff - it's not my absolute favourite part of Journalism anyway, but very much improved when I feel I have some sort of legitimacy. It's going to be hard for me to bring myself to go around and ask for interviews even though it's just for a class, that I'm just a student. I don't like dragging other people into things for my grades. It makes me uncomfortable. :S Which I suppose is the point...
January 18, 2010
Postjudice is not Terrible
My first reading assignment of the year was The Burden of Skepticism, by Carl Sagar. http://www.scribd.com/doc/24763842/Carl-Sagan-The-Burden-of-Skepticism
Class: Anthropological Theories of Religion
Here are some lovely quotes:
"In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know,
that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken."
and then they actually change their minds and you never
hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It
doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists
are human and change is sometimes painful. But it
happens, every day. I cannot recall the last time
something like that has happened in politics or religion.
It's very rare that a senator, say, replies, "That's a good
argument. I will now change my political affiliation."
- The Burden of Skepticism, Carl Sagan
"I'm often asked the question, "Do you think there is
extraterrestrial intelligence?" I give the standard
argument - there are a lot of places out there, and use
the word billions, and so on. And then I say that it would
be astonishing to me if there weren't extraterrestrial
intelligence, but of course there is as yet no compelling
evidence for it. And then I'm asked, "Yeah, but what do
you really think?" I say, "I just told you what I really
think." "Yeah, but what's your gut feeling?" But I try not to
think with my gut. Really, it's okay to reserve judgement
until the evidence is in."
"Postjudice is not terrible."
"I believe that what propels science is a thirst for wonder.
It's a very powerful emotion. All children feel it. In a first
grade classroom everybody feels it; in a twelfth grade
classroom almost nobody feels it, or at least
acknowledges it. Something happens between first and
twelfth grade, and it's not just puberty. Not only do the
schools and the media not teach much skepticism,
there is also little encouragement of the stirring sense
of wonder."
Here's another good reading (not for the class):
http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html?gclid=CKLf7pLWr58CFQwhDQodTFlQNg
5 and 6 don't really count, scientifically.
1-4 are another matter.
Because really, the fact that we exist is something amazing.
Class: Anthropological Theories of Religion
Here are some lovely quotes:
"In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know,
that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken."
and then they actually change their minds and you never
hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It
doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists
are human and change is sometimes painful. But it
happens, every day. I cannot recall the last time
something like that has happened in politics or religion.
It's very rare that a senator, say, replies, "That's a good
argument. I will now change my political affiliation."
- The Burden of Skepticism, Carl Sagan
"I'm often asked the question, "Do you think there is
extraterrestrial intelligence?" I give the standard
argument - there are a lot of places out there, and use
the word billions, and so on. And then I say that it would
be astonishing to me if there weren't extraterrestrial
intelligence, but of course there is as yet no compelling
evidence for it. And then I'm asked, "Yeah, but what do
you really think?" I say, "I just told you what I really
think." "Yeah, but what's your gut feeling?" But I try not to
think with my gut. Really, it's okay to reserve judgement
until the evidence is in."
"Postjudice is not terrible."
"I believe that what propels science is a thirst for wonder.
It's a very powerful emotion. All children feel it. In a first
grade classroom everybody feels it; in a twelfth grade
classroom almost nobody feels it, or at least
acknowledges it. Something happens between first and
twelfth grade, and it's not just puberty. Not only do the
schools and the media not teach much skepticism,
there is also little encouragement of the stirring sense
of wonder."
Here's another good reading (not for the class):
http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html?gclid=CKLf7pLWr58CFQwhDQodTFlQNg
5 and 6 don't really count, scientifically.
1-4 are another matter.
Because really, the fact that we exist is something amazing.
Laundry Racks
Two dollars isn't worth this,
I thought as I gathered the cold, wet laundry back into the basket and hauled it up two flights of stairs to my room.
Going green, and, as a bonus, rather Scandinavian isn't worth this,
I thought as I went back downstairs to the desk and asked for the largest rental they had, and they laughed and fetched it for me.
Supporting Tina's well-meant initiatives isn't worth this,
I thought as I struggled to set up the blasted thing and load it for the first time, making mistakes, almost having it collapse all over me.
But maybe, all these things worth together, are worth it.
And so, my hallway is now mostly obstructed by a laundry rack, covered in all my clothes.
Damn it feels good to be a gangster.
Esta Noche
When the weather is too perfect, when there's cold fog or a perfectly clear sky or some other condition that draws attention too strongly, I always think of this poem. I think the most lonely times to be alive are on beautiful nights.
Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Escribir, por ejemplo: "La noche está estrellada,
y tiritan, azules, los astros, a lo lejos."
El viento de la noche gira en el cielo y canta.
Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Yo la quise, y a veces ella también me quiso.
En las noches como esta la tuve entre mis brazos.
La besé tantas veces bajo el cielo infinito.
Ella me quiso, a veces yo también la quería.
Cómo no haber amado sus grandes ojos fijos.
Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Pensar que no la tengo. Sentir que la he perdido.
Oir la noche inmensa, más inmensa sin ella.
Y el verso cae al alma como al pasto el rocío.
Qué importa que mi amor no pudiera guardarla.
La noche esta estrellada y ella no está conmigo.
Eso es todo. A lo lejos alguien canta. A lo lejos.
Mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.
Como para acercarla mi mirada la busca.
Mi corazón la busca, y ella no está conmigo.
La misma noche que hace blanquear los mismos árboles.
Nosotros, los de entonces, ya no somos los mismos.
Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero cuánto la quise.
Mi voz buscaba el viento para tocar su oído.
De otro. Será de otro. Como antes de mis besos.
Su voz, su cuerpo claro. Sus ojos infinitos.
Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero tal vez la quiero.
Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido.
Porque en noches como esta la tuve entre mis brazos,
Aunque este sea el ultimo dolor que ella me causa,
mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.
y estos sean los ultimos versos que yo le escribo.
- Pablo Neruda
January 13, 2010
New Years Eve - Times Square (Part IV)
11:30 - Dancing dissolves as we grow tired and excited by the proximity of 2010. Still, there's half an hour left to wait, so our group unexpectedly find ourselves in one last, short, game of kick-the-can. The crowd has definitely filled back in, so our circle is much smaller this time around, and every time the can gets kicked out of the ring there is some doubt about whether we'll get it back again. At one point a can of pringles gets knocked into our circle... we kick it around until suddenly it pops open spraying little pringle shards everywhere, like confetti. A young couple joins our game towards the end, saying they're from Minneapolis, although they have some sort of foreign accent... and our group grows once more.
Photo: Allan and "the Young Couple" playing Kick-the-Can
Photo: Pringles Confetti
11:55 - Kick-the-can disbands once more, this time for good. The time for games has passed. The mood in the square suddenly becomes almost suffocating. Our group, which has grown to include not only Kelly, Amy, Allan and I, but also Adrienne and Michelle, the three Maryland boys, their mother, the little Canadian girls, and even the young couple, huddles close together in anticipation.
11:59 - Allan is on one side of me, Adrienne is on the other as the final countdown begins. I grab both of their hands and everyone starts counting down together, jumping up and down for the perhaps the last twenty seconds...
12:00 - The square explodes with light - fireworks, confetti... "Happy New Year 2010" on the countdown screen. In all the confusion we don't even physically see the ball-drop, but that's okay, I figure - I can mentally reconstruct it from more than 15 years of T.V. coverage. Everyone screams, then hugs each other happily. Happy New Year!!!
Photo: My Best, Crappy Picture of the New Year. Figured it had to be included...
12:02 - Just like that, it's over. We trade Facebook info with some of our new friends, and get pictures together as the square starts emptying with surprising rapidity. The Canadian girl's go to say goodbye to Allan, who picks them up and spins them around. Their mother, a bit drunk, starts shrieking, "Get a picture with him! Get a picture with him!" So they do. For probably a full two minutes on end, the girls keep running back to Allan and saying, "Happy New Year!" again. I think they would have gone on for an hour if their mother had let them.
Photo: Allan and the Canadians
Photo: "The Young Couple" and Me
12:05 - Finally it is just our original group and the two German au-pairs left. We are all headed towards Port Authority, the bus station, so they say, "We'll just follow you", and the six of us start trying to make our way through the crowd.
12:15 - We reach the center of Times Square itself, where there is a genuine deadlock of people. For a few minutes no one can move at all - we are pressed in on all sides. It's not quite scary - we can breathe - but really not much else.
12:30 - We finally reach Port Authority, bid farewell to the Germans, and Allan and I head off to the bathroom while Amy and Kelly play it cool and head straight to the bus.
12:35 - Allan and I get to the bus stop and meet them just in time to make the bus that leaves a full hour before the one we'd originally planned to make. Go us.
03:00 - We finally make it back home and into bed. Guess who comes perilously close to needing her adult diaper, after all the bravado? That's right, Kelly. :D
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wrap Up - From going out the door to coming back in, this was a full 12 hour experience. It was exhausting and physically demanding. However, it was also awesome and completely worth it. Kelly and Amy both agreed that they would do it again.
I, on the other hand, would probably not. Why? Judging from other people's accounts, and from several serendipitous occurrences (the emptying of the pen, the first kick-the-can game), I think I had a very atypical experience. The typical experience of standing and waiting in long hours of cold, concentrated misery? That's definitely a once-in-a-lifetime trial, but even the way it worked out for us was exciting, wonderful and most of all unique. I wouldn't trade it for anything, but neither would I jeopardize the memory by attempting to repeat it.
Thanks to everyone we met that night for making it a night I'll remember forever! <3
Photo: Allan and "the Young Couple" playing Kick-the-Can
Photo: Pringles Confetti11:55 - Kick-the-can disbands once more, this time for good. The time for games has passed. The mood in the square suddenly becomes almost suffocating. Our group, which has grown to include not only Kelly, Amy, Allan and I, but also Adrienne and Michelle, the three Maryland boys, their mother, the little Canadian girls, and even the young couple, huddles close together in anticipation.
11:59 - Allan is on one side of me, Adrienne is on the other as the final countdown begins. I grab both of their hands and everyone starts counting down together, jumping up and down for the perhaps the last twenty seconds...
12:00 - The square explodes with light - fireworks, confetti... "Happy New Year 2010" on the countdown screen. In all the confusion we don't even physically see the ball-drop, but that's okay, I figure - I can mentally reconstruct it from more than 15 years of T.V. coverage. Everyone screams, then hugs each other happily. Happy New Year!!!
Photo: My Best, Crappy Picture of the New Year. Figured it had to be included...12:02 - Just like that, it's over. We trade Facebook info with some of our new friends, and get pictures together as the square starts emptying with surprising rapidity. The Canadian girl's go to say goodbye to Allan, who picks them up and spins them around. Their mother, a bit drunk, starts shrieking, "Get a picture with him! Get a picture with him!" So they do. For probably a full two minutes on end, the girls keep running back to Allan and saying, "Happy New Year!" again. I think they would have gone on for an hour if their mother had let them.
Photo: Allan and the Canadians
Photo: "The Young Couple" and Me12:15 - We reach the center of Times Square itself, where there is a genuine deadlock of people. For a few minutes no one can move at all - we are pressed in on all sides. It's not quite scary - we can breathe - but really not much else.
12:30 - We finally reach Port Authority, bid farewell to the Germans, and Allan and I head off to the bathroom while Amy and Kelly play it cool and head straight to the bus.
12:35 - Allan and I get to the bus stop and meet them just in time to make the bus that leaves a full hour before the one we'd originally planned to make. Go us.
03:00 - We finally make it back home and into bed. Guess who comes perilously close to needing her adult diaper, after all the bravado? That's right, Kelly. :D
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wrap Up - From going out the door to coming back in, this was a full 12 hour experience. It was exhausting and physically demanding. However, it was also awesome and completely worth it. Kelly and Amy both agreed that they would do it again.
I, on the other hand, would probably not. Why? Judging from other people's accounts, and from several serendipitous occurrences (the emptying of the pen, the first kick-the-can game), I think I had a very atypical experience. The typical experience of standing and waiting in long hours of cold, concentrated misery? That's definitely a once-in-a-lifetime trial, but even the way it worked out for us was exciting, wonderful and most of all unique. I wouldn't trade it for anything, but neither would I jeopardize the memory by attempting to repeat it.
Thanks to everyone we met that night for making it a night I'll remember forever! <3
January 12, 2010
New Years Eve - Times Square (Part III)
8:30 - The rain slows. We dissemble to find our pen almost unrecognizable - so many people have left in the bad weather that it's only at one third capacity! Those who have stuck it out have started to capitalize on the empty space. On one side of the pen, someone has set up bowling with old starbucks cups as pins. Beside that, an awkward form of tennis, utilizing halves of pizza boxes as racquets, has been organized. Amy, Kelly, Allan, and I join a lively game of kick the can.
Photo: Allan, Amy, Kelly, and soon to be friend Adrienne play kick the can.
Photo: Our Kick the Can team!
9:30 - The police decide to let a few more people in to our newly emptied pen, so Kick the Can finally disperses after a group photo. In the aftermath, Amy and Kelly end up talking to the three boys from Maryland who played with us, while Allan and I meet the two German au-pairs, Michelle and Adrienne.
10:00 - Another countdown... only two hours to go now! Allan and I spend this one teaching the au-pairs how to play Go Fish!
10:30 - Since we still have a reasonable amount of room in the pen, Allan spontaneously decides to teach Michelle a few things about Scottish dancing. Amy, Kelly, and the Maryland boys descend upon us. Soon, we have about twelve people learning a six person dance from Allan. It involved a lot of spinning and going in circles, but it was fun!
Photo: Allan, Adrienne, and a Maryland boy dancing.
We took a break for a while, during which some American girls moved in and taught us an "American Dance" called Rock the Boat. This was pretty funny too, although Amy somehow escaped getting chosen to dance in the middle!
11:00 - Just one hour to go! But by now, we were having so much fun that we hardly noticed. Allan taught us a new dance accommodating a larger group. This one was based on an aisle of people, standing across from their partners, and a lot of switching of line heads and running down and around the aisle. We liked it even more than the first dance!
At one point, I'd say that up to twenty people were dancing, (including two cute little Canadian girls all dressed in red!), with many more watching. We had the attention of most of our pen and even some of the surrounding ones! I passed one guy who I hadn't even seen before describing the scene over the phone... a few others were taking video. In the atmosphere of skipping and laughing, it was impossible to be bored, cold, hungry, or tired. It was awesome!
January 10, 2010
New Years Eve - Times Square (Part II)
3:00 - We run to catch a bus into NYC. We know we're pushing our luck, trying to leave as late as we can and still have a view of the ball...
4:30 - The bus is running late, so we arrive in NYC at 4:30 rather than 4:00. We meet up with our friend Allan, who was staying on the other side of the city and came in by train. We make a quick run to the DR pharmacy for some food and batteries. The line in
side is quite long but moving fast, so it only takes about five minutes to get through.
5:00 - We start the long march around Times Square, trying to find 'pens' that aren't full and sectioned off yet. At each block, the answer is the same - "This block is closed, keep going to ___ street".
5:30 - The pens and blocked off streets seem to end. We are able to turn inwards, where Kelly asks several policemen whether any good spots are still open. They are friendly but very pessimistic, and tell us that we might as well go to a bar or something like that and watch the ball drop on TV. The general consensus is that we arrived half an hour to an hour too late for a decent spot. Our spirits crushed, we walk around somewhat aimlessly.
6:00 - Suddenly, we stumble into a few open pens, a ways off but directly in line with and within view of the square. We can see the Toshiba advertisements... we're in! Our location is just behind 52nd street, by the Sheraton Manhattan. The pen quickly fills up and closes behind us. It is crowded but not unbearably so... we can all move in a circle, face each other, get food out of our bags, play sudoku on our phones, etc. Still, sitting or walking around are out of the question.
Photo: Our view. All that light is Times Square... somewhat hard to photograph from here.
6:30 - The feeling of excitement melts into a realization that we have six more hours to wait... Kelly and Amy text all their friends and try talking to the people around them. We are positioned near the right hand barrier, so Allan and I help those who are having second thoughts to escape. Allan has an interesting conversation with an upper-middle aged woman whose daughter is encouraging her to climb over the fence.
Allan: You can do it, just sit like this and swing over...
Lady: No, you don't understand, I'm wearing a skirt...
Allan: Listen, I come from Scotland. We wear kilts. I have a lot of experience getting over fences in skirts.
But, for the most part, things are uneventful and boring. I sit on the barrier and look out over the crowd for a while, I also try looking straight up at the dizzying height of the skyscrapers against the clouded grey sky. Allan warns me not to use up all the fun so early in the evening.
The Toshiba screens occasionally display messages like, "Cheer if you're a girl". All the girls cheer. It's even less exciting than it sounds.
7:00 - The screen goes into countdown mode - this is actually quite exciting. At the end, instead of saying Happy New Year as we all semi-expect from TV, it reads, "5 hours to go!" Indeed. During this countdown Allan and I are playing War with a deck of cards I bought from the M&M store.
Photo: A shot from Amy's superior camera of one of these hourly countdowns.
8:00 - Another countdown. "4 hours to go!" We are one third of the way through the night, already tired and bored. The one thing we aren't is cold, thanks to our layers and layers of clothing. Then it starts raining - hard.
I carry a very small umbrella in my purse, so I pulled that out and the four of us assembled into a 'survival pod'. It looked a bit awkward but we all stayed more or less dry inside of it. I was the shortest so the others sort of leaned down on me, and my head was inside our human shelter, with the umbrella covering their heads. Our bags were at our feet. Even in the midst of the crowd we could hear little except the rain on top of the umbrella....
New Years Eve - Times Square (Part I)
I hesitated until about noon, not 100% certain that I was prepared, physically, mentally, or emotionally for the Times Square experience. Most people know that the center of New York gets pretty crowded for the ball drop, but fewer know the gory details - that armed policemen shove spectators into well-named 'pens' based on when they arrive, and in the pen there is no alcohol, no large bags, no elbow room, and, most notably, no bathroom. In the end, I went for it, not least because I'm studying to be a Travel Journalist, and I can't stop running from such unpleasantries now. This is how things went, from preparation to aftermath:
--------------------
11:00 - Zahra and I have been watching the news all morning. We learn that it is snowing in Times Square on New Years Eve for the first time in some fifty years, that despite the bitter cold people are already massing at the best viewing spots, that we aren't allowed to bring backpacks, and that it's true - there is no access to bathrooms within the pens. Amy and Kelly arrive, and we make our decisions. In the end, Zahra elects to stay at home. She will have many more chances to see the ball drop. Amy, Kelly and I decide to go to the Square.
11:30 - We head out to a convenience store to buy a pack of adult diapers. They are sold in sets of twenty, so we have a few extras. We test one out with water and turmeric, and are surprised and disgusted by how much 'pee' it holds.
12:30 - We eat our 'last meal', complete with quite a bit of water. The goal, after all, is to not need the diapers. Then, we lay out all the clothes we're planning to wear, and rest up. We'll need our strength to stand for 7+ hours in the cold.
2:30 - We struggle into multiple layers of warm clothing. The cold is the one enemy we know how to keep at bay. In the end, I was up to 17 articles of clothing, and Amy and Kelly were at 19 each.
Photo: Yes, I wore all of this, and then some...
My Outfit:
Thick, Crew-Cut Socks (2 pairs)
Snow Boots
Adult Diaper (and no, I'm not ashamed)
Long Underwear Bottoms
Workout Pants
Jeans
Bra
Long Underwear Top
Long Sleeve Shirts (2, one of which extended below my hips at the bottom)
Sweat-Jacket
Sweat-Shirt
Parka
Wool Scarf (for lower neck)
Silk Scarf (for upper neck, lower face if necessary)
Thick Gloves
Silly Monkey Hat (not worn)
Photo: You might call this my under-wear.
------------------
January 08, 2010
Pearl Harbor vs. Islamic New Year
Apparently, the Islamic New Year is going to fall on December 7th this year. It does that occasionally, or so I'm told.
The problem with this is that a lot of Americans think of December 7th as Pearl Harbor Day, first and foremost. And so, today a story in the Tampa Bay paper begins with, "Bowing to complaints from angry customers, Publix has agreed to remove a free 2010 calendar from its stores that mentions the beginning of the Islamic new years on Dec. 7 but not the anniversary of Pearl Harbor."
I found the basic idea quite frustrating. It's a free calendar, so obviously it's not enough for offended customers to boycott it - they have to call Publix (a local grocery store) and complain until Publix removes the calendar from their stores. Publix has no plans to replace the calendar, for which I really can't blame them - so this year there will simply be no Publix Calendar or the coupons that come with it.
If some sort of twisted logic was on the side of the offended, it might be easier to take. But, as Publix has explained, the Islamic New Year is a holiday, while the anniversary of Pearl Harbor... just isn't. The calendar has not previously listed the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, although it does list Memorial Day and Veteran's Day, and it has never recieved complaints about this before.
"Kaufman said she objected because she didn't want World War II veterants "to be disappointed" and because she views Muslims as "an enemy who declared war on us," Kaufman told the St. Petersburg Times.
Furthermore, she said, she thought it was inappropriate to have holidays for people from the Caribbean and Central and South America on the calendar....
"Why pander to Islamics and people from Peru, Belize, Cuba, and Haiti?" she said on the phone. "It's irrelevant in America.""
The problem with this is that a lot of Americans think of December 7th as Pearl Harbor Day, first and foremost. And so, today a story in the Tampa Bay paper begins with, "Bowing to complaints from angry customers, Publix has agreed to remove a free 2010 calendar from its stores that mentions the beginning of the Islamic new years on Dec. 7 but not the anniversary of Pearl Harbor."
I found the basic idea quite frustrating. It's a free calendar, so obviously it's not enough for offended customers to boycott it - they have to call Publix (a local grocery store) and complain until Publix removes the calendar from their stores. Publix has no plans to replace the calendar, for which I really can't blame them - so this year there will simply be no Publix Calendar or the coupons that come with it.
If some sort of twisted logic was on the side of the offended, it might be easier to take. But, as Publix has explained, the Islamic New Year is a holiday, while the anniversary of Pearl Harbor... just isn't. The calendar has not previously listed the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, although it does list Memorial Day and Veteran's Day, and it has never recieved complaints about this before.
"Kaufman said she objected because she didn't want World War II veterants "to be disappointed" and because she views Muslims as "an enemy who declared war on us," Kaufman told the St. Petersburg Times.
Furthermore, she said, she thought it was inappropriate to have holidays for people from the Caribbean and Central and South America on the calendar....
"Why pander to Islamics and people from Peru, Belize, Cuba, and Haiti?" she said on the phone. "It's irrelevant in America.""
Computer Problems...
I have a lot of things I want to blog about, like...
- New York
- In Particular, New Years Eve at Times Square
- New Years Resolutions
- Florida Winter (XD)
The problem is that my laptop still won't work with the internet, and is causing other problems as well. This is mostly my fault because I haven't been able to bring myself to reboot everything yet. Yes, I am using the internet right now - after all, my family's computer still connects, and I'm home at the moment. But sitting in the foyer on the family computer feels fine for checking email and facebook, but I don't feel comfortable enough to write out long blog posts or emails to friends, so it's making me the world's worst correspondent.
Sorry, everyone. My first New Years Resolution is to do everything I can to get my computer in working order, starting with backing everything up on a friend's external hard drive (I already have it on one, but I don't trust them enough to let that be the only copy of all my photos, etc) and rebooting. TigerTech has promised to make me a priority if this doesn't work, so I'll give that a go too. Hopefully things will be up and running before the semester really gets underway.
The worst part is that my computer has started screwing up in new and exciting ways recently. For example, having occasional but very worrying trouble booting up, and not recognizing it's own cd drive about 1/4 of the time. I'm not giving up hope yet, but it may be that my computer is toast, and I'll need a new one.
I'm not eager to buy a new computer, but I could afford one similar to the one I have now, if it came down to it. This one was about 1000$ and, until recently, was a totally fine, totally competent machine. The problem is, I was hoping to have this one last me another year and a half, through this coming semester and the first year of study abroad, because after that, heading into my junior and senior years, I am required by the journalism school to buy a much nicer, more expensive computer.
It seems a waste to buy that computer now, and drag it through three unecessary semesters... but it also seems silly to buy another computer for just a year and a half.
For now, though, I'm just going to concentrate on fixing the laptop I already have...
- New York
- In Particular, New Years Eve at Times Square
- New Years Resolutions
- Florida Winter (XD)
The problem is that my laptop still won't work with the internet, and is causing other problems as well. This is mostly my fault because I haven't been able to bring myself to reboot everything yet. Yes, I am using the internet right now - after all, my family's computer still connects, and I'm home at the moment. But sitting in the foyer on the family computer feels fine for checking email and facebook, but I don't feel comfortable enough to write out long blog posts or emails to friends, so it's making me the world's worst correspondent.
Sorry, everyone. My first New Years Resolution is to do everything I can to get my computer in working order, starting with backing everything up on a friend's external hard drive (I already have it on one, but I don't trust them enough to let that be the only copy of all my photos, etc) and rebooting. TigerTech has promised to make me a priority if this doesn't work, so I'll give that a go too. Hopefully things will be up and running before the semester really gets underway.
The worst part is that my computer has started screwing up in new and exciting ways recently. For example, having occasional but very worrying trouble booting up, and not recognizing it's own cd drive about 1/4 of the time. I'm not giving up hope yet, but it may be that my computer is toast, and I'll need a new one.
I'm not eager to buy a new computer, but I could afford one similar to the one I have now, if it came down to it. This one was about 1000$ and, until recently, was a totally fine, totally competent machine. The problem is, I was hoping to have this one last me another year and a half, through this coming semester and the first year of study abroad, because after that, heading into my junior and senior years, I am required by the journalism school to buy a much nicer, more expensive computer.
It seems a waste to buy that computer now, and drag it through three unecessary semesters... but it also seems silly to buy another computer for just a year and a half.
For now, though, I'm just going to concentrate on fixing the laptop I already have...
January 04, 2010
A Night that Rises and Clears
Every step takes a beat of your heart
Through a city that's falling apart
On a night that rises and clears
In a sky that's clouded by years
My anger is a form of madness
So I'd rather have hope than sadness
And you said something
You said something stupid like
Love steals us from loneliness
Happy birthday
Are you lonely yet?
I misplaced your face in the shape of a smile
On a night that could never surprise me
Don't tell me you're afraid of the past
It's only the future that didn't last
You're kidding yourself, kidding yourself
You're going nowhere and you're going there fast
And you said something
You said something stupid like
Love steals us from loneliness
Happy birthday
Are you lonely yet?
- Love Steals us from Loneliness, Idlewild
Through a city that's falling apart
On a night that rises and clears
In a sky that's clouded by years
My anger is a form of madness
So I'd rather have hope than sadness
And you said something
You said something stupid like
Love steals us from loneliness
Happy birthday
Are you lonely yet?
I misplaced your face in the shape of a smile
On a night that could never surprise me
Don't tell me you're afraid of the past
It's only the future that didn't last
You're kidding yourself, kidding yourself
You're going nowhere and you're going there fast
And you said something
You said something stupid like
Love steals us from loneliness
Happy birthday
Are you lonely yet?
- Love Steals us from Loneliness, Idlewild
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