Fossicking About

Public service announcement

2012-02-09T16:38:00.002-05:00

Want to feel as though you're living in some sort of alternative reality in which you are the only sane person?

Go read the comments to this post: "Pro-life victory"

You can thank me later.

so this is what it's come down to

2012-02-09T16:13:00.003-05:00

Next month, I'll be a year older. When the Summer of Horror occurred, I told myself I would change how I am (well, sort of) if things went off well. I would be "more social" (whatever that means), I would be nicer and more polite (hah), I would at least try to do stuff that involves other people.

You know what I did today? I had invites from two different groups to go out for happy hour and hang out. I have no class tomorrow. I got home at 4pm, had a big dog jumping up on me, walked him for a bit and continued his recall training, sat on the porch and had a beer (me, that is, not the dog) and when the time came to go to one of these happy hour-y things, I couldn't be bothered. I'm in comfy leggings, shorts, jumper and smell (a bit) of Dog. Going out involves getting changed again and looking (somewhat) presentable. Why bother, eh?

Yes, I've turned into that person: the one who is quite happy bludging at home with an animal and avoids people.

Or, more truthfully, I always was that person. Changing is overrated.

On clothing

2012-02-06T13:43:00.002-05:00

Two quick observations as I get ready to make my 1.5mile trek to my classroom:

1. Y'all saw the David Beckham for H&M advert right? Now the question is: if a lad was to wear that and you were, you know, at the point where the kit's coming off, would you a) reckon he was a bit of an idiot and b) laugh out loud, thus rather destroying "the moment"?

I think a) and b) are quite likely and so perhaps Beck's undies won't fly off the shelves...

2. On the topic of stuff blokes wear, Thor had a potential adopter come visit him yesterday. Said man, a police officer at the university here, was wearing a jersey with "Hunting Taliban" on it. I guess the Taliban do proliferate around here so it makes total sense.

Oh, he didn't like Thor--I think Thor's public humping (which he never does in general but apparently felt the need to do right when he was being vetted) made him uncomfortable. The cop brought it up at one point when he was telling the foster program officer (who was also there) why he preferred Another Dog to Thor.

Amusingly, Foster program officer said pretty much what I wanted to: "He's just a big goofy guy! They do these things". Heh.

On democracy (with added bonus of a letter to an old friend)

2012-02-05T14:10:00.004-05:00

Usually, my politics remains (mostly) off blog but here you go:

1. The Komen Foundation/Planned Parenthood thing is *not* a "win" for people power or democracy or anything that those who (justifiably and in a well-organized way, it has to be said) named and shamed the Komen Foundation. This doesn't end the continued fight for reproductive rights for women here in the USA.

You know what's missing? The state. The state stepping up to provide these critical healthcare services to lower-income people so the organizations like the Komen foundation AND Planned Parenthood could just be additional/extra to what is already there.

Instead, by being pleased with "success", we are perpetuating a system of inequality where an organization (wonderful though it is) is the only place many women can go get much-needed and essential healthcare. Bah.

2. On which note, when the state does step in and actually make a useful law, there is yet another protest from an organization filled with old men.

Seriously, the Catholic Church says it's "un-American" to ask it to provide for contraceptives for its (mostly non Catholic) employees? You know what's "un-American"? Fraud. Pretending to be a charity and not playing by the rules. Ignoring the needs of over half the world's population. So I wrote a letter:

Dear Catholic Church,

I pay taxes in this country. I have paid taxes here--more so than many others far richer than me--for the past eight years. Some of my taxes go to organizations and actions I don't support (e.g. large-scale military operations overseas; your organization) and whose policies I don't agree with. That's just how it is. I deal with it.

You are registered as a charity and "we"--the US state and the general public--accept that, along with distributing stale biscuits and watered down wine to your people, you actually do charitable work. I personally benefited from your charitable work overseas and will admit much of my most annoying argumentative traits were developed by members of your church. I don't remember them ever being as narrow-minded and annoying as you all but maybe things have changed. Maybe things are different in far flung parts of the world.

So let me make this plain in words you understand: you can either take my (and other) taxpayers' money and remain registered as a charity and then adhere to government laws.

OR you can give up your non-taxable charity status, not take public funds and do whatever you like.

It's your choice. You know, the sort of thing that you reckon is a bad idea for over half the world's population.

By the way, I know logic seems to have deserted you but just because something is available (e.g. contraception), doesn't mean everyone will immediately rush out and get it.

Cheers,
Me

Things to do

2012-02-04T14:55:00.002-05:00

Work has gotten very busy. In addition to students/etc, I received an email saying my review is coming up and I need to a) arrange two peer evaluations (other professors come and "observe" me teaching and write a report to the College/Uni about it) and b) write a report of all my publications, teaching, service, etc to date. Not just since I started here but since I decided this academic thing was a good idea.

Then, I have to start writing the draft for a conference paper. This is due in a week's time.

I also need to finish the current chapter of The Book. This is due in two weeks' time.

Right, class prep. Each day. Since each class is rather different, even though I have outlines for the classes, I need to do the reading(s) myself and change around the lectures. I can see the benefit to the professor of lecturing. Just stand there, make sure you have stuff to say for an hour or so and you're done. But that's boring (right?) so the classes are Q&A. I ask questions/they are supposed to answer. A non-lecture lecture (!) of course means more work for me since I have to have a general idea of some of the issues I want covered but also leave open the possibility that discussions might go elsewhere.

In between all this then I have taken to reading Craigslist adverts for pets in case I ever fancy a snake. Or a guinea pig. Or rats. Or even a dog of my own. This led to this gem (about a puppy):

Has been wormed twice, and bathed and had a 5 way.

Obviously, the puppy's had a far more exciting life at his young age than most of us ever will!

Stuff.

2012-01-31T17:43:00.003-05:00

- I commented on the Facebook post of one of the few people from high school whom I still keep in touch. Not because I'm an anti-social cow, which I am, but just because most of my high school friends got married young, have kids, etc and we just don't talk much about anything else. I like kids, but mostly at a (far off) distance and not as the main feature of all my conversations. But, anyway, commented. Then, I got friend requests from a dozen people, none of whom I've even talked to for a decade or more. The dilemma now is: do I break my rule of Facebooking (which is not to be friends with people I'm not friends with in the offline world)? Or, do I just add them and not hurt anyone's feelings? Why the hell do I even care? I'm obviously going soft in my old age.

On a related note, a few of them emailed me. All the emails were variations along: "hey studious person, I note you are still at uni!" or "Not married, eh?". In Nepali, there is no term that means either "geek" or "nerd" but "studious person" would be the closest equivalent. The whole geek/nerd/jocks thing that exists in American high schools doesn't really exist there. My cousin--the chess champion--was also one of the best cricketers and even played for the district level. I suppose it's quite amusing that my "path" was apparently laid out in high school. None of them seemed the least bit surprised that I was *still* at uni.

- For Big Conference in April, I have already got a place booked. It's the Indigo Hotel in San Diego and I'll be there for a week. This, of course, means having to (horrors) fly but I've rationalized this by booking myself on a 72+hour train trip on the way back. Of course, yous can read all about it here.

-Thor's off to pastures anew. His new and permanent people are a couple who are first time dog owners. I reckon Thor is pretty much perfect for them since he was the most "chill" dog I ever met. He also enjoyed people and his favourite activity was to jump on the sofa once I was sat, and lay his head next to me. I'll miss him. Next up is, I think, a terrier. I'm sure this will be a bit more effort since terriers need heaps of exercise.

It's odd not having a dog and I realize how much my routine changes when I have one.

With dog: wake up in the morning, walk. Another walk mid-day. Another one in the late afternoon and a short one at midnight. See the outside, explore the town and so on.

Without a dog: uni at 9am, stay in windowless office till darkness. Go home, flop on sofa. No walk. No exercise.

- My paper for Big Conference is about bin Laden, new media and whatnot. My co-writer dropped out so I actually need to write the damned thing and on my own too.

That ends my update. I should really start sending emails to people and using this space to reflect upon Academic-y Stuff. But, who am I kidding? As if that'll ever happen.

Thou eunuch of language

2012-01-30T21:54:00.000-05:00

Thou eunuch of language

Yes, well, this is in lieu of actual content.

Catching up is not that hard to do when nothing's been happening

2012-01-27T14:32:00.004-05:00

Life seems to have whooshed along, preventing blogging. I really wish I could say I am drinking champagne in posh crystal glasses while watching Liverpool win any league in sight but we all know that's not the case. Though I do plan to drink "Tennessee sour whiskey" while watching Justified Season 2 this weekend. I suppose we can all agree there is some amount of similarity there.

In other news, as seems to be the norm for me here, one of my classes is going quite well. Surprisingly, this is the class I was warned "would be terrible". The other class--the one I thought would be interesting and fun--is, so far, a bit of a damp squib.*

Thor continues to acquire numerous bad habits since he moved in. He's gone from being the perfect dog, not barking or howling when left alone, to realizing he can actually make a lot of noise and he should possibly do that whenever I leave the house. He was supposed to have been adopted this past weekend but I haven't heard anything about that. Maybe this weekend? I'll miss him since, despite his newly-acquired howling habit, he's pretty much the perfect dog. Big, easy to walk, friendly to others (people and dogs), unfazed by cars or loud people and not requiring heaps of exercise.

This post is even more of a "general email to all of you, friends and family" than usual. I guess I could have done that but what is the fun of it?

Talking of fun, I enjoyed this:

* No, not of the Harry Potter sort. The conventional sort. Though the Harry Potterish squib, when damp, would also be a bit of a dud I guess.

Living in a godless world

2012-01-21T17:02:00.004-05:00

Classes have started. In one, I managed to teach without realizing my dress was unzipped (discovered it after I got home). In another, I got sidetracked when a student claimed Tim Tebow was a national security issue, leading to another student later complaining: "we spent 15 minutes talking about Tim Tebow. This is not national security."

Good times. I've not even taught one whole week and already the complaints have started.

The Tim Tebow discussion was also tied in with ideas of logic: the student claimed his Mum says he doesn't believe in God if he doesn't like Tim Tebow.

Here's the causal link made:

(not) liking TT = (not) liking God.

If you substitute the US for TT in that sentence and freedom/liberty/good/ for God, you have exactly the sort of narrative we are operating in in the post 9/11 world:

"What, you don't like what America's done? Well, you hate Freedom, my good sir! Piss off back to where you came from!"

In other updates, LilSis found out about SOPA and PIPA when her preferred site of choice (or, as she calls it, God) blacked out for a day, leaving her with no way of finding out odd bits of information.

"So this is what it feels like to live in a Godless world," I got a text saying. "I had all sorts of questions and the omnipotent source that has all the answers was silent."

And I think yous will like hearing that Thor and I ran into AwfulChap again. This time we were walking on the sidewalk of a fairly busy street when the same dog came running up, without a leash (obviously) and jumped on Thor, trying to get him to play. I then had a fairly excited dog (who has no idea of "cars" and what they can do) pulling at the leash as this annoying dog (well, annoying owner. It's definitely not the dog's fault she is allowed to run around all over the place) jumped around.

I dragged Thor into someone's driveway/garden and waited for the AwfulChap to walk up. I almost explained my previous shouting (that Thor had been in a fight a few days before) but didn't. Just politely said Good Afternoon and dragged Thor away, with judicious use of treats and praise.

The other dog kept trying to follow us despite AwfulChap's ineffectual calls and I had to forcibly drag it away from Thor at one point. I really don't get people like AwfulChap. We were on a public road at this time and it was fairly obvious his dog was being a nuisance. Any responsible dog person could see it. And yet nothing--no reaction, no apologies, no attempt to leash it or properly hold it.

It's been raining heavily for the past couple of days. A good excuse to stay indoors and catch up on some writing as well as class prep. The thrills keep on coming in this town.

Being a bitch

2012-01-18T18:29:00.003-05:00

I'll be honest--I've actually rarely used "bitch" to talk about things. I don't tend to call people bitch (cunt, yes, bitch no). I don't bitch about stuff (I whinge. Or even whine). Today, I was called a bitch. And it was not pleasant.

"You were the one shouting like a hysterical bitch" was the actual sentence.

It made me feel awful. Shocked and trembly and weepy even. I am not sure why--it's not like I've not had other terms yelled at me--that same "cunt". "cow". etc. But never "bitch"? At least I can't remember.

So here's what happened:

I was out walking with Thor. There is an elementary school nearby, with a playground and I had taken him there. A brown medium sized dog (off leash) came running up and started sniffing at him. He began to get excited and pulling on his leash (I have mentioned he's 50lb+, right?) but not too much since he's terrifically well-behaved.

I have to admit I got nervous and started shouting for the owner/person to call his dog. This was pretty much exactly the same place where there had been a Thor vs Other Dog fight a couple of days ago and I was worried. That fight, too, had started with sniffs and general bonhomie before the other dog attacked. This time, the likelihood of attack seemed low but the female was getting Thor excited (whose balls were recently chopped off but who tends to think he still has them). I wanted to get him out of there.

The man meandered up. I have no other words to express how supremely unconcerned he was. He meandered. Then, he looked at me, called his dog without much interest and wandered off, still with no attempt to leash the dog. I dragged Thor away and we'd walked off when the other dog again ran up to Thor and started sniffing. Repeat of pulling on leash/me shouting/etc.

By now, I admit I was getting rather annoyed at the sheer disregard of the man for my request to leash his dog. "Did you hear what I said? She doesn't come to me when I go up to her" he told me.

"Yes, but this is a public place. There are signs saying you have to leash your dog. Your dog is getting mine excited so do you mind please leashing your dog?", was my response. As I tend to do when I am nervous or worried, I was enunciating very precisely.

"They seem fine. You are the one shouting. You are shouting like a hysterical bitch", was the response.

Sadly, I had nothing to say. I was speechless and then (almost) cried. Generations of Priya ancestors are probably rolling in their graves (or, rather, since they were burnt and thrown in rivers...ocean-surfing?) for this sheer wussiness. But, despite having been quite loud and I suppose strident, all I wanted was a leashed dog in a public park. Or, at least to call/hold the dog while Thor and I left. I wasn't planning on hanging out--I just wanted the other dog not to bother me or mine so we could make our way elsewhere.

I am not sure why I'm justifying this. That paragraph above? Justification for being angry because someone who should have looked after their dog was obviously ignoring what had initially been a polite request. He obviously didn't care that I was worried and nervous--sauntering along, saying his dog couldn't be called, asking me if I were "listening to me instead of just shouting", and so on.

And, yet, if Thor had done anything, it would be his (and my) fault. Thor'd probably be reported for aggression and been put down/listed as unadoptable.

I wish I'd had the words to say that. Instead, I know the man will smugly think he was in the right--after all, his dog had "just wanted to play" and I was "hysterical".

That annoys me.

This being a small town and since he was in VT gear, I'll probably find he works for the university in some fashion. I am not sure what (if anything) I'd say if I ran into him again.

Pick Colbert for Possible and Potential President Please

2012-01-15T19:23:00.001-05:00

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Logic for the win!

A lot of stuff about me

2012-01-15T10:48:00.004-05:00

And some more stuff:

- it snowed here last night. This morning, the dog decided snow was the Best Thing Evah and proceeded to roll himself in snow/slush/mud so that now he (and the living area) are coated in snowy slushiness.

- ETA: censored myself since I recalled this is a public blog. I'll just leave this to remind my future self of What (Not) To Do:

In the future, no parties at houses for me. It's just too much stress and the realization that I'd rather go home and hang out in front of my TV with the dog, watching Psych instead of talking to new people.

- I've still not yet found the building where one of my classes is going to be. Thor and I walked around uni the day before yesterday in search of that particular building but with no luck. People kept directing us to various buildings--all of which looked the same in the evening light--but none of them was the building I was after. We might give it another shot today and I'll report. I just know that Google maps tells me it's 1.5 miles from my department, so pretty much at the other end of the campus (and beyond, most likely). I reckon that's my exercise for the semester right there--trekking back and forth (so 3 miles!) to that bloody classroom.

- Gosh, this [the original version] was a dreary post which could have been written by an emo teenager, wasn't it? I'll endeavour to do better next time.

Back in the 'burg (and ruminations on urinations)

2012-01-13T17:02:00.004-05:00

Numerous quick links/comments since I am (again!) swamped:

- Let's get this out of the way: after almost two weeks of knowing that if "stuff happened," friends were minutes away, it's odd being back to the All By Myself situation again. Thankfully (?) there is...

- loads of work. Loads. Received a Mildly strong (they are British after all) email from Publishers saying no extra time for the book manuscript. Considering quite a few chapters are yet to be finalized, this is scary.

- Add to that: syllabi and classes for two new classes and other stuff that I am supposed to be writing.

- The job search for one of the posts in my department is ongoing. Apparently none of the original people could agree to terms. Interesting.

- The news continues to be depressing. Thanks to the Beeb's "for the children" version of Which Republican Candidate Stands for What? I feel I'm up on their "issues". Unfortunately, none of them gives me much confidence over what would happen if they did take over. But, then, it's not like Obama's doing all that great either on his promises.

- Staying with foreign policy, we can all agree this is Not the Sort of Thing that should be done, war or no war. However, I find the censorship in media reports intriguing. Read today's Wall Street Journal (which I read while having my lunch at the local French cafe. Yes, they only seem to have WSJ there. No, I don't know why either. The last time I was there, I got myself educated about Tim Tebow, also via WSJ). It mentions the story--that these men ("allegedly" but since this is a blog and I don't have to pretend to be neutral--there really isn't a doubt they did it) peed on dead people. But, and this is where it gets interesting, WSJ (and a lot of other media reports I've been reading about this) does not mention that one of them laughs and claims this was a "Golden shower".

And there you have it: it's not the "dehumanizing" I find objectionable (though obviously it is and it is not just Not On but it's illegal, if one is following the rules of war. But "one", especially if "one" is the US, isn't I suppose). It's the attitude that these (dead) Afghans would gain pleasure from the pee. I could be all Foucault and talk about how a) peeing on the dead Afghans out of disrespect/ignoring their human-ness is different to b) peeing on them AND reckoning they'd get off on it.

The general media attitude to this now seems to be: oh this stuff happens in war (listen to the BBC report on it, in which a British soldier makes that claim. Read the Christian Science Monitor story here) and that "things were a lot worse in the past".

Yes, that is why we call it "the past".

- Finishing up on the subj of urination, my new dog, whom I've named Thor (big, blond and goofy) is into marking everywhere when we are outside. So far, no tree in the park at the back of my house has been left unmarked. No fire hydrant left unwetted. Highlights: he peed on my neighbour's dog when she came over to say Hi and he did the same to this chap who was filming the local version of that show where the TV Chap takes on different jobs. Apparently TV Chap had decided to take on the role of a Vet Technician the day Thor was having his balls chopped off at the vet's. You can imagine the inevitable result (on a costly suit!) when the Chap met Thor.

Without words

2012-01-06T16:02:00.005-05:00

From the Wikileaks Facebook page. I am not a huge fan (nor a non fan) of WL but this has to be said.

This Salon article makes it even clearer how sad the situation is for Manning and especially how society has changed in its attitudes towards war, militarization and the government. As the article points out, the Pentagon Papers were of higher clearance/secrecy and yet we laud their publisher/whistleblower as heroes. Manning, we've decided is a potential traitor and a threat to national security. It makes no sense.

I guess I wasn't without words after all.

2012: The first three days

2012-01-04T09:32:00.004-05:00

Jan 1:

Spent much of this day trying to figure out how LilSis could a) eat and b) find a place to stay in Sydney as she was denied entry to her connecting flight back to uni. For some people, travel is easy. Others, not so much. And, yes, as I've written before, for yet others, travel is not really an option even but that's not the group I am writing about. I'm writing about those who do have the means to travel but there are all sorts of laws and rules (most of which you don't even find out until you are about to board the plane, apparently, since no one had told us this particular rule before)

Jan 2:

I spent much of this day trying to clean large stains from my temporary house's sofa. After calling around various professional cleaners and realising they were either closed or would be closed by the time I could make it to theirs, I laundered everything twice and left it. The stain was removed but a water stain remained.

I emailed what had happened to my friend who'd let me stay and asked where she had bought the sofa from so I could get replacement cushions.

For almost half a day, I was frantic. Then, I thought about this: after all, it's not like I deliberately did this. Stupid, yes. Malicious, no. Hopefully, that's how she'll see it too.

Jan 3:

Someone opened my bag on the bus and the resulting jostling threw clothes/books around. All wet. Most of them ruined(including a few rather nifty dresses I'd bought to teach in). After I gathered my stuff and got myself home, I find there's no heat (gas is not working for some reason) and there's a dead bird in my living room. Bird droppings everywhere.

The temperature was in the teens.

Jan 4:
?

Start of 2012: My (main) goal

2012-01-01T11:09:00.005-05:00

So, in 2012, I want my own island. Living in the US for almost a decade now, I know that, if I just work hard enough and "pull myself up by my bootstraps", I can have an island.

Issues like a) not working in the kind of job which gives me an island-buying salary, b) being unable to shift from my field to another (where I could get an island-buying salary), c)not being born with a silver spoon in my mouth, d) not the sort of immigrant about whom TV shows are made, e) not having any bargaining power to snag myself a billionaire (or even a millionaire), f) it being unlikely that the Lottery odds will work in my favor, g) unable to work for the US government (and its far more lucrative counterterrorism jobs) and h)my inability to steal an island--are irrelevant to the discussion.

It's (my) American Dream to have an island and I'll do it the true American way. On credit.

Don't forget x) disbelief/disinterest in climate change by governments = fewer islands = more expensive to buy one.

Start of 2012: thoughts on Blacksburg

2012-01-01T10:15:00.004-05:00

1. You can't really "go nuts" when out since there are only two (maybe three) places that non undergrads tend to go to. And by "go nuts", I don't even mean proper nuts but even slightly. This is a bit annoying at times since it's nice to tie one on every once in a while.

2. People remember you."Hey! so you're back again?" or "same thing?"--are heard even if you've only been somewhere a couple of times. I've never been fond of this kind of thing. I am still not sure why I don't mind this in my soccer place here in DC but get annoyed when it's Blacksburg (or anywhere. Aalborg was obviously worse in terms of "being recognized when out in town")but I do. Sometimes, you just want to go somewhere, sit down, have a few beers/a meal and leave. I guess I want A Place to know me and others not to. Except in Blacksburg, this choice doesn't exist.

3. There's only one of everything. One beer shop, one bottle shop, one wine place, one camera shop, one Thai restaurant, one cinema (with one screen)...you get the picture. Oh and no (adequate. I'm not even talking about "good") Mexican/South American food.

4. There's none of lots of things: nowhere that shows soccer (except the graduate center and that is just not the same), no (again, just adequate) Southeast Asian food (heaps of Chinese food places though), no bus service to The Town With A Bigger Cinema after 5pm on weekdays.

I suppose, with a drivers' licence and a car (both on the list of Things I Need To Do in Early 2012), many of the things on this list (well, at least some of no. 3 and no. 4) will be sorted. I hope.

And it was(n't) a very good year

2012-01-01T02:15:00.006-05:00

-Unlike the past few years when I a) either hang about on my own OR b) go slightly mental with strangers in a strange land, this year, I was at a masquerade party with friends. I believe this was the first time in years I was a) with friends and b) actually doing something to celebrate the New Year. My usual "celebration" is to wish people a happy [insert year] and go to bed at 10pm.

-I was well lubricated by midnight. After being sick for most of the day and being on painkillers (with no food), I probably should not have been drinking. Yet, LilSis's "It's the New Year! Do something fun!!" injunction stuck and so I did. Between throwing things that made a fairly loud "Bang!" noise and doing my best to finish up my (rescued from the rubbish heap) beer, I had a wonderful time.*

- Weird moments included: a) a conversation I can't recall with Darth Vader No. 2 about beards, not knowing what we were talking about and being elected to office. I think the issue here was not taking things seriously (me and Darth Vader No. 1) and being quite earnest about the topic (Darth Vader No. 2)

- Being (drunkenly) told "I didn't have the pleasure of making your acquaintance" by some random person while I was saying goodbye to a friend [really! Who talks like that?]

- wearing a beard and a moustache. Photographic evidence to follow [I hope]

- learning the meaning of the word "tool" when it is used to refer to a person.

- having my beers (accidentally) thrown into the rubbish (and then later rescued).

* I feel I should apologise to my friends if I were being being obnoxious. I don't particularly care about non friends since the goal of New Year's is to be obnoxious to people [or so I feel]. Also, I'll never see those people again so wgafr [aka "who gives a fuck really?"].

Where I live now

2011-12-26T22:08:00.004-05:00

I had a long post planned, describing the demographics and the practices (well those I have observed) of my current neighborhood. Except, after a day watching football (less said about Liverpool, the better), shopping for family, playing with an iThing and wondering if I should start saving up for one (no) and catching up with the lads, I'm tired. Add to that, one of the cats sneaked out while I entered the apartment and almost gave me a heart attack since I was terrified it'd get out. The thing about cats: I have yet to figure out how to hold/carry them. Chasing after an escaped cat = not the best idea I've had.

So, the short(er) version:

I'm staying in between Langley Park/Takoma and Silver Spring. I have been here five days. To get to the metro, I have to take a bus that goes between Langley Park and Silver Spring. I've taken this bus a dozen times since I arrived. So far, I've yet to see a single white or (not me) Asian person on the bus. Not one. Two conversation highlights:

- talking with a couple of elderly ladies about cricket and debating whether Ambrose or Walsh was better (I said Ambrose; they said Walsh because "he was gentle". True but "gentle" doesn't work for a fast bowler :)). I met them again the next day and, after finding out I wasn't with family for Christmas, they asked me if I wanted to join them for church services "and some food afterwards". This was ridiculously nice (of course, I didn't go. I mean I enjoy chatting with strangers but only for brief periods of time. Not to mention going to nameless strangers houses is obviously a recipe for potential disaster and the stuff of which horror films are made.)

I did find out that "midnight mass" isn't at midnight any more since theirs was at 4pm!

- returning from Whole Foods, a lady next to me started talking:

Her: busy day?
Me (I'd not nothing much except watch a movie and buy groceries): not really. I didn't do much.
Her: you're used to it.
Me: I guess.
Her: I used to work almost 20 hours during this time. Can't do that anymore. Can't stand on my feet for so long.
Me: That's amazing! I've barely worked 20 hours at any time.
Her: That is one good thing about your job
Me: (huh? do I have a sign saying: Layabout Lecturer on me?) Yes but sometimes it's hard work. You do get holidays off though.
Her: I worked at Safeway. They never let you take anything home and we worked holidays.
Me: (OH! She thinks I work at Whole Foods!). I couldn't really say: No, I just bought food at WF since I felt our conversation would get awkward if I said that. And, yes, I felt acutely aware of the bloody class difference there--me swanking about with Whole Foods bags. So I just said, "They don't let us either but the working conditions aren't too bad" and changed the subject asking her how long she'd lived in the area. 34 years, was the answer. She was from Morocco and had always wanted to go to Thailand.*

I reckon this pretty much encapsulates the difference between where I am staying and the "posh" Takoma Park. Until now, when people said, "Takoma Park", I (smugly) categorized it as upper middle class liberal land. I was quite mistaken. This part--where I am living now--is very working class. Very international (North African, Caribbean, Latin American, Indian) and different ethnic groups seem to live in pockets. There's an apartment complex in walking distance of where I am which seems filled with Caribbean and North African folks. At the (many!) pupuserias, they often speak to you in Spanish first before realizing your language ability is limited to (only) English.

So far, it's been fun.

In non-fun news, my neighbor just now told me that someone tried to break into our apartment building (hers and my temporary apartment are the only ones on the ground floor) last night and she had to ring the cops. She showed me a canister of pepper spray she carries on her key ring and told me "to get one, even if you are only here for one more week". Of course, we all know that if I got myself a pepper spray thingy, I'd probably spray myself (or the cats) first.

* I've found that as long as I drop in: born in Thailand or from Nepal or lived in Australia, people always (always!) respond: Oh, I've always wanted to go there! (to any of these places). This has served me well as a Change Subject Now tool over the years.

Whole Foods Horror

2011-12-25T21:39:00.003-05:00

On Friday, I went to Whole Foods. While I'd expected crowds, the sheer volume of people was overwhelming and I legged it without actually getting anything. I tried again yesterday (Christmas Eve). It was less crowded but then this happened:

I was near the bakery section when a woman pushing a card tried to go past me. Before I could move out of the way (there were other people/displays about), she pushed forward and rolled her (quite heavy) card over my feet. She then proceeded to keep walking without a word of apology.* At first, it was just painful but by late late night, my right foot had swollen up to resemble a foot that might have been stung by a bee (well, at least that hadn't happened, eh?).

I spent most of this morning feeling sorry for myself.

* Don't worry. I, for once, told her off rather loudly. "Look, couldn't you have asked me to move? Did you have to push past? Damned rude woman". I don't think she heard me (or cared).

Oh Holmes!

2011-12-24T20:59:00.005-05:00

I saw Sherlock Holmes II and all I have for you is this tumblr.

Seriously, it was difficult to concentrate on the "good" guys when there was a redheaded former Army chap all brooding and pissed off with life and who happened to be an excellent marksman.

In other news, IRL, there was a (not half as interesting-looking but still) redheaded chap at the other end of the bar I was sat at for dinner. In fantasy-land, I'd have chatted him up or at least said something. In reality, I sat at my end, talked to the barkeep, had my dinner/beers and left.

Thankfully, the lads are back in town on Monday. I can drag them around drinking and we are all watching the Boxing Day matches together.

Food glorious food

2011-12-24T19:19:00.005-05:00

So here's the thing. I'm now in Washington DC and have been here since last Friday. I spent the weekend in NoVA, went to Falls Church, spent a night in Logan Circle and am now ensconced in Takoma Park till after the New Year. I could do a list of things that have happened but I'll spare yous all the discussions of people I've chatted up (that is what happens when you get used to staying in Woop Woop on your own+get excited about being back in a city) and provide yous (and FutureMe!) with a list of things I've ate, starting with:

1. A country store and wonderful sandwiches, followed by dinner at a brewery in Charlottesville.

2. Then, Nepali stuff: daal (including kaalo daal, which I've not had in ages), titaura and masu/chiura.

3. Home-made spinach lasagna, meatballs, ice creams (and other desserts), breads, colcannon (my first time having this in the US. Rather different to having it in Irish B&B's and I preferred the US version--no cabbages!) and other things that my food-coma'd brain has forgot.

4. Thai food. I'm on an "Eat Thai Food Daily" plan and have, so far, eaten at Elephant Jumps (Falls Church), Bangkok Garden (Bethesda), Kao Thai and the Thai supermarket (Silver Spring), Ruan Thai (Wheaton) and have a list of others lined up. In between all this...

5. I had pupusas off a van in Langley Park, Jamaican chicken (with some lovely ladies that I met on the bus) at Negril, went posh(er) with Zaytinya downtown and stuffed myself with tater tots and beers at Quarry House.

6. Oh right, more beers at Churchkey too. In the week I've been in town, I've been there twice and I"m not even 1/10th of my way through their draft list. Hmm...

7. Sunday, all going well, is going to be more Thai (probably back to the Silver Spring canteen since they actually make stuff to order and I can amuse them with my practically non-existent at the moment Thai), watching Tinker, Tailor,...

8. Monday? Back to the old pub for watching the Boxing Day matches. I may be quite excited about that.

Encounters while grading

2011-12-13T13:18:00.003-05:00

He's from an upper middle-class upbringing...so he can't write about "the hood" or "bling bling"...

Just listen. I'm putting this up here because a) Tim Minchin is on my "grading" playlist (yes, I have one. Don't you?) and b) I actually met a lad who was just like this one. Except without the self-realization since our conversation went like this:

me: I don't really know [insert obscure musician/song]
him: Really? I guess they don't have [ditto] where you are from
me: No, it's not that. I'm more of a popular music/cheesy music person
him: You just haven't listened to [ridiculously boring and quite dreary music] yet. Here [passing me earbuds/iThing].
me: I'd rather not [germs!!!]

All I'd like for Christmas is...

2011-12-09T11:44:00.005-05:00

On a less serious note:

There's an academic critique to be made here about "coopting" and (presumably) heterosexual people taking on gay/queer norms but I'll leave that to others and just admit this cheered me up. Mightily.

I'll also add that the US Marines would *never* have made this video (I'm writing about how British notions of masculinity are different from US and how this plays out in military representations so this is sort of work?)

Watch it. It's fantastic.

What do you keep in your drawer?

2011-12-09T08:49:00.002-05:00

Between leaving uni (after finding R's department door locked and reading the alert about "suspect seen headed towards...") and going to my home yesterday, we went to an alteration place to pick up J's coat. It was a couple of miles away and, while we were there, the shop guy gave us more information on what had happened at VT.

"It was a cop that was shot. He's dead." My alert had just said "shooting" so this was new information.

"I'm safe. I know what to do," the main continued. He pulled out a drawer at the counter. We looked in. A handgun lay inside. A handgun. And the chap just pulled open a drawer and showed it to his customers! Whom he didn't know!

This was absurd and yet rather scary both at the same time. "Umm...all right," we responded. What else is there to say, really? Seeing a handgun in what could have been a sock (or, since this was an alterations shop--bits of cloth and pins) drawer is not covered in the list of "how to behave in this situation" manual.

My day.

2011-12-08T22:25:00.002-05:00

I received my electric bill on Friday. It was due on Friday. I rang them on Monday and they said that I could only pay it in person. This week is the last week of the semester and I've been swamped. So, I've been putting off paying the bill. Today, though, I thought: well, I can go in the morning and then be back at uni in time to attend a department meeting (for which I have to take notes). So, at 9am, I headed over to the electric company.

This was about a 2.5 mile walk. It was 20-some degrees. I got there, paid my bill, stopped at the supermarket and bought some Irish oatmeal, American apples, Russian chocolates, Malay roti and German bread (Have I mentioned I love the supermarkets here?).

I then went to the local French bakery for a quick meal before I headed back to uni. There, I ran into J and R. I met J during the New Faculty Orientation earlier this term and they took me to the shops so I could buy furniture and other house stuff. We've hung out since then so when they asked me to join them for lunch, I did. We had lunch and then they offered to drive me back to uni. So, we got into their car and headed to uni. "Is it okay if we park near R's department and walk?", they asked. "Yes," I replied.

We got to the car park near R's department. We parked. There was no one around but it is a "reading day" after all and not many students are around. "Where am I?" I asked since my sense of direction of places beyond my department is pretty rotten. "Wait, I'll show you where to go," said J while R headed to his department's door.

"J! J! It's locked," R said, pulling on the door. "No, R, you just need to pull harder," we said, walking back to him. Still, there was no one around. "Isn't it great luck that the same spot we parked in this morning was still free?" R said, pulling on the door again. J pulled too. Nothing. The door wouldn't budge. "Wait, I think something is wrong," R said. "Check your phone since I left my phone and computer all in my office." J looked at him, "I don't have mine either. We just went for lunch".

"I have mine," I answered. An old '90s phone. I pulled it out and the battery was almost dead. I hardly use my phone. There were numerous messages. I had signed up for VT Alerts when I first started working here, little knowing that I would have to use it at some point. "Gunman reported on campus. Police officer shot," said one. "Suspect moving towards duck pond, Cage parking lot. Stay indoors," said another.

We were near the duck pond. We could see it. There were no police there. Now, the empty spot for the car made sense. "Let's go, R," said J. "Let's go now." So we did.

"Can you drop me off at home?" I asked. So we went to my neighborhood. There were three police cars there. J looked at me, "Come home with us. What if the shooter is in this area?". I didn't want to stay at mine either. We went to theirs--a lovely house about 3 miles away from the uni. We turned on the TV and they went online. My phone died but it had done its job.

For the next four hours, we waited to hear what was going on. Who was the second person who had died? We thought s/he was a student. When could I go home? Not till we can drive you home, said R and J. By this time, the bus service had been stopped, rubbish collection was suspended and the ramp that led to the main highway was shut.

We waited. We listened to the internet radio. We checked Twitter. No new news. Suspect still on loose.

Then, at 4.40pm, there was a press conference. It was very vague but the alert at uni was lifted (not at the conference but just before). Our fears of a shooter wandering around town, waiting to shoot and kill the next person he ran into seemed unfounded. It seemed as though person no. 2 was himself the shooter.

At 5.30pm, I said I'd leave. R and J said they'd drop me off. So they did. At my home. I got home, plugged in my phone and found heaps of messages. From friends (thanks!) to family (ditto) to department people saying our department meeting was going ahead after all and could I attend. Now. Obviously, I couldn't since I was not there.

I was lucky. My usual day would have involved me being AT my office. I'd have been in lockdown (which meant being locked in my own office). Instead, I was with friends at their house. The moment in which we were wandering around R's car park and trying to get into his department was pretty scary. The times in which we didn't know what was going on (aka "all afternoon") and were hoping the person would be caught before night fell were scary. But, the VT text alert worked excellently. My ancient phone did its job.

On the whole, the uncertainty of not knowing what would happen: would the shooter kill more people? would he be arrested? Where was he? What if the buses didn't work? What if the shooter hid somewhere and then ran away during the dark?

That was the worst part, I reckon. It's one thing to hear that DC (e.g.) is a dangerous place with shootings every day; it's another to be at a place where there is not only a shooting but a lockdown and little information about what is happening.

Also, what are the odds of this sort of thing happening twice in the space of a few years?

Wedded

2011-12-08T10:22:00.004-05:00

KiwiSis in her wedding gear. The cummerbund is used to tie the bride and groom together so they are united.

I figured since we can't really see her face full on, she wouldn't mind my putting it up here :)

mine

2011-12-08T09:56:00.004-05:00

Amusing, eh? I received the one with the dog and books.

I like this time of the year when the post becomes far more worth looking into than at other times.

Today I learnt...

2011-12-07T16:29:00.004-05:00

what a Tree Skirt is. I am still unclear as to its purpose except as decoration. Or, maybe "we" reckon trees can't have their lower half visibly on display so we decorously hide it behind a tree skirt.

Also, pupillage, which is defined as: "A pupillage is the final stage of training to be a barrister and usually lasts one year, in England and Wales being made up of two six-month periods (known as "sixes"). The first of these is the non-practising six during which pupils shadow their pupilmaster."

I'd love to write, "pupilmaster", as my job title on the next form I fill.

Illegal?

2011-12-07T00:26:00.004-05:00

Worth a read: "Can Alabama Solve a Problem Called Maria?"

Highlights: Alabama has an unemployment rate well above the national average, at 9.3% compared to 8.6% across the US.

Proponents of the law say illegal immigrants are taking jobs that should be going to those with the right to live and work in the country.

...

Employers in construction, agriculture and services tell a different story. Privately and sometimes publicly, they say that Alabamians are not prepared to do the jobs filled by immigrants - legal and illegal.

...

Ms Dickie [a farmer] is blunt.

"Their ["Alabamians"] bodies are not conditioned to take the weather, to take the work," she says. "They are not skilled in it and, with no disrespect, but if they are sitting at home drawing a cheque for not doing anything, they are not going to quit drawing a cheque to do this work."

I wonder if this will change if the law sticks. Or if there will be internal migration from other states to places like Alabama. What about businesses? The story has examples of Japanese, German, other businesspeople being pulled up under this law (all released afterwards but I'm sure it wasn't fun/pleasant and the Japanese guy was arrested even after he showed police his passport/international drivers licence). Apparently over 2,300 construction jobs were lost within a month in September-October 2011.

I don't plan to take up the cudgels for these folks but I don't think riding roughshod over their feelings is going to do "these United States" any favors. It's probably playing into the hands of those thickos who argue "the Ampersands" (no, I won't link to the idiot) have an axe to grind against the state/the rest of society.*

* Heaps of dying metaphors here! Let's see how long I can keep this up.

USA/Wales 4eva. Yes with an "/"

2011-12-06T23:36:00.003-05:00

I don't dabble in the world of fanfic but if I did here's grist to the mill*. It still doesn't make up for losing to Fulham but it's damned amusing.

Via Kickette.

This is part of my campaign to revive what Orwell called "dying metaphors" in this (which I've been reading off and on).

Resistance was useless.

2011-12-06T19:34:00.004-05:00

I mean, I did try but look at this. Just look at wee Gollum. How can I resist?

Via Thinkgeek.

Bits and bobs

2011-12-06T18:54:00.005-05:00

Things I want to remember in the future (if there *is* a future):

1. Yay for friends. Friends who have parties. Friends who let me stay at theirs. Friends I miss while I'm mouldering (which Google says isn't a word) in Woop Woop.

2. Yay for excellent students. My fun class ended today with the kids giving me a standing ovation. For fuck's sake, yes. I had my hair tied back so my ears getting red (one of the few good things about not having pale skin is that it's harder to tell when I'm blushing. But, I was blushing. A standing ovation) were more noticeable. This is probably the only time I'll get a standing ovation for anything so I'm savouring it.

3. It was probably the pizza though. I brought them pizza.

4. The pizza delivery lad was graduating this week and headed to the Philippines to play soccer for the national team. "What else can I do with a music degree?" was his question when I asked him, "Why?"

5. I postponed my resolution that "I am now officially too old for t-shirts with pictures on them" till the unspecified future as I bought a couple of tees at Thinkgeek's Buy one, get one half off sale today.

6. I also related Frank Miller and Alan Moore with how "we" study politics and violence (hat tip this Guardian article) as my closing statement in this class.

7. Apparently people watch useful shows. The show I watch has made me realise that I will eventually travel through space and time so Who cares about this world...(see what I did there? Did I mention I got a standing ovation and am on a bit of a high? Or, rather, quite a high?)

Though I'm sure I can also survive a zombie invasion. And I do own a cricket bat and am quite at home in dark pubs.

Here, enjoy this.

Weddings

2011-12-04T02:08:00.004-05:00

KiwiSis gets married today! The first of three weddings :)

It's obviously not half as exciting (or worrying) as it sounds ("three weddings!"). Wedding 1 is the bloke's traditions/whatnot, Wedding 2 is ours and Wedding 3 is the general civil thing.

They are all happening at different times (today, next week, week after) and different cities (Hamilton, a beachhouse near Christchurch and the registry office in Christchurch).

I'd have been there for Wedding 3 (the one with "my" family around and to be held at the beach) but, due to circs beyond my control, will be moping about here instead.

Nice work, Queensland!

2011-12-02T08:42:00.003-05:00

I'm rather happy that the second state in Australia to legalize same sex civil unions is Queensland. I spent years in Far North Queensland and the reaction of people in Sydney/Melbourne to hearing that was: eh? why? and a follow up on: OMG, how could you? it's so backwards! how did you understand them? aren't they racist/sexist?

So ocker, as the rest of Australia says.

And, yet, you see more diversity, more honesty (and in your face statements!) and more fun from people up there. And now, more human rights.

The video is rather lovely and makes even my usually cynical self happy.

Highlights from the doctor's visit

2011-12-01T19:49:00.002-05:00

1. Wow! That's quite a scar! (looking at my surgery scar. Doesn't help my conviction that I'm like the 9 in 9 come to life)

2. So this is your hair? (after reading last year's reports which I guess detailed I had very little hair. I had no idea my hair looked fake!)

3. And you knew nothing about it? Usually people can tell if something the size of a melon is inside them (after reading the report about the Alien Blob)

4. Cramps and fainting? Yes, a lot of women get that (after being told of what happened last week. Doesn't help my conviction he thought I was some sort of overreacting neo-Victorian lady who had the vapors)

Kentucky, we need to have a bit of a chat.

2011-12-01T19:40:00.003-05:00

On the one hand, you have one of my favorite TV shows.

On the other, you do fucked up crap like this. In the 21st century. And say it's not about racism.

How on earth is banning interracial couples from being part of church services not racist? What is it then? Funsies?

Winter plans

2011-12-01T11:05:00.003-05:00

Got my (new) winter plans sort of arranged. It depends on what will happen with the doctor's and all. I really hope this is not going to be Awful Autumn or Woeful Winter but, so far, I'll not be in New Zealand (oh, yes, this sucks). I will however be in DC. Yes, well, it's almost the same?

DC from mid-December to end of December
(Ideally) Canada and visa-related stuff during the end of December- early January
Back in Woop Woop early January and getting ready for uni to start.

All based on my staying on two feet and not legless (not in the fun way) in a hospital bed.

Oh, Time!

2011-11-30T15:48:00.002-05:00

I saw this on a friend's Facebook page and thought it was one of those made up pictures. Turns out it is not. These are the December 5, 2011 covers for the magazine.

People and power

2011-11-30T09:08:00.003-05:00

People are fascinating. I showed this video to two different groups. One group: well, it's "their" fault for supporting terrorists and "we" should have nothing to do with any of this. The second group: Yes, "we" probably can't do much but we can spread awareness? Discussion then proceeded about how "we" (in the US) know about these kinds of issues since a lot of this second group said they only heard of Somalia, etc in relation to terrorism and were surprised/horrified to see this.

"Powerful people have the privilege of denying reality". Indeed.

travails of a small town

2011-11-28T12:24:00.002-05:00

Continuing on the subj of writing about ME ME ME, I almost chickened out of calling a doctor today. After all, I feel all right. But, memories of being sick and curled up on the bathroom floor emerged and so I started the process. This is what happened:

1. There are only two clinics/doctors who would are into "women's health".

2. Clinic 1: We can fit you in as early as January. Me: January? But this might be rather urgent. Clinic 1: Sorry then. Go to the nearest hospital. Me: where is that? C1: I don't know. Look in the phone book. [hangs up]

3. Clinic 2: Can you wait? Me: yes. [wait. and wait. and wait. 22 minutes later, I've graded a couple of papers and someone finally responds] C2: what do you want again? Me: an appointment, as soon as you can please. C2: why? Me: Well, [explain] C2: Just go to the hospital, that sounds serious. Me: ?? But I'd rather just see a doctor. C2: Well, no one seems to want to see Dr. X, you can see him. Me: Ummm..ok.

Upshot: I have an appointment for later this week. Yous will hear about this since it is practically impossible to get to the place using public transport and so I have a 2m (or so) walk. I'll report on how that goes. I think this might convince me to finally get my driver's licence (and a car) over winter.

At least my neighbors are back so in case I collapse again, I can get him/them to drive me to the hospital. Or call 911.

Thank you for your service

2011-11-27T13:04:00.003-05:00

I'm writing this for three reasons. Or, rather, three things:

1. I was ridiculously, awfully sick last night. Somewhat similar to last year when the Summer of Horror started, I was sick (proper sick), bleeding like a stuck pig (though I've never seen stuck pigs bleed so perhaps other things bleed worse?) and collapsed (proper collapse). Then, when conscious, I couldn't really get my limbs to obey me (the damned bathroom is too small for me to be comfortable on its floor).

I realised two things: a) my phone was at work, where I'd been too lazy to go get it thinking I'll be back on Monday so why bother, b) I could have called a taxi to the hospital using Google voice but my computer's sound thingy isn't working, c) I need to stop faffing around and possibly go to the hospital (ER even) tomorrow, as soon as my class is over.

Assuming there is no repeat performance of sickness. Am still quite wobbly and shivery but pretty much okay now and I think my neighbours will be back this evo so if there is a repeat performance, I can get them to take me to the hospital.

This is basically a reminder not to pike out of hospital-ing as soon as I feel better since I am already trying to convince myself I can wait a few more days...

2. This. Absolutely shocked me. I remember seeing Speed play and I have been following his career as a manager. I thought Wales were pretty brave to hire him since he was young and fairly inexperienced and he's done brilliantly since he was appointed with 5 wins in 10 matches. Why? I guess we will never know. Apparently he was on a BBC talkback show a couple of hours earlier and had interacted with various people over the past week, with no sign of what was to come.

3. When do we thank someone for "their service to the country"? Why do we usually (almost always) do this when it is military service? Is it because military service is more valued than academic or even a person who gives away money to charity or cares for the homeless, etc? In tomorrow's class I plan to talk about the militarization of our society. I'm sure that will go down very well with my students.

I have nothing against people joining the military. But I think valorizing them to the exclusion of other types of service(s) can create a situation in which a) the military becomes immune to criticism and b) other sectors feel less valued/disconnected from society.

Life's a Happy Song? Bah, Humbug

2011-11-24T15:30:00.002-05:00

One line review of the new Muppet film: it's fun if you grew up with the Muppets (I sort of did but was terrified of Miss Piggy so most of my Muppet-y memories aren't too good really) AND if you're in a family (if you're moping about thinking you should really have gone to visit friends AND realising you're stuck in the US over winter--like yours truly, then I'd strongly recommend not watching this film)

Here, see what I mean (best part here is Bret's accent. Which again reminds me I'm stuck here over winter. I know it's better than 6B people in the world but still. I feel like whingeing)

Thanksgiving links (for when you're stuffed with turkey)

2011-11-24T10:18:00.004-05:00

Too soon?

Via a friend on Facebook. It did crack me up. This on the other hand *could* be funny if I weren't sure a lot of people probably take the original post (and nutters like Gellar) seriously.

I read his book--my granddad has a fairly large collection of books on or by cricket(ers)-- as a teenager. Basil d'Oliveira died last week. He was, as this BBC article writes, important in the sporting boycott of South Africa.

Here's to the Doctor and yet another cheesy Christmas Special. I like the specials so I've got nothing to snark about. Though if people are taking their kits off, I'd have preferred Tennant (accent included).

I'm writing (IRL) about this and similar other arrests so don't really want to re-hash it here but here are some questions: a) would this man, if he had had money, actually gone to Yemen and "trained to be a terrorist"? Is it so easy to just hop on the plane to Yemen and then say: take me to your leader, flunkie! I'm ready! I doubt it and b) I'd rather not have my government waste millions trying to set up (and implement) these kinds of "sting" operations and instead perhaps focus on not cutting funding to education, social services (which are already pretty bad for a country that remains the richest in the world) and so on. But, hey, I guess that makes me "out of touch with reality" (as one of my students put it recently).

We've all seen/heard/read about the UC Davis pepper spraying so here's the funny stuff and the more serious stuff.

I disagree about the Orwell comparison, mainly because Orwell was one person (or a few) in an area that was technically under colonial power (politically) but not "pacified" (troop levels-wise or military-wise). His authority (and that of the colonial power) depended on how he/it was perceived by the locals. This actually made Orwell (and the colonial power) weaker, especially at the time and place of writing. Thailand was independent, India had a strong independence movement and so did Burma. I think, as the first Atlantic article points out, the problem here is that the police do not feel the need to respond to or establish legitimacy amongst (as it were) the college students. If I was being academic-y about this, I'd say the college students here are more Othered (alien) than the Burmese peasants in Shooting an Elephant. Orwell acknowledges some sort of common humanity with the Burmese--he's aware he's in a position of power and that laughter/mockery could be detrimental to maintaining his authority (insert obligatory South Park reference here). The cop, on the other hand, doesn't seem to acknowledge this shared sense of humanity at all.

And that, for the state we live in today, is a problem. But, TPTB to be (TPTBTB?) are too busy bickering over whether China will end up in the ash heap of history (a comment apparently originally made by that noted capitalist entrepreneur Leon Trotsky)to care much about what is happening to America.

Now, I'm making my way off the high horse and going to find something to do on what has turned out to be (weather-wise) a lovely bright sunshine-y day.

Slobs

2011-11-18T14:08:00.004-05:00

I'm procrastinating on grading by doing some research for this paper I'm writing and, in the process, reading A Journey to Katmandu by Laurence Oliphant (1852). It's pretty fantastic in terms of its depictions of the British (awesome and pulled into war by the ungrateful Nepalis) and the locals (see below).

This is how the author describes his first impression of the women of Kathmandu:

But it must not be imagined that the same attraction exists here as in other Oriental countries to induce you to return their gaze. On the contrary, the female portion of the Nepaulese community is anything but attractive. I have seldom seen a race look more debased and squalid. Sometimes a florid tint about the nose and cheek-bones seems to hint at an affection for the bottle; while their flowing or rather tangled locks, and slovenly dress, might fairly induce the suspicion that they had but lately parted company with it.

There's a lot of fun stuff going on here: the idea that "Orientals" are (generally) trying to entice the Europeans, a narrative that would play out in popular culture over the years. But, especially, that the Nepali women were slobs.

I'm rather chuffed about this aspect of my ancestors. It's good to see that drinking and bludging are both historical traditions.

Dreaming

2011-11-18T11:34:00.002-05:00

Oddly, I dreamed last night that I was walking around somewhere very cold, wearing my father's sheepskin jacket. This is strange mainly because a) I don't ever recall my dreams and b) my father doesn't own a sheepskin jacket.

I reckon this was partly the result of being told that my parents just got their visa for New Zealand. In a world where "getting a visa" is a bloody stressful project, it was pretty fantastic news. This means KiwiSis will have the Most Important Part of the family at her wedding. LilSis and I are still up in the air. Well, LilSis should be all right. I, on the other hand, am pretty much screwed. I'm still hoping that the US Embassy will eventually relent but the stress. Oh, hell, the stress.

Add to that: crazy class, a suddenly empty house, senior colleagues popping in randomly and saying: "OH how is your research going?" (to which I want to answer: it's dead on the ground since I am teaching every day each week), being on committees (job searches, academic, students' theses), etc etc.

I am knackered just writing all that.

It's time

2011-11-15T15:44:00.004-05:00

now that the Doctor Who movie is confirmed (or not?), there have been plenty of blogs saying who should play the Doctor. Here's a list. People discuss it here.

Here's my pick for the doctor. He's doing all right in Homeland (well worth watching btw) but I'm sure he can do better on the big screen. And it's definitely time for a ginger doctor (despite this bit of sacrilege).

Real changes of this happening? Less than zero. They need a "big name" to get the bums on seats and, sadly, he's not it.

Stuffs

2011-11-15T01:29:00.004-05:00

A Doctor Who movie is in the works. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

I am not sure how I feel about "geek chic" either. On the one hand, the video is inadvertently amusing. On the other, a lot of time is spent focusing on DJSaul (I think that's his name. I"m too lazy to watch it again) who appears to be the best-dressed (conventionally, that is) of the lot. There is a lot of talk of going out in pyjamas but no actual visuals of anyone actually doing it.

I've been reading a lot of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King for my classes this week. It is interesting to think about how the US would be if a more Malcolm X-ified vision of society had worked out. Instead, we have neither one (integration) nor the other (separation).

This list of requests made to British embassies is funny. But, I've lost my sense of humour regarding Embassies now that the fucking US one in NZ is not going to stamp (stamp! What is the POINT of having a bloody work permit if even that is not enough to certify that I'm here legally and suchlike? And did I mention that this information came via a phone call where each minute cost $3.25? Considering visas are only required by people from poorer/developing countries, this is a fairly effective gatekeeping option to prevent such people from ever getting useful information.)

Yes, this is a "privileged" whinge. Doesn't make it any less valid and nor will I stop making it.

FYI for future me: Occupy camps cleared out (with threat of violence on the part of the cops+cops in riot gear running about). Police violence, too, at a peaceful protect at UC Berkeley.

This was the week of the Penn State abuse scandal (this is what happens when accountability is non existent). As an additional reminder, quite a few students of the university rioted in favor of the head coach who (allegedly) knew about the abuse and did nothing. Yes, in support of this a..ehole. Sometimes, I don't get young people. I mean, sure, rioting is fun but why not pick something else to riot over? Anything else really.

Neo-Nazis were running about killing immigrants in Germany.

From the other side

2011-11-13T22:09:00.004-05:00

My department is conducting two job searches this year. I guess I am not supposed to write about specific examples and people so the rest of this post will be quite boring. I will detail the process:

- Each faculty member in the department gets to vote for whom they would like to consider their top three candidates. A list of three candidates is drawn up. Then these people get invited to the campus for longer interviews.

- These longer interviews, which I myself went through earlier this year, consist of the job candidate meeting everyone in the department. There is also a "job talk", usually about an hour long with 30 minutes for Q&A. Each faculty member gets 30 minutes (or lunch/dinner time) with each candidate.

- This means having a 30 minute conversation with someone you don't know very well. And we all know how brilliant I am at such things.

So far, I've met two candidates for the same post with no. 3 to follow tomorrow.
It's interesting because I liked the research of one of the candidates better but found the conversation with said person quite awkward. And uncomfortable. And of course I can't write why since presumably that sort of thing is not done. The other person was less interesting in terms of research but more accessible/easy to talk to. For me anyway. And there was little awkwardness.

How do I vote? I don't know. Oh I forgot to mention this part: everyone in the department votes for whom they would like to hire. The person with a 2/3 (I think) majority gets the job offer.

It's a very democratic process but since the department is quite small, it does mean the cliche "every vote counts" is somewhat true.

A summary of things since the last time I saw yous. None of which are the least bit amusing.

2011-11-11T23:09:00.005-05:00

Well, I packed and went to Providence and made it back here. Providence was excellent staying with the two lads made everything easy compared to my usual "oh I have nowhere to stay on day X" routine of conferencing. I'm pretty sure the best non conference moment was between:

1. Hearing lad 1 ask: so what do you call man who visits whores? (at 6am, when no one else was really awake)

2. Discussion of whether Colin Farrell is "hot".

3. Debate about whether daylight saving meant an extra hour of being able to order liquor from room service (the hotel, oddly, decided No)

4. discovery of American Guns as one of the best shows on TV (and the related commentary on whether X gun was "utterly useless" to do Y)

On the last day, I wandered around town, saw the ocean, drank some beers, said hello to the Watson Institute and wondered how things may have been (they have a postdoc which I always thought I'd apply for and never did).

Then, it's back to Woop Woop and awful class, fun class, job searches and interviews, grading grading grading.

And saying goodbye to Harold. He left this afternoon to go stay with some people in a farm. I know this is good for him but I'd gotten into a routine. Wake up in the morning, long walk, uni, lunch+another walk, work in the afternoon, walk in the evening and then work (me) and bludge on the sofa (dog).

I avoided coming home till very late today just because I knew there wouldn't be a dog, happily jumping up and down to see me.

Next time, adoption. It might be sooner than I thought since it looks like the whole NZ trip-which had been planned in my head since earlier this year-is off. Apparently the US embassy there won't do visa stamps for "non-locals", which is totally daft. And stupid.

Not just that but a) I got a letter saying I hadn't filed my tax return in 2006 (not true but I can't find the return thingy), b) more medical bills from last year and another letter saying I'd been sent to Claims Court for not paying them (I never got them since I had moved and they sent the bills to my earlier address), c) need to go to the doctor's soon...and the eye doctor too, d) realisation that I really need to do more work for my research.

It's no wonder that I'm sat home drinking gin. Gin. Next step is rolling about in the gutter and needing an intervention.

This made me happy though. As does this. I really wish we could have kept him on. So I guess that doesn't make me happy after all. Huh.

Packing

2011-11-01T22:55:00.005-04:00

Here's what I need to pack:

1. Professional gear for two days for a conference.

2. Travelling gear for almost a day and a half in total (bus and train)

3. Regular gear for non conference/non travel time.

4. My computer

5. Toiletries, undergear, tights, scarves, gloves (though I can't seem to find any. I thought I owned some?), a couple of books and probably other things I've now forgot.

6. Shoes

What I plan to put them all in:

A 1500 cu cm backpack.

Thought: I really need to either acquire a slightly larger backpack OR give in and start wheeling a suitcase around. BUT

I will be in and out of trains, buses, hotels, cities, etc. It seems absurd to add a wheelie thing to that.

So, instead of packing nos. 1-6, I am now writing about them in hopes that things will magically shrink. I need one of those bags like Hermione had.

Latest thoughts: I don't really need "professional" shoes and can possibly get away with the shoe I plan to wear with "regular" gear. Right?

Theoretically, I can wear the same gear and only change a sweater for the days of the conference. Same with a pair of jeans for "regular" gear.

Blasted winter clothes take up lots of space. Especially as I don't have a warm coat so need to "layer up" to make up for that.

Maybe I could just buy a warm winter coat on the way?

Well, I suppose I should go back to my room and actually pack instead of writing about packing.

What a thrill-filled post this was.

giving a new meaning to put the [insert term] on the Barbie

2011-10-26T11:59:00.003-04:00

I've got so much work on that I've turned "slap happy" (not sure I'm using the term right since I only learnt it a couple of weeks ago when my friends were here). So here you go:

My headline: Barbie explores alternative lifestyle options with Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine. A line of "adult toys" to follow.

The "real" story

Vampires Suck!

2011-10-26T11:48:00.001-04:00

Via: http://urlybits.com/2011/10/vampires-vs-the-one-percent/

And I'm sorry but I couldn't resist that title.

Awkward conversations

2011-10-25T21:53:00.003-04:00

Me: Let's think about this. If the US is worried that X and Y countries will have sharia law, then why is it allied to Saudi Arabia, which has a very strict interpretation of it?

Not me: Well, I think you are wrong...I was in Saudi Arabia last year and we were told not to look at the women but once I was there, it was fine. They were fine. laughter. I thought they were really liberal there...with drinking and all...

Me: Okay, let's think about this for a moment. First, Sharia law is not applicable to foreigners. Then, think about yourself...

Not me: what about me? What's wrong with me?

Me: say a bit about who you are...

Not me: what do you mean?

Me: all right, I'll say it: you are young, white and male. You are obviously not local. So it follows that the locals would know you are foreign and the rules don't apply to you. What if you were foreign but not a white male? or if you were a local woman?

The exchange actually took longer than I summarized here and I was not as blunt. I didn't use "white" to describe the lad...I made him/others come up with the term "what is an obvious difference between y'all and me...no...no...yes!" BUT the point about how it was quite difficult to SAY this: "hang on, have you thought of how YOU are not quite the centre of the universe here?" and "being a white male in Saudi Arabia, you have privileges that others don't" holds. I actually discussed this with More Experienced Person and was told it might have been easier to get some girl come up with the critique instead of doing it myself. At this point, I don't really care. My usual style is to make people come to conclusions (obviously the sort I want them to come to!) on their own but that doesn't always work.

being taught English

2011-10-21T22:08:00.005-04:00

In the past couple of weeks, I have cleaned up massive piles of dog shit from my front yard. By the time I see them, blue bottles have swarmed over them so it's usually not quite the sort of thing you want to do when you are returning from work. Or anytime, really. So, today, when I saw a large black lab come bounding up to my yard, take a dump and run off, I looked around. In viewing distance was a woman--she saw her dog (no one's dog is ever on a leash around this place), glanced around a couple of times (furtively, in my view) and then just walked off!

I don't know why I was surprised. I mean she must have walked off before for me to have found the evidence in the past couple of weeks. But, I was. I recovered, ran (or, rather, ambled) and called out: Excuse me, ma'am! Your dog just shat in my front yard--could you please clean it up?

Her answer: I'm sorry. What did you say?

Me: I said your dog shat in my garden. Here (pointing). Could you please clean it up?

Her: We don't say that word.

Me (confused): eh?

Her: We don't say...what you said. We say "did his business".

really!

of things funny and not

2011-10-20T08:50:00.003-04:00

For your amusement I present to you:

Fuck Yeah History Crushes and OMG...cravats.

In the meantime, I just received a HUGE bill saying that my health insurance hadn't covered my doctor's visit earlier this year AND that the bill had not been paid (since I had moved from DC) so it had been sent for "legal attention".

I suppose one of these days you will be receiving a frantic phone call to bail me out once they put me in the clink (I know they don't call it that anymore. I've always wanted to. I've never wanted to be in one though). And I guess that American residency won't ever happen now that I'm a bill-avoiding felon.

Yes, it's not funny but I've already finished my (internal, of course) rant.

words words words

2011-10-19T16:53:00.003-04:00

As someone who has gotten comments saying "writes too simplistically" and "I'd recommend more academic language" (what *is* that?),I feel happy to have found this.

The list is being added to at Southern Fried Science and I found it off BoingBoing.

Weekend wonders and woes (aka, "Where's my Who?)

2011-10-17T14:17:00.004-04:00

A pretty fantastic weekend in which sitting around an excellent fire (there's a fire pit in the back yard) happened, as did setting fire to stuff (marshmallows, chocolate, crackers, onions, meat, brats, potatoes) and drinking.

However, I'd just started to work (grading, etc) when I got a couple of texts. Checking it, I found it was KiwiSis telling me that LilSis was having issues getting on her flight to Nepal. As I"d bought the ticket over two months ago, I couldn't see what the issue was. In short (and it had better be because otherwise there will be a LOT of swearing here): she wasn't allowed on the plane because the plane now made a 4 hour stopover in Hong Kong and people from Nepal needed a transit visa (not free and requiring "at least three days for expedited visa") even to be in the airport. Even to stay in a fucking room.

All right, I can see why one might need a transit visa if you had a one way ticket to somewhere like Nepal (and Hong Kong people reckoned you might decide to stay on in their arsepimple territory instead) but LilSis had a return ticket AND a letter from uni saying she was in year X of her Y year program.

Upshot: hopefully a change of ticket for which we have to pay. This remains unclear. A different flight (and new ticket) for LilSis in which she doesn't go through Hong Kong (but is more expensive). Lots of stress all around.

Which is why that picture expresses all I feel today. Well, I feel like that everyday but especially today. Do change "girl" to "person" and "man" to "omnisexual being" if that's your thing.

A conversation

2011-10-16T18:27:00.004-04:00

I had friends over this weekend. I feel this should be a regular activity so I can have some company, get to talk on the weekend and generally provide me with a social life. Plus, we burn stuff up and that's always fun.

Friend: Hey, you have some onions. We can put them in the fire...(looks at the bag and its position on my filled-with-leashes-plastic bags-plates with pieces of cheese-etc kitchen counter). Wait, are these the same onions we brought the last time? (which was a couple of weekends ago) Didn't you even move them from here?

Me: Umm...yes? They are great onions. I was saving them for...soup.

Friend: Right.
(Opens the ice box of the fridge): oh you have pizza. We can have...wait--this is also the same pizza we got the last time. What have you been eating?

Me: canned mackerel, eel, and loads of two-minute noodles with some butter coconut biscuits thrown in for variety.

Upon reflection, this is not what one might call a balanced diet.

trapped

2011-10-13T12:29:00.002-04:00

Since I have friends coming over this weekend, I went up to the attic (for what was perhaps only the third time since I have moved in here) to see if I could set up some bedding there/move some of my boxes from the spare room. The attic has the benefit of not being filled with dog hair (the rest of the place is like a dog hair carpet) so I thought said friends might prefer to be up there. Away from hair.

I had closed the door on my way up since the dog's food bag is kept on the steps and I didn't want him following me. I heard a fairly loud noise when I closed the door but ignored it, reckoning that it was the dog trying his best to see if a wooden door would part if he banged on it loud enough (he tends to think it may well happen. Someday. Doors in the house have suffered for this).

It was when I was trying to make my way back to the living room when I realised that the noise wasn't the dog but was the doorknob falling out. This meant I couldn't open the door. I tried to screw back the knob. No luck. No big deal, I figured. I'd go and yell out the window. Someone was bound to hear me or pass by on the street.

I yelled. I called for my neighbors. I loudly described my situation. I ended up pleading: anyone? someone? c'mon! there can't be no one around, eh? please?

Nothing. After exactly 31 minutes of this, I realised two more things: 1. when I die in this house (or, rather "if" I die in this house), no one is going to find me till my body is covered with maggots. No one.

2. Rather than hanging out in the attic like Miss Havisham's wedding dress, I needed to find a way out. So, I opened one of the windows, destroyed the wire pane thingy and climbed out. Now, I was on the very slippery sloping roof, looking down at the lawn which seemed very very far away.

A couple of points here: my eyesight has become worse and I've been meaning to get my eyes checked so the lawn just looked like a patch of green and not too far away. Also, I felt I'd committed to the escape so had to follow through.

And so I did. I sat on the roof and sort of slid down (I still have no idea how precisely). At the edge, I offered up a prayer to the Force and slid off.

It was a lot (a lot) further up than I thought and the rain had made the ground all squishy so I ended up like a massive sack of potatoes but suffering no harm beyond a few bruises.

I think the height was over 8 feet. I just checked it out and I reckon if I'd thought about this a bit more, I'd not have done it.

Also, once inside, I recovered, took the dog out and sat to do some writing. I noticed drops of blood on the floor and thought the dog had hurt himself (he tends to explore fairly dodgy areas in the park). I checked. Nothing.

Then, I realised that I had a huge gash on my leg and it was bleeding. It had been bleeding throughout my walk (of almost an hour!) and return and I'd not seen it before.

It has not been a good morning. But think of how much worse it could have been. And I had a tetanus injection just before leaving DC so I should be all right re: gash.

I really need to buy some medical supplies though. Just in case.

feminists

2011-10-12T09:03:00.003-04:00

I suppose there's no one around who's not seen this yet but here you go: Feminist Ryan Gosling.

I'd have preferred feminist Richard Armitage or Clive Owen but one can't have everything. At least Mr. Armitage reads bedtime stories and audiobooks.

red carding

2011-10-10T20:35:00.004-04:00

Today I tried the boring tactic of talking for 45 minutes straight. Talk, talk, talk...I feel slightly guilty about having done this. The funny thing is that I do have some interesting people who have ideas that are not completely ripped off the Fox News headlines but they never say anything.

But, hey, due to the wonders of the Internets, a person whom I've never met sent me this. I love it. The front says "Show racism the red card" and proceeds go to educating the idiots who run about chanting racist rubbish during football matches.

Before I forget...

2011-10-08T13:33:00.002-04:00

During a discussion of whether targeted killings are a) a good idea for USFP and b) what does it mean when American citizens are targeted for killing without due processes of the (American) law:

"He is not American since he is a terrorist."

Me: So Americans can't be terrorist?

"No, they lose the right to be American when they join our enemy"

Me: How do you lose your right? Is American citizenship something you can "lose"?

"I didn't say that. But you can't be terrorist and American"

Me: Why not?

"Because you can't. If you join the terrorists, you are not American any more"

Me: What about people like Timothy McVeigh?

"But he's not Muslim. It's a different case. You can't compare the two"

seriously, NO ONE says anything against this sort of thing and discussions become Me vs Them, which is not how discussions should proceed. I had someone tell me that the reason I was sympathetic to terrorists was because I was not American. Gah.

With friends like these...

2011-10-08T13:24:00.002-04:00

This also happened:

Friends: Hey! You know how you don’t really know anyone here?

Me: Yes? [I had left friends at the pub and gone home to feed/walk the dog]

Friends: Well, now you know one person. Or you will! We met this guy who seems really nice and we showed him your picture and told him all about you. He’s going to take you out on the weekend.

Me: Whaa…?

Friends [in a disappointed voice]. You have not been to any of these places. You spend your evenings hanging out at home with the dog. There’s a few decades left for that to be a regular thing. So, we found you something else to do. You can thank us later.

Me: ...

[which is how, tonight, I am going to see Real Steel with some random bloke whom I've never seen. If you don't hear from me tomorrow, assume the worst.*]

* hacked into tiny bits and left by the highway, not a jaunt to the Caribbean on a private jet.

Something new

2011-10-07T19:01:00.002-04:00

The thing is, we probably discover new things every day. I mean think about the past couple of days: Steve Jobs died. He discovered (or at least paved the way for inventing) new ways of interacting with technology as well as said technologies themselves. New things. New ideas. New ways of relating to them.

My discovery of the day were these.

No, I don't envisage ever needing them for myself but the sheer fact that they even exist is mindboggling. In "my" part of the world*, one would probably just use a piece of cloth. Or a small towel. Here, in the great land of the USA, we have specially designed contraptions just for this purpose.

* a phrase that is increasingly losing its meaning now that I've lived in the US for almost as long as I've lived anywhere else. Still. I'm trying to make a rhetorical point here.

Bits and bobs

2011-10-07T14:44:00.003-04:00

More conversations.

1. The cashier at the local international food supermarket (the place has pretty much anything you can think of. Really. In all my years of living in different places, I've never seen such a well-stocked "global" food market than this) today thought I was from Malaysia. I guess a combination of "Indian" (bhujuri, kurkurey, daal) and Thai/Southeast Asian (mama noodles, mi goreng, laksa paste, tamarind candy, frozen fish balls) = Malaysia?

2. "Hey I remember you! I've got a couple of other things to recommend", followed by a discussion of the past weekend and things to do this upcoming weekend.

This was from the (only) bottle shop in town. I'm not sure what it means if the bottle shop guy recognizes you when you've only been here for just over a month.

3. DDT was a conspiracy invented and propagated by the UN who was (is) worried about India's productivity. The US doesn't like the UN because it does this kind of thing and tries to oppress (a different word was used but I can't recall it right now ) smaller countries.

Yes, the latest bit of wisdom I had the pleasure to hear.

4. Tonight, I start my second volunteer gig, working at the local arts theatre. I'll be there just before the midnight movie begins. What is it, you ask? The Room.

Burning my boats. Or is it bridges? Or buses?

2011-10-06T14:31:00.004-04:00

Eh. If I'm to be in trouble, might as well be for a good reason post. Things I've heard in the past couple of months:

- You are not American so you won't really understand 9.11. Maybe you shouldn't talk about it.

- Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and he moved them...to Syria or even Iran.
[after being shown evidence that SH never had WMD] Just because we didn't find them doesn't mean he didn't have them. He just hid them really well and gave them to terrorists.

-Why are we reading this? [a fiction book]. This is not real. I think we should be reading DoD documents and real policy.

- Iraq and Al Qaeda were allies [when told they weren't]. They want to make it seem as though they are not allies but they are.

- We should stop giving money to other countries [when told the USA actually gives very very little as percentage of GDP as foreign aid]. We should stop giving anything. We need that here. [when shown the Cost of War as well as bilateral aid to Israel, Pakistan, etc]. Those are strategic interests so we need to continue that or even increase it.

- The UN is willing to kill some groups for the greater good. [When told the UN might do this but the USA has done it too on more than one occasion]. The UN usually starts things and then the US has to go clean things up.

I've heard of one of those but...

2011-10-06T14:10:00.002-04:00

I've never seen one.

This is the Things that Happened When my Friends Visited post.

1. The above statement was made twice. Once, when we walked into the local games store to find a game to play while we watched football and MMwhatnot (UFC?). The idea was that we'd be bored in a pub for 7-8 hours so needed a distraction. Since the only board game I own is Risk, it was decided we needed a smaller thing we could carry around.

Let me add it was raining and cold so we didn't really want to carry around a big board game. Or that was the decision. So, we went to this shop and found a group of lads (yes, no girls) not in uni gear, all ready to play Magic the Gathering.

Let me tell you how interesting this is: it was a "Football weekend". It was a weekend in which my uni played one of its biggest rivals. And yet these lads were not only not in the usual uniform that pretty much everyone in town--whether young or old--wore but were hanging out in a tiny shop waiting to play Magic.

Not only that, the person in the shop happily showed us their (very small) selection of board games, tried to sell us Settlers of Cataan by saying it's the "best board game ever" (Friend 1's reaction: as soon as they say that, there's something wrong with the game). Friend 2 was ridiculously excited that the tiny selection included a game called Power Grid with which he was familiar.

We didn't buy any of the few games they had. On the way out, Friend 2 said the above statement regarding "game geeks". Which was funny since, after a few drinks, Friend 1 and Friend 2 start quoting the Big Lebowski (or Dr Strangelove or...after a few more drinks, Talladega Nights!). Geekery in all its varied forms.

The second time this was said, we'd just had drinks with a couple of other people. Once they left, Friend 2 went, "well, I have a question." Friend 1 and me were pretty sure what his question was but we were wrong. Instead, the phrase was repeated, followed by "So was X a hipster?" [general answer here was we didn't know which was followed by whether we actually knew any hipsters]

2. Other things that happened:
The lads built a fire outside and kept it going in freezing cold and drizzly conditions. For hours. My suggestion that we could move into the nice, warm, cozy house instead of faffing about in the cold, miserable, wet outside was treated with scorn. Horror even: "But we want to burn shit" was the rather pained response.

3. Buffalo Wild Wings was pretty fantastic. They not only had giant TV screens but also trivia (meaning board games weren't really necessary after all). We played trivia against each other, against some random person (we couldn't figure out who it was) and against the computer. We vaguely paid attention to the football.

4. hiking: I complained the whole way. Nothing new there. Apparently two of my main complaints were a) do we fucking have to climb that fucking mountain and why the fuck does everything look the fucking same? [good thing we didn't run into kids on our way up. We ran into plenty of other folks on the way down but there was no one going up] and b) I feel we have been walking for hours...what do you mean it's been 20 minutes?

Definitely nothing new there.

It was an excellent weekend. I realise how much I miss my friends. I miss people to hang out in the house and talk to and burn shit up. I miss people to do stuff with. I mean my colleagues are probably nice enough but they aren't that keen on hanging out (and vice versa). I suppose the answer is to actually start going out on my own and finding people to hang out with but that is too much like work. And I have plenty of that to do.

Conversations

2011-09-29T21:32:00.003-04:00

Conversation One

- Seeing a sign that October 9 will be "pet blessing day" at my local church,* I asked a young lad stood outside if I could bring my dog. He said all pets were welcome since they were "all God's creatures". "But what if you don't really believe in the Big Guy?" "Well, then, you'll have to hope the dog believes."

Nice work, priest. You win. (yes, he turned out to be a priest. Or maybe a priest in training? ). Indeed, between this lad and the Catholic priest I had a meal with a few weeks back, I seem to be talking to a lot of priests lately. Or, maybe there are just a lot of priests here.

Conversation Two

- "My partner and I would like you over for dinner" [a woman I met earlier this month]
- "Sure, does she work at VT too?"
- "Yes, HE [emphasised] is in the X department. Why did you assume it was female?"
- "..."

Actually, I guess it's heteronormative of me but I do tend to assume same sex couple if someone says "my partner". I mean they are doing it in solidarity with same sex couples--I get it-- but my default still is boyfriend/husband when a cisgendered woman is talking about her so.

Conversation Three

-"Hi! I'm Jennie! I live here" [pointing to a house diagonal from mine]
- "Hi, I'm Priya"
- "Are you on your own?"
- "No, I have a dog"
- "I live with my boyfriend. He's [from foreign country] [she wasn't]."
- "Nice?"

I liked this neighbour. She seemed friendly and we ended up having a fairly long chat about the town and such. I did find it interesting she specified the nationality (ethnicity?) of her boyfriend. I guess just coming from being told off for assuming "partner" = "same sex", it was quite refreshing to be told gender and nationality of this person. But, is the "he's [from foreign country]" equated with "you seem foreign too and we are okay with foreigners in this 'hood" or "I am okay with foreign people since I know one too".

I'm just reading too much into this and avoiding work. In other news, I get visitors tomorrow! A couple of friends from Washington DC are driving down and have already decided what they would like to do: drink on porch, drink somewhere else, go watch football (regular and American), watch UFC (I know! They even know where they want to go--a place called Buffalo Wild Wings) and then go hiking on Sunday.

I felt exhausted just writing that itinerary.

* I should mention that I live off a street that has a dozen churches, so the "local" church is the one that is nearest. This happens to be an Anglican church that is two houses away from mine.

Representations

2011-09-27T16:28:00.004-04:00

A series of thoughts:

- After watching The Wind That Shakes the Barley, I had a student comment, "oh, I didn't know Ireland was a real colony". I find this interesting especially considering that it is my (possibly unfounded) assumption that Americans know more about the Irish. I guess most of us are more familiar with the hard-drinking, larrikins that we imagine the Irish to be. I know I was before I started my research. Songs, Guinness and fun, isn't it?

Well, not always. Indeed (and I make this argument elsewhere), the Irish often had it worse with regards to British colonalism in the sense that they had the "misfortune" of not being obviously (racially) Other so differences had to be inscribed in other (see what I did here?) ways--the way they talked, religion, their "way of living", etc etc.

- Representations are interesting things. As we all know here by now, for me, representations=reality. On a personal note, telling people I was born in Thailand, am from Nepal and lived in Australia leads to statements like: I have always wanted to go to (Thailand/Nepal/Australia) or, as happened yesterday, a long description of how they had been to Nepal (in this case) and how much they'd "liked it so much--a special special place. If I were you, I would have never left."

Well, lady, if you were me, you'd be faced with not quite fitting in since you were a) quite good at studying, b) not keen on getting hitched after college, c) interested in seeing more of the world and d) actually making enough money to retire--maybe back in Nepal--while still able to be on two feet. You'd want your parents to not have to live in a house where there hasn't been running water since before LilSis was born, where the electricity is spotty (often only on for 3-4 hours a day during winter!) and where jobs are (or were) scarce.

And, yes, I am solidly middle-class. I'm far (far) better off than probably 90 (or more?) percentage of the Nepali population. That doesn't mean I wanted to live there without having a chance to see other places.

So, let's not have talk of "how special special" the place is and especially not about how you would not have been able to leave such a place. Yes, it's special. It's also a different perspective if you visit as a tourist. Tourist-y hotels and areas usually always have electricity, water, people running around to make your life comfortable, etc.

It's also interesting how the representation of Nepal (and Thailand and Ireland) both draw upon their natural resources, friendly people, beautiful scenery and this is what sticks in people's minds. All countries "brand" themselves in similar ways too. I'd write more (and more coherently) on this but class awaits.

Back! Almost but not yet

2011-09-26T11:57:00.004-04:00

Well, FA's been forgot, eh? Not to worry, I'll hopefully be back on soon and start writing. Not now though since, after a 6am wakeup and a walk around the park (in the dark, of course), I have been at uni since 7.30, finishing up a class lecture, trying to rework my book chapter and generally wondering how time seems compressed to the extent that I don't time to blog.

Blogging is also disrupted by not being able to write the Fun Stuff. I should start an anonymous blog where I write about my classes and students and such. [no, I won't]

Today's tip: Don't be sick when you have an animal and are its sole person. I was violently sick over the weekend--stomach stuff and now have a running fever. Of course, Harold (the dog) had no idea what this "being sick" was and was firmly convinced he either needed to hang out in the bedroom with me or make it clear that going on a long walk Had To Be Done, with frequent lunges at butterflies, squirrels, crickets, far off people, with special rage spared for birds and other dogs.

9/11

2011-09-12T13:27:00.004-04:00

I wasn't going to write/post about this but there was an incident in my class this morning which made it seem as though I should. At least, it'll get my mind off the whole: "This is what I should have done [in the class]" discussion I've been having with myself.

So, there are a lot of "this is what I was doing on 9/11" posts and comments around the blogosphere. Since I tend to read mostly US-based political science blogs, many of them talk about how they heard/saw the planes hitting the towers. Even overseas, other blogs I read (again, mostly European or Australia-New Zealand-Southeast Asian academics) mention how they found out about it, how there was a "community of sharing/suffering/" and how they worried about what would happen next.

Here's my story: I was in a small village in Vietnam. I was working for the United Nations at the time but I had about a week off [we'd done a big two-week (?) training session in Ho Chi Minh City and I had asked for time off to travel] and I'd been meandering around the country. I really don't even know where I was. I was sick for most of that week--extremely, throwing up sick--and yet refused to go back home to Bangkok. It was the last day (or maybe the day before the last day?) of my trip. I had no idea "the world had changed" (well, US foreign policy would change).

When I got back to Bangkok and to work, it was a few days later. I walked in to hear people talking about what had happened and how they had found out. People were concerned about the UN and its future/funding. This is the UN so most of the people there had been around during the Cold War and were concerned about the US's reactions. There was sympathy and horror but there was also uncertainty about US policies and the direction they would take.

So, for me, 9/11 didn't become "9/11" [read my and my colleague's upcoming paper on the difference] on 9/11/2001 but much later. Even at the UN, I was just a clog in the machine--my "portfolio" was economic development in "least developed countries" (Yes, I know! ).

I am not alone. Even in the US, reactions differed according to race, class and geography. In "Narrating September 11: Race, gender and the play of cultural identities," the authors make exactly this point.

This is not to deny the importance of "9/11" but to make a different claim: that "we" are not "we" in our reactions and how we experience and make sense of it. That others may have made sense of "9/11" differently and these different reactions are as valid (from their viewpoint and context). And, when making foreign policy, it is important to recall that other places and other peoples (or even "our" people here in the US--the above article interviews various lower-income people living in New York City at the time and discusses their very different concerns and reactions in the wake of the event) might, you know, have their own 9/11's.

Superman (and other stuff)

2011-09-12T09:29:00.003-04:00

This is doing the rounds on the 'nets but it's still pretty spot on.

In other news, I went to a party on the weekend and realised how much I hate those kinds of things. That is it for parties and me, I reckon. It was an outdoors thing on a deck and I believe at one point I was trying to figure out ways to climb off the deck so I wouldn't have to interact with (new) people!

Harold and I went for a long walk and explored a bit more of our area. We got told off for being in a cemetery (apparently dogs are banned. Who knew?) and saw the only Catholic church in town. Let me put this in context by saying just my street alone has about 7 other Christian churches.

Play it!

2011-09-09T16:07:00.002-04:00

I just spent the past 30 or so minutes getting carried away by this. The graphics are fairly old-school and the "lessons" are quite blatant but I enjoyed it. Maybe because I've not played these kinds of games for over a decade, it was almost nostalgic.

I also realised how anxious I get at these kinds of games. Where are The Evils? Where? Where? It's almost like Rocky on a walk.

Talking of Rocky, he's gone! No, not to the Big Doghouse in the Sky but to a person who wants to adopt him. She has another Alsatian and also a big fenced yard so I'm sure Rocky is happy. I, however, miss him.

On the other hand, I now have Harold. He was beaten (I believe) by people so is terrified of humans in general. The total opposite of Rocky.

Of course, since he moved in at mine yesterday, he's decided to discover some bravery and managed to, in true doggy fashion, bark loudly at the mailman.

dog whispering

2011-09-04T18:33:00.004-04:00

So, I have a dog now. He's called Rocky and he's living with me for the moment. He's been through a fair number of foster homes, a couple of adoptions (they returned him) and is now mine. In the couple of days since I've had him, I've realised:

1. He can run. And run and run and run. About ten minutes after he came here, I took him out for a walk, he slipped his lead and the next thing I knew he'd made a bid for freedom. I, of course, didn't have my phone with me so was reduced to frantically shouting (and practically crying!). Thankfully, in true bloke style, he smelled my neighbor's dog (or something) and dashed back home and up to the neighbor's stairs.

2. The reason I think he was returned by the families which originally adopted him is that he's a) quite large and b) unused to (and untrained at) walking on a lead. The shelter folks gave me a prong collar but even with the collar on, he seems to pay little attention. He pants and I am sure he's uncomfortable but when he wants to get somewhere, he pulls. Considering he's well muscled, he can drag me along if he puts his mind to it.

And he's been trying. Random smells, a rabbit, dogs he wants to say Hi to, a "why not?" feeling, etc.

I've spent the past couple of days working with him on the lead. He's a clever dog and if I have him for a month or so, I am sure I can make him walk with me. But, it's difficult because...

3. He's not motivated by food. Well, not the foods I've tried so far and he's a picky eater. Dogs which aren't motivated by food are (obviously!) far more difficult to communicate with than dogs which are. I get the feeling he is motivated by praise (and have been praising him a lot when he does slow down/stop pulling on the lead) but it's far more difficult to get any message across without a positive (food/toy) reward. We'll see how it goes.

4. So far, we've gone out 15-20 minutes three times a day and he's a lot better than he was that first time when he dragged me along the road and then ran off. Of course, this means when we go out again in an hour, he'll probably be worse as I've jinxed it!

5. He'd definitely not a dog that I can just take out to eat with me or walk along the street downtown or something. He has a very short attention span, gets bored quickly and tends to try run at any mo. This has led to...

6. The few people who have seen me at the park giving me dirty looks. I think because we always seem to be fighting while I try to get him to slow down/not pull on the lead AND he looks like he's been starved (you can see his ribs clearly). One woman this morning even told me I should feed him more and that "such collars are cruel". I know! I'm not an idiot (I didn't say that--I just said I had had him for a day and I was working on helping him walk with his person).

7. Next step is letting him run but on a long rope so I can train him to come to me when I call. I've actually never done this before with a dog who is not keen on food as a reward. I'm rather worried as he tends to go mental when he sees a rabbit (Echoes of the dog in Up but rabbit instead of squirrel).

Again, we'll see. At least it's keeping me busy. As is the daily class business (terrible idea). I miss all you FA readers (if you've made it this far, reading through my dog-related ramblings) since I often go for days (e.g. all this weekend) without talking to anyone!

Next weekend, Rocky has his first adoption "show". Hopefully, no one will like him since I would like to keep him for a bit longer. We've just started this communicating business after all :)

driving

2011-09-02T17:00:00.004-04:00

I'm going to spend part of the weekend not doing things I should (e.g. actually buying furniture, unpacking my books and clothes, etc etc) but soaking in the football town atmosphere and reading the VA drivers' manual so I can pass the permit test next week.

With that in mind, I give you this. It is rather worrying when the manual includes an illustration of what to do in case your car stalls on a railway track. I mean, really. Isn't it obvious? You sit and wait and see if a convenient superhero will rescue you.

Me?

2011-09-02T13:23:00.001-04:00

Well. According to Firefox's Webify Me thingy, this is me. I remain doubtful.

You can Webify yourself here.

Driving by (but not literally. Not yet)

2011-09-02T09:12:00.003-04:00

Very much a drive-past post to say it's the first "home match" for my new uni's (American, of course) football team this weekend so there's a sense of battening down the hatches combined with restrained (so far) excitement in the air. The usual debate--oh we hate football, these people are barbarians vs this is what the town's culture is, enjoy it--has already been noted.

Me? I'm just disappointed I don't have any of these shirts yet. This also makes me realize I'll never be "too old" for wearing such things. I mean, I may be too old but refuse to bow down to such thinking when there's ridiculously awesome shirts like these to be worn.

The question now is: Hume or Hypatia? Both right? And where's Foucault?

Days

2011-08-30T19:14:00.003-04:00

Not to worry, FA readers, you have not been forgotten. Instead, I've been:

1. Stuck in town due to Hurricane Irene. Needless to say, there was not a hint of bad weather where I was. I say "stuck" since I had to go back to my apartment in DC to pick up stuff and was unable to do so, leading to...

2. Monday morning: wake up at 6am, walk, go to class, teach class, have a meeting with a student I'll be supervising, wait for bus no. 1, go to bus stop to DC, wait there for 1.5hours, get on bus to DC, arrive in DC at 7pm, meet friends for dinner, go to apartment at 10pm, clean clean clean, sleep at around 4am, wake up at 6.30am, shower, throw away things, get on metro possibly for the last time in a long while, get to favourite cafe in DC, arrive at bus station, get on bus for 4.5 hour trip back to town, get a cab home (which cost more than the trip to DC. The distance was 4miles), change into teaching gear, rush off to class, teach.

Of course, my powerpoint projection didn't work during the class so it was discussion/ad libbing. It was shockingly good though since this class is engaged and does its reading. Or so it seems.

I'm still somewhat amused/shocked that I managed to do to long trips and teach without missing a class. Phew.

2. I'm getting Rocky tomorrow. No more trips after this since presumably one can't take a dog along on the bus. Ah well.

3. There really isn't a no. 3. Except to say that I read Wuthering Heights on the way down and Little Women on the way back (on the bus--free reads on Kindle both of them). My teenage conviction that a) Wuthering Heights is too dramatic for my tastes and Heathcliff is an arse and b) German professors are never to be trusted both held up quite well. I recall the film version of Little Women (the newer one) has Gabriel Byrne as the German prof but even an Irishman-as-German can't disguise the sheer nonsense of having a smart, capable heroine paired up with a boring old chap who seems to prefer her to turn into a boring old female.

4. And, oh yes, Doctor Who is back!

A few more things

2011-08-25T14:22:00.002-04:00

The thing about not being able to post about people means that there really isn't much I can write. A few things:

1. Everyone here--at least the students--wears some sort of the uni uniform. Its colours, whether as t-shirts, jerseys, shorts, and so on. Men wear long shorts/t-shirts and girls wear short shorts/t-shirts. Hardly anyone seems to wear skirts or dresses. Of course this doesn't apply to...

2. My department where all the men either wear suits or shirts/trousers (no jeans-I was told this during my interview even) with ties. Women, or at least the two women I've met so far, wear dresses with a jacket or trousers/jacket. The jacket seems ubiquitous.

Not wanting to buck the trend or anything but since I don't really own jackets, I've worn skirts/t shirt so far. I think I'm on the "casual" side of things but am hoping no one cares about this. As long as I don't wear jeans, I should be fine (I hope).

3. There aren't very many places to eat in the downtown area and I think I have been to all of them. Having a house with a proper kitchen (with the back door leading on to a gorgeous back porch) apparently doesn't mean I'll suddenly change my ways and start cooking.

4. The natives are a) either very friendly or b) confusing since I expect them to be friendly, act friendly-ish in return and that leads to all sorts of awkwardness.

In a way, I think I preferred the distancing of DC where I didn't know any of my neighbours in my apartment building even though I'd lived there for a year. That being said, it is nice to be able to say: oh will you drive me to X or how about going to Y for dinner tonight? to random people that you have only met once.

I guess I could have done the same in DC but it wouldn't have seemed okay. At least I don't think it would have seemed okay.

5. Class awaits. I am typing this on my front porch, where I am sat after eating a late lunch of a sandwich and beer. I teach at 5pm so should head back to uni. Work, unfortunately, doesn't stop while I faff about.

Classes and Earthquakes

2011-08-23T18:41:00.002-04:00

Ridiculously swamped with work but wanted to post three things:

1. My USFP class had seven students dropping after the first class. I now have 30 boys and 3 girls in the class. It should make for interesting dynamics. Or something.

2. My other class was brilliant. The feeling of euphoria you get from having a good class is high here (I just finished it). Highlights include being told that someone once threw a cabbage in class; having a few of the students write: "I collect historical weaponry" and "I was in Malawi this past summer" along with "I play in a band called Monks of M...." to my question of "what makes you memorable?"

3. When the earthquake occurred earlier today, my colleagues all emerged from their offices and stood around on the 5th floor of a shaking building arguing if a) the building was really shaking and b) if we should go downstairs.

I looked up on Twitter and confirmed that yes it was an earthquake. One woman left, saying "I'm going!". Others looked after her and proceeded to debate whether an earthquake was indeed occurring.

This proves that if there ever is a real emergency, academics will find a way to argue what "emergency" is.

syllabi+dog

2011-08-21T22:44:00.002-04:00

For those of yous who are keen on checking out my syllabi, here they are: US foreign policy (which is listed on the syllabus as US-USSR Foreign Pols. I hope students don't come in expecting that class) and "Violent Political Change".

I've got loads of stories but they are mainly about people and I suppose it wouldn't be a good idea to share them here. Which is annoying since, really, that's the only interesting thing that has happened in the past few days.

Still no 'net at university. No wireless or ethernet 'net access. Thankfully, I am still nicking my neighbour's so I'm fine at home. Otherwise, there would have been no work, no class prep and lots of hair pulling.

I've also been (tentatively) offered the (temporary) ownership of this lad here. I had the person in charge come over for a "home visit" and I reckon she was a bit worried about the sheer lack of Stuff in my home. I didn't point out that there was more stuff here (bed, dresser, chair, book shelf) than there had been in my apartment all of last year. I will know for sure later this week if Rocky's mine.*

* I know it's probably un-PC to "own" pets (one other place I originally emailed referred to me as a "soon to be mom") but, really, I find the whole "Mom" language when referring to human-animal interactions quite creepy.

Days.

2011-08-18T16:50:00.003-04:00

I wish I could say I have been doing heaps of exciting things so that is why I haven't written. Unfortunately, here's what's happened:

Tuesday: Arrived. No bed in the house (obviously) but all my books are here and waiting for me on the porch.

Ate dinner at a pita place. Chatted to the waitstaff about things to do and was told to visit the "Math Emporium". Decided that could wait another day.

Went home, slept on hardwood floor. I reckon that's good for your back. Or, for my back.

Wednesday: Left the bedroom and stumbled around the living room before realizing a HUGE insect was sat right outside the bathroom door. Huge.

Realized I really should have gone for a 1.5 bath (at least) house. Decided that brushing my teeth would be sufficient cleaning up since I had no desire to disturb HUGE insect.

Wed PM: Got home after an all-day session of "orientation". No sign of gigantic insect. Sat on newly acquired rocking chair.* Had dinner.

Still no food in fridge. Indeed, fridge empty except for a bottle of wine.

Thursday: First day at my department. Wore a dress my Mum made for me when I was 17. Told my department chair that I was ready to live out my Southern fantasy. Checked out the classrooms where I'll be teaching and made sure my computer worked in both. Met my TA.

Thurs PM: Contemplating going to the thrift store to buy more chairs for the porch. Am currently sat on the ONLY chair (the rocking chair).

Forgot to mention that The Insect was back on Thursday morning but has disappeared again now (Thursday evening).

If you don't hear from me, you know what happened. The Insect got me.

* There's a long tale involving my visit to the local thrift store where I found this brilliant chair and my carrying said chair the 1.5 miles from the thrift store to my house...I'll have to save it for IRL since writing out that tale wouldn't do it justice.

The people (well, some of them anyway)

2011-08-15T15:30:00.002-04:00

Well, you read about the places, here are some of the people involved in the First Trip to Woop Woop:

1. The Driver: owner of a farm (which boards horses) in Maryland. Person in charge of various USAID projects. Friend since I was 17. Surprised to find that a trip I'd claimed to be "less than four hours" was actually six hours long (we spent two hours on the I-66, without even leaving the DC metro area). Thoroughly good sport (see info about her sleeping arrangements below).

2. The Dog: Belongs to The Driver's Dude (and the Driver since she's the Dude's Dudette?) and came with us since The Driver's Dude was out of town. Australian shepherd. Convinced he had to look after "his ladies". If he were human, he'd probably have a big grin on his face but also quite solitary (not friendly with other dogs, for example).

3. The gas station: our first "Southern" experience was at a gas station about half an hour from our destination. I was idly watching a few blokes set up a tent ("Customer appreciation! Free hot dogs!!") when one of them suddenly turned 'around, looked at me and winked. Definitely a wink and not a twitch (for the Geertzians amongst you)

4. The neighbours: There's the young lad down the road (whose internet I'm nicking), the owners of a huge golden labrador (called Luke, not sure what the owners are called), the quiet person next door (only person I didn't see), the chap across the street with his three-legged dog, the woman and her husband (the man is a fixer-upper and "will be stopping by to do up your countertop soon"), my new (unseen) landlady who sent me a lovely Welcome to Woop Woop greeting card.

There were others but I'm running out of battery. Let me get back to "places" and recommend a visit to Harrisonburg as well since it's pretty, quaint and has this interesting lounge/club/coffee shop place called the Artful Dodger that we ate at on our way back to DC.

Weekend in Woop Woop

2011-08-13T03:26:00.006-04:00

So here's what happened in the past few days:

Wednesday: went to farm with what seems like a room full of stuff. Realized yet more stuff still remain in my apartment. Decide not to think any more about it. At least not for the next few days.

- Thursday: plan to leave for Woop Woop (not Bitburg. Am sticking to original name after all) by 10am. My friend has a couple of errands to run. One of which involves a visit to the Prince George's County (MD) city hall.

that is when I find out the city hall is populated by very cheery people. Everyone who passed us said hello. They were all smiling and joking about. It was strange since I'd expected the drudgery of bureaucracy to have worn everyone down into bitter twisted drones. Not the case at all.

We then went and got the oil in the car changed.

By the time we got back to the farmhouse to pick up the dog (who was also travelling with us), it was noon. By the time we left it was 1.30pm.

This was not half bad considering the time we left DC metro area proper was two hours later. Not through any fault of our own but because we were stuck in the highway leading out of the city.

The drive down was fairly uneventful apart from...

a) realizing we'd forgot the dog's lead at home so having to buy a new lead in the middle of a fairly dodgy town.

b) seeing signs for Virginia Safari Park and adding that to Woop Woop's attractions.

c) Getting to the house at 6pm, all worried about the state of the house (reminder: I'd never seen the insides) only to find it's quite possibly my dream house. If I dreamed of houses. Which I don't. But, if I did, this would be it.

d) realising my idea of "being prepared to rough it"= bringing a pillow to sleep on. My friend had a blow up mattress, a lightweight sleeping bag (and liner), a camping pillow/neck pillow (two things) and a roll up towel. Even the dog had his own portable travel kit.

All their stuff took up a large tote bag. Talk about efficient packing!

Friday: on Friday, I sort of made noises that we "should have fun". My friend refused and made an executive decision to "make sure you have everything you need". This involved...

a) having brekkie at a cafe, sat outdoors with the dog.

b) driving to the gas and electric offices so I could present my credentials in person. The chap at the electric place looked at my passport (which says "Kingdom of Nepal", a country that doesn't exist anymore) and had a spirited discussion of why I still had that passport and not one of the new (non Galactic) Republic.

c) driving to the thrift store (the "Y" thrift store), which was pretty fantastic. Clean stuff. Huge warehouse like area. I got my kitchen stuff, a huge dresser and mirror and a set of tables/chairs.* We lugged all this home in two trips.

d) not going to the Cascades (though I was pushing for it as the "one fun thing" my friend would get to do) and instead going to WalMart. There, we bought Very Useful Household Settling In items such as a dozen flower plants.

I also got a ladder, two bookshelves, various cleaning products, a pink tool kit (bright pink even!) which comes in a pink bag and a huge bag of manure (this being the US, it was called a "potting mix" but definitely smells like manure)

e) trying to assemble the bookshelves as soon as we got home. It was possibly the most complicated book shelf assembly I'd seen and I (shockingly) was relatively useless in the process. I blame my spatial judgement skills since I couldn't even figure out how the different boards fit together. My idea of just buying some large nails and hammering the boards together with my new (pink) hammer was overruled.

f) after assembling the book shelves, we went for a walk through the uni with the dog. Visiting at a time when I am not worried about being interviewed, talking to people or wondering whether I'd get the job was quite different from before. The university is actually rather pretty--loads of trees, lots of green areas, buildings of what they call "hokie stone".

g) went to dinner at this old Victorian house converted into a restaurant thing. It was actually pretty fantastic since it was a combination of a restaurant area on one side and a bar/pub in the other.

We accidentally got in the middle of a fundraiser type event which Tim Kaine (soon to be VA senator? campaigning for something? current Chairman of the Democratic National Committee) was having. For our "inconvenience", we were given a complimentary drink or dessert.

h) I forgot to add that before we went to Walmart, we also went to a Mattress shop and I got me** a bed.

Yes, I'm quite shocked at the amount of stuff we did. Left to myself, we all know I would have tried to get the 'net (the chap next door is letting me use his network, which is why/how I am online at 3am) and once that was done, I'd be set. I'd probably still be living off my suitcases and sleeping on the (wooden) floor months later.

Saturday afternoon, it's back to DC and more packing for me, ending with being helped to ship stuff by yet more friends. Yay for friends!

* So you folks who visited me in my apartment in DC: I already have more furniture than when I did when I lived there.

* ! atrocious phrasing.

dancing (in the dark)

2011-08-10T00:17:00.004-04:00

In io9's post on new superhero Bollywood films (or Bollywood superhero films), one of the commenters posted this.*

It's from a fairly new film (I think) but it took me back a decade to the International House at the University of Sydney where every Friday there'd be a "dance", complete with strobe lights and with European-y and Asian dance music.

I often think that other places (well, at least in my experiences) don't really have the nerds/jocks binary division as they do here since those dances were packed with residents, no matter whether they were rugby players or potters.

* Thanks to commenter NoelleBlue for the video.

In other news, the journey begins tomorrow. Today, I talked to my future landlady, who informed me that "another single woman lives next door to you" as if us singletons should automatically gravitate towards each other and make friends. The electric company told me they had to see me in person before I could have electricity. So, when Driver, Dog + I get there, there will be no light.

Well at least that gives me the chance to say: Let there be light! at some point in the next few days.

my brain is hanging upside down

2011-08-09T12:21:00.004-04:00

I have decided that calling my new place Woop Woop is detrimental to Woop Woop. I based this on a list of "things to do in (former) Woop Woop", a list which contained four things,two of which were: hike the Appalachian trail and go to the Cascades--both of which are not in Woop Woop.

So, from now on, it'll be called Bitburg. You may call me Bonzo.

In more serious news, the scenes from London are shocking. No one seems to agree on why the rioting is so large-scale and why it is continuing.

As one of my London-living friends asked yesterday: is this a revolution or disaffected youth with nothing better to do?

I don't know if the distinction matters. Not all revolutions are "honorable" and driven by ideology. One may well have a revolution when one is tired of how things are going, driven by the sheer adrenaline rush you get when destroying "the Man's" material goods.

Not realizing that, often, The Man is quite happily smoking a cigar in his posh room and making even more money. Instead, it's neighbouring shopkeepers, families, other young people who are affected.

I know I sound like an old fogie but I can't help thinking that in the US, the police would have cracked down a lot (a lot!) sooner and curfews would have been in place within hours of the first day.

I am not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

There's a lot of good (and bad) stuff in the online world about all this that I would link to. But, too much other stuff to do, too much packing to worry about. I recommend reading about how these riots are different from the ones in the '80s.

In the end, though, the idea of rioting is interesting to take apart. I think if people have nothing much to do and are frustrated at what they see a lack of support from authorities, rioting seems like a good idea, especially in areas and contexts where rioting as a form of public protest is commonplace.

And in London (and the UK in general) it is more commonplace than in the USA. At least at this juncture in the 21st century.

Gorgeous goat!

2011-08-08T16:55:00.002-04:00

Here.

I'm being ambitious in my chapter--the one on postcolonial and feminist approaches to terrorism. The one I've been working on all summer. I'm being ambitious by creating a table in which I detail feminist/postcolonial and then postcolonial feminist ways of studying female suicide bombing. I also have a column for "essentialized identity". This needs a better name and I'm working on it.

In the meantime, I escaped from my apartment where a dozen boxes silently stare back at me and piles of clothes and books still need a place to lie in (while they are transported).

I know. Priorities, eh?

sign up...

2011-08-07T23:32:00.003-04:00

for the magical mystery tour. Well, not quite but for a free online class on Artificial Intelligence.

Here's the info: Stanford has been offering portions of its robotics coursework online for a few years now, but professors Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig are kicking things up a notch (okay, lots of notches) with next semester's CS221: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. For the first time, you can take this course, along with several hundred Stanford undergrads, without having to fill out an application, pay tuition, or live in a dorm.

Full story (and link to register) here.

I signed up since, obviously, I have loads of free time in the Fall. Well, I signed up mainly because I want to see how this works out. And, of course, gain some knowledge, etc etc etc.

Via Marginal Revolution.

Hung and hanged. Also dancing.

2011-08-07T21:44:00.004-04:00

I've been listening to some local Southern radio stations, partly to get a hold of the accent but also to see what types of discussions are going on in what will be my part of the world. Since I tend to listen to the stations late at night or early in the morning, it's mostly discussions about ethics, faith and some news. There's also music but since I'm not much of a music person (unless we are counting cheesy pop hits ) I tend to change stations at that point. However, this morning, during a discussion of Catholic weddings, there was this:

*

This is one of the few songs I remember from school. As an indication of the type of school I went to, our ethics teacher took the opportunity to tell us "People are hanged...well they can be hung but we don't know if Jesus was. He probably was, he was the son of God after all. But you can be hung and hanged."

I remember going home and asking my dad what hung was. After a look at me (and explanation of context), he directed me to a dictionary. With no pictures, sadly.

* The combination of the jaunty rhythm and the increasingly depressing words is interesting.

Who is he? Who are we?

2011-08-07T13:51:00.008-04:00

Today's recommended read comes from the New York Times, where a professor of psychology asks, "What happened to Obama's passion?"

Two things:

1. I especially like how he calls out Obama and the Democrats on their ridiculous language-use. If I were American, especially one of the many (many) who doesn't have a job, I'd want to know what is being done to fix this. That's it. In plain language.

Even in everyday life, I've thought that Americans think they are plain speakers but they are not. Not at all. Oftentimes, a clear statement saying-- look, I know things are tough but I'm doing X, Y and Z to try sort this out--would be good to read instead of waffling.

2. The headline assumes Obama once had passion. I'm starting to doubt it. This is not the person who promised to crack down on big business, to fight for the little people (literal and figurative), to change.

3. Okay, one more thing (and I've said this here before): Obama and co. weren't voted in in 2008 for "bipartisanship" or "cross-party coalition building". They were voted in because people were not happy with how things had been going. People were not happy with the wanker bankers (h/t LilSis for this term) were becoming richer while the rest of the country was having a difficult time getting by.

The 2008 election was a clear mandate for a Democratic government to change things. Granted it's government and things move slowly and there are structural obstruction blah blah blah BUT caving in on practically every major decision is not what I had expected.

My US foreign policy course is organized around the question "Who are we?" or, in USFP-y terms, "who is the US? Who does it want to be?". Over the years, people have had different ideas of who we are and who we can be. Without being able to answer this question, policymaking can't be understood. So, I don't make students read the "usual" books on USFP but ask them to think about who "we" are at different historical junctures.

I reckon Mr. Obama needs to sort that out for himself--who is he? Is he someone who will fight for the little people and make sure people have a fairly comfortable retirement where they won't have to worry about social security and pensions and healthcare? Or, is he going to shaft the little people and happily go along with any ridiculous plan that will make the richest 1% of the country even richer than they are now?

And, what do those rich people do with all that money anyway? Isn't there a finite number of things you can buy?

Debt, Dog, Danger

2011-08-05T00:43:00.003-04:00

Because what you have been waiting for is the LOTR version of the recent (US) debt compromise/caving in. Here.

Read the comments.

Via Crooked Timber.

In other news, a Dog (not mine) has been added to my journey to my new job. So, it'll be The Driver, The Dog and [Me---I don't have an alliterative "D" name].

Talking about my new job, this happened. Yes, well.

And this morning...

2011-08-03T13:21:00.003-04:00

and to think I was whingeing about being disturbed yesterday morning. This morning, I found out I have to redo my syllabi. Why? Well, it "needs more detail". Less said about all this the better but the POINT of all this is a) I have to work all day today and possibly tomorrow to get the syllabi up to scratch and b) No Cowboys and Aliens for me.

Add to this that my current landlord is being a wanker, it's been a great day.

BUT, on the plus side, Not Dead Yet.

Yet.

Matt Damon is my hero.

2011-08-03T00:38:00.003-04:00

"Teachers just want to teach"...yes!

Personally, I was making more money per year (and had much better standard of living since I was working for the UN regional commission in Bangkok) when I was 22 than when I'm 32 (now). I had regular hours and did not have to work outside of those hours.

You don't become a teacher for fun and joy. You become a teacher because you can't really think of yourself as doing anything else. Because you realise you spend your limited free time also teaching. Because you find it frustrating and annoying but also enjoyable (okay, this will be rare).

Watch till the utterly ridiculous use of "statistics" at the end--and how Damon calls him out on that too. The man's utterly fantastic.

Via Gawker.

This is my morning so far

2011-08-02T11:22:00.004-04:00

Got woken up by a loud knock on the door. Quickly got up, opened it and found a very cheery chap (it was 8am. 8am!) grinning and saying: "Hello! I just moved in upstairs! I would like to borrow your vacuum!!" (yes, he spoke with exclamations.)

I brought over my vacuum. "No! I meant a real vacuum! Haha!"

Me: silence

Him: "You mean you don't have a bigger one?"(I want to remind FA readers that I currently live in a studio. I hardly think a massive hoover is necessary ).

Looks around past me..."Oh you just moved in too?" (Bah furniture) "Do you have coffee"

Me: No.

"No coffee? How do you get up in the morning? Really? No coffee?"

Seriously, this whole: let's chat with Priya thing is getting out of hand. As is the need to follow social norms. Sometimes, it'd be nice to say: No, mate, I don't have a Big Vacuum or Coffee or any desire to stand around in my PJ's and talk when I could be sleeping a couple more hours after having gone to bed at 5am. Piss off. Unfortunately, Social Norms prevent me from saying any of that.

Me (and a bit of stuff about work)

2011-08-01T15:25:00.004-04:00

So. This is one of those posts in which I detail things about ME. Even more so than usual.

1. I started thinking about perhaps packing up my stuff. In the process, I realized I have over 600 books, none of which I really want to give away.

2. I also have 32 pairs of shoes. 32. That is 64 shoes. While realizing this, my reaction was not: OMG! I wear about 3 of those 32 pairs! Do I really need them all? BUT Oh, I only have 4 pairs of "closed" shoes and no "neutral" coloured pumps. Time to buy some more.

I'm a lost cause. On the plus side, over 90% of my clothes and shoes are from thrift stores/op shops.

3. I'm working on my syllabi for the fall, especially as classes start in a couple of weeks. The thing about syllabi is that you never know what "angle" you are going to take. I had a perfectly fine US foreign policy syllabus, categorized according to theories and suchlike before deciding to ditch it and make another one. Right now, I'm working on this second syllabus (organized chronologically) and realizing that there is SO MUCH I feel I should tell students about. There is definitely not enough weeks in the semester for covering everything I want.

I'll attach a link to a working version once I finish it up later today.

4. KiwiSis was utterly horrified when she heard I had rented a house without actually seeing its insides. What if there are bugs? Or the bathroom is grotty? Or there are rats?, she asked.

Not much I can do about them now, is there? All will be revealed next week when I move. I know there is no air conditioning but am assuming there is a fridge (I should ask about this I suppose).

5. The Big Move is on Wednesday. Well, I'm getting picked up on Wednesday, spending the night at The Farm (not CIA headquarters, sadly) and then heading over to Woop Woop on Thursday.

Links

2011-07-29T15:02:00.003-04:00

Manchester United trained at my university today. That is all. This is to remind Future Me! of that and let Now Me! wonder if 100 degree weather should prevent me trekking to Fed Ex field for Man Utd vs Barca tomorrow.

"Harry Potter actor flashed girl on train" is about an unknown goblin (the "HP actor" is to get page hits obviously since it's the top read story on the BBC web site right now) who was "was found guilty of performing a sex act under cover of a juggler's hat in October 2010". No information on what he was doing with a juggler's hat.

He was also an ewok in Return of the Jedi. Not sure why the headline is not about "Ewok flashes girl". Hmpf.

Talking of Harry Potter, this made me grin.

All right, back to syllabi-ing. Finding out you are starting work (and classes) two weeks before you thought you were isn't really a good thing. Stress!

Anything Steve can do, Jon can do better*

2011-07-28T23:57:00.004-04:00

Here. "...the market regulating the brother supply" is pretty damned awesome.

* Or, almost equally as well. Religion, taxes, Reagan.

Watch this.

2011-07-26T23:49:00.002-04:00

Oh, Stephen Colbert, it's too bad we can't just clone you since I'd like one for myself, sat in the corner of my apartment (or new house), doing this sort of thing.

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Talking to different audiences

2011-07-26T15:49:00.007-04:00

I've spent all of today (since 7am), reading heaps of comments on the New York Times Square bombing. It's "work" since I'm writing a paper on meaning-making of "terrorism". The paper's for a "serious" terrorism conference at which, I am sure, there will be heaps of "real" terrorism types. I feel this is an excellent example of me wasting my time: instead of focusing on writing something that will get me published somewhere, I am wasting time reading comments on how immigration/Muslims/Islam has ruined USA/"the West"/democracy.

The requirements for writing for a "serious" conference are different to that for a regular one. For example, at the "serious" conference, I need to a) explain why I study terrorism the way I do and b) argue it's as relevant a way of doing research as their haphazard-but-disguised-as-"case studies" approach. The difficulty at such events is that everyone assumes when I say I am studying language/representations, there there is a separation between material ("real terrorism") and ideational (narratives and images of terrorism) factors.

Of course, there's not. But, even getting to this statement and trying to explain it to people who are all--Well, I've been to Afghanistan, you know, and I've seen those damned insurgents/terrorists/whathaveyous--is difficult.

So, while I scroll through yet more comments on Yahoo news, here's something for yous to enjoy. I am actually going to see Josh Groban tomorrow. I will admit I was quite against this idea (thinking he was a bit of a prat) but I've just been sent videos of him being all adorable with Michael Ball (my teenage self squees!) and holding his own in Never Mind the Buzzcocks (where Noel Fielding usually manages to eviscerate most people) so I'm now ridiculously looking forward to it.