Daily Journal Entry

January 31st, 2005 § 2

  • Stupid Bank
    • I called the bank and they said I have to go to a branch office to get things fixed.
  • Culture and Personality
    • We watched this video on sociobiology and there was this weird part with young boys and girls showering together. E. O. Wilson and Marvin Harris made appearances, as well as Richard Lewontin.
  • Japanese
    • Pair exercises are getting tedious. Especially when I suck. We worked on directions.
  • Errands
    • I mailed off my rent check. Then was happy to learn that I got paid. I made contact for a story but the guy didn’t really know what we were asking for, nor was he involved with what he and I think is being asked about. Fun.
  • Linguistics
    • We went through introductions again and spent a lot of time talking about colors.
  • Reading
    • I spent the evening finishing up the F-Word interspersed with chatting on IRC. Oddly enough the group of people I found (through Del.icio.us) are at the University of Chicago and one of them even knows Larisa.

Daily Journal Entry

January 30th, 2005 Comments Off

  • Reading
    • I woke up and did some more reading…
  • Union
    • …then went to the union to buy XP. My BankOne card didn’t work for some reason and when I checked it out at the ATM I got a message that it was deactivated. More stuff to check out. Sigh…
  • Magic
    • I put the XP disc in, restarted, and my computer acted weird. I restarted again and then it booted into Windows like normal. Sheesh. I think I’m still going to upgrade anyway, just not now, or even soon necessarily. I need more ram as it is.
  • PDA
    • Spent some time getting things into order.
  • Exponent
    • Got a story on “extra cataloguing.”
  • Lab
  • Groceries
    • Kristen accompanied me on my quest for food. Writing down what I need before hand makes it so efficient. I don’t know why having a stack of index cards around makes me do it where I didn’t necessarily before. I bought two cartons of ice cream, one vanilla and one chocolate, for a dollar each. They sure made that Blizzard I got before going to the store seem like a big ripoff.
    • I had some reservations but I decided to have sex with Kristen. It’s hard to tease out my apprehension. I suppose part of it is just opening up that connection. I also thought that I had come to a decision about how I was going to treat sex. But my desire got the best of me. I did enjoy feeling another body against my own. And it was nice to give another person physical pleasure. I felt a little weird about it afterwards though and I’m still not sure if it was a correct decision.
  • PDA II
    • After I took Kristen back home I spent some more time fiddling with my PDA.

Daily Journal Entry

January 29th, 2005 Comments Off

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  • Reading
    • My day was primarily devoted to reading the F-Word. Richard called and was comforted by my notion of love as an addiction which can lead to withdrawl symptoms which express themselves as opposite sensations in the absence of that love. He also seemed to enjoy my understanding that when you end a long-term relationship there is a physical reorganization, healing, that has to take place in the brain. And it just takes time.
  • Student Union
    • My computer decided to spazz out for some reason so I went over to see if the place that sells XP in the union was open. It wasn’t but I at least saw what the hours are.
  • Best Buy
    • I also went to Best Buy to look at hard drives. It had just snowed before I went and I slided a bit on the bridge at the bottom going into Lafayette. Super scary. I had to brake four times before coming to a stop.
  • Barnes and Noble
    • It was right next door so I stopped by specifically to see if they had Harpers, and they did. Why do I love that magazine so much. There was a statistic about someone living out the rest of their life after old age on a luxury cruise ship versus a retirement home. It was almost the same. The age seemed pretty high though. There were some other good ones but I didn’t have my gear with me to jot them down. Computer stress drove me out into the world naked and alone.
  • Reading
    • As I was doing more reading my mom called to let me know that she got a top of the line black Tahoe with leather seats, sunroof, and TV/DVD, among other accessories. My dad called again later because my mom wanted to make sure I got the message.
  • Lonely
    • It crept up on me a little during the night.
  • Today’s Internet

Daily Journal Entry

January 28th, 2005 § 1

  • Culture and Personality
    • I came to Stone with a white bag and Leslie asked me what was in it but I wouldn’t tell her. When we sat down after walking over to class I asked if she really wanted to know what I had and she said, “Yes! It’s not that personal!” So I took a Frosty out of the bag and she got a crazed look on her face. Then I pulled another one out for her and she started clapping her hands. We had talked about Frosties recently so I thought it would be a fun surprise to pick one up for her on the way to school. She said she was really upset when I didn’t tell her what I had in the bag and that she really likes to see what people are eating. She also said that she was going to make me give her a bite if I had only had the one Frosty. Super fun.
    • For class we watched part of Saving Private Ryan, where they first invade the beach. I watched a little then had to cover my eyes. One of the interesting things that Gene pointed out was that one of the soldiers superstitiously kissed his cross before going into the gunfire, much like the Zulus who put holy protective water on their shields before going into battle.

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  • Lunch with Candidate
    • At lunch I told the candidate my interests and he told me about an interesting book on Tsukiji that just got published. He seemed really interested in my project, which again gives me hope that I am on the right path.
  • Office Space
    • I did some reading for development of modern anthropology and got up in Clara’s grill. After talking to Kate I am on a mission to find good new music, or at least listen to the popular music that doesn’t get played on the radio. Kate said she’s into Coheed and Cambria.
    • My Dell Axim x30 replacement showed up!
  • Japanese Student Assocation Callout
    • The callout started thirty minutes late, but I did some reading in the meantime. We got a flyer for some cheap rates to Japan, so hopefully that will help. The presentation was pretty general. I talked to another student for a while then found out that Kris from POL had my old teacher in high school. I also talked to one of the officers — she wants to teach Japanese and likes that she can get around in West Lafayette pretty easily without a car. They started giving out prizes but I had to leave.

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  • Open House
    • I showed up at 7:30 but no one was around. They showed up pretty shortly thereafter though. Christoph wasn’t there yet and he was the one with the food. It got packed pretty fast.
    • I talked to Matt most during the night. He didn’t have any Lafayette stories. He did have a good story about seeing My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult though, the best concert he has been to. I told him about the Human Aftertaste.
    • I mentioned “happy slapping” to Matt and we decided that it is the modern equivalent of the myth of Sisyphus. Matt has seen a lot of good movies but he hasn’t seen Lost Highway yet. For shame.
    • We got stuck on teledildonics again, which Clara politely referred to as “the t-word.” I passed a geeky joke around and got a bitchy response: “There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those who know binary and those who don’t.” Hahahaha!
  • Today’s Internet

Daily Journal Entry

January 27th, 2005 § 1

  • Urban Sociology
    • We watched this old video called “The City and the Self” (1973) that looked at how living in the city affected people’s behavior and outlook on life. One thing it talked about was how because there is so much stimuli in the city people have to learn to selectively process information (which fits into what Simmel talked about). It also mentioned how the importance that is placed on time forces people to surround themselves in a bubble where they do not interact with others. There was also some interesting commentary on people who hide behind gatekeepers such as doormen and such and whether their actions constitute privacy or isolation.
    • I have always been in love with the city. I love steel and asphalt. I love riding busses, trains and subways. I like being shoved together with everyone else. Sharing this communal space regardless of class, race or gender. I also, of course, love being a part of some future narrative, however naive that might be.
  • Visual Anthropology
    • OM went over comments he received and said that some students were intimidated by the grad students. He also defended Lutz and Collins.
  • Japanese
    • We went over dake and shika some more, as well as koto ga dekiru.

What animal would you be?

  • Office Lounging
    • I spent a lot of time catching up on my missed BBC and NY Times reading then put together a chart of the responses I received in class regarding what animal people would want to be. Then I worked on updates.
  • Candidate Presentation
    • The presentation was on the Carribean and covered the use of pottery to discern economic connections. The presenter used some hi-tech methods to discern the clay that was used for the pottery which was very interesting. Overall it was an impressive synthesis of lots of different information that revealed a complex set of interactions.

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Daily Journal Entry

January 26th, 2005 § 3

  • Office Hours
    • I worked on updates.
  • Culture and Personality
    • Leslie is way into Frosties lately. She’s also been heavily susceptible to suggestion. The latest was the constant commercials for Olive Garden — she said it sucked.
    • In class we finished up the Zulu vs. the British movie then watched another on Shaka Zulu. Why does violence trouble me so?
  • Japanese
    • We went over dake and shika as well as koto ga dekiru.
  • Office Lounging
    • I called about my loan check and they said I can keep it, which is very good news. I tried to set up a meeting for this story on the amateur radio club I need to do but it didn’t work out.
    • I also called DELL and after spending some time with Lavina in India they said they’d ship out a replacement since my device is still under warranty. Nice. I just told them that there were these black dots on the screen that wouldn’t go away. Not sure if it would have made a difference.
  • Taco Rico
    • I called up Lauren as I seem to find time to do on Wednesdays but she had just gotten Chinese so we just chatted a bit. She’s concerned about her sleep enough that she is going to see a specialist. Suck. Bev didn’t answer bt I got a hold of Mark.
    • Originally I/we had decided on going to Don Pablo’s, but I just felt so much resistance in myself that I couldn’t do it. I’m not sure if it’s because it is a chain or because of a vague connection to the past or what but I just couldn’t do it and we went to Taco Rico instead, which I had been to once before. I got the carnitas. They were quite good and the price was justified by the leftovers I took home. I tried to order flan but it got…lost in translation?
    • Mark and I talked a lot about classes and such. Something about his behavior reminded me of someone that is drunk but he doesn’t drink so he must have been tired. He just had this very laid back casualness about him that I haven’t seen before.
  • Staples
    • I don’t really remember what I wanted to get. I just wanted to look around and see what spoke to me. Unfortunately they didn’t have any index cards with grids on the front and the back. I got some mini clips and a case for index cards. Oh how I love office supplies.
  • Wendy’s
    • I deposited my loan check and got some money to procure a sweet little Frostie. Bev called during the midst of my consumption and had things to talk about but unfortunately I could not oblige her. I was shocked to see that someone had left their table in complete disarray, making no attempt to deposit their refuse. Mark is consumed with the notion that he is a fraud and should not be in academia such that he is waiting for someone to “find him out.”
  • Grading
    • I did some grading at home then dropped it off on campus. Just short two paragraph extra credit things. It was exciting to read what the students had written though. I think it is a good sign.
    • I called Kristen on the way to campus and chastised her asking me what was new. I told her that I am not concerned with repeating mundane minutiae (over the phone, at least, where I feel it is inefficient, especially with such a short amount of time between contact) and that the question to me is an irritating request for a catalogue of events. It was an interesting moment for me, given it’s similarity to some of my previous personal exchanges.
  • Today’s Internet

Daily Journal Entry

January 25th, 2005 Comments Off

  • Urban Sociology
    • Sandra told a really interesting story about when she was a kid in Gary, IN, and how she and a friend observed the goings on of a house there that was used by prostitutes. One of the things that she noticed was that the prostitutes were generally poor women of color while the “Johns” were affluent white men.
    • We also talked about Simmel’s notion of the city as a place of “controlled chaos” and the idea that there was so much stimuli that people developed a blase attitude to avoid attachment.

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  • Visual Anthropology
    • OM was gone so Aubrey led the class and there was a lot of discussion. Some questioned how many photos Lutz and Collins went through before they chose to include them in their book.
  • Skipped Japanese
    • I was going to go to the Japanese conversation hour but I got the times wrong and it was too late to go to class so I worked on attendance sheets for urban sociology.
  • Development of Modern Anthropology
    • We talked about Herodotus and Tacitus’ works as early proto-typical forms of ethnography. Their works were also compared to tabloids. Both were connected to powerful countries so we talked about how one might escape the act of furthering the effects of colonialism.
  • Office Hours
    • I learned that Kate (not that one) is sick… After bringing up my attendance survey to Sabrina I found out that she is in love with breakfast. She looks forward to the weekend so she can make bigger breakfasts. It’s her favorite meal of the day. At one point she said, “I LOVE oatmeal!”, and she was curling her fingers while talking about all of this in demented glee.
  • Feminist Theory
    • Pat served us a wonderful dinner of curry rice and salad. The salad had pieces of apple, some kind of cheese, and walnuts. The food was so very excellent. Afterwards we had some coffee. One of the things we talked about during dinner was the whole nature of being PC. One of Kara’s friends went to Antioch and she said it may have been the campus that was being referred to in PCU. She said it’s easy for people to be PC there because they are all white and affluent. We tried to get at what it is that makes being PC so aggravating. One thing was that it seems to remove any impetus for change by burying negative social phenomena. I said that it seemed like a strange permutation of Christianity and everyone agreed.
    • We had gotten together to watch this film Born In Flames by Lizzie Borden. It’s kind of a feminist science fiction movie. I’d actually seen it before when I was at the University of Chicago in a sex and gender class that Liz P. did. Though, I had a much different reading of the film this time. One of the main things that stood out for me was the importance of the media. Another was the disenchantment of the poor women of color with the distant white politics of the “party.” Interestingly enough the movie was set in a future 10 years after the United States had become a socialist country, yet there were still so many problems, which, of course, was a criticism in and of itself.
    • One of the things we talked about after the movie was the role of violence. I don’t know if the ends justifies the means but the movie did bring up questions about what sort of action those who are oppressed should resort to. When do we pass a threshold where violence is justified? This question is probably a bit harder to ask in a post-911 world, which is itself ironic since the movie ends with the bombing of the World Trade Center.
  • Today’s Internet
    • Came across a random podcast that called the Purdue Boilermakers stupid (it’s about 15 minutes and 45 seconds in).

Daily Journal Entry

January 24th, 2005 Comments Off

  • Office Hours
    • I missed the bus but took the trolley and it was actually faster. In the office I got in trouble for throwing away Aubrey’s email with the open houses listed on it. I thought it had been provided in general since it was just on the desk and gave it to someone. Oops.
  • Culture and Personality
    • Gene talked about how people complain that Americans coddle their children and showed how ridiculous that claim is compared to how much other cultures attend to their children.
  • Japanese
    • We went over directions and such and I sucked at it. Somewhat embarassing. Must study.
  • Library
    • I tried to stop by the reserves and look at a book for linguistics but there were problems. With the library. Not me.
  • Linguistics
    • The class snaked around emic/etic and indexicality at points. We also talked about syntagms and paradigms. Don’t really understand them yet. This helps:

“A syntagm is an orderly combination of interacting signifiers which forms a meaningful whole within a text – sometimes, following Saussure, called a ‘chain’. Such combinations are made within a framework of syntactic rules and conventions (both explicit and inexplicit). In language, a sentence, for instance, is a syntagm of words; so too are paragraphs and chapters.”

  • Dinner/Nap
    • I had a burrito, tots, and a spinach salad with balsamic vinagrette and cucumbers for dinner. Then took a nap.
  • Urban Sociology Reading
    • When I woke up I read over our text for urban sociology. There was an interesting comment by Simmel who finds that there is alienation in urban spaces but that it is accompanied by a certain amount of personal freedom. There was also part of the text that dealt with globalization.
  • Today’s Internet

Daily Journal Entry

January 23rd, 2005 Comments Off

  • Reading
    • I didn’t wake up too late and read for linguistics.
  • Checkbook
    • Oh yes, I also spent some time balancing my checkbooks.
  • Nap
    • Reading made me tired so I took a nap.
  • Chris
    • I told him about my Foucaultian response to Faludi’s backlash. He told me he got an ulcer. We talked about how the people around us don’t share our intellectual passion. I showed him Picasa, Del.icio.us, and Technorati. I also showed him Direct Connect.
  • Jacqui
    • She told me about some Japanese guy she met. I got her to install Direct Connect, but her computer barfed before we could use it. I told her about the teacher that had a pencil behind his ear all day. We also talked about Saw and why it was no good.

Cuter Than Cute!

Daily Journal Entry

January 22nd, 2005 Comments Off

  • Reading
    • I spent most of the day reading for linguistics when I wasn’t being distracted by my computer.
    • I woke up and emailed my host and they fixed the database problem rather quickly, so that was nice.
    • I don’t know if my warranty is going to cover my cracked screen. And if it doesn’t the price of replacement parts I found offered by third-party vendors makes it seem as if it’s going to be a little pricey to get fixed…
    • I finally published this podcast I cut a long time ago. It was nice to get a positive comment so quickly. Helps push me a bit to keep up with it. My access logs show that my rss file is burning up.
  • Nap
    • The linguistics reading is good but it makes me tired. It’s heartily packed with lots of ideas to master and understand. The biggest point it makes is that linguistic anthropology is concerned with language in terms of the social actors that use it and the worlds they live in.
  • POL Movie Night at Kelly’s
    • Kelly has a nice girly place. It was warm and cozy. I had some great brownies with peanut butter, artichoke dip, and little meatballs. Sean, Angie, Brent, Pete, Matt, Eulogy (can’t remember his real name), Fureya (or hers), Chris, and Blue Indian (hee hee) were there. CMetzger too. Cathryn was supposed to come but she woke up late and didn’t make a cake she promised so she shied out, though she did come for a few minutes. The night was a flutter with GOD jokes.
    • After it looked like everyone that was going to show up did we watched Saw. I had to slap this girl next to me every once and a while to keep her tuned in to the movie. She said she’d only seen about five or six all the way through in her life. The movie itself was ok. Wasn’t sure what to expect. I don’t think my sister liked it. I’m not quite sure how I feel about it. Maybe a B+. One of the things that bothered me was the music video aspect of some of the scenes. That’s what I should write about.
    • We played Cranium a bit after the movie, but no one was really into it. It was a fun enough game I suppose, just to many people to keep us all involved. My team kind of did their own thing in the kitchen. This turned into a bad thing though when Sean confronted Kris about politics and religion. I avoided most of that.
    • I tried to amuse myself with Fureya, which was mostly successful, then we went to BW3′s for a bit… Oh yes, this was after listening to horrible horrible music like… I don’t know, just white people music. I know there was a country song in there. Oh yes, and some Spin Doctors. At least got to hear Sneaker Pimps, but Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Rolling Stone’s “Paint it Black” didn’t get played in full. Nor did any of the Fiona Apple get played.
  • BW3′s
    • Kelly was hungry so we walked over to this fine establishment. Talked to Sean about music (they were playing a really random Mazzy Star song when we got there) and tried some extremely hot wings. They left my lips and the inside of my gums burning! After we left the establishment Blue Indian almost got into a fight with some random guy in the parking lot. It was a great ending to the evening.

Fo' Sheezy My Jeezy!

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