The Weeks You Just Want to Draw the Covers Over Your Head...
Since my bunny ears don’t get FOX, today was a day of domesticity: housecleaning, banana bread making, studying and a facial. (Yes, I can be girly, try not to faint.)Yesterday I went on a kayaking trip to Pamlico Sound exploring up and around one of the old logging creeks. Since I can now publish photos on this site, I will put them up as soon as I get them developed.
I didn’t take the digital camera and this is why: By the end of the trip I was feeling very comfortable, very at ease, enough so as to assist another paddler who got stranded as the winds pushed us onshore in the bay.
“O.k. I got this….”*kerploosh*
I was half way over before I even realized something was wrong. A very “wet exit” and a bilge pump later I was on my way, but thank the Gods I knew me enough to not bring a digital camera! ;)
The Sound and the surrounding marsh were beautiful and it gave me the opportunity to get to know the countryside. We did see a pair of Bald Eagles as well as some wood ducks….at least I think they were wood ducks. They were certainly colorful.
“The Burden of Time”
Michael Wood used this phrase in his mindblowing 1991 miniseries Legacy to speak of the Mayas devotion to the cosmic cycles of creation and destruction.
“The Mayan Book of Creation; The Popul Vou, tells the story of how humans first came into this violent paradise: “The Earth will need nurturing. It will need bearers of respect for its divinity.” And so it was human beings who were given memory, to count the days and bear times burden…”
And indeed, for all these things we have common with our primate cousins; self-identity, language, learned behavior, one of the few things we have left on chimpanzees and other animals is the ability to perceive time. A chimpanzee can not conceptualize the past nor the future. Animals simply exist in the now, the immediate. They cannot speak of something that happened in the past and estimate how it will affect the future.
We can.
So why, having been given such a unique gift among all the animals on the planet, do so few of us use it?
The Destruction of the Al-Askari Mosque may have come quicker than most expected, but many historians, sociologists and political scientists have been expecting it since before the Invasion. We were shocked that it happened before the United States forces left Iraq, but not that it was happening at all. Sunni and Shiite Iraqis have been at each other throats for years; long, long before we got there, long before Saddam even came to power. We removed the one force in Iraq that was keeping the three disparate people in that arbitrarily created country from bloodshed and we have made no attempts to reconcile the populations of these groups, to make them all feel like they had a vested interest in Iraq survival as a single nation. Baghdad politicians bicker and quibble while the People are killing each other in the streets. And even if we had attempted to reconcile the different populaces, it’s highly questionable whether it would have been enough. Those grievances go back a long time. The truth is, they never truly stopped fighting each other, even under our noses.
From the Christian Science Monitor:
Shiite militias remain heavily armed and emotional, and on Sunday continued to move into some Sunni neighborhoods in the capital. Clerics are emerging as the only voices that can quell the violence, even as they've come under pressure from their followers to demand revenge. Even Ayatollah Sistani has advocated the founding of additional sectarian militias, drawn from southern tribes, to protect Shiite interests.
"It may well be that things will die down now,'' says Joost Hilterman, who runs the International Crisis Group's (ICG) Middle East Project in Amman, Jordan. "But the structural dynamic still points toward civil war, and the institutions that could restrain it have become severely weakened."
Sectarian violence since the Shiite Askariyah Shrine in Samarra was destroyed last Wednesday has claimed at least 250 lives, and the Sunni-based Iraqi Islamic Party says 120 Sunni mosques have been attacked. Dozens of the dead have been found executed, their hands bound, on the outskirts of Baghdad.
It’s just depressing as hell to watch humanity squander itself; both the Iraqis and the Americans.
And it goes on…
O.K. Bitch Session…
O.k. the rapture is starting to wear off a bit and I’m starting to see more of the details. I’m still happy as hell for the opportunity and trying to make the most of it but it’s also lonely sometimes too. The problem is that the people I would normally be drawn to; middle aged professionals, are my professors and the majority of people I am surrounded by are 19-22. Not that there is anything wrong with that age, I’m just not in it. I was going to the Whiskey, the Roxie and Gazarris during Metal’s second heyday when I was 17. I burned out on that whole party scene by the time I was 21. My idea of a great time now is about 6-12 of my best friends just hanging out somewhere and talking. This of course means you have to be somewhere quiet enough to actually hear each other. I like going to listen to music, but the mixer/DJ has to know the difference between amplified and “so-loud-you-can’t-actually-hear-it-anymore”. Most of them don’t, hence the reason they are working in clubs and not with professional musicians. So I don’t go out much.
And y’know, 19-22 year olds….
“OhMiGawdIWentToTacoBellAndTheyLikeForgotMyCheeseAndIHad ToWalkBackInThereToGetThemToPutItOnAndIWasLikeSoPissed BecauseIWasLateMeetingMyFriendsAndWeAllWereGoingToThisClub AndTinaWasWearingTheSameShirtIWasButItWasSoFunnyAnd IGotSoLitLastNightICan’tBeliveIDidThat.MyCousinJustHad ABabyIsn’tThatSoCoolI’mLikeAnAuntOrSomethingThisClassIs SUCHADragIJustWantToGoBackToTheDormAndGoToSleepY’know, I’veBeenHavingThisRecurringDreamLately….”
AAAAIIIIGGH!
I’m not kidding! This is behind me in Music Class….and that sample is abbreviated.
Whomever said that girls mature faster than guys...lied.
And was a girl.
(Truth is, we don’t mature faster, we can just cover it up better.) ;)
Granted they aren’t all like this. There are actually a lot of very together younger people that I have met in my classes but they are still in the go-out-and-drink-as-a-form-of-entertainment phase. Not that there is anything wrong with that phase, it’s just I been there, I done that and drunk people are only so entertaining. I’m just feeling a bit…isolated sometimes. A couple of my professors have been very kind as far as chatting with me after class, but there’s that weird dynamic going on. They’re my professors. It’s not like we can be pals, not to mention they are already in a place in their careers that I am trying desperately to get to. They’ve traveled everywhere and done everything and it’s a little intimidating. But I’m sure things will improve once I settle in some more, start poking around some of the local clubs outside of the area immediately surrounding campus. They certainly will improve once I get into grad school and run into other people who are coming back from “The Real World” to further their education (four of my neighbors are Grad Students and they’re all very cool people) and the kids I’m going to school with now get past the “Ohmygawd-my-parents-are-hundreds-of-miles-away”…issue.
FYI-97% on my History Exam and 94%(top score) on my Anthropology Exam.
Congrats to Matt Kenseth
They say the best payback is living well. Living well while the guy who took you out the week prior’s engine blows up also qualifies.
Mark Martin got 9th. (Yea! Dale Jr. got 11th (good job guys) and Elliott got…23rd? (Wassadeal there?)
O.K. Some Good News and Stuff:
Mars Orbiter on Track
These have long been two of my favorite websites: they're a virtual tours of the Caves of Lascaux, and Chauvet, two of the Paleolithic Art Caves closed to the public.
And That What Killed the Dinosaurs: They were gnawed to death.
Cool...
I didn’t take the digital camera and this is why: By the end of the trip I was feeling very comfortable, very at ease, enough so as to assist another paddler who got stranded as the winds pushed us onshore in the bay.
“O.k. I got this….”*kerploosh*
I was half way over before I even realized something was wrong. A very “wet exit” and a bilge pump later I was on my way, but thank the Gods I knew me enough to not bring a digital camera! ;)
The Sound and the surrounding marsh were beautiful and it gave me the opportunity to get to know the countryside. We did see a pair of Bald Eagles as well as some wood ducks….at least I think they were wood ducks. They were certainly colorful.
“The Burden of Time”
Michael Wood used this phrase in his mindblowing 1991 miniseries Legacy to speak of the Mayas devotion to the cosmic cycles of creation and destruction.
“The Mayan Book of Creation; The Popul Vou, tells the story of how humans first came into this violent paradise: “The Earth will need nurturing. It will need bearers of respect for its divinity.” And so it was human beings who were given memory, to count the days and bear times burden…”
And indeed, for all these things we have common with our primate cousins; self-identity, language, learned behavior, one of the few things we have left on chimpanzees and other animals is the ability to perceive time. A chimpanzee can not conceptualize the past nor the future. Animals simply exist in the now, the immediate. They cannot speak of something that happened in the past and estimate how it will affect the future.
We can.
So why, having been given such a unique gift among all the animals on the planet, do so few of us use it?
The Destruction of the Al-Askari Mosque may have come quicker than most expected, but many historians, sociologists and political scientists have been expecting it since before the Invasion. We were shocked that it happened before the United States forces left Iraq, but not that it was happening at all. Sunni and Shiite Iraqis have been at each other throats for years; long, long before we got there, long before Saddam even came to power. We removed the one force in Iraq that was keeping the three disparate people in that arbitrarily created country from bloodshed and we have made no attempts to reconcile the populations of these groups, to make them all feel like they had a vested interest in Iraq survival as a single nation. Baghdad politicians bicker and quibble while the People are killing each other in the streets. And even if we had attempted to reconcile the different populaces, it’s highly questionable whether it would have been enough. Those grievances go back a long time. The truth is, they never truly stopped fighting each other, even under our noses.
From the Christian Science Monitor:
Shiite militias remain heavily armed and emotional, and on Sunday continued to move into some Sunni neighborhoods in the capital. Clerics are emerging as the only voices that can quell the violence, even as they've come under pressure from their followers to demand revenge. Even Ayatollah Sistani has advocated the founding of additional sectarian militias, drawn from southern tribes, to protect Shiite interests.
"It may well be that things will die down now,'' says Joost Hilterman, who runs the International Crisis Group's (ICG) Middle East Project in Amman, Jordan. "But the structural dynamic still points toward civil war, and the institutions that could restrain it have become severely weakened."
Sectarian violence since the Shiite Askariyah Shrine in Samarra was destroyed last Wednesday has claimed at least 250 lives, and the Sunni-based Iraqi Islamic Party says 120 Sunni mosques have been attacked. Dozens of the dead have been found executed, their hands bound, on the outskirts of Baghdad.
It’s just depressing as hell to watch humanity squander itself; both the Iraqis and the Americans.
And it goes on…
O.K. Bitch Session…
O.k. the rapture is starting to wear off a bit and I’m starting to see more of the details. I’m still happy as hell for the opportunity and trying to make the most of it but it’s also lonely sometimes too. The problem is that the people I would normally be drawn to; middle aged professionals, are my professors and the majority of people I am surrounded by are 19-22. Not that there is anything wrong with that age, I’m just not in it. I was going to the Whiskey, the Roxie and Gazarris during Metal’s second heyday when I was 17. I burned out on that whole party scene by the time I was 21. My idea of a great time now is about 6-12 of my best friends just hanging out somewhere and talking. This of course means you have to be somewhere quiet enough to actually hear each other. I like going to listen to music, but the mixer/DJ has to know the difference between amplified and “so-loud-you-can’t-actually-hear-it-anymore”. Most of them don’t, hence the reason they are working in clubs and not with professional musicians. So I don’t go out much.
And y’know, 19-22 year olds….
“OhMiGawdIWentToTacoBellAndTheyLikeForgotMyCheeseAndIHad ToWalkBackInThereToGetThemToPutItOnAndIWasLikeSoPissed BecauseIWasLateMeetingMyFriendsAndWeAllWereGoingToThisClub AndTinaWasWearingTheSameShirtIWasButItWasSoFunnyAnd IGotSoLitLastNightICan’tBeliveIDidThat.MyCousinJustHad ABabyIsn’tThatSoCoolI’mLikeAnAuntOrSomethingThisClassIs SUCHADragIJustWantToGoBackToTheDormAndGoToSleepY’know, I’veBeenHavingThisRecurringDreamLately….”
AAAAIIIIGGH!
I’m not kidding! This is behind me in Music Class….and that sample is abbreviated.
Whomever said that girls mature faster than guys...lied.
And was a girl.
(Truth is, we don’t mature faster, we can just cover it up better.) ;)
Granted they aren’t all like this. There are actually a lot of very together younger people that I have met in my classes but they are still in the go-out-and-drink-as-a-form-of-entertainment phase. Not that there is anything wrong with that phase, it’s just I been there, I done that and drunk people are only so entertaining. I’m just feeling a bit…isolated sometimes. A couple of my professors have been very kind as far as chatting with me after class, but there’s that weird dynamic going on. They’re my professors. It’s not like we can be pals, not to mention they are already in a place in their careers that I am trying desperately to get to. They’ve traveled everywhere and done everything and it’s a little intimidating. But I’m sure things will improve once I settle in some more, start poking around some of the local clubs outside of the area immediately surrounding campus. They certainly will improve once I get into grad school and run into other people who are coming back from “The Real World” to further their education (four of my neighbors are Grad Students and they’re all very cool people) and the kids I’m going to school with now get past the “Ohmygawd-my-parents-are-hundreds-of-miles-away”…issue.
FYI-97% on my History Exam and 94%(top score) on my Anthropology Exam.
Congrats to Matt Kenseth
They say the best payback is living well. Living well while the guy who took you out the week prior’s engine blows up also qualifies.
Mark Martin got 9th. (Yea! Dale Jr. got 11th (good job guys) and Elliott got…23rd? (Wassadeal there?)
O.K. Some Good News and Stuff:
Mars Orbiter on Track
These have long been two of my favorite websites: they're a virtual tours of the Caves of Lascaux, and Chauvet, two of the Paleolithic Art Caves closed to the public.
And That What Killed the Dinosaurs: They were gnawed to death.
Cool...
posted by KiplingKat | 9:39 PM
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