Summer?

I hope everyone is enjoying their winter breaks wherever they may be. It was like 80 here for Christmas, and most of the week. Today its a bit cooler, 60ish I think. I have been relaxing and eating too much, with only a couple of emails from students concerned with their grades. I don't have anything of interest to report, so I thought I'd post some pictures:

First off: Random spooky trees....

Christmas Sun

Ivan

Hermione (Demon Cat) (orange one at bottom) and Nikolai (right below)

The End

So, I am for real finished now. Finished grading, entered the grades....egg-citing! Now I just need to get serious about cleaning the rest of my apt. and I will be great.
Happy Holidays everyone if I haven't already told you in person!

Success!!

Ah, finally something nice to say - I finished grading!! Well, until tomorrow, but for now, I am finished!! Well, besides inputing grades into the computer.... Ok, so the semester isn't over yet, but there is hope that I won't have a complete mental breakdown before Dec 22nd.

Paper of 1000 Drafts

Seriously, I have been writing and rewriting this stupid paper since Friday when I wrote about half of it, then deleted it. I started over on Saturday, deleted another 2 pgs, and wrote out most of the rest. Then I decided it was too short, but ignored it Sunday, and finally, finally!!, finished today after adding paragraphs, deleting some, and extending others. 10 minutes left until Tuesday, and I really wanted to be working on my other paper today. Hopefully I can get it done tomorrow, and then do grading Wednesday and Thursday morning before the big final exam. Bleh!! Luckily unlike my paper for Research Methods, this one has a nice title (or a title at all I guess I should say) - "Violence and Dehumanization in the Secular World."
Stay warm, my weather notice is telling me that actual temps right now are -2, not considering the evil wind chill.. and Good Night!!

Random Update

I just had this completely sudden moment of inspiration, and I totally know what I am going to write about for my religion class - specifically, rather than saying my paper is on "Asad, secularism, and violence." Hurray.
My goal is to write it tonight. This will doubtless not work in any real way, but it would be awesome.
Until later...

SNOW!

I should have taken pictures, but didn't. We had (according to WDSU) 6.4 inches. So, I hope all of you weird winter type people enjoy yourselves. I will just stay inside and try to survive the end of the semester.

I am thoroughly aggravated with students now (as if I wasn't before). One comes in today grade grubbing - and with a B nonetheless. Wondering why I didn't give the bonus points - uh, well they are optional and the Webster online dictionary is not a "well-integrated scholarly reference." Soooorrrry!

The other is failing and wants to know how he can pass the class. Um, but he hasn't read any of the articles due for discussion tomorrow, nor seen the film, nor looked at the online lecture notes, or ever came to my office, or .... well, hopefully my point is clear. Grrrr!

Well, enough ranting for now, must immerse myself in peer reviews, grading, paper writing, and article/book reading. (and hiding from the scary snow).

Readings of 2008

I was thinking today about what I have read so far this year - whether anthropology, religion, or fiction. So I came up with a list of a few of my favorites, and a second list of the worst books that I have read*. Oh, and since I can't possibly remember everything I have read in a year, this list is highly biased.

Best of 2008:
Lies of Locke Lamora and the sequel Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
-- Complex plots, sarcastic humor, awesome one liners - everything I like in a book.
Reindeer People - by Piers Vitebsky
-- Beautiful writing, and super holistically informative.
The Gift by somebody who I am not motivated to figure out right now
-- Read much like a folktale, also beautiful writing.
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
-- A tad bit disturbing, but otherwise intriguing. Also super well-written, and left me guessing about the end, though other reviewers said they immediately "knew" who the culprit was. Maybe I'm just slow :)

Worst of 2008**:
First three books that are the epitomy of really bad stereo-typical fantasy writing that should never be published. The first two also happen to be the reason why I sometimes lose faith in sequels.
Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner.
--Oh god, unbelievably seriously awful. A miserable experience.
Iron Angel by Alan Campbell
-- A super huge disappointment b/c the first book is really good
The Crimson Sword by somebody (but who cares!)
-- 600 pgs of nonsense, not really sure how it got published.

The Devil's Labyrinth - by John Saul
-- racist, biased, stereotyping ridiculousness

And finally I might be vilified by this last one b/c I know that certain people (who shall remain unnamed) really love this book and this author, but I didn't at all.
Friction - by Anna Tsing



*Obviously I haven't posted anything about SF and probably won't, but everyone (I think) who reads this already knows about the conference, so I don't feel under too much pressure.
** Maybe I should add Talal Asad just for fun? ;)

Just Because

Forthcoming will be a couple of posts here about my touristy adventures in San Francisco. On the other blog I will post my reactions on the conference itself, and some of the papers I heard.

But first, because I am officially delirious, I have written a poem:

Attenuating Seasons And Days

Oh, shall I count the many ways

that the outstanding papers

over the course of several days

without flurries or frivolous capers

cited the man, Asad (power!)

quietly, with reverence, as if for vespers

while I leaned forward with a glower

(religion, history, and the secular)

listening to essays hour after hour?

Talal "no universal definition of religion" Asad

Talal "reads more than enough Foucault" Asad

Talal "at least he doesn't write in French" Asad!

Please don't leave a comment telling me how much I suck - yes, I know that I can't write poetry. But I had fun doing it, and besides I went to talk on anthropology and poetics - so there!!

November complaints

I am rather confused by how it is already November 15, and the AAAs are already next Wednesday. The last few weeks of school are always the worst. I have a proposal to write, which I should have been working on all semester, but, as usual, was not evening thinking about. I also have this crazy paper to write for my religion class. Of course, the professor loved my first paper (b/c it involved Asad), and after discussing various themes and potential topics in a meeting with him, it looks like I will once again be writing on Asad. I think the paper is going to be about religious and secular violence, something to do with power, and maybe nationalism. Actually its too much to think about right now.

But if anyone has suggestions for articles or books that I could use - feel free to tell me. I did find this potentially super useful anthology Violence in War and Peace edited by Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Philippe Bourgois. I glanced through it last night. Oh, and I guess I should really look at Discipline and Punish, but sometimes Foucault makes my head ache.

The Mist

I just finished watching the Mist, and am utterly depressed. It is really in fact not a monster movie at all - that is if you think what is happening with the spooky mist is the main point of the movie. No, according to Stephen King, people are monsters. I am sorry but....

spoiler alert

I did not enjoy watching some man shoot his son, only to be rescued 5 minutes later by the fucking military. I get it, but obviously S.K is not into redemption for the human race. Its rather telling that the only religious character in the movie is a raging psychopath.

I don't like sad movies - at all - that is why I watch horror films, and I feel seriously misled. The end is heart wrenchingly unbelievably disturbing and depressing.
To give the man credit though, while some people have said the movie was stupid I think they were only talking about the main plot, which isn't actually what the movie is about. The monsters and such crawling about and attacking people aren't really that frightening, and perhaps kinda silly. But in the end, the movie isn't about them - its about the people who find themselves locked in a building together and are each other's own worst enemies.

Really though, I didn't like it. Its one thing to kill everyone off at the end, but its entirely too much to have one man kill his friends only to be rescued. What is S.K really saying about people here? What does that say about him? (Alternately, what does my reaction say about me?)

Post-Halloween Grading Session

I am about to engage in a marathon grading session - must finish exams!

I did however, finally complete this insane paper on William Clifford and Soren Kierkegaard. I think I came up with a rather nifty title, hopefully the paper is as good -- "The Passion of the Infinite and the Vagaries of Belief: Faith, Reason, and the Individual in William Clifford and Soren Kierkegaard."

Party last night was much fun, I did manage to complete my costume. I will happily post pictures onto Facebook as a reward to myself when I finish grading.

ed. to add that at around 11pm I finally completed those god-forsaken exams. but then I made the mistake of looking at my neglected syllabi to see what else I hadn't done, I might have nightmares b/c of it...

Random

Things completed:
Plane ticket to SF
Voted

Things not completed:
Grading Exams
Grading Papers
Halloween Costume
Paper for 600
RIP Challenge
Plane ticket for NO

Do I detect a pattern here?

Well anyway - Happy Halloween!

Review: Exquisite Corpse

by Poppy Z. Brite

I had read this book before, but decided to tackle it again b/c I found a pristine copy in the used book story for $1.* Essentially, it is a love story - seriously, but to steal a line from Fiona McGavin "you shouldn't love anyone that much."

The plot very basically is that two serial killers, one from New Orleans and one from London meet up through chance in a bar called "The Hand of Glory"**, and decide to murder then eat this local from N.O. Actually, my favorite scene is the meeting b/w Jay and Andrew. Both are in the bar looking for a victim, but obviously get something completly unexpected, and find in each other similar affinities, which eventually leads to them attacking Tran (the local). There is a second subplot involving the potential victim's boyfriend who has AIDS and is angry at the world, but those sections have always annoyed me, and are the least interesting aspects of the book.

Actually, several parts of Exquisite Corpse are based on the real life story of Jeffrey Dahmer. And while I don't find many things truly horrifying, there are a couple of scenes in this book that are entirely too much. One occurs at the beginning involving a boy named Fido and some bleach, the second is near the end and has something to do with a screwdriver - enough said. Out of PZB's novels that I have read this is my least favorite, but her writing is still evocative and beautiful.

Now the real question is, can I complete this challenge and read one more book before the end of the month.....

* too good of a deal to pass up
**I'm too lazy to make sure that is the name, but I'm fairly certain.

Review: The Club Dumas

by Arturo Perez-Reverte

I had a really hard time getting in to the book. I started it about a month ago, but the first 90 or so pages were slow and failed to engage my attention. However, after that when I finally when back to the book, the pace picked up and I quickly finished reading it.

So, basically it is a mystery. The lead character Corso works in the book business. The main drive of the story revolves around him traveling in Europe to find out if The Book of the Nine Doors(supposedly a guide to summoning the devil) is authentic. At the same time, he is also doing a favor for one of his friends, and trying to determine the authenticity of a chapter from The Three Muskateers. What do Dumas and demonology have in common? Well, that is exactly what Corso is left wondering throughout most of the book.

The Club Dumas is full of literary history, random obscure facts, scandals, betrayals, and the occult. I almost didn't like the end, and was completely prepared to write that the only good part was the middle, but the very last page sort of redeemed the book for me, though I still feel that the strongest section as far as plot, pacing, and general interest is the middle chapters.

Review: Teatro Grottesco

This is my first review for the RIP book challenge which I haven't been doing so well, but I still might finish.

This collection of short stories was my first introduction to Thomas Ligotti, I definitely plan on reading more of his work. The style is not for everyone, in the way that both Lovecraft and Kafka are acquired tastes. Many of the stories are vignettes - brief glimpses into a parallel, but strange world. Most of the stories lack a clear beginning or a definite conclusion, the reader is sort of thrown into the scene without much explanation about where the story takes place, or exactly who the characters are. Part of his overall style involves the use of repetition, of a word, an image, a phrase, or a general idea/theme. In some stories, this works better than in others. "The Red Tower was for me an example where the repetition did not succeed to build a particular mood - it just became annoying.

On to the stories more specifically, while avoiding spoilers, the book is broken up into 3 sections; Derangements, Deformations, and The Damaged and Diseased. The first part was my favorite overall, and reminded me of Lovecraft the most though with a decidedly modern flavor. The strongest piece I felt was the very first story "Purity," which strongly reflects the "vignette" nature of the author's work. The horror invoked by this story and the others definitely stems from what is left unsaid or merely hinted at. The reader is allowed only a glimpse into what is quite likely a thoroughly terrifying "derangement."

The second section "Deformations" invoked Kafka, especially the Castle. The stories in this section are connected by a specific setting "the northern border town", a few recurring characters, and this shadowy yet utterly controlling (and terrifying) bureaucracy known as the Quine Organization. I thought the stories in the section were pretty strong too, especially the first one.

Finally, in the third section, we get to the title story "Teatro Grottesco, which I felt was perhaps the weakest as far as pacing and overall interest. In this story, the repetition of a phrase is supposed to tie the piece together, but really it fails to have any sort of memorable impact. I read through the book quickly up until this story, and then it took me about a week to finish it. The story after it isn't all that great either, which leads me to believe that in general this is the weakest section of the book, but admittedly I haven't quite finished the whole thing yet (I think I have two stories left).

Some of the stories definitely have an obvious element of horror, but others are more subtle, just plain weird, or maybe unsettling in a way that isn't quite definable. Overall, I would recommend Thomas Ligotti if you are into similar types of fiction, and I plan on reading some of his other books.

Get Thee Behind Me Satan

Scary Palin video

Hilarious Palin (Fey) video

Thats all I'm gonna say, you should really really watch both.

Results of Game

My school lost, it was ridiculous b/c they were soo winning, and then somehow just screwed everything up, the ball was intercepted in the last minute, on top of them already losing, thus making it totally impossible for them to do something miraculous in the last few seconds. Not a disappointment though in the sense that I still had a really fun time. Watching the student section move en masse was entertaining - almost as much as the game itself. Guess I have been missing out all these years.

still looking for a Halloween costume - suggestions, suggestions?!!

Halloween and Football

Any suggestions for costumes? I haven't been thinking about it much, until now that is, and I have zero clue what I should dress up as.

I will be going to my first college football game ever this weekend. Wish me luck!

Doctors Are Sadistic Evil Creatures

Went to the clinic today, b/c the glands in my throat on the right size were monstrously swollen. The doctor of course has to do a "culture", which being an anthropologist doesn't sound too bad.*
However, the method was to take this long spiky thing and jam it as hard as possible into the back of my already extremely swollen and sore throat. Doctor of course does preface this act by saying "it might hurt a little" A little!? I honest to God nearly cried. Supposedly I will feel better in 24-48 hours, which means that tomorrow whilst I am teaching I will be absolutely miserable.**

Incidentally, in reference to the notes at the bottom, I have decided I use ( ) too much, so I am reverting to footnotes. Just a change of scenery :)


*yeah, I know it was a bad joke
**even more so than usual

......

Taking four days off to go to Toronto last weekend was not a good idea. I will spill all the interesting tidbits about that adventure on the other blog since it is Ukrainian related. Amazing how behind one can get, though I have been fairly productive this weekend.

Yesterday, I went to a Hungarian dinner at my friend's church (see, I did use the word "church" and not "cult"). The food was good, but very very different from Slavic cuisine. The best thing I believe was the cherry soup, and since I am hopeless at cooking, I will have to find someone else to make it for me. There was also some dancing. I only saw a bit of it, but the couple was pretty good (much better than those other dancers). The woman did a lot of spinning, and everyone in the crowd had basically the same question "are you dizzy?" when she finished. Apparently it just takes some getting used to, and then you are fine. I would have fallen over - seriously.

What is rather funny though, is that I bought a necklace there, supposedly from Hungary. Its pink, and I have only one pink shirt, but it was very pretty, and I couldn't resist. Anyway today, I was in the grocery store and this woman tried to buy it from me. She was serious too! Not sure if anyone else has had such an experience, I definitely haven't (probably b/c I live in my own little fashion world). She didn't seem very impressed by the fact that it was Hungarian though; no, she just thought it was "beautiful."

Thanks everyone!

For the past few years, probably since around 2003, my birthdays have been pretty terrible. Not necessarily the exact day, but usually the few weeks leading up to it have resulted in me not really liking this time of the year.

However, this year was very nice. I had a pre-birthday party with some friends who had just had their birthdays, and tonight we went out for drinks and food. I also got some exciting news about this weekend. Nothing extravagant, but enough for me to say that this is probably the best birthday that I have had in a really long time.

Oh and supposedly my sister is sending me some amazing present in the mail, which I will have to wait until next week to see, but the way she giggles every time she mentions it has me rather impatient to see what exactly she has decided to send me.

R.I.P Challenge III

Through a convoluted series of clicking I happened to see this blog, and was intrigued. Basically its another book challenge and while I am doing at least 2 (possibly three) over at LT, I think this one will be easier for me to finish.

For Peril the First (there are some different choices offered on the website), I will be reading four books in the horror/suspense/mystery category. All the books I have chosen were already scattered about my apt. waiting to be read (some started then abandoned b/c I have developed ADD).

So here is my pool of books for the challenge:
The God of the Razor by Joe R. Lansdale
The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte
City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff Vandermeer
Cabal by Clive Barker

Might reread some Poppy Z. Brite in honor of the previous post, or maybe Tanith Lee...but at least for sure the four mentioned above.

Because Poppy Z. Brite said to...

# Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
# Bold all the items you've eaten.
# Cross out any items that you would never consider eating (or eating again)

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frog’s Legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Cloverfield and ANTM

Even though class has started and I have been super overwhelmed today thinking about how I will manage all of these insanely work-intensive courses, plus apply for grants, in addition to eating and sleeping every once in a while.... I spent the afternoon watching the movie Cloverfield, and the second half of the 2-hour premier of America's Next Top Model.

Cloverfield was ok. Not my favorite movie ever, but definitely not the worst. Wasn't super scary, and I guess it was lacking a certain "completeness." I'm sure people will justify it by saying, oh but the premise of the movie takes care of that b/c supposedly it was filmed by some guy and his friends as they were running for their lives. Well, maybe, but it needed something more to tie it all together. And the ending, I mean I guess I know what happened, and I harass my mom all the time b/c she wants every single tiny possible conceivable storyline/question answered, but again there could have been something more at the ending, than the way they did it. But really I give it like a B.

On the other hand ANTM. I don't know why I am so addicted to this show. I think it is Mr. Jay, definitely not Ms. Jay, he is annoying. Its definitely not Tyra she is annoying too. But its seriously addictive, in the way that facebook is addictive (conspiracy? are they working together?...). This season features a transgender model. My friend, when I tell her this "oh did you hear..." replies with "They have been talking about that for months" Ok, so I don't read "People" magazine or follow the gossip columns. I'm not that obsessed. Should be an interesting season, but honestly I think its always interesting - yes every single episode - even when nothing really happens.

Now, I really am going to go read some articles, for a class that I might potentially drop, but just in case....

Updated to add: serious rambling going on in the post, not sure if any of these are actual grammatical sentences...ah well, these things happen...

Update from the Northshore

So far, what I have heard is that it wasn't that bad. My friends in St. Tammany Parish don't have power, but say the storm wasn't too terrible. I think I am more nervous b/c I am not there, and just have a bit of an overreaction to hurricanes now after Katrina, and I should remember that I have in fact lived through a couple of Cat. 2 storms.

My mom in MS says they are fine, they in fact still have power, but its still hard to get in touch with people in St. Tammany Parish, namely my father and brother.

Did you know fact of the day: 2 million people evacuated Southern La. That is a lot of people!

Still a bit worried about my friends closer to Lafayette, they were really close to the eye of the storm, but again it has seriously weakened, so they should be fine. Fingers crossed.

Updated to add: There was just a tornado warning near my family in Mississippi, so they aren't out of it yet. Still haven't heard from dad or my brother. In Plaquemines Parish, the water has overtopped the levee, but it is not breached. They are dumping sand and putting up sandbags, but even some places in St. Bernard are getting flooded. Pretty serious, as water is also going under a lock there.
Water was earlier coming over the seawall in Mandeville, its pretty low lying and tends to flood, but I'm not sure how serious of a situation that it currently.
Baton Rouge got perhaps the worst wind of the storm. Gusts up to 91mph. They showed some scenes near LSU and it looked pretty bad with trees down everywhere, and that was before the main part of the storm had even passed through.
And yes, I promise that I have been doing other things than constantly watching the news.

Floodwalls and Levees

A little while ago, water began pouring over the floodwall at the Industrial Street Canal. Did I mention that Gustav was a Cat. 2 hurricane. Oh, I didn't, well then.

Hurricane Gustav is a Category 2 hurricane. These shiny new reinforced supposedly better floodwalls I believe are supposed to withstand a Cat. 3 hurricane, which Gustave was right before it made landfall, and which they originally predicated would be a 4 or 5 at landfall. But why dont' you see what FEMA had to say about the levee situation. I really truly thought that the plan was to build them high enough and strong enough (though breakage of the levee is not an issue right now, someone reported on the channel 6 website that she thought there was water coming under one of the floodgates) to withstand a Cat. 3. I can't get over this, seriously.

As the reporter is watching the water coming over "like a waterfall" they ask one of their "experts" what he thinks about the situation. Basically his response (not an exact quote) "They weren't built high enough. They must be about 15 feet, and they should be around 18 -20." But he was estimating, so I'm not saying that the levees are not high enough I don't know enough about how that works - what I am saying is that whatever they did they managed to still screw up the the wall somehow b/c Gustav is only a 2.

Updated to Add: I might have overreacted a little bit, as of right now the water is no longer pouring over the wall, so I guess it is ok. But I stand by the fact that the scene of that water coming over made me really nervous, and I was completely justified in being upset about it :)

On a more personal note, can't call anyone. My mom swore she'd call me this morning well before the hurricane hit. She isn't is La, rather MS. and the weather was still fairly bad there, but nothing like where my father and brother are. Last I heard 35,000 people are without power in St. Tammany parish. This is to be expected. I'm sure their power is out, and cell phone coverage might be interupted for a bit, but also I think there is just an overload of people calling. I couldn't get in touch with my sister in Northern La., probably b/c of this last reason. She is too far from the storm for it to be due to power/cell outages.

One last thing, my friend who lives in St. Landry parish stayed. This makes me SUPER nervous b/c the eye of the storm was headed more in that western direction, around Lafayette. As of about an hour or maybe two ago only 50 people were w/o power in that parish, but I think that was more due to the fact that the storm hadn't quite made it there yet. Honestly of all the people down there that I know, I am most worried about her. She lives very near the Atchafalaya River and her parents live right across the levee over there.

More on Gustav

"On Saturday, Gustav stretched 900 miles across and it continued to grow. In contrast, the footprint of Katrina was about 400 miles in diameter when it hit."

That is the scariest thing I have heard all day. It is huge!! So even if it does make a sudden turn further west it still is going to affect all of Louisiana.

My mom and grandma are leaving, my sister is up in Northern La. My brother and father are staying with the animals. Lots of my friends are staying. I was pretty ok, until I listened to Nagin's speech, and while I do feel he exaggerated a lot, he kind of made me panicky.

It is now expected to hit tomorrow, rather than Tuesday. They were saying that even though there are other weather systems in the gulf that could affect the direction of the hurricane, the thing is so big that it is unlikely. But still, I shouldn't start freaking now, since there is the potential that nothing super terrible will happen.

Hurricane

I wasn't worried too much about this one, I mean slightly, but nothing to panic about. Well, now the damn thing, Gustav, which was a mere Tropical Storm though nearly a Category 1 Hurricane, is a Category 3!! (For those of you who don't know 5 is the highest, and while Katrina started out as a 4 or 5, when it made landfall it was a 3). I am personally no where near the storm, being on the opposite side of the country, but my family is there.

According to the weather channel the storm hit a patch of very warm water near Cuba, and went through a period of rapid intensification - i.e. the pressure drops, it gets more organized, and the wind speed goes up. All in the last 24 hrs. Right now, they don't think that New Orleans will be in the direct path, but these storms are so hard to predict, and besides even if N.O doesn't get a direct hit, all the rain and tornadoes spawned by hurricanes can still cause damage to the city and surrounding areas.

Incidentally, yesterday was the 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. People are so nervy though. Ray Nagin, the mayor of N.O., has already ordered all the tourists out of the city by noon. When I talked to my parents last week, they said people were already buying up all the water, canned goods, and generators. This was before Gustave was even a serious threat.

The city is definitely on the ball though. No mass shelters in the city (remember the Super Dome), and they are trying to bus as many people out as posssible, although really the public transportation down there sucks. Also, the evacuation of special needs patients started this morning, along with some other people who would have no other way out. Right now it is not a mandatory evacuation, but that will go into effect probably tomorrow. However, in St. Charles Parish and St. Bernard, very near Orleans Parish, a mandatory evacuation will go into effect this afternoon.

updated to add: that now its a Category 4 hurricane. Over the past 3 hours the pressure has dropped by 20 mb, and the wind speed is 145mph. It is expected to increase after passing over (and no doubt destroying) Cuba. Once it hits the Gulf the meteorologists expect it will slow down, to make landfall around Tuesday. Currently they are still expecting it to go more West of New Orleans, but that still puts the city (and my family) on the bad side of the storm - the side with the most rain, and the highest possibility of tornadoes. Talked to my family, they are not evacuating, and have no intentions of doing so, but do report that the major highways are nearly impassable right now b/c of the number of people that have decided to leave the area.

Success

I made it through another meeting for school. Hurray! Seriously though towards the end I wanted to bang my head against the wall - honestly! It was already scheduled to be 4 hours long - and then the speaker went over. Not good. And 90% of the talks I had heard before.

However, even more importantly, I finished my skirt. Its a bit short, but that has more to do with the overall unalterable width of the fabric, rather than any mistake on my part. Of course, its definitely not perfect and I totally messed up the top, but I figure if I wear a longer shirt then no one will notice that part. Its white though, and presently a bit see through so I have to make an underskirt, or buy a slip - probably the later.

Next project: probably a bag of some sort, so that I have an excuse to buy crazy fabrics. This is unlikely actually to happen any time soon though b/c school starts next week, and I will be super busy.

One last note, I have talked some of my friends into taking Zumba with me! Belly dance isn't offered anymore as an excercise class (though I can still join the club at my university, which I might do b/c I love the music and it gives me a break from anthropology), so the only other one that I might slightly like is Zumba (not taking hip-hop, tried it once, and was totally lost). I think this one is Latin based, and the web site makes it sound fun - but that might just be due to a successful marketing campaign.

Food and Friends

The past few days have been busy, but super fun. A couple of my friends that I met this summer came to visit. It was a bit weird seeing them here at first; in part b/c I never really thought it would happen, and also b/c it was just out of context.

I have eaten entirely too much food with them since Monday though. The first night I had amazing samosa, and then a couple of good (half priced) martinis. The next day we wandered about town a bit, had some beers, and later a mutual friend grilled all sorts of tasty food for us (steak, chicken, mushrooms, peppers, eggplant), and we spent about 8 hours eating and drinking Ukrainian vodka (cranberry-amazing-delicious-vodka). We played Ukrainian Scrabble, which I suck at, but it was fun (or funny, not sure which). Then we made a random decision to go to this dive bar (after midnight) where they have Euro-techno night on Tuesday's. It was hilarious, and a bit scary at the same time.

Today we had lunch at a restaurant that is apparently run by a cult. The people there were friendly though, so I don't think its a bad cult, but sort of a Christian/communal/miracle-faith based cult (or New Religious Movement to be non-biased). Then for dinner I wasn't really hungry, but we went to an Indian/Tibetan place. The fried vegetable fritters came with some sort of tomato sauce that was seriously heavenly, but I couldn't finish all of them. The waitress was nice enough to provide me with a huge to-go bowl full of the sauce.
I don't think I can eat anything else for at least 2 days.

Oh, the weekend

I have for several months now, very much wanted a white skirt, but a long flowy one. Unfortunately just b/c I desire it so much, there is no store anywhere that carries the kind I want. My friend's suggestion - lets make skirts! Ok, sure sounds like a great idea, but first off she doesn't know how to sew (no offense to her, its just what she insists on pointing out all the time), and second I can sew, but only simple things, and def. not using patterns - I am map and pattern illiterate. When sewing I just tend to kinda stumble around until I figure out something that works for me. Making a skirt however, of the kind I want, requires some semblance of a pattern. So I looked online, find some ideas, mostly for a type called a "circle skirt", but really liked the variation called "pixie skirt" b/c the hem hangs unevenly. Well I had some fabric lying around with which I was going to make curtains, but didn't, and decided to practice before I went out and bought nice white fabric (a task for tomorrow). I couldn't finish it just yet, b/c the instructions online say due to something called "bias" I have to let it hang a bit before I hem it. Basically, now it isn't finished, and I don't know if I will wear b/c the color is a bit bright, but here is a picture.
anyway, its not perfect, but once I hem it I think it will be pretty decent figuring its the first one I ever made.
Also this weekend, I went to a festival, but that is chronicled on the other blog, I had brunch with some friends b/c it was and is their birthdays, and now I have been talked into planning a joint birthday celebration for the friend whose b-day was today. Which is fun in a way b/c its at her house, not mine, so I won't be doing the clean up (just kidding, I promise to help out). On the other hand, while we have an overlapping circle of friends, there are some people she might want there that I don't know, and people I might know, but she doesn't. I'm thinking of making up a nice word doc., some sort of pretty invitation (you know b/c it really isn't necessary to clean one's apt. or study a foreign language, or apply for grant money...I just have soo much free time!), but not sure yet.

So, Monday I go shopping for fabric, Tuesday I have a meeting, and then hurray my friends I met in Ukraine will be here, and after that all is downhill b/c I have more meeting and then school. Egg-citing!

Non-Ukraine/School Related

I've decided the other blog will be things about Ukraine, and perhaps school. In an effort to attempt to post things more frequently, this area will be for other things. Such as the books I spend all day reading, when I should be studying Ukrainian, or for things that deter me from writing grants (almost anything in fact) - but the point is obvious. I'm not very good at writing for entertainment purposes, but my friend - whose blog is infinitely amusing - assures me that one can write about almost anything. Maybe I'll review that stack of books I dragged home from the library if I ever finish them.