Winter Break

In case you were curious, what have I been up to? Oh, nothing. I watch tv all day, especially Criminal Minds, which I have become addicted to. In May, when I was here last, it was NCIS, and before that it was Stargate. Clearly, I have a problem. But whatever, I don't have tv back up north, I get distracted enough by Netflix.

I managed to read one book. I didn't like it, and I haven't been doing anything productive (like reading or preparing for prelims), but one book is better than nothing I guess. Anyway it was The Nun by Diderot. My brother threw it at me (literally) when I asked for "light" reading. It isn't really, at least not in my opinion. The book is about some girl whose parents hate her and send her to some convent where she is miserable and tries to leave and is tortured by all these Mother Superiors. (yes, that was a runon sentence). Whatever was sort of my attitude upon finishing it. Oh, and I just recalled that I read another book whilst stranded in the airport for 15 hours on Christmas Eve, but I cannot find it right now and I don't remember the title. It was good (better than The Nun), except for the ending, which sort of ruined my entire experience with it. Yes, I know annoying that I am talking about a nameless book so that you have absolutely no reference point for my comments. Sorry.

My sister just said the best thing ever, "It is like there is nothing to do except go to sleep!" I actually totally agree except that Criminal Minds comes on for 2 hours pretty soon. It is the only thing that keeps me going (totally just kidding I promise).

Hm...what else? Well, I went to see Sherlock Holmes, it is now officially on my very short list of favorite movies. I enjoyed every second of it; Robert and Jude were perfect, their ridiculous bickering and sarcastic comments were endlessly entertaining to me :) For at least this once, I wouldn't mind a sequel (and I really really hate useless inferior sequels to amazing movies - i.e Pirates of the Caribbean). Tomorrow, ooohh, tomorrow Daybreakers comes out. It is another vampire movie to add to the, at this point, annoying vampire craze, but at least it isn't a pre-teen romance movie about bloodsuckers. Luckily I have my sister and mother to go see it with me. I think I have used all of my horror movie passes up with my friends in the tundra. After forcing various people to see 30 Days of Night, A Haunting in Connecticut, and Fourth Kind they might refuse to go see any movie with me ever again. Which means that I will not get to see Paranormal State (which is still playing in random theaters), Antichrist, or Legion. So sad.

And folks, I think that is about all that has been happening here. Went shopping, met up with some friends, celebrated a few holidays...yep, that is everything. Hope everyone else's breaks were restful and/or entertaining.

'Tis the Season

..yes, the season for Gingerbread People! I made my first ever gingerbread men yesterday. As my friends pointed out I am almost a foreigner since I have never experienced that nor does my family do the whole Christmas Stocking thing. Oh well. We have other traditions like...um...hm...I'll get back to you on that one.

Besides that moment of fun, followed by the weirdest version of Trivial Pursuit ever (too many colors and dice for me to keep up), I really haven't been up to much of anything. I did have my wisdom teeth removed (2 of them), and parts of me are still numb. I did call the doctor to day and the nurse was all like "well I have heard of it lasting up to a week," It has almost been an week!! Appointment on Wednesday. A friend of a friend apparently experienced numbness for 2 years in her tongue. ( I wonder if this is an example of how urban legends and folk stories about dental procedures get spread?). Hopefully this is not permanent b/c my teeth feel really strange on one side and I don't like it :(

Almost end of the semester. Today is the final for Anthro, scantron and thus easy. I turned in a paper yesterday with the greatest title ever "Scary Monsters and Super Creeps: Revitalization, Revolution, and the Apocalypse in 17th Century Russia." It might be the best part of the entire paper, which kind of fell flat. I had all sorts of grand ideas for it, but it just ended up being sort of me rambling about how pissed off I was that all the historians keep writing aritcles about Old Belief in which they referred to the rituals as "insignificant' or "meaningless." So, yeah, I had to pull out Turner and Geertz (and Asad, cannot forget his critiques) to point them in the right direction. I have one other paper to finish...at some point. Not sure when, but it is about the Toronto festival I went to so lots of "ethnographic description" and such. Should be easier to finish than the one on Russia.

Maybe I will post something before Christmas, but if I don't - Happy Holidays. I will try to take pictures of sunshine and warmth to counteract the dreadful winter when I get home. Actually though the weather there hasn't been all that nice recently.

For now though pictures of gingerbread men:

Pirate and parrot

Ukrainian

Scottish highlander

Rock and Roll couple

Gingerbread boy with hat

I have others, may post later.

More Snow Day

I had to post this, it is too funny. I am seriously shocked that no one was crushed by the giant snowball.

Giant Snow Ball

Snow Day

I woke up to the delightful observation that someone had cleared a path from my door to the street. Thank you neighbors. I then helped a couple shovel out their car, not sure if they are the ones who cleared the porch, but thought I would make myself useful somehow. We cleared the driveway, then helped some other poor soul whose car completely buried. And then I made a snow-woman and played in the snow a bit, ended up soaked and freezing, but it was fun! :)
Pictures:

End of the Semester Strikes Again

You know how sometimes you take a class and at the time it was fun and interesting, but really you never read any of that stuff again, and it was kind of a waste of time ultimately? Ever had the opposite happen? Maybe you took a class, thought it was good on a basic level, but it wasn't super engaging? You didn't do all the readings, sort of skimped on the final paper....but then realized several years later, that you should have totally invested time in this course?

Yeah well, that happened to me today.

Actually, this post is a completely random shout out into the aethers to my Folklore Theory professor. His hefty reader for the course saved my life yesterday and today. I needed a literature review on some central themes in folklore - identity, performance, and tradition - but didn't have time to read and then remembered I had a huge packet of articles on key themes in folklore theory. It is not perfect, but it allowed me to turn in a 12 pg draft today whereas without it I would have had nothing. So, thanks :)

On a completely unrelated note, b/c I know you are super curious, below are the lyrics to the song that I am totally obsessed with at the moment, with the oddest title of Club Foot

One...take control of me?
Yer messing with the enemy
Said its 2..it's another trick
Messin with my mind, I wake up
Chase down an empty street
Blindly snap the broken beats
Said it's cut with a dirty trick
Its taken all these days to find ya
I tell you I want you
I tell you I need you

friends, take control of me
Stalking cross' the gallery
All these pills got to operate
The colour quits and all invade us
There he goes again
Take me to the edge again
All I got is a dirty trick
I'm chasin down the wolves to save ya

I tell you I want you
I'll tell you I need you
I... the blood aint on my face
Just wanted you near me

I tell you I want you
I'll tell you I need you
The blood aint on my hands

Just wanted you near me

I tell you I want you
I'll tell you I need you
The blood aint on my hands

Just wanted you near me