This:

That is all. 

Be Seeing You.

I suppose this means I'll have to finish the Tele-TARDIS series

Re=watched a bunch of Doctor Who for the first time since I initially saw it. Freaked out a little when THIS happened.

Be Seeing You.

Statement of Purpose, Take 1.

I sent off my first application today. In case all three of you who read this blog were wondering, here's what I came up with to explain what the hell I want to study:

I am interested in studying taphonomy as an integrated process of interacting ecological systems that are driven by biological, physical, and temporal conditions.  Biochemistry and ecological biology in particular inform my approach to forensic anthropology, so though my interest is focused on the breakdown and decay of the dead body I am also curious about how this process interacts with the surrounding environment.  I think of the process of decomposition as the discrete microenvironment or ecosystem of the body that was produced during life losing homeostasis and reintegrating with the surrounding (macro) environment.

Traditionally, forensic investigators have focused on specific facets of the taphonomic process (e.g. entomology, toxicology, anthropology, etc.) with less emphasis on quantifying these processes as an integrated ecological system. Micro systems (chemical changes, bacterial activity, entomological life cycles) focus on the discrete body or portions thereof, while macro-environmental systems such as climate, weather, and animal scavenging transform and engage the surrounding ecosystem as well as the body itself. No one system acts in a vacuum, and the state of the remains reflects the interaction of multiple systems.  I am interested in examining these system interactions and how such crossover affects the forensic record. Recent research in the field has begun to take this quantitative holistic approach, but much work remains to be done.

Though the taphonomic process is by no means confined to our species, and I strongly believe that investigators should be familiar with faunal taphonomy, I am attracted to the field of forensic taphonomy because it represents a junction between science and the American legal system.  I firmly believe in the idea of the “citizen scientist:" that is, the concept that any individual,  even those without formal scientific training, can, with a minimum of instruction, understand and appreciate given scientific concepts and processes and the reasonable interpretation thereof.

Though science plays an essential role in contemporary forensic investigations and legal cases, it sometimes becomes a liability in the courtroom where investigators and jurors may get bogged down in overly technical jargon and an excess of details. The validity of our criminal justice system relies on the assumption that the jury is making an informed decision. Decomposition is fascinating simply from an ecological standpoint, and understanding the taphonomic process may improve our comprehenstion of bioscience in general, but the science is of limited value to the legal community if jurors do not understand and accept the validity of the evidence. Taphonomy is an extremely complex topic, yet it can be presented in very basic terms. Many aspects of taphonomic investigation are not yet commonly presented as evidence in the courtroom, but that will likely change in the near future, and we will need to account for a gap in public appreciation and comprehension of taphonomic science.  Closing this gap presents a valuable opportunity to enhance the public understanding of the basic tenets of the science and to foster legal decisions that are as well-informed as possible.  My experience in theater and visual arts has shown me the power of creative presentation. I am confident that with a little directed effort, we can establish guidelines for presenting evidence that will make taphonomic science fully intelligible to any jury.

That's right, bitches! I WANT TO DO EVERYTHING EVER.

Because I Did

I decided to add hyperlinks to that previous post and found something by Steve Wozniak that talks about the early days of Silicon Valley. It's pretty great.  That dude totally reminds me of Matthias the Mouse from  the Redwall series.

Popol Vuh

In a few weeks I'm going to a memorial service. It's been put together by a bunch of ex-NeXTies, so I can only imagine how intensely nerdy this might be.

Speaking of nerdy, somehow I've ended up teaching a friggin' zooarchaeology unit. I only realized this yesterday, so now I have to scramble and get some sort of vaguely coherent reference material together. Like, basic stuff. Basic bone biology, basic animal taxonomy. Basic directional terminology.  I grew up in a biology household, and all the work I've done on this collection so far has been with a woman who is totally down with scientific classification and identification and bone formation and all that stuff. Turns out, THIS IS NOT STANDARD.

Me:"Have you ever used a field guide?"
Student:"I've seen some before. They were really big." *implication that they were too terrifying to use*
Me (inside my brain): "Oh...this is gonna be painful."

Bone cleaning is all well and good, but you really shouldn't be doing it without knowing what you're looking at. I will FORCE the learning on them. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!
Oh? You want access to this raccoon boiling session? 1. What the hell is wrong with you, weirdo? 2. You have to LEARN STUFF first!!!

....Now if only I knew what I should be teaching.  Did I mention that I've never taken a zooarchaeology class? Nor have I taken any kind of osteology class...EVER. I am so not qualified to be doing this.  I forget that I have actually taken shit tonnes of biology classes and have a fair amount of hands on experience and also, unlike these students, apparently, I know how to use a book. Or even *gasp* several books AT THE SAME TIME!!!!!

Sorry. I realize that these people are really young and almost certainly haven't had the same sort of access to information as I have always had. Gonna go out on a limb (ha!) and say that they probably don't have horse bones in the back yard....or a deer skull on the TV.

The best part is that right now we're working on (half of) a brown pelican. This is the first bird I've done, so it's all new and exciting!!! (read: I haven't the faintest idea what the fuck I'm doing)  Fortunately we live in the future and I have the interwebs at my disposal....though it's surprisingly difficult to find a good example of a pelican skeleton online.  What I have learned that birds skeletons are all WILDLY DIFFERENT so even the reference bird skeleton pictures I have are only sort-of useful since the pelican differs in many specifics. Thank you class Aves for making this not easy.  Have YOU ever Googled "brown pelican phalanges"?

Other winning moment today:
Student:"Oh! You're on Twitter?!"
Me: "Yes." *changes subject* No, you do not get my Twitter username. It's pretty fucking easy to track me down.

Did I mention that I got asked to write a letter of recommendation? I really tried to persuade her that I was not the best person to do that since, you know, I have ZERO QUALIFICATIONS. No dice. Apparently in her world I count as a legitimate "academic advisor" or some shit. We're doomed.

Be Seeing You.

Ap-pap-pap-pap-pap-pap-pap-pap-lications

I'm having issues properly articulating my feelings about Steve Jobs dying. It feels a little like the death of a second cousin twice removed or however you wish to define that guy you met once at a family gathering and continued to hear about over the years through the grapevine.

The cousin that was a genius with a reality distortion field. Yeah, I hear that he did act like a real jerk much of the time, and that was kind-of part and parcel with the whole deal.

I hear people sneer at "Mac fanboys" and Macs a lot. All I can think, every single time, is "Do you like the internet? Do you happen to know what kind of system it was invented on? Oh, you've never heard of NeXT? GET THE FUCK OFF MY LAWN."

I grew up alongside the Mac OS. I believe it was the ][gs (but I'm not positive, forgot to ask my dad, and can't find the answer after a desultory search of the Interwebs), but one of the early systems had a recording of Steve talking about how awesome this new computer was and stuff. That's not important. What IS important is that this was the sample in a sound editing program. Basic stuff, like the ability to copy one short part of dialogue (like, oh say, the "pap" sound out of "applications") and then re-insert it a whole bunch of times so instead of a smooth speech, the word sounded more like "apapapapapapapapapap...lications." Not the most complex edit in the world, but to a young girl, it was HILARIOUS. Also then apparently I recorded something that started with me saying "Hello Mr. Computer..."

When I say I'm a child of Silicon Valley, I don't just mean location. In fact, we didn't move over the hill until I was 8. Before then we lived over on the coast in Montara, which was full of all sorts of weirdos. Jef Raskin lived a few houses down from my parents before he moved into a classy house over in Pacifica (and by "classy" I mean "not falling apart and really kind of sketchy in an endearing way like the great majority of houses in Montara"). One aspect of the early computer industry that I think a lot of people either forget or don't know is that it was a originally a bunch of completely crazy nerdy weirdos who did this stuff for fun. My dad went to the Homebrew Computer Club meetings at SLAC (though he wasn't at the one where the Steves introduced the Apple and doesn't actually remember seeing Jobs there...though I pointed out that it was a lot of super crazy brilliant weirdos in one small space and maybe he blended in).  My mom went to a few of the meetings and mostly remembers that someone would pull out something like a home-made logic board with a bunch of wires and a display of lights that would flash 888888 and everyone else would get super excited and crowd around it.  When my parents went to the West Coast Computer Faire (where they met the arguably psychotic Captain Crunch), they had their picture taken and then it was digitized and printed out using ASCII symbols. We're talking CUTTING EDGE SHIT here!!!

The only time I remember formally meeting Steve Jobs was at a NeXT Christmas party. My sister must have been 9 or 10 and was not at all pleased about having to wear a nice clothes. In fact, she insisted on bringing jeans with us in the car (I assume so she could change into them afterwards). Anyway, at some point during the party, Steve arrived and my parents introduced us to him. The man was wearing a full-on Canadian leisure suit: beat-up jeans and a denim jacket. As soon as we were done talking with him and he walked off, my sister turned around, went out to the car and changed into her jeans.

I don't care how iconic the silver haired guy in a black turtleneck became. Every time anyone mentions Steve Jobs, the image I get in my mind is of that dark-haired dude in the jeans and jean jacket at a company Christmas party.  That, and a voice saying "apapapapapapapapapapapap...."

Be Seeing You.

"I happen to have some Paleo-bond at home."

Last night I was a foolish fool without eye protection and I sprayed carburetor cleaner in my eye. To be fair, I was spraying it ON something and it was splash-back that I got in my eye, so it's way less dumb than it could be, but still. It was a pretty idiotic move.


It turns out that 2+ decades of reading safety labels has paid off because I knew exactly how   one is supposed to respond to that situation.  How many times have you read some variation of, "run cold water over eye for 15 minutes"?. In retrospect, I should have just gotten in the shower, but I didn't think of it at the time. I tried the sink first (extremely awkward), then the hose for a long while(it's really cool to stare down the barrel of a running hose), and then my mom kindly obliged me by running saline and water over my eye for a good 10 or so minutes. The hardest part of it wasn't so much the sensation of water directly on the eyeball as managing to not drown while attempting that. When you're running water over your eyeball with a hose or from a tap, the water splashes all over your nose and mouth. It makes it hard to breathe. We obviously need to get a lab-style eyewash sink installed. 


Today you can hardly tell which eye it was, so it really wasn't that bad. At the time, I did think, "Well what's the worst that could happen? I guess I could go blind in one eye. Hey, at least it's not both eyes!"  Also, though this was all kinds of crazy solvents, I'm pretty sure it doesn't have anything extremely corrosive in the mix, which was good news for my sclera and friends.  


Totally worth it though. I have the beginnings of my Halloween costume. Jabba is going to look repulsive. 


In other news, I went into the lab for the first time since I left for Burning Man.  I friggin' adore the Foothill Anthro department. School starts on Monday, so everyone there was in HOLY SHIT OMFG!!! mode which is always hilarious and amazing to witness. When I walked in, most of this writing was already on the board. 

Yes, I blurred out her face because I'm paranoid about the Interwebs.

There are one or two things we need to do.

My coworkers decided that getting me into grad school was a lab goal.  Two of them are looking to do PhD's, and realized they should add themselves to that list too. It's a good thing we ran out of whiteboard space, because god knows what else we would have gone into listing. Though if you're really good at reading tiny scrawl, you can see it says "dry erase"on there because it was determined that we could really use another board. 

Be Seeing You.

Oh hai guys!

"GONNA TAKE A LOT TO TAKE ME AWAY FROM YOUUUUUUU...."

Oh, sorry. That was just me singing along to some really quality music. I've compiled a list for my drive that combines the music we listened to in Ecuador and other random shit I've listened to compulsively on the way to Burning Man in the past. I'm giving someone a ride back to San Francisco, and by that point, I'm pretty sure it won't particularly faze her that I'm belting out bad dance music ballads, our site song, Baby Got Back, a song from the Goofy movie, our other site song, and dancing to some Ghanian pop music and a quality selection of others. Incidentally, I'd never seen the Aben wo aha music video before. So good. Apparently when my cousin/surrogate brother (who is not actually blood related) was in Ghana, when this came on in the market, everyone put their shit down to dance, and then when the song was over, resumed normal actions. Like that scene in the Cantina, except with Daddy Lumba and Ghana and a marketplace rather than Obi Wan, Tattoine, and the most wretched hive of scum and villainy you will....Uh...I can't remember how the line ends. Clearly it's been too long since I watched Star Wars.

OKay, I'm going to go continue on some art. This is part of what my brain looks like right now (it's important that you listen to the correct soundtrack (it's only :30 of bad acting before you hit the unfairly catchy tune):

Also, I learned drinking games for Roxanne and Thunderstruck. There was a lot of drinking on that trip. Well, lots for me. Mostly because there were no other intoxicants. Not that I would ever indulge in other intoxicants. Except chocolate.

Also I had my nails done. Only after it was done, I realized that the color would not match with my dress for the wedding. Then I decided to go with it. That also means I can wear my maroon shoes and not bother getting new ones.

Be Seeing You

"The Technology's Taking Over!!"

I got derailed and still haven't even started Fire Monks. I like that I'm procrastinating on reading a book about Buddhism

Moving Holes: Growing Up Western Soto Zen Buddhist

I'm about to start reading Fire Monks which chronicles the 2008 Basin Complex fire and the efforts to protect Tassajara.

When I was a child, there were two tales at the core of my personal mythological cannon: May Day on the Yale campus*, and the defense of Tassajara against the Marble Cone fire of '77.

This can be the latter story for the next generation.  I've yet to read this rendition of it, but I already know one version of this tale.  I remember seeing Tassajara smack in the middle of the "burn box" (a huge tract of fire-adapted wilderness area that the forest service decided to let burn), the "3 Day Fire" (the fire was "going to arrive in three days" for weeks), and the day the fire finally hit. I remember simultaneously worrying about my home and accepting that it might burn down. I remember going in 10 days after the fire had passed with ashes coating everything and smoke from Miller Canyon heavy in the air. I know the awesome ecology of the story in far, far greater detail than I'm sure is discussed in this book and the amazing response of the landscape.  For me, the fire also means two weeks of shoveling sandbags and cutting brush to prepare for the massive landslides and floods that could have resulted (they didn't much, but that's not the point. The point is that I spent two weeks filling sandbags by hand and then Tommy Little Bear came in with his sandbag making machine and made about five times as many in something like two days. This didn't particularly bother me; I'm familiar with moving walls several inches & piles of firewood several feet. Sometimes, that's just how it goes. Actually, I still feel a deep connection with sandbags. Bizarre, I know.)

I am aware that, as with anything involving a community of people, there exist certain complex webs of feeling surrounding the publication of Fire Monks and the portrayal of the "Tassajara Five" as heroes...or something.  For me, it 'boils' down to an afternoon in the hot plunge in the Summer of 2009 (I can't remember all of the exact words, so DON'T QUOTE ME ON THIS EXCHANGE, YOU FOOLS) when a woman visiting from another Zen center turned to Mako and said something along the lines of,

"I just really really wanted to thank you."
Mako, genuinely confused, replied with something akin to (but more gracious than),"wait...for what?" Woman: "Uh...saving Tassajara!"
Mako: "Oooh right. That." [general laughter and joking at her initial befuddlement]
Mako: [in a disaffected hipster voice] "The fire was so 2008."

For me, this story will never be about ego or politics or outside perceptions, or any of the other things some members of the SFZC community may carry.  In my mind, it's about sandbags, a monk eating a pint of Ben and Jerry's with a spoon, and fields full of flowers you only see in the immediate wake of a fire.

As Gene DeSmidt wrote:

THEY ARE NOT HEROES
JUST 5 PRACTICING ZEN MONKS.....
IN DIFFERENT ROBES !

Plus, this photo is hilarious:

I think my favorite part is Graham's hat (far left). 

Be Seeing You

*that story involves the trial of Bobby Seale, the National Guard, and a brilliant diplomacy move by the Dean of the college. It's a great story. Maybe someday I'll share with you the rendition I've heard over the years.

"I don't think the Inkas had a sustainable empire."

I'm back from llama lland. Time to dive into Space Madness.

Photobooth: it makes my life easier.

Be Seeing You.

Boil Update: I ate cuy whilst in Ecuador. I didn't eat the brain, but I did try to eat the eye. Except the retina/iris/pupil was too hard. I did eat fish eye though. In the case of the cuy, I discovered that I was much less disconcerted by eating the head than friends who ate meat. For me, eating the head is just like eating any other body part. Okay, tongue is kind-of scary. Not going to lie. It was a glorious moment on my trip when this other girl was like, "um...I don't want to eat a cuy head, but once you've finished eating, can I look at your dinner?"  See, people? I AM NOT THE ONLY PERSON WHO DOES THIS.

It took me over a year to finish this damn thing, but in that time, only one person thought of it. ONE PERSON on the interwebs. Interwebs, you are falling down on the job. Or sleeping. Or something. Look, the point is (there is no point): 

When I thought of this, I was worried posting it might break the interwebs. I'm no longer in the throes of delusion.

Three Bad Wolf Moon (#3BWM)

 Be Seeing You. 

.....actually I won't be seeing you for about a month, Interwebs.

It's a Perfect Example of What it is

At the beginning of September (look man, sometimes it takes me a while to finish a post) I went traipsing off into the great alkali yonder otherwise known as L'Homme Flambe.  I was tired and a little under the weather for much of the week, so I had a relatively low key time. When I got home, I made an album on Facebook called something like, "The Most Mundane Burning Man Album Ever" which occasioned several comments that challenged the "mundane" nature of the set. Then my friend Randall who actually has a real blog wrote a post about a postcard I sent him which, again, challenged the mundane nature of my experience.

For the past several months, I have been deeply deeply involved in a mammoth dig (the photos are by a professional photographer friend of one of our PI's: Best. Diagnostic Photos. Ever.) I'm certainly not blasé about the fact that I'm working on a fucking mammoth dig. I mean, I was never AS obsessed with Pleistocene megafauna as I was with dinosaurs, but still: mammoth. I definitely have a bad case of Pleistoproboscidea obsessiva (common name: Mammoth Fever). However, I did spend my entire day face-deep in a mess of mammoth ulna/radius/dirt clump. Also mud coral.  Reality is not glamorous.

The way I imagine the general populace perceives the events and circumstances I seem to wind up in and my personal experiences of these events rarely match up. I am the same person whether I'm lounging in suspended netting in a temporary art city in the desert, excavating and consolidating mammoth bones in the clay of Castrovi, or .....


......okay I"ve been interrupted by a fuzzy eli cat who demands my attention.

Be Seeing You

Edit: I like that I didn't actually manage to finish the post at all.

Pleistoproboscidian obsessiva

I posted this on site. Pleistoprobosicdea obsessiva (common name: Mammoth Fever) is a serious illness. If I ever have time ever again, I plan on making an extended heath bulletin citing numerous subtler symptoms, like "compulsive purchase of mammoth-related items" and "willingness to commute and work long hours for no pay or credit".

Be Seeing You

Stella, Addie, & Mammoth-brand Artichokes

Remember when I had that post  with the title I hoped to be able to explain soon? Well, Theophilous was a bandied-about name for THIS.  I am on a mammoth dig and it is awesome.

Be Seeing You.

Large Arm-Head Vessel

See also: brachiocephalic trunk.

I recently realized I was raised in a religion. I'd never thought of Soto Zen as such before, but it TOTALLY IS. Now I feel all empowered and shit.

Be Seeing You

Case Study #354: How we view the dead

WARNING: BOIL UPDATE
This unsettles me, and I hope to study rotting bodies someday. Chances are excellent you might find this slightly unsettling. None of the pictures are truly gruesome, but still.

I don't have the time to be writing this since I should be working on my anthro final paper, but it hit me in the face when I opened up the Interwebs and it's really really bothering me. My homepage is currently the New York Times, and the opening picture is this . It's a picture of parents encountering the dead body of their teenage daughter. The rest of the photos include other pictures of the dead. None of them are particularly gruesome, but there is also no attempt to pull a veil between the viewer and the corpse.
Now think about this: how often have you seen photos of contemporary dead Americans? How many pictures of unwrapped in situ (still in place where they were found/died) corpses did you see after Katrina? Our soldiers die every day: how many of their corpses have you seen on the front page of the New York Times?
If we're gonna fucking be squeamish about seeing our own dead, extend that fucking respect to people from other countries. If we're okay with showing the harsh reality of death to the American public, fucking sack up and do it with our own people too. ALSO: to be honest, I"m not as familiar with Japanese death rituals as I could/really kind of should be, but I do know that there's a lot of respect paid to the body. It's why there is a whole issue with organ donations and why they don't embalm. "Good wholesome American Christian" treatment of a dead body has NOTHING on the respect the Japanese have for their dead.
Don't get me wrong: I think that photo of the parents is beautiful, and as long as they were okay with it (if they weren't consulted, um.... omg wtf), I am glad the NYT featured it so prominently, though I'm shocked they had the journalistic balls to do so, given our terror of death. However, if working with 3,000 year old bones has taught me one thing, it's that people and cultures take their death rituals very seriously. I mean, I don't particularly care what happens to me after I die; if a sky burial isn't possible, I'd be down with a Body Farm or "hanging on the hook in the medical school" sort of option. Really whatever is fine by me, but I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority here, particularly since treatment of the dead has almost nothing to do with the dead person and everything to do with the feelings of the survivors.
I don't even know what I'm getting at here. I am exceedingly conflicted about the entire situation, mostly because I feel at least three or four or seventy of the sides all at once. I actually probably respect the dead more than I respect the living because the dead can't make any more mistakes. Respect and compassion are not the same thing though, and in situations like this, it's the compassion towards the living that really matters. Like I said, I don't even know what I'm saying, but still....food for thought.

Be Seeing You

Edit: My friend posted this on his Facebox wall.

It's possible that the photographers are actually Japanese citizens/residents who are documenting from an emic perspective. All the same, the publishing of the photos in our media still raises a number of questions.

Otters?, Frilled Lizards?, and Theophilous (aka Martin)

1) Sooner or later I'll be able to explain at least part of that title to you.
2) Turns out my professor had a family emergency, so the extreme brevity of his e-mail response makes much more sense. It's kind of amazing he was able to respond at all.
2a) On the other hand, I'm getting sucked into the Foothill Anthropology whirlpool and it's pretty hilariously awesome. More on that later (see #1).
3) We're in list mode.
4) Just in case you hadn't picked up on that one.
5) I grow weary of these lists. Jamby! Bring me the semi-viscous paragraphs!
6) Semi-viscous, because my writing isn't really that "fluid"
7) Yes I went there. In the photoshopped words of Sir Ian McKellan...
8) Oh, no, wait...here's what I meant.

In case you couldn't already tell, it's that time again! No, that is not an euphemism for "my ute's peeling." I mean it's time for another blog-fueled paper-writing craze. Though this only has to be about six pages. I realize that I should have figured out how to connect this to death because then I might actually be really interested in it instead of it only changing my worldview in a significant manner.  I did manage to get two sources that tangentially tie into death, including a journal article by James R. Thobaben (fabulous bloody name, btw) with the amazing title: "A United Methodist Approach to End-of-Life Decisions: Intentional Ambiguity or Ambiguous Intentions."
At one point today I was attempting to explain something to an undergrad and used the word adjunct to describe something super quotidian like plastic bags or something and my professor was like, "adjunct?" and then bust into laughter. My eloquent response was, "Shut up!"
 I'm prompted to wonder how confusing it is to speak to me.  [Incidentally, yes I am aware I just used "quotidian". Sometimes there are words that are super specific and really useful. Like adjunct.]

Also the other day...or maybe today....I think it was actually today (SHUT UP! I HAVE ISSUES WITH  TIME-SPACE DISTINCTIONS, OKAY?!) I attempted to explain to my entry-level Cultural Anthro class how quantum mechanics and thought becoming reality are connected. I don't know if it made ANY sense. Particularly since I don't actually know anything proper about the subject. And also because I only spoke for maybe two minutes, if that.
Every once in a while I realize just how far from our society's modal personality I actually am.  Curious about what a modal personality is? YOU'RE ON THE FUCKING INTERNET: LOOK IT UP.

In retrospect I realize that I totally lied to them and told them some COMPLETELY WRONG information, but I'm really not sure if anyone's going to fact-check me. They should. Even when you know enough to know you know nothing, quantum/particle physics/mechanics is awesome. I feel like I should have just showed them this and this

Communication Awards

I feel like I should give my professor an award for Most Confusing Answer Ever.

I'm writing an ethnography on my own food consumption for my Cultural Anthro class & the prompt has provided a sample chart with the columns "time," "description of food," "who purchases the food," "who eats with you," and "disposal of food items and serving items."  I don't feel like properly addressing all of these because that'd end up with me having to write a 20+ page paper and that shit is just not going to happen. Thus, I e-mailed my teacher last night:

On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 9:20 PM, Hannah wrote:

It's a little late to ask this, but does the food ethnography HAVE to address every column on that chart, or is it okay if we focus on a few?

-Hannah

Sam sent this EXTREMELY helpful reply today:

 "yes"




THAT DOESN'T ANSWER MY QUESTION. YES TO WHAT?!! I gave two options! Which are you saying yes to?! 


Take home point:
My professor will be getting a paper. It will be an interesting paper. It will nominally address all those things, but really I'm just going to write about what I want to write about because, um, if he has an issue with it, HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN CLEARER.
I feel I should point out that he's actually an excellent teacher.  This was just such a prime moment of *facedesk* that I needed to share it with you, my imaginary readers.

Be Seeing You.

Where do I hang the penguin painting?

1)My Tassajara training has served me well.
2) I finally realized my wrists are chronically weak because of CLEANING THE FLESH OFF BONES.
3) That is not a euphemism.

4) I shouldn't have done an ethnography on myself. 

Be Seeing You.

I kept forgetting to name this post. Now that's it's name.

I have absolutely no clue what the crap I was all worked up about in that previous post. Okay, maybe I kind of have an idea, but pretty much, I needed to srsly ctfo. It's late. I should have printed out my paper a while ago, but I didn't. Really I'm going to actually go to sleep after I write this, but I felt I should share some gems from the 3-5 pg. paper I'm writing for Magic, Science, and Religion that ended up being eight or so pages. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have selected the question on DEATH.  Actually, before I even started I made sure my teacher was okay with me using a lot of the same resources I cited in my previous paper for Medical Anthropology. She was like, "you should cite your own paper!" So I did. Several times. In this paper I cite me, Wil Wheaton, Christopher Lee, George Romero, and a dude from 1881. 
Anyway, here are a few bits that I am deeply amused by.


(No, this is not the actual title. )

Paper 2: BRAIAIAIIIIIIINNNNNNNSSSSSSSS

(I got this quote from my new osteology field guide by Bill Bass. I'm very excited to own a textbook by him. Very excited. Who is Bill Bass, you ask? GO LOOK HIM UP. HE IS ONE MY HEROS.)

“…At either end of the line bereavement by death tears the heart and mortuary customs are symbols of mourning. The mystery which broods over the abbey where lie bones of king and bishop, gathers over the ossuary where lie the bones of chief and shaman; for the same longing to solve the mysteries of life and death, the same yearning for a future life, the same awe of powers more than human, exist alike in the mind of the savage and the sage.” (Powell, 1881)


"Nowadays elaborately padded “comfortable” coffins are the norm, and one can buy crypts “with a view” (Harris 2007), as if purchasing condos for a relative. "

I included a chunk of my previous paper which I may have shared before because it contains the best footnotes EVER. Here are the footnotes:

"[1] He was actually kicked out of New York University’s medical school but occasionally practiced medicine and went by “Doctor” for the rest of his life. Iserson (2001) cites the reason for his expulsion as “his cavalier way of leaving corpses in inappropriate places,” while Mitford (1998) notes that “he was forever carelessly leaving [cadavers] around in inappropriate places.” The repeated use of the word “inappropriate” begs the question of what constitutes an “appropriate” place to mislay a spare corpse.

2Lincoln actually began to decompose during the trip, and required extensive makeup for public display."

Bad Pun #1)
"Ghosts serve as a medium between the terrifying reality of death and our desire to ignore it."


This is a poorly written sentence. I am not going to change it though.
"The classic desired food is brains, which is interesting when viewed in the context of the Haitian zombi whose soul/will (what we might call “the brain” of a human) has been stolen and may only return to normal life if that soul is retrieved. "


"In “The Day After,” (Wheaton 2010), Wheaton eloquently parses this trope into a few simple lines of dialogue..."


Bad Pun #2)
Though this mental separation makes sense within fictional worlds as a matter of survival (it’s easier to kill a “zombie” than a “human”), it can also be viewed as a reflection of creator and consumer’s uneasiness when confronted with this potent symbol of death “in the flesh”.  


The real meat of the paper, so to speak. BAHAHAHAHAHA! These questions came to me one night and I shared them with the twitters. ....Then I used them in my paper for class.

When a zombie is fully killed (past the point of resurrection), does it go back to being a dead human? Given infinite time and security (i.e. no danger of infection/ravening hordes descending/etc.) would characters bury the bodies of zombies the same way they would bury the bodies of slain human companions? How does one distinguish the bodies of dead humans from those of dead zombies?  Philosophical questions about zombies may seem silly, but they highlight the inconsistencies inherent in our insistence on separating ourselves from the walking dead. 

Last one:

"Instead forcing us to confront that the mystical realm of death and the terrifying reality of putrescence are one and the same, vampires allow us to imagine that we might acknowledge the inescapable reality of death whilst remaining perpetually sexy."


Be Seeing You. 

Because when I get tired, I get irritable

Do you ever have that thing where exhaustion overwhelms your being? When every step seems like an opportunity to collapse on the ground, every moment of movement just to the side of nausea.  I collapse in the corner weeping and shatter every two minutes, but only in my brain. My body lurches on, clawing its way through life because it must, because this is the path to what I love.
I realize it sounds like I'm having a complete mental breakdown, and maybe I am, but don't get too worked up about it. It seems like half my life has been lived on willpower alone. Maybe less than half. That sounds really depressing, and my life is anything but. Sometimes my body decides enough is enough and refuses to go on.
I'm tired right now, but I've hit a point where things may be starting to happen. I've decided to go on an archaeological dig and somehow wound up partially curating an excavation collection. I'm also working with people who do not yet realize my level of competence and intelligence. Or my passion. That bit they obviously haven't copped to. I do not know how to network. I do not know how to talk to people, but my buffers are wearing thin and my core is about to start making an appearance.
This should be amusing.

The Canal of Schlemm (Scleral venous sinus)

Should I be studying for my anatomy lab test tomorrow? YES. Am I kind of freaking out about it even though I should be fine and even if I bomb it, I'll still be able to salvage my grade? YES. Does this maybe have to do with insane hormones and also the headache/general exhaustion that sometimes rules my body? Probably. Will this entire post be semi-rhetorical questions that I opt to answer? Maybe. What are you going to do about it? Huh? Yeah. That's what I thought. 

I'm going to Ecuador for a month this summer to work on an archaeological project and work on community projects with the people of a small town about 20 min outside of Quito. This means I will be attempting to learn some Spanish, which I really should have done by now since I live in frikin' California. I mean, I know some super basic stuff, but not really anything useful. So that will be hilarious. Also I'm beginning to actually work with bones and death a lot more these days. That combined with all my anthro classes is leading to some interesting stuffs fomenting in my brain. 

Got two things in the mail this week: a Star Trek uniform (yes I have already worn it out in public. it is amazing) and a field guide to human osteology by Bill Bass. I asked Dan what books I should get to start learning about that stuff (osteology, not star trek) and he was like, "well this is essentially the Bible. I assume you're familiar with Bass?" My brain: "DUHHHHHHHH!!!!" My mouth said something less blunt, but only upon reflection do I realize that that reaction indicates how deeply I've absorbed forensic anthropology culture, for someone who's not even in the field yet. I have to wonder how many of the other students there (who were actually working on human osteology, even more so than me, though I feel like I'm beginning to edge my way into taking possession of the research into the stuff from CA-SCI-354...we'll see about that, since the thought only just occurred to me), but I have to wonder how many of them know the name so instantly. People are so fascinated by human bones and osteology, but how many of them feel that connection, that love and reverence and respect and fascination? If I'm going to be working on bones from the salvage excavation, I need to learn more about how I should be treating them. Ohlone funerary practices HERE I COME.

Daffy and Me

The reason I don't keep a real decent blog is that I'm sorry, but I'm NOT A WRITER. Forcing my thoughts into cohesion is just not worth the energy I could be using to finish my friggin' painting. I hope you realize that it's only a matter of time before I start using "Frakking". I get Season 1 of Battlestar Galactica from the library tomorrow. I can feel the tendrils of obsession twining through my brain like the Guinea worm through a hosts' viscera.
Speaking of parasites, I do have the option to go somewhere where I could get a botfly, but I think I'm going to go with the one that lets me meet llamas & alpacas. I've long wanted to visit the Andes, and though it's pretty high (10,000 feet, I think) and that'll likely trigger some altitude headachage, alt. sickness will pass, and then I'm in the fucking Andes.

The Temerity of the Tibial Tuberosity

I actually learned about the Circle of Willis the other day in class! I was excited. In case you're wondering, it's pretty much a loop o' blood vessels that carry blood to your brain. I will not explain further because 1)I'm on headache medication and that would require thought and 2)I have to study anatomy and physio a whole shit ton this weekend and don't want to waste that section of my brain on stuff I won't be tested on yet. Also, see number 1.
 Will you ever get TeleTARDIS Part 3? Yes, yes you will because sooner or later I want to get these screenshots off my desktop which is where I've been storing them as a constant reminder to myself to get on it.

This is what my Desktop looks like:

 

Is it the coolest thing ever? Yes. Yes it is.

That background image is a painting Julia made for my birthday.  In case you've somehow managed to avoid me shoving my nerdtastic obsessions DOWN YOUR THROAT and have no idea what the hell it is and why it is the coolest thing ever, then I pity you. I pity you deeply.
It's actually  a little odd that it took me so long to get into Doctor Who because I've been utterly obsessed with The Prisoner for a number of years and though they may seem totally unrelated, there are a stunning number of connections between the two shows. Maybe I'm the only one who really sits down and ponders this at great length.  It probably speaks well of humanity if that's the case. Time for a list because oh man, remember the headache meds? Yeah. Those.
1)

*****RANDOM SIDE TANGENT******

The original idea of this post was to get into just how nerdy my desktop is, so this is kind of relevant, but not really.
I take opiates for my headache.  We learned the other day that opiates can cross the blood-brain barrier which I recently learned is an ACTUAL PHYSICAL BARRIER. I don't know why I found this so awesome but I did. Anyway, if you're chilling in the CNS (central nervous system- brain and spinal cord) unless you're all up ins a choroid plexus, the things forming the blood-brain barrier are neuroglia cells called astrocytes. My teacher was showing us them the other day and was like, "and I always remember its shape because I think it resembles that crystalline [entity] in that episode of Star Trek." About four or five of us started laughing because IT TOTALLY DOES.

Crystalline Entity aka Omnomnoming Everything

Astrocyte aka Those "feet" are the blood-brain barrier!

 Okay, let's get back to the list thing.

1) Both shows were on BBC in the early 60's
2) The Prisoner features amazing writing, acting, cinematography, sets, Patrick McGoohan running around being AWESOME, occasional Leo McKern, and an episode with the guy who plays the head of Scotland Yard in Help! (that episode also features a brilliant split-screen sequence where No.6 is trapping a pigeon in a box and Kosho: the strangest sport ever which apparently McGoohan just sort of came up with. Not both at the same time mind you, but still). Also McGoohan was kinda hot back in the day.
3) Early Doctor Who does not particularly feature any of these things, but it did start moving in that direction as the years passed and it did rank high on the WTF?!!! quotient that was such a defining hallmark of The Prisoner (I mean, a police box that travels through space and time? Wut? Oh hai cavemen! Wut?! Out actor's leaving...let's write in that his character has the ability to change EVERY CELL IN HIS BODY so we can continue the show without interruption. Wut??!!!)
4) Though I hear it's not so much the case with the first or sixth doctors (look man, I'm slowly slowly starting to get a broader exposure to the vast canon. Give me time), for the most part the Doctor is portrayed as an incredibly intelligent individual who would rather solve problems with ingenuity and reason rather than brute force. Who does that sound like? Oh wait: how about Number Six?! (Patrick McGoohan was actually the first choice for James Bond, & if you ever watch Danger Man/Secret Agent, you'll understand why. They actually approached him twice with the role & only after the second rejection did they ask their second choice, a dude named Sean Connery. McGoohan's reason for refusing the role? He didn't like the violence & copious gunplay and he didn't like the way Bond treated women.  Though Number Six gets into several scrapes, the only time I can think of guns being used is the episode where his REFUSING TO WEAR ONE is a major plot point. Yes, I am in love with 1960's Patrick McGoohan. I will admit it. Anyway, in terms of a main character avoiding violence, I'd say the tendency for the Doctor to run rather than incite or fight is nicely summed up in a certain song by Chameleon Circuit.  The point is, both shows glorify intelligence over force, something one does not see very often in television or even movies. I realized my third obsession, a certain dude named Sherlock Holmes is EXACTLY THE SAME WAY. One of my few real gripes with the Downey Jr. Holmes movie is that a defining characteristic of Holmes is that he almost never carries a gun. He's always asking Watson to bring along his service revolver, but I'm not sure Holmes even actually owns a firearm. [Edit: Duh Hannah! Of COURSE he owns one. The VR on the wall attests to that!] Like Number 6, Holmes tends to resort to fisticuffs.
The point is, you usually see wealth or looks or athletic/fighting prowess glorified in the main character. It's relatively rare that extreme intelligence is portrayed so favorably. It's a little hard for me to express exactly what I mean.  The other thing is that though these characters try to avoid violence, it's clear that all of them would be willing to kill (and probably have).  In fact, it's possibly because they have the potential to be such effective killers that they do their best to avoid violence. Though the more contemporary character of Agent Pendergast tends to be slightly more violent than the other three, he's still much the same, and guess what: I'm pretty obsessed with that character too.  Something interesting to note: they're all men. It always seems to come back to the fact that if I didn't identify so strongly as female, I'd totally be a dude.  Also maybe someday I'll talk about how I am an extremely violent person which is the entire reason why I work so hard to not be.
5) Remember that whole list thing we were doing before I went off into insane rant land? Let's get back to that.
6) An esoteric and intensely nerdy thing to have noticed: Ron Granier composed the fabulous opening theme to The Prisoner; guess who composed the original Doctor Who theme. Granted, he was co-composing the latter with a woman named Delia Derbyshire, but still: Ron Granier FTW!

Maybe someday I'll share with you the things that are scattered on that desktop. In addition to the screencaps for TeleTARDIS Part 3, there is a picture of a Dalek Christmas tree, patterns for Star Wars snowflakes, a print-out Ewok mask, an episode of a Wil Wheaton podcast, an image of an Owlbear, an Olde-Timey add for Kraken Rum, this mash-up of extreme nerd, and MORE!!!!!  Nerdtastic overload? Oh my yes.

Be Seeing You

Boil Update:
We skinned out, eviscerated, and boiled a rather stinky raccoon last week. Today I spent about five hours straight taking most of the flesh off of two of her limbs (it's a subadult female- we can tell age b/c the epiphyses of several of the long bones aren't fully fused and actually came off the shafts). Also I've started helping to inventory, curate, and eventually develop teaching modules for the random teaching collection of human bones the Foothill Anthro department has. Where did the bones come from? NO ONE KNOWS. Not sketch AT ALL. There's a lot of sketchiness to the history of that department to the point where it's kind of hilarious. The point is, once a week I get to spend two hours working with real human bones. I adore it. Holding a human (or really an animal's) bone is like holding a child but in reverse: the child carries the potential of a life story yet to be told, while the bone carries a life story that is over and may never be changed.

i am an eagle

My brain: 'maybe I'll actually write in my blog this weekend!'
My body: 'ha ha! fuck you, hannah! HERE'S A MYSTERIOUSLY STRAINED WRIST!!!'

typing with one hand epically slows me down. i can only assume that i tweaked my arm in some strange way when skinning that raccoon.