fuck that shit

http://xkcd.com/137/

Political resistance is tasty

More on the anthropology situation after tomorrow's episode...

I've been having a really great time working on this figure project. I'm trying things I normally wouldn't. It sounds weird, but I can *feel* myself learning. It turned out to be four pieces instead of three, those are pictures of me attatching the last ring. She turned out to be much taller and skinnier than the model, so I'm at a bit of a loss how to do the proportions correctly. Especially since I can't reach the bottom anymore, even when I stand on a chair. I'm gonna wake up at ass o'clock tomorrow to go in and smack her around a bit. Thankfully Marina's there at nine. Again, I don't really like her personality but she has fantastic feedback. I really appriciate her opinions, and I feel my work has responded in leaps and bounds working with her.

I glazed some of those terracottas while I was waiting for the rings to dry enough to attatch. There they are with wax drying on their bottoms.

I had a pretty ok dinner at Grandma's yesterday. I feel like if I'm not there things don't get done properly. No biscuits, no sprouts, and I had to mash the potatoes and get everything else's ass in gear. It woudln't have been that bad, but with Mom and I both there Grandma was incessantly asking questions just to get attention. But the stuffing was really good, I'm glad. Tomorrow after school I'm going for fries, dressing and gravy. A first for me so I'm excited!

Today around noon I was called to battle. The salad situation had spiraled out of control--third time this week! An army of cheese, croutons, egg and greens protected by a sheild of dressing had to be ruthlessly subdued. I've recently had some success by attacking the brains of the operation, cauliflower and broccoli florettes, bit by bit, driving down the soilder's sprits and making my attacks easier. When I marched into their capitol it was just cheese and croutons left standing, throwing themselves to the mercy of my fork. I love being a dictator.

Direction to Perfection? Nononono....

"Who would resist the proposition that more fellow feeling in the world is better than less, and that to extend the interloutive in the world is better than to diminish it? At the same time, there is a paradox here, one that demands of us a sense of proportion. Although the anthropologist is called to bring diverse people to intercommunication, he or she is also called to resist the homogenization that lies in mass communication. We are called by our very expereince to celebrate the great variety of voices in the human chorus. The paradox is that we at once work to amplify the scale of intercommunication-and in effect contribute to homogenization-while at the same time we work to insist on the great variety of voices in communication. We must maintain here too a sense of proportion. We must recognize the point at which wider and wider cultural intercommunication can lead to dominant voices hidden in the homogenizing process. Human intercommunication has its uses and abuses." -James W Fernandez

I argue this point over and over--at what point do the benefits outweigh the negative concequences, and how are two cultures able to keep the balance? When two mix it can become a beautiful thing, but so many unique ideas are lost. When Americans go to other countries and help to bring them into the new age, medicines, technologies, everything to save hundreds of thousands of lives are those other cultures in fact whoring the thing that makes them *them*? Who can say no to living a more comfortable lifestyle. We are, in fact, animals. We strive for the things that are going to make us more likely to live long and reproduce. How can one group of people look at all that technology has brought us, and they are without, and not say yes? It is the prostitution of culture and it is wrong. But with lives in the balance there is no compromise.

Arguments and Koolaid Experiements

School's running pretty smoothly. My books were ridiculously expensive. The math I know isn't going to be worth it, but I have a feeling I'll have trouble parting with my anthro book. I definately know I'll be getting more from it than the class. The instructor and I got into it again. He was lecturing on the difference between the more scientific study of why people do things as opposed to the effects that those actions have. Which is fine, absolutely! But he went on to say he was going to teach very little about understanding the effects because he was more interested in the why. He said some very disrespectful things about sociologists and psychologists as well. I just can't believe the arrogance of that man. And the thing is, he's so wrong! Yes yes, we all need a better understanding of why humans behave the way they do, but one simply cannot fully understand the why unless they are very comfortable with the effects it has. He asked if anyone was ''annoyed'' by his little tirade. When I voiced my opinion he didn't even bother to defend himself, just made it clear he was the teacher and he was going to teach what he wanted, even though he knew it was very one sided. hmpt!

Of course on the bright side, ceramics came after. A fairly unproductive day. One section to my woman figure collapsed. I knew it would too, I just felt like I was falling behind everyone else. But there's always next week, and I don't think she's due till the twenty ninth. Most of the work on her comes after she's out of the kiln anyway.
I put my model for this piece to good use, turning it into a coffee mug. I definately can improve on my handles so I tried a new method. You score a fat coil where you want the begining of your handle to be, then pull it on the cup itself. My first attempt was a little flimsy, my second thick and not quite right. I kept it anyway ;)
Today I decided to finally stain the wood of my wall pieces. Being as broke as I am, I thought cherry koolaid a clever substitute. I was also a bit concerned that a stain would be too dull. I mixed it with water and applied it to the wood and wa-la! It didn't soak in at all! It also turned out much brighter than I had wanted. Mom thinks stains are cheaper than I had originally thought, so I guess I'll go that route. Eventually.

This morning I took Grandma to the beauty shop to get her hair cut. Of course when I do I get bribed with Garbaldi's. The pizza was good today, seemed like there was a little more cheese than usual. Jon was slighty jealous. (mwaa haa) I stopped at Grandma's the other day too, and had left over hamburger helper and fries and vinegar. I'd forgotten about them until we had to get vinegar for Dad's ear infection. I also took Mom grocery shopping yesterday and ohmygod I had the best pasta salad known to *man.* It was raw broccoli, cheese, pine nuts, red onions and this cole slaw-type sauce. I did end up picking out most of the pieces of onion but GOD was it good! I just can't think straight when I think about food...I gotta go

Tuesday happenings

So it only took two days for me and my anthropology teacher to get into it. He gives us a charted survey of his past two or three years of students answering "How often do you asses your ability to "take down" others in a physical fight?" Later he starts telling us about a survey of a couple neighborhoods that drastically underreported their beer consumption. His argument is that surveys are terrible ways to gather information. ....twenty minutes after giving us a survey to support biological anthropology? hmpt.

Ceramics, of course, was quite the opposite. I got some great feedback from Marina, ultimately moving the location of my frame starting at her abdomin and climbing up to her lower neck area. I had taken in my clay last night to thaw out to no avail. So this morning I stopped in the lab before class and put two of the bags in buckets of hot water. Of course, there were holes in the bags >.> So I had fifty pounds of slush to wedge. It still all wasn't dry by the time I left today. I also reconstituted a couple buckets of dry clay I had laying around from last semester. So help me god if I ever have to wedge again.... But class was just fantasic! There are so many awesome people it's so social. /sigh I'm moving in.

Dad has an ear infection and it's really really bad. I don't think I've ever seen him in so much pain. Because nothing worked for so long he just decided to get hammered! He said some really really nice things that touched me so much.

Just a good day overall.

So Thrusday was my first day of classes this semester. My anthropology class seems like it's going to be interesting. I got the first good vibe before the class started. There's a case in the room that has shards of pottery as well as student made replicas. Woot! Then the instructor got my name right. We're also studying alot of geography. I definately need to improve on that and cultures are give a great context for memorization. Then math....oh my god math is horrible! The students in the class are the most obnoxious group of immature.....blehs! I've had a class with. It's ridiculous expecting someone to be able to concentrate in that atmosphere. So I'm moving to a Monday/Wednesday class. Even if the class is the same thing I'll be more able to take the strain because it will be my first class of the day and I'll have ceramics to look forward to afterward. I get off almost three hours before the next class starts, but I can always go hang in the lab or grab some dinner or something.

Ceramics, as per usual, is awesome! Our first project is to express the human form in a piece at least three feet high. I'm really excited--I'm going to throw a large cylander and manipulate it into the bust of a woman. When she dries up a bit I'm going to put a series of holes through the top of her breasts. When she's been fired, I'll construct a metal frame through the outer holes for a loom. The warp will go through smaller holes between the two ends. I might not even weave it at all, just have the warp runing through. I'm so excited!!! Any thoughts anyone?

On the ceramics note...Mary sent me back the first piece I ever made. I was honestly surpised and proud of myself--it's not terrible for a first piece. I am, however, constantly surpised about people's attraction to pieces. Mary really liked it, despite being terrible, because of the colors. So I'll make her a replacement set with the same glazes. But that baby's going straight to the china cabinet.

Dinner at Grandma's this Thrusday was undeniably disapointing. I was hoping for mashed potatoes, corn, biscuits...I got boiled red potatoes and corn. And she had almost run out of butter so I had to use it and margerine. Then today I went over there and made the hash brown hamburger helper. It's good, especially if you use real cheese instead of the sauce that comes with it. But for some reason the potatoes were al dente. I like all my food to be moosh consistency. What's really exciting, however, is Thursday's dinner! She's going to make corn bread and stuffing! She always saves me a piece of the bread, too. So Thrusday we're having mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, sprouts all that shit. Then we're going to make the extra stuffing into fries, dressing and gravy. One of my core beliefs is that any food can be made better with a few more starches. Of course I did save the best for last. Carla's coming over Tuesday, and since I'm switching math classes hopefully she'll still be there when I get back--and we can make toutans! Mom and I found partridge berry jam too.

First Post!

So here it is--my first post. I've never been the blogging type, so please exercise patience while reading!

I'd like to take this moment to apologize for my use of smilies. I just can't help it. I'm really not a very subtle person and they definately drives the point home.

So I've been selling pretty often lately (trashcanpottery.etsy.com)--six sales this week! One of them was my first repeat customer. When I was packing her jar I realized I had missed a small glaze flaw on the inside. I sent a small bowl (her first purchase was one) inside her package and wrote her an apology, letting her know if she wasn't happy with that we could work out a store credit or something. Thankfully she didn't care about the flaw and was delighted to get another bowl! Then today I sold a really cool shroom that had a lava glaze on it. That creates a texture similar to the outside of a wrinkly orange, but far more exaturated. It's pretty cool, I almost kept that one for myself.

Tomorrow school starts! I'm really really excited!!! Over the break I had started to fuse to my bed, and when going to Jewel is the high point of the day something is very wrong. I accidently ended up with tons of credits--going full time! On Tuesdays and Thrusdays I have cultural anthropology from eleven to twelve fifteen. (I really like this time slot because it gives me time to get lunch or get to the lab early.) Then at one the highlight of my day-ceramics! I sort of hope she gives different assignments from last semester. It's a split one/two class, so I've seen all of them already. Then at four math. Bleh. But I get out at six thirty, so I can grab a snack or head to the lab until eight. Starting in Feb. I have a ceramics class from six to nine thirty on Mondays and Wednesdays. It's a class focusing on surface design. This isnt' an area I'm particularly interested in, so I'm excited that I'll be pushing myself. But this class, unlike my last late start ceramics class, is three credits. Thankfully it's a gift from Melissa! (tanks again love) Then my math class is five credits instead of three. Which I guess I should be thankful for, at least I'm getting my effort's worth from the class. ;)

Tomorrow is Thrusday which means--you guessed it, laundry day! Grandma is making meatloaf for da bys but hopefully I can get her to make mashed potatoes. I have chicken over there already. (By the way, Target [of all places] has Morning Star chicken and stuff for a dollar fifty to two dollars cheaper than Jewel and Dominicks.) If not I think there's a sweet potato there with my name on it.