(no subject)

I missed going to Baconfest, a bacon-themed party that my girlfriend danaeris' former roommates in Aurora have yearly. It's been on my calendar since March, and I'd been planning to go until last this past week, but it just didn't turn out to be manageable. As well as the finals to get ready for and paper to finish writing, I had fieldwork to do on the morning of Saturday, the day of the party. I would have arrived late, and I wouldn't have had time to make any bacon-type food to bring with. (I was thinking of trying to make rumaki, though as someone with very little cooking experience, I was intimated by the idea too. It might have just been bacon chili or something.) So in the end, I stayed in Kenosha on Saturday, did the work at the market, and then went home. I was pretty exhausted by that point, but I did manage to stay awake long enough to not disrupt my sleep schedule by playing some Dragon Age before going to bed.

The reason I was tired was that I decided that I was feeling good enough about my position in regard to schoolwork to use Thursday and Friday to visit my girlfriends, who I hadn't seen in most of a month. I'd dearly missed the both of them. lisagems and I got food at Noodles and Company on Thursday evening and then got some toffee and lemon bars at Trader Joe's for desert. I didn't realize I could like English toffee that much! I helped with some errands on Friday. Then, in the evening, I drove to Danae's place in Evanston and two of us walked to to the co-op that her friend Sneha lives in. I got to meet Sneha, who I've heard much about, and she is as nifty as advertised. *grins* She's awesome and geeky and juggles and loves board games. *bounces* And the coop is a really neat space! A big old Victorian house with seemingly every surface covered in posters and hand painted art and notes from various members of the co-op. I really want to go and photograph it some time. One of my favorite things were little signs above each light switch with a picture of an angry lightbulb and text reading "I eat coal! Turn me off." I got to meet and talk briefly with some of the other members of the household too. Though we never actually got to playing a game, it was a really fun evening.

I had planned to get home by midnight or so so I could be sure I had plenty of sleep for Saturday. But given how long it had been since I'd seen Danae, it shouldn't be surprising that, though we got back to her place somewhere between ten and eleven, I didn't actually leave her condo until slightly past midnight, and didn't get to bed until nearly two o' clock, which afforded me about five hours of sleep. But it was all worth it. *smiles* I hope to have much more time for boardgames and things with her once school is done, and I'm really going to miss her while she's in Canada for some of her Winter break.

I start feeling disconnected from my partners if I don't see them regularly. As though I'm somehow being a bad boyfriend. Intellectually, I am aware that this is a situation that will be common given our mutual commitments, especially with school for Danae and I taking priority. But emotionally, it starts making me anxious after a while and I do my best not to let it show in my interactions with them on the phone or online. I could easily become somewhat needy or clingy if I let myself get away with it, asking for frequent enough reassurance that I'm a good boyfriend and that they're not unhappy with me to be a real annoyance. That would not help the situation. But I'm better about keeping mostly unfounded worries to myself than I once was. Not perfect, but better.

Anyway, I awoke on Saturday around 7 and got ready for the market. I met the two professors I'd be working with, along with two other students. Though I had a sense of what to expect and what to do, this was the first time I'd actually been in the role of researcher, so I was nervous.

As it turned out, it was actually pretty fun. The group of us alternated various roles. Standing at the survey table and encouraging customers to fill out surveys. Taking period counts of the number of people in the building. Chatting with people and making notes about them and the suggestions they had for the market. Picking people coming in the doors and surreptitiously following them about, making notes about what they were doing, how long they were there, what kinds of things they purchased or what vendors they talked to. That was probably the most fun. It was a sort of transgressive thrill, making me feel as though I was a detective or a secret agent.

I worry that my observation notes will not be the greatest; I'm new to this and don't know exactly what sorts of things will be helpful to include. But this is my first time. I hope that I've made a useful contribution, and I hope that looking at other people's notes and observations from the same event, especially those made by professors, will help me fine-tune my own information gathering. In all, I really enjoyed this and I look forward to doing more of it.

And now, I'm going to get back to writing about the Kweh, my society of fictional chocobo herders. I want a draft of it to show my professor when I talk to her tomorrow so I can get feedback and incorporate any changes and suggestions before it's due on Tuesday.

But before I do, I just want to think Danae and Lisa for their love, friendship, and support. They are wonderful.

(no subject)

Here's a religion question. Do any of you feel like you can make any kind of point in rational discussion about whether something is moral/acceptable/etc. by referring to the Bible or other antiquarian religious writings? I just feel like saying activity X is condoned or condemned in some particular religious text is a nearly meaningless statement. Not (just) because of its appeal to a subjective moral authority in the form of a God. More because even if that moral authority does exist, it seems that any particular chunk of verse can, and is, interpreted in many different ways by people with various levels of authority on the matter. For any point one can make by citing a religious authority's understanding of a point of scripture, that point can be negated by citing a different religious authority's interpretation of the same point of scripture.

How does a person for whom these things are important decide on a particular interpretation? Does it come down to what particular tradition of the religion you were born into? Do you look at the interpretations that are out there and choose the one that you find most appealing, or true to your heart? Or is there some other way to come to your own personal choice of interpretation among the many that are out there?

(I should really start working on my homework....)

(no subject)

I found another piece of art I want a print of!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/81450306/japanese-art-fine-art-reproduction

Just about done with this draft. I think I'm going to go grocery shopping with my dad.

(no subject)

So I bought this awesome, decorative shirt at Goodwill, because men don't have enough decorative clothing. I want to be decorative sometimes. I wasn't quite sure about the collar, and it seemed like it might be a touch big, but I spent four bucks on it anyway.

But now that I'm wearing it and looking more critically, I think it looks a bit western. Which is not what I'm going for. I love the cuffs, which have a kind of flowery design design in white over a geometric design in light and dark brown. They seem kind of hippy-esque. But the wide white band down the middle of the front and back, even though they are flower-bordered too, have the end result of, along with the collar, making it look Western I think. I don't want to look like a cowboy; I want to look pretty.

Oh well.

(no subject)

This is fascinating. On NPR right now, there's a piece about a town in Ohio where everyone is black. Except that heritage comes from far enough back in town that intermarrying with people of other ethnicities and lack of incoming new African-Americans has led to everyone in this town looking like they have no black ancestry. But the majority of the people in town steadfastly state that they are black. It's on the birth certificate of people who have pale skin, long red hair, and freckles. They're interviewing a family where there are two sisters, one of whom presents an identity as white, and one as black. They had very different experiences in school, socially, with their family. She would bring a boyfriend to meet her parents, for example, and there would be arguments with her parents about her racial identification and over the fact that she told her boyfriend that she's white when her parents (who also don't look African-descended) are black. And the whole thing is conceptual. Just conceptual. This is a town where the one-drop rule has been taken to its logical extreme.

This is a strong metaphor for the illogic of the sort of rigid categories of race that exist in the United States.

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http://www.prx.org/pieces/85361-pike-county-ohio-as-black-as-we-wish-to-be