Miscellany

My system still hasn't settled out fully; that must have been quite a bug I got. This led me to think of staying in Kenosha and seeing my dad's production of Peter Pan. Beyond that, Lisa is reasonably worried about me possibly being on the tail end of infectious.

I am sad about missing planned fondue today that Danae and I had planned with a couple we know. I really would like to be more social in general. I hope we can reschedule.

So I stayed in Wisconsin and saw the show and was amazed at how much I dislike the script. I had a discussion most of the way home with my dad about the problems I have with the relationships and concepts and tropes presented in the show. He stuck to the original as presented, and I realize it's a period piece, but many things made me cringe.

I talked with Danae about it this morning; she suggested a good lens to add to my analytical toolkit. Not personally knowing what the author's intent was in writing Peter Pan (and lacking enough interest to research it), I should ask myself whether this work could be seen as satirical. Could it be a tongue-in-cheek criticism of the society it's set in? It's a perspective that hadn't really occurred to me before, and one that I think will be valuable for considering my reaction to a wide array of works. One of the most important things I can get out of college is an expanded analytical tool kit; it's a good thing to have an array of perspectives to consider something from.

All that aside, I'm glad I got to see one of my dad's shows again. With all the travelling I do, I don't see as many as I would if it was a little more convenient to schedule them. I should put aside more time for it.

In fact, he and I talked about having me photograph one of his shows. He might rent a decent, fast lens for me to use during a dress rehearsal (I really don't have the equipment for available light shooting under stage light!) to get some nice photos of his actors. This is an area of photography I have very little experience with so I don't know how nicely things will come out, but I think I'd enjoy trying.

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So I'm here in Kenosha today and tomorrow. I'm going to take a trip to Big!Lots and get bedsheets and coat hooks. I was there yesterday and had those items in my cart when the cashier told me that they'd have a 20% off sale the next day.

"Maybe I should wait until tomorrow to pick these up," I commented.

"Good idea!"

I think I may also finally wipe and rebuild my primary laptop. It's had a bunch of stupid problems for a while, and I've been putting off dealing with it, but if I don't do it soon the semester will start.

I have so little interest in managing computers. I started using Media Monkey to organize all my MP3s yesterday. I was going to fill in missing artist and title tags so things would sort correctly, but I gave up after a dozen or so out of maybe a hundred blank ones. I just don't care that much. In fact, for all that people say Media Monkey is great, I can't get it to do things quite the way I want it to and I ended up reinstalling Winamp 2.9. Works just fine for me.

I think I'm going to write a post later today about all the books for class I've received in the mail and how excited about them I am, as well as about a couple new tech toys that I'm enjoying playing with. But this is good for now.

School Books, New Sheets

I made it out to Big!Lots today with the intention of buying new sheets. I ended up with a bunch of groceries too. I have gnocchi to make! I love gnocchi.

I kind of wanted red, but these look pretty good too. I'm currently washing my comforters and everything will be totally fresh and clean tonight. That's a nice feeling, especially accompanied with a shower.





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I was going to write about my school books for the upcoming semester. I'm particularly excited by the ones for Anthropological Theory and History of Urbanization. With the GIS class I'm not so much excited by the book, but by the skillset. And Introduction to Archaeology should be fun, but it's not as directly relevant to my interests. Anyway, here's what I've got.

For Intro to Archaeology I have:

Brian Fagan's Archaeology: a Brief Introduction. It looks like a fairly typical introductory level textbook on theory and technique.

Kenneth Feder's A Village of Outcasts. This looks to be about a project of historical archaeology on a late 18th to mid 19th century site occupied by a community of Native Americans, formerly enslaved people, and outcasts from a European background. It sounds potentially neat.

For Cartography and GIS I have:

Jeremy Crampton's Mapping: a Critical Introduction to Cartography and GIS. This seems again like a pretty typical introductory textbook on the topic. The "Critical" in the name is promising, and it has subheadings like "Truth and Power: Cartography as a Social Practice." Yay!

For Anthropological Theory I have:

Mark Moberg's Engaging Anthropological Theory: a Social and Political History. I've read the introduction to this one, and the author plans to take great pains to seat the development of the theories he talks about firmly in the society that the theorists knew and lived in. The historian in me looks forward to that, and it seems like a good approach to me.

Alan Sears' and James Cairns' A Good Book, In Theory: Making Sense Through Inquiry. I haven't cracked that one open yet, but the title is cute!

And for History of Urbanization in the US I have a treasure trove!

William Cronon's Nature's Metropolis. This book was already on my reading list, as it's not only about an urban space I'm personally tied to (Chicago), it's about how Chicago and the land around it exist in mutually influential symbiosis. I like that holism. This book was referenced by a geographer who led an infrastructure tour of the south side of Chicago that I attended while at the AAA conference, so I'm excited about reading it for numerous reasons.

Thomas Sugure's The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. This is another urban space I'm personally tied to. I miss being near Detroit sometimes. The topic of urban community, ethnicity, and inequality is also important to me both for personal idealism, and because they are forces that have strongly shaped the development of urban areas nationwide. This should be an enlightening book.

Timothy Gilfoyle's City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and Commerialization of Sex, 1790-1920. This looks like the sort of social history that I can really get excited about. I hope it gets its claws into me like Nan Enstad's Ladies of Labor, Girls of Adventure did. If I was going to write scholarly works as a historian, Enstad's book would be the kind of thing I'd like to write. Digging into the lived experience of everyday people, learning about how events in the larger historical context shaped more quotidian existences. I haven't paged through this one either, but I have high hopes. *smiles* But this (and the others) are a lot bigger than Ladies of Labor. I hope I don't get bogged down in them.