For a good laugh go read Bush2004 (read carefully, mind you).

Some people have WAY too much time on their hands.

Go see the cool video made by some people I know (it is about women and voting).

I don't know how common it is to be on email lists outside of academia. For those of you who don't know about them, usually they are email groups related to one theme or another. The messages are usually announcements or discussions on particular themes.

On occasion a personal email gets sent out to the whole email list (which can number from a dozen people to a few thousand depending on the list). Usually it is silly reading the message, but a few times in can be downright entertaining (for everyone) and terribly embarassing (for the sender).

For example, I got this email from a list I am on:

[The first part lists some concerns about the scheduling of an upcoming conference - then it continues]
"This is just my personal opinion, after 5 days of eating my way through London. I smuggled back some Absinthe (illegal in the USA), and M. and I are planning a 19th-century Oscar Wilde (small) party if you are interested. Gotta try everything once, including the Green Fairy. K.M. (the lazy-as-all-get-out room scheduling person) has had more than enough time to sit down at her desk and open up the room schedule, which takes all of a minute."

So about 1000 people or so got this message that was obviously intended for one person. Now these people know that this person smuggles illegal liquor into the country, pigs out when traveling abroad, holds small intoxicating parties, does not have a high opinion of K.M. (I have removed the name), and has tried the Green Fairy at least once.

Keep in mind that this is a professor at a well-known university. Hee hee.

Lesson of the day: don't email out anything you might not want thousand of eyes reading.

I wonder how many people in Florida are starting to believe the warnings about global warming.

I wonder how many of them will still vote for Bush.

I wonder how many people know that the assault weapon ban is about to expire.

I wonder how many people will be killed by assault weapons that will now be easier to get.

I wonder why people in this community feel it is fine to target a teacher just because she holds liberal views.

I wonder why we live in a country that forces people to beg for money for worthy causes, rather than allocating public money to those causes.

I wonder if in this country being healthy will ever be a right and not a privilege.

I wonder if the Red Sox will finally win this year. Or at least do better than the Yankees.

I wonder if the Democrats in California who want to make "girlie men" Arnold dolls realize that they are being as stupid as Arnold was when he made the reference.

I wonder how many people realize that Arnold was full of it when he talked about seeing Soviet tanks in Austria.

I wonder how many American recognize the widespread subtle and subversive racism that still exists in this country.

I wonder if there is any chocolate left in the cupboard....hmmm....

Separate School for Immigrants?

I can understand the need, but this seems to ride along the slippery slope to segregation. Tough issue...

Why can't those immigrants just stay home? It would just make matters easier for everyone...!

I seem to have 7 gmail invites. Although from what I have noticed, so does everyone else. Is gmail such a hot commodity? Who knew?

I took the dog to a lake I had heard about. Originally I intended it to be a short walk, a break from planning my lesson for tomorrow. It turns out that the lake was quite a ways from where the parking lot was. So it turned out to be a 3.5 mile hike. I need the exercise and I definitely did not hear the dog complaining. We saw some hares, quail, other dogs, and a few horses.

In fact, I came across the strangest thing I have seen in a while. Some of the people who had been riding horses decided to take a swim in the lake. Instead of tying up the horses, they took off the saddles and took them in the lake with them. So there were two human heads bobbing in the water and close to them were two horses who looked very confused.

The walk in sunshine that happened to be stronger and warmer than I had planned for, however, left me pretty tired. Moreover, the glass of wine I had with dinner did nothing to replenish my reserves.

I did manage to finish my lesson plan for tomorrow. I will probably take a look at it tomorrow morning and see if there is anything that needs fixing, tweaking, or filling in. The topic is actually fairly timely: the role of morality in American politics and how morality is used to create us/them divisions. Should you be interested, take a look at this book. We are reading parts of it for the lecture tomorrow. It is an interesting read.

We live in an angry country where hatefulness and spite wins.

Otherwise how could one explain this?

The RNC was not kind and yet people are drawn to that position.

The prevalence of the "Christian" ethos of love thy neighbor (unless he/she is a sinner) seems to have taken over this country. And just who is a sinner? Anyone who does not think like them.

"You are either with us or you are against us."

Things will be dire if Bush wins, mainly because the Supreme Court composition will change. We will have a state religion and major infrigements on our civil rights. The Republican Party is a political machine that is getting entrenched, setting up the rules so as to maintain and even advance its position in power.

It is very unsettling.

The bad dreams continue, but today was a better day.

My class was better, although it was tough. I had to explain what anthropology is to first year students without boring them or the senior anthro majors that are also in the class. The next classes should be easier in the sense that we are moving on to material that will be new to everyone.

I like the students here. They are good and hardworking students (so far), yet they are very unpretentious. Conversely, they are a little shy and soft-spoken so I will need to get them out of their shell.

I also got underway with my new research by searching some databases to see what similar research has been done. The answer: very little. Cutting-edge anthropologist, that's me. I need to do more exploring and refine my topic, but there seem to be many opportunities here.

I met with the sociologist whose research does not overlap with mine as much as I thought (I was misinformed by others). He is a nice guy and a fellow Mexican-American. We met a wine bar and I got to taste another local wine (more on that later), which was very good. It was strange...while we were there we interacted more like academics. As we were leaving, I said that I was probably going to stop somewhere to get a bite to eat and asked him if he wanted to join me.

We went to a local taqueria and had some very good Mexican food.

[Aside: the taqueria was in an old Taco-Bell establishment (a taco-bell shell? Sorry). This is something I noticed during the drive here - from about Nebraska on, there were old Taco-Bell restaurants that had been abandoned (probably following the merging of Taco-Bell with Pizza-Hut and KFC) and occupied by startup Mexican restauranteurs. These were given names like El Rancho, La villa, etc. It just another example of how us Mexicans are taking over this country.]

Once we got to the Taco-Bell shell (once again I apologize, but I just can't resist), the nature of our interaction changed dramatically. We went from being two scholars to being two Mexicanos reminicing about our gastronomic heritage.

Ah the transformative power of tacos!

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Speaking of Mexico. I am proud that of Mexico's four medals at the Olympics, three were won by women. And none of these medals were for speed-walking, usually the only sport in which Mexicans tend to do well.

They should have a chile eating event at the Olympics...hey, that would be as much of a sport as some of the silly events they had in Athens. The trouble is that instead of just making it the number of chiles people eat, they would try to come up with some stupid way of judging it:

"The initial point total for this chile is 9.4. It's a serrano, higher than the Jalapeno, but lower than the Habanero. She takes the first bite...oh, Pat, I see some tears, that is an automatic two-tenths deduction. But look at her finish...Amazing!"

Yeah, that would just ruin it. Forget it.

Life as a Faculty Member

The transition is ongoing. I am now a faculty member. I went to the first college-wide faculty meeting today. I am dealing with the library not having the reserve reading I requested and the students emailing me complaining about this. I am feeling the pressures of having to start my own research and begin to be productive.

Yes, that is what university faculty have to do. Oh, and I need to find a job in Boston for next year. Yeah, that too.

I have been working on my lecture for tomorrow and reworking the course schedule to include a guest speaker who is going to talk about race, gender, and hip-hop music.

I know I am more stressed than I realize because I had an awful stress dream last night. I also have been getting some nasty headaches. I need to find an outlet. Maybe pick up the tennis raquet I brought over here. The same one I have not used in a couple of years. Maybe I should visit the pool. There is a yoga studio in town...perhaps a visit is in order.

I have been walking the dog, but these excursions have been brief. Perhaps I should schedule a more extensive trek in the mountains. My landlord offered to let me wander about the 40 acres of land he owns in the mountains. That may be fun.

Once the snow starts to fall, there will be skiing in the area. Or maybe snoeshoeing - something I have never tried before.

But will there be time? I am already feeling the pressures of time. Balance. Yeah, that's the ticket. Balance.

Tomorrow is another long day. More preparations for the class, some errands and a meeting with a sociologist whose research overlaps with what I want to start up here. Better get some rest and hope my dreams are more peaceful this evening.

First Day of School

Today I had my first class. It did not go too well. It was not an utter disaster, but I felt like things just did not work. I guess I had high expectations and I just did not prepare well enough.

Bugger!

I just need to prepare better for next time...which is Thursday.

I like having a small glass of juice in the morning.

Recently I bought a bottle of what I thought was a mix of kiwi, apple, and melon juice.

When I poured a glass this morning, it was much thicker than I expected. It definitely did not look that appetizing: truth be told it looked like the water from a very murky pond. I drank it anyway - I am not one to dismiss food based on the looks. It tasted good, but I knew there was more in there than just the aforementioned fruits. So I looked at the ingredients and lo and behold there were a few surprises in there:

Ingredients by categories:

Boring: Pineapple juice, apple juice, mango puree, banana puree, kiwi juice.
Interesting: Spirulina, tamarind puree, lime juice, broccoli, ceremonial green tea, spinach, barley grass, wheat grass.
Fascinating: open cell chlorella, blue green algae, echinacea purpurea, odorless garlic, Nova Scotia dulce, Jerusalem artichoke.

I am not sure what some of those things are, but I rather have those in my body than some of the chemicals in many of the other foods I eat.

Lesson for today: There is usually more in the food that we than what is pictured on the package or container.

Bonus lesson: who knew that mucky pond water tasted so good.

It's been a long and busy week. I got myself officially oriented. All I ever wanted to know about:

-Payroll
-Benefits
-Academic Policy
-Safety
-Retirement
-Sexual Harassment
-The campus
-The library
-Tech services

Whew!

Today I got some flowers for my front yard. The big dirt patch was just not that nice. Now it has some fall colored mums and two of those decorative cabbage things. As you can tell I am not a big garden person - that is Sara's domain.

I also got my internet cable connection and very basic cable for the TV. Nothing came in clearly here off a regular antena. So now I can watch the basic networks and a few bonus channels - the best being Comedy Central. I am happy that I am off of dial-up. That is just not nice.

I also tried to start the car cleaning process. Those impacted bugs from the trip were such a pain. I still did not get them all off. Even worse, as I was getting frustrated trying to get the blemishes off while the sun began to dip down below the horizon, the hunger pangs in my stomach were teased by the smell of food cooking on the neighbor's grill. Needless to say, there is still much left to be done on the car cleaning endeavour. It will probably have to wait until Sunday.

Tomorrow I get to partake as my first official duty as a faculty member: I am marching in Convocation. I will have to borrow a robe for the event since I still cannot afford my own.

It has been nice meeting the other new faculty members in orientation. There are some interesting people doing interesting research. It seems that there is a strong sense of camaraderie among the different cohorts of entering faculty. That will be nice as we begin the challenges of teaching our courses and trying to make time for our own research.

The potential for my future research here in the area looks promising as there are many Mexicanos here. They are all very segregated though. You only see them in comunal places such as the supermarket or the taco stand. I have not actually eaten at a taco stand here, but I hear they are very good. They must be if there are both Mexicanos and Gringos eating there. I will have to try them soon. As soon as I cleanse my system following all the junk I ate on that cross-country trip.

Things are settling nicely here although I do feel very lonely. I miss Sara.

Why are orientations always so disorienting?

Here's a question for you all:

I am teaching a course on Politics, Culture, and Identity this fall. I am going to be away at a conference for one class and I am thinking of showing a film. I am looking for suggestions.

Some I have thought of:

-Lamerica (Italian)
-Mi Familia/My Family
-In America
-East is East
-Big Night

I should be able to think of more, but it is late and I am very tired. Hopefully some of you might be able to come up with something good!

Election Prediction:
Based on the distribution of bumper stickers seen during my cross country drive, Kerry will defeat Bush in November.

I am not sure what the conversion rate from bumper stickers to electoral college votes is, though. So Bush still might be president despite the defeat.

--------------

Speaking of cross country drives, I still have not cleaned and washed the car following the trek. I really need to do something about the insect cemetery that is on the front of my car. Or perhaps I should call it a cannibalistic insect smorgasboard because at one rest stop the yellowjackets were feasting on the buffet of splatters on my hood.

The inside needs a good cleaning as well. There are dirt and pebble samples from numerous states and enough dog hair to reconstruct another dog - a small one.

I knew I wanted to wait to clean the car following the trip to the mountains today. I knew I would be hitting many bugs. It was a good call because I also ended up on several gravel roads that left a lovely layer of dust.

The plan was to do a major clean, wash, and wax tomorrow morning, but I just found out that it will probably be raining. That will take care the dust, but those dead insects (sounds like a good name for a band, huh) are stuck on there pretty good. Oh well.

-------------

The farmers' market was much smaller than I expected. The produce was very nice. I also got some bread and some local honey. I also fired up the grill and put the veggies on there. It all turned out very well except I was missing one thing: Sara. Good food is just not that good when you can't share it with the person you love. :(

The mountains were fabulous. It was much cooler there than it is here. The dog and I took a short but fairly intense hike. The brevity was due to the fact that I was wearing my sneakers instead of my hiking shoes, I left the water for the both of us in the car, and I was not sure where the trail we were on was taking us. I need to search for some maps of the area. There is a ranger station in town, they may be able to help me. I am looking forward to exploring the mountains some more as is the dog. I also want to do some skiing once the snow is on the ground.

--------------

Yay for Puerto Rico and Lithuania, both of whom beat the US basketball team. Everyone needs some humility.

Yay for the Iraqi soccer team who made it to the semifinals. Boo to Bush who is trying to exploit their success for his campaign. Just let them play. Go back to letting your attack dogs smear Kerry (he still has more bumper stickers on cars driving on I-80).

--------------

I bought some sandalwood incense at Target that is very nice. I love sandalwood.

--------------

Rip Curl Ale by Full Sail Brewing Co. in Oregon is VERY good. A nice discovery.

I am tired. Time for bed.

I need to wait another week for my cable internet connection to be installed and my lack of patience has gotten the better of me. So what have I done? I signed up for one of those free internet trials. This has not satiated my lack of patience, however, because the darned thing is SO SLOW!

I can go to my office on campus and get online there. Although I don't know whether I can get in or not over the weekend. They failed to give me a key to the department office and I still have not gotten my ID which I need to swipe to get in when the building is locked. I need to look into those things Monday morning. Monday afternoon the orientation for new faculty begins. I am not sure whether I am ready for this. YIKES!

I drove down to the Tri-Cities in South-Central Washington today. It is about an hour from here. It is not a pretty place, although the Columbia River (and the Snake River) are pretty impressive. The draw of the area are all the stores that cannot be found here in Walla Walla. I stocked up on pet supplies and some necessary household items. I also hear that it is the place to go should you get a craving for Indian or Japanese food as those cuisines are not available here. I have not been here long enough to suffer from any withdrawal symptoms yet, but I know these are iminent. The saving grace is that they have some great Mexican food here.

I also bought a Weber grill today (don't tell Sara - she did not want me getting more stuff). It was on super markdown because it is the end of the summer ($19 for a big one). I love grilling. My plan is to grill over the weekend and have food for the following week. I am planning to visit the local farmer's market tomorrow that I hear is great. It should be with all the agriculture going on around here. Unfortunately I cannot partake of one of the local specialties: the Walla Walla sweet onions. Oh well. There should be some great squashes, peppers, corn, tomatoes...can I find some eggplant? We'll see. Can you tell that food/cooking/eating is my hobby. I also need to pick up some more of the local wine (more on that later).

This is making me hungry even though I just had dinner.

I am also thinking of taking a drive up to the nearby mountains with the dog tomorrow afternoon - that is if the weather holds out. It has been very hot here, but the heat is supposed to break sometime this weekend. This change may bring rain to the mountains.

Amid all this excitement, I also need to start preparing for my course. I am almost done with the syllabus. It is so much work putting one together, although at times it reminds me of my teen years when I used to make mixed-tapes. Just like you need to find the right songs and place them in the proper order, for a syllabus you need to find the right reading that is the right length and put it in the right place in the semester. Ok...I am starting to babble and it is academic babble. That's what happens when you are away from your best friend and the dog is sick of you speaking to him.

I should cut this wimpy dialup connection and go do something productive.

Have a great weekend!

No time to post, but I found out something interesting about myself today thanks to Lux:

You're New Mexico!

A fan of spelunking and cliff-dwelling, you're the adventurous,
enchanting type. It seems like you can never avoid the sun, but that's what built your
house in the first place so you'll manage. You probably speak Spanish, and maybe even a
long-lost language in addition. And after much careful consideration, you now sometimes
agree that drive-through liquor stores are not the safest idea. Even though people think
of you as yellow, your favorite question is "red or green?"


Take the State Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Won't Sara get a kick out of that! HA!

I am in my new office.

I have an office - with a window! It is pretty big and it has a lot of shelf space. If only I had my books here. It will be nice when I have a permanent job with a permanent office. But at least I have a job!

Things have been hectic. I have been trying to set up my home office and settle in to my new place. It seems like everytime Sara calls me I am at K-Mart (the choices here for supplies are K-Mart, Walmart, and Staples - and I refuse to shop at Walmart).

It is so strange not having Sara around. I miss her so much, it is like a part of me is missing. This is going to be a long year. I better be productive professionally to make it worthwhile!

The new house is very nice. There is so much room. We could easily put all our stuff in it, but our stuff is in Boston and it is going to stay there. I did have my first problem though. I tried running the dishwasher (which is probably from the early 70s - yet it almost looks new) and it somehow clogged the drain so the water backed up into the sink. This made the drain pipes from the sink leak. Not a huge disaster, but it really makes it hard to cook/eat at home when you can only wash you dishes in the bathroom sink. After a week road trip, I really was looking forward to making myself some homecooked meals.

I need to go somewhere to pick up the keys to my office. I only have internet access here, so I might not post as much as I would like. I am still waiting for my cable internet connection and my phone to be hooked up. Ah the joys of moving.

I made it!

It is REALLY hot here (110 degrees), but it is dry. I will take this over the humidity of the east coast any day.

The drive was long. Highlights include:

-Narrowly avoiding a storm with tornadoes.

-Seeing a pickup truck engulfed in flames.

-Getting souveneir mosquito bites in almost every state we went through.

-Adding Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Idaho to the states I have been to.

There is probably many more, but I am too tired to think of them right now. There is so much I need to do. I have rented a huge house with nothing in it. I am off to search for "stuff" - I am suffering from withdrawal.

I should be around more now. Be sure to stop by...

I can't believe that I start the drive to Washington in two days. I am not ready - on many levels.

Two cable modems later, we got the cable internet connection working. I am typing this on Sara's computer which has an ergonomic keyboard. It is not going too well, especially because i do not type correctly.

This next stage of my life is kind of scary. And I have to do it separated from my best friend and life companion. I don't like that. As I don't like typing on this keyboard.

Have a great week and I will see you all on the other side.