i wish i had something interesting to say because the board has been terribly dead for the last 24 hours. but i don't find myself so interesting when i'm not horribly depressed. and i am not so depressed today. things are so wonderful when the sun is shining, you've attended your last class for the week, tomorrow is pay day,and you just ate a hummus sandwich and carrot sticks and you're about to open up some strawberry applesauce. it's nice to have a beam of light in the pitch darkness of my life. i have to appreciate days like today because they don't come along too often.

The hummus thing made you happy?

mmm. hummus.

strawberry applesauce? Explain!

man. college rocked. goddamnit. it has begun.

basically it's just applesauce with strawberry kool aid in it. it's yummy. and what has begun?

man, Ukrops may be a bunch of conservative baptists, but they make the best damn fried chicken i've ever eaten.

okay i kinda get it. i think kool-aid = raro in my world but i'm not sure.

they don't make fluff here. i'm sad.

You've got it moonit. Sounds foul to me, but I've never liked raro (drink not country) The only time I could drink it was in Dunedin cos the water tastes so foul there. My aunt used to have a jug of raro in the fridge at all times. Now I have my own money and buy bottled water if I'm in Dunedin. The sun is shining here today too. Nice autumn weather - cool nights but warm sunny days. Lets hope it stays that way for the weekend.

Ok, what if the sun isn't shining? The hummous thing is cool though...ever tried pot noodle sanwiches...now they make you glad to be alive....the sun can shine out of my ass as far as i'm concerned...as long as I have junk food I shall be happy.

yeah sun, bollocks to the sun, junk food, alcohol and TV, the sun is nothing man, we dont even see the sun most of the time. although i wonder what itd be like to live in total darkness for ever....tell you what candle sales would rocket, as would electricity bills, and like, i guess people would sleep a lot more. ah well maybe one day....

i like cloudy days too. when it's not too cold. the air is warm and the wind is cool.mmm... or days when you lay in a park and the sun beats down on you as you take a little nap. both types make me happy... i don't think i could live without either of them. i just realize a little bit more of how bad things aren't when the sun is shining. i started this book _tuesdays with morrie_ just a few hours ago. i'm nearly finished. my therapist wanted me to read it because i've had and continue to have so much loss in my life. i have to find meaning in my loss. and it appears that there is some. i feel like things are chaning. someone once told me that this book changed their life. i didn't believe it, but now i understand. so each your junk food, it's your sunshine. all of the kool aid talk made me think of tang. my grandmother (the evil one) used to make me drink it. i am not sure if i like it or not, but i hate the thought of being made to drink it at my grandmother's house. i avoid it at all cost.

Don't you just hate Jar Jar Binks!

You got something against the brothers?

watch the film, then you'll understand

were the hell did starwars come into the conversation?

when we said.... 'Don't you just hate Jar Jar Binks!'

Can you score me some of that stuff you two are on?

you wouldn't want what we are taking.....it's mainly re-constituted cauliflower and hair dye....combined to form a potent mixture that invokes hallucinations of giant lychees amongst other things

Don't you just love lychee duck?

Not as much as I do Jar Jar Binks.

jar jar was good comic relief. i prefer R2-D2 and C-3P0 but jar jar wasn't that bad....bitches kids loved him...the movie has to have a kid base to sell toys.....never in my life have i seen a movie character make a bunch of whiny adults BITCH.....(the Simpson's comic bookstore guy is coming to mind)

Werst kerecter ev-err! That simpson's guy is the most dead-on accurate character - he has to be based on a real person.

he is affectionately based on a comic bookstore owner here in LA, a place called Golden Apple..apparently rather imfamous in their own right.....the longer i live here, the more i see the influence this town has on this show..... i agree though, i can actually do a pretty good imitation.....

Jar Jar was really annoying. what the heck is wrong with George Lucas? Doesn't he know when to Stop already? with every star wars film he makes it just goes more and more downhill. soon he'll have tainted the whole thing. where did I read that all the old Star Wars fans were turning towards the Matrix as their new religion? somewhere.

I heard a rumor that Christopher Walken will be in the next SW movie.

i thought stars was at it's peak with Empire Strikes back....Jedi was ok......i think too many people take it waaaayyyy too seriously and need to get jobs or something.........people camped out for weeks on end downstairs on the corner next to the theater to see the premier.

Yesterday it was sunny all the way from Olympia to Aberdeen. I was happy happy, usually it ends up that I enter this vast land of grey and gloom. I take the bus now. It's a 2 hr. drive. It's not so bad, I'll only be doing this for 3 more months till my scholarship ends. I'm reading Ulysses right now by James Joyce, and having a slight better understanding of it then I did the previous time I tried reading it. There's something I like about it, the things they say. Snotgreen country. I'm excited for Summer.

Return of the jedi was THE best star wars film.....EVER made...the new one just can't get it right, but it doesn't stop my son from watching it about 5 times a day....poor thing, he's only three, what do you expect...he's yet to develop taste...I think that comes with age. Pray for him!

ugh! the matrix sucked big time. reeves is the worst actor. the whole idea was pretty cool... but... acting just kicked it in the head. wasn't it based on a short story written at the beginning of the 20th century? what was the name of the story...?

As I am forced to watch the phantom menace on a daily basis, I sincerely hope that in the next episode, that Jar Jar Binks or as I call him, big eared wanker (not that I have anything against big ears, as I myself possess them), is squished, squashed, shot at, set on fire, and dropped out of an X Wing onto some desolate planet in the galaxy far away and never heard of again. Ahhh now I feel better

that ewok song is kinda fun to sing when you're all hopped up on mezcal and psilocybin. well, not really. i guess it's just the "yub-yub" part.

I'm reading "portnoy's complaint" by philip roth. this afternoon I started reading it while walking to my car and got really mad when a friend I haven't seen in six months yelled my name from across the street. I had to stop reading to talk to him. after I got in my car, I couldn't put it down. I had the book open in my left hand, which was also pressed against the steering wheel. I was careful to let myself take in only a line at a time while traffic was moving. I'm also reading "the anatomy lesson" and the fourth issue of mcsweeney's, but without that sort of urgency. tonight I'm going to see "american psycho." I had a hard time with the book because I hate reading/watching depictions of physical torture. I'm a softie that way. last night I asked my special friend about what he likes to eat because tomorrow I am going to go grocery shopping for his 18-hour stay. I'd already bought some prosciutto, but he says he doesn't much care for it. lox? no. pecan pie? no. he told me his preferences in dessert haven't developed at all since he was six. I told him his tastes were pedestrian. it's clear I'm crazy about him because I'm always making up opportunities to insult him. he's a softie. completely. I wasn't ever going to have sugar in my house, but then I bought some (and some half-and-half) for his coffee. in case he wants any. I'm hard and cold and mean and tough, and he's soft and warm and nice and sensitive and gentle and likes kitties. he told me about the time he shopped for a car and I wished I could have been there with him so I could have talked to the dealers for him. I wanted to protect him from all that's nasty and awful in the world because I can take it better than he can. he says he has more than one present for me. but will he have wrapped them, that's the question. if you want to show you care, you wrap the gift. buying presents is easy. do you buy the paper, do you wrap the gift? I always do. another friend asked me what I wanted. where I wanted my gift certificate to be from. or did I just want him to buy me dinner? I don't know. I haven't really been thinking, THIS IS MY BIRTHDAY, I've been thinking, my friend is coming! god, this is sick. went out to dinner with a friend last friday. "you know, when you write the book of your life, this is going to be the most boring chapter." oh well. la!

lox causes dreams of persecution, and lost desire in the hands of the mechanic. You don't like the anti-freeze smell, so read and drive and like a minstrel who sings by the night, as the night by his Sword, and the wizard by his book...kiss the pages. KISS THEM! G*&^#$N IT @#)$@(*$&(@# DO IT. SHOW ME!!! I WANT TO SEE IT>(*&(* AAAHH...AH..ah.ahha......eeeerrrrr. oooohhhhh. Sorry. I like reading too, maybe a little too much. I'm going to unplug me now. Bye bye.

cyst- i am currently reading, among other things, _the breast_ by philip roth. i'm a little pissy about the whole thing. it wasn't what i expected. i know that i should finish it, but i'm so irritated that they guy turns into a breast. i don't know. have you read it? has anyone read it? is it worth finishing?

I've only read "sabbath's theater," "the ghost writer" and "zuckerman unbound." I'm drunk. I got back from "american psycho," which I liked, and split that bottle of cab with my friend, the attorney. he calls himself an attorney. I usually call him a lawyer. we ate the prosciutto (I still don't know if I'm spelling that right) since my special pedestrian friend said he didn't particularly care for it. it was good. not jamon serrano, but nice. did someone want the ending explained? he was doomed to fail to be recognized. all he wanted was attention? no one would ever take him seriously. there was no way, even if he did it and confessed, that he could get to be a serial murderer. the lawyer at the bar didn't really see paul allen in london. he didn't know who paul allen was. allen could have been bateman, for all he knew. they were all interchangeable. bateman said he just wanted to fit in, and he did. and the ones who may have recognized he really was a murderer -- the guy who saw the body in the great bag in the trunk, the lawyer, the realtor -- just couldn't be bothered with dealing with it. just leave me alone, better yet, just leave. I don't know; I'm drunk.

while my lawyer friend was over, handjob guy called me. "what are you doing?" he asked. "um, I'm eating some prosciutto, drinking some wine, with a friend." "your FRIEND?" "no, that's friday." "male or female?" "male." "you slut," he said. I only aspire to slutdom. I have an outfit planned for sunday morning. it's small, it's hot pink. I'll wear this little dress with very high-heeled white strappy sandals. I will buy a pack of cigarettes so I can go sit by myself and order a cocktail before noon and smoke. happy easter. today I told a coworker about this plan. I sit by a graphic designer, this sweet and sort of cute goth-type chick, who has tried to tell me which coworkers, clients and vendors I should discourage because she's actually interested in them. bakery boy, who was at one of the parties saturday night, also told me I should respect others' prior claim. (apparently porch guy had come to the party with a companion. "you shouldn't steal other girls' boyfriends," bakery boy said.) he hasn't called me since then. he's mad at me. he's always mad at me for something. I left him a message on his answering machine the other day -- "hi, sorry for getting really drunk saturday night and acting like myself." last friday night I went out with h. and s., and I was telling them about my new betsey johnson dress, and h. was praising me for my mastery of "the dry hustle," and I told them about how often I forget about other people's sense (pretense?) of morality. and that I'm starting not to care. it's too difficult to try to remember exactly who is going to be offended by what. I spent a lot of time with my parents saturday; they accompanied me on my search for a bed. I started telling my mother things I was thinking. we were walking around in a furniture store, and I told her, "you know, I really like these mirrors. or maybe what I really like is my reflection."

Happy B-day Cyst,and it,s at least 2 other of my friends here maybe 3,but am tanked too.I,ll look back tomorrow,Czarina and I have been out partying and she and her beautiful daughter kicked in about an hour ago,her husband is going to pick them up tomorrow.We had a great time,listening to Pumkin tell about beating up her mother-in-law up after she had open heart surgery,the saddest part,she was proud of it.It,s hard to believe that she is Brucifers sister,they had different dads though,Her,s just happened to blow his brains out at the dinner table one night in front of the whole family,That was Pumkins real dad,they were kids.Anyway it was real

reading banana yoshimoto.....Kitchen recommended by the wifey so far so good...it's a sweet gentle read....very contemporary apparently she is quite popular in Japan went to a betsy johnson runway show once....in atlanta.......she kinda creeps me out....but i like her clothes

Reading Wally Lamb's "I Know This Much is True" Page 609. Good so far.

I've read one of Banana Yoshimoto's books, but I can't remember which one it was though... HAppy Birthday to all Sorabjiites. You are all coincidences now.

I read "She's Come Undone" and though it also has the Oprah seal of approval, I just read Billie Letts' "Where the Heart Is" and found it thoroughly enjoyable. I don't much care for Philip Roth.

Anne Wilson Schaef's Living in Process -- Gabrielle Roth's Sweat Your Prayers -- Breton & Laregent's, The Paradigm Conspiracy -- and a hefty dose of Michelle Slung's Slow Hand -- to keep it on the light side....

the first three books will fuck you up. but Slow Hand sounds like fun.

i read _she's come undone_ a year or so ago. i don't know. while reading it i thought it was a great book, but ... i don't know... it might have been a bit too depressing. i just finished _night_ by elie ... forgot his last name. i have been reading like a madwoman lately. i usually don't read during the school semester because i don't have time. however, i've read five or six books in the past month and a half that have nothing to do with school. it feels good to read for pleasure.

hey semillama - which banana book was it? was it about the author/translator? the one called NS? that's the one i had and was reading in the apartment on 2nd street..... has anybody here read anything by haruki murakami? the wind up bird chronicles is great.

my roommate used to live in Eugene and says the guy who owns the comic shop there is IDENTICAL to the Simpson's character....I would be willing to bet it's the same person, since Matt Groening is from Portland and since that guy has run the shop forever..... I actually went in just to see and I couldn't believe it...

Elie Wiesel?

I'm in the middle of: _Palm-of-the-Hand Stories_ (Yasunari Kawabata) _The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts_ (Luis de Bernieres, who was really popular in Ireland for some reason, although for _Corelli's Mandolin_ more than anything else) _Sugar Street_ (Naguib Mahfouz) I just found _Sugar Street_ today in a used bookstore and I'm really excited because it's the last in a trilogy. _Dubliners_ (James Joyce)

I just finished A Historical Archaeology of the Modern World, by Charles Orser jr. I attempted to segue into an edited volume called Historical Archaeology of Capitalism, but it was too much for my over taxed brain to handle. I will bring it to the coffee shop tomorrow night though. To clear the palate, I always resort to cheesy fantasy novels - right now its "Dragons of Summer Flame" by Weis and Hickman ( I re-read the earlier "Dragonlance" trilogy in a fit of nostaglia recently, then discovered they just picked up the chronicles trilogy again). I strongly believe in cleansing your mental palate. I think that's why i started watching wrestling again soon after i went back to grad school.

hey Sem: whaddya think of America BC by Barry Fell I think? Is it bullshit or not? I was reading it when at the same time I found America's Secret Destiny by Heronimus. (I actually found the Heronimus book in a store in Aruba). I live just twenty minutes from the Cahokia site, and go there often, to cleanse. (Wrestling is good for grad school palate cleansing, but I drank too damn much in grad school to recognize wwf as much more than trying to get up off the mat. Jello or mud, no dif...) I like digging in the dirt since I don't get to do that much anymore. I dig in people's heads most of the time so Mother Nature is refreshing. I do like women's erotica, though. Close second to getting your hands nice and dirty.

you all need to stop reading so much and watch some TV or something. meanwhile, I'm reading "Written On The Body". I can't remember who wrote it and I'm too lazy to go into the other room and check, so you'll all have to suffer! Ha!

Jeanette Winterson. Do you like it? I'm going to watch tv now.

Barry Fell=Erich Von Daniken. i have that book. It's a great example of Eurocentrism. The section on Mystery Hill? What Fell doesn't mention is that Irish farmers to this very day build those types of structures, and teh "altar stone with blood gutters" is actually used foro agricultural purposes. You should read a book called Fantastic Archaeology, it deals with a lot of that stuff, but from the perspective of a scientifically trained archaeologist, not an epigrapher. The whole problem with having all these Welsh and Phoenicians and what not coming over here all the time - where's their trash? It's simply not there. (Or hasn't been found yet, but that is highly unlikely). Fell's hypotheses are based on the flimsiest of evidence, whereas any archaeologist worth her salt will want hard material, datable, and cultural specific evidence in an undisputable context before you can start crying "Look! Ancient Europeans!" The idea that the archaeology profession is somehow covering up such evidence is a crock. When it comes out, it gets examined. Take for exampel L'anse Aux Meadows (the ca. 1000 AD VIking settlement in Newfoundland), or that Roman statue head that turned up in Mexico, seald under three occupational floors. How it got there is still unknown, but the best guess is some poor Roman sailors got blown off course and washed up somewhere over in the Western Hemisphere. Then, either by trade or by direct contact, the statue head made it to Mexico. And there's the Roman Amphorae that's been found in a harbor down in Brazil, but who knows when that ended up there, it could have been 300 ad or it could have been part of some rich Portugeuse planter's art collection, from 1800 AD. What seems evident at this point is that there was not any type of established contact between Old and New Worlds (excluding the Vikings, who did not make any real kind of an impact), but some early accidental contact was likely made. See what happens when you get me going?

Isn,t Jeannette a pretty name?

Yes, J. :) I'm reading: *"Shy Children, Phobic Adults" by Deborah Beidel *"Shyness" by Barbara Carducci *"Extreme Fear, Shyness, and Social Phobia" edited by Louis Schmidt and Jay Schulkin and for pleasure: *"Americans' Favorite Poems" edited by Robert Pinsky (whose translation of Dante's Inferno is really quite good). It has made me cry several times, I don't know why, except maybe I find it moving that a 17-year-old student, a 43-year-old nurse, and a 77-year-old retired woman can be touched by the same poem. Art knows no limits.

all right!! who's the 77 year old here????

your mom.

I,m not that old,though I hope to live to be.

I'd hazard to say that none of the people Rhi's referring to are "members of the board", so to speak.

I've been told to expect to enjoy the haruki murakami story in mcsweeney's #4. he didn't wrap my gifts; I was not surprised.

No, the people I mentioned were people found in the book. I thought that was clear (?). I'm in the middle of a paper right now. AGAIN, I wait till the last minute! AGAIN! I'm half done, and the lab closes in 4 hours, so I should make it. If not, I have 5 hours tomorrow morning to work on it a little more, but I'm hoping I won't have to use that time. I guess I should shut up now. Especially since this is most non-essential info. for all of y'all. I think in 10 minutes the hardcore reggae show starts on Power 99 FM. That will give me the motivation to continue.

Finally! My reggae! Only on page 9 of the paper. It's looking like the end is not in sight. This really really sucks, especially since I have discovered that my heretofore-thought-of-as-totally-solid premises are falling apart as we speak. I hate it when I write papers that are so obviously held together by a few well-placed sentences. Ack. Goddamn, I'll be happy when I graduate (hey, it's in a month, and if I can pull this paper off, I'll be graduating with honors. Cross your fingers.).

there's a 77 yr old retired woman in Dante? I didn't think Beatrice was that old, and certainly not retired. Gosh. Just finished reading GUT SYMMETRIES tonight but I couldn't track down any video for Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. I'm a sucker for boat stories. Like building small craft. Like lovemaking in the bottom of old mahogany Hereschroft designs, covered in cedar boughs, steaming from the heat made in the dark, velvet antlers proud and... Lifeboats. Women and Children First! Another story.

Semillama - what caused the Classic Maya collapse? in a nutshell.

Starbuck's.

No, no, no. The 77-year-old woman was in "Americans' Favorite Poems," which was edited by Robert Pinsky, who also had previously translated Dante's Inferno. Got that? (Wheeeeee! Paper's done. Now I just have to give the presentation.)

Har. Could I have the serious answer now?

ok. From the Oxford Companion to Archaeology: "During the 8th Century AD, Classic Maya civilization reached its height. Population in the southern lowlands is thought to have been in the millions...Construction boomed, as many new temples, palaces and houses were built. Trade ...flourished. During the period between 9.17.0.0.0 and 10.0.0.0 in the Maya calendar, or A. D. 771 to 830, many of these activities had ceased at a large number of cities and towns. Not only did construction halt, but most centers and their sustaining areas appear to have been either partially or totally abandoned." Current hypotheses point to intensifying pressure on the environment from large-scale forest clearing and increased agriculture. Along with terrirtoial expansion and competition, this lowered the per capita food supply. By the 9th century ad, the ecological decline, combined with political breakdowns and military and economic pressures on the frontiers of the southern lowlands, led to widespread emigration and increased mortality. As the sites in the south were collapsing, the sites in the north began to "floresce" and grow, such as Chichen Itza. So, Classic maya civilization did not totally collapse but continues to develop in the north through about 1000 AD. (paraphrased from Jeremy A. Sabloff's entry, pp. 414-415) that good?

Thanks Semillama. I think I was close enough not to fail that part of the exam.

Sem: What's your read on Maya, Hopi and Navajo ancestors Anazazi, connection to the Cahokian cultures all disappearing around the same time, 900 ad or so? I'm specifically interested in Cahokian / Eastern Woodlands / and I've read The Mound Builders and all the usual normal stuff. And the abnormal stuff like FEll and etc.. Talked with Hope and Navajo don't seem to know... UFO? Heaven's Gate a thousand years ago? Time warp? Flood? Not expecting your usually fine explanation but may be a reference I've haven't run across. You think maybe it's a mythic time glitch or something? {and the sun is shining here just west of Cahokia this morning....)

Sem does post-industrial revolution urban excavation by preference. Or was it just barely pre-industrial revolution? Anyway, he is always willing to spill big brain droppings on us, but the physical anthro of the older post-simian inhabitants of this continent and our southern conjoined twinaren't his primary THANG (of course, Daniel, it's what we all always ask him about).

Yeah, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. I can tell you this: the Navajo have nothing to do with the Pueblans (Anasazi). They migrated from Canada sometime after the Pueblans declined. The Hopi have a much better claim to them as ancestors. However, because of how screwed up cultural resource law is (letting government make laws on the basis of scientific knowledge from a decade or more ago is a BAD thing), The Navajo can claim the Anasazi as ancestors, because the law gives equal weight to tribal traditions as it does to the scientific evidence (Genetic and lingual evidence places the ancestors of the Navajo in Canada when the Pueblans were going full swing). This really upsets the Hopi, because they feel the Navajo are claiming Anasazi remains in NAGPRA cases that are actually their ancestors. As far as teh Maya, I don't think there's awhole lot of evidence to connect them with the Anasazi. but to attempt to answer your ?: first, Cahokia: Actually, Cahokia began to flourish at about 1000 AD, not decline The Chaokian culture belongs to an archaeologically-defined period called Early Mississipian. The decline at Cahokia began in the 12th century. The Anasazi were an extension of the Hohokam and Mogollon cultures, and floutrished in the 13th-14th centuries. The Great Drought of 1376 probably had a lot to do with the abondonment of their sites. The Maya Civilization slowly crashed from 900AD to about 1200 AD, due to different factors in different regions of their empire. I would look at environmental and social facors before looking to the skies for the visitors with this. I would bet that having a population that's larger than the region can sustain was a factor in some of this.

Sem, you know your stuff. I think it was the lack of salt in their diet that condemned the sun worshippers to travel elsewhere. Rise - decline - too much salt - too little salt. Perhaps depletion of the agricultural fecundity of the region is as plausible as political unrest... I agree on social & environmental problems, especially for the Temple Mound peoples. My non scientific intuition is that since the Mississippian replaced the Woodland culture, the settlements were established and flourished earlier than we suppose at Cahokia; I find it interesting that by 1200 both the Anasazi and Cahokians had disappeared. The only other personal understanding (e.g., not coming from books or Gordon Wiley but through direct contact with the site) is a synchronistic anamoly in the clouds on a mountaintop road in my life last summer at Etowah -- a discovery startling me in that it is the second largest earthenworks in NA after Cahokia. I had written about and named Etowah as a setting in 98 without knowing much about the place. One of those things I don't explain as I am more a writer and observer than a scientist. As such, and not writing scholarly articles, I get my cultures and periods mixed up sometimes, as most amateurs do. Also, I haven't figured out the Etowah occurence yet, and I forgot what I did know once. It was definitely a threshold thing. Cahokia is still an amazing remnant and is a gate to the past. A friend caretakes 500 acres of land and mounds on the Trail of tears, and another caretakes a twenty acre parcel I was led to some years ago. Come to find out it was a vision questing area for the Cahokians according to the locals. In the twenty years I've been studying it, I've forgotten more than I've learned; any data is hazy and arguable, my knowledge imperfect; but of the wisdom of the place I have a small taste. I want to do a geomantic tour of sites in Missouri and Illinois in the next few years. It would be nice to have someone of your expertise along. Besides, such company would make delightful campside conversation. Yeah, a sorabji camping trip through the sacred springs and hills of The Great Midwaste. Anybody passing through the area call me. One of my mentors attempted to orchestrate a five day trip a few years ago. Didn't make budget. Oh well. Memory is the first to go. Thanks for your clarification - great!