Home and feeling unhealthy!

Well, I've been away for quite a while doing all sorts of things (field research and a long weekend away). This means that I've been away from the kitchen for a long time, eating out, and not necessarily eating what I would normally choose. I flew back from Ireland this morning, where I had a wonderful time eating enormous quantities of Ulster fry, and I'm feeling it. This is particularly important since my middle is starting to expand due to a tiny guest having taken up residence!

So, when I got home I put on the bread machine and started cooking up a bean soup to curb the unhealthy feelings in my mouth.

The bread was wonderful, as was the soup and it totally filled the healthy gap in my body. Yum!

Battlestar Galactica

Though things have been busy around here lately, I have found the time to slowly continue working our way through Battlestar Galactica. We are currently 2 or 3 episodes away from the end of season 4 (the first half), and knowing that things are ramping up to the end of the series, I have begun to think about some of the overarching themes of the show. Adding to this, I have been reading a lot about the way fans deconstruct and relate to various tv-shows, so I am deep in the analytical mindset.

Some of the things that I really like about BSG is the characters, the fact that they aren't all shiny, perfect and new. The characters are broken and hurting, complex and definetly not nice. They are real people and it is painful to watch them struggle with hard situations in which there are no right answers. This is particularly true for Laura Roslin, who I think is one of the most interesting characters. She was recently pointed out as a wonderful female role-model, demonstrating that you don't have to be butch or physical to be strong and effective.

Religion is obviously one of the big themes of the show. The writers have focussed mainly on the emergence of a powerful and seductive new monotheistic religion and the effect this has on the polytheistic people of the fleet. Interestingly, this feeds directly into the way that people have traditionally dehumanized followers of different faiths, as this new religion comes from the Cylons. The Cylon's humanity is repeatedly questioned throughout the course of the show, and as the new religion gains more ground among the human fleet, we see more human-like interaction between the humans and Cylons.

Finally, in the last episode we watched, Laura Roslin and Bill Adama finally admitted their love to one another, making the relationship most integral to the plot a romantic one. Interestingly for a modern show, these characters do not fit into the young and sexy mold. This, in my opinion, is awesome and I fully approve! (Please don't spoil me for what happens next. . )

So does anyone have any thoughts on any of these aspects of BSG? Other shows?

Home again, home again

I'm home. And I'm exhausted. Our trip went relatively smoothly, we saw everything we wanted to see and had a lot of fun. There were some interesting events while travelling though - including a huge sandstorm on the Desert Highway which led to a massive accident that we drove past minutes after it occurred, followed by one of our fellow passengers having a heart attack! One of our flights home was also delayed waiting for a connecting flight, which had almost the entire passenger list on it - consisting of people who proceeded to provide the loudest flight I have ever been on. This was particularly frustrating since we had gotten up at 1am to make our first flight.

So, interesting and exciting.

I'm now busy processing all the information and experiences I had while out there. I was surprised by some of the sites I visited, and thoroughly enjoyed that.

Didn't give up. . . might still live

Well, pursuant to my last post, I have indeed been running around getting things organized. Top of the list was visas, second was flights. Flights were particularly exorbitant because we were traveling over Easter weekend, though we seem to have mitigated that by flying out on the Saturday. Next on the list is a hotel to stay at when we arrive at 1:30 am. Once again, because it is Easter weekend, I am finding that any place reasonably priced is totally booked up, making this difficult. NOrmally, we'd just sort it out once we arrived, but since this is such a short trip and because I have a number of research goals I need to accomplish, I can't afford to have a slow or tired start. So I'm still looking to find some place that I"m happy with.

In other news, I had a meeting with one of my supervisors this morning, and we spent a good deal of time brainstorming over the various things we could do to measure smell ourselves. I think we may have gone a bit overboard, but I foresee some sniffing in my future!

Visa application - or - Why I want to quit before I start

I'm going on a research trip this month, and have a bunch of grant money coming in to pay for it.  Unfortunately, the money doesn't arrive until early in the month, so I haven't been moving very quickly on booking things like flights or applying for visas.  Now, it's a week before I intended to leave, and I'm running around like a crazy person trying to make up for the fact that i put things off so long.  I think it will be fine, but I could do without the extra stress.  

In fact, this pre-travel planning always makes me wish I was just staying home.  I love travel and do quite a bit of it, but every time, I just want to lay down and pretend it isn't there.  I guess this is why people go on all-expenses-paid tours rather than doing things themselves!

This is the same as grant applications, scholarships, and all the other things that an academic has to do in order to survive, and I dread it.  Ugh.

Smell

Well, my friends are probably tired of hearing me yak on about this. I've been doing some brainstorming research in order to see if I could accommodate smell into my methodology. So I've been scouring the literature for some indication that people have explored smell archaeologically before and I'm coming up with bupkiss.

There has been lots and lots and lots of research on the science behind the physical sense of smell, and a fair amount of research into the way other cultures perceive smell and the other senses, but there has been almost no research into smell in a wider environment. This means that it's very difficult to find anything that could be at all relevant or at all applicable to the archaeological record.

This is depressing because smell is so important for people's experience of space, it is an integral part of the way people perceive architecture.

Life!! Ack!!

Well, life has taken over.  The past week has been really stressful for me - mostly because I've been feeling overwhelmed.  As a result, I've been making use of the tried and tested method of a to-do list to keep track of things and reduce my stress level.  I find that when I write the list of things down it means that I can focus on doing something without worrying that I'll remember to do the other things.

That being said, I am slowly starting to feel back in control of my life because I have:

Prepared and given the 4 lectures I needed to

Prepared and printed the poster for the poster day next Friday

Taken care of some admin things for grants

Called the Syrian Embassy

Gotten a handle on a timetable for my research trip

Met with my supervisors

I still need to:

Plan and book research trip

Including: apply for visas, book flights, ensure grant payment

Work in office

Poster day (Fri)

Practical teaching (2 Fridays)

Work on thesis (any spare moment)

Go to Stonehenge (Fri/Sat)

Go hiking (next Sat/Sun)

Sleep - presumably

All this to say, life is busy and I'm running around quite a bit