Indie's Inanities

Men are pigs.  This comes from many gathered comments on men from women over the years and also a first hand look at our gender in those moments when women aren't around.
Hey, don't lump me in with your opinion or the opinions of what sound like some jaded women. There are bad representatives of both genders.

Now I feel like a man apologist, but honestly I really don't like when people say stuff like that. Why badmouth your own gender?
 
*IndieGirl , the stealthy internet engenue, has discovered that the last time the IT guys (who love her because she gave them cookies) worked on her computer, they hooked her up with an internet connection.

*IndieGirl is hoping that this was intentional, and is a fluke that will NOT be taken care of any time soon.

Oh, fortuitous day.

*IndieGirl rubs her hands gleefully with an impish glint in her eye and scampers off.
 
LOLOLOLOL

You're on! Hooray!


Meanwhile - updaties...

(Only one! So sad. I've been emailing like a madwoman, but no poetry lately. This is all I've got to show that I was once an aspiring poetess. And it's complete crap, in my 'umble hopinion.)

inkstain

their edges curl up:
scallopfringed saucers
of darkness,
proof of darkness;
full of what i don't
say is done on these
sheets.
i mistrust ballpoint,
see my rampant
aversion to the way
it rolls, carving tunnels
into the page -
whose ghosts
sit indignant
through the following acts,
almost as if heckling
performances made
ridiculous because they
ignore the facts
of what came
before. my time
is marked by
sheets, my
sheets are marked
in time.


It has also come to my attention that my favorite Decemberists song is Shiny from their "5 Songs EP" releashed by HUSH.

I think one can get it on iTunes, if it's not still available as an mp3 download from www.insound.com.

This was just an important FYI.
 
Also, had to share this:

kfcdh3.png
 
In other news (and who gives a damn about quadruple posting...it's my blog, you Philistines!) I have a couple of funny stories to tell you all.

story number one which happened yesterday:
I work with my friend Courtney, who I grew up with, she's like 3 years younger than me, and I love her guts, she's like the kid sister who doesn't steal my stuff.

Anyway, for break/lunch today we went to go get pastrami burgers and fries from a local place called Burger Supreme that has the best pastrami burgers in pretty much the entire galaxy, and we were driving back to work, trying to find a place to park, and she had taken this huge swig of her drink when I dripped some fry sauce (strange Utah condiment made of ketchup and mayonnaise and some seasoning (usually) that tastes way better than it sounds) on my shirt. In the rather convenient area that girls usually end up dripping stuff when it lands on a shirt, and my knee jerk reaction was to yell, "Dammit! It's not a KITCHEN shelf!!"

At which point Courtney teetered on the edge of exploding her beverage out her nose and all over her steering wheel. I wasn't helping much because watching her try to hold it in was freaking hilarious and so I started laughing harder, and she started laughing harder and then she started SQUEALING because she was trying SO hard not to blow soda out her nose, and it was like two minutes before we both calmed down and she was able to swallow, but that was the funniest damn two minutes I've been party to in a long time (at least, in real life.)

I had to share.

funny story number two which is more of a quote from Syber:
Dont you find it weird that whenever a girl goes out with Dylan she suddenly has a million computer hours? It's almost like he doesn't spend any time with them or somethin' :
 
And a not-so-funny story which is nonetheless a crucial aspect of updating.

Written on the Morning of January 6 in an email to a friend:
-=sigh=- I'm so distraught. Scott and I got in a huge fight last night. And it wasn't over something small either. I was talking about going back to school and he kept saying that I didn't need to go back to school, that he could take care of me. I told him that I wanted to, and that going back to school was something really important to me. (We had talked about this before, when I finally decided that I wanted to be an ethnographer.) He said we could worry about it later, and I said I thought it was really important to talk about right then.

The discussion snowballed into this huge argument about him not wanting me to work, and about how I was "already smarter than him" and how if I got a job and finished school it was like me supplanting his role in our relationship further down the road. And then he went off about me wanting to be an ethnographer, and about how selfish it was of me to choose a career where we would have to relocate all the time and how would I have time for school and then a career if it was my responsibility to be at home with the kids. It was so crazy and just came out of nowhere!

I thought we had talked about all of this - but apparently not enough. See, Scott's dad left his family when Scott was about 13 - just abandoned them, until he decided that he wanted to be a part of his kids' lives after Scott was nearly done with college. And so Scott grew up with his mother trying to take care of everything, and he really resented his dad for it, and decided pretty early on that he was never going to have his wife work to support the family. And suddenly he sees me wanting to go back to school as me wanting to be the so-called breadwinner and...and...

I don't know what to do. He got SO angry. I'd never seen him so angry. He was furious with me, and he just kept throwing out all these accusations about how selfish I was. And then he went off about my guy friends, and about not letting him read everything that I wrote, and how I never seem to tell him about things beyond my surface layers (but I HAVE! It's why I love him - he's so easy to talk to!) And I was just getting more and more hurt by the things he was throwing at me. It got to the point where I stopped arguing and just sat there while he hurled accusations and insults at me. Then he got quiet and just started pacing back and forth and finally said, "I don't know if I can do this, Chels," and just looked at me. He'd never looked at me like that - like his world was over and it was all my fault - just for wanting to do something meaningful with my life and finish school!

I didn't know what to say. So I stood up and handed him my ring and told him that I loved him, but that now I didn't know if I could do it either, if he felt like that - that I never thought he could yell at me the way that he did, over something that was so important to me, and that I wished he could see how selfish he had made himself seem. I told him to keep the ring. And that maybe we could talk about this later when we had both calmed down. He said he didn't know. He said he didn't want me working, and that he didn't know if he could resolve what I wanted to do with all of the things that he had planned happening for so long once he got married.

I told him to call me if he changed his mind. And that it broke my heart to hear him say that. But that I had always planned on going to school and doing something meaningful with my career path, whether or not I was a mother as well.

All he said was he was sorry we hadn't had the discussion sooner and that he wanted to be alone. So I left his house and went home and cried pretty much all night. What did I do wrong? How did we not stumble across this sooner?

And now I feel like it's all my fault. Like I've let him down. And I don't have the heart to tell my parents, because Mom's so excited and happy about all of this wedding stuff and getting me out of the house and cranking out the grandkids - part of me feels like she'll tell me to just do what he wants because he loves me, and if he can take care of me I should let him. I feel like I've just disappointed everyone by finally deciding on a dream that I want to pursue. How is that my fault? How is any of this fair?

I don't expect answers. I just wanted to tell you, because I know you'll listen, and because I know you care.
 
And lastly, but most assuredly not leastly.

I would just like to say that I have a crush on Syd. :tb2:













Alright, alight. I have a crush on Syd, still. :lol:
:blush:

Means all the more since Chels is the only person on the forum who actually knows what I look like In The Flesh (woo, obligatory Floyd ref). FYI, she said the metal plate and scars looked sexie.

Check your email! Again!
 
Also, for those of you wondering just what the hell an ethnographer is...

Ethnographic Research

Ethnography is a form of research focusing on the sociology of meaning through close field observation of sociocultural phenomena. Typically, the ethnographer focuses on a community (not necessarily geographic, considering also work, leisure, and other communities), selecting informants who are known to have an overview of the activities of the community. Such informants are asked to identify other informants representative of the community, using chain sampling to obtain a saturation of informants in all empirical areas of investigation. Informants are interviewed multiple times, using information from previous informants to elicit clarification and deeper responses upon re-interview. This process is intended to reveal common cultural understandings related to the phenomena under study. These subjective but collective understandings on a subject (ex., stratification) are often interpreted to be more significant than objective data (ex., income differentials).

It should be noted that ethnography may be approached from the point of view of art and cultural preservation, and as a descriptive rather than analytic endeavor. The comments here, however, focus on social science analytic aspects. In this focus, ethnography is a branch of cultural anthropology.


Key Concepts and Terms

The ethnographic method starts with selection of a culture, review of the literature pertaining to the culture, and identification of variables of interest -- typically variables perceived as significant by members of the culture. The ethnographer then goes about gaining entrance, which in turn sets the stage for cultural immersion of the ethnographer in the culture. It is not unusual for ethnographers to live in the culture for months or even years. The middle stages of the ethnographic method involve gaining informants, using them to gain yet more informants in a chaining process, and gathering of data in the form of observational transcripts and interview recordings. Data analysis and theory development come at the end, though theories may emerge from cultural immersion and theory-articulation by members of the culture. However, the ethnographic researcher strives to avoid theoretical preconceptions and instead to induce theory from the perspectives of the members of the culture and from observation. The researcher may seek validation of induced theories by going back to members of the culture for their reaction.

Ethnographic methodologies vary and some ethnographers advocate use of structured observation schedules by which one may code observed behaviors or cultural artifacts for purposes of later statistical analysis. Coding and subsequent statistical analysis is treated in Hodson (1999). See also Denzin and Lincoln (1994).

Macro-ethnography is the study of broadly-defined cultural groupings, such as "the English" or "New Yorkers."

Micro-ethnography is the study of narrowly-defined cultural groupings, such as "local government GIS specialists" or "members of Congress."

Emic perspective is the ethnographic research approach to the way the members of the given culture perceive their world. The emic perspective is usually the main focus of ethnography.

Etic perspective, is the ethnographic research approach to the way non-members (outsiders) perceive and interpret behaviors and phenomena associated with a given culture.

Symbols, always a focus of ethnographic research, are any material artifact of a culture, such as art, clothing, or even technology. The ethnographer strives to understand the cultural connotations associated with symbols. Technology, for instance, may be interpreted in terms of how it relates to an implied plan to bring about a different desired state for the culture.

Cultural patterning is the observation of cultural patterns forming relationships involving two or more symbols. Ethnographic research is holistic, believing that symbols cannot be understood in isolation but instead are elements of a whole. One method of patterning is conceptual mapping, using the terms of members of the culture themselves to relate symbols across varied forms of behavior and in varied contexts. Another method is to focus on learning processes, in order to understand how a culture transmits what it perceives to be important across generations. A third method is to focus on sanctioning processes, in order to understand which cultural elements are formally (ex., legally) prescribed or proscribed and which are informally prescribed or proscribed, and of these which are enforced through sanction and which are unenforced.

Tacit knowledge is deeply-embedded cultural beliefs which are assumed in a culture's way of perceiving the world, so much so that such knowledge is rarely or never discussed explicitly by members of the culture, but rather must be inferred by the ethnographer.


So why the hell am I going to become an ethnographer? Well, at the end of the day we all work for money, and right now corporations are shelling out a buttload of money to ethnographers and paying for them to move to and live in various second-world countries trying to find a way to tap the technological market for a world-group known demographically as "the second billion" - in other words, the second richest billion people in the world, because technologically, the first billion richest people market has pretty much been tapped.

The field of ethnography is something that I can see myself doing remarkably well in - there's such scope for learning so many new things and seeing the world and being able to write about it - and hell, if I can make a cool couple million then I'm all for it.



Anyway, I just figured I'd educate you all on that, since I went and threw around the word "ethnographer". ^_^
 
I wrote an 2500-word essay not so long ago about ethnographic approaches in teaching R.E., so I hear you loud and clear on that one Chels!
 
Okay kids, as I just emailed Syd and told him, unfortunately I must be going! I'm off to the salon to get my hair cut, dyed a darker brown with bright red tips. YAY! Punk hair! I've been wanting to do it for months, but mom wouldn't have let me with the wedding. Now that there's no wedding, I can do it. I'm so excited about it. It's gonna be hot. At least according to me.

This is me, IG, signing off. But who will be back around on Monday if the IT guys remain ignorant of my present condition.

Love you all! Madly!


Hot damn! I forgot to mention that I get to talk to Syber again tonight. He's back home from Melbourne and said he was going to call me.

Aussie accents are delightful. Just FYI.

*IndieGirl wooshes off into the RL ether.
 
Oh no! IG has disappeared again!

That sounds like it is going to be the greatest hair ever conceived. Good for you for actually investing time into the punk look. Not many do, and it severely offends me.

Well, :kiss: for you, and sorry about your troubles.

:hug:
 
Rad to hear that Poeser signed you up to the shins Syd.

And even more super rad to talk in RL chels. we gotta do it again soon, when turkey isnt on the cards. after all those zombie ninja monkeys arent gonna plan themselves.







Or are they?????? :ph34r:
 
I was thinking about that earlier today. Maybe there's already a species of zombie monkey that exists - like deep in the jungles of Africa or something - and all we'd have to do is teach them ninjitsu.
 
OR, in one of the alternate universes we create an army of cyborg ninja capuchins, and it's a virus or electrical flux that turns them against us.
 
Anyway, yes. It was a fabulous conversation, and it made my week. I was smiling and reminiscing about it all day.

In other news, today it finally stopped raining and I went hiking up the canyon today.

Is it just me, or is nature delightfully purging when you can't write and to much of life feels like complete shite?

I love the trees when they talk and listen at the same time.
 
:D

*IndieGirl hugs Dai.


Something I wrote last night...


symbols

i am

close to you,

as close as this
line of poetry
is to

your thought. i am

seeing you
like it could

move mountains.

i am
beside you the

same way
i am
often beside
myself. i am

a spectacle.

the unobserver
of your daily

routines.
i am
holding you

like you're
kitestrung or
fishlined.

i am
lining you upwith...
i am

listening more than my mouth
gives you
credit for.

i am
aware of the tune

in your strings.

i can
only tell you
i am

unable to tell you
so many i ams.

i am
circling back -

stumbled past
my own periphery
of these words.

i am
stratificated

in the layers
of lines

of all we
have unearthed.

i am
moving.

mountainous.

the consequence

of all your faith
in me.

i am

nearly there.






G'morning, kids. :kiss: It's a glorious Monday.
 
IG, where in the devil do you get Fry Sauce outside of Utah??? I'm a native Utahn(barn in rizzed harr) and I have only heard of maybe a handful of places in the world that even offer it.

Sorry about the break up but if you have goals and dreams for yourself then you need to follow those. My wife stays home because WE decided it would be best for our kids if she did. She still wants to go back to school and get a degree and I totally support that. We have that written in to the life plan once all of the kids are in school full-time. Which is now just over 5 years down the road. But this is something both of us agree on and love is great but if you don't see the same future then no matter how much love there is, someone will end up unhappy because the future isn't how they envisioned it.

Keep smiling and good job cheering her up Syd.
 
I don't know where you'd get it outside of Utah - it seems you definitely just have to make it yourself. I actually have a pretty good fry sauce recipe.

OR, if you want, I could totally Fed Ex you some.

So...fellow Utah native...are you still in Utah? Or have you moved on to places where there are, in fact, a few democrats, muslims, and black people? What part of Utah are you from?

I was born in Logan. Up Cache valley way - the land of cows, cheese, and nothing much to do if you're not a USU student, and even then it's iffy.
 
:rofl:
Logan has Kate's Kitchen which is a fabulous restaurant. But yeah, not much else.

Always nice to meet a fellow native. Yes I still live here...grew up in Midvale(read southern Salt Lake suburb) but now I live in Eagle Mountain which is predominantly white, LDS and known for electing corrupt Mayors....but the housing was cheap.

I was up in Oregon for a while and totally missed fry sauce. It's just something you have to experience to understand. And fry sauce mixed with BBQ sauce is heaven!

Where at in Utah do you live? Or should I have PM'ed all this stuff to stop cluttering up your blog? :blink:
:duh:
 
Clutter up all you want! That's all I know how to do in a blog...

I live in Orem. You're the first TNPer to live within less than 100 miles of me! LOL



IGEdit: awkward grammar. HAH! I said awkward! I know where it comes from and what it actually means!

Knowledge is power. :fish:
 
Holy COW!! You're the first person I've met online(in a non-local setting) to live closer than Logan and only the second one to live in the state period. And in Orem nonetheless. I have a brother that lives there with his wife and kid. That's awesome!!
 
Maybe the alternate dimension cyborg monkeys can try to conquer out dimension, and our trusty local zombie monkeys can beat them back. with sticks!
 
YES! Brilliant plan. You win.

By the way, I emailed you back. Twice.

AND I got that thinger set up that I've been thinking about setting up for a while now.

Set up AND updated. At least as far as emails from this job go. Sigh. I don't think I have access to any of the old ones - unless I check my self-forwarded gmail archives.
 
See you tomorrow children. I'm off to beat the pants off an apartment full of guys who think they're better at Halo 2 than I am.

The fools.

*IndieGirl waves bye!
 
Rad. i checked out the thing today. i'll update with the emails ive still got once i get some more time.

Hope you owned those suckas. in the face
 
Having not had my xbox for a week, the games were a lot closer than I was comfortable with, but naturally I still won.

I don't understand how six guys who play games fairly regularly have a hard time getting the energy sword on the Zanzibar map.

It was great fun watching them try...



...watching them with a sniper rifle.

From the top of the rock wall that's right across from it. Bwahaha. SNIPE!



Hooray for the thing! I'm glad you think it's rad.



Now I must skedaddle! I have other more important stuff to type at you. :D Y'know...like stuff about Dylan and Amber, because we have nothing better to do than talk about them all the time. :rofl:
 
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