done.

another semester over. now just the pins-and-needles of waiting for grades.

not only but also: i have been given a contact for a ph.d. w00t, i think. we will be meeting some time in the new year.

happy thanksgiving.

i think i may have recovered from the food coma.

no black friday shopping this year; we went to visit mom's family and had a second dose of holiday food.

zzz...

oh. i have a paper to write.

movement.

i don't believe it's the middle of november already. this is crazy.

we moved a few weeks ago. still haven't sold the damn house; it's being rented by people who are paranoid and wanted a place near the hospital for their new baby.

so we're renting a loft apartment. it's a nice location, 3 blocks from his office, 2 blocks from the subway, 2 blocks from a supermarket.

urban supermarkets are weird things. on one hand, they tend to drive small, locally-owned corner stores out of business. on the other hand, those small, locally-owned corner stores tended to be really expensive and not stock much in the way of fresh fruits and vegetables, or raw meat, or anything not already procesed and cooked somewhere industrial. so now food is cheaper and better quality, and there's way more healthy selections. but more the neighbourhood's money is going to some national chain somewhere. it's nice to be living within walking distance of a supermarket, though, instead of having to drive 20 blocks to a shitty one that was built out in the ghetto because that's where land is cheap.

i think the cat still isn't sure about the new place. he spent the first couple days camped out in his litter box. also, the problem with a loft apartment is that there are no doors, except the front door and the bathroom door, so there's nowhere we can put things to keep them out of his reach. he's currently sitting on my desk and sniffing the bills. not chewing on them yet, thankfully, but the bills used to be in the office in the old place which had a door and he could be kept out. he can also, for the first time in the 7 years we've owned him, spend the night on our bed, which he is really happy about. us, not so much. cats don't sleep through the night like people do (or are supposed to). getting stepped on at 3am isn't great when you have an exam the next morning.

speaking of changes, i've also transferred schools. i think i'm done with change for this year, seriously. can i have a boring year next year? new place to live, new school, new job, new furniture (we should seriously buy stock in ikea), new bank... shit. i want a boring, uneventful couple of months. i am feeling a little more confident when i say i want to do a ph.d. in ancient literature nowadays, though, so the transfer seems to have done that much good already (a big part of the reason i'm doing a professional master's instead of a ph.d. now is because i don't know what i want to be when i grow up).

the other thing i'm really liking about living in the city is mass transit. i know, isn't that weird? but i don't like driving; it stresses me out. i think i overdosed on driving this summer when i drove my sister to phoenix. now i can take the subway and/or train practically everywhere. and the really nice thing about taking mass transit in the city is that everyone does it. out in the 'burbs, it's seen as a thing for poor people who can't afford a car (that someone might not want to have a car doesn't seem to cross many people's minds). in the city, at least in an east coast city, it's everyone: kids, students, poor people, downtown professionals, tourists, and so on. it's kind of an equalizer. i won't say it builds community, despite the often literal rubbing shoulders; most people tend to be quiet and not make eye contact. but at least there's no hands clenched on the wheel, trying to avoid assholes in trucks, breathing exhaust fumes, trapped in a module of steel and glass, and losing several hours a day of productive time. now i can sit on the train and read and do homework. we're going to sell one of the cars. yay. and i guess there is a kind of community feel to mass transit... you're all riding together. it's ok to ask someone for directions, or which train goes where, or am i on the right platform? i always have to wonder about the panhandlers, though. wouldn't it have been smarter to spend your two bucks on food than on entrance to the subway platform where you ask people for quarters for food?

so yeah. life in the city. too much change. too much new shit. i'm about at capacity for this stuff right now.

facebook = reification.

i probably ought to start off by saying that i am still boycotting facebook, but i have been trying out google+ this summer, so i have acquired some familiarity with the whole social media phenomenon. i have also been observing the facebook habits of others from the outside, as is the proper researcher stance (that was a joke). also, i apologize in advance for the ridiculous language in the following post. i've been at school all day, reading philosophy, and the language is infectious.

i have come to the following conclusion: for many people who use facebook, especially those under the age of 30 (the so-called millenial generation), it is the offline world which is more or less unreal, and things are only real when posted or transcribed online, and especially when they are commented on or noticed by "friends." this is contra the usual usage where things happen "on the internet" and "in real life." real life is now facebook, and things that happen offline are merely feeder material for the self-curated online presence.

the glib internet meme "pics or it didn't happen" is demonstrative of this, i think. it is an extremely ironic statement in an age when we are all so aware of the ease of manipulation of digital images. and yet still, somehow, putting a picture of an event online is testimony to its veracity, to its very existence. a thing is not a thing unless it is online for others to see.

but i think facebook takes this to another level. with the obsession of the number of friends one has, and the posting of all life events, regardless of their possible standing in posterity, the nexus of these two elements becomes the location of reality. i think the very compulsion to post images and status updates that record any and all states and events in life is what makes people feel real and connected to a community somehow.

it is pretty much agreed that humans are social creatures. autism is a disorder precisely because it removes from a human the basic need to be in community with other human beings. this is fairly obvious from the anguish parents feel the need to post online about (again, posting online) even children diagnosed with the mildest forms of the spectrum.

however, as we labour under the desperate gasps of a dying modernity, individualism rules the day (i also happen to believe that this is modernity, not postmodernity and that the postmodern project has failed, but that's the subject for another post when i'm feeling more depressed). we are all our own subjects, distressingly separated and cut off from other autonomous subjects. it is in the online communication that we can merge the need for community and our inherited individualism. moreso, it is in the recognition of the artifacts of lives online that people feel truly real.

i'm still going to boycott facebook.

inconveniences.

i just realized it is september and i cannot undertake my annual reading of LotR (i always start in september, get to Frodo's departure by sept 22, weathertop by oct 6 and then just read to the end) because my copies of the novels are packed away in storage because no one has bought my house.

bah. we need to move so i can get my books back.

out west.

i gotta say, eisenhower had a wonderful idea with those interstates. they may let you "drive across the country without seing anything" but i tell you, there isn't a lot to see. the craziest thing about the west/southwest is how flat everything gets and consequently how far you can see, even if there isn't a lot there. i am used the horizon being bounded by hills and mountains. storms roll sluggishly in from the west, first clouds, and then later rain.

out there it is so flat, you can see the storms miles away. the clouds seem to be dragging curtains of rain across the landscape. and when you have the cruise control set at 90mph, you run into those storms quicker than you would think :)

the rest of the pics from the trip are here.

7 states so far...

they get bigger out here.

drove through pennsylvania, the northern tip of west virginia, and half of ohio mostly in the dark. nothing to report there, other than that john digweed's bedrock 11 disc 1 is good for staying awake while driving.

southern illinois is the most boring so far. there is seriously nothing there. indiana at least had curves in the highway. and indianapolis. skyscrapers! civilization!

on the other hand, then you get to st. louis. i was actually kind of disappointed in the mississippi river up here, but the arch is pretty cool up close, and there's a nice park around it. the dog had fun.

so far only driven through oklahoma in the dark. first impression: flat.

we'll see what happens the rest of the trip.

go west, young... person.

in a few hours, i am leaving to drive my sister to phoenix, az to start her new job.

there's a reason they're called "flyover states" i'm pretty sure, being that i've only ever flown over them before. now i will be driving through them.

4 days with my sister and her 75lb labrador retriever.

it's going to be an experience, at least.

earthquake.

i find it deeply ironic that i never felt one in any of my visits to the west coast, but now one hits while i'm at home.

on the other hand, given the amount of time i spend here, i suppose statistics are in favour of it. still very weird. i wasn't sure what was happening, and then afterwards, i thought, was that an earthquake?

yes. yes, it was.

it even woke up the cat.

slippery slope.

i used to have a phone that was just a phone.

then we discovered texting is better than calling in many circumstances.

and i started syncing my calendar to my phone.

then i went back to school and discovered mobile email is useful when you're not at home for 11 hours a day.

and so is web, because you can check weather and train schedules. and read things when you're waiting for the train.

now i have an android smartphone >_<