Good thing I'll be keeping *my* trampoline inside. Not that there'd be much danger of gathering a crowd of much of anything except bunnies under the kind I bought.

come join the youth and beauty brigade

Well, I came up with an interim solution, until I can find the guide to usher me out of my existential maelstrom. REBOUNDING!

Herr, lehre doch mich

I think I've finally figured out the correct metaphor for how I've been feeling.

It's as if there is an elephant sitting on top of my soul.

And though I'd benefit from talk therapy, physical therapy, massage therapy, grief counseling, and many other varieties of therapy, what I could probably most use is a shamanic healer.

Is this just another bump in the road in grad school? Is existential crisis part of the routine?

There are books staring at me from across the room. Can I open them? What am I so afraid of?

god, i am so coveting a hybrid right now.

Digital Landscapes of Maori Memory

Dude, this upcoming lecture and workshop sound really cool.

Dr. Samuel Mann, Otago Poltechnic, New Zealand

The SimPā project aims to convey and strengthen research aspects in regard to Māori culture, tikaka and knowledge using game‐based and digital technology. In short, the project aims to provide a means of telling whānau, hapu and Iwi Māori stories in 3D game format. This development has benefits in terms of both technology and cultural awareness and the fusion of these two: Iwi digital content. The project will achieve this through active engagement and participation with Iwi through Runaka (local tribal council) engagement and member participation to recreate landscapes in a digital format. We will discusses learnings from the first stage of the project the creation of the “SimPā toolkit” to enable participatory development (he kohinga o nga mea rauemi). This includes communication and negotiation processes, technical choices and issues surrounding the recreation of narrative histories including the notion of object‐based storytelling. We discuss an unexpected twist that has seen the project take a quite different track from that originally expected.

What: Public lecture and workshop
When: March 10, 2008, 2 pm, public lecture
March 11, 2008, 2:30 pm, workshop
Where: Ehrlicher Room, 411 West Hall (both events)

More: Prof. Mann has been working with Khyla Russell, a Maori anthropologist, on mapping Maori memories. Their work should be of interest to School of Information people, computer scientists, anthropologists, and Native Studies scholars.

(Khyla Russell profile)

Hey remember that month when I only ate boxes of tangerines -- so cheap and juicy!

Mmmm. Well, for the record, walnut molasses hermits go very well with beer.

Especially after grading over 25 undergraduate papers, most of which are on exactly the same topic.

This is a lonely town, ours is a lonely life . . .

Crampy, moody, and intensely craving molasses. I am trying my hand at a variation on hermit cookies, which I'll post on the Kitchen Empress if it turns out good. (Edit: it's here!) My version of the old-fashioned spiced raisin bar includes walnuts, turbinado sugar, and molasses. Even though I shouldn't be eating the raw egg, I couldn't help but taste the batter, which tastes really good.

The sun peeked out for a few minutes this afternoon, and the sunset is another one of those lovely ones where the frozen surface of the lake turns a cool purplish shade of pale grey, and the horizon gets dappled with a gentle peachy yellow behind the bare treetops. It's beautiful, but I still am hoping for the spring soon.

I spent the day grading undergraduate papers for Anthro 101, trying to work my way through the stack of 75. Characteristically slowly. I need to get a move on, though, because I have to do some writing tomorrow.

I took a little break to talk to Ali, who just bought a blue Prius, and to watch the last episode of Felicity again, while eating a little lunch of roasted broccoli, sauteed grape tomatoes, and quesadillas.