Wood's Blog

the storm

ok guys, just gotta mention: another storm on a full moon night, a change in barometric pressure, and, as always, even though i'm exhausted, today i felt great, had an energy burst all day long, and had mental and physical stamina. Very weird for this time of semester and holiday season.

i just really like being aware of these connected occurrences. once i got over the fact that i packed ash's lunch, shovelled my way out and slip-slided to ash's CLOSED school this morning, the snow was so awesome. btw, MPR does not mention duluth school closings. and really, are we mice or minnesotans?

i don't know why i'm still up. i can't sleep and can't work on my stuff anymore. but the screen is starting to pulse so i think i'll try to go to sleep again.

Art Imitates Life

Wouldn't it be helpful to be an emotionless android, just to get through the "work like a machine" parts of school. Thoughtful engagement under duress. that's going to be my next thesis.

oy.

oooghhha. my eyes are literally burning from being on the computer so long this wknd. Ash's dad had been gone for a month so i haven't had that wknd catch up day in a while.

on thanksgiving day Ash and I were headed south on 35 to my parents' house when my car gave out, blast it. it's only got 135k, i thought she'd last longer than that! it was about 4 below with the breeze i think, so we waited for a tow truck and wrapped in blankets.

oy, oy, the timing is monstrous, but it could have been worse. so, my garage has been closed of course, so all wknd i've been driving some oompa oompa rental car. oy!

i could go on and on but i will spare you the rest of the gory details.

i love connectivity

i was just thinking how nicely my three classes are gaining cohesiveness, as in, relevance to each other, and creating a nice big picture of relatable material. i think, that what it says, maybe, is that the web is related to everything, at least everything i do.

there is already a large bit of web history that can be looked back upon, even as we are trying to figure out what is coming next. and not only does it affect how my personal day to day life is lived, it influences how i think about the theory i'm discussing in my classes.

i really like when things gel, and when i find connectivity.


also, on a different note, i think that because our class is so small we should all go out to the brewhouse at the end of the semester and congratulate ourselves for all of our fine accomplishments.

creating warm autumnal memories

we had a very bizzy wknd. my threshold for social interaction was reached, and maybe even surpassed, but on the whole, especially now that i am back in my cozy house, it was fun to be so bizzy. i neglected to bring my camera anywhere, darn it.

i finally made it over to Bayfield for the apple party. it was very crowded, but a lovely drive. and we went over to madeline island on the ferry. i always seem to forget that those things are mostly about buying stuff and eating and drinking.

today we went to Nordic Ridge farm over by Grand Rapids. I've been meaning to do that for quite awhile as well. the farm rocked. and it was another beauty of a day, weather-wise. there was a big corn field maze, and a huge tube slide that came out of the hayloft and animals and hayrides and so on, and pumpkins, of course. we got a humongo pumpkin. i could barely carry it back to the car. it's pretty sweet.

i kind of carpe diemed the wknd cuz you never know when the weather gods will smile on you in october. and i got to go for trail run. I LOVE FALL IN MINNESOTA!

and before i forget, the nordic ski swap is nov.12 at snowflake. the alpine swap was this wknd at spirit. i was thinking about getting a snowboard but maybe that will have to wait and be my reward for finishing this silly degree i'm working on.

now that i'm done, recapping my wknd i feel like i should receive some sort of commission from the mn tourism council.

The moon and barometric pressure

I've been intermittently obsessed with an idea lately: the connection between the phases of the moon, barometric (or atmospheric) pressure, storms, and human social behavior. it's kind of a lot to weave instantaneously, but for the past two new moons, this Monday being the most recent, we've had big rain storms, Dayna finally got some waves, and the people around me have undergone more angsty strife than usual.

This is highly anecdotal and speculative, but I just know some one must have explained this all somewhere. I been looking on the web, but haven't found the right scientist who confirms my thinking. There is a substantial amount of writing about the moon's relationship to the female reproductive cycle, but I think it goes further than that, and causes more planetary occurrances than we realize.



do any of you know about this stuff? from gardeners to fishermen, to anthropologists to geologists to meteorologists, the moon can give you clues to so much. it's probably very simple, but I can't seem to find a good book about.

On this moon phase finder site you can enter you birthdate and it will tell you how the moon shown as you entered the world.

diversionary moment

i'm trying to muster up the kind of resolve that revises research papers in need of huge help.

of course i keep wishing that i could write poetry, or go hiking, or buy a new bike, or floss my teeth, or read the newspaper...but i have to say NO, by god, NO. i locked my self in my office, but now here i am posting.

what has 75 balls and screws old ladies?

BINGO.

sorry if that was too lewd, but not really, i mean get your mind out of the gutter!

it is, of course, beautiful outside. i get to go out at 3 if i've at least made a decent effort.

it's helpful to split myself into 2 people on days like today.
"now andrea, if you don't get some work done i'm going to kick your ass!"

"oh, now you don't really mean that, besides, i'm not a violent person..."

"who are you kidding? i've seen you drive, anyway, get to work, NOW!"

see how that works? very useful at times. speaking of The Times. Some interesting stuff in the news about journalistic integrity lately. and they think the web is unreliable. this reverence for the written word can equal a blind faith of sorts that has paralleled, historically, another type of blind faith that we've been discussing in my History of Reading class, and that our fearless leader also employs for his own purposes. i'll leave it obscurely at that.

now, where did i put that key...

Ma!

oh, why can't i have a NORMAL mom. she is always SO concerned with my well-being and inner-life. but, exasperatingly, she is so attuned to the universe, that she is usually right. last spring she told me that i ought not plant green peppers on the waning moon in scorpio, but i didn't listen and my peppers have refused to flourish in their usual manner this year.

but she does know me so well. and her intuition is inexplicably accurate.

but i draw the line at making my decisions with crystals, unless they can help me write research papers.

my view(s)

I love the view from my bedroom window. it was one of the most convincing features upon choosing this house.





there's a chance i might be moving next summer for the next step in this procedure of life. i need a job, or i go on to ph.d-ville, but gads, do i want to be in school further? I MISS EARNING AN INCOME without an interest rate.

but the more i think about leaving, again.... i really do like duluth, but then you never know what lies beyond the horizon...and, it's better now, before Ash is really into his friends. but, i really like it here...oh, choices, choices, and, i guess they're all pretty good ones, eh?

reapin what i sow

this year i've had a nice crop of RED tomatoes. this warm month has helped a ton. i've only had green tomatoes for the last 3 years now. i've also got 6 acorn squash, some green peppers, broccoli, and my pride and joy: 2 fat watermelons. dig it. i love harvesting--except cucumbers and zucchini--they will make you hate your garden.

GORILLAZ: dangerous cool cartoon thug band

dang. i just lost another post again when i was uploading this pic. dang. i need to remember to compose in notepad. awright. over it.

Gorillaz have been pretty successful of late. their real identities are unknown to their adoring public. the inescapable irony of being a rebel band. which Gorillaz acknowledge in their album art, is that success is the doom of all iconoclastic ventures. can you be successful and famous and avoid idolatry?

another remarkable thing about Gorillaz, is how little the fans really care about the fact that the front-men are cartoons. it just sounds really good.

on the other hand, i think it does make a serious difference that the cartoons are so rad. if the band members looked like the back street boys, or the beach boys, their fan base and level of success would be different, for sure. there are similarities here to the hoaxy fiction that can be so surprising and alluring.

sunday morning

last night i got home quite late and decided to blog under the influence of tequila and bushmills. i remember typing very, very carefully and writing some exuberant prose, but, i accidentally deleted it somehow. utterly stricken at the loss of blazingly sweet material, i dejectedly opted to turn off the computer and make a sandwich.

i am such a night eater, especially when i come home from imbibing. i made a toasted tomato and mozz sandwich with mayo, garlic and oregano. then i made another one. ..... i took this picture of tomatos from my garden, but now i can't find it in my pictures...later i guess.

last night was such perfect weather. nice moon, good temp. i get into all sorts of trouble when my son visits his dad. good thing i'm going to pick him up this morning.

we're going to the BEACON TO THE BAYOU benefit concert down at Bayfront. it starts at 1 and goes til 8 with lots of great local bands: Charlie Parr, Trampled, Little Black Bks, there are more i can't think of at the moment. it's only $5 so i hope it's not sold out. the fetus ran out of tickets right away. it should be an excellent way to donate and get in touch with folks at the same time. and, this weather!, you can't beat golden september days.

Time is an invention

Last night when I was dj-ing a woman had a t-shirt on that said 'time is an invention.' For class, I've been reading about the the influence of literate culture on the implementation of a formal time system.

The past few summers I've kind of floundered about in all of my unstructured time in constrast to the tight regimentation of my school year time use. But, as parents of young kids know, even your free time is nothing like the breezy pre-child days. When I have time to myself I think, ok, now I really need to make this time count, instead of chillin' and not filling those child-free hours with too many goals.

TIME. Clayton posted an entry about it last week. It's an issue none of us can evade. When I dj I don't get to bed until 3 a.m. Last night Ash woke up at 3:36 with wet pj's, so..., clean him up, take him to bed with me, get up at 6:30, make breakfast, etc., do my reading for class, etc. After a big lunch, I zonked on the couch this afternoon (Ash is with his dad) and didn't regain consciousness til 6:30 p.m. aww man. TIME.

I mean, I could quit my twice-a-month dj gig, but then what, you start cuttin' away all the fun stuff and you've got lack of verve, no spice, just the daily gruel.

But then I remembered, oh yeh, I really do have less time, it is not that secretly time leaks out my life, but that I really do have more to do than ever, and I never really believed it because so much of it has to do with wet pajamas, and breakfasts which I would normally skip, and trying to remember to slow down and wait for my three-foot little charge who simply can't walk as fast as his speed-demon mom. slow down. it's really very taxing at times, like riding your bike very very slowly to the point where it wobbles, but I suppose you eventually get the hang of it, or decide to get off and just walk.

1 down, 14 to go.

i usually feel better after the first week is done. i vaguely know where i stand and how many papers I have to write and so on. already i'm trying to calculate how i can get my work done without losing my mind and also without short-changing ash on the parenting side of things.

i was always a planner, but being a parent has accentuated this tendency even more so. on top of my class work i'm planning for my M.A. exams in april, trying to make sure all the paperwork is in order, and thinking about either a job or a ph.d program for next fall. i write a lot of lists.

oh, and my family just told me that everyone is going to Columbus, Georgia for Christmas this year, for NINE days. My brother lives there. so, my one brother moves south and the other 5 (plus kids) of us are going down there? what do you guys think? I really shouldn't spend 500-700 bucks on the trip, and that doesn't even include the gifts, fruitcake or scotch. if i don't go my whole family is down there for the holidays and if i do go the whole gob will probably go on my credit card, ooch. plus, NINE days? is that really neccessary? maybe I'm just not looking at the situation in the right light. but, on the other hand, i am the family's only non-gainfully employed single-parent who cooks all of her own food at home and who studies financially unproductive topics like reader and book history. should i stay or should i go?

question

just a quick question: I have my 'text formatting' set to 'none' but it hasn't saved any of my line breaks in the published blog. why for, how to ?

all ideas connect somewhere and everywhere

sometimes when i'm listening to an idea in class i meander too deeply into my own thoughts so that when i finally comment aloud, i'm way across the pond from the original stream of thought, which often reminds me of the quick succession of jumps in hypertext that can take your from your search on zebras to the medicinal properties of birch trees, as an example. when we were talking about breaking the formally imposed rules of text my mind started clicking through the entire history of literacy and print culture. One of my plan b papers for the M.A. is about early modern authors and the distribution of their work during a time of unprecedent global changes. One of my classes this fall is "Readers and Book History" which i am avidly interested in because it kind of rounds out my initial studies, plus Rob's class is a nice foil, so to speak, along with and against the discussion of history and audiences. I really sit forward and pay attention when looking at the theory and history around class, literacy and technology and how these evolving cultural aspects collectively transform social structures, how we mass communicate and so on. Last night I read a chapter from A History of Reading In the West which talked about how we moved from only reading aloud to silent reading. Only monks and the such used to reading silently. With the advent of silent reading, people gained a lot of privacy, as you can imagine.