Zzz...

Sleeping Dogs Lie with Melinda Paige Hamilton and Bryce Johnson. A dark comedy with a moral is really the best way to describe it. It raises good questions that are generally glossed over in most movies: is complete honesty the best policy? And do your loved ones really have a right to know everything about your past? The movie was pretty good all around especially considering how small scale it was. My only gripe is how utterly screwed over the main character gets, but that's just cinema and the brutal dark aspect of the film. As I thought about it, there are really several messages one can take away from the film: the first is obviously don't assume honesty is always a good thing and don't assume you can handle the total truth. The second is the idea of forgiveness, one really shouldn't hold people's mistakes against them, especially if it's from a time before you knew them. That said, are there things that cannot be forgiven? Both in the sense of being unable to put down the mental weight of a grudge and also the inability to shake an idea from your mind no matter how much you want to forget. And third, perhaps the one no one wants to hear: should one police one's own behavior if they think they will regret it or have it come to bite them in the ass later? I have a feeling most people who read this blog are of the "No regrets. Your past is what makes you who you are. Time heals all wounds." mindset so bear with me. Are there things you shouldn't do (I'm talking about things you could go either way on, not stuff you know you want to do because it makes you happy) because having that in your past is a liability to your future relationships? It doesn't even have to be something horrendous, but just enough to scare away someone in the early stages of a relationship. And for those that would reply with, "If they can't handle who I am, then they weren't right for me anyway" I'd say you've missed the first two lessons.

Word of the Day: Bricolage- a construction made of whatever materials are at hand; something created from a variety of available things. A piece of makeshift handiwork.
I wonder if it's related to brickabrac.

Hen Mei Rong Xing!

About a month ago, some Asian guy stopped by Beyond Bread and after ordering his food somehow got into the conversation of jobs. He said he worked at a sushi restaurant and was about to suggest the cashier (a Mexican gangsta) do the same, when he realized he would probably not go well in a sushi restaurant and should set his sights on another kind of establishment.
What struck me about the conversation was the acknowledgment that certain races are given preferential treatment in the restaurant industry. I don't mean the usual discrimination of all non Whites, but how ethnic restaurants will hire people of that ethnicity to gain a measure of authenticity and avoid other ethnicities to maintain credibility. One of my favorite examples is a sushi restaurant in Stockholm owned by a Chinese family. As long as the average White person can't tell the difference they keep their authenticity. Which brings me to my main rant. Yesterday Frank and I went to get Chinese takeout from a place we had never been to before. We ordered boba tea and I ordered kung pao beef. The boba tea was absolutely horrid; the tea was bitter with nearly no fruit flavoring and the tapioca had a texture bordering on crunchy. After disposing of our drinks, we went home and tried the dinner. Normally when one has peanuts in Asian food they're raw and then fried, which gives them a nice flavor and texture which is still clearly peanut but not something you're really used to. Not this time. This kung pao had roasted peanuts sprinkled very generously on top. The most peculiar thing was the subtle yet distinctive taste of the peanuts, which is only found on Planter's products.
WTF mate? Who the hell do they think they're fooling? Was the old Asian man behind the counter even Chinese, I wonder? At the very least they weren't following any "ancient Chinese recipe" that's for damn sure.

One of these things is not like the others...

First thing's first: Muddy Bug rocked last night! I was genuinely impressed, though not surprisingly, they sound much better live than with the speakers on my laptop.

And Happy 19th Birthday to Stephanie!

Yesterday, per the suggestion of my adviser, I paid a visit to the Career Fair at the U of A. Honestly, I have no idea why she sent me there. Naturally, I figured the employers for anthropologists would be pretty hard to find and that it would mainly be business and hard science majors. Turns out the only thing even resembling a job opportunity for anthro majors involves working with the mentally unstable or meth addicts (note not recovering meth addicts) . I was most definitely out of place there; not only was I not the right major, I wasn't actually looking for a job, I didn't have a résumé and I wasn't dressed in a suit and tie. Oh no, while everyone is dressed to impress, focusing on a singular goal, rattling off 1 minute interviews at the people running the booths, I'm meandering through "exciting opportunities" and "leadership builders" with a McLenin's shirt. Ironically, I had the feeling people were paying more attention to me than the "goal getters" and "team players" that were trying to catch their eye.
Awash in corporate clichés, I departed after what was at most fifteen minutes. I left with that feeling you get when you walk out of a movie theater wondering why everyone else around you loved the movie you just tolerated. Sure, it was keyed to a certain type of major, but why would my adviser tell me to go? Had she never been to one before? Maybe she was deceived by the ALL MAJORS signs which were as abundant as the corporate catchphrases being recited. At the end of the day, one question remained nagging me: do corporations really ONLY want leaders? That word seems to be the key to a successful interview or accepted application. Do they really want 20 million people in the workforce all thinking they should be telling everyone else what to do? Is there no room in the job market for a highly trained and devoted employee with aspirations of leadership?

Bajs

No better way to start a Monday morning than with an email that begins: "There's no easy way to do this." Evidently the paper I submitted to Arizona Anthropologist was rejected. Helldamncrap.
In happier news I may have decided on a topic for my Honors thesis that has the best of both physical and cultural anthro.

Interesting tidbits from the Wildcat regarding the land I love (or rather it's neighbors): "The US is first in the world in gun ownership per capita, Finland is second." I've hear stories about the Finns carrying all manner of weapons with them, but never guns. There's a stereotype among Swedes that Finns all have knives in their boots and the Finnish exchange students were asked if they had a knife about as often as I was asked if I had a gun. Also, supposedly there's a large instance of murders in Finland related to medieval weapons such as swords and battle axes. I'm gonna have to call BS on that one, can't trust them Swedes.
And: "Norway consumes more Mexican food than any other European nation." This one I believe, as the Swedes were very fond of Mexican food as well. Even though the Scandinavians couldn't get Mexican food right to save their souls. Or drinks for that matter (sugar on a margarita glass, helvete) I'm guessing the definition of "Mexican food" is lax for that survey.

And new Flickr photos. The ones from NC are now correctly geotagged and I'll probably rearrange the sets sometime in the future.

¡No Me Gusta!

At the start of this semester I had been out of touch with Spanish for about 3 years. I had debated whether I should go finish my secondary language requirement with one semester of Spanish or tough out two semesters of Swedish. Ultimately I chose Spanish partly out of convenience, but also because I wanted to brush up on the language. The thing is, I considered this the best move career-wise and not something out of personal fulfillment. I never really had a good time learning Spanish in high school, mainly because of my classmates but also a lack of engaging teachers. My mom, who just so happened to be my middle school Spanish teacher, assured me that as I progressed to higher levels of Spanish the idiots would thin out and I would only be left with intelligent, well motivated classmates. Alas, this was not true. The morons just kept coming, utterly useless study partners and atrocious accents and always pronouncing the silent H.
My GATE and AP classmates all took French and they were clearly academic and motivated, plus they at least tried to get the accent right. I think the majority of my crushes in high school happened to study French, and there I was in crummy ol' Spanish. I sort of resented the kids that took French; did they think they were too good for Spanish? Of course I recognized this wasn't the case all the time, French is a very important, globally useful language and if people like the sound of French better, that's their choice. The people I could never abide, and still can't, are the ones who took French because they didn't want to speak "Mexican" as though merely learning their language might infect them. People who think it's a coarse and dirty language of peasants. I'm not exaggerating here, these are all things people have told me. Now granted, folks around Nogales really do sully the language's reputation and if you go to Spain or talk to someone from central Mexico the language suddenly becomes a lot more pleasant.
It also doesn't help my feeling toward Spanish that they have all manner of crazy verb tenses. Even when it's clearly written down and explained in English I still don't know what the hell the unconditional subtransitive perfect participle is. Or why they decided to make all of the most commonly used verbs the ones that completely defy all of the rules of the language. Seems like they should be setting an example for the rest of the verbs.
And then there's swearing in Spanish. Now swearing is a tricky thing in most every language and I haven't been immersed in a Spanish speaking culture so my observations are more limited, but it seems cursing in Spanish is fundamentally different than in other languages. From my understanding of the language you really can't have fun swearing, there's no real joy in it. You can call someone a "lucky son of a bitch" in English but "hijo de puta" is something quite different. In Sweden during the gasques (a formal dinner) the entire table toasts the V-Dala librarian, calling him a "skitstoval" which basically means bastard. The only contexts I have ever heard Spanish swearing is if someone is being mean or cruel, never in a joking or light tone. Of course, I get irritated when people swear too casually, where they say "fuck" with the frequency which Valley Girls say "like". But that's because it's still vulgar and inappropriate and it shouldn't be used all the time. But just because of that it shouldn't mean you can't have fun with it. I also have to consider I might be spoiled by English, as people from all over the world have told me that swearing in English is just better. Whether they are aiming for humor, vulgarity, anger or just aural appeal, people find English to be a good cursing language.
When it comes down to it, I know comparing different languages is like comparing apples to oranges and you can't ever expect that a culture should follow your rules. But that doesn't mean I have to like them equally. I've plowed through years of Spanish with the nagging thought that maybe it just isn't my thing. I always figured it was just because I was learning a new language and such feelings were unavoidable. But after learning another language (admittedly one that is closer to English) I realize this doesn't have to be the case.
So Spanish, I guess what I'm trying to say is I still think you're a good language to know and you're really interesting, but I just don't love you. I'm sorry.

Turtles

TMNT with James Arnold Taylor and Nolan North. As a lifelong ninja turtles fan, I would have been happy with most any movie they made (unless it had resembled the 3rd movie), but I was especially pleased with the way this one turned out. It's a pleasant shade darker than the other movies or series (but not necessarily the comic books) and the animation was very well done. I was glad Raphael, my favorite turtle, was given such a major role and was very pleasantly surprised that Leonardo's character was expanded upon and finally made interesting. It was a welcome change from him simply being the bland, level-headed voice of reason and now we see him shouldering the burdens of leadership. The fight scenes alternated between large scale, video game-esque battles and one-on-one intense combat, something the live action movies never really could do. It also reminded me I have a big stack of DVDs of the '87 series on my desk that I haven't even touched. I need to get on that.

Spartans

Ah spring at last. Finally I can wear shorts again, as opposed to Sweden where I had to wait until May and even then only on hotter days.I have to say, my favorite thing about spring in Tucson, aside from the girls on campus wearing more revealing clothing, is the orange blossoms. It may not have been the most eventful spring break I've ever had, but at least I got orange blossoms.

300 with Gerard Butler and Lena Headley. I think I'm one of the few people that can snootily claim they read the book before seeing the movie. I liked both quite a bit though it might be one of the few times where the movie is better. Aside from the simple fact that fight scenes are better in motion than in panels, the characters were made better, I thought. Leonidas was made more likable than he was in the book and some depth was given to the characters. Inevitably there will be some who claim it's not historically accurate, and it may not be completely faithful, but so what? It's definitely how the Spartans would have retold the story. Though I do think it's funny that the Spartans looked down on all those that didn't stay and fight as cowards when in reality it was more of a strategic retreat rather than just running away. The 300 were trying to stall the Persians while the rest of the Greek armies regrouped and assembled. I think people tend to forget that stylization and just plain good storytelling are just as important as, if not more than, historical accuracy.

God

A conversation I had the other day dealt with what proof an atheist would need to believe in a god. Now naturally, most atheists I've met reject the Judeo-Christian God since that's the one most prevalent in our culture and we're taught that the gods in all other cultures are, of course, false. I suggested that outside of monotheism, the requirements for godliness are relatively low. After all, the Aztecs thought Cortez was a god cuz he had shiny armor and facial hair. Even actual gods like Hermes or, say, Freyr are pretty achievable deities, relatively speaking. If one takes the conservative route, then Storm from the X-Men would be a full fledged goddess. But no one now would call a bearded man in armor a god, and Storm is just a mutant. I think the atheists don't believe in gods outside their culture not because it's the 1st Commandment but because they are raised with the idea that nothing short of the Judeo-Christian God qualifies as a god at all. The atheists reject Christianity but still define a deity by their rules.

The qualification for godliness in modern society I think is the cause of atheism. God, according to Wikipedia, is supposed to have "omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, perfect goodness, divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence" and since people have difficulty conceiving all those omni's and consider "good" to be subjective they then deduce that no deity or deities exist. Personally, don't see how these are necessary qualifications for a god. I think transfinite knowledge and power are good enough to be a god, especially since people try to argue God doesn't exist along the lines that He can't make a rock heavy enough that He can't lift it and is therefore not all powerful. One of the necessary abilities that was mentioned in my conversation was that a deity should be able to make something out of nothing. This isn't inconceivable since matter can be converted to energy and vice versa. That ability falls within the laws of physics, unless one considers energy to be "something" and therefore not creating something out of nothing. I find that idea flawed since that suggests a deity would be infinitely (or at least very) powerful without using any energy. Another criterion was that they have to have at least the ability to create, even if they did not themselves create, the Universe or the Earth. Except fro creating the Universe, this is not so hard. All one needs to do is bump a nebula and it will eventually it will create a solar system. Then you just guide organic molecules to a planet in a habitable zone around a star. If one thinks like the scientific atheist in this regard, the Universe does this naturally so none of this should require omnipotence.

To refer to the world of sci-fi, would we consider a being which meets all the criteria for a god as a god, or just a very powerful alien? The Q from Star Trek are effectively gods but they do not claim themselves as such. The ascended Ancients and the Ori in Stargate SG1 have seemingly limitless power, but only the Ori claim themselves as gods and demand worship. If humans were to one day encounter such beings, why not call them gods? As they say, "if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck..." Is it the obligation of worship that is then the defining characteristic of a god? Might that be the root of it all? Again, the standards for worship are low; from worshipping the bones of really good people to praying to the sun. My personal opinion is that worship isn't mandatory for deities any more than it is for the seasons. So basically, if you ignore our culture's requirements for being a god and remove the worship aspect, why is it difficult to imagine such beings exist?

Mörk dag för Sverige

Last Wednesday was the Study Abroad fair at the U of A, so naturally I volunteered to help out at the Uppsala booth. The tone of this experience can be summed up by slapping your palm against your forehead. There were supposed to be more people volunteering but many of them couldn't make it so for awhile I was the only person running the booth (Copenhagen University didn't have anybody). I thought this might be a problem since I didn't really know what I would say to people if they asked me about Uppsala. This really wasn't a factor because the booth for Oslo was manned by the study abroad advisor from Oslo University and he brought all manner of pamphlets and brochures with him. I should also mention that the universities are responsible for sending information, and Uppsala University sent us 5 total. A pair with two copies each and one lone brochure. Also, when I got there I saw a nice healthy stack of brochures for a university in Switzerland. They're the Office of Study Abroad for Pete's sake and they STILL don't know the difference between Sweden and Switzerland.
The Norwegian guy was really good at promoting Oslo, his booth was just more appealing, I guess. Also might have helped that there were two cute Norwegian girls working the booth too. Man, one of them could not have been any more Nordic if they tried. The thing that bugged me was that I've been to Oslo, it's not a very pretty place. The Norwegian guy even agreed with me that Uppsala was probably prettier, but everyone wanted to go to Norway instead of Sweden. The other frustrating thing was that everyone was asking about the academics about Uppsala, which I only have so much knowledge of. Nobody asked if the city was FUN.
On the plus side, I did get to talk to the Norwegians and catch up with one of the Uppsala students when they showed up. And my favorite moment from that day was this one girl who was really excited and interested about Norway and the more she learned the more interested she got. Then she said, "I have a quick question: Where is Norway?"

In other Sweden related news, Hello Saferide has some new material, including some songs in Swedish. They are still weird lyrics, but at least you don't have to worry about her funky accent.

At this rate, Geordi's parents must have gotten his VISOR at an antique shop.

Acceptance

This is a thought that’s been floating around my head for nearly a year now. There are people who regard themselves as incredibly socially liberal and have no qualms about sex, drugs, social mores and basically live as if no one else’s opinions mattered. While there is a certain admirable freedom to that kind of outlook, I find that those individuals also tend to spout out sanctimonious rhetoric, insulting and belittling more conservative mentalities and ways of life. I’ve noticed I keep running into these people and as a way of bonding we criticize Greek life, religious fundamentalists or simpletons in general. We agree that small-minded people really should lighten up and see there is more to life than their own little world with its little rules. At this point they’re golden, but almost inevitably they will make some gradually sweeping generalization that everyone who isn’t like them are intolerant, unenlightened fools.
This is the problem; people who criticize those who they identify as closed-minded are just as closed-minded themselves. Simply because they enjoy doing a lot more things than other people might not they feel this makes them somehow more evolved. They will often accuse those who find their way of life unappealing of being intolerant of other ideas and imply, or sometimes outright state, that they are accepting of so many lifestyles and beliefs. But when it comes down to actually demonstrating this universal acceptance, they reveal that they are just as repelled and baffled by the very people they accuse of being unable to understand them. Certainly extreme social conservatism leads to a lack of understanding and intolerance of other practices, but extreme social liberalism is just as bad. It’s tempting to make the analogy of conservatism=intolerance therefore liberalism=tolerance, but if one actually applies this logic the end result is a seemingly open society where no one is outright judged for behaving differently, but are incessantly pressured into conforming. Like they said in Serenity: “We’re not telling people what to think, we’re just trying to show them how.”
I think the best way to go about achieving this acceptance of other lifestyles (aside from yoga and Buddhist philosophy) is to start out from an initially socially conservative and open up your mind from there, rather than being raised to think anything goes. That way, you can then understand the mindset of those who are less open to certain ideas having been there yourself rather than just regarding them as antiquated and stuffy.

One of the interesting things I learned from my Nature of Language class is that people on the East Coast talk at a different speed from those on the West Coast. The East Coasters will speak faster and jump in immediately when someone finishes talking, this demonstrates that they are interested in the conversation. West Coasters will speak slower in general and have longer pauses in between statements. This results in East Coasters thinking West Coasters are stupid or uninterested, while East Coasters are seen as rude because they are always interrupting. Theoretically, I should be somewhere in between. I was raised in a family from the Midwest, which should be more like the East Coast but grew up in Tucson where people would be more inclined to be like West Coasters. Certainly I've experienced the problems of both; I've been talked over by people who just jump right into a conversation but also have been frustrated by people who take for bloody ever to reply to you.
This phenomenon also seems related to a discussion I had in Uppsala with a Finn. According to some study, the amount of time a lull in a conversation can last before both parties consider it to be an awkward silence is longer for Finns that for other nationalities. I wonder how the sense of timing in languages and cultures managed to diverge over time. It can't take all that long for it to happen if there is a noticeable difference between people from opposite sides of the US.

Silly Swedes and their anti-wedding ring. Not really my color anyway.
Although they do make a tasty dessert for Fat Tuesday. How I managed to forget that's what Fettisdagen means is beyond me.

El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth) with Ivana Baquero, Doug Jones and Sergi López. I liked this movie quite a bit. I was actually kind of surprised with how relatively little of the fantasy world is seen in the movie, with most of it taking place during historical events. I wonder how much of a cultural subtext there is to the parallel stories in the film, aside from some of the more obvious allegories. The depiction of Franco's Spain was pretty powerful, as well; one tends to forget how brutal the regime actually was.
I liked the designs of the creatures they had in the story. Aside from the classical creatures like fauns and fairies, there was a really spooky looking thing that seemed to be inspired by Goya, survival horror video games and Aaahh!! Real Monsters.
I also got a chance to work on my Spanish listening skills, and to become reacquainted with Castillian Spanish. I like the sound a lot more than the Spanish I'm used to, though it does take a while to get used to all those thetas. I also felt pretty good about being able to spot out some of the discrepancies between the translations and what was actually said. And learning new vulgar phrases is always good.

Sometimes I wonder if Sweden is weird on purpose.

It occurred to me recently, probably due to the linguistics classes I'm taking, that there are a lot of things written in everyday life in characters that don't necessarily mean what they are supposed to mean. My example of this are stylized letters that are used by trademarks to make themselves unique, but actually are different letters entirely. For example, the O in the Monster energy drinks as a Φ. It should be Mfnster. Or the circle over the second A in Stargate, makes it more like Stargote.
In other linguistics news, I've made it through the initial nightmare of Historical Linguistics relatively unscathed. Seeing as about half of the class dropped after a few phenology lectures, I'm rather proud of myself. Those lectures were, with the exception of my Swedish placement test, the worst thing I've ever experienced academically. Everyone is using linguistic jargon like us poor anthro majors are supposed to know what it means, not even bothering to slow down to explain what the hell they are talking about. And what's worse is when the teacher illustrates her examples of sound changes. This whole process results in something to the effect of: "The polypharangealization of bilabial deaffriction indicative of Tapiman results in lenition of 'neh, nah, nyuh' to 'meh mah, myuh'." At this point, I check to see if I've lost my mind. Whenever the professor literally starts to sound like Charlie Brown's teacher, I start to worry.

Time travel in the brain. now I don't feel so bad for just staring into space when I should be doing homework.

Sadly, it seems that while I might get to actually writing a post, it'll just sit in the "drafts" section for awhile.
It's a rare thing indeed when it snows in Tucson, as it did a week ago today. I've seen it happen a couple of times; I was in middle school (I think) last time it happened, but I don't ever recall it being quite this spectacular. We got a good inch of it, plus ice. They closed down bridges in town because Tucsonans have no experience driving on frozen surfaces.They also closed down public schools, presumably for the same reason but really it's because any day where it snows in Tucson is worth celebrating. I'm personally glad I got to see snow two years in a row, not that Tucson's snow was on par with the stuff in Sweden, but seeing it on a saguaro is pretty impressive. And what kind of amateur photographer would I be if I didn't take pictures of this rare event?

The Illusionist with Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti. This is one of those movies where I got mixed reviews from reliable sources and so had to see for myself. I kind of liked it, though I got the sense that it probably would have made a better play than a movie, aside from the magic acts. But think about how cool it would be if they did them on stage! The movie did drag on for a bit, to be honest. They really could have cut out a few scenes and made the movie a good half hour shorter without losing much. Aside from that, I thought it was enjoyable. Oh and Jessica Biel is totally hot.

Idiocracy with Luke Wilson and Maya Randolph. A short little social commentary, not really much for entertainment purposes as for reflection. I have to say I can definitely see the seeds of this in our world today. The alleged root of the dumbing down of America is that stupid people breed more than intelligent people and the stupid come to power through sheer numbers. The solution, in my mind, is simple: all the smart people need to start having a lot more sex. The only problem I had with it was the idea that the change in language would necessarily be to something stupid and unsophisticated. I’m sure Chaucer would think English has gotten dumber since his day, but that’s not really the case. That might be the linguistics classes talking now, I’m not sure.
As I thought about it for another day, while I see where they got the notion of this from, I don't really worry about the survival of the species in terms of us getting dumber. The average human is smarter than we have ever been and it's not like populations have historically been a majority of geniuses, yet we've come this far. Hell, we look fondly back at the sophistication of the Romans when they drank from lead cups and watched people actually kill each other for fun. Also, the average person today knows better than to put leeches on themselves when they get sick. The only reason why it looks like we're getting dumber is because we're living now, and the only things we read from the past are from prodigies and geniuses; people who could actually write. A century from now, no one will know about our stupid TV shows except period scholars. It may seem dumb to us, but the majority of my readers are a bit more classy than the run of the mill folk. And the upper levels of society have always thought themselves more sophisticated than the peasants. After all, (since I can't think of a more effective American example) while upper class Swedes in the 18th century were going to gasques and singing in Latin, the peasants were wiping their children's noses with their own mouths and singing "Små Grodorna". You just try and tell me our lower classes are worse than back then.

Snakes on a Plane with Samuel L. Jackson and Nathan Phillips. Not much to say, the title says it all. It definitely delivered on its promise of snakes, a plane and a combination thereof. I found some things about the movie that I couldn’t excuse with willing suspension of disbelief. First on that list is the fact that I have been on many planes in my day and never have I seen stewardesses that were that attractive. And I thought the anaconda was also a little hard to buy from the standpoint of sneaking it onto the plane. I was also rather surprised by the body count, though I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because unlike getting killed by a gun or a bomb, you need to show every person getting bitten in new and horrible ways.

I got a fortune cookie from Panda Express in Asheville which read, "Better is the enemy of good." My normal reaction to any fortune cookie is to make fun of them, particularly if they aren't really fortunes at all. But this one seemed more difficult to do, the best I could come up with was to fold the paper so it read, "Beer is the enemy of god." Afterwards, like I traditionally do with other fortunes, I saved in my wallet to ponder it. I'm actually surprised that it's insightful words of wisdom instead of some trite little phrase. If you really think about it, the message is spot on, the idea of "better" does make "good" less valuable. It actually reminds me of the Swedish word "lagom", one of the explanations of the term was essentially "good enough is perfect." The idea that any more is unnecessary and potentially detrimental. I don't think that's quite the angle this fortune is going for though, I think it's suggesting to take things as they are and not place comparative values on them. What you think is good suits you fine until you find someone has something better, then you don't value the good thing you have.
As I thought about it, you can't even make fun of the fortune by adding "in bed" to the end of it. Hell, that's a whole new valuable lesson right there. Originally thinking facetiously, I remembered that traditionally evil is the enemy of good. And since good is part of a duality, there can be only one opposite. Therefore, evil=better. But better cannot exist in a vacuum, evil is then better than good, while the very notion of "better than" is criticized in the fortune. Hence, the idea that evil=better is validated by simply stating it. One could also interpret it literally, that evil is better than good. Certainly in some regards it has its advantages and it is occasionally embraced, as evidenced by society's fascination with anti-heroes and "bad" or "dangerous" characters. Evil is seen as more fun, but because it seeks out fun selfishly, it will always want the best, never satisfied with what might otherwise be enjoyable. The quest for better will then inevitably lead evil to be perpetually unsatisfied, making better the enemy of evil as well as good.
All that from a dessert.

Imagine if an alien probe did the same thing if it looked for life on Earth.

We should all mourn the passing of one of the world's greatest inventors.

Movies:
Borat with Sacha Baron Cohen. I laughed a couple of times in this movie but came out of it really unhappy with it. Its critique on American subcultures is laudable, but even that doesn’t save this film. It’s terribly and uncomfortably racist, Baron Cohen himself is Jewish but that doesn’t magically not make it racist (one might draw a parallel to Bamboozled). Not to mention the insulting depiction of Kazakhstan. If they had executed this with a shred of decency the deception of the documentary might be excused as investigative journalism, shedding light on bigotry and racism, as his defenders claim. Instead, it’s just vulgar and mean.

Lady in the Water with Paul Giamatti and Bryce Dallas Howard. Self-indulgent tripe is a phrase that comes to mind when talking about this movie. Shyamalan doesn’t appear to have ever been quite all right in the head, but his latest movies are just getting weirder and weirder. First off, a movie inspired by a bedtime story you tell your kids isn’t a good movie plot, no matter what you think. Second, casting yourself as a visionary in your own story is really tacky. And third, if you’re going to use themes, archetypes and symbolism in your films (and who doesn’t?) don’t be so damn blatant about it. You’d think he forgot the movie isn’t just going to be watched by his kids.

The Producers with Nathan lane, Matthew Broderick and Uma Thurman. I liked this, actually. I had heard nothing but good things about it, but you know how that can sometimes go with movies. It’s lighthearted, in that wonderful Mel Brooks kind of way. I’m still not enough of a fan to be singing along to it, but maybe that takes a second viewing. One thing I had wondered though: is Ulla, with her attitudes towards sex, perhaps a play on the Swedish word “knulla” (to fuck)? Is that giving the writers too much credit? But then again, there are a lot of other stereotypical Swedish names to choose from.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest with Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley. Instead of reviewing this in my own words, I think this guy has pretty much nailed it.

Old School with Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn. For a movie I’ve heard so much about, I was kind of let down. It’s entertaining but not exceptional in its genre. Maybe the expectations were too high, I dunno. I’d bet there would be quite a few people who would love the idea of an age-free fraternity that’s not necessarily affiliated with students. If you strip away the humor of it, I thought the characters were kind of sad. They’re completely immature and selfish and too preoccupied with reliving their past. In that vein, given the recurring themes in Vince Vaughn’s movies, I wonder if he isn’t type cast.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. This is one of those rare movies whose reputation is justified in my eyes. Though weird, it’s definitely good to see the analysis of how experience and memories, even (especially?) unpleasant ones shape our lives. I’m also in favor of the ambiguity of the ending, anything less would have only hurt the story. I’m more curious about the notion that people are prone to repeating their mistakes over and over again if they lose their memories of those mistakes. I think that in the case of the staff members that would be more likely, but the chance meeting of Joel and Clementine seems a much more difficult thing to repeat. Plus, since the erasure also affects memory triggers as well as the memories themselves, I wonder if one erased memories of someone they met in high school if they would also forget most of their high school experiences. Would they forget everything they learned as well, or would they inexplicably know Spanish or something? Come to think of it, the movie kind of reminds me of Knights of the Old Republic, for those who have played it.

North Carolina is a great place with wonderful scenery (even though everything is dead in the winter, as I was often reminded). It’s funny, I had frequently told people in Uppsala that the US is huge and it’s no more fair to judge the US by one region than it is to judge Europe by one country, but I had never actually experienced the diversity in the US for myself. I now see there is more truth in my words than I had ever thought. Europeans had real difficulty understanding that although Arizona is technically in the southern part of the US, it is not in the South. The difference between the South (and North Carolina isn’t even the Deep South) and the Southwest is staggering. There are more churches than I have ever seen in one area in NC. It’s unreal. Also, the food is distinctively different, although thankfully there are enough national chains that you don’t have to go to the South to sample it. I tried grits for the first time and was really not impressed. I also tried Southern sweet tea (thanks to Keith) and was very much impressed. I learned they really like fried chicken there and one can go to nearly any restaurant and order some. Chick-fil-a has twice as many options on their menu in the South than they do at the U of A food court. I learned that even though I'm still in the same country and the cultural differences aren't international, I can still be struck by completely unexpected things. My most memorable instance of culture shock was when I ordered barbeque pork and got a plate of shredded meat resembling nothing of what the rest of the civilized world calls barbeque.
Asheville is everything I was promised it would be. Imagine if 4th Avenue became its own city and you pretty much have Asheville. As if to drive that point home, I saw a New Age store called "Street Fair". The Great Smoky Mountains are really a sight to behold. We had complained that it was overcast the entire time we were there, but if it hadn’t been, the mountains wouldn’t have looked nearly as beautiful.
Driving around in NC is quite interesting as well. It’s a big trucking state, so there’s always an inordinate amount of trucks on the road, often making for terrifying moments when it doesn’t look like their load of lumber is properly tied down. The speed limits are frequently strange numbers, like 19MPH. Also, there must be some strange force afflicting vehicles in NC because you will always see cars on the side of the road, not visibly damaged, but abandoned nonetheless. We saw between 20 and 30 cars on the side of the road between Smithfield and Asheville and saw about as many cars with their emergency blinkers on or some that stalled at a stoplight.

Tangentially, I’ve gained a renewed appreciation of Kim’s dogs Mattie and Tia (not that I didn’t appreciate them originally). After seeing how completely unexpressive and lifeless certain hound dogs can be, I’m glad some dogs are more animated and lively than that.

And finally, I have to say I’m surprised with how I can know someone since kindergarten and not know anything about them, be best friends with someone in high school and never see them now, but meet someone for 11 days that changes your life and becomes one of your closest friends even though you haven’t seen them in 3 years. How does that work?

Plus, many new pics and a new, surprisingly accurate, map function.

I am endlessly fascinated by how far I’ve come over the course of a year. A year ago today I was away from my family and friends exploring a new city by myself. I came back to Uppsala to see a Swedish Christmas and biked through the falling snow to go to a Christmas dinner for those who didn’t go home for the holidays. I remember the Christmas carols were still there, the selection was different but the essence was the same. The stores had some Christmas decorations but nothing like we have here. In fact I was reminded of all this when I was running errands to the grocery store yesterday. I remembered the first time I saw it since I got back and how different yet familiar it seemed. I am glad I can see these things, and am glad even Safeway can bring a smile to my face just by being what it is. Most of all, I’m glad I can be back in the US and with my family once again for Christmas.
The 24th is Christmas Day for the Swedes, so God Jul to all and to all a God Natt!

My archaeology textbook had a brief article on the difficulty of respecting the sacred sites of different cultures. Their example was Devil’s Tower, a sacred place to many American Indian tribes, but also a popular destination for climbers. Even though it is on federal land, the tribes consider climbing it desecration and the textbook likened it to scaling a mosque or cathedral. It became clear to me that I am not the one who should be in charge of deciding if climbing should or shouldn’t be allowed because the first thing I thought of was how cool it would be to scale Domkyrkan. I always wanted a nice close-up picture of that angel, not to mention a view from one of those spires.

Beerfest with Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske. I’m actually surprised by this movie. I had some small, cautious hopes for it and it exceeded them. There were the requisite and hilarious gross jokes, some of them that were really just unsettling. I praise its accurate depiction of various Europeans, or at least poking fun at the ones I know that actually are like that. I have to say, the Bavarians are not anything like the Germans portrayed in the movie, the East Germans, however, are. And with that in mind, the funniest German insult ever is now “umlaut”. I also have to give the movie props for its portrayal of the Swedes; the lovely hot blonde stereotype that I now know isn’t completely false. Plus major props to them for including the Swedish drinking song “Helan går.”

An interesting note from my Anthro GenEd classes: one of the links associated with domesticating animals to be more docile is a tendency for the animals to develop lighter skin and fur coloration. An example mentioned was the aurochs, the ancestor of modern cows, was black, but many cows today are tan or white. Someone then asked if lighter pigmentation is indicative of docility, what does that say about blondes?

Word of the Day: Propinquity-nearness in place, relation or time; affinity of nature; kinship.

I’ve become reacquainted with the coldness that Tucson can bring. It doesn’t creep in like you’d kind of expect. It just pounces on you one day and it’s suddenly too cold to wear short sleeves or just light jackets. I think I now understand why people in Tucson complain about the cold so much as opposed to people in other places. First off, the locals aren’t prepared for that kind of weather. We only need coats for about one or two months, then the desert heat makes them useless for most of the year. As a result we just never bother with them, so when we finally are faced with cold, it’s a shock that we can’t really deal with. Then there are the people from out of state who likely come from somewhere colder and like the desert heat. But when they’re faced with the cold (yesterday Tucson’s low temperature was lower than Uppsala’s) they refuse to admit defeat and tough it out. Though I think some Tucson natives might do that as well. There’s something wimpy about wearing long johns in Tucson, no matter how cold you think it is.

A fun little program, though the accuracy leaves something to be desired.

Casino Royale with Daniel Craig and Eva Green. I liked this Bond movie quite a bit, actually. It seems the Bond franshise has decided to adopt the new perpetual plot twist trend in spy thrillers. They pulled it off nicely without it getting all kinds of crazy. I liked the prequel-ness of it all, as well. Bond is rough around the edges and makes mistakes. I know that’s against the whole appeal of 007 but I just enjoyed seeing that even he made mistakes when he first became a 00 agent. The Bond girls were lovely, as expected, and the seduction and charm was actually believable, as opposed to Die Another Day where he was more like Austin Powers. The fight scenes and stunts were damn impressive, the best I’ve seen in a Bond film, though I would like to know where an African bomb maker learned how to do all those jumps. I particularly liked how the film explains why Bond acts the way he does towards women. There’s definitely a Darth Vader kind of thing going there.

The Break-Up with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston. I heard a lot about this movie from my friends, who all told me the exact same thing about the ending. But putting that aside for a moment, I thought the movie was alright. Nothing profound, though I did find some of the dialog to be strangely familiar. I don’t know how long the characters were supposed to be together, but from the opening montage and the fact that they were living together I’d guess it would have to be a while. The thing is, I never once saw that they had any chemistry together. Not even from the first meeting. I kept waiting for a scene where they would remember the good times together but from what I saw, there was never anything between them. It made both characters really hard to sympathize with. Which brings me to the ending: while everyone else thinks it was a really crappy, unsatisfying ending I kind of liked it. It’s the only thing that would make sense, it has a cinematically refreshing touch of realism and they are both happy. Face it, we’ve all had breakups and we all know that all things considered, that’s probably the best possible outcome.

Ah, another Thanksgiving has come and gone. I have to say there’s no such thing as a bad Thanksgiving in my book. A holiday about eating lots and lots of good food with people you care about. There’s not much to commercialize or corrupt when you get right down to it. I never trust people who say they don’t like Thanksgiving. If you don’t like your family you can always have dinner with a friend’s family, or a group of friends—anyone that you enjoy being with. And if eating a big dinner with your friends is still not your thing, well, you’re an alien.
I was going to have the Swedes over so they could experience this uniquely American holiday (yes, I know Canadians have Thanksgiving too, they just stole it from us) but they decided to go to Mexico over the holiday break. Jävle svenskar… Anyway, it turned out for the best that they weren’t able to show since our kitchen was in a state of (dis)repair, making cooking a challenge. Thankfully, we live in Arizona where you can have Thanksgiving outside and not be cold at all. Plus, I was reacquainted with all of my family’s traditional dishes that I missed out on last year. Even if you have the recipies, you just can’t beat mom’s cooking. And like all Thanksgivings, it ended in a lovely turkey nap. It’s a shame this concept is unknown to foreigners because it is quite possibly the best feeling nap in the world.

It’s strange for me to think that one year ago today I was on the other side of the planet contemplating the greater meaning of being 20. Now I’m back here and I think the greater meaning of 21 is less elusive. I remember thinking that my teens were pretty uneventful and lamented not making the most of “the best years of your life”. A friend of mine told me I was wrong; that the best years are in your 20’s. The simple matter-of-factness with which she said that really erased any doubt in my mind.
So I’m one year older, and for the first time, I really feel one year wiser. I’ve learned and experienced so much this past year, even in these past few months. Studying abroad really does make you grow up. After experiencing what it’s like to be totally on my own in a totally new place with no one to help make decisions for me, I really miss it and already want to go back. That said, I’m now enjoying Tucson more than I ever have in my entire life. Sure it’s the world’s biggest small town, but it’s got a certain small town charm to it. Oh, and Eegee’s, can't forget that.
It’s still relatively warm here in Tucson. A high of 76F (24C) today and a low of 44F (7C), but to Tucsonans it’s getting rather cold. I see people bundled up in jackets, girls wearing warm pants and the return of my arch nemesis: ugg boots. Contrast that with Uppsala where last year, just as I opened a birthday care package from my family and took out a scarf, gloves and a beanie, it started to snow. Now that’s timing. While the gloves may have been ill adapted for Swedish winter, those beanies and that scarf really made life easier in my travels.

Tonight I’ll be off to celebrate my 21st in true American fashion. Hopefully my experiences in Uppsala were adequate preparation. Funny, not many people get to have the “old enough to drink” birthday twice. Go me!

Where does everyone get the time to blog? I have difficulty keeping up as it is, though I suppose work and college don’t leave a lot of extra time. I think I’ve finally gotten used to the American college system again, Uppsala made me soft. As fun as it was to have no homework or exams before the final (plus 4 day weekends every week my first semester), I think a constant barrage of midterms helps keep your academic edge. Now, granted, the academic career of an exchange student is pretty light anyway, but I don’t think all of the ease was just because of that, the Swedes have it pretty easy, too. They get paid to go to college (everyone, not just people with scholarships) so they really don’t have to work, only have to worry about one test that they can take over again indefinitely, don’t have GenEd’s or minors so they can focus on just one thing and rumor has it they have university counselors to help the students cope with the stress of it all. Now, some of the majors have a pretty hard time, at least from what I’ve observed: the Law students (or maybe they were just pretending) and the Engineering students.

In other news, Beyond Bread is a very interesting anthropological site, I’ve come to realize. Just tonight I saw a perfect example of sorority girl hierarchical structure: a Lil Sis was ordering food from me and when I asked if it was to eat here, she asked to her Big Sis, who just stared back at her, not so much as uttering a word. The Lil Sis then surprisingly meekly, especially considering the chipper nature of sorority girls, said she going to eat here. I guess that’s part of the hazing process, breaking their will and turning them into little clones. She didn’t look like her Big Sis, but I suppose it’s only a matter of time.

Finally, I’ve always been slow to embrace cell phones. I first got mine as a graduation present when nigh everyone else in my class had one already. But I came to see their inherent value. I was still wary of all the crazy new features they kept coming out with, preferring my simple non-color screen and default ring tones. I only started appreciating texting while I was in Uppsala, mainly cuz it was easier to read and write Swedish than to try and speak it. Also, my old phone never had the auto word dictionary thing; I used to just have to type it in the old fashioned way. Plus having a polylingual dictionary made things a lot easier. My new phone isn’t as good with recognizing what I’m trying to text and I find myself having to spell it out again. Also, unlike my other two phones, it doesn't have any other language settings besides English and Spanish. I’m really miffed about that part, it means you can no longer steal your friend’s phone and switch the language settings to Hebrew and see how long it take for him to figure out how to undo it. It also bugs me cuz now I can’t type the ö in one of my friend’s last name.
On the plus side, my new phone has a camera, allowing me to take pics like this:

I got to throw an atlatl last week for my TRAD class. I gotta say that’s one inventive weapon. I want one. The record distance for throwing one is 800 feet and it has enough force behind a good throw to go through a sheep. It’s just so simple, yet brilliant. I often have wondered if I would have been able to invent stuff like that if I had no knowledge of the modern world. I like to think I would at least have been able to come up with some stuff. I used to knap rocks in the back yard when I was little, so I probably would have been able to create hand axes, spears and knives. Plus I figure my creative abilities would have been boosted if my life depended on it. Still, I doubt I would have figured out you can increase a spear’s effective range tenfold by using a wooden launching handle. I guess it’s not so different from a catapult, but it doesn’t look like it should work.
So props to you, Paleolithic Man. You are a damn clever fella.

In other news, I finally went hiking with the Swedish exchange students. They seemed to enjoy it a lot, even though one took a prickly pear pad right to the shin. We also talked about the differences and quirks we noticed in the US and Sweden. They say it's hard to find Americans to hang out with. We're really friendly and open if you talk with us at first, but it's more difficult to actually make a new friend. Contrast that with the Swedish experience where chitchatting with a Swede is like pulling teeth, but once they get to know you you'll be friends forever.
They were also interested in finding places/events/activities that were very American or Arizonan. Try thinking about what you would tell someone is something really representative of the US that you would want to share with foreigners. It's kind of hard. I suggested Rodeo Weekend for something Arizonan, Thanksgiving for something all-American and after the hike I took them to the most American place I could think of: The Five and Diner. They loved that, they said it was like being in a movie.

I just noticed tonight that Orion is rising differently than it was when I saw it last year up in Kiruna. Around 11PM in January Orion appears upright on the horizon. That is, his “feet” are on the horizon, rather than at an angle. It’s kinda weird to me that the stars change depending on where you are. The Southern Hemisphere would be even worse, I imagine.
Anyway, I’ve been thinking about how much I like Sweden’s landscapes and climate. I suspect some of it may have to do with nostalgia or some cultural ideal I’ve imprinted on. I’m guessing that’s why I like the idea of a two-story house with wooden floors (though I missed carpet so much while I was actually there), a green yard, trees and the like. But I wonder why I like green and forests so much over other landscapes. I’ve had a theory that maybe people have imprinted ideals of beauty and aesthetics for landscapes and environments which might be optimal for them. While I might think a tundra is pretty to look at I definitely wouldn’t consider it a place to live, but an Inuit certainly would. At the same time, would the Inuit consider the Sonoran Desert habitable? At first I didn’t really have much to support my idea but if you think about it, it would make some sense. People all over the world are adapted to environments which their ancestors evolved in and it would be only natural that they would prefer that environment. Now I’m not saying this is anything absolute or that white people can only like European climates, but a subconscious preference might still exist. In some cases it might be prudent for people to heed that preference. For example, Africans will get rickets in northern latitudes if they don’t have a dietary source of Vitamin D, plus melanin increases one’s risk of frostbite. I wonder if Africans would find Sweden as aesthetically pleasing as I would, or might they prefer Tucson?
Also, along the lines of subconscious desires and instincts I learned that shepherd dogs will exhibit shepherding behavior without any actual training to do so. So one can evidently breed a specific behavior into animals, that’s pretty damn impressive considering humans only domesticated dogs around 17,000 years ago. What’s more impressive is that we managed to single out a behavior that is totally against a wolf’s natural instinct. They would rather isolate an animal from a herd and then kill it, but somehow we managed to get dogs to group animals into a herd and protect them. Now, nature can’t account for this entirely, nurture plays some role. I don’t think that feral shepherd dogs would herd their prey like that, but otherwise they act quite differently than dogs bred for other purposes.
I wonder if you could genetically select for a certain instinct in humans. It couldn’t be anything really drastic since our self-awareness can override our natural tendencies. I wonder if you could, say, breed humans to break fall instinctively without having to be taught. I have no idea how you would do that, but it would probably be easier than breeding wolves into shepherd dogs.

The Grudge 2 with Amber Tamblyn and Takako Fuji. I don't normally go to see horror movies in theaters, but I was offered free tickets, so how could I refuse? Having never seen the first one, I'm not sure how it compares but I'm told it's better-ish. The overwhelming sentiment is that it isn't as creepy as the Japanese Ju-an movies upon which they were based. Quite a few people said it sucked, but I'm inclined to dismiss their opinions for a couple of reasons. First, I gauge horror movies' quality on how scary they are, not their subtle acting, logical plots or character development. Since I get the feeling that those are most people's criteria, they might be right, but since the movie was indeed scary, I say it was good. The other group of people who said it sucked I dismiss because they don't provide any constructive criticism and I suspect are trying to rationalize a way not to be scared when they go to bed. For example, when asked what he thought could have been better about the movie, one guy I watched it with said, "If they didn't make it suck so much!" he then said how it was so funny and he didn't get why everyone was so afraid of "the albino kid." Dude, it's OK to say a scary movie scared, you don't need to put on some macho bullshit act.
My old roommate had more constructive opinions of the movie: having seen the Japanese version, he felt that the obligatory American origin/explanation scenes took something away from the movie. He suggested that in the original, rather than giving the characters hope, they just know they're going to die and there's nothing they can do about it. While that kind of fatalism can definitely be scary, I think there's also something to be said for dangling hope in front of the characters, then taking it away. He also felt that the number of jump scenes was too much and by the end you kind of got desensitized to them, whereas the Japanese ones use them sparingly and to a greater effect.
I think it's always strange that no one ever thinks to fight against the ghost, certainly they don't have anything to lose. Granted, there are some instances where they are caught totally by surprise, but there are some times when they had ample time for a punch, kick, anything, but they don't. I think that's one thing some of the moviegoers didn't get, the ghosts, aside from being seemingly omnipotent and creepy looking induce paralytic fear, preventing people from doing anything. In that thought of what would happen if someone fought back, we wondered who would be able to. One person had suggested they would like to see the ghost from the Grudge vs. Constantine. That would certainly be an interesting fight. I, on the other hand, think that the ghost vs. aliens a la Communion or Taken would be a pretty interesting fight to see as well. I keep hoping someone will make an aliens vs. ghosts movie, or at least a short film.

I'm experiencing little bits of culture shock as I go through the semester, odd things that I see on campus. Notably, the fundies going around campus stopping random people and asking them about their beliefs and trying to guilt trip them into converting. Here's a fun tip: demonstrate any knowledge of the Bible that contradicts what they're trying to sell you and they'll get all defensive. It's good to be back in the US, where I am persecuted for my beliefs and not where I was born. It's a purer form of intolerance, no?
Not too long ago I had lunch with one of the Swedish students at the U of A. It's kind of funny to me that he and the rest of the international students will hang out with each other for the most part with less interaction among natives. When I went abroad I figured I'd be spending most of my time with Swedes, but for the most part I was around international students. It's just a hoot to see that that's exactly what they're doing. It's a strange kind of thing, seeing a strange culture through my eyes, then coming back and seeing those strangers see my world through their eyes.
This guy has evidently embraced American fast food culture totally, he claims that's all he ever eats. I kind of hope he was exaggerating, but I dunno. It's funny that our fast food culture is one of the (MANY) things we're criticized for and he's all for it. Of course, who can't appreciate the fact that a "large" serving in Sweden is ridiculously expensive and has the same amount of food as an American "small" serving? Since he is so interested in absorbing American culture, I offered him some of my root beer. Curious, he sampled my "beer" and predictably, was disgusted. Hilarious, I tell you. He was even more astonished that I drank the whole thing and that it wasn't some kind of practical joke.
Really, it seems only Americans like root beer. It actually reminds me of an episode of Deep Space Nine, where two aliens are at a bar trying to find the appeal in root beer:
Quark: What do you think?
Garak: It's vile.
Q: I know. It's so bubbly and cloying and happy.
G: Just like the Federation.
Q: But you know what's really frightening? If you drink enough of it, you start to like it.
G: It's insidious.
Q: Just like the Federation.

That’s about right, just with America instead of the Federation. And like root beer, if you have enough of America, you do start to like it. Now all I need to do is get the Swedes to appreciate the simple joy of a PBJ.

So the other day we’re driving to the dojo and see a license plate that says, “Be an organ donor” so we joked that we would go in and just donate a liver like one might go in and donate blood. So then here’s a weird thought: could one conceivably commit suicide by organ donation? That is, donate a vital organ, or better yet, donate all your organs. The doctors would be labeled as highly unethical, but on the other hand if the “patient” comes up to them and tells them they are suicidal and will kill themselves one way or another, it’s in the doctor’s hands whether or not the waste of life is a complete waste. All organs could be salvaged as well as marrow and all the blood. Gruesome, yes, but remember that the selfish act of suicide would be mitigated by the selflessness of offering your entire body to those in need who do want to live. Suppose each organ goes to a separate person, saving each of their lives. Would this form of suicide then be looked down upon? The only problem is finding doctors who would utterly violate the Hippocratic oath and intentionally kill and essentially gut their patients even if it was the patient’s expressed wish. They would be reviled even more than abortion doctors. But perhaps some ethical concerns might be evaded if one considers that the killing of one patient ultimately benefits many more. Consider it an expansion on the logic of triage: the patient has a low chance of survival (because he’s suicidal) while other patients who will die without treatment (an organ transplant or blood transfusion) still have a chance if the doctor administers treatment in time. In a triage scenario, the doctor administers treatment to the other patients and neglects the patient with a lower chance of survival, essentially killing him. In this way a doctor sacrifices the life of one to save the life of another, this doctor would not be considered unethical, in fact they might be praised for their cool professional approach and understanding that not everyone can be saved. In a triage situation the tradeoff of life might be one to one, but in this scenario the sacrifice of one ultimately benefits many more.
So would people opt to commit suicide in this fashion? Would the doctors be willing to go through with it? Would the general public accept it even when weighing in the benefit it would have to those on an organ waiting list? Do the needs of the many truly outweigh the needs of the few?

Hard Candy with Patrick Wilson and Ellen Page. One creepy, intense movie that really got me riled. It's certainly suited to a debate, but not for a blind right/wrong debate with absolutist, sexist arguments. My personal opinion is that the girl is in dire need of a vacation, specifically one to a certain "Hostel" in Slovakia.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Now, the debate is: are the crimes committed by the man sufficiently atrocious to warrant the events in the movie? And are the events in the movie atrocious enough to warrant my suggested punishment? When dealing with this, it is important to only look at what was explicitly proven and stated in the film and not every single claim, allegation or suspicion the girl had. Now, the director is brilliant in only providing just enough solid proof to keep the plot from being completely ambiguous. All that we know about his secrets are from the reactions of a sadistic and legally insane character looking for anything that might prove her right. It's important to look at the movie in retrospect, seeing how carefully orchestrated and planned her whole scheme was and factor that into her character. But also remember that everything we learned at the end she knew for certain all along. That exonerates her only slightly, because it is inferred that she obtained all this information from the guy's friend using similar methods but operating on less than absolute certainty. He was a monster for his actions that were left unseen; she was a monster for her actions both seen and unseen. He deserved punishment, but is a monster who kills a monster any less monstrous?
And I'd also like to add that movies like this are what make being bound a borderline phobia of mine.

Returner with Takeshi Kaneshiro and Anne Suzuki. Pretty much your standard sci-fi movie complete with aliens and time travel, but with some notably cool action scenes. I remember seeing a trailer for this at the Loft a few years back and based solely on some scenes with transforming airplanes I was determined to watch it. I was a little disappointed by the plot, but such things are to be expected with foreign films. Why do the aliens have to be so damn unreasonable? One thing I thought was pretty funny is in the future "flashbacks" there are a lot of Americans. Their lines are so horrible and over the top I'm not sure if it's cuz the actors are so bad they couldn't find work in any English speaking country or if the lines were written in Japanese and translated directly into English. Or both. Lastly, the villain was pretty good too. That is, he's one of those really despicable characters, not just the "I'm a bad guy because the script says I am" types. His mannerisms are quite similar to a bad guy character in another Japanese movie Versus. I wonder if the bug-eyed, tongue flicking psycho is an archetypical Japanese character.

In a remarkable instance of serendipity, my schedule has changed enough to dramatically increase my fun time. It turns out one of the classes I took in Uppsala counts as a GenEd credit here, meaning I can drop one of the ones I'm taking now. I could either drop my first class of the day and sleep in or drop the last one and go home early. I chose the latter, Chinese Civ, since it's boring (but really interesting) and dropping it means I can go to work an hour earlier and work 8 hours every shift. Now I work Monday, Wednesday, Friday and get off work right before the dreaded closing shift. That means I can go to the dojo Tuesdays and Thursdays, just like old times plus have Saturday free for sparring. And in a remarkable coincidence, my high school drama teacher is directing a play at the U of A and an opening for a part appeared. The rehearsal times happen to match my new schedule *exactly*. There's a Swedish word for windfall, but I can't remember what it was. That's how I would best describe this series of developments. Anyway, "Southern Fried Murder", on October 20th, will mark my triumphant return to the stage!

Speaking of Swedish (yeah that's gonna keep popping up. What can I say? It's still fresh in my mind.) the customers at Beyond Bread, interestingly it's often the crabby ones, will ask for wheat bread but always put too much air into the 'wh' producing the Swedish word for 'shit'. It gets me every time, and with some customers I really wish I could give them what they asked for.

And also, after a bit of a break, I now have new Flickr pics.

I think only now am I really getting the reverse culture shock I kept bracing myself for after returning from Sweden. It's not just missing things that made life fun, like the nations (I would kill for a night at the nations, even V-Dala club nights) it's seeing things that are odd in comparison and being reminded of little quirks.
One of the things I think is really bizarre is that when I was at the U of A freshman year, I noticed there were some foreigners, mostly Asian and a few from Africa, but for the most part it was hard to find someone who wasn't American. When I went to Uppsala I was amazed by how many exchange students there were. I'm aware that as an exchange student I was in classes with other foreigners or was in other activities designed with exchange students in mind, but even putting all that aside there still seemed to be more international students than at the U of A. Now I'm back and it seems like while I was gone the number of international students increased tremendously. I'm not sure if I just wasn't actively looking before or if I'm just in the right type of classes; maybe the Theater department wasn't the most popular venue for foreigners.
Another thing I noticed while I was in Uppsala, while there were plenty of exchange students and a fair number of immigrants, the general appearance of the population was pretty homogeneous. Even fashions and hairstyles were pretty uniform, I remember being rather disenchanted with that discovery. But at the U of A there's a paradox; I see the rich ethnic diversity, blending of different peoples, countless subcultures, people of all shapes and sizes. Then I see the sorority girls, all with bug-eye sunglasses, bleach blonde hair, fake tans, and shorts with their sorority written on the ass. They're everywhere and they're all exactly the same. Even their speech and mannerisms are identical; it kinda creeped me out that it seems I see one of the sorority girls I met in Uppsala everywhere here.
I also got in touch with a couple of exchange students from Uppsala that are at the U of A. It's really fun and surreal to be able to talk about Uppsala with someone while they're in Tucson. It's funny, I asked them why they came here of all places and they said it was to get away from the cold. They couldn't imagine why I would leave Tucson to seek out icy weather in Sweden. I also can keep up my Swedish by talking to them; it's embarrassing that I've already started to forget simple words. On the other hand, as a habit for familiarizing myself with the language I would insert Swedish words or phrases in an English conversation with a Swede. I had to wean myself off that habit when I got back to the US since no one would know what the hell I was talking about. But since I met the Swedes it's been popping up every now and then. The other day at work I didn't hear what someone said and instead of saying "What?" I said, "Vad sade du?"

And not really anything new, but I think it's interesting that the English words 'ken', 'canny', 'know' and the Swedish 'känna' are all from the same Germanic word. I was kind of disappointed to not find a link between 'sense' and 'känna' though; they sound similar enough and they do have overlapping meanings.

Blogger ate my draft of this post. I'm very displeased.
Lately I've realized that there's a strange, fine line that seems to separate not being stubborn and bending to other people's views. Surely, allowing one's opinions to be influenced by others is not bad in itself, after all change is a good thing at times. The trick is when to let other people’s ideas affect your own judgment; maybe they’ve figured out something you haven't. Maybe not.
At the same time I also realized that what we believe makes us who we are and changing our way of thinking is essentially making us a slightly different person. Now, yes, every moment of every day we receive new information that alters us slightly making it impossible to have a static "you". It's like the adage of not being able to walk through the same river twice, but I'm driving more at altering the actual path of the river, not just the water flowing in it. So not only are you making a difficult decision when changing your mind on something you always took as an absolute, you’re also in effect actively changing who you are. You might also be concerned about what the new you will be like and if you want to be that new person. Now of course once you are that person all your behaviors and opinions will sound good to you–they’re part of what makes you who you are–but before you become that person, those same traits might actually seem negative.
On a related note, has anyone ever had a series of classes that seemed to address issues in your life with a timing that makes it almost seem like it was planned? It's really helpful, but kinda eerie.

And finally, I think it’s funny that last week while I was having a crummy time, I actually looked forward to going to work to get my mind off my day. Now I’m doing better and so work sucks again.

I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to write stuff in my blog and once I do have time I can't remember it all. Like I said earlier, I don't think I'll be having much of a social life this semester. I work 4 days a week with only enough time between class and work to get ready to start working. But I'll have money. I don't know if I'm going to make many new friends this year anyway, GenEd classes are pretty bad environments for meeting new people, especially if you have no time to talk to them outside of class. Well, we'll see how it goes.

I was thinking about something the other day in my psychology class: racial scapegoating is obviously a sign of unjustified fear and ignorance, and we can condemn it because it's clear to us that the allegations against whatever group being persecuted are false. They're really not conspiring against us or contaminating our society or any of the gibberish bigots try to get us to believe. But what if there actually was a group of people that, by their very nature and not necessarily out of malicious intent, was a threat to our society or our very existence? Would racism be excused then? There's no real life example, of course, but one of the things that got me thinking was a recent episode of Stargate: Atlantis. A Wraith, the main enemy on the show, asks one of the characters if he blames his species for feeding on humans. The only form of nourishment the Wraith can consume is humans, so can the Wraith be blamed for feeding on humans if the alternative is starving to death? And what is the logical conclusion of the Atlantis team's ultimate goal of defeating the Wraith? They can't simply beat them back to a single world and have them just eat the humans there; they want to liberate everyone in the galaxy from the Wraith. So does that mean eliminate the Wraith entirely? Since they mention abiding by the Geneva Convention when dealing with captured Wraith I'm guessing they're not going to adopt a policy of genocide. But the only alternative is letting all the Wraith slowly starve to death, which is ultimately a slower, indirect genocide.
Another example is from a game called Master of Orion 3 where one of the races, the Ithkul, is actually a sentient biological weapon that was designed to fight all the other races in the galaxy. When one conquers a planet the inhabitants then become members of that empire and can actually migrate in small numbers to other planets within the empire, or randomly create their own colonies loyal to the empire that conquered them, not their actual race. The alternative, of course, is to just destroy all life on the planet and recolonize it. I opt for conquering, both because it's a developed infrastructure I'm taking over but also cuz I tend to follow my own real life moral code when playing games and it just seems wrong to exterminate a planet. My only exception is the Ithkul, because if you leave the inhabitants alive when you conquer their planets the computer will treat the population of every planet equally (as a good empire-wide intelligence should) and allow them to migrate to your other planets. Once there, they start to eat the rest of the population. You see the problem, so would genocide be justified in this case?

Sci-fi though it may be, I think they're interesting ethical questions. All this can also be related back to my post on 9/20/05. Remember even if I were content to stop from wiping out the Ithkul entirely, or in the case of the Atlantis expedition the Wraith, genocide is the extermination of a race "in whole or in part". So they're still stuck in the same moral quandry.

The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder. The same author as one of my favorite books, Sophie's World, I was figuring this would be of similar caliber. Unfortunately, it's of far too similar caliber. I can't object to the story or the writing style or anything within the book itself, but it's incredibly similar to Sophie's World in plot, plot devices, characters and I think some of the names are the same too. This book was written before Sophie's World, so I suspect Gaarder just gathered up the best parts of all his previous stories and merged them into that book. I was a little bugged by the rather limp dialog between the two main characters but I suppose it fits the whole philosopher-apprentice theme that the author was going for.
I remember a review of Sophie's World calling it "the Alice in Wonderland for the 90's" but that title really lends itself more to The Solitaire Mystery, one aspect of which you could guess right from the name of the book.

Now, I know it's only the first week and my classes are almost exclusively lecture halls, but I miss how my classes were Uppsala. Everyone was so friendly there and willing to talk to strangers, now it's back to aloof, exclusive cliques. I have to admit, there is a certain irony to the idea that more people in a class makes it harder to talk to people. The classes themselves are nice; I think my NATS class is shaping up to be my favorite. Aside from the obviously interesting subject matter (astronomy, space, the Universe) the teacher is quite fun. He bears a resemblance both physically and personality-wise to my favorite character in Stargate: Atlantis, Dr. McKay. He also makes references to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, so instant awesome right there.
My professor for Structure of Mind and Behavior claimed she would implant a false memory in the entire class sometime during the semester. That's slightly unsettling. What if she already has? What if it turns out I was never even in that class?

I made a saddening discovery at work yesterday. I now have a job to make money to fund activities in my social life, but I no longer really have time for a social life. Damn. Well, at least I'll be richer and have free food.

And by the time I post this, Feifei will probably be in a plane over Asia on her way to Beijing. She was telling me the other day about her uncertainty of whether or not this was a good idea to study there. Or rather, if it would be an enjoyable, worthwhile trip. She mentioned a friend who went to study in Australia for a year with the same zeal and enthusiasm I had for going to Sweden, then went there and hated it so much she left after the first semester. And I recalled a few people I had met in my travels who were quite underwhelmed with their decision to study abroad. And I realized how incredibly fortunate I was to have had such an amazing experience in Uppsala. I went there with high expectations and an unshakable feeling that this would be an experience of a lifetime, and I got just that. But, of course, not everyone will. So here's hoping that Beijing University is everything to Feifei that Uppsala University was to me. 福气 菲菲!

First day of classes today. I wasn't sure how this would be, if my time in Sweden might have changed my outlook on college life for the better. I had been more excited during my first day of classes there and wasn't sure if the lack of enthusiasm before was because I was a freshman or because it was someplace new and exciting. Turns out it's the latter. It's really a stunning contrast. The past year, including the last couple of months in Arizona, have been like a fantasy. And now the fantasy is over.
I miss so much about Uppsala all of a sudden. Like the fact that all the bikes have built in locks, the fact that I lived uphill from all of my classes so I hardly had to pedal at all. My Swedish bike also had a cover over the gears so your pants wouldn't snag in them, I am now certain that will be the death of me.
It's weird being able to walk around and catch snippets of conversation and understand them all. Or how I see people that look like people I met in Sweden except now they're sorority girls or frat boys. It's like some evil parallel universe. On the plus side, my classes are mostly in the mornings so they're over and done with right away. (God, you'd never think evening classes would be desirable, would you?) I also found out Mountain slopes downhill slightly on the way back home, so I get a bit of a break once it's time to go home.

In other news, I'm going to be working at Beyond Bread on Wednesday. And for the first time in my life (hopefully not the last) I had to turn down a job offer (from Kohl's). Beyond Bread was so eager to hire me I really wish I knew what it was I said or did that made it work. They called me in for an interview literally within ten minutes of me turning in my application. We'll see how this job goes...

And finally, I went back to Sabino today to say hi to my old drama teacher and catch up on old times. He brought me up to pace with what's going on in the lives of the old drama crew and am glad to hear that so many of them are successful with their lives and living their dreams. I'm also glad to see that my teacher is doing well and that he's settled into the role of being a dad nicely.
The best news he told me though is that my senior year English teacher, whom I hated like I have never hated any teacher before, is gone. The best part is that she evidently (this is what he told me, anyway) left because she is a big fan of vampire culture and moved to find people more like her. Where that might be, I have no idea. Transylvania? Now, in a way this is surprising and in another way, it's not surprising at all. For someone who tended to look down upon the different ways students expressed themselves or what they believed in, this is a shock. But considering I always felt like my life force was getting sucked out whenever I was in that class, this doesn't strike me as odd in the least. I was very pleased to hear this news to say the least. If I could take this perfect blend of irony and aptness (is there an antonym for irony?) and make a candy out of it I would put Willy Wonka himself to shame.

Nightwatch with Konstantin Khabensky and Mariya Poroshina. A Russian equivilant of Constantine or Underworld. I'm beginning to see why American movies are so popular around the world. This movie was definitely trying to be like Hollywood but it comes off as a grotesque imitation or perhaps a parody. The special effects were good but overdone and the camera angles really started to bother me after the first half hour. The plot was rather straightforward though they really throw in some weird convoluded info that just muddles it all up. You have to just remember the first thing they tell you and ignore everything else that will inevitably contradict it. It seemed like they had two seperate plots that had nothing to do with one another but were individually too weak to make a movie on their own. The one refreshing thing about this movie is, sorry for the spoiler, the bad guys win.

Words of the Day: eperopolis- a city covering a continent
Ecumenopolis- a city covering an entire planet (i.e. Coruscant from Star Wars)

Pulse with Haruhiko Katô and Koyuki. This is the original Japanese version and not the American remake. This film is definitely one of those perplexing, sit back and think about it kind of films. It really wasn't as scary as we had figured, at least not in the things jumping out at you and blood and gore kind of way. It's one of those subtle and creepy scary movies.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Now, one thing I do know for certain regarding this movie is that the Japanese must have a terrible fear of being alone, this is evidenced by this film and also Suicide Club. The thing is this loneliness they are so afraid of is one of those quasi-literal things. In the movie they keep saying how alone they are despite the fact that they do have people around them. But there are no extras, there are just the main characters. With that in mind I figured they meant they were alone in that no one understood them or cared about them since the people didn't seem to really bond with each other and were more linked through a mutual fear. So there's that part, but then is seems that the ghosts, who were overflowing from the realm of the dead (why our Universe is infinite but theirs is very finite is beyond me, but whatever) compel people to kill themselves by making them think they are not alone but by suicide the people doom themselves to be alone forever.
But why do they do that? They (kind of) claimed they wanted to trap other people in their own loneliness and the goal there seems to be that keeps the newly dead from coming into the already overcrowded realm of the dead and that it's a matter of self preservation (I think?). But the guy that died in the beginning ends up compelling his friends to kill themselves, it seemed like he was tricked into the same kind of thing he ended up tricking the others into, so he wasn't going to that realm of the dead anyway. So why did he do that? I don't think that was his motive and I'm guessing there was something greater to this than just: once you die you become a ghost, ghosts are evil, the end.
The only thing I can think of is that the ghosts can only be not alone when they're in their realm, so the ones on Earth are forever alone, they can't see or interact with other ghosts (I don't think) so they think they're the only ones. The ghosts then try to bring the living into their own microcosm, which of course doesn't work and only begets more lonely ghosts. This process continues over and over again until at the end of the movie there's no one left in the world.

Clerks 2 with Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson. Aside from a few superfluous scenes, I liked this movie. It adequately carries on the spirit of the original, though, as Kevin Smith tends to do, there is a moral to the story. In that regard it's not as carefree as the original, but it doesn't bog down the movie. It was also kind of odd seeing the Clerks cast aged 10 years and back in the same roles. Also, I would have liked an explanation as to why Randal hates the Transformers so much.

Hostel with Jay Hernandez and Derek Richardson. This movie seemed like Eurotrip from an evil parallel universe. The similarities are uncanny: American college students going to Europe looking for sex, jokes about money belts, the uptight guy getting groped by a creepy guy on a train, ending up in Slovakia and so on. Hell, you could say Cooper’s mix up at Club Vandersexxx is an analogous, albeit lighthearted, version of the main story of this movie. As for this movie, you can pretty easily see it’s a Tarantino flick, what with it’s gruesome violence, endless gore and the obligatory stuttering psychopath. I, for one, am glad I saw this movie after having traveled to Eastern Europe by myself otherwise I might not have been so keen on it.
Which reminds me, while I was in Uppsala I had dinner with some Lithuanian friends of mine and we compared notes on Vilnius. Evidently this one park I walked through several times alone in the middle of the night is a spot where people often get mugged. It was right next to the big building that held the death metal concert I went to. I figure the people saw me come out of there and figured a Lithuanian metalhead is not someone you want to trifle with. Oh, and in Moscow some guy kept trying to get us to follow him behind the club we were waiting to get into. We thought he wanted our money or our organs but after seeing Hostel that opens up a whole new range of possibilities.

Sweden is still with me. I still occasionally read words on signs and pronounce them in my head the Swedish way. Or translate English words or names that have the same spelling as Swedish words; like Eller college, BARA or Hummer (it's the Swedish word for lobster). And now that I no longer have anyone foreign to act as a foil, the US seems really weird all of a sudden. I went to the grocery store and by the jelly section was at first delighted to see an orange colored jelly and immediately thought "hjortron sylt!" (I didn't even think "cloudberry jam") but was disappointed to find out it was just peach. Amazingly, I wanted to buy some cloudberry jam even though I hardly ever ate the stuff myself. I recommend you try some if you are ever in the position to do so. It's unique. a very blunt, sweet taste that at first reminded me of apricots but now seems like quince. As a jam, I found cloudberries didn't really go well with many things. As a cider though, mm-mmm!
Oh, hjortron cider reminds me of good ol' Swedish Midsummer.

Some pretty cool music videos (via Stephanie)

Well it's been a good month since my last post. Lots of fun stuff in that month too, I don't even know where to begin. It really was just an extension of the awesomeness in Sweden, due in no small part to the awesomeness I brought back from Sweden: the lovely Feifei. Seeing American culture after being gone for a year is weird enough, but seeing it through the eyes of someone who has never been to the US is just unreal. Endless tiny oddities that we take as mundane suddenly become magical. Like why there's Chinese written on street signs (PED XING) or what exotic fruit fresh squeezed "oy" (O.J.) comes from.
Meteor Crater and the Painted Desert were both beautiful and impressive but paled in comparison to the Grand Canyon. Feifei was absolutely blown away while I was duly impressed and rather astonished that something I saw years ago actually seems bigger upon revisiting it.
The Comicon in San Diego was pretty damn cool. We saw people dressed up as pretty much anything you could imagine: from storm troopers to Klingons, Xena to Dick Tracy. Of course, it's also the perfect opportunity for girls to show off their thigh high black vinyl boots and matching corsets and not be considered oddly dressed. Navigating through the crowd of people was quite difficult, partly because we often became separated when one of us suddenly saw something interesting and veered off without telling the other person and also because it's hard to make your way through thousands of people doing the exact same thing.
I'm now Frank's roommate at his new house, which is awesome. It's strange that even while I have to find a job, return to the U of A, declare my minor and do more and more grown up, responsible things, the adventures of this past month have made me feel like a kid again.

And I have a month's worth of pictures from my travels.