¡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.