Viridis Quo

to prove that people respond ;)

2008-04-15T04:28:13Z

3 jobs I have had in my life:
1. Elementary school janitor
2. Fabric Store Sales Associate
3. REI Sales Associate

3 places I have lived:
1. Jackson Hole, Wyoming
2. Salt Lake City, Utah
3. Huntington Beach, California

3 TV Shows that I watch:
1. Samurai Champloo
2. Doctor Who (the new one)
3. South Park

3 places I have been:
1. Zagreb, Croatia
2. British Columbia, Canada
3. Liechtenstein

3 People who e-mail me regularly
1. Leslie
2. Ben
3. Byron

3 of my favorite foods:
1. Cheese
2. Soup
3. Bread

3 Places I'd rather be right now:
1. London, England
2. Backpacking anywhere...maybe Moab
3. right here on the couch

3 friends I think will respond:
1. caefus
2. morganya
3. ?

3 Things I am looking forward to this year:
1. Finishing my degree
2. moving
3. starting a new job.

Is that? Is that an entry from Darthabsinthe?

2008-03-02T02:02:23Z

Oh indeedy rare and elusive lj friends, you have stumbled upon my newest live journal entry. It has been a while. Things are going well here in the Fort. I've got a newish job that means that I make more money but have more responsibility. I'm still waiting for official word on the Grand Junction archaeology job. It has been said that I shall have it, but I am still waiting for that news in writing.

The thesis is going slow. I need to spend more time in the lab, but I am feeling a bit burned out. Any inspiration out there, internet, that could help me get through the doldrums of the last semester of grad school? My thesis is on skeletal trauma from an insane asylum! How could I not find that interesting?

Schadenfreude

2007-06-08T21:46:25Z

So on a scale from 1 to 10 how wrong is it that I laughed out loud when I went on cnn.com and saw a picture of Paris Hilton crying because she had to go back to jail for 45 days. No really, I want to know.

Also of noteworthy news: my trailer ran out of propane yesterday. Wouldn't seem so bad except it got below 20 degrees last night and I slept in my down coat and down comforter. It's all full up now. We also had about 4 inches of snow up in North Park. Hard to see things on your tour of the area when they are covered in snow.

Hahahaha...PARIS IS IN JAIL!111!!eleventy!

Initial Impressions

2007-06-06T23:16:26Z

Well, things are going pretty good here in Kremmling, Colorado. At first, I was worried because some parts of the town itself look like they could use some TLC, but the area around here is spectacular. It reminds me a bit of the area around Strawberry Reservoir in Utah--high country with lots of sagebrush over the mountains. Not minutes away you enter into piney forests and the Upper Colorado River. I’d really like to learn to kayak and play on some of the easier parts.

As far as the staff in the office goes, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Some offices have those folks that are pretty resentful and maybe should have retired 5 or so years ago, but not so much here. People are enthusiastic about the resources they work with and while there may be professional differences of opinion, I haven’t noted any poisonous attitudes. My immediate supervisor, Frank, is a real hoot. He’s really quite liberal and open minded and has a wealth of stories from where to pick the best morel mushrooms to cultural resource work in the southwest. I really like him and get along well with him. Folks here seem pretty friendly and want to involve you in the community which is quite a different attitude than say, Vernal, Utah where it’s harder to get into the community if you are not religiously affiliated appropriately.

I live in a motorhome trailer on the northwest side of town and right outside my door (because Frank put me in the best spot) I have a view of the Kremmling cliffs and not 20 feet away is Muddy Creek. There are beavers in the creek and some evenings after work I see them swimming about and hear their splashes as they smack their tails on the water. It’s nice to sit out there after work.

Work has been fine. Mostly I’m working 10 hours each, but that can be trying in the office. I have had one field day and that went well and I GPS a big portion of a hiking trail in a nearby canyon.

OMG! A Post!

2007-05-24T19:36:49Z

I'm not dead, yet! I feel happy!

So, it really has been quite a while since I have updated this thing, but it is not for lack of trying, I'll tell you that. This has been a rather busy year and my busy summer is just about to begin.

Bad News: My older neighbor, yeah, the one that never says “hi” back when I'm nice to him, might have very well have keyed my car the other day because I was parking in a spot where he usually parks. But since we don't have assigned parking spots, I (or rather Adam) thought it would be fair game. When I'm as old as him (say 60ish or so), I hope that I one day end up keying the cars of neighbors that dug me out of the snow during bad snowstorms. That would be awesome. Oh wait, nope, that would indeed show just what a sad asshat I would have become. Of course, we can't prove anything, so we'll just suck it up. Thankfully, the car is 10, so no big deal, if it doesn't rust.

News:
I finished this semester out finally and did well on grades. I'll be graduating next May. It's nice to be done with this semester. Adam will be finishing up his thesis this July which will then place this sentence in the good news column. I also picked up some reading for the summer which includes:

War and Peace – Tolstoy
O Pioneers! - Willa Cather
My Antonia – Willa Cather
Common Sense – Paine
Capital – Karl Marx
Communist Manifesto – Marx and Engels
Discipline and Punish – M. Foucault
Madness and Civilization – M. Foucault
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court – Twain
and other random books as time permits.

Books read so far in summer '07:
Death comes for the Archbishop – Willa Cather
The Worst Hard Time – Timothy Egan

Good News:
I got offered a SCEP (Student trainee) archaeological position with the BLM (Bureau of Land Management – It's like the Forest Service, only no Smokey Bear or trees.) in Kremmling, Colorado (about an hour from Steamboat Springs on US40). It's cool because I'll be making twice what I am at REI and the BLM will pay for my tuition in the Fall and Spring and I'll be getting the full-time federal health, retirement and life insurance benefits, even while I'm in school. I will work for them this summer and then upon graduation will get a permanent job (if I want it) doing archaeology for them. These positions are few and far between, so I'm feeling rather lucky. I will be living in a trailer park, in a new FEMA trailer, reading my books and learning the banjo. Oh yeah, that's right, I said banjo. I'm sure many stories will ensue, and I'll try to be better about sharing all the details of my mundane life with you, right here...so stay tuned!

This job is what I've wanted to do for many years now and I think the break from school will be a good thing. If I go back to get a PhD, it will probably concern homesteads here in Colorado and would involve collecting oral histories and comparing them to the archaeology. Right now though, I just want to start paying off some student loans. Academic life can be a bit vampiric and affected at times...most times.

Summer Reading List!

2006-05-17T04:11:37Z

Hey All, It's finally time for some recreational reading. Can you recommend any great books that you think I should read this summer (maybe tell me the genre or a small synopsis also)? I'm all ears!

So far I'm going to read:

Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury (reread)
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

Look...I totally need much more than this!

The Praire is a High and Lonely Place

2006-05-17T03:59:39Z

A big hola to all my LJ buddies out there! I've finally finished with finals and am willing and waiting to rejoin the world. Grades get posted tomorrow, so I'm a bit apprehensive about that, but will probably do fine. I've started my work as an archaeology technician out here and have spent the last few days out here in the short grass praire. So, plains or the praire is an entirely new ecotone for me and I'm not going to lie, it's a bit monotonous. The topography is few and far between and all trees out there have actually been planted or are along a water feature. Yesterday we surveyed some prairedog towns that were wiped out by the BUBONIC PLAGUE!!! How cool is that?! I secretly hope that I acquire some buboes because that would be really hardcore. I also took a big bite and several licks off of a salt lick... Today we visited some old homesteads that had been abandoned and I found a new favorite artifact: cisterns.

Cisterns are really cool. They are these old inverted bell-shaped cement containers that were used to store water during the early twentieth century. Now they are full of all sorts of fun things like rattlesnakes, old oil drums, cows, water, unknown murk, etc. It would be great full to be lowered into them and do some sort of excavation down there as all cool things are often tossed into cisterns and privies.

The praire is high, lonely and topographically monotonous and brash. It will be interesting to see how my experiences go!

Why do you hate me?!

2006-05-10T07:30:09Z

So, here you go, you get to list my faults right here: http://kevan.org/nohari?name=DarthAbsinthe you know it is going to be fun and cathartic.

Oh, and if you haven't done this one before..you can list my good traits too: http://kevan.org/johari?view=darthabsinthe

Go me!

2006-05-09T06:22:21Z

It doesn't mean anything...it's totally just a logic game. Stupid IQ tests.

A long awaited update.

2006-04-11T03:29:45Z

It's always a pleasure to hop onto livejournal and see the fabulous ongoings that constitute the lives of my friends. It's always like a pleasant surprise unlike myspace which at it's current seconds always sends me an email like "OMG SOMEONE LOOKED AT YOUR PROFILE!" okay, maybe they are more like, "somebody posted a comment or blog" but I feel that the website is constantly seeking my attention in a hungry soul-sucking leech sort of way.

School goes and goes, I definitely need to get on my studying shoes since I've got several papers due soon (one next week and one in the middle of may) but I'm loving it. School's been amusing and I've really liked getting to know the folks here in my anthropology cohort and the craziness that makes up their lives. You'd think that studying people in their multitudes of environments would make you rather non-dramatic in and of itself, it doesn't.

Current dilemmas include: What should I do this summer...this is a big one. I'm considering several options: 1. Stay in Colorado - which pretty much entails me somehow getting a job in addition to my current retail job with a certain outdoorsy company, which I absolutely love and they love me back. Also they offer me full health insurance benefits for part-time non-commissioned work which I feel is the ultimate proof of official business love of an employee. I don't want to risk loosing the perqs of this job, not too mention I'd like to go back to it in the fall. Also in Colorado I would take up Bikram Yoga and also try to find some freetime to hike around with folks like "ljuser=chrissina" and "ljuser=baineasag" and maybe climb a few fourteeners. 2. Go to my beloved po-dunk Vernal and all it's Bumpkin glory. It's full of friends (including one from CSU), good memories, fabulous places, carefree summers and increased pay-checkage. All good things. This is my current dilemma that is most important.

A dilemma more close to home = which flavor of popsicle should I have? Lime or Grape? This will soon be solved.

"ljuser=jojiggapo", Thanks for the update, I need to get off my ass and call you. Do you still have the same number? I do.

Yesterday, Adam and I (after a bit of a tiff) went hiking up a local hill/mountain called Horsetooth. It was nice and I'm not even sore today. We spied some beautiful purple fuzzy flowers that I've decided to call Fuzzywhumpkins...because that name is classic. Someday I'll actually know what they are.

Ca suffice?

Personality DNA

2006-03-08T06:15:23Z

Hey, now you too can medicalize your personality into a type of proxy for your genotype. What will science think of next?

Encouraging Inventor

Complications....

2006-03-03T05:32:44Z

Hey all, I just wanted to start out by saying sorry for my quietness and lack of substance lately on LJ. I've been pretty busy and I am still checking up on you all here.

Things are going fairly well here though at times Adam has some doubts about his program (he doesn't feel that it is relevant for what he wants to do...but what exactly is he doesn't really know). He's definitely getting bored with the lasers though.

My classes are going well and I'm currently working on a manuscript that might be published in a journal sometime soon. That's exciting and new.

I'm currently feeling a bit unfocused right now. I'm not really sure if I want to do bioanth anymore (this might be because I got in a bit of an arguement with one of my bioanth professors tonight in class...I didn't agree that an article was paradigm shifting or all that important...and she felt like I was missing something very important). I'm fairly idealistic and thus always thought that I wanted to change the world. I'm not sure that studying ancient diseases, as interesting as that is, is really the way. I'm definitely still interested in health so I've been recently considering applying for a Fulbright to study in Africa though that task seems daunting and frightening. The experience would look great though and might increase my chances of getting into some real nice schools (UCSF, Berkeley, Emory etc).

Also recently, an archaeologist is trying to convert me into being his graduate student. He's a new prof but full of vigor and interesting ideas and he uses his knowledge of the past (especially past environment) to help inform current environmental policy...so that's pretty much changing the world. While I'm not a huge fan of geoarchaeology, I know that I could do it and even think up some ideas about various projects. I'm a bit concerned about the ramifications of switching advisors...especially since mine is currently on sabbatical....there could be political issues for both me and the new prof. Any suggestions? Experience?

Personality, School and Spring Breaks!

2006-02-11T07:07:38Z

Whoa! Contribute to my interactive personality test. I'm interested in what you think about me...even if you've only had brief interactions. Check it out yo: http://kevan.org/johari?name=darthabsinthe

In other news, I'm currently planning a cool Spring break trip to various parts of Utah Canyon country. It promises to be good times with the usual amount of drama and intrigue that follows a large group of anthropology and mechanical engineering students. Some of you kids should try to come.

School is going well, and I'm certainly enjoying French. I'd forgotten just how much I enjoy languages. Maybe I'll try Chinese or Japanese next! Woot! My other classes are going great, though I keep finding out that I'm interested in many things, almost too many things. It's hard to know what exactly I want to be doing with my life.

I miss all you kids and sorry that I've not been on IM lately, my personal computer either has a dead videocard or motherboard. We're working on getting it fixed. Then I'll be in more communication. Speaking of which, I haven't talked to many of you lately and want to. If you want a call from me, let me know, me hardies!

Blast from the Past: Didn't it suck when you played Oregon Trail and you went hunting and shot like 850 pounds of buffalo meat, but then you could only take like 230 pounds back to your wagon. And cholera, what was with that?

Mostly true

2006-01-14T18:16:49Z

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Darthabsinthe!

Scientists have discovered that darthabsinthe can smell the presence of autism in children.

The word 'samba' means 'to rub darthabsinthe'.

Marie Antoinette never said 'let them eat cake' - this is a mistranslation of 'let them eat darthabsinthe'.

Darthabsinthe is actually a vegetable, not a fruit.

99 percent of the pumpkins sold in the US end up as darthabsinthe.

Tradition allows women to propose to darthabsinthe only during leap years!

Influenza got its name because people believed the disease was caused by the evil "influence" of darthabsinthe!

Owls cannot move their eyes, because their eyeballs are shaped like darthabsinthe!

On average, women blink nearly twice as much as darthabsinthe!

The average duration of sexual intercourse for darthabsinthe is two minutes.

Thanks anthologie!

Socialist? Guess so...these quizzes do know all.

2006-01-12T03:52:55Z

You are a
Social Liberal
(81% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(10% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Socialist

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Woot!

2005-12-16T09:06:07Z

Google the phrase, "[your name] looks like" and post your favorite results:

Here are my favorites...

Alissa looks like we put the dumb in anime fandom!
Alissa looks like aeclectic tarot.
Hahahaha: Alissa looks like the inner world of the fat child!
Alissa looks like a guerilla war.
Alissa looks like another girl at play!

Thanks for the idea bootsuu

Up late working on finals and just thinking about how fabulous the human body is. Check it out...check out your hands and wrists...all those tendons! You are a well built machine. You are gorgeous! Back to geoarchaeology

For all my stressed out college homies!

2005-12-13T04:32:13Z

Stolen from chrissina

Today we salute you: stressed out college student during exam week. As you sit in your lonely cubical in the library, doped up on starbucks and aderol, you think to yourself, am I ever going to need to know this stuff in life? The distractions are tempting and you have suddenly diagnosed yourself with ADD along with advanced delusionary schizophrenia with involuntary narcissistic rage. I'm sure by now you know exactly what everyone is doing because you have checked your buddy list 800 times. Christmas break is just days away, and your prozac prescription will be in tomorrow. So crack open an ice cold Bud Light after that last exam, because for most of us christmas will be spent in rehab.

Norse!

2005-12-10T04:10:02Z

You scored as Freya.

</td>

Freya

80%

Odin

80%

Balder

70%

Bragi

60%

Hel

60%

Njord

60%

Thor

60%

Skadi

60%

Sif

50%

Freyr

50%

Frigg

50%

Tyr

50%

Loki

30%

Heimdall

30%

Which Norse God or Goddess are you most like?
created with QuizFarm.com

Any yoga practitioners out there?

2005-12-03T21:17:03Z

Hello friends,

I'm doing research on yoga and its health effects. Please help if you can (or if you don't do yoga and know some folks who do...maybe direct them here) I would really appreciate it if you took a moment to fill out your feelings for my medical anthropology paper on Hatha yoga. I've already attended a studio to experience it first hand, but would like your opinions also. I'll be using pseudonyms to maintain
anonymity...so answer freely.

Thank you so much!

1. About how long have you been practicing yoga?

2. What type of yoga do you associate your practice with (Power,
Ashtanga, Bikram, Hatha, etc)?

3. Where do you practice?

4. About how often a week do you practice?

5. Why did you start doing yoga?

6. What health (physical, mental, spiritual etc) benefits have you experienced?

7. Have you ever had any negative results from yoga?

8. Have you ever tried Bikram or "hot" yoga? Why or why not?

9. Would you suggest that others try yoga? Why or why not?

10. If you are comfortable doing such have you had any other
experiences you would like to share (such as how yoga has helped you
etc).

Thanks for your time and especially, your help with this project.

Happy Birthday to me!

2005-11-20T02:27:55Z

You Are A Chestnut Tree

You are a born diplomat with a well developed sense of justice.

And even though you're impressive and intimidating, you're also fun to be around.

You can be irritated easily, and you sometimes act superior.

Nevertheless, you are sensitive of others feelings and very loyal.

Sometimes you feel misunderstood and are fiercely close to those who know you best.

What is Your Celtic Horoscope?

I hope you are all doing well. I miss you and getting together with you on my birthday. This is my first birthday without you guys (and that's hard) and cake. Love ya!

Just sayin'

2005-11-14T04:34:27Z

So, today at work, I saw something that bugs me something fierce: a young older teens/earlier twenties girl wearing boots covered with FUR! Who wears fur? Really!?

After this appalling vision I've thought about my feelings about fur and have decided when, to me, it is appropriate to wear fur:

1. When it is part of your national costume--this is fine, I'm all about culture and you celebrating your diverse heritage.
2. When your family relies on game for food and clothing--you've utilized all the animal...good job.
3. When you are a barbarous medieval warlord with hordes at your command--I feel that a nice cape of fur would really complement your chosen career path.
4. You are inuit or another group of people that really need fur for an insulative manner and in this case you'd better live somewhere remote or not have access to other options (unless you're doing an exception #1).

When is it not okay to wear fur? It's not okay to wear fur OUTSIDE your clothing (exceptions being number 3 above) because then it isn't insulated at all is it? It is just an ostentatious display of the fact that you are so vain and anthropocentric that you will actually kill other animals to prove it to your friends. Not cool. Just sayin'.

Dream Avatar

2005-11-12T07:24:06Z

make one here

LOTR

2005-11-11T19:43:49Z

Numenorean

To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla

On Kinship and Snowshoes

2005-11-11T07:09:46Z

Today, I was reminded in my Anthropological Theory class about different kinship structures and I remembered how my parents had some family friends who we always called Aunt N-. and Uncle E-. I always thought they were actually related to me and I remember the day in 6th grade or so when we were making a family tree and I was like, "Wait, now how are they related to my parents?" It was then that I realized that in fact, we weren't related at all. I think that my kids will have a similar experience...in that all of my friends with be Aunt M-, or Aunt N- and Uncle R-, Aunt C-, Uncle D-, Uncle K-, Uncle M-, Uncle B-, Uncle J- and so on. I figure the more "aunts" and "uncles" one can have the better! Besides there are some kinship systems out there that function similarly, and who am I to say that ours is the best?

Also, I'm thinking of getting into snowshoeing this season. I can rent stuff for free, so heck, with the appropriate gear it sounds like a good time!

For your inner cannibal

2005-11-03T07:03:38Z

Some of you got this in email form also. Hurray for anthropology!

Now, the fun of eating human flesh without those nasty taboos!

Yum yum!