Just a check in here to give shouts all around.
I haven't been in the mood to write much lately and that is just fine.
However, I didn't want you to think I'd forgotten about you.
I'm sure this weblog will get more use when I'm confined to the splendour of Wrangell.
Just watched Bend it Like Beckham and it was a laugh. Good, clean fun. Just because a girl dresses in track suits doesn't make her a lesbian!
okay-- everybody snuggle tight--
check in completed
Well, here I am, testing my blog. Sounds slightly bathrooom-humoury. Can't seem to keep my mind on task, no matter what I'm trying to undertake. Don't know what else to write...mind going numb...
test
Everything I face, never ends. And in the end, in any case, I'm glad to have been. This has been an adventure, this has been a challenge, this has been intense, in every sense, and I'm glad to have been. In all these places, I retrace this. All these spaces where change and trust and discomfort have been. surpassed. and I'm glad to have been in stages of stasis, at last.
-Ni bula!
-io bula.
-O Ni lai vei?
-Au se lako mada Fiji!
That was Fijian for, "Hi!, Hi., Where are you going?, I'm going to Fiji." Luckily for me, In Fiji, the official language is English, though they do speak their native language. Most of the people in the islands program are going to English-speaking islands. I was just thinking how lucky we are that our English-speaking ancestors colonized what they did, in order to make it so easy for us to go there and communicate with our native tongue. (This might sound like an arrogant statement, but I just wanted to bluntly state my thought)
just got done with class for the week. we just had a lecture about interviewing techniques. what i got out of it was the key is to listen and observe and when done, it is not about what you learned and reactions, it is about linking it to the person's culture and trying to fing his/her standpoint. i am finally done with my webpage. if you didn't just come from there and just stumbled here accidently, you can view it at: http://academic.evergreen.edu/s/speari26 . this past week i have been making things like crazy such as a handbag and a long skirt and binding a journal to take with me to my island. i also dewussified and finally got my hepatitus A and B shots which i have postponed for about seven years now. well, it has been a very productive week and a wekk of not accomplishing much at the same time. by the way, "hi" to all my family and friends who are reading this and thanx for visiting my webpage. have great days everyone.
So here i go, writing my first blog entry. feels a bit different than i expected. less excitement, more html. oh well, at least i don't have to make a new webpage. well.... ok, so i enjoyed that. but i don't know exactly how to start one of these things.
Dorothy suggested in seminar to make a list of the things that i need to do, so i can see what they are and get more accomplished. i've done that in the past, and it does really help get the momentum moving because it makes you feel like you've accomplished alot whenever you cross off that item on your list. hell, it kinda makes a shopping list snowball into a real successful day.
so, i guess that i should probably start by figuring out what exactly i want to do with this BLOG thing, this marvel of modern technology. i mean, it's not one of those flying skateboards from back 2 the future:2 (which, by the way i am still totally waiting for, and was sorely dissappointed by the ginger/segway joke/debacle because of) but it still is pretty cool. i had only planned on using it to communicate with my geogroup, but after seeing Jeremy's and Walter's blogs, i guess i could use it as good resource. even though i've grown up with computers, i am still pretty old-school when it comes to journals. when i backpacked around brittain and spain i relied soley on pen and paper. oh well, the longer you live, the more you find out what works best for you. far be it from me to dismiss something before giving it a fair shot.
signing off,
-randy
From our reading this week (K.R. Howe's Nature, Culture and History, the Knowing of Oceania) I find the term, "gone troppo" which is definitely not a compliment in that it is used disparagingly to describe "white men" in the tropics who have gone "morally and physically astray." But hey, why not be "gone troppo" without the cruelty and depravity. Gone from care, from driving rain, from meetings, and schedules.
Of the many other interesting concepts in this book was the discussion of Tahiti as a possible location for an earthly paradise. He says, "since paradise was not there, it was nowhere on earth. Thus was paradise lost." A number of us (especially folks going to the Pacific) are thinking about the concept of paradise.
It's a complicated conceptual idea but one that is fascinating in light of Pacific Island histories.
I've been reading two works on South Pacific culture and mindset: Howe's _Nature Culture and History: The "Knowing" of Oceania_ and Levy's _Tahitians: Mind and Experience in the Society Islands_. Each one presents a window into Tahitian culture, and a way of thinking about it. Each one also is careful to point out that one cannot, finally, "know" Tahitian culture, or any other.
At the same time, I'm reading Wragge's _The Romance of the South Seas_, (pub 1906), an account of the Australian Astronomer's trip to New Caledonia and Tahiti--boy does he think he can understand a culture by observing for 2 months! It's a good message for me, I think, because he is so enthusiastic and loves every minute and surely isn't getting much.
At the same time (I guess it's the third hand) I'm poring over guidebooks, getting ready to take off. Now that the elusive visa has arrived, we really are ready to go.
well I can't sleep...
From the book I read last week for the multi-vantage point seminar-
"The San Juans have always seemed to have a special way of capturing a man's heart, turning his soul inside out, and handing him a whole new suit of values..."
"Newcomers feel it, too. Often all it takes is to feel the throb of the ferry engines, as you pull away from the dock at Anacortes, to start your nerves unwinding. By the time you've crossed Rosario Strait to Thatcher Pass, and you get your first close look at tree-lined, rock-bound shores rising steeply from peaceful blue waters, your tensions are gone and your blood pressure is down where it ought to be."
Right now Im hoping that the above is true.
There were a lot of activities occurring in the Aleutians during 1942. Japanese did land on Adak. They invaded Kiska and Attu and bombarded Dutch Harbor. Not to say that they were many people out there. That same year the U.S. created the Naval Air Station on Adak. The Japanese tried to attack the base but it didn?t exactly work. This is some of what I have read today.
Howdy--
I had a bit of a conscience struggle over words that I had put into my previous entry. I experience paranoia sometimes quite severely; often mildly. I was afraid my impressions of that place could be searched on the internet and someone would come pounding on my door to kick my ass. Well, I wiggled a couple of words and put it back up, because I like it. I read it for my cool geogroup and they liked it too. Whatever. As Madonna says, "Nothing really matters, love is all you need. Everything I give you, all comes back to me."
and with that, I say I love you.
bye bye
Ok, so most of the framework is up for my personal website. I'm excited about this. I'm a bit sad about these web blogs. I can't figure out how to respond to comments and such. Nor do I have a user icon for easy identification. I really like my livejournal. Since inserting a url tag basically just inserts a hyperlink (a href= tag) I wonder if html code works in these things like it does there. Let me try... hmmm...
The server I've had my weblog installed on appears to be missing the Perl Image module needed to upload and imbead images into posts, until I figure out how to install this module in my home directory on my own server and more importantly figure out how to syndicate that site here using it's rss feed I will continue to use this weblog. I may however move it to a different directory on Grace, so in the future look for it at
http://grace.evergreen.edu/islands/noble/weblog/
Roving documentation:
Catch good light @ end of afternoon just before sunset & dark. Tramped down by the Ol'ympia brewery, found Tumwater Falls park closed in honour of Dr. King. Funny, you'd think he'd want the park open, hmmm. Let's clomp up the street and go over there, maybe we can get up on that ridge behind that big field. Oh, the road is gated off, so we have to go this way. What's down here? Why are all these cars constantly heading down this drive? So many FATBAGS, (you remember what those are, as in FATBAG FORD, or here's my new DODGE FATBAG. Can also be used as a verb, as in "quit fatbagging me, beyotch!" Can also mean garishly obese vehicle sucking up way too many resources meant to instill sham security sense of identity accomplishment or family need: FATBAG). Up ahead, a sign...Tumwater Valley Municipal Golf Course. Oh, and on the left, the much heralded golf course, complete with 3rd marriage herpes cantina. How nice. In the middle is the edge of a huge parking lot choked with fatbags and other forms of intelligent teleportation. At first I thought maybe it was a high school, what with all the FAT SUV's idling in the parking lot with requisite power mom plotting on the GET MORE mobile while mommy's little girl gets conditioned. Nope, it's the Tumwater Valley Workout Center Leave your SUV idling at the sidewalk Okay, now I know one thing that's so unsettling: The valley seems infinitely larger than this dingy little scrap of asphalt and elliptical trainers. Ten million assholes on the head of a pin, scratch the surface and you still can't get in. Maybe if we walk through the golf course we can find a way to get up on that ridge. No deal. The train tracks cut off that escape. The light is failing and the land seems suspended, somehow choked around the edges with blackberry hacksaws and that strange green licheny moss that grows slick on the pavement when the earth quietly weeps from below. This little suburban embankment feels all wrong somehow. Tumwater valley seems a bit like the Nisqually flats, but with pavement and nine holes of putting and lots of places to park. Feels wrong. Can't really say how yet any clearer than this. Took a bunch of photos. My camera is an old one and I don't even know if I'm using it correctly. It's an underwater camera. I feel underwater, so maybe that's ok. signing out. 5:35pm
So much to do. Must step outside this construct in my mind of the plan of the things which I will do on my trip: usable 35mm slides, good audio recordings of brilliant interviews and soundscapes, along with well composed digital video, reasonably masterful sketches and drawings, as well as many inspired writings, when the need arises and the time occurs, to doing these things in the real world now--hit the ground and limp quickly then run when I can. Must start the documentin' now--ha ha ha, I think Wrangell is so great until I get there. Now I've set myself up good. Ten full weeks being confined within that border of stinky beach and dirty harbor, beautiful beach, magnificent harbor. The water seems gathered all around so high, like tsunami suspended in cedar. Is this mellow bay really a wall to keep me in? Clarence Andrews said of this island in Wrangell and the Gold of the Cassiar: "The dark, gloomy forests, dripping with moisture. The deep, soft cushions of moss that covered the rocks that formed the framework of every knoll and mountain, in between which seeped pools and rivulets of water that oozed out under foot, or into which one sank to the knees as he stepped. The tumbling streams that plunged down from the glaciers between walls of slate or granite into the arms of the sea." None of this traipsing off to a new wonderfully warm place for me. I'm going back to where my story began and poke around a little bit. I already know what I already think I know but I'm excited to find that which I did not expect, because I do know this for certain: The incessent monotony of life on an island like Wrangell is but a shadow-puppet show to lull you into forgetting how it can, and always does, serve up something you didn't expect (or you forgot to remember to remind yourself was coming). So, be on guard, look busy, and for gosh-sakes document!
The Visa saga continues for the Huahine gals.....we called (!) the place on Raiatea to see about a reservation, because they haven't answered our emails. She said sure no problem, and she hadn't received the emails [even though the "tell me if this has been read" notice said she had]. AND she even emailed back with the confirmation.
Now we can send in the visa applications with a place to stay every night. godforbid we should go without such planning! Sal and I are maintaining good humor throughout (so far), and chalking it up to Those French.
That pretty much sums it up--
Here we are out in web space and it feels so real--
Although a little sparse,
it does everything I need,
I can keep in touch
right here online.
yes, it's all happening right here--
Stay tuned.
hola
seeing if this works,
it better work
I've had a weblog system up for a while and would just prefer to use that. This one however will mirror my real logs entrys. To see the real weblog go here:
Yoga is such a great thing. It is the one cleansing act that can ritually purify my demons Ivery day. Without yoga, I am a lost spirit without a guide. Yoga helps release my inhibitions and release my compacted stool. Thank you Elisa, for recommending yoga to me. I will perform a metaphysical Chakra allignment on you as a gift, a sign of respect, and a show of thanks.
Today's extended entry will attempt to assertain and justify yoga and its demon practices.
In the last ten years over 3000 people have been turned into yogart. That is the yoga doers overzealous attempt at elevated breathing, which results in an imploded mess likened to yogurt. More on this later.
Yoga is such a great thing. It is the one cleansing act that can ritually purify my demons Ivery day. Without yoga, I am a lost spirit without a guide. Yoga helps release my inhibitions and release my compacted stool. Thank you Elisa, for recommending yoga to me. I will perform a metaphysical Chakra allignment on you as a gift, a sign of respect, and a show of thanks.
Today's extended entry will attempt to assertain and justify yoga and its demon practices.
In the last ten years over 3000 people have been turned into yogart. That is the yoga doers overzealous attempt at elevated breathing, which results in an imploded mess likened to yogurt. More on this later.
MAGNIFICENT MIGRATIONAL SPECIES
view of the abyss.
Hella Spirtual/ Yes I
Through the use of crystals one can allign the Chakras, discover new will, heal what ails, and perhaps find inner peace. Thats a load of new age hippie crap. That's for Rasta's, dreamers, and nymphos. They can stick a double terminated, rutilated, landscape, healer, elestial, recorder, bridged, rainbow wand up their ass. Just kidding.
p.s. suck my chakra
I lost my wallet three days ago. and this is really too bad. I've lost my wallet alot of time's in my life. The first time i was eight and i left my purple velcro wallet in the bathroom stall at universal studios. There was eighty dollars in it, when you're eight, eighty dollars is equal to roughly a million dollars. and so began my desensitization to the World of the Occasionally Walletless. I've dropped it in the toilet at the Uptown and at Dylan's, have had it taken right out of my pocket on the number 14 bus on Mission Street and have left it at various establishments and curbsides all up and down the west coast. my back pocket is a black hole for wallets. they seldomlast for longer than six months. i have become friends with the washingtom mutal people who answer the phone when you call to cancell the old debit card. last year, i dropped my wallet in front of a stripclub called Crazy Horse, which my boss had taken all of his employees to as a holiday treat, on him. A few days later a got a call from a man in marin county who had found the wallet and he said he would send in the mail right away....it never came.
I've got to call everyone who isn't email accesable this weekend. First I have to aquire a phone card that has a super international rate. I also have to go and buy my tickets, bah! Sooooo much money!!! Will FinAid come thru? I found a Vipassana school in australia offering a session from the 25th of Feb.-7th of Mar. I'm really excited about that!
Here i go again on my own, goin down the only road i ever know. Today i learn, today.
Today we are learning this web stuff and it sucks!
its raining outide and I cant feel it. my skin is dry with the energy of computer charicters...
FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN
This marks the beginning of what promises to be a vibrant and rich source of Teaganisms and adventure tales. I toss out the pen and begin in the computer lab in Olympia Washington, just having learned of this virtual journal. Exactly one month to the day before departure I welcome all mon amis, and family and strangers to the travelouge of Teagan Marie.
here we sit in class learning how to use "blogs" i hope i will learn how to put pictures up because that would be nice.
It's been a trying day here in the TESC Mac lab as dozens of students sweat under the flourescent lights, wrestling with urls and hypertext.
I think that my stubborn thought processes are finally starting to understand the computer. I'm reminded of when I was in Metalwork class and couldn't use the soldering iron, for some reason. Anyway, the screen has stopped flickering, so that's a good sign.
I am interested in the Tao. Life moves too quickly for the lifeforces to be recognized. The Babylonian exile cometh again.
right now i (and the rest of the islands class) are in the mac computing lab learning web design and was just told what this is. i suppose it is like an online journal that anybody can read. i just finished HOCUS POSUS by kurt vonnegut this morning and i don't know what to think yet. the thoughts fom the book need to simmer in my mind. i read it in less than two weeks and that is fast for me so that may say what ver it does. i need to do more class work and follow the directions so by for now. it was nice meeting you.
Today, a day of fact and fiction blinking back and forth to the wild eyes of chance. Anyway you should choose will only effect the path of recognition to that point. Subjugated to death is the lonely soul who attracts no judgement but his own. Dark lies instintcly call out troubled waters brought out by turbulence, sense or absense.
an archeological site on my island of AEGINA 20 miles south of athens.
Driftwood Redemption at
Institute Beach
for
Peg Byford
Year's end,
thick green tide
churns high,
higher still;
in the muddy emerald
water, driftwood lunges:
grey smoke branch
fights pungent log
as if to
get back on
land,
get back on
the island.
Sometimes the
trees across the bay look so close,
and the glassy tides' perfect match above--
perennial late-afternoon sky
rises lazily jubilant,
spectre of night sun
arcs overhead and howls into a
greenhouse untouched
since those last
gigantic November
moons
sucked wholly
our marrow of resolve;
Bleached hollow sticks
slip and clatter in the wave.
Tide so high,
lines now gone,
this road connects every shore.
Evaporation sizzle,
piles of dirty merinque=beach-whipped foam.
The view from your bay window=
happy clouds on the water.
I'm off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of oz...
Hi its me and I have a new blog!