More Focus?

Here I am, at the toy shop, after having just completed some computer inventory whatnots and whozits. Just wanted to post real quick about the Circus Arts blog I created yesterday. It has to be passed by the other members of the group, but I'm hoping we can eventually start blogging about our individual as well as group experiences.

As far as everything else goes, I shoveled my driveway yesterday while listening to Clive Barker's novel, Mr. B Gone, on my ipod with the audiobook function. I highly recommend this story. Whether or not you like to read, it's a good book, or audio track :-)

Warning: This book is dark.

Its an autobiography of a lesser demon from the 9th circle. Simultaneously hilarious and grotesque, Mr. B Gone was something I picked up last year at Barnes and Noble. I didn't purchase it, but had read it in a handful of hours while my boyfriend was shopping around. I'm very glad that I now have it with a greater degree of permanence. Barker's ability to make the main character, Jakabok Botch, sympathetic, is fantastic. While terrible things are occuring throughout the novel, you can understand Jakabok's mindset, if not sympathize with it. I'm currently at the beginning of disc 3 out of 6. In audiobook its a 6.5 hour performance. Great for long car rides or tedious chores that require little brain function.

Maybe that's what I'll do from now on. I'll give this blog a little more focus by reviewing books and movies and the like...

Mr. B Gone by Clive Barker, great for that little Macabre lover in all of us

In Reference to My Future Honors Thesis

In early December I had a meeting with the director of my department at college. My only homework assignment during this winter break is do chose 3 aspects of the material world which interest me in regards to medieval life. One of these three will ultimately become the focus of my senior honors thesis. The director actually got quite excited when I discussed my optimal future plans.

I want to make history more exciting to the general public. I love history and the way that it is presented is key to capturing interest. I recently went to the Natural History Museum in NYC. Even though I was anticipating this museum trip, I found myself getting lulled to sleep by the warm circulated air and the somewhat musty "museum" smell. If a person who is honestly looking forward to a museum visit is having a hard time keeping their eyes open, how is a non-interested student supposed to get caught up in the actual history?

I love public speaking and I'm not sure exactly how yet, but I want to make a difference in the way medieval history is shown to the public. In my opinion, history is strongly dependent upon it's presentation.

When I discussed that with my director, she decided to make my honors thesis divided into a paper and a mini-exhibit. I would hopefully be able to get into some area museum storage and have a few pieces transferred to my college. There I could work directly with a museum and some artifacts. Then I could present my paper alongside visual aids.

The Problem:

My library at home is abysmal. Every book I wanted to take out is out of circulation in their back room. As of right now I am interested in pagan religious articles, the symbolism behind heraldry (and any over-arching symbolism), and medieval medicines/herbs/tools of the apothecary/barber trade. I'm also interested in medieval performance arts such as buskers at street fairs, or holiday mummers.

In other words:

ARGH!

Thursday Night!

I had my first true downtown experience yesterday evening/early this morning. For those of you in my area, Chippewa St. is "the place" to go on pretty much any given night. My friend Kristen, along with her boyfriend Chris, invited me to accompany them. We spent the evening at Level, which I have linked below. It was clean, music was good, the bouncers were prevalent but not a pain. It's a great place to just have a good time.

Fun times were had by all

I miss high school for very few reasons. One of which being the school dances. You get to dress pretty and dance to techno. Now that I know how much fun that can be had at a real dance club, I really am apt to go out more often. I only had one drink at the very beginning of the evening, and I didn't need one to have fun.

Two weeks remain until spring semester begins!

SURPRISE!

My sister and my best friend from high school arranged a surprise birthday party for me after work on Friday. Although less than half of the invited people showed, it was really great fun. My sister paid for the food and kept it on the sly.

There was Rockband II and lots of girl talk, which was rather unfortunate for the two boys in attendance.

I'm here at the toy shop again and given the amount of wind and apparent flooding in the area, I figure today will be kind of slow. Tuesday is my travel day, 8+ hours on a bus all the way to NYC. At least there won't be any bus exchanges. I'm going to hopefully get to the station early and claim my seat.

For some reason the CD player isn't working at the store so I may just have to break out into song myself.

Much like last time, it is to be a long empty-ish day so I may post again with tidbits of all-important knowledge.

Some Blog-worthy Things. . .

My extended family is expanding by leaps and bounds. All the cousins are now getting married and having families of there own. As described in the last post, holidays are formulaic. This holiday the "adults" broke off and had a conversation about what to do now that families are growing and the "adults" are now becoming grandparents. The "kids" or better described as "the people getting married and having children" had a meeting of their own, discussing what is to be done. The young families are opting to attempt a bi-annual reunion rather than the hectic Christmases where they have to choose between family and in-laws. My father, and his sisters, on the other hand, who really have no say in the situation, were going to have their back-room discussion. When they came back out and we said we feel like Christmas should be done differently my dad got all up in arms about it. As my mother says, "to your father, 'change' is a four-letter word."

If my father has a hard time dealing with the extended family changing the way they do things, I can't WAIT to see how he is going to handle the next few years when it comes to me. I have to go to grad school. I don't plan on living at home after college. I don't plan on living near home either. These will be some rather fantastic hurdles for my father to overcome. Not to mention my continuing relationship with Edwin. Daddy's little girl is going to be somewhat of a headache for him. I love my father, don't get me wrong. It just can be so incredibly frustrating sometimes.

Considering I'm here 'til 4pm, I'm sure I will post again with some interesting links or something :-)