Travels and Travails

3:37pm: Writing, and Reading? Out Loud?

The 2009 Odyssey Workshop will be reading flash fiction at the Barnes and Noble in Nashua, NH. this Saturday, June 27 at 2:00PM  If you're in the area, do stop by. Each of the 16 of us will read for about 5 minutes only, but it should be fun. I think I'll be reading a short short called
The Indolent Young Man or Where's the Sofa?

Yeah, I'm still working on it. But what do you expect for 1000 words?

12:45pm: Stress

I'm stressing. It's difficult to maintain confidence in the face of various issues. For one thing, the closer it gets to Odyssey time, the more worried I get about my writing. I've been working hard; I've written three science fiction stories in the past few weeks and think they aren't bad, but I know they'll be torn apart in critque. I need that but it's not going to be easy to take, I fear. Plus, I can't seem to break in to the publication realm at the moment and rejections can be depressing even when you know they are more likely than not, particularly in the beginning. I'm not just beginning writing, but I'm certainly a beginner at submitting to professional fiction magazines. It's quite different from the non-fiction I've been doing. In fact, I have a new assignment for a non-fiction piece. It's for DIG, a kids' magazine on archaeology, which should be fun. I've been writing for its sister publication, Calliope, off and on for years.

I went to the City Kitties auction on Friday despite being rather down in the dumps. It didn't help much at first, but thanks to petitbout , it turned out pretty well. If it weren't for her, I'd have had a pretty crappy time. Many thanks, Mary. It's always great to hang out with a good person of such talent and beauty. We even got our picture taken with an instant camera from 1948 (can't remember the name of it but it's essentially an archaic Polaroid) that they'd set up to benefit City Kitties. I think it's a great picture and it made the night worthwhile. Of course, the art was pretty impressive too and I even ended up getting a piece at the end of the night.

1:39am: a good day to wed

Two of the best people in all the world got married today and I was lucky enough to be one of their witnesses. In my cynical world of belief in nothing, they are a beacon of hope and serve as an example that good things can happen to good people. I wish them all the best in all the universes that ever were and ever will be.

Congratulations Kyle and Jennifer!

7:22am: A Great Sunday

I'm starting the spring training for writing teachers today. I'm one of the group leaders, teaching the new teachers how our writing department works. Meanwhile, I've started Facebook despite the fact that I've often questioned just how much we need such things. It has its appeal, much more immediate than LiveJournal. And it managed to remind me of the reading/concert yesterday that I'm very glad I didn't miss.

Carolyn Turgeon read from her first two books, Rain Village and Godmother, as well as from the third she is working on right now. They are filled with vibrant description of lively characters, moving voice, and beautiful story. I'm glad to have met her.

Afterwards, Nicki Jaine played her unique brand of music, an added note of beauty to the afternoon. It was a small gathering of interesting people, the cosy sort of meaningful interaction that I find so much more fulfilling than giant parties or shows. My thanks and appreciation go out to all who were involved.

12:44pm: My Odyssey into the world of Fantastic Fiction begins
As kylecassidy  mentioned on his blog, I was recently accepted into the Odyssey Fantasy Writing Workshop at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. It means that I will not be going to Syria this year, but I'd already warned the crew that I was thinking about using this summer to chase different demons. This field season is to be a relatively small one and I realized that if I was going to do some serious writing, it needed to be this summer. Clarion's deadline had passed by the time I decided this, but Odyssey was still open, so I applied. Now I'll be attending that workshop from June 7 to July 18 and, provided I survive the program, I'll become an OdFellow, joining the ranks of at least one of my longtime friends, labrysinthe. If anyone else has experience with this program or opinions on it, please let me know what you think.

Kyle, trillian_stars  and I had drinks to celebrate (how much more writerly can you get) but the full implications of the program have only just begun to settle in my mind as the gin leaves it and only the headache remains. It's an intense program and some have warned me that the extreme criticism involved can cause some writers to implode rather than grow. But I think these potentially stressful six weeks of writing, reading, analyzing and giving & receiving criticism is exactly what I need. It can potentially build community for me as well.

Luckily I've done exactly what I needed to do in order to prepare for Odyssey. As I filled out the application, I also began my own intense program of reading and analyzing short stories like never before, and I've completed and submitted two short stories within the last month. I'm now directing my fiction much more toward the market rather than writing strange things that aren't really classifiable to genre. I probably won't hear back on those slush pile pieces for a while, but just making the attempt is good for me. I want to try to continue to submit relentlessly throughout this summer.

A friend of a friend, who fancied himself a writer and who had just self-published a book was once flaunting his apparent success. So I told him I'd just finished a book. He looked at me with disdain and said he was glad more people were reading. I wonder if he really thought I was telling him I had finally finished _reading_ a book or if he was just trying to be cleverly biting. Either way, I think he had an inflated opinion of himself. I don't want to turn into that kind of person, I want to find out if I have what it takes to make it in the published fiction realm, though. I need community but I've been so much of a loner that getting that has been almost impossible. There are a few people who read my work, but almost none that are writers themselves. I've joined the PSFS writer's group but getting to and from their meetings is difficult for me and I feel bad about relying on others for a ride (especially people I don't really know).

I don't plan to give up archaeology or teaching. I couldn't do that, I enjoy both too much. In fact, the term just ended on Monday and my students were quite happy with the course, many staying after the class to tell me how much of an impact I had made on them. Things like that can't be replaced, it's rewarding to reach your students and help them grow. But ideally I want to teach part time for a living wage and write in the extra time for supplemental income. I think it would be rewarding to also help people escape in fantastical stories that perhaps move them and influence them in different ways.

Who knows, maybe one day I'll attain that goal. Regardless, I've taken the next step in that journey. That Odyssey.

12:14pm: Blogging
It seems there is a virtual overload of blogging, facebooking, tweeting, and whatever else we call these things today. I see the importance of maintaining a network and even of disussing things with friends, but maybe I don't use these things correctly. Blogging, to me, feels different than talking to friends maybe because it's actually written down. Is that more of an admission of my thoughts, thus making me more culpable for my failures?

Here's my reasoning behind not blogging recently. Yes, I've been busy, but that's mostly a covering excuse. The real thing is that I'm trying something relatively new. Bored with some of the things I've been doing, I want to work more on my fiction writing. It's frivolous, yes, and why do something that is so unlikely to make me any money when I have a good job and even teach writing? It's not exactly creative writing, but we do discuss creative elements in our critical writing. And even if I were to start selling fiction, it would in all likelihood earn me far less than nonfiction writing and certainly less than my Ivy League teaching job.

Nonetheless, I want to write. And maybe I want some validation of the process that I've been doing in reltaive secrecy for 15 years or more. Only recently have I begun to take my fiction seriously, however, and I've begun to create short stories much more quickly and much more directed to a reader market. I have yet to see if any will sell, but I'm taking further steps toward earning that potential 5 cents a word (whereas non-fiction has earned me as much as 1 dollar a word) all because it catches my fancy, holds my interest, and makes me smile to write creative whimsy with an ultimate message.

So what does this have to do with me not blogging? Well, if I say 'I want to get stories published' and then months go by and I don't get any published, isn't that a blatant admission of what a big failure I am? Or is the point of blogging to reach understanding people who will say 'it's OK, keep trying'?

11:07am: Bolting to Boston

 

I spent much of Spring Break in Boston with friends. Perhaps not the warmest, spring-hearkening of places to go on a break most people find destined for sun and fun, but it was a good trip. I took the Bolt Bus to save cash and its internet connection and plugs for my laptop definitely made the trip more enjoyable than a standard bus. Of course, there was no tray/desk to hold my laptop and thus the heat burned into my lap and there wasn’t quite as much room as a train, but these are relatively minor setbacks and I managed to write about 5,000 words on my latest story.

A bit more disconcerting is the shift over on the street in New York City. In other words, you can’t book a bus directly from Philadelphia to Boston, you have to stop in NYC and change buses with hundreds of other people in the street since the Bolt doesn’t drop off in the Port Authority like most buses. Still, it was only a problem coming back because of the timing and a hockey game that had just let out at Madison Square Garden.

 

In Boston we explored writer’s houses and revolutionary war sites. Writers: Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau, War sites: Lexington Common and parts of the circuit of Revere’s ride and the march of the British troops from Boston to Concord in Minute Man park.

 

I enjoyed Emerson and Hawthorne’s house. Its furnishings were largely complete and the scratched writings on the windows from Hawthorne’s time were very interesting. I can’t say I was overly impressed by Walden, however. The paths were fenced off in narrow channels that gave the impression of being herded into a concentration camp more than a nature trail. I suppose the idea of preserving a park for everyone was one of Thoreau’s motive forces, but did he mean it in this strict a way? Yes, erosion is a problem and people need to be aware that their presence impacts nature--we need to preserve places like this for future generations, but if by that we mean follow a claustrophobic, controlled path, I’m not sure it’s worth it.

 

I didn’t hear any shots round the world, but Lexington and Concord are both charming places now. There isn’t a lot of ‘battlefield’ to see and the information centers don’t have a great deal of objects or museums, but imagination goes a long way in places like this. Along the more open preserves of the Minute Man park, it’s easier to imagine the march of troops and the beginnings of a nation.

 

And at least now I can say:

I came, I saw, I Concord.

10:17am: dilemma of life

In reference to the question (imagine an old Twisted Sister video) ‘What are you gonna do with your life?’ I think I would answer ‘I wanna write!’
 

Yes, I enjoy archaeology and I like teaching it, so I’m not suggesting giving up my ‘real’ job, just adding a new one, or rather a new dimension to an already existent second life. Because, of course, I do write and I even teach writing, but I’m at the point where the only way to improve my own work is to tie in with other writers of the kind of material I like to create, to find an editor/publisher/agent, and to get my work out there. But all of that seems so stupefyingly difficult or subjective or luck-induced that I’m beyond frustrated. It seems that such things take a far more extroverted personality than I have. So I’m stuck.
 

Most of what I’m doing these days is teaching a version of Freshman English we tend to call critical writing. It’s a fun course of my own design with an overarching topic that has involved my research for a long time -- that of the concept of money, trade and exchange through time. We discuss the topic, read various writers on it, and write many papers about it. I like teaching this course, but do I want to teach non-fiction (even of the creative sort) for the rest of my life?
 

I’ve considered going back to school to get an MFA in creative writing, but almost every program in the US teaches the so-called ‘MFA story’, that is, a form of domestic realism that, frankly, I’m just not interested in. I’ve always read and written stories as an escape and thus I like those tales that take me to new worlds and let me imagine life as it isn’t. MFAs are mostly literary fiction, trying to show life as it is, struggling characters dealing with the heavy issues like prejudice or terminal illness. That’s not escapism . I could probably write such things, but would I be happy doing it? More importantly, would I be happy teaching it after I completed the degree? And, could I even get into such a program?
 

I suppose I should just try to get into a Clarion workshop, but whatever I do, I should find other writers who are interested in what I do and can help me with critical readings and discussions, maybe even collaborations.

Any suggestions?

9:33am: Gremlins at Work?

I got in to work this morning to find an airmail envelope from Hannah Montana on my desk. I suspect that it was Michael's daughter, Kersten, whose influence allowed me to be graced with such a letter. Inside was a drawing that made my day. It now hangs on my office wall next to some drawings her brother did years ago.



Along with the envelope (don't tell anyone but I suspect it may not really have been from Hannah Montana) were various notes from other elvish intellects with words of wisdom like:

This is your conscious. Eat more pie.

It's always nice to hear from your conscious like that. Usually mine is telling me that everyone is out to get me.

I have some very silly friends.

5:52pm: Art

My mother, Nita Mehnert, will be one of the artists featured in an upcoming event at the Tampa Museum of Art. She's a sculptor and the pieces to be shown in this event are part of a particularly interesting and insightful series of her creations. They are formed from various rusted and recycled pieces, reformed into apparent devices for searching our souls. The titles of the works involve these apparent tasks, such as 'stamping out greed'. I wish I had better images of her work, but here's some low res shots of a couple of the series from an earlier exhibit.



And here's part of the initial ad for the upcoming event:



Be sure to check out the sponsoring organizations on the web and of course, attend the show if you're in the Tampa Bay area.

www.TampaMuseum.org

www.theexhibitionists.org

Look for Nita Mehnert in the list of associated artists.

11:59am: Chinese Articles and Lizard People?

A colleague told me he had heard good things about an article I wrote on incense burners. I was a little surprised and asked, "Does he read Chinese?" because the only article about incense burners I had written was published solely in that language. Mind you, I didn't write it in Chinese, but it was translated because I wrote it and five other articles for the Beijing World Art Museum, more specifically for the exhibit we at Penn sent there more than a year ago.

It turns out that the Beijing Museum has now put those articles up on their website, in English. We had sent them the full text to translate, but I thought we'd kept the English publication rights. I'm not sure about that, but I'm relatively pleased they did put the articles up because now more people can read them. In my entries I tried to go into the significance of the individual artifact, to do much more than simply describe the particular piece but to tell about what it might mean for the people who made and used it. Thus, I see this writing as much more than catalogue entries in a museum, and as a whole we wanted our exhibit and our catalogue to be an overview of Mesopotamian culture seen through its material objects. It turned out that of the six cultural regions represented in the larger museum exhibit, our text was by far the most detailed.

So it was nice to hear that someone had seen one of these entries and thought it was worth reading. I link to one of the articles below, one about 'lizard' figurines from the Ubaid period (Image at left is of the object on loan from Penn to BWAM). These are very interesting artifacts that are quite distinctive, with large eyes, high hair and broad sholders. The fringe elements out there, the ones who believe in mass conspiracy and abductions, etc. (crazies, pyramidiots, or whatever you want to call them) want to see these figurines as representations of extraterrestrials, but the funniest correlation I've heard is that they look a little like Sarah Palin.

You can read my interpretation and summary of the scholarly ideas on these 'lizard' people if you feel so inclined. And if you go to the page on Mesopotamia for the BWAM, you'll find my entires are the first five objects as well as the very last one (the incense burner).

 

2:53pm: Forever Writing

Listening to Joe Haldeman speak at Friday's Philadelphia Science Fiction Society meeting was both insightful and inspiring. I read his book The Forever War many years ago on the suggestion of my friend Nigel and I thought it was tremendously good. But I didn’t read more of his books even though I should have. In fact, I haven’t been much of a reader for a long time, with the exception of all the reading I’ve done for all the classes I’ve taken and taught, etc. So, it would seem that I lost the enjoyment -- or lost touch with the enjoyment -- of reading a story for a story’s sake. When I was young, I often escaped the farm world I had been strangely swept into by climbing a tree with a science fiction or adventure fantasy novel, trying to reach the heights of some imaginary kingdom perhaps. What happened to those experiences?

 

I’m searching now, seeing that they aren’t really gone, just set aside in the wake of something arguably more important, the non-fiction world of education. That world has served me well and was certainly the one I sought after, the shining something that had meaning beyond the goat dung and the chicken entrails, something up there in the sky above the trees I was trying to reach by climbing. And reading. Only this something was attainable somehow in the 'real world'.

 

In seeking to understand the world and still address creativity in some way, I found archaeology. It held my interest and allowed me to experience the world as well as attempt to solve puzzles of sorts. Eventually I ran into an academic mentality, however, that seemed to stifle all but the most pedantic.

 

Listening to Joe talk about his creative process made me want to create more, to go back to exploring the wilds of my imagination. Maybe I’m just starting to find the motivation to do it in earnest. I’ll start looking for workshops and retreats, and potentially one day, go for an MFA in creative writing (still chasing the academic in me, I suppose).

 

I bought a copy of one of Haldeman’s latest books, The Accidental Time Machine, and he signed it for me. I read the whole thing over this past weekend, reconnecting with my former love of reading a story just to read a story. But if Joe had just been reading from his novel at this latest talk, I wouldn’t have gotten as much out of it. Instead, he talked about the creative process itself, and many of the things he mentioned are similar to the way I approach writing, so finding out that I’m not so strange in the way I write was truly inspiring. Basically, I want to say:

 

Thank you, Joe Haldeman. Thank you for your writing, for your advice, for your inspiration, and for your time.

 

 

(and of course, thanks to Kyle Cassidy for telling me when and where this talk would be, and for taking the fabulous picture of me and Joe at the Philly Diner. Thanks also to Darrell Schweitzer for discussing all things science fiction and mystery writing with me at the diner and to Mike Van Helder for his encouragement and information there, as well as just for putting up with me.)

 

10:49am: More on the Museum Researcher Firings

There's a good article on the firings and the interest that the open letter has generated:

Higher Ed article on Museum funding, mainly about Penn

It covers the issue quite well and the comments on it are interesting. Just thought I'd share.

12:03pm: Book Trailers
I've got a cold today so I'm sitting around surfing between gulps of Nyquil. Currently I'm exploring this phenomenon that is so commonplace now as not to cause an eyebrow to wiggle - YouTube. But what brought me there was not the search for something to entertain my mucus-addled head, but an article I read yesterday about 'book trailers'.

I suspect I'm just behind the times here and that everyone else knows about these things already. They're short promotional films (a minute or so) that advertise the release of a new book. I suppose it makes sense, but will this really sell more books? I hear that it's basically de rigeur now and that some publishing houses automatically produce them as part of the marketing package. After all, trailers are essential for films, why not books? But my first thought was that films are shared visual media, books are more personal in that characters and places are created in the mind's eye by the author's words interacting with the reader's imagination. This means that Sherlock Holmes, for example, may look to me a little different than he will to you. Once films get in the way, we start to see him as Basil Rathbone or some other actor. If we show characters in a trailer for our book, we are directing the imagination of our readers.

But what do book covers do? They often show some hero that must be the protagonist. Sometimes it seems the artist hasn't read the book and the hero looks nothing like what we as readers see in our heads, and we can shake that off. So maybe trailers are the same. I watched a few to see what they typically were, and most showed the book cover itself, moving across the scene, approaching or some such. various wipes are common and text that tries to spark interest in the story. But most viewers think that plain text on black background is boring and they want more action.

Anyway, I'm just ranting, wanted to see what others thought of the book trailer phenomenon.

2:05pm: Legal is not necessarily Ethical

Thinking about the balance between administration and research, profit and intellectualism noted in my last post, I quickly saw the similarity between the current struggles within the museum and a discussion I attended at the archaeological meetings last weekend. The particular panel I went to see was essentially on the difference between archaeologists and treasure hunters, specifically as related to the realm of underwater archaeology.

I’ll make a long story relatively short. As of Jan 2, 2009, the UNESCO convention on UCH (Underwater Cultural Heritage) went into effect. Cultural heritage on land has been protected internationally since 1970. The text of the underwater convention has been on the books since 2001 but didn’t have enough signatories to function. The US is not one of the countries that have signed the convention but even it were, this is only an international agreement and individual laws would still have to passed within the country for it to have any prosecuting power.

In the last two weeks of my underwater archaeology class we discuss ethics, salvage, treasure hunting and archaeology. I always have the students read the basic tenets of the UNESCO convention and the final paper they must write covers the topic of ethics. We look at salvage wrecks like the Republic and the Central America but last year I got wind of the recent find by Odyssey Marine, a ship they were claiming was a pirate vessel and one they dubbed ‘The Black Swan’ (obviously for commercial effect to sound like the Black Pearl from Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean). The discussion at the meetings this year was placed in the context of this wreck as well as the UCH convention, so naturally it was of interest to me.

I won’t go into too much detail about the ship, only to say that it was found near the edge of Spanish waters outside the straits of Gibraltar and that Odyssey flew two charter plane loads of coins from the ship estimated at several hundred million dollars in value to the US. Spain has filed suit and shown quite well, I think, that the ship is not a pirate vessel at all, but the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a ship that sunk in 1804 and reinstated war between Spain and England after a truce in the Napoleonic struggles. The legal case is being heard in Tampa right now but it involves exactly this question of money or history, perhaps money for history. Should the finders/keepers rule apply, or is this important ship one that belongs to Spain no matter what? And how should it be investigated?

The discussion was very interesting. We started out by watching an interview held by Bryant Gumble with George Bass (founder of the Institute for Nautical Archaeology) and Greg Stemm (Odyssey Marine Salvage company). I can’t find that interview online but here is an article about the current legal case and if you search for ‘Black Swan shipwreck’ on youtube you can find some rather frightening ‘secret mission’ videos about how Odyssey flew the coins out of British Gibraltar under cover, presumably for protection from modern day pirates, but perhaps so as not to be spotted by the Spanish government.

On the panel were archaeologists and lawyers who were all involved in the ethical issues, both nationally and internationally. Although I agree with their ideas on protection of heritage, this meeting was certainly not a true debate, because the other side was not there. Salvors say they want archaeology done and often take some sort of archaeologist on the team, but they are not allowed to present at official meetings like this one because they don’t follow archaeological guidelines, one of which is not to make a profit off of excavation. Because this is a prime directive, so to speak, the two sides seem unlikely ever to come to terms.

Legal jurisdiction seems to be favoring the heritage angle of late and salvage laws (or at least their application to historic wrecks) and permits are dwindling. Nevertheless, international waters tend still to be fair game. Except for countries that have signed the UNESCO convention treaty, that is, and Spain is naturally one of those probably because of this Black Swan incident. But the court case is being heard in the US. And in Florida at that, a state that has often supported salvors. I see that it took Odyssey a good deal of study and time and money to find this vessel, but I also see that it is a Spanish ship and Spain would not want American treasure hunters to exploit their national history for profit. Spain would, they say, excavate the ship and put it on display as a cultural icon. Odyssey would sell off the coins to individual collectors to make money.

And here is what I found particularly interesting in the archaeological meeting. The panel members said that there was room for compromise between archaeologists and treasure hunters/salvors. But their solution was not much of a compromise. Remember, I do agree with the archaeologists on almost all points, but I like to try to see the other side. The archaeologists and lawyers said that the ship must be kept together, all of its artifacts studied equally. That’s a great goal, but they said that they would let salvors make their profit by taking a portion of the gate price at a museum showing these objects. That would mean that the salvors would have to excavate the whole thing, conserve it, and put it on display (build a museum) and then try to get enough attention to make a profit at the gate. If a profit could be made, it would be decades before it would be realized and no investor would put up for such a deal. In short, there is no way salvors would agree to that.

Perhaps there isn’t a compromise, I don’t know. That’s why we discuss it in my class as an open-ended issue. Many of my students like the idea of adventure and treasure, and they argue that we are a capitalist nation and virtually a capitalist world, so why not let someone go out and find something and make a profit? Others say that world heritage is more important, that it must be preserved because if we don’t, it’s lost forever. Ultimately, I give my opinion but let the students decide for themselves.
 

5:15pm: Writing, Research, and Cold Hard Economics

I’m back in a frigid Philadelphia and classes have begun. I had to change my syllabus once again as the writing department, now a department instead of a program, is still adapting its procedures. The ultimate goals are good and there has definitely been improvement in student writing over the past five years so it’s a good thing. Last term’s course progression was a little over-the-top, however, so the rescheduling was necessary. Now it looks like we may have reached a good balance and I think this term will be more manageable.

Meanwhile, controversy in the museum continues. In November it was announced that 18 research positions would be axed, effective in May. Many of those terminated had been working in the Museum Applied Sciences Center for Archaeology for decades and were still turning out important research in the field. Yet, they weren’t bringing in cash, cited as a goal not met in a letter sent to said researchers, so the entire Center is being disbanded. It is true that MASCA has been something of an enigma to some, hidden away as it is in the bowels of the museum, but it has been an important resource for students and it has never stopped investigating important archaeological issues with real scientific method. Getting rid of all researchers and closing MASCA itself seems heavy handed. So, as of Jan 7, an online petition has appeared in protest and it already has some 2200 signatures. The opening line says “we the undersigned, academics and graduate students…” but I think it should have included the concerned and interested public as well. Perhaps it should say something about balancing all this with monetary concerns, but that would be giving too much to the other side I suppose. Other than that, it is a pretty good statement about belief in the research and non-profit mission of the University Museum. Take a look and sign if you feel so inclined. I’ve already signed (somewhere around #995 I think)

They can’t axe my position since the money for it comes mainly from the writing department. And when not from there, it comes from Anthropology which is housed in the museum but a part of the School of Arts and Sciences. Nevertheless, I do believe in research as a goal and dedication to research and teaching as the prime directive of a college museum. Of course, it does need to stay afloat and should bring in money where possible. Finding a good balance is important -- I’m just not convinced that’s been done in this case.

I’ll just keep on teaching. And researching. Hopefully.

 

4:18pm: Snow

Seattle, day 3. I've been on travels now for a week but haven't been online much. I lost money in Vegas (what a shock) and didn't see the point in paying the exorbitant fee for internet access in the Excalibur hotel. It seems everything has a pricetag in Vegas. Used to be it was the land of the ultracheap extras to bring you in so you'd spend money at the tables. Ninety-nine cent steak dinners, a couple of bucks for a huge buffet -- but now things are ultra-high in cost. I guess people are going to spend at the tables no matter what. Even in an economic recession.

Timing on the trip was pretty good, though. I got in just before the snow storm and left long enough after that the backlog at the airport had been taken care of. But the snow was pretty bizarre. I normally go to Vegas in the summer so the whole city felt different. Even had I spent more winter time there, though, I wouldn't have expected this. It started as a kind of slushy rain and I expected it would only be real snow in the mountains. Yet, it quickly became heavy flakes right on the strip. The whole valley was blanketed. It didn't stick all that long, but long enough to make national news, that's for sure. And we slogged through it because we heard the Hard Rock was giving free drinks for a few hours. They were but the crowds were so big we decided to go elsewhere after just one. And the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton is gone too. Is Vegas going down hill? Or am I just a nerd who wants stupid Star Trek things to remain in existence?

My friend Steve flew down from Seattle and we gambled, lamented the loss of Quark's bar, and eventually met up with another old friend of mine, Nick, who now lives in Vegas. He and I talked about writing, science fiction, and other mutual interests for his day off but it wasn't enough to catch up from the 25+ years we had been estranged.

McCarran airport shut down during the snow. No surprise there. They don't have the snow clearing equipment or de-icers for the planes since such weather is an extreme rarity. That was Wednesday but I was scheduled to fly out Friday. Thursday there were lots of people who had been stranded in the airport but my flight on Friday to Seattle-Tacoma was pretty smooth.

Steve was on a different flight from Vegas but he was supposed to land 10 minutes after me. But his flight was delayed so I waited for him with yet another old friend, Jon, who had come to pick us both up at the airport. Finally, Steve landed and we all headed out. Luckily, we had gotten in just under the next wave of snow to hit the Pacific Northwest.

That night we watched the snow fall as it continues to do today, making Seattle into a wintry spectacle the likes of which I haven't seen since 1991. Many people think that Seattle must get a lot of snow, but it just doesn't. So this is an oddity, albeit a pretty one.

I didn't bring my camera with me. Many airlines are now charging to check a bag so I traveled extra light and the one big problem with a nice, SLR camera is that it is larger than many cameras. So I left it behind and didn't get pics of the Vegas snow. But today we went out in the snow to get pictures with Steve's camera. The subject, my (and Jon's) alma mater, The University of Washington (or U-dub as it's affectionately known here).

Mount Rainier wasn't visible over the Drumheiler fountain, but there were some amazing shots to get. The University has changed, but I still remember a lot of it and in many ways I wish I could come back here. Sigh.

We had  hoped to drive down to Portland to see various other friends. Adam lives in Vancouver Washington and of course there is Jay Lake in Portland. But the weather has conspired against that trip and I apologize to them for not being able to visit. If the weather clears, maybe I can make it early in the new year for more discussions of history, science fiction, and writing.

For now, it looks like I'll get some productive X-Box time with the gang right here in Seatlle. I may not be a fan of holidays, but this is the way I like to spend them -- Low-key, quality time with friends.

And I hope you all have a Happy Holiday in whatever way you choose to celebrate.

6:33pm: Monk Weekend

A relatively boring weekend, I spent much of it in a Monk-athon. Not that I secluded myself like a monk (that's normal for me), but because I was watching many episodes of the obssessive-compulsive detective, Monk played by Tony Shalhoub. I borrowed the DVDs discretely fromkylecassidy while he and trillian_stars  are away in New Orleans. Every time I'm downstairs, of course, Roswell just has to have attention, so I end up with her in my lap while I go through the Monk DVDs to see which I might want to watch.

Of course, I also played pinball for a while, but I guess the machine is tired of me because one of the flippers has gone out. We'll have to fix that; how can I set a new high score with only three flippers? Last time we fixed it involved a lot of 'on hold' time with the professionals at the repair shop and much of that time was spent inventing a drink for the occasion. Like so many of our spur-of-the-moment drink concoctions though, this one -- dubbed the Pinball Repairman -- went horribly wrong. Indeed, we felt it needed something to represent the pinball so ended up putting a jawbreaker gumball in it. Needless to say, the candy coating melted off making an odd reaction with the alcohol and coloring the whole thing a rather vile tone. The taste was not much better. It's always an adventure at chez Cassidy but we'll all be happier when he and Trill return. I'll leave it to him to explain the drink we called the Velociraptor (which he probably already has on his blog, along with the Pinball Repairman, come to think of it).

2:36pm: Deck the Hols
Thanksgiving was good even though it's not a holiday I tend to enjoy. In fact, I prefer to be out of the country where it isn't celebrated. I suppose I'm a Bah Humbug when it comes to holidays as I don't much like xmas either. I spent a good xmas once in Luxor, Egypt where there was no sign of Santa.

This t-giving I was back in Boston, working on publication for Sweyhat with colleagues there. We had the traditional turkey et al. but the prime purpose was to go over the maps and data from this past field season with an eye toward putting them in print. Naturally we discussed the possibility of the upcoming season, but money is tight and we'll still have to see about funding for that.

The trip back was pretty horrendous. I expected traffic on the last day of the t-giving weekend, but two and a half hours to travel 6 miles at one point was just ridiculous. Of course, those six miles were coming in to New York City and naturally everyone was trying to get back so they could work the next day; but then again, many people who work in New York live outside the city. Still, I had to traverse Jersey as well and it, too, was largely backed up.

So I spent around 12 hours on what should have been a 6 hour trip, but I made it back and have now recovered. It's the last week of classes so I'm get ready to be inundated by final portfolios and the like, but after that I get to go back home. Home to Seattle. Via Las Vegas, of course.

I'll be visiting an old friend (not a euphemism, I'll actually be seeing someone I haven't seen in years) in Sin City (perhaps that is a euphemism?). Then to Seattle for a few weeks to spend xmas with more old friends. Should be a relaxing time though I will also be working on the Sweyhat publication and on potential job searches as well. It's about time I got out of Philadelphia.

12:20pm: Where have 6 weeks gone?
Last updated 6 weeks ago? yikes.

During that time I've been dealing with the everyday, the mundane, just as all of us do. I tend to feel that those things aren't of interest. It's all pretty basic: teaching, grading, writing, and trying to decide what I want to do when I grow up. If I grow up. And of course, even though I thought I was taking it easy this term, it turned out to be the opposite. I'm finally through most of the things that were taking so much of my time but more are always showing up. Now, for example, it's my writing students' final projects and final portfolios all of which have to be carefully assessed.

Over the weekend I was attending the American Schools of Oriental Research annual meeting. This year it was held in Boston and I was slated to give a talk in one of the Mesopotamia sessions. It went well overall, though my talk didn't generate much discussion. You could almost hear crickets in the room. Later a friend suggested that talks that are well supported often turn out that way, i.e., there isn't much to question. That was nice of him to say, but who knows what it really meant. Competing with more glamorous talks might have been part of it. I mean who wants to hear about a bunch of rocks when you've just been hearing about sacrificial victims and more are coming up?

Nevertheless, the talk did go well and generated a delayed effect. On the last day of the conference I met several people who had heard it, perhaps mulled it over, and then asked some good questions and even suggested we use the same method on other objects, particularly on Roman period ballistae. I think it's a great idea and look forward to working on that. Indeed, this is what conferences are really for -- to get people to see the sort of work you're doing, to think about it, and see if they too can use those ideas. It's the latest stuff, after all it takes a long time to get these ideas into print but if you hear about it while it's on-going, you're on top of the curve.

I'm probably going to head back to Boston for T-giving since I have friends up there and then I'll be heading to Seattle via Las Vegas for xmas to visit other friends. And who knows, since it will be back to travel, maybe I'll blog more.

2:29pm: Busy busy

With three things all coming to a deadline tomorrow, I've been away from LJ for a long time. I'm advising potential Rhodes fellows and their deadline is Monday, I'm organizing midterm portfolios for my students, and those are due Monday, and I'm also giving the Anthropology Colloquium talk at 4:30 on Monday afternoon [Museum room 345].

That latter deadline is the one that has taken most of my time, I admit. I've been gathering data for this for years and it's about bloody time I presented some results. This one is a longer talk about the bigger implications of weights and weighing in the Bronze Age Near East, but I'll present again in Boston on November at the American Schools of Oriental Research meetings on the more specific analysis of weights from the ancient city of Ur in Iraq.

So even now, I don't have much time to make a good entry to LJ. I'll post this week's prompt from my money class here and see what you all think, though:

Georg Simmel states that when money stops moving it is no longer money. Indeed, the idea of circulation is very important in regards to an economy and one of the functions of money is as a means of payment. But just how far and how fast does our physical money move? For an idea of this concept, go to www.wheresgeorge.com and look at a few examples from the pulldown menu, 'George's Top 10.' The first item on that menu is 'Bills.' Click on it and choose two or three of the top 10 bills. How far and how fast did those bills move? Do you think this is an accurate depiction of circulation of the US dollar?

3:05pm: Writing and more Writing
The new format for the writing class is so intense I've had little time for a breather, nor have the students. Some are getting frustrated but there is little I can do about it at the moment. There are some good ideas behind the intensity of the work (we write a paper and revise it every week, we have journals, in-class writing, and peer reviews every week as well) but I wonder if we aren't pushing it a bit hard. Of course, practice makes perfect and the only way to become a better writer is to write and write often. So I think on the whole the idea is good. And the students, to their credit, are buckling down and really doing the work. I usually give a little more time on these assignments and perhaps that means they get complacent and don't do as much. I'm reserving judgment for the moment.

As for my own writing, the article on Sweyhat that Michael and I wrote for Current World Archaeology is out now. It's been out for a month or so but my author's copies are still not here. Has to do with the fact that it's a British magazine and they release late in the US I think. I had to buy a copy on the stands in London. Anyway, here's a partial image and a link to their website. They don't put the articles online and they emphasize their other magazine Current Archaeology. It looks like CWA has gotten short shrift on the website, particularly since about issue 24. The latest is issue 30 and the article that the current director of our museum wrote about our museum is partly online, but nothing else as far as I can tell.

2:10pm: Heads Up!
The thoughts on what money is and where it originated garnered in my last entry were very informative and interesting. Thanks to all those who participated in the discussion. If anyone else would like to put their two cents in (appropriate cliche), you can do so here or there. My students have not yet turned in that entry, but I'll go over the concensus account when we cover it next week.

My class journal for today went something like this:

8:58am: Teaching Money
Back in Philadelphia. I'm finally caught up with my summer travels. After Florida, I had to prepare for the new term at Penn. I'm taking it relatively easy this term, only teaching one course, but I've come to realize that my September is busy regardless. As usual for this time of year, I'm advising Rhodes/Marshall fellowship applicants and I'm also doing my own research. This time I've got more specific deadlines on the research, though, since I'll be giving a colloquium talk in early October. I'll then go back over it to create a talk for archaeological meetings in November and finally publish it as an article, hopefully in to the editors by the end of the year.

Classes have begun and I am again teaching one of my favourites, The Meaning of Money. It goes into the history and philosophy of money and is designed as an intensive writing course for the writing department. Not only do we write a paper a week, I also have the students keep a journal of their thoughts. One of the entries every week is in response to a prompt I give them, and I thought I'd post the prompts here as well to see what LJers think of the issues at hand. The current prompt is:

11:15am: Back in Florida