I just wrote the first 7 pages of my dissertation! Ok, so I have already written like at least 1/3 of this book-length paper (maybe more?? it depends on how long it wll be) but now I am starting from the beginning. It is exciting and strange. Like I have spent the last 7 years building and preparing for this moment and while I am sure my auric field is one of glowing chutney, it is also somewhat less dramatic that I thought it might be.

You see it is really perplexing, this dissertation thing. On the one hand, I can’t figure out if my ideas seem somewhat simple and obvious because I have been thinking about them for five years, intensely for over 1 or whether in fact, I am writing my the story of mydoom (ie failing because my ideas are painfully obvious and uninteresting).

Anyway, who cares for now? I think I will instead celebrate and triumph these first few pages in my chutney glow, take the rest of the afternoon off, and go see Dune with my friends.

Chutney \Chut”ney\, Chutnee \Chut”nee\, n. [Hind. chatn[imac].]
1. A warm or spicy condiment or pickle made in India,
compounded of various vegetable substances, such as
chopped fruits or green tomatoes, etc., often cooked with
sweets and acids such as sugar and vinegar, with ginger
and spices.

Glow \Glow\ (gl[=o]), v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Glowed} (gl[=o]d); p.
pr. & vb. n. {Glowing}.] [AS. gl[=o]wan; akin to D. gloeijen,
OHG. gluoen, G. gl["u]hen, Icel. gl[=o]a, Dan. gloende
glowing. [root]94. Cf. {Gloom}.]
[1913 Webster]
1. To shine with an intense or white heat; to give forth
vivid light and heat; to be incandescent.
[1913 Webster]

Yesterday I was listening to a Saturday morning reggae program and heard a song Chutney Glow. It albeit was not my favorite soca song but I took a fancy to the pairing of chutney and glow. Chutney Glow. A bit of an unexpected union, it brings the pleasure of tasting of chutney to the state of beaminess, so that one’s disposition too can be seen as a delectable and textured morsel for others to ingest. It is the state of Carnival where pefromance is one of collective glow that should be as tasty, full and rich as the flavors of Caribbean food that intermingles sweet and spice.

And that is what I love about Caribbean language whether found in song, poerty, or informal coversation, it plays with the senses, to bring out from the depths of your experiences, an emotional and textured lyricism where song and play comes out even when no one is singing or playing. By this paring the “whiteness” of glow is all of a sudden transformed to be infused with color and texture in a way that inflects through your own pleasures with chuntey (and come one, chutney is truly pleasureable).

Now I must find myself some chuteny..

I am at that point where I am sort of wired but too icky feeling to do work so now I am just blogging shamelessly but without much thought because my brain is not working in that capacity right now. Anyway, I just came across a really Not Wholesome product brand today: MUCINEX. It is Guaifenesin alone and at 600 mgs, it is a powwerful dose. It does not really ‘nex” it, well it does but only in a way that does not supress it like other OTC cold meds but thins it out so .. yes you get the point.

But the interesting thing is the name. How I would SO love to have been part of the “marketing/branding” team who came up with this brand. I mean on the one hand brilliant, like it catches your attention, on the other hand, it is too close of an index to the process. Might some people get offended. I almost started asking people at the drug store about it today but then I thought, ok, biella, this is a procrastination tactic I will not allow myself to indulge in. Yet I can’t seem to let it go… But as I was discussing this on IRC with my friends tonight, I was told by someone:

h0mee: I for one think that mucul habits are not discussed enough in public
heh

This fall I watched the Nova Special on String Theory. Aside from bringing back fond childhood memories (Nova was like classically awesome and dramatic for me, especially the intro), it made me realize how much we anthropologists are like the string theorists of culture. We can’t really see it but think it plays “the crucial’ role in universe of the social. Heh.

And though it might not be as totalizing as that (thankfully, though I would like to think of the uNiverse as these little string packest of twanging energy) the economists have recently discovered that “culture” actually plays a role: PHEW. What upligting affirmation. I can go ahead with my research in peace.

After an awfully stressfull week, I woke up today with throat sore and eyes stinging. Gads, at least it feels like a cold and not the flu so I don’t feel or look as hellish as my awful flu experience in Dec. I look more like

Unhappy and a little frazzled by the vicissitude s of life.

Speaking of which, I have recently noticed there is one entry of mine, the Walmart Class Action Suites that has generated a lot of comments, and it seems like a lot of the female employees of Walmart don’t know where to turn for their greivances. When I first wrote that entry there did not seem to be an accessible website about the class action suit that was reported in the BBC artcile. Now there is: The Walmart Class Website

I hope the provides some good information to those who need to link into what is looking to be a really case against America’s largest employer. I also hope their is a public type website where they can express their greivances.

My father started to use a computer at the age of 71 or so. His email writing style is quirky, sometimes very strange. Funny unusual statements (at least for me) creep up in the middle of an otherwise serious, normal section. He and his current wife have packed up and are off to live in VT for part of the year. So he reflects on this move:

We will be back here next winter, but in a furnished rental apartment. It is
not goodbye, but it is goodbye to a way of life that started here in the summer
of 1974. That was the summer that Biella learned to walk and that President
Nixon resigned. The two are not related.
Love,
Papi

Heh, little does Papi know that in fact Richard Nixon knew of the “wrath of the sato” so once he heard biella, the little satito could walk, he was so out of the oval office.

Science.Infoshop is like
Slashdot with a critical edge

If I ever write such ludicrous statements like: “In technoculture we have ideology without hegemony (or, more precisely, within the hegemony of contingency, flow, multiplicty, mutability, indeterminacy.), please just make me retire on the spot.

Oh yes, so much more precise…

Indeed, our suspicions about theSCO-MS connection are closer to to verifcation.

This has potential to be a battle and epic of dramatic proportions. Only time will tell whether its outcome will be wholesome or not..

A couple of folks have mentioned to me that they like the term “relocalization of intellectual property,” and I must credit to where it of course due: to the man of punning and clever terms ck of Rice’s Anthropology department.

His clever use of terms is about as hackish as one can get, driving the heart of meaning through unxpected word uses and combinations. My favorite word of his thus far is infolanche in refrence, to yep the infolanche of information we have to sift through on the web. He nailed it.