Pirates marathon

Today, I meant to do a lot of homework. I have a paper due Tuesday that I don't really get what I'm supposed to write about. It's about a book called Friction, which is an ethnography about the Meratu people in Indonesia and the effect of globalization and deforestation on their culture. That's a really shallow explanation. It's a really complex book.

In any case, I am supposed to pick a theme of the book and write a paper without a thesis on that theme as it relates to the book in 1200 words. I am at a loss for what to write about, as I generally think of themes as only in fiction, not non-fiction, particularly since I can't have a thesis to base my paper on.

I think I am just going to pick a chapter, probably the last one which is on collaboration between the different actors involved. Tsing writes about how all the groups had different conceptualizations and aims in cooperating with each other.

I would normally not take so much time explaining the assignment, except that I had just spent from 2pm-10pm watching all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I came in near the end of the first one. They're good movies. Not good as in elitist meaningful cinema, but as in they're a lot of fun to watch and were an appropriate use of my day, even though I have a difficult paper due in just a few days.

I was able to draw connections to my assignment, in that all the main characters had different aims and perspectives on situations. I mean, the third movie is just really bloody complex and I have no idea what is happening sometimes. Like, why did Elizabeth care so much about what happens to the pirates? In the third movie, is she now a pirate? They should have made her conversion to a pirate-identity more obvious, if that's the case.

Also, how did Will fall in with the pirate group so well again after the exchange on the sandbar when he had been previously locked in the brig, and subsequently betrayed their location? What happened to Will and Elizabeth's relationship tension? Their trust issues were never worked out (although, what is so bad about making decisions on one's own? particularly if it ends up that you only see each other once every 10 years?) and just kind of dropped in exchange for a mid-battle wedding ceremony (which, while ill-conceived and tacky, was epic).

Anyway, that's all. I also did not each any vegetables today. It was not a useful Saturday, but it was still good. Vegies would have made it better. I feel a little sick from eating only carbs and dairy today. Ah well, tomorrow will be a cooking day. Chana masala, maybe?

Homage to Ol' Reliable

I got a new phone today! It's nothing too fancy. No Blackberry or iphone. It has a 2.0 megapixel camera, which is nicer than my old phone. It has a removable micro sd card, which is really nice and I will take advantage of this feature. It plays mp3s a feature I will never use. It flips both directions, so I get a qwerty keyboard for texting, which I didn't think I'd like, but it's a lot easier on my fingernails. My only concern is that it is a lot bigger than my other phone, which barely fit in my pockets sometimes. I guess this is an excuse (as if I needed one) to buy more mens jeans.

And the best/worst part: I pay my own bill now! Yay! I don't really enjoy paying bills but I like being in control of my finances. I guess one could call me controlling about certain issues. Or if not controlling, at least someone who wants to know what is going on and has some say about what's happening when. I'm kind of a power whore that way.

In any case, back to phones. I'm retiring my perfectly good phone, who today got the name Ol
Reliable. It's always just been named My Phone. It reminds me of the bloodhound in Lady and the Tramp. His grandfather was named Ol' Reliable. He was apparently full of memorable anecdotes. I kind of want to get a bloodhound and a scotty just to name them Jock and Trusty. (Cute, Ol' Reliable and Trusty.... aww... I wonder if they wore Depends when they got old?) I like naming pets after characters. My cats were Rajah (Aladdin) and Kovu (Lion King 2). Disney has too many good hound names. Napoleon and Lafayette from the Aristocats, Copper from The Fox and the Hound (although I will NEVER name my fox Todd, should I ever get one. Todd..... Weinhold? Too weird...)

In any case, back to phones (what a sudden tangent!). Ol' Reliable still works perfectly fine. Nothing wrong with it. I'll just keep it for a couple years before I donate it in case New Phone breaks or something. So far, works fine. Mom keeps texting me, because she has a lot of units on her prepaid to use up before November so she can upgrade her prepaid phone to a newer prepaid phone.

Yup, that's the news from Catey on Fall Break. Bored? Me too... Actually not really, I have a lot of homework to do, and a DS to distract me.