pikamookie’s Neighborhood

It's been awhile since I updated here on Vox.  This is due to a lot of the nothingness that I've been up to lately.  It's tough; lots of empty voids fill up your day quickly and before you know it, the day is gone and you're still in your PJs!  No, actually I've been getting up early and trying to get a lot done each day.  I've also gone back to eating oatmeal every morning!  Yum, I love oatmeal.  Since I'm a lactose intolerant though, I just pour in water (2:1 oats) and pop it in the microwave.  No milk for me.  Then I sprinkle brown sugar.  Deelicious. 

What else, what else.  I finally got around to passing my reading and writing tests for the EMT course that I'll be taking at COD in the fall.  Why do I need to write properly structured essays with an appropriate use of grammar and vocabulary as an EMT?  Was that correct grammar?  At any rate, I passed!  UH YES.  Haven't taken a humanities course in...huh.  Not counting Anthropology right now because it's a joke and I don't do anything...Last humanities course with papers...God.  I can't even remember!  Junior year?  So, what- 3 years ago?  at least?  Ha ha ah aahahaaa that's so sad.  Now I regret not taking more courses at Trinity. 

Hector has taken to sitting at the kitchen table with us while we eat.  Sunday brunch, weekly dinner...he's there.  Check it out:

offf_09_lightbox, originally uploaded by Joshua Davis.

offf_09_lightbox

May 10, 2007 I'll be creating work at the OFFF Festival (http://www.offf.ws) over the course of the 3 days and printing the results on the HP Designjet Z3100 Photo printer filling the exhibition space. As you enter the space, I've created nine -- 4.5 foot x 6.5 foot (1.3716 meters x 1.9812 meters) lightboxes that will line the hallway as you move down into my exhibition space. If you're going to the OFFF festival this year be sure to stop by and say HOLA !

Uploaded by Joshua Davis on 3 May 07, 2.04PM CDT.

Northern Star, originally uploaded by aqui-ali.

aqui-ali used a 95 second exposure and it looks awesome.

I started out this summer semester with a lot of optimism.  I thought that my 200 level Cultural Anthropology class was going to rock.  No, seriously, I did.  I was really excited!  I was going to learn about tribes and environments and hunting methods and pottery and all sorts of neat stuff from neat places that I had never heard of and the very root of human desire and human nature would be revealed and I could die a happy (wo)man.  Instead, I'm now stuck in a class that feels like junior high with a professor who means well but is a little bit insane/stupid. 

For one, all we're doing is learning terms!  Instead of learning about other cultures and then in the process becoming familiar with terms, we're going through the terms one by one.  Then we get these little bite sized chunks of other cultures in order to demonstrate our newly learned term.  I mean, what the hell!  Aren't we in college?!  We aren't children and if I  had wanted to learn a bunch of terms I would've started memorizing the dictionary a long time ago and saved my parents a bunch of cash.   I mean, honestly!  This is so SESS (spanish word, english word, spanish word, spanish word) that I am pretty disgusted.  This is a 200 level college course.  Good F-ing lord. 

Secondly, in explaining these terms he treats us like a bunch of 'tards.  Although some of the things that the people say in the class are making me begin to think that I may have overestimated my peers.  For instance, we were talking about farmers and how they farm and live in a village but they rotate their crops on different plots so as to not exhaust the nitrogen in the soil.  He even drew a diagram with the village in the center as a circle that never moved and he drew rotating plots around it.  Then he asks us what are some characteristics of this type of living scenario.  A girl says, "semi nomadic."  !?!?!R#L:$J!@P$(&*!@)$(@#)$*(!@)#*(!@)#!#?!??!?#~??

OH.  And THEN!  And then he started talking about how stupid it was that Computer Scientists are developing AI because what's the point of computers with human intelligence when he can think just fine, thank you very much. 

My favorite is when he told us that culture is like software installed in our brain.  When we came into class today, we knew not to sit in our seats with our backs facing the front or to come in half naked.  How?  Well, you see, we just found our "acceptable classroom behavior" folder in our brains and pulled out some data to see what was custom in this society.

I'm sorry, I'm at a loss of words.  I just, ...it's beyond me.  I'm just realizing now how good I had it at Trinity and Exeter. 

OK, so today Rach and I took Hector out to run some errands.  I had to go to Fry's to drool over the Macbooks and Rach just wanted to get out of the house.  The last time we brought Hector into Fry's, everyone loved him!  One of the girls that worked there actually got us a cart to let him ride in.  Customers stopped us to pet him and it was a fun time had by all. 

It did not go so smoothly this time.  We got in and no one Ooo-ed or Aaww-ed!  People for the most part ignored him.  Which is fine.  But then we walked over to the video section and this horrible lady started yelling about "Is she allowed to bring that in here!  Someone go find out if that's allowed!"  OK, someone had too much haterade this morning.  So we skedaddled.  But poor hector was so upset that we decided to head to REI, where we were sure people would enjoy his presence. 

After walking around in REI for about a minute, this very nice guy came up and told us there was a policy against dogs in stores unless they're service dogs.  Uuuumm....when did dogs become second class citizens!  They're my best friends!  I'm so depressed.

In all seriousness, I understand why they don't allow them but it's sad they can't discriminate against lamb dogs and eat-your-baby dogs.  Actually, true story, we were in Fullersberg the other day and someone asked us if Hector was a lamb.  I think he was joking, but c'mon now...certainly it demonstrates his Awww qualities.

Sidenote: I did a google search for REI images and yeah...there an asian porn star named Rei.  Definitely not what I was expecting. 

OK, I guess I am the last one to know that Naperville is the most hopping suburb around Chicago.  (Second largest city in IL!)  I really thought it was just another Hinsdale; one square block of hardware stores, ice cream, and cutesy like "eye on design" types places.  Boy, I was wrong. 

First off, downtown Naperville is way bigger than I thought!  It's at least 6x6 blocks, probably more (and I'm bad at estimates.)  Plus, there are lots of people!  All over the place!  I didn't realize that people actually really like it there, and eat and party.  I mean, it's not Chicago but if you're stuck in the 'burbs, it looks like your best bet. 

They also have just the hugest pool.  Apparently it used to be a quarry and now is turned into a BnT type deal.  There's also this scary looking bell tower that reminds me of the Church of Scientology.  The town seems a little homogenized but c'mon now...we're in IL in the suburbs.  That said, I did see like, 10 black people!  and a handful of Asians as well.  :D  Not like I care, because let's be honest, how white washed am I?  Still, it was enough that I felt like I was back at Trinity again in that J Crew type sense. 

Anyways, hopefully this helps Andrew a little in his decision of where to live.  Right now it looks like it's between Dekalb and Naperville, so we'll see.

Also, I would like to point out how dog friendly the town is.  If you look at the picture below, you'll see a water fountain with a lower fountain just for dogs!  That is cute and reminiscent of the fountains they have in Paris outside of some cafes.  Totally rad and cute for Andrew's (future) dog. 

Rach and I threw a rather impromptu bbq for this Monday's Memorial Day Weekend.  It was great!  We weren't sure how many people were going to show up / eat so we just went to Jewel and did our best.  Oh, and we bought real 1/2 lb burgers!  Not the sissy ones that you have to double, triple up.  And we got a beet!  Apparently that was a hit.  Here are a few snapshots of the occasion.  Kern and Reks, I'm really glad you were both able to come before shipping back to NY.  :D  As always, for the full set of photos, head over to Flickr....for the slideshow of memorial day weekend photos, click!

I always feel bad posting a million camera phone shots and short little blog entries that have no purpose at all.  SO!  I will instead be posting them on my new Tumblr blog, which really lends itself well to this sort of activity.  I will still be posting long blog entries here such as UFC updates or Cicada Watch 1.0.  Tumblr is pretty awesome because it allows you to feed in RSS feeds.  So, for your one stop pikamookie fill, head over to pikamookie.tumblr.com!