Happy Bird Day

Tomorrow is International Migratory Bird Day.

"Seventy-five percent of all migratory birds in the US use the Gulf as a corridor"


(via treehugger)

A little over 2 weeks ago and just 52 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana (less than the distance from Toronto to Barrie ON, or St.John's to Cupids NL), the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, burned, then sank. It has been leaking almost 800,000 litres of crude daily since then. The site is located near Chandeleur Sound, host to the Breton National Wildlife Refuge and the Delta National Wildlife Refuge. This region is home to "more than 400 species including whales, egrets, herons, otters, American alligators, bottlenose dolphins and millions of migratory birds. This is also a critical location and time for nesting and spawning of many species, including bluefin tuna, sea turtles and brown pelicans." (via National Wildlife Foundation)

Short-term efforts come in the form of wildlife experts and volunteers. The real scale and long-term impact of this disaster will only be known by history, as was the case with the popular comparison, the Exxon Valdez spill. One week after the BP incident, speculations were that it may take months to clean this up, and potentially damaging methods are already being used out of desperation. There may be hope in some innovative science and lessons learned from the past.

At least Rush Limbaugh thinks theres no reason to panic.
"You do survive these things. I'm not advocating don't care about it hitting the shore or coast and whatever you can do to keep it out of there is fine and dandy, but the ocean will take care of this on its own if it was left alone and was left out there. It's natural. It's as natural as the ocean water is."

But then again, he also thinks "hardcore environmentalist wackos" blew up the rig on purpose in protest of more drilling.
(via ABC)

(more images here)

Rough and Tumblr: Historiography and the Permanence of Autobiography in the Blogosphere

Sooo, although I tried to be more frequent in my posts, my tumblr blog was much more accessible and user-friendly for what I want to do. I need the simplistic layout, the suggestions for formatting posts for either photos, quotes, music, links, just text, etc. Since my thoughts are usually fragmented its where I can accomplish my more successful "blogging"- although its usually its just other peoples ideas recreated as mine. This blog is a blog at heart, and most days I just dont have a heart to talk about about anything.

The only strange thing about tumblr is that I never know if people are watching or not. Its like sneaking out in the middle of the night to do graffiti. Eventually someone MUST see it, but you can never really know. Another funny thing about it is when people start "following" me. Sure it shows up that so-and-so now follows me, but why?! One guy from St. John's started following my blog and he posts frequently about his thesis and designs and basically its linked to his twitter feed. Random blog connections always fascinate me- it takes so little to feel gratified in being in the blog world on the small scale as long as you get the occasional comment or follower. But I watched Julie and Julia the other night and as Julie says, for every one person that comments there must be....hundreds, at least, that dont...right? Well, I'm not sure if I'm getting hundreds who view only, but its true. People in real life have told me that they've looked in before. And I think how many blogs I follow but have never commented because what do I say? I don't know the person, they don't want advice, just praise to make it worthwhile.

I wonder if any anthropologists are studying the blog culture in this way- expanding social circles, the obvious link to voyeurism, the nature of the relationships people form through blogging...there must be. It's fascinating. Being a long-distance friend in real life makes it very easy to understand the community of blog friends. Some of my friends I only get updated on through reading their blogs. (I guess thats why Facebook was so successful, but thats another story). I reread my whole Livejournal account not long ago, and although I never post to it, I keep it just to keep following those people who do. I started using it in July 2004!! Now that was a successful blog for me at the time. I had a lot to share back then and there were people that listened. It hold significant meaning for me as a historical document of my life.

That's another thing I believe attracts people to blogging. Permanence of thought and existence, reassurance that they are leaving some tangible mark on the world and for the world. It's really a revelation in history-making. I envy the future historians who might access ye olde blogosphere and realize what a gold mine of society it is. As an archaeologist I might never get the opportunity to be witness to the actual thoughts and ideologies that make people people. Despite efforts in modern archaeological theory, I don't believe this can ever happen to such an extent. The evidence left behind even to create an archaeological record makes this impossible, it's never one individual portraying themselves. Even in history, historiography represents sure one individual authour, but they are writing about others. It gives a glimpse into the position of the authour and their personal history, but only through true autobiography can a person portray their own history.

This might be motivation enough to keep blogging.

Solace, my game

Bon Iver

Bon Iver - The Wolves (Act I and II) from runangel on Vimeo.

Remind Me the Reason I Came

Remind me why I can't spend more time in a canoe and why I can't slow down the time when I get the opportunity.People always ask me why I came to St. John's from Toronto and every time I have a hard time answering them. I shrug the questions off by saying I have family here, or I heard great things about my supervisor (which are both true)...but there must be SOMETHING that pulled me here from halfway across the country. Maybe it was the romantic vision of reconnecting with my heritage, since my grandmother was born and grew up in this province, same with my closest relatives. Maybe it was the idea of living with the ocean in my window. Maybe it was that I would be halfway across the country. Every few years I get the pull inside my chest to uproot myself and live somewhere new.

Whether it be a new city or a new province. I applied to Memorial with a strong level of confidence for being accepted and googled all the interesting places and shops I could enjoy while I was here. But since I've been here I've hardley been to any restaurants or bars, hardley been able to explore beyond the tolerance of my legs walking up and down hills for a few hours, and tend to revisit the same places over and over. While I did the same in both Hamilton and Toronto I never felt as limited as I do here. It is an island, and maybe I'm getting cabin fever from being isolated by ocean from the rest of Canada. No freedom to hop on a train and travel to different cities and provinces. To be fair, there is much of this gorgeous province that I have yet to experience, but with limited means and opportunities to do so. I feel badly enough calling upon my cousin whenever I need a lift to the pet store, since the bussing experience is less than enjoyable, let alone asking me few friends if they want to take a road trip. I'm not that brave, or close to anyone.

One thing that I think would get me motivated to get outside and be part of group events is a photography club. Unfortunately, the university doesn't organize such a thing, and I find it outrageous to imagine paying to be part of such an experience, since I don't do it to become better or to hone my professional skills. I do it for the thrill and satisfaction of finding a moment worthy of preserving, of being outside and turning on my imagination and heightening my senses in search of beauty. I wonder how far my reach would extend if I took the initiative to start this myself... I am again lacking the resources to give guidance on locations, techniques and equipment, but maybe there are other people like me, looking for a means to achieve the same ends. I would even loan out my cameras for the day. Maybe I'll just start looking into places I could go alone to get back on the wagon. I am way out of practice. Something that has always instantly inspired me is the excursion, the journey into the wilderness, canoeing, hiking, lugging, lifting, groaning and becoming sore from overworked muscles, and generally enjoying myself in the torture of pushing myself beyond normal (sloth-like) operating functions. It has been too long since I've felt that.

I wish I could bypass the rest of my foreseeable future, to access the unknown time yet to come, for an adventure.

The Neanderthal Doesn't Want to Stand Up

Wow, I can't seem to keep this going no matter how much I want to (from time to time). I open the page to check the blogs I follow, get inspired, and then lose all interest when I read my old posts or look at the main page. My puppydogblog outside in the cold, scratching at the door.

It's a grey-ocean day and kind of reflects my sentiments on being back in St. John's. In some ways there is always the enticing mystery of the ocean waiting to be discovered, but when it comes down to it, it's just frigid, vast and dangerous. I miss the spontaneity of living in Hamilton where friends could drop in...and would. Mini-escapes have now been replaced by long-term plans, extravagant air travel, obligation to take advantage of the visiting time by seeing everyone, and confusion about where I feel more at home- alone or in the past.

Now it's time to plot the course for the rest of my necessary time here, break it up into manageable pieces and set goals to make it to each piece. And to muster some interest in getting to that last piece.

Off to See the Wizard

We've packed up and shipped out...at least, all the non perishable food, camping gear, notebooks, dig kits, etc. etc. necessary for 5-8 people for 48 days in the field. 56 days from the day of departure from St.John's on July 2 to Lewisporte where we stay overnight and prepare to catch a ferry overnight to Goose Bay. In Goose Bay we buy perishables, last minute items we forgot about, and perhaps beer. We stay overnight and leave the next day for Rigolet on a new ferry. In Rigolet we pick up our 50+ shipped packages, hire 1-3 kids for our crew, and perhaps buy beer. From there we get a boat ride in some guy's boat to our site. Speaking of, I'm pretty sure google maps updated their imaging of the Rigolet region from the last time I checked, since you can zoom in pretty far around Snooks Cove.
We have a break during the weekend of August 8-9th, which also happens to be the Annual Rigolet Salmon Festival! From then it's really only a couple weeks until we fly out of Rigolet to Goose Bay, change plans to a bigger one and fly to St. John's. That way we get outta there ASAP, back to mattresses, running hot water, fresh food, and kittens.

Now to gather all those things to entertain myself without the internet...

Wanderlust, united in movement

I started to think today that maybe I have come to a point where I am no longer afraid or anxious about the future. Maybe all it took was graduating, moving to a new city, and actually discovering that its easy to do something different, to live here, alone, doing something that I was afraid I might fail at. I am not afraid to be away from the people close to me (although the pangs of worry still come that if something happens to one of them it will take a lot to get there). I am not afraid of having of being stuck in a boring lifestyle, or stuck doing something that I might not care about. I think of all the possibilities, instead of the limitations. I sometimes feel good being surrounded by the unknown- people, places, direction. I look forward to having the opportunity of feeling 'finished', and being at a point where I can say, 'ok, what can I do next.' I've been doing courses and school and research for so long, and soon I will not have to worry about getting that essay in on time, cramming my readings in last minute. As of this summer I will be on my own schedule, doing work solely determined by my goals and methods, and will have one year until any real deadlines press on me.
Then what?
I am excited to get to that point of not knowing. I could go anywhere and do almost anything. Will I choose to go back to Ontario? Will I discover an exciting project that will inspire me to further research in a PhD? Will I just take a break from school life, find a job...just live somewhere. Will something totally unforeseen come into play that will determine all this for me? Will I come into a lot of money and just travel the world?
*crosses fingers*

Did I imagine it would be like this?
Was it something like this I wished for?
Or will I want more?