So what does it take to get from North Carolina to Bangkok, Thailand? Apparently $1,079 and 9,000 miles. Holy crap. Count down to that adventure beings...now.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Crisis of Competence
Big stats test coming up on Wednesday, got to do well.....actually, after I failed my first stats test (seriously, like the first time I have failed anything since Honors Intro. to Oceanography sophomore year of college - apparently I hate the ocean and how it works) I have to get an A on everything to get my passing B. Awesome, I love adding the stress of trying no to get kicked out of my program to the regular stresses of class. The good news is that I understand what we are doing...ANOVAs can be kind of fun.
On the thesis front, things have actually started. Spent two hours at Chapel Hill analyzing my first skeleton. For the first 20 minutes I had a crisis of competence when I realized that enthusiasm and love for what I'm learning doesn't make up for actually needing to be able to apply that information. This is the BIG project and my methods and general analysis need to be accurate - my future as a bio-anthropologist literally depends on it. And of course the first bone I look at (radius) I mis-side. Ah!...crap. This is why Bass' bone manual is now my constant companion. And I am more OCD than usual, re-checking the bone over and over to make sure I didn't miss anything. It'll work out, just got to repeat what my thesis mentor said to me...it's just a master's thesis, it's just a masters thesis. As if shrug no big deal.
Here's something fun for the kids at home...we've been learning about non-metric traits...little weird things on the bones that occur because of occupation or genetics. People are trying to use them as indicators of family association, which I find interesting. Anyway, stand beside a table and place your hands flat on the surface, keeping your arms straight. If the inside of your elbow pushes forward beyond the normal 180 degree straight line of your arm, then congratulations! you probably have a septal aperture. Which is basically just an extra foramen (hole) in the bottom of your humerus where your ulna attaches (olecranon process). *See picture*
(from Septal Aperture of the Humerus in a Mediaeval Human Skeletal Population by Simon Mays)
This has been associated primarily with females, but newer research has shown that it is in both sexes. One of my profs. has done work in the Balkans (helping with identification after the genocide in the late 90's) and found this trait in the male population there. Interesting stuff.
On the thesis front, things have actually started. Spent two hours at Chapel Hill analyzing my first skeleton. For the first 20 minutes I had a crisis of competence when I realized that enthusiasm and love for what I'm learning doesn't make up for actually needing to be able to apply that information. This is the BIG project and my methods and general analysis need to be accurate - my future as a bio-anthropologist literally depends on it. And of course the first bone I look at (radius) I mis-side. Ah!...crap. This is why Bass' bone manual is now my constant companion. And I am more OCD than usual, re-checking the bone over and over to make sure I didn't miss anything. It'll work out, just got to repeat what my thesis mentor said to me...it's just a master's thesis, it's just a masters thesis. As if shrug no big deal.
Here's something fun for the kids at home...we've been learning about non-metric traits...little weird things on the bones that occur because of occupation or genetics. People are trying to use them as indicators of family association, which I find interesting. Anyway, stand beside a table and place your hands flat on the surface, keeping your arms straight. If the inside of your elbow pushes forward beyond the normal 180 degree straight line of your arm, then congratulations! you probably have a septal aperture. Which is basically just an extra foramen (hole) in the bottom of your humerus where your ulna attaches (olecranon process). *See picture*
(from Septal Aperture of the Humerus in a Mediaeval Human Skeletal Population by Simon Mays)
This has been associated primarily with females, but newer research has shown that it is in both sexes. One of my profs. has done work in the Balkans (helping with identification after the genocide in the late 90's) and found this trait in the male population there. Interesting stuff.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Oh Hopewell
So much homework....tonight will be an all nighter...ugh. But part of what I am working on tonight is combing a massive database on the Hopewell Indian culture for information on aged remains. They were moundbuilders in the center of Ohio and their influence spread out from WV to the Dakotas. Pretty neat stuff, I grew up across the river from the mounds in Marietta, Ohio. Although, my professor says this particular mound wasn't Hopewellian, but an earlier group.
Interesting that burial mounds were so prolific throughout the Mid-west and South. Even more so because it was practices by several different cultures. Early anthropological theory would say this is probably because of diffusion, one group came up with it and others thought it was a neat idea. I am not a big diffusionist though, at least not without actual proof. I figure the mounds are a product of independent invention. Some cultures (Hopewell, Mississippians, etc) came up with the idea and, because their cultures were so extensive and far-reaching, mounds popped up around the better part of the Mid-west and South.
Conus Mound in Marietta, Ohio.
Built by the Adena Indians, later a revolutionary war and early settler cemetery was built around it.
Image grabbed from James Jacobs archaeoblog: http://www.jqjacobs.net/blog/marietta.html
Interesting that burial mounds were so prolific throughout the Mid-west and South. Even more so because it was practices by several different cultures. Early anthropological theory would say this is probably because of diffusion, one group came up with it and others thought it was a neat idea. I am not a big diffusionist though, at least not without actual proof. I figure the mounds are a product of independent invention. Some cultures (Hopewell, Mississippians, etc) came up with the idea and, because their cultures were so extensive and far-reaching, mounds popped up around the better part of the Mid-west and South.
Conus Mound in Marietta, Ohio. Built by the Adena Indians, later a revolutionary war and early settler cemetery was built around it.
Image grabbed from James Jacobs archaeoblog: http://www.jqjacobs.net/blog/marietta.html
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Love a little iron, A little protein
*sigh* There is nothing on this world better than a grilled steak filet with a nice warm, red center. I haven't had one since New Year's and it had left a lot to be desired. So with a little money that the dad sent me, I took myself out to a wonderful steak dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. Hmmm Dallas filet. Amazing. Of course, everyone else had the same idea on a Saturday night and I was able to find a single seat at the bar. The bar can be kind of a fun place, you end up having conversations with random people and hearing some pretty crazy stories. For instance, last night.So, I'm sitting there working on some homework and looking over some thesis stuff...loving! the wonderful rolls they have there. This dude sits down and eventually strikes up a conversation, mainly he's just talking about his job, his life and where he likes to hang out. I mention a bar that a friend of mine likes to go to when we all go out and that leads to a conversation on why he got barred from a bar. This story involved a bar fight that consisted of the older opponent ending up in critical condition and the dude I was talking to being arrested for several felonies including assault and attempted murder. Holy Shit! Apparently, over this guy's 40 or so years he had never been in trouble and it got dropped down to misdemeanors. And his opponent made a full recovery. Crazy. First time I'd had a conversation with a dude who had been charged with something you hear about on Law and Order.
All right, lunch time, got to go make my delicious delicious wrap. And then finishing homework because sadly, vacation is over tomorrow.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Hmm
Sadly, sadly spring break is winding down and I have to actually make sure I get homework done instead of making really good plans for what I will be doing tomorrow. Seriously, based on the massively detailed and amazingly complex and hopeful iteneraries I make for myself, you would I think I was actually getting stuff done...but I'm not. Although, I can feel a little better because thesis work did get done...poster presentation that will be presented next week is just about done...and my several mental health days that I took when I ran away to the mom's house for puppies and food were amazing.
On another note, Thailand bioarch trip is getting closer. My first field school AND I get to dig up bones! I have to pay for it and buy my tickets soon, but I am officially on the list to go. So exciting! Can't believe I will be in the country of the King and I...way too bad that Yul Brynner will not be there. But there are elephants and a tiger preserve that I am hoping to go see and unfortunately, monkeys. I hate monkeys. They are so dirty and they come up and steal your stuff. And I have no idea what to do if I am approached. And they are in the town we will be staying in, just wondering around. Luckily, though, they aren't so much around the Buddhist temple where we are digging. And it really is getting closer, we just got an email from our prof. detailing things we will need. How we have to wear shirts with at least short sleeves and long pants when we dig to respect the Buddhist ideas on modesty (really this is just for the girls, but our prof. decided everyone should be the same - which is nice). Ah! I am getting so excited, this trip is going to so awesome. I need to start making lists of things I need to do and get before I leave, so far I know I need rain poncho, maybe hiking shoes, a shiny new trowel for digging, and probably several drugs (multi-stage antibiotic for traveller's stomach issues and possibly something for malaria - though hopefully not the one that the Army was giving out and made some of the soldiers go crazy - small statistic, I know, but still).
Found a new blog through another blog I am reading, Delta Whiskey is an awesome cook. She takes pictures of her food as she cooks it and gives some really good instructions and reasons for some substitutions. I am still learning about cooking so I find her info really helpful. Plus, she's pretty funny, so check her out.
Finally, what has happened to Big Tobacco? On the right side of my blog there is a growing list of blogs I read and one of them is from a staff sgt writing from Iraq. He was updating pretty regularly and then all of a sudden his website doesn't exist. This is probably a bad sign considering where he was - meaning someone higher up the chain got pissed. Anyone have any ideas?
Ok, off to work.
On another note, Thailand bioarch trip is getting closer. My first field school AND I get to dig up bones! I have to pay for it and buy my tickets soon, but I am officially on the list to go. So exciting! Can't believe I will be in the country of the King and I...way too bad that Yul Brynner will not be there. But there are elephants and a tiger preserve that I am hoping to go see and unfortunately, monkeys. I hate monkeys. They are so dirty and they come up and steal your stuff. And I have no idea what to do if I am approached. And they are in the town we will be staying in, just wondering around. Luckily, though, they aren't so much around the Buddhist temple where we are digging. And it really is getting closer, we just got an email from our prof. detailing things we will need. How we have to wear shirts with at least short sleeves and long pants when we dig to respect the Buddhist ideas on modesty (really this is just for the girls, but our prof. decided everyone should be the same - which is nice). Ah! I am getting so excited, this trip is going to so awesome. I need to start making lists of things I need to do and get before I leave, so far I know I need rain poncho, maybe hiking shoes, a shiny new trowel for digging, and probably several drugs (multi-stage antibiotic for traveller's stomach issues and possibly something for malaria - though hopefully not the one that the Army was giving out and made some of the soldiers go crazy - small statistic, I know, but still).
Found a new blog through another blog I am reading, Delta Whiskey is an awesome cook. She takes pictures of her food as she cooks it and gives some really good instructions and reasons for some substitutions. I am still learning about cooking so I find her info really helpful. Plus, she's pretty funny, so check her out.
Finally, what has happened to Big Tobacco? On the right side of my blog there is a growing list of blogs I read and one of them is from a staff sgt writing from Iraq. He was updating pretty regularly and then all of a sudden his website doesn't exist. This is probably a bad sign considering where he was - meaning someone higher up the chain got pissed. Anyone have any ideas?
Ok, off to work.
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