27 February 2006

The Sights...

Just a quick look at life in Farmington:
Note-all these photos were taken with my phone...


After running out of oil and gas wells, they stuck me on tracing feature maps.






After eight hours of that i was ready for a rest. I headed to Shiprock.
Why you ask? To see the rock that looks like a ship of course.






From there I headed to the Four Corners. I had been before but it was still as thrilling as i remember. Can you feel the sarcasam? Seriously, this place was so dead.




Also, i like these mirrors in case you are thinking about buying me something.



Sunday, Thunderpussy and I headed over to Chaco Canyon for a hike. Chaco, as you may or may not know, is a true mystery of the archaeological world. I really cant do it justice here but check out the Chaco Culture National Historic Park website for more information.

TP, and Seamus (her lovely pup) and i had a great hike on the 5.4 mile Pueblo Alto loop (highly recomended as there was hardly anyone around).







The trail takes you on top of the mesa above the sites, like Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketl, pictured here.



On top of the mesa you get to see Chacoan roads, ladders, pecked basins etc. You also get to see Pueblo Alto and New Alto. New Alto was, as the name suggests, newer.







Chaco has a lot of pottery and lithics lying around still. Before you hike on any trail you have to fill out a permit that provides the NPS with all your personal information. This is to prevent collecting of these artifacts. It seems to work. I was very pleased to see how many people had found neato pottery sherds and had just placed them on the roomblocks for others to see rather then placing them in their pockets. Very nice...

I took a couple of photos of myself but this is how they turned out...




yikes...anyone else seen The Omen?



Whelp...there you go kiddos. My weekend in Farmington.

Back to work today where my hopes of going into the field were dashed and instead i resigned myself to filling out excel spreadsheets. I leave this friday.


Peace-
B

Monday

Indebongu made me happy.

23 February 2006

Land of Enchantment

If your idea of "Enchantment" is meth busts and dui's then Farmington is for you.

This town is a hole. No doubt about it. Archaeology takes you to a lot of crappy places (dont be fooled by those slick National Geographic pieces...) but so far, for me...farmington is the worst. I cant tell if it is really that bad or just my bad attitude.

I can tell you that the Motel 6 in Farmington is horrible. Some drunk guy at my door at 2am. Thunderpussy waking up (at 4ish) to a police bust in the room above. Yesterday we were both treated to some loud sex (my neighbors) and a drunken late night fight (TP's neighboors). Ahh...Farmington. Where hope goes to die.

Today we have settled into the managers apartment at the La Quinta Inn. I like La Quinta. They saved my butt in Tucson once. This is an honest to god apartment with a kitchen (TP can cook!! Lucky me...), a bedroom, cable and wireless. I am watching curling as i write this and am very excited about it.

The work, while helpful to my co-workers, is less then inspiring. My eyes are fried from staring into the lighting table all day. Who let those people map hundreds of burned rock middens??

This weekend i plan on checking out Chaco, the four corners, and Shiprock. Oh yes, soon i shall upload lovely phone photos of my feet in four states. Feel the enchantment.

For now...enjoy this photo of something i drew to make me happy.




And this photo of one of the only things in Farmington that has entertained me.





Pancake Alley...can Pankcake Services be far behind?

20 February 2006

If wishes were dreams...

Beggars would ride horses. Isnt there some stupid saying that goes like that?

submitted from success has failed

15 February 2006

Work Haiku

Three haikus about archaeology...

Fuck you, fuck you, fuck
archaeology
fuck you, fuck you job

Farmington eeww gross,
Thirteen DUI's for real.
This place is unsafe.

What? No per diem?
How can i live without you?
Oh, I shall miss you.


And now...
Sleep

14 February 2006

What other dungeon is so dark as one's own heart. What jailer so inexorable as one's self? -Nathaniel Hawthorne

Valentines Day. Bird's least favorite holiday. Most people who know the bird, know that I dislike this day. In fact, hate it. I have been single and coupled on many many valentines days but have always refused to celebrate it. There is just something that feels slimy about it all. Maybe it is the cheap stuffed animals and silk flowers, the crumbly chocolate and cheesy cards.

My argument against this holiday is that it is so commercialized. It isnt even about love, but about how you can get laid that night. About what you can buy so that you wont end up on the couch (does this turn into a couch??). It is about running to the store at 5:15 on your way home from work and picking up the last set of sorry looking flowers and picking out the first card that says, "To My Love." It is guys spending hundreds of dollars on a special night that, no matter how great, will never live up to his woman's expectations. It is about feeling like trash if you are single. Throwing parties with the "i am proud to be single" theme but really, deep down hoping against all hope that something special and magical happens.

Munpe Q asked me, how is this different then xmas. I reply that xmas has a back story to it. "So, Valentines Day doesnt?" No...of course not. So he tells me....google you jackass. No, he doesnt say that. But he should have.

The History of Valentines Day a nice little article written by the folks at the History Channel (and not one mention of world war I or II if you can believe it!). I wont go into it all here, read the story it is good, but suffice it to say, there is a back story. Several really...and some of them are very quaint.

Perhaps you are right Q. Maybe V-day doesnt have to be about giving roses and candy to your sweetheart. Maybe it can be a day to celebrate loved ones in your life. Whether they be sisters, or brothers, or good friends. The idea of reaching out and telling someone in your life that you appreciate them. That you are happy they are part of your world. That is something I can get behind.

And so, in a bold and daring move...i am going to semi-celebrate the dreaded v-day. There is still a strict ban on all things red and pink. On all heart shaped crap. On fancy dinners and goofy carriage rides. It will be a day celebrated with words only. Just a small tiny gesture that lets people in my life know that I care about them.

A tip to boys interested in courting that special lady. Dont do as the Romans do " the boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goathide strips."

Just gross...

12 February 2006

Heat

How desperate for sleep must you be to jerk off a cat with a Q-tip....

turns out I wasnt that desperate. give it time though...

10 February 2006

Bits and Pieces

We just got back from field work in Colorado Springs (one whole day early due to snow and our general ass-kickingness...) and i thought i would talk about some things that popped into my head while I was gone.

How come no one waves anymore? There was a time when, if you slowed down to let someone get in your lane or squooshed someone across the crosswalk in front of your car that you would get a little wave. I still wave but it seems like I am the only one anymore. Sure, sometimes it is a sarcastic wave but mostly it is genuine. When I do get a little wave of thanks, it makes me smile and stress less about the stupid truck i am driving and the fact that boulder hasnt plowed their freakin roads.

Mario, TP and i were eating in the springs on Tuesday. Mario gets up to use the restroom and comes back laughing. "You know those toliet seat covers they have in the stalls? On one in the men's room someone has written 'Free Cowboy Hats'" Ahh...TP and i immediatley look for a sharpie to do the same in the womens restroom. See, I dont mind graffiti if it's entertaining. Like Pictures Of Walls. That is a nice waste of time.

Most of the area we were surveying was private land. We came upon one house, an abandoned salt box that maybe dates to the late 1800's. Trash scattered everywhere. Abandoned vehicles, couches, bed springs, stove parts, boats, trailers, junk...everywhere. Later we find out the house was a meth lab. The police busted it last spring and we arent supposed to go anywhere near it. Or touch anything near it. Oh yes, thanks for the warning everyone.

Why is this winter so goddamned windy? Really, if I wanted to live in Cheyenne I would move on up there. For god sakes...what happened to the snow?** Jeez man!!


My ankle is wanky. Not the ankle but the achilles tendon. It is squeaky sounding. I cant really describe it but if you see me, ask and I will let you feel it. It ached a bit over the course of the survey but really, i think what made it worse was the goddamn grass covered animal holes that i nearly stepped into.


If i had a cheesy "Dances With Wolves" name it would be "Scares the Rabbits." I scared at least three bunnies and four jack rabbits while tromping through the prairie.



Sadly, there are reports and tables calling my name.

Tweet tweet
~B



** SNOW UPDATE**
Oh, there it is.




PS This last post was so bad that I came in here to tell you all that I know...i know it is bad but I am sleepy so let it go eh?

03 February 2006

Ahem....

It feels strange to interupt my serious blog with something like this but I cant resist.

I never really knew how much i liked donkeys until a co-worker,Mario, expressed his love of them. Donkeys really are cute!

Thunderpussy just printed out an application for adopting wild horses and burros from the BLM and gave it to him. This gave us all a good laugh (what you ask? Why yes, my boss is in India...how did you know?). Did you know that the once you've adopted your burro you cant brand it? And, if your burro dies within 6 months of adoption you get a new one, FREE! Wow...

So that led me to ask Mario about donkeys and how much space you need for one. As i was googling the answer (yes, i did install it on my computer-all by myself) I came across this website.

Miniature Donkeys!! Oh god I want one! Check out the For Sale and if you think your brain can handle the cuteness then look at the nursery link.

Holy Mother of God they are so fuckin cute!! God be buggered that's a big ass fajita plate!

******
Also, just so you know. I will miss you Freddie but i understand.

Secret Rage

Space is neat. Some uber geeky space stuff is going on and really, i couldnt be more happy about it. Read here about SuitSat-1, a disembodied spacesuit circling the earth. I, for one, shall be either staying up very late tonight or getting up very early tomorrow morning to check it out. Find yourself a ham radio or police scanner and tune in.


Two Minutes Hate
My rage is no secret, the title actually refers to an article about Colorado inmates who's locations are being kept secret for their own saftey. One such inmate, the shitbag of a human, Brent Brents. (as a quick aside...all you parents out there with John Johnsons and Peter Petersons, see what happens when you curse your child with the same first and last name??)

For those not in the know or not living in Colorado (hey there squirt!) Brents terrorized Denver Neighborhoods this time last year with sexual assults on 14 women and children. He was recently sentenced to 1500 years in prision, but I think they shoulda killed the mother fucker. Whooo...that sounded harsh but I dont take it back.

As part of Brents guilty plea, he asked to serve his time out of state. "In a brief telephone interview Thursday, Brents said he does not want anyone to know where he is because he is afraid for his life."

Oh well.....kiss my pooper you low-life sack of skin. 'Oh, i am Brent Brents and i am brave enough to brutally beat and rape an 85 year old grandmother and her two 11 year old granddaughters but I am scared of being killed in prision."

So, if you are reading the article you see that a white supremacy prison gang that Brents was associated with has "threatened to kill him when he returned to prison because of the nature of his crimes." Yeah, so now I find myself in a place where i am cheering on a white supremacy prision gang. I mean, how fucking sick do you have to be for a prision gang to say, "Whoa man, that's outta line."

All of this led me to thinking about treatment for prisioners. I think that, often times treatment works. However, with sex offenders, i dont buy it. I dont know why i think others can be rehabilitated and sex offenders can't but for some reason it just doesnt seem possible to me. The statistics arent there for it to me, but maybe that is because we just havent spent money on actually trying to help these people. Maybe the idea is so rage inducing that I would rather they be locked up forever...

Check out these links and tell me what you think.
Sex Offender Treatment Works
Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers
Why Files

01 February 2006

Misspeak

Do you ever just feel like a big ol' socially inept dork?

For someone who feels like they can communicate pretty well, this just drives me batty.

I suppose we all have days-going on what feels like a week-of this. Rest assured my little friends that it will get better. And if you happen to come into contact with me and think, "Dang that bird isnt very friendly..." understand that I am just off my kilter. More so then ususal.


As an aside; why the hell does it seem like my sesame chicken glued to the bottom of my bowl. Seriously, screw epoxy, just use the sesame goop that comes from the CH Asian Cafe.