Particulars

Well, I'd thought I would post a little update on what's been goin' on lately.

Today I'm getting a TON of work done. I'm digitizing like a fiend and I've had a lot of really nice illustrations to work with. Plus my coworker isn't here, so I have peace and quiet. If you know me, you know that I love talking. However, when it's worktime/papertime/readingtime, I get down to business like a squirell looking for his nuts. So, as much as I am great in a team or social setting or like a coworker, I really like working on my own sometimes.

As for the new job hunt, it's still going. I have my eye on some writing positions and a digital imaging specialist one too. Right now, I'm applying here and there to jobs I really want, since I'm not desperate. I've been extended at the Smithsonian with chance for another extension after that. So, I have full-time museum work until about June as of now. I'm going to start assisting (for free) on a new exhibit at the Woodrow Wilson House, where I wrote an exhibit last year. I will hopefully be going to the various archives around and digging into personal letters and other primary documents. I know, can you believe it? I'll work for free? Gotta love the museum field. We're all suckers. I think we fancy ourselves activists in a way. Our motto? Preserving and educating one obscure object at a time.

I've also been reading a ton lately. I admit that I actually read a Pride and Prejudice sequel, called Mr.Darcy Takes a Wife. Man, is it saucy. Whew. Apparently Austen purists HATE it, but I didn't care that much. The plot was okay, the characters pretty much in keeping with the original, the archaic language overused, and some of the sex scenes bizarre. But, if it means more Mr. Darcy, I have to admit I'm not that picky. I watched What A Girl Wants for Christ's sake, just for Colin Firth. Last night I finished Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. I would definitely recommend this one. It's like Last Temptation of Christ, but the with word "fuck" (a lot), teenage angst, boyhood pranks, and Kung Fu. Hilarious, touching, and fairly well researched. I'm a big fan of reimagined historical figures. It shows that there are more dimensions to our "heroes" than a lot of the crap we're fed in public schools, even if it is fictional. Breaks that wall down, you know?

I've been reading some non-fiction too. Even though I'm not in school, I got the syllabi for some cultural studies classes at GWU and I have some of those articles set aside. I've been trying to reread Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, since I never really got my head around it the first time... And, since becoming obsessed with Lost I've been poking around Locke and Rousseau.

That's really about it. I've been trying to socialize as much as possible, since most of my friends start their new jobs starting the first of the year and we'll all go back to being exhausted. I'll be spending New Years here in D.C. for the first time ever. I've been in Arkansas for every other year. We're doing a Murder Mystery party that's a college reunion script. So, a keg, some pizza, jello shots and drinking games will add to the ambiance of our bad 90s clothes. Rock on.

Well, back to my Nectoliparis pelagicus, I guess.