I'm in the computer lab running simulations, trying to make "good figures" for a conference paper. I have tickets to the Rocky Horror Show in a few hours...fun or prestige, fun or prestige...

you guys might be geeky and lonely but you are doing interesting and useful stuff.

I, on the other hand, have put on my slippers and my nightgown, my hair up in a net and I am ready to dive into bed. Yay! that's saturday night fever!

what kind of research are you doing muddgirl?

I'm reading me some fine Bertrand Russell tonight for a class (no, really, kmellis, I am) after having put it off for a month. I'm thinking of sneaking out to Dairy Queen for a chocolate shake. Woo hoo.

but you are doing interesting and useful stuff

Wow, I rarely hear it described that way.

you know, I think that people who work/study Saturday night are doing very intersting and/or very useful stuff. Any kind of work. I bet on it.

I'd ask you a million questions if I could but I hate to impose.

postmodernmillie, what class? This is why I like curriculums in this country. Ok, some curriculums.

Impose away, the hard part would be shutting me up.

Is anyone doing anything more lonely and geekier tonight? … my girlfriend

Uh huh.

I'm reading essays by David Velleman. I like them! I'm also waiting to hear back from a professor about what the actual reading assignment is. My prediction: I won't hear back tonight!

Carmina, I'm taking 20th Century Philosophy. Sounds like a Jeopardy category, doesn't it? And that chocolate shake was hella good. Okay, back to work. have a great night in your slippers and hairnet and whatnot.

1)what are the pics you posted?
2)why confederate monuments, just them (as in: we are planning to tear down the damn things)
3)are you state funded employee or some sort of organization? What is your research background and you got involved with this?
4)what do you exactly mean "researching"? Cataloguing (as in update travel guides?) or a bigger project (related to historical awareness?)

(You do not have to answer, btw)

Tonight I'm reading a graphic novel about zombies. Following that, I intend to read Marvel: 1602, which places well known superheros in the year 1602. Tomorrow I am going to my office, where I will write software for many hours, and end my Sunday with a trip to the library, where I will dig up further details on the history of Portland's Victorian-era sex trade. Nerdy weekends are the best weekends!

What-EVER! I just ordered a pizza and am watching one the greatest movies ever made, Apocalypse Now on Bravo.

Charlie don't surf; charlie orders pizza and Pepsi in cans!

It's Saturday? Didn't notice.
(Top that for nerdity...)

I'm skipping the Wolf Parade show because I'm feeling a little burnt out from the bar thing. Instead, I'm alternating between the TV and the computer and soon will settle into bed with my new book and read before dozing off. Tomorrow, I'll most likely have lunch with the grandparents before tackling the homework that's piling up. I'm such a rockstar.

1) The first link is some random guys web site. The second is a bunch of vets at the dedication of a monument in Sylva, NC. The last one is the dedication of a marker at the battle of Bentonville I believe.

2) Confederate monuments because they are here where I live. Seriously though, the memory of the Civil War is to me more fascinating than all the battle stuff. Studying these monuments and their dedication ceremonies show how the elite whites of the South worked to justify a war fought in defense of slavery, keep a sense of white identity (ie: stop the poor whites from getting together with the recently freed slaves and voting together) and impose their sense of order on a rapidly changing society. By studying these I've learned a lot about the geography of my adopted state, also political history, gender history, and social history.

3) Not a state funded employee, doing this on my own. I have a graduate degree in Public History. I recently had an article published on this and have hopes of doing a book.

4) Both really. I would like to catalog them, but also all that stuff in answer number two. My main sources are newspaper accounts of the unveiings (most dedicated between 1885 and 1914), also some first hand accounts in old letters, etc., and several abandoned surveys done years ago.

Aren't you glad you asked?

so, you *were* fishing for compliments! :-)

Have you heard of Mefi Projects?

This actually reminds me: a friend of mine returned from a trip to Vienna, Austria recently and complained about a soviet-era extravagant sculpture in a prominent location in the city. They described it as possibly the largest in the entire city. So the question to all of us, fellow dinner attendees, was why the hell are they keeping it these days? Well, you can imagine the heated conversation and different kinds of answers he received. The fact of the matter is that muffling one part of history (however bad/awkward or what have you it is) is not the only way to go in order to heal wounds. Maybe not the fastest way, maybe not the most effective. That said, monuments -unless explitily re-defined (not re-designed necessarily)- are celebrations of something. At lease to my humble mind.

thanks for indulging me and do keep us posted on your work --mefi projects! I like your take on this.

If my girlfriend

Yeah, rub it in, eh?

Yeah, rub it in, eh?

Yeah, I didn't want to seem like a TOTAL loser. Its important to me what a bunch of strangers on the internet think of me. :P

so, you *were* fishing for compliments! :-)

Not so much fishing for compliments as looking for opening for babbling about something I'm obsessed with. I'm familiar with Mefi Projects, that seems more geared to web projects, I don't have the technical skills or the time to make a web page of this stuff, I'm going the dead tree route.

Porpoise is making me feel unloved.

Postmodernmillie, whom are you reading?

I spent the night stuffing candy and small toys into tiny plastic eggs. It will take the kids about 5 minutes to find them all tomorrow.

pmm: I mean in the course generally; I see you're reading Russell now.

Hey, saturday night losers! Who wants to translate a poem for me?

We were supposed to go to a wrap party that got cancelled, so... I ate bean soup and a toasted cheese sandwich and watched "A Beautiful Mind", then I read (Chronicles of Amber).

I, my girlfriend, a close friend and another friend I have not seen for about a year sat in the yard at the Victoria House Tavern and drank some beer. Now I'm back home and working on an SSL VPN client.

two words: color. correction.

The wife and Wonderboy and I went to the drive-in to see Ice Age 2. Beautiful early summer evening here, 70 or so with a strong breeze coming off the plains. The boy played on the playground equipment in front of the screen while we watched a huge orange sun drop behind the tree line. The film was fairly stupid but it was still a great night.

I spent the night stuffing candy and small toys into tiny plastic eggs. It will take the kids about 5 minutes to find them all tomorrow.

Still and all, Jrossi, I think your Saturday night has the greatest payoff. No?

Instead of finishing the production work for the comic (which I'll have to work on double time today), I drank some beer, played two hands of UNO, and read up on software development / project management strategies.

Along with kenko, I'd be interested in your reading list, or an abbreviated version, Postmodernmillie.

It's not much of a reading list. The prof compiled a spiral-bound packet of selections from about twenty philosophers, and we spend an entire class period covering maybe two pages at a time. It's too bad we're not really taking an in-depth look at anything. I'm doing my term paper on Russell, so that's why I'm reading him.

Thanks for updating the thread. Keep on Rockin' the Russell!