Hugo at Christmas

Ok, so I still don't have nay of these 3 papers finished. But I am getting really close with one. I just discovered that I should maybe translate the glyphs from one of the scenes, but I don't have time now and I'm gonna skip it. I hope it doesn't ruin my paper.
I am afraid I'll be up past midnight working on this. Damn it.
Hugo is playing with Mason, his brother who lives next door.
If I flunk out, though, at least we can go home and live at the farm. Hugo loves it there and so do I.

Hugo Pooed in the House

I didn't get a picture, but Hugo pooed in the bedroom floor tonight. I saw him do it so maybe it was my fault. I was reading for Methods class and watched him wee wee on his wee wee pad in the bedroom, then he started sniffing around it and by the time he'd assumed the squat position and I realized what was happening, it was too late. But it was ok. I took him right outside and it was solid so easy to clean.
He's such a sweet puppy.
Anyway, we came back in and I was talking to him about what I was doing this time last year. And I thought, "why am I not blogging evey day so I'll have a record of it?"
So I talked to Hugo some more, grabbed my glass of wine and opened the computer.
Hugo is pulling at my pyjama legs right now but if I ignore him long enough he gives up.
Anyway, today was all right I guess.
Only slightly depressing.
I still feel scared that I won't be able to finish all my papers on time and I'll flunk out. So today I was even thinking about looking for a job as a manager (or even just as a worker) at Dominoes in Jasper. The stress I feel has been making my mouth get ulcers. And I don't even feel like talking to Sayed. Even though he ALWAYS makes me feel better.
I know I'm not stupider than the other cretins in my program. I just don't know if I can produce work as fast as I will need to here.
Anyway, I spent all day today working on a paper on that Tanagra figurine for Hellenistic (I found some Cupids with the same face veil so that is very promising. Or maybe they are Eros. Anyway, I didn't make much actual writing headway, but finding the cupids felt like a breakthrough.
And I didn't do any work on the Theban Tomb paper and that should be my priority. I have to meet with Dr. Robins tomorrow and tell her I didn't get anywhere over this past week.
Well, I did make a chronological powerpoint, but I still don't have all the images I need and now I'm confused about finding them.
I chose a painting to talk about for Methods - a watercolor and pencil of the Hypostyle Hall at the Temple of Isis at Philae. I love that temple and I hate/love Orientalizing art. It made me think maybe I should choose Orientalizing for my second subject instead of Medieval. Except I don't even know when Orientalizing is. I think it's like 19th century. Or maybe a little later.
I'm illustrating this with a painting by the Orientalist Frederick Bridgman from Alabama. And the watercolor by him that I want to present for Methods next week. And a picture of a Tanagra type figurine (not ours from the museum, but one very like it in Germany) and a cute-ass picture of Hugo. Because he's great.
But it all really makes me wonder, what WAS I doing one year ago today?
Today, is Hugo's 10 week birthday. And at least I have it recorded.
Oh, I forgot the part about the parade and the women in pink walking for cancer awareness. Hugo was scared of the parade and noise and then we joined the walkers and he kinda liked it. A little. They loved him - well, who doesn't?

Hugo is driving me crazy

How can I love this puppy so much and still want to kill him sometimes? He was just quite horrible on the leash this afternoon. He is too independent and doesn't want to cooperate and I'm trying to be patient and just give him treats for any little good thing he does and praise him to the heavens, but today is just sucking. Well. Actually it was really great until we went for a walk. And I think, really, it's just the cold weather that's pissing me off. My ears hurt. And Hugo wasn't cooperating outside.
Oh well. Maybe he'll be better tonight.
He's really cute.
And he's smart.

Puppy again

And here he is at 4 weeks and 5 days old.

Puppy

I am going to get a puppy if it lives. Dawn's dog had 7 big puppies but nobody knows who the daddy is. I have mine picked out and I'm thinking of calling him Skipper or Biscuit. He's blond and surfer-looking. I hope he doesn't get something bad and die before he gets big enough for me to take. Jade took this picture of him on September 16. He was born on August 21, so he was 3 weeks and 5 days old here. He seems to be getting blonder over time. He was much darker when I first saw him (about a week after he was born).

Emily Lau with Istanpitta

This little clip lets you hear Emily Lau singing. Her voice was so beautiful. And I loved the vielle (the medieval violin) that Shula is playing. It sounds so much nicer than a modern violin. She said that's because the back is flat so it isn't as shrill.
I had dinner with Emily and Shula and Al last night, and I enjoyed talking to them so much, but I sort of feel like they think I'm retarded. Anyway, the video is not as good as they were in life.

Istanpitta again

OK, this little clip is just a section from a longer piece, but I love the way I can hear Celtic AND Sufi music in this!

Istanpitta in Atlanta

I begin to understand. This is music from Jewish, Arab, and Celts from Gaul. That's why contemporary Celtic music sounds like Sufi music to me! It all mixed together in 13th century Iberia! Rock and Roll. I get it now.

More Geocahing with Al

So, Al had a phone with a GPS and we set off looking for the cache. It was supposed to be in an ammo box, somewhere near the ruins of an old house. We found the ruins and then Al triangulated an area with his phone so we just walked around and looked. I found it! Yay me! It was hidden pretty well, in a hole and covered with leaves and sticks. It must be all my woodsy skills that enabled me to penetrate the disguise and find the thing. Since you are supposed to leave something, and we weren't really prepared, Al left an Istanpitta card and I left a picture of Sayed :)
It was totally fun to find the cache. It had a lot of weird things in it: a little kaleidoscope, a few tiny rubber animals, a small robber statue, a couple of pens, and just random small things. But it is SO COOL to find buried treasure! I might be addicted, except I don't have a GPS cell phone.

Geocaching with Al

Al came to Atlanta because his band Istanpitta was playing at a church downtown on Sunday, so I met up with him on Saturday to hang out. We went to Sweetwater State Park to hike around and that's when Al hipped me to this wonderful thing called geocaching! It's apparently very popular - so how have I not heard of it before?!?!?! Anyway, people hide random things in weatherproof boxes in the woods and in other public places and put the coordinates online so if you have a GPS phone, you can track them down. And when you find a cache, you open it and sign the list. Some of them you can take from and some of them you are supposed to add to. I found this one!

Emory

Another epoch in my life is beginning. I got moved from Tuxtepec to Atlanta and have been going to school at Emory for three weeks now. It's a lot of work and a ton of reading and I'm not sure how I will do in Dr. Robin's 18th Dynasty Tombs class. But, here are some cute pictures around campus. I am so afraid I'll flunk out my first semester.

Ginger Seal

Ok, this one almost made me cry. And it kinda made me wish I were adopting a stray puppy instead of taking one of Dawns. But I believe that taking one of Dawns counts as rescue.

Justicia, Tierra, y Libertad

I keep forgetting to post this. I went to visit Mariana in Tepoztlan. I think I've blogged about that hideous experience before. But on the way back I passed this sign. I thought it was worth a picture :)

Colonia Obrera Fauna

A nice rooster in Colonia Obrera. I shot this picture while we were waiting for the Tux-Van.

Scented mysteries and chemistry

UNPA students primarily (until they started the nursing program to make money for the school) studied sciences like chemistry and biotechnology. They have 2 labs. I have a few pictures here of the chemistry lab. It is amazing how well-equipped it is considering that it is so far out in the middle of nowhere, jungle. Completely impressive.
Another factor, though, that put the blight on life at UNPA was the stench. There was (possibly) a garbage dump or landfill nearby that I liked to call the compost initiative. We speculated on its existence because of the presence of the vultures circling over the hilltop behind the school. The circled like hornets around a hive. It was eerie sometimes.
But the smell might also have come from the processing of hule/ule from the groves all around. Ule is rubber. Men walk around tapping it from the trees and they sell it to people who process it into latex that is then sold to companies to manufacture whatever they want. The process, and the ule itself, has a pretty rank smell.
So we never knew if that dogfood smell was coming from the compost initiative or the ule processing. And maybe we'll never know.

UNPA flowers

I took a lot of pictures of the flowers and the campus on my next-to-last-day at work. I hope I remember how beautiful this place is. It's easy to forget under the burden of the unbearable heat and hideous insects and slacker students that this is actually quite a beautiful place.

La Presa 2

Here are a couple of views of the actual river where it's been dammed. The water level is very low right now. I've been here before when it was so high it was all underwater. It's just beautiful no matter what, though. Very little to complain about. Except.
It was very hot. And in the plastic seats at the restaurant I did have swamp-ass so bad it looked like I'd been sitting in a puddle. Ugh.

La Presa

Homero invited us to go to the presa (the dam) that is the water source for Tuxtepec. He has a car so we went. We drove there, took fab pickies, ate a great meal, and came home stuffed and happy. The scenery around Tuxtepec is always breathtaking.

Walking around Tuxtepec Part 2

Here we have a house with wood slats on the walls of the upper part - an unusual architectural feature for Tuxtepec. But the reason for the picture is actually, if you look carefully, two animal heads mounted on the walls. I think they might be deer. Or gazelles. Or something. They are real, anyway. And mounted on an exterior wall like that, on an upper floor, they are just really bizarre.
The next picture is the pedestrian bridge. We walked across it once and it was totally fun. But the city condemned it - I think the day after we walked across it. And they roped it off and took up the boards. Some helpful soul has apparently replaced some of the slats so that the more daring, or lazier, pedestrians, can still use it - if you're willing to risk it. I wasn't.
The beautiful green wall in the next picture just speaks for itself.
And the last one should read, se recibe escombros. Whoever receives the scrap-metal here needs a lesson in remedial spelling. :)

Oops. My description doesn't match the order of the pictures. And I don't know how to fix that without moving a lot of shit. So I'm leaving it. You can figure it out.

Walking around Tuxtepec PArt 1

There are far too many interesting things to take pictures of in Tuxtepec. So, I will dedicate a brief series of pictures from around town to this project.
Since the rains have set in, the weather is actually mild enough to make walking enjoyable again. So EY and I have been walking around, looking at stuff. And it is making me like Tuxtepec again and I think I will miss it.
Here I am posting a picture of the painting of Super Dog. This is on the wall of a veterinaria place that treats sick animals and sells dog food. Can is apparently the spanish for canine or dog.
Another pf these pictures is a basketball court near the cemetery where somebody has tried to write FUCK on the goalpost, but didn't quite get it right :)
The bottom picture is a grave at the cemetery. Here the cemeteries are called panteones. This one caught my eye because of the Greek temple design and the colors.
And this corrugated iron wall painted white was just pretty.