Thinking

Good afternoon, Interwebs,

The Fall term has begun and before it had, I felt completely unmotivated to return to school and get on with the beginning of the rest of my life, or whatever. Side note --> I'm finally off the prednisone so my spirits have lifted--

It wasn't until this past week at school where I got excited.

You know how people used to ask you, as a child, what you were going to be when you grew up and you had many answers made up from your dreams and hopes? Well, when you're a kid your answers are adorable, acceptable and potentially possible, but once you finish high school and get yourself into the young adulthood stage of life the question becomes more serious and based on what you know and can do your answers have to fall into the category of reality. Basically what you want to be has to be attainable within your abilities, skill sets, and willingness to work for it.

Up until now I've been indecisive about what I wanted to do. All I knew was that Anthropology interested me enough to jump in to as a major. So for two years I went along with the classes finding out which sub-fields of anthro really peaked my interests. Now that I am in my 3rd year of post-secondary and first attending year at a university, I have the hindsight that it isn't really until at least the 3rd year when you CAN decide what jobs you'll want to take with the major you have chosen. Everything within the first two years is too general to really decide what is going to keep you satisfied career-wise for the rest of your life or part of the rest of your life. In my first two years I figured "meh, anthropology will give me something to do, but in the end what will I do? I don't know." Now, however, I find myself getting more and more excited over the physical and archaeological sub-fields of Anthropology. And when I say excited I mean on the edge of my seat, smiling like a I've just inhaled copious amounts of nitrous oxide and laughing histerically over anthro jokes.

This year I hope to do my best in all my classes and actually study myself silly to the point where I can just snap and say something all anthropologically insightful. After taking the Archaeological Field Assistant Program this past Spring, it helped me actually see how anthropology is applied, so I have gained some experience and am not ONLY getting stuck with armchair anthropology. If I can really kick butt in my studies this year then I hope I can also get into a field school this upcoming Spring.

I have also just realized that I miss the "new" feeling I used to get whenever I moved as I grew up. Side note --> I've moved tons of times to different countries and continents up until the age of 14-- Only after leaving the nomadic lifestyle for a more sedentary one did I miss the constant moving about and always having to learn a new surrounding. This is why I am so excited to apply for field schools and maybe even study abroad? I'm not sure if I could go so far but I am 20 years old now and just feel like I need the independence from my family and the roots I have laid down in British Columbia, I need the "new" feeling again, I need to feel out of place again, I need to be learning like it's the first time again.

Well I suppose I will get there eventually. I finally feel like I can visualize a career in Anthropology, no longer just a thought or a filler in life, but an actual tangible thing that I can achieve and work with for as long as I can.

On that note, I should get back to studying and reading and colour coding my notes.

Exam Cramming

Good Day Internet,

Well, it's not really all too great of a day.

I'm studying for my Biological Anthropology final and so far... clearly... I am getting little to nowhere.

Exactly how is one to study one half of a course (or 2 months of a course) into one whole day? Well, hopefully because I am actually studying for this exam, I will do phenomenal on the final and rock the socks right off my teacher and get a wowingly awesome mark for the entire course!

I can dream anyways...

So it has been a while but that's mostly because of final papers that were due and then actually trying to study for things. This in itself will be a short blog because
A) I should be studying
B) I'm super hungry
C) I should be studying
D) I need to pick my brother up @ 6
& E) Well.... I should be studying!

I just think it's great that I can freak out at myself online but in reality do shit-all. Ha!

Good luck to me, this'll be my first exam and hopefully the studying will be better for my other courses as those are really lagging in the awesome mark department.

Any-shwhat, I'll be going now.

CRIMINAL MINDS IS AWESOME AND I KNOW I'M GETTING THE FIRST 3 SEASONS OF DEXTER FOR X-MAS!!!!! Bwahahhaha.... I'm cool.... no, not really. Maybe I'll just go eat now :/

Toodle-ooo

Skulls, Findings and I'm Still not Finished my Papers!

Hello Internet,

Let me recount my day for you...

An early rise as has been every Wednesday for the past 3 months. 5:30 Ashley, not so attractive, especially when unfed.

Lucky me though, this morning's lab was on the heart and digestive tract, so the dust was blown off of this past summer's Bio12 course. It was easy, breezy, and not as beautiful as CoverGirl unless you consider shades of pig intestines, liver and lungs as shades of beauty.

After successfully completing and submitting my D2L (Desire to Learn) assignment online my girlfriends and I oggled at beautiful men in a magazine dedicated to displaying beautiful man celebrities w/in their pages. Once the crossword was complete and the lack of Jackson Rathbone on the Hot Vampire Page crushed my heart, an Orlando Bloom look-a-like was spotted in our caf.

Next, my favourite class! Biological Anthropology was more exciting than it already always is because our prof shared w/ us a recovered First Nations skull from someone's basement. It was uber interesting as we got apply our knowledge of bone features to try and identify whether the individual had been male or female... we settled on most-likely-male. The head was interestingly shaped as some Coastal First Nations tribes used to practice head binding/flattening where the head of an infant would be bound so that when the various plates in the skull fused an individual's skull would have a more flattened shape. Now our prof has to determine exactly which First Nations group this skull belongs to so they can give a proper burial and what-not.

*sigh* so beautiful.

Anyways the rest of the day was a mix of hanging w/ friends, a presentation by classmates in one class and a boring friendless 50 minute lecture for Biology. However, I did some surfing and found the perfect camera to fit my lifestyle!

Ok, break down on how I am w/ electronics.
I am very tough on them.
I fried my walkman when changing the disc as I was getting water from a water cooler after P.E. then went on to disassemble the poor thing so that now it works awkwardly and is held together at one end by duct tape.
I once drowned my i-Pod by keeping it in a cargo-pant pocket that was just under my rain coat during one of the most ridiculous rain periods I have ever experienced in my "hometown." Now it decides how much music is allowed on the i-Pod and when it will allow me and has found its home... I can't even remember where, probably close to the walkman.
My first cell phone enjoyed being dropped down concrete stairs and sliding across pavement to the point where it committed suicide and took my phone calls hostage. It now sits on a shelf being lonely and lifeless.
And my current digital Kodak camera after taking three tries to find one that works was involved in a battle to the balls when it was taking a ride in my back seat pant pocket as I (sober) and a drunken guy friend got into a spat and he pushed me to the gravel. Her LCD screen is forever cracked and now sports a cutout of the M&M guys. Though she still takes photos and video I will never see through her eyes again... until I plug in the SD to my lap top that is...

As of right now, my ridiculously priced (could have been free) cell phone has survived the past... 2 months? w/o toooooo much damage... just a couple of scrapes... all minor and this time I paid for extra coverage!

Anyways... back to my story...
This camera I have been looking at is gorgeously black and orange and is waterproof and dust proof and if I'm really good will be protected by a hard case not some flimsy cloth sewn together to look pretty and by overpriced.

It's a Pentax Optio WS80 which will accept my SD card and is just beautiful!
Next on my to-do list is learning how to save money.... but before I do that I should put my body into over drive and finish at least one of my papers!

Thumbs up for procrastination.

Yes... well, that was my amazing finding