I'm famous and crap!!

Below is a clip for a commercial I starred in, and by "starred in" I mean I'm on camera for one second and you can tell it's me if you close one eye and blur your vision in the other.

See if you can spot me. It'll be like 'Where's Waldo?'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx4CkU5BcEg

oh, it's on...

One of my BYU professors is going to New Zealand this summer from May to June to do an anthropological study, and I somehow managed to weasel my way in, which means that I'm going to New Zealand after graduation suckers. The plan is to leave May 1st. That's right, be jealous.

Richard and the Bats

Having friends in the film program means that I get invited (aka dragged, jk) to all the student film events. The SFA (Student Film Association) met a few weeks ago and featured a dozen or so films and commercials made by students at BYU. The hands-down winner of the night was titled "Richard and the Bats." I was fortunate enough to stumble upon it online the other day and will now share it with you (don't you feel lucky?).

Working Girl

As of Friday, I officially have a job doing graphic design for the BYU Anthropology department (basically, I help make charts and graphs for the archaeology publications).

Last Wednesday, my crew chief from field school e-mailed me saying that he was looking to hire someone to pretty much be his assistant and that he remembered from field school that I had "good drafting skills and was very detail oriented," and offered me a job right there on the spot. I figured "what they hey," so I took it. I start on Tuesday.

"my momma learned me to spoke real good"

Every now and again I'll go back and re-read some of my previous school work, and I admit that I'm slightly impressed by my writing skills most of the time. Other times, however, not so much. Here is a particularly humbling story:

Sitting in my Prehistoric European Archaeology class, waiting as my teacher passes back our most recent site analyses.

Prof Bartlett: "You all did pretty well on your papers, but you need to make sure you proof read before you turn them in. There was one paper that really made me laugh. I don't remember who wrote it, but they meant to say that this particular site yielded many historically significant artifacts, but wrote that it wielded many artifacts instead. I just got this image of arms sticking out of the ground, swinging ceramics around in the air."

Yeah, guess who wrote that paper. Not my finest hour.


Horrible illustration aside, I think you get my point.

How college students make decisions

I tend to go through phases of obsessions. One week I'll be all about politics, the next I'll be all about Xena (all six season are available on Netfix!! How could anyone resist?). My current obsession seems to be for finding the perfect graduate school. Every other night I'll spend hours researching different programs at various institutions, but never seem to make any progress to speak of. Tonight, however, I think I finally hit a milestone.

My friend Kristin and I met through the anthropology program. While both of us are graduating in April with an emphasis in archaeology, neither of us want to continue in that particular field. Kristin hopes to pursue a master's in psychological anthropology while I am interested in biological/physical anthropology. While musing over life post graduation, we decided that it would amazing if we went to the same graduate school, that way we could be roommates.

Reality constantly seems to get in the way, however. The first six or so schools we looked at didn't have the necessary programs to accommodate both of us. But then, the heavens smiled upon us and we found the holy grail of Anthropology schools. UC San Diego. Here is the gist of our subsequent conversation:

Kristin: "San Diego! We'd be by the beach."
Karma: "And it would be warm. You mentioned before how you hate the cold"
Kristin: "And it's only a couple hours away from my family."
Karma: "And isn't Comic-Con held in San Diego?"
*long pause*
Both: "!!!COMIC-CON!!!"

Field School

Tomorrow I start the fourth week of field school. So far I'm surprised by how much I've enjoyed it. Honestly, I was expecting to hate waking up at six thirty and digging outside until five in the evening, but the people are great and the work is really exciting. So far we've found a lot of animal bones and ceramic sherd as well as projectile points. I know, it doesn't sound that exciting. You really have to be there.

I don't have any exciting or funny stories yet, however, but I'll be sure to keep you up to date.

Also, I'm looking into graduate school. The University of Washington offers a masters in biocultural anthropology and Washington State University offers one in evolutionary anthropology. I'm not entirely sure which, if either, I'll end up doing. Definitely something that requires further investigation.

What the crud?!?

It's snowing outside. Seriously, it is and has been ALL DAY! Maybe someone should kindly remind the weather that it's freakin' April. APRIL. As in spring. Definitely not the season for snow.

And finals start in two days. I have such a ridiculous amount of homework due between now and next Wednesday that just thinking about it makes me want to curl up in the fetal position and cry. But I won't because that would be awkward.

And there's a dog in my apartment. And it smells.

On the up side, I made muddy buddies today. They were tasty.

A Good Day

I got approval from the anthropology department to wave the Anthro 499 Senior Thesis class. Me so happy!!

Three Posts In One Day

I need to vent. It's been a long day.

It started with me staying up until 5:00am studying for my theatre history test (I mentioned it in the first post I published today). Anyways, stayed up till five, couldn't fall asleep until six, and woke up at eight to go on campus and take the test. The last test took about an hour and a half, so I was expecting to get out of the testing center fairly quickly. Yeah, the test took me over three hours. It sucked. Then, I wandered around campus until 2:00pm becuase I had an appointment with the Anthropology advisior concerning graduation requirments. She basically told me that I had to go to the top floor and set up an appointment with the Anthropology director, who wasn't in today. That sucked. Also, I had tickets to see the BYU production of Macbeth today but ended up giving them to my roommate because I had to go work on a project for my Anthro 309 class. That sucked too. When I went to work on my Anthro project, however, I had been given the wrong time and no one was there. So, not only do I now have to scramble last minute to figure out a different project idea to present to my teacher for Friday (as in the day after tomorrow), but I wasted perfectly good theatre tickets. Guess what? That sucks.

Needless to say, I'm pretty darn frustrated. I think I'll go get ice cream now.

If tests could feel, I would slap them...

...or at least call them a few choice names.

Today I took my TMA 202 (theatre history) test and my goodness, I HATE tests that consist entirely of essay questions. Three hours and three handwritten pages later (front and back) my hand seriously feels like it's about to freakin' fall off! I know three pages (front and back) doesn't seem like much, but I've done the math. I write fairly small, averaging about 15 to 20 words per line. The standard college ruled piece of notebook paper contains approximately 3o lines, give or take. That's at least 450 words per page (just on one side). If you count both sides, that's at least 900 words, which equals a little short of five 12 point font, Times New Roman, double-spaced, typed pages. Maybe I'm just a wuss, whatever.

At least the weather's nice.

And I learned a lot. Go ahead, ask me about theatrical forms in the 19th and early 20th centuries. My knowledge will blow your mind (better ask me quick though because I guarantee you that I won't remember any of it by tomorrow).

Blah, Blah, Blah

Alas, I once again go for a month plus without posting anything new - I do have to say though, January was a good month as far as posts go. In order to relieve some of my guilt, I am writing what Kassie so lovingly calls 'a throw away post'. A throw away post is a post in which the author, basically, doesn't actually say much of anything. So this is me not saying much of anything.

I guess I could fill you in on what I've been doing lately, although there isn't much to say...and I can't even use pictures to distract you from my never-ending ramblings. O well.

Classes are going well. I'm really enjoying my Theatre History class in particular. I am also currently preparing for my field study this spring (that will take place somewhere in Utah, so nothing too exotic), and am seriously reconsidering my original plan of staying in Utah summer term to get some GE's out of the way...the closer summer gets, the more I'm liking the idea of going home for a few months. Also undergoing the reevaluating process in the whole "should I add a minor?" idea. I am/was (can't decide which) considering adding a Theatre Studies minor. I've always loved theatre and want to be more involved, so this minor would basically be for kicks and giggles. But there's the part of me that wants to get done as soon as I possibly can and run away from Utah screaming bloody murder. Then there's that voice in the mack of my mind (which, interestingly enough, sounds a lot like Mom) saying, "You only get this experience once...enjoy it...don't be in a rush" and so forth. Grrr...So. Frustrating. And then there's the whole "I think I picked the wrong major" stuff going on in the back of my mind, but with almost two years under my belt, it seems like such a waste to change it now. *weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth*

Wow, that was a lovely venting paragraph. Sorry about that.

No place like home...

Apparently all the promises of updating my blog on a semi-regular basis were worth "diddly-squat" because this is the second time I that went for a month in between posts. I blame it on my frantic life the last few weeks. O well, better late then never.

Finals ended yesterday, and I could not be more relieved. Honestly, I was ready for the semester to be over half way through September (which is never a good sign). It's hard for me to stay motivated when all of my classes are general requirements, have nothing to go with my major, and aren't extremely fascinating in the first place. Don't get me wrong, I love learning new things (it makes me feel accomplished), but there are days when I'd much rather stay in bed. At the beginning of finals, my roommate and I were discussing how attitudes change as the semester progresses. At the beginning, everyone is gun-ho, has a great attitude, and constantly talks about how this is going to be their best semester yet; they'll work hard and get +100% in all their classes. By the end of the semester, however, you see students, all of whom have dark circles under their eyes, walking across campus with their heads down and arms overflowing with thick textbooks (and I swear I saw one guy actually crying). The motto of choice among students changes from "I'm going to do my absolute best" to "I just want to pass the class and get it over and done with." College just does that to you I guess. Anyways, like I said before, I'm glad that finals are over, but I can't stop worrying about how I did and whether or not I'll get a satisfactory grade. I keep reviewing the week's assignments in my head (two tests and four papers which collectively equaled a total of thirty-five pages) and obsessing over what I could have and should have done differently to improve my scores. It's a good thing that I'm now home and have family to distract me.

The drive home was pretty exciting as well. My sister, Kassie, and her husband are moving to Seattle over the Christmas break, so I drove with her from Utah to Washington. It's been snowing in both states (and pretty much every state in between) the last few days, however, so my mom convinced my dad to fly to Utah and drive with my sister and myself back home (the poor guy ended up driving us the whole way despite our intention to switch off). We left Friday around one in the afternoon and made it home around two in the afternoon on Saturday. Luckily, the roads weren't too bad (despite the snow) and we thoroughly enjoyed our time together. Before we realized Dad would be joining us, Kassie and I had made plans to listen to music and sing along the whole way home. Not willing to part from the original plan, we simply informed Dad that he would have to put up with it. So, while driving through the mountain passes, we listened to the Carpenters, Christmas in the Northwest, and various Muse songs. Dad was such a trooper, and I secretly think he enjoyed it. I even got him to sing along with me and Kassie on a few Elvis songs. When we weren't listening to/singing along with music, Kassie read John Grisham's "The Summons" out loud to Dad and a sometimes conscious Karma (Kassie has a very soothing voice). I recommend it to anyone looking for a good book.

Anyways, I apologize for verbally vomiting all over the page. It really is amazing how therapeutic blogging is. I really should do it more often. Anyways, the long anticipated moral of the story is simply this: "It's good to be home."