Meme!
Reply to this meme by yelling 'WORDS!', and I will give you five words that remind me of you.
Then post them in your journal and explain what they mean to you.
I got mine from earis
1. Algonquian - Academically, this is supposedly what I do. Of course, in the words of one of my favorite profs in the field "I'm a white linguist. What do I know?" And that's the thing, I care about this, but it isn't mine. Still, language preservation, and especially indigenous language preservation is important to me both intellectually and for some reason that is more ethereal - the very idea of losing your words seems to be such a great social injustice. As an outsider, what can I do? But I want to make myself available to do what I can in the way of documentation and curriculum development for the Mi'kmaw schools if they can use me. That's my MA project at the moment...
2. Cider - There was ALWAYS cider in the house growing up, unless someone forgot to buy it. We got it in giant jugs and it was best in the fall and was never quite as good again after they passed a law about pasteurizing it. Ah well. I suppose we pay this price for safety. :) In the afternoon I drank it cold, with my dad, or with Claire. At night, same people, but we'd heat it up. Before I drank alcohol, cider was the drink my dad would pour me and whatever teenagers the dining room table had collected that day if it seemed like we needed to talk, and also the drink we'd fix ourselves to go with late night movies. Hard cider plays a bigger role now, and I usually drink it with Ben. We crack open a couple bottles of Woodchuck while we're cleaning the house sometimes or with dinner.
3. Snowdays - I always knew about the snowdays before the other kids because the phone would ring at 5 in the morning when the teacher phone chain called my dad. So I'd usually get to sleep in, and then by the time I got up, it was often cleared enough to get to someones house or for people to get to our house. I often spent them with Claire (probably why you gave me the word, really...) and I think that sometimes we did the snowball fight thing, but usually we just holed up and did very little - some catching up on homework and a lot of nothing. It felt wonderful, and like a reprieve, and like catching your breath. And it felt quiet. I miss snowdays and I miss that kind of snow, deep and silent. We haven't gotten much of that for years.
4. Due South - This was probably the first grown up show that I followed not because my parents watched it. I watched it sporadically in its initial run, and found it charming. When I made the discoveries - while home sick with flu in middle school - that it was rerun during the day and that people on the internet were discussing queer subtext, charming went to a whole new level. I'm not an insider in fandom as others are (strange fact, I was actually the one who found the slash on the internet and said "Claire! Look!" and a fannish star was born...) but this show still rocks my slash ship. Because they ride off into the sunset together, and that's CANON. And unlike sometimes where I feel that a slash reading of a show requires you to read characters as "gay for each other" or to really toss over the opposite sex characters (usually the strong women, unfortunately) that they are with, this ship is pretty guilt-free. I can read these guys as queer heroes, and that does rock my world. (Of course, remember, this was the early-mid 90s, so we're stuck with subtext in this era. Captain Jack was nowhere on the scene...)
5. Folk Music - I'll dance to it, sing it, play it. Just let me near it. Of course, I'm not a purist, so my definition of folk music can expand to contain basically any genre that traditional folk music has touched and influenced. I grew up around it. My dad played in a bluegrass band that was very folk influenced and they practiced in our living room. He played traditional songs and ones he wrote all the time. Then I fell in with folkies my own age, got peer pressured into becoming a Morris Dancer and going to contradances, you know ... normal teenage stuff ;) Practically anything on my playlist has a folk influence (unless Dan put it there and it's synth pop... or if it's from the 80s). There's some part of me (maybe the residual medievalist) that wants all my pop culture to harken back, to be connected and stand on the shoulders of what came before, to show that culture is cumulative. Or maybe it's got a good beat and I can dance to it.
Then post them in your journal and explain what they mean to you.
I got mine from earis
1. Algonquian - Academically, this is supposedly what I do. Of course, in the words of one of my favorite profs in the field "I'm a white linguist. What do I know?" And that's the thing, I care about this, but it isn't mine. Still, language preservation, and especially indigenous language preservation is important to me both intellectually and for some reason that is more ethereal - the very idea of losing your words seems to be such a great social injustice. As an outsider, what can I do? But I want to make myself available to do what I can in the way of documentation and curriculum development for the Mi'kmaw schools if they can use me. That's my MA project at the moment...
2. Cider - There was ALWAYS cider in the house growing up, unless someone forgot to buy it. We got it in giant jugs and it was best in the fall and was never quite as good again after they passed a law about pasteurizing it. Ah well. I suppose we pay this price for safety. :) In the afternoon I drank it cold, with my dad, or with Claire. At night, same people, but we'd heat it up. Before I drank alcohol, cider was the drink my dad would pour me and whatever teenagers the dining room table had collected that day if it seemed like we needed to talk, and also the drink we'd fix ourselves to go with late night movies. Hard cider plays a bigger role now, and I usually drink it with Ben. We crack open a couple bottles of Woodchuck while we're cleaning the house sometimes or with dinner.
3. Snowdays - I always knew about the snowdays before the other kids because the phone would ring at 5 in the morning when the teacher phone chain called my dad. So I'd usually get to sleep in, and then by the time I got up, it was often cleared enough to get to someones house or for people to get to our house. I often spent them with Claire (probably why you gave me the word, really...) and I think that sometimes we did the snowball fight thing, but usually we just holed up and did very little - some catching up on homework and a lot of nothing. It felt wonderful, and like a reprieve, and like catching your breath. And it felt quiet. I miss snowdays and I miss that kind of snow, deep and silent. We haven't gotten much of that for years.
4. Due South - This was probably the first grown up show that I followed not because my parents watched it. I watched it sporadically in its initial run, and found it charming. When I made the discoveries - while home sick with flu in middle school - that it was rerun during the day and that people on the internet were discussing queer subtext, charming went to a whole new level. I'm not an insider in fandom as others are (strange fact, I was actually the one who found the slash on the internet and said "Claire! Look!" and a fannish star was born...) but this show still rocks my slash ship. Because they ride off into the sunset together, and that's CANON. And unlike sometimes where I feel that a slash reading of a show requires you to read characters as "gay for each other" or to really toss over the opposite sex characters (usually the strong women, unfortunately) that they are with, this ship is pretty guilt-free. I can read these guys as queer heroes, and that does rock my world. (Of course, remember, this was the early-mid 90s, so we're stuck with subtext in this era. Captain Jack was nowhere on the scene...)
5. Folk Music - I'll dance to it, sing it, play it. Just let me near it. Of course, I'm not a purist, so my definition of folk music can expand to contain basically any genre that traditional folk music has touched and influenced. I grew up around it. My dad played in a bluegrass band that was very folk influenced and they practiced in our living room. He played traditional songs and ones he wrote all the time. Then I fell in with folkies my own age, got peer pressured into becoming a Morris Dancer and going to contradances, you know ... normal teenage stuff ;) Practically anything on my playlist has a folk influence (unless Dan put it there and it's synth pop... or if it's from the 80s). There's some part of me (maybe the residual medievalist) that wants all my pop culture to harken back, to be connected and stand on the shoulders of what came before, to show that culture is cumulative. Or maybe it's got a good beat and I can dance to it.