I'm Fond Of Lists

[shake_the_stars]

Happy birthday, imperfectkatoru!

Also: a happy belated birthday to queen_lily_rose and jadecat both. Afkdjalk;sdfjlkajdsflkjda I keep forgetting people's birthdays. This is sucktastic of me.

It is also sucktastic of me to not be around very much. Here is a list of profoundly unimportant things that have happened while I was off flitting about.

Comments

[song_of_copper]

It's sort of like becoming a scientist, except without my really having to know math or anything

Hehe! ;-P That is true. I did an archaeology degree (not that I've 'done anything with it' since!); the best thing about it is that you can completely tailor it to your interests. It can be very science-y or very artsy, you can spend your whole time in the library or the lab or in a muddy field; you can concentrate on whatever fascinates you: comparative religion, genetics, neuroscience, linguistics, art history, biology... anything, really. ^_^

Finding a job afterwards is the hard part - but that caveat applies to most things nowadays!!

Good luck! :-)

[shake_the_stars]

l33 + numbers =/= OTP. In the immortal words of Butt-Head, "I'm mad at numbers. There's too many of them."

Honestly, I think that's what appeals: it's interdisciplinary, so I don't have to worry too much about getting bored. Also, I might have other options besides academia, which is less the case if one is a classicist. (Not that I don't like academia--I rather do--but I find it difficult to get whooped up over publishing something that I will immediately hate no matter how good it is, and also the American university system does not have positions for people who write and conduct research but do not teach.) But my own interests in anthropology are bioanthropology- and archaeology-centered. :D

Here in the US, the park & forestry service usually wants archaeologists, though I don't know that I'd want a federal job. We'll see.

Thanks! Nothing's decided yet, but we shall see as the year unfolds. THE SUSPENSE WILL KILL US ME!

Also, since I keep meaning to say it and I keep forgetting, congratulations on recent developments :)

[song_of_copper]

Oh dear, yes... maths. Hmm. A common stumbling block in life!

Yes, you wouldn't necessarily end up gathering dust in an ivory tower. There's plenty of alternatives. Indeed, the university I went to even offers an MA in Archaeology & Media (...which basically imparts the rudiments of how to present 'Time Team' etc.!). One reason I didn't pursue an archaeological career was (a) the necessity of having a postgrad qualification, and (b) the realisation that the work tends to follow in the wake of urban construction and road-building projects. Any time someone wants to dig a hole and put things in it... archaeology has to occur, in case the Romans dropped something. ;-P It's a bit like being one of those birds that eats parasites off the backs of elephants - all that finesse and delicacy is entirely reliant on something large and lumbering! (Argh, laboured metaphor: mayhap I need more coffee...)

Thank you very much for your well-wishes! :-)

[shake_the_stars]

I wish I weren't so functionally innumerate, but sadly, I am. I just do not do math.

"Time Team" - now THERE'S something that totally requires years of graduate work. ^_- Federal positions here don't necessarily require a postgrad qualification, but as with a lot of professions, there comes a point where you can't go any farther without one. Also, aspects of American archaeology are somewhat complicated by NAGPRA and all the issues it raises.

I hope you are not implying that the Romans dropping something isn't Srs Bsns. ^_-

More coffee is what we ALL need.

[song_of_copper]

Oh, yes... I remember all the hoo-hah over... Kennewick Man, was it? Something like that. Human remains which might represent important evidence about migration into America, but Native Americans considered him to be an ancestor and didn't want him disturbed? Well, we don't get that sort of issue here (as far as I know!), but of course, bureaucracy transcends all cultural barriers: we get a fair amount of that. ;-P

The Romans, bless 'em, dropped so many things! Veritable litter-louts!! XD

Profound Notion Of The Day: ...the concept of 'enough coffee' is inextricably bound up in the concept of 'more coffee'. o__O [This also works rather well with tea.]

[shake_the_stars]

I suppose your proud native Celts might like some reparations from the Anglo-Saxon, Roman, and Norman invaders...XD Yeah, Kennewick Man was a rather delicate situation. I agree with the purpose of NAGPRA, which is to recognize that we've treated the Indians like shit and to ensure that their gravesites remain inviolate, because in fairness I would be pretty shat if someone dragged a backhoe over my ancestors' graves and put their bones in a museum for people to gawk at. (There seems to be a shift in the museum community, in the past three decades or so, from "o hai human remainz iz kool" to "we really try to avoid displaying human remains where possible".) Unfortunately, it seems pretty hard to swing the practice in such a way that Everyone's A Winner.

They really were. Empire-building is messy business, apparently.

I never thought about it that way before, but you're eerily dead-on. There is never enough coffee, tea, or other caffeinated beverage.