Suboptimal Experience

A few torturous months into job searching and coming swiftly to two realisations. 1. that the job market is horrible and I now understand why people pay for others to search for jobs they could fill for them. 2. that I probably should have stuck with political science in undergraduate work and joined the foreign service, because that seems to be the place for jobs. In other, not so muted tones, I am tired of looking for jobs. I would give up but I need to get a job for money, among other reasons. This lack of results is dowsing my natural good humour and making me a bit more cynical about the world, though I am still trying my hardest to be up beat. As a final note I would like to say that it's not that there aren't a plethora of jobs out there to be had, simply that for the jobs I want, aka something that has to do with what I got a degree in, I am under qualified and for jobs I would rather not have I am over qualified. On top of that there are so many people out and about that are in the same boat as myself that for the employers its like being at a toys store where there are shelves upon shelves of shiny new toys and they are the owner so they can pick the shiniest and best toy for themselves. So if you aren't quite the shiniest best toy you get put at the very back of the shelf. It's very much a Corduroy story....And if America is the land of opportunity I would hate to be trying to get a job anywhere else in the world right now.

Will re-post

How funny is this?
http://histpres.com/museum/director-benicia-historical-museum-ca

P.S. will post an actual listing later. The internet here doesn't allow my blog editor to open properly. Sadness.

Pause.....

Long pause which will probably continue through late August or mid September due to Master's thesis/dissertation taking up my life. But here is something cool that has come out of my department. Take that! That's one for logic nil for the other guys. LOL

Neanderthal interbreeding debate laid to rest: (Keep in mind that Joa is one of my profs!)

Lost?

I know that some of you are wondering what has happened to me and why I have sort of fallen off the band wagon on writing on my blog. The explanation is relatively simple and probably some what close to what you have already anticipated. I have been very busy. Though that is sort of a shallow excuse it is the absolute truth. To expand on what busy is I have listed some of the things that I have been up to lately below:

Essay 1 due May 10th

Dissertation Presentation May 11th

Film Submission May 18th

Archaeology Dig at Berkeley, Dorest May 18th - June 11th

Film Screening and Unit Review May 19th

Media and Archaeology Work shop - May 20th

Film Analysis Due May 24th

Vacation to Skiathos, Greece May 25th - June 1st

Formal Dissertation Proposal Due June 4th

For those of you wanting to see pictures from the Greek Adventure I will be posting those up soon. I have some more work to do and I will write a few blogs detailing Lisa and my travels. The over view is that we had a lovely time and enjoyed the beach and the little island, even if it was crawling with tourists.

Fortune, Fickle Fortune

I came into this world convinced I knew everything. Then I learnt, I knew nothing and set out in search of remedy. As I struggled along those dark pathways, I learned to take comfort in not knowing all the things the world has to say, to see that in seeing all ends, I see only thoughts in my head. Life is about the adventures you seek and the people you meet. It's about learning to never close any door too tightly or lose the keys, except into those passageways I am certain I wish never to peek. I know that I must keep my eyes always pointed down the road ahead, but there is time to admire the scenery that lay in view of my eye. I learnt to take heed of phrases that use the words 'maybe,' 'eventually,' 'if,' 'when,' or 'someday' for they are not 'now' and 'now' is where I must always strive to stay. I will be ready for everything and nothing all at once. I will love as much as I am able and remember that to hate is never worth the minutes that it takes. I will always strive to live for right now and not worry about tomorrow until tomorrow is upon me. To have learned even these, the smallest of things, makes me feel very fortunate indeed.

Centennium!

This is officially my centennial post! 100 posts in 3 years, not very impressive but still a small accomplishment in the world of me.

I am sorry that I have not been very proficient at posting of late. I have been extremely busy, as it is the end of term and have been taking many small day trips around South and Southwest Britain, helping friends out with their research projects and trying to find little moments to relax in.

The sun has been shinning, beautiful and warm (relatively, at least it feels warm), therefore most of my spare time has been sure laying about outside, catching rays, soaking up that all important vitamin D and having BBQ's in the park.

This post, even though it is the centennial and should, by rights, be something a little more profound is simply not going to be. I have not yet finished my research essay that is due on Monday, thank you all who participated in that by the way! You are all fabulously amazing people! My weeks through June are going to be absolutely chocker-box filled with little or not time to breath until I finish the archaeology dig at Berkeley, UK on June 11th. But even then I am going to, hopefully, fingers crossed, be shooting my dissertation film for the 9 days following, right up to the day that my mom and step dad arrive in Bristol to visit me!

Anyways, I will send out my schedule so that you all can marvel at its utterly filled state. Now, however, it is back to the 'Critical Analysis' and then on to dissertation presentations, film editing and film analysis. Busy, BuSy, Busy, me!

Travel Much?

Some pictures from the continuation of what Darin calls "Katie's World Tour," which isn't so much a world tour as a tour of South and West England, are at the bottom of this post. These are from last week when Karen, Big C and I took a lovely round-about filled drive to Stratford-on-Avon. We didn't really go in anywhere, but the church where Shakespeare is supposedly buried. All the touristy things to do are extremely expensive and we are all on fixed budgets. That being said, we weren't really that enthusiastic about going into any of the other places anyway.

My friend Leanne is off to America on Monday for a two week archaeology dig in North Carolina. She is doing her dissertation film there and it is her first trip to the States. I am hoping that she really enjoys it. North Carolina is a beautiful place, though they will not get to see very much of it since they will be very busy the whole time.

I am going to Hampshire to do a reconnaissance trip for Karen and my film on Thursday, then I am off to my (and Karen's too LoL) TimeTeam placement, April 12th-15th, in Leicester. I have a 10 minute presentation of what I am doing for my dissertation on the 20th of April. Karen is taking the MAASM's to Wales, St. Fagen's, on April 23th for part of her research for one of our essays. Then with any luck I will be going to Frankfurt to visit the lovely miss Davina Filamor for a week, April 30th - May 4th! I will come home and have 3 weeks before school is officially over and dissertation madness starts. I most likely will be on a archaeology dig in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England (not California so don't get too excited) for a month (last two weeks of May, first two weeks of June) for the first part of my 'summer.' One of those weeks I might take off and go to Greece on holiday with Lisa, as an end of the year chill out, where we will spend a week on a beach, basking in the lovely warmth of the Mediterranean sun. Then June 19th my MOM COMES!!!

I will show her and Emery around Bristol then they are off on their own (maybe....we'll see about that) to enjoy England for a few days. They are being spirited away to Hungary on the 28th of June, where I will probably follow them a few days later and spend a week laying on a beach in Hungary and playing tennis! (I am going to get absolutely schooled on a tennis court, seeing as though I haven't so much as picked up my tennis racquet since Sept).

When all that is over, I come home to Bristol to do a placement, with any luck, in a production company and work on my dissertation film. It is going to be a great summer!!!

Pictures from Stratford-on-Avon are below:

Lady MacBeth and Hamlet

Karen Wood

...seriously

Big C

Water, Brush, colour

Another painted birthday present. This time for Big C (the paparazzi). Maybe not the best one I have ever done, but its ok. More to come, per usual

.

Take Me Back To The Windy City....

Pictures from Glastonbury, as promised. They are all by Big C, my personal paparazzi! LoL He is soooo good!. Enjoy!
Base Jumping!
Super Heroes! (this one is by me!)
AHH WIND!

look MOM NO HANDS!!!!

Fiction Forest

The Epic shots from Big C. I told you he is my own personal paparazzi. Enjoy!

More Adventuring...

Went to Glastonbury today. Here is a link to my Facebook page that has all the images up. If you like certain ones and want them e-mail me and I will send them to you. Glastonbury was beautiful. And yes, I have been there before, but it is always nice to go back. This time, I went with Big C, Josh, his girl Vio, and her two Spanish friends.

Glastonbury

Forest of Fancy

Went on a trip with Josh and Big C today. Josh is a friend of mine who does Landscape Archaeology. We drove South and East to a place called New Forest, which is very close to Southampton. It is really not terribly far from where I will be going on Monday to do my 'recy' (reconnaissance) trip with Karen for our final film before dissertations. Map for locales if you are interested (Click Here).

There were supposed to be more people going today, but in the end it was just the three of us which worked out really well, actually. We saw some wild ponies, I almost touched one, she let me get really close! ran around in the rain, climbed trees, crossed a small river, and an amazing lunch at some local pub, and just generally had a great day! Here are some of my better shots, mind you it was pouring down rain at the time so the pictures aren't as great as they could have been, but some turned out rather well. Again, I am sure that there will be some better photos, even some with me in them, later on. So when they show up (Big C or Josh's photos) I will post them.

Josh Dunn

Big C

More, More, Exmoor!

Well, as promised there were some epic pictures that came from other folks in the MAASM crew that revisited Exmoor. And thanks, as usual to Big C and his stellar camera stills we even have a group shot. The pictures below are done by the person whose name appears below them. Enjoy!

By: Big C
Big C
By: Karen Wood
By: Karen Wood

By: Big C with the help of the Land Rover

Right to left: Me, Karen, Ros, Phil, Big C, Pods, Devika, Leanne, Elle

Oh My.....

Eventful day, today was. We met at the Drama department at 9 AM, which had been switched the day before from 930AM, to take a mini bus to London to visit the British Library, which is very impressive by the way. The mini bus was late so we didn't end up leaving until just before 930AM (approx. 925AM). We then almost hit a wall getting out of the Drama department car park. We nearly made it to London in a record 2 hours and 30, mind you we had all taken bets to see how long it would take us to get there, due to the fact that our favorite driver was once again at the helm (Greg, bless him).

Once we reached London the real excitement began. We pulled into the first car pack and the attendant told Greg that we would not fit, so we would have to go else where. The lovely attendant guided us backwards out of the precarious position that we had pulled into and stopped traffic for us to turn around. What a doll. We tried to go into the car park next door, which was for mini buses and buses, but were informed that these spaces were only for certain 'special vehicles' so we weren't allowed to park there either. This would be a good time to add that the stipulations of the bet were: the total time it would take from when we actually started rolling to when we had finally parked the mini bus. We then drove round London, almost hit a car pulling out into traffic, as well as a pedestrian, attempted to pull into a car park that we were obviously too big for, cracked the roof of the mini bus, dented the car park shutter, got yelled at by the attendant there, Phil got threatened by him, and then finally parked on the street.

The winner of the bet was Pods at 3hours 40 mins. I wasn't that far off with 4 hours even.

We then went into the the British Library, by this time late for our private tour. Went up stairs with our guide, were denied access due to some miss communication (no one had told security that we were coming, apparently). We were eventually let in, were about half way through our 2 hour tour when the fire alarm, of course, went off. So we had to evacuate the building and spend the better part of an hour outside (thankfully it was sunny, though not terribly warm).

Once back inside we had a somewhat hastened version of what was to be our original tour and then finished the evening by going to O'Neills pub across the road, where Greg bought us a drink, bless.

Just to add, as a side note, we did make it back to Bristol in one piece. Angela drove us home, as Greg apparently, unbeknownst to us, lives in London! and went home. We got back at 945PM. The End.....

(Greg you are fabulous! Thanks for driving us around!)

So what did you all do today? hahaha

Way Better Than Yours

We had a lovely day in Exmoor today. Our return trip was as fun, if, in fact not more fun, than the last time we were there. Nine of us MAASMs went in a land rover. We got out at the first place we were able, on the Moors for a good run around and exploration. Of course, I was off running and jumping and getting myself into precarious positions amongst the shrubbery, as usual. I am sure that some of our more accomplished photographers will shortly send me photos of my antics, so that I may then share them with you, but for now you will have to settle with some of the less entertaining photos that I took.

Also, I have included some more photos from Big C's birthday photo walk. So enjoy those. He is an amazing photographer and generally established as my personal paparazzi person hahaha.

Exmoor:

Ros: "Contemporary Archaeology!!!! LOOK, I found it!" hahah


Rhodri aka 'Pods' stuck in the bramble bushes

The Sea!
hide and seek, archaeological style
lounging at the Roman Fortlet
Elle and Phil

Big C's photo's from the Photo Walk:

Leanne
Gingy in the ginger tree!
Devika
MAASM March
MAASM the Album (lol)