What do I really do with my life...
Sep. 8th, 2008 04:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccastareyesMy weekend was good. I went to the annual Dept. of Astronomy Salsafest (the food, not the dance, though there was salsa music playing). I spent an hour helping to chop tomatoes for the Big Val of Salsa. (Seriously, picture one of those large Rubbermaid storage boxes that you keep in your closet. Then imagine it full of chopped tomatoes, peppers and onions.) There was also chili, black bean soup and hamburgers. After that, I went to anime club.
I think after next week, I'll start noting impressions of the series we're watching, though we have a good mix (Welcome to the NHK, Kino's Journey, XXXholic, Twelve Kingdoms, Mushishi and Gurren Lagenn). About the only thing I've seen before this year is Elf Princess Raine, which we watched the first day. (And I had forgotten how awesome Elf Princess Raine is.) We watched Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind this week, as part of the club tradition to watch one Miyazaki movie per semester. Someone on the club blog noted that that it is one of Miyazaki's 'anti-technology, pro-nature' movies, but I disagree a bit. It's very pro-nature (like Princess Mononoke), but the anti-tech stuff is more passive and subtle (the Valley of the Wind is shown as more of a peaceful agrarian society, while most of what we see of other countries (besides ruins of cities) is war machines and airships). (There's also the anti-pollution elements.) And, in a weird way, it's pro-science.
Basically, the movie takes place in a world where a strange foresty swamp (the Sea of Decay) has taken over a lot of land. Most of the plants emit toxic gases, and there also are giant insects that will attack you if you attack them or damage the forest. Nausicaa, the title character, is the daughter of the king of the Valley of the Wind, a small agrarian settlement that has come to terms with living near the forest -- they keep their own lands clean by burning away spores from the forest, and don't bother the forest itself. Nausicaa often heads into the forest for salvage -- some of the insects leave shed shells behind that can be used in construction -- and she brought back some forest spores, and grew them in her basement, using the purest well water and sand she could find. She discovered that the plants were concentrating and breaking down the toxins in the earth and water from the civilization that had existed before -- further backed up when she discovered what lay beneath the Sea of Decay later in the movie. The fumes, while deadly, were helping the planet clean the soil and water, and the giant insects helped keep humans from clearing the forest before it was done. Thus, it was important that the Sea of Decay continue to exist, even if in the short term, it was a very hostile place for humans and their plants and animals. Not only was it a place full of unique life, but it also served a purpose that, in the long term, benefited everyone.
And, that's why I think it is pro-science. Nausicaa was acting as a scientist to learn something about the world she lived in, and discovered how important that ecosystem was. Knowing one's place in the universe is important, since it gives you a reason to keep around a forest full of toxic plants and giant attack insects. It also is one way to appreciate the place itself, not just what it does for you, which Nausicaa seemed to do. (Though I suspect her love for animals and plants drove her desire to learn, rather than the other way around.) Science may have allowed the antagonists to come up with ways to destroy the forest, and wage war on their neighbors, but it also let Nausicaa know exactly how much that was going to screw everyone over, and explain to others why this was a bad idea.
Maybe that's just my POV about things -- I'm not exactly unbiased. I do now want to own this movie, and maybe get the manga
Anyway, on Sunday, I did a GPSA leadership retreat. Yes, I was elected into student government again. (Unlike the current brouhaha in the national government, graduate student government positions are not hotly contested). Some of it was reviewing parliamentary procedure, since the undergrads tried to rules-lawyer us in a corner last year to get more funding for the end-of-year party. There was also the discussion of goals for this year, and team-building exercises. (Kind of silly things, like 'you are all blindfolded and there is a rope -- arrange it into a square' or 'you are standing on two platforms with one in the middle, and two planks that are not quite long enough to reach across -- get everyone to switch platforms without talking'. The coordinator did remark we were very good at coming up with plans for these things, explaining them to everyone and not bickering about things.)
I did have a near-computer failure. It didn't turn on Saturday morning, and (I thought that) I tried everything. On Sunday night, I double-checked everything again, in preparation for putting it into its box to ship to Apple for repairs, and noticed that the power cord came off in my hand. Luckily, it was supposed to do that -- what I had thought of as a fixed cord was actually un-pluggable at the monitor end as well. I suspect that was what was loose. Works fine now, but it made me thankful I do regular backups onto my external hard drive. If it did break, I'd be stuck on a 3 year old laptop that I'd have to haul back and forth from work until it was fixed, but I'd still have all my files. Does mean I should back up the research stuff on the laptop, though.
On the other hand, my apartment needs to be cleaned urgently. If I can get some plots made tomorrow morning, I might go out for a late lunch, then go home to clean.
I think after next week, I'll start noting impressions of the series we're watching, though we have a good mix (Welcome to the NHK, Kino's Journey, XXXholic, Twelve Kingdoms, Mushishi and Gurren Lagenn). About the only thing I've seen before this year is Elf Princess Raine, which we watched the first day. (And I had forgotten how awesome Elf Princess Raine is.) We watched Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind this week, as part of the club tradition to watch one Miyazaki movie per semester. Someone on the club blog noted that that it is one of Miyazaki's 'anti-technology, pro-nature' movies, but I disagree a bit. It's very pro-nature (like Princess Mononoke), but the anti-tech stuff is more passive and subtle (the Valley of the Wind is shown as more of a peaceful agrarian society, while most of what we see of other countries (besides ruins of cities) is war machines and airships). (There's also the anti-pollution elements.) And, in a weird way, it's pro-science.
Basically, the movie takes place in a world where a strange foresty swamp (the Sea of Decay) has taken over a lot of land. Most of the plants emit toxic gases, and there also are giant insects that will attack you if you attack them or damage the forest. Nausicaa, the title character, is the daughter of the king of the Valley of the Wind, a small agrarian settlement that has come to terms with living near the forest -- they keep their own lands clean by burning away spores from the forest, and don't bother the forest itself. Nausicaa often heads into the forest for salvage -- some of the insects leave shed shells behind that can be used in construction -- and she brought back some forest spores, and grew them in her basement, using the purest well water and sand she could find. She discovered that the plants were concentrating and breaking down the toxins in the earth and water from the civilization that had existed before -- further backed up when she discovered what lay beneath the Sea of Decay later in the movie. The fumes, while deadly, were helping the planet clean the soil and water, and the giant insects helped keep humans from clearing the forest before it was done. Thus, it was important that the Sea of Decay continue to exist, even if in the short term, it was a very hostile place for humans and their plants and animals. Not only was it a place full of unique life, but it also served a purpose that, in the long term, benefited everyone.
And, that's why I think it is pro-science. Nausicaa was acting as a scientist to learn something about the world she lived in, and discovered how important that ecosystem was. Knowing one's place in the universe is important, since it gives you a reason to keep around a forest full of toxic plants and giant attack insects. It also is one way to appreciate the place itself, not just what it does for you, which Nausicaa seemed to do. (Though I suspect her love for animals and plants drove her desire to learn, rather than the other way around.) Science may have allowed the antagonists to come up with ways to destroy the forest, and wage war on their neighbors, but it also let Nausicaa know exactly how much that was going to screw everyone over, and explain to others why this was a bad idea.
Maybe that's just my POV about things -- I'm not exactly unbiased. I do now want to own this movie, and maybe get the manga
Anyway, on Sunday, I did a GPSA leadership retreat. Yes, I was elected into student government again. (Unlike the current brouhaha in the national government, graduate student government positions are not hotly contested). Some of it was reviewing parliamentary procedure, since the undergrads tried to rules-lawyer us in a corner last year to get more funding for the end-of-year party. There was also the discussion of goals for this year, and team-building exercises. (Kind of silly things, like 'you are all blindfolded and there is a rope -- arrange it into a square' or 'you are standing on two platforms with one in the middle, and two planks that are not quite long enough to reach across -- get everyone to switch platforms without talking'. The coordinator did remark we were very good at coming up with plans for these things, explaining them to everyone and not bickering about things.)
I did have a near-computer failure. It didn't turn on Saturday morning, and (I thought that) I tried everything. On Sunday night, I double-checked everything again, in preparation for putting it into its box to ship to Apple for repairs, and noticed that the power cord came off in my hand. Luckily, it was supposed to do that -- what I had thought of as a fixed cord was actually un-pluggable at the monitor end as well. I suspect that was what was loose. Works fine now, but it made me thankful I do regular backups onto my external hard drive. If it did break, I'd be stuck on a 3 year old laptop that I'd have to haul back and forth from work until it was fixed, but I'd still have all my files. Does mean I should back up the research stuff on the laptop, though.
On the other hand, my apartment needs to be cleaned urgently. If I can get some plots made tomorrow morning, I might go out for a late lunch, then go home to clean.
