Random Acts of Ruthness

Drawing on seminal writings by Barthes, Panofsky, Foucault, Derrida, and others, Harley uses a blend of iconology, semiotics, and deconstruction to expose the power, politics, and knowledge embedded in cartographic representations of space. His unmasking of subjectivity and ideology can be extrapolated to photographs which share with maps fundamental characteristics as visual representations and social constructions.47 Blending ideas from art history, literary theory, philosophy, and cultural studies, Harley offers archivists an intellectual springboard for achieving a keener awareness of visual materials as instruments of social, commercial, and political power, devices of memory, tools of legitimation. Concerned with texts and contexts, Harley’s ideas are easily transposed to other visual materials in archives, making the leap from positivism to postmodernism far less daunting.

In a pre-semester meeting today, ProfX got an article written in 1992 (18 years ago) on why some students just refuse to learn. It contained this quote which left several of his co-teachers in stitches:

"One of the brighter moments in teaching comes when one sees Asian names on the roll sheet."

Can I take a moment to say how awesome it is being friends with you guys? Seriously. I've hung out with all kinds of crowds online & let me tell you--it's so frustrating to be around the ones who write posts dissing TV as a waste of time. Watching tv just to watch tv or because you have no life, I'll agree that's a waste of time. But watching Battlestar Galactica or Doctor Who or Buffy or even Star Trek...no, that's not a waste. It's art, it's community, it's a fun way to spend free time, and it's at least as good as many books out there (all for reading books too).

I can't spend 16 hours a day working/working on projects. My brain needs time to do other things. I've worked 60 and 80-hour weeks when I've had to and it's not healthy, nor is it fun. And don't think it's easy on my brain to watch some of this stuff. The stories aren't light and fluffy, some are dark and some are sad.

I don't spend all my free time watching tv, nor do I want to. But watching a good tv series is a wonderful use of free time. And I'm glad to be around people who feel the same way.

this is an excerpt from a letter 14-year-old me wrote to 24-year-old
me. Just found it while cleaning:

"Do you still enjoy STAR WARS? I am crazy about it. I also like STAR TREK."

Unsure why 14-year-old me needed to capitalize that, but I think
14-year-old me would be pleased that I still like both.

This showed up in our apartment building on Friday. I can't get over
the trumpet and confetti border, I think it's an old-school Word
template. Will probably submit to passiveaggressivenotes.com.

Finished the first 5 characters in the Firefly cross stitch project!
Low-light picture, unfortunately.

I've been trying to carry my little camera with me more often on the
way to work, etc. Earlier this week, I noticed that my metro station's
Michael Jackson tribute graffiti had finally been painted over. The
next morning--another artist had put up a brand new MJ tribute
illustration.

I don't like all the graffiti that shows up around where I live, but
this guy is a ninja and an artist. :)

(download)

Click here to download:

Our_local_graffiti_ninjas....zip (237 KB)

One of my friends sent me a link to a really cool site earlier today. It's called A New Dress a Day and the girl who runs it is making herself a new dress every day for a year out of $365 dollars worth of thrift store & flea market clothes. Some of the stuff she finds is insanely bad and yet she can generally make it into something cute and awesome. I was inspired to turn the before sweater into the after cardigan. More tomorrow. :)

(download)

Click here to download:

Teasers_for_my_edited_sweater..zip (178 KB)

1) I have a huge transaction that I'm doing this week and I haven't spoken to the other party in 3 days. This makes me nervous. I sent one totally rational query just in hopes of hearing back from them, but nothing. Must wait another day or two to send them a "so....where are we on this?" e-mail. I don't want to push things. But until I hear back from them, I will be stressed.

2) Partially because my terminally ill mother is having an awful spring and thinks the end may be getting close. And no one wants to hear that, even if she beat the odds by staying alive so long. But it's not like there's some set-in-stone timeframe so all we have is uncertainty and sadness.

This is NOT my week (and on the second point, I don't think this is going to be a good year either way, but I'm hoping the first will turn around and be awesome).

Being Ruth - codery, craftery, geekery http://beingruth.com/
On Twitter - @ruthbeingruth

My Firefly cross stitch project is going well. I've finished 4/9 of the crew and 4/5 of the bottom row. Jayne was my favorite to make so far because of the dress, though Zoe's hair was a lot of fun.

Sorry the pic isn't great, it was shot in the low-light of my parents kitchen.

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Being Ruth - codery, craftery, geekery http://beingruth.com/
On Twitter - @ruthbeingruth