the fig and flower

28 May 2008

cartographia

It's map time!

I love maps. Here are some cool ones I've found.

Light pollution, United States

Topograpic and geological maps, merged. So pretty!

Live satellite image of the Western US, as of noon today.

The same image, different angle.

Soil moisture types in the US (check out the uniformity of the East, the slinky bands in the Midwest and the motley of terrain types in the West!)

Average wind power in the US. (The darker blues = more wind). My dad, who works in the energy industry, says that the Dakotas have the best wind speeds for creating windpowered energy in the country. Who would've guessed?

What the US looked like only 180 years ago (The US circa 1835; map printed in Scotland).

Interpretive map of the United States, oil on canvas, Jasper Johns, 1961

Where I'll be this summer. Yosemite is the big dark green blob in the middle; I'm working and living east of Yosemite. You can see Lake Tahoe at the very top, Mono Lake in the middle, and Crowley Lake (where we watch a fantastic fireworks show on the 4th of July). Lee Vining is the town where I'll be working; it's not shown but it is next to Mono Lake, at the intersection of the 395 and the 120. Our cabin is on Silver Lake, which, along with its three sister lakes, make up the lakes of the June Lake Loop. They are too small to be shown, but if they were they'd fit inside the white circle/dot that marks the town of June Lake.

Mono Lake from space! Yeah, it's huge - covers 695 square miles - and is one of the country's oldest lakes. And, if you look at the bottom of the image, above the word 'Mono', you'll see four smaller lakes. The largest one (it consists of two bodies of water connected by a river) is Grant and is actually manmade. The little one directly above the 'M' in Mono is Silver Lake (where our cabin is and where I'm going to live!), the teeny one east of Silver is Gull Lake, and the bean-shaped one is June, the flagship one after which the town in named). A loop road runs around the four.

Lest the maps look too sterile, here is a live image of Mono Lake.

And here's my Silver.

My summer begins on Friday!

22 May 2008

knotted

It's amazing how nothing seems to change at home. After spending hours driving through the desert with the sky pierced only by sloping mountains, the I-10 suddenly slides into the outer metropolitan cities, of new developments and gleaming shopping malls. The road expands and improves, and dozens more cars sidle up by you as you thrust into the heart of Phoenix. Get onto the 51 or the 202 and before you know it, you're at your exit and soon sitting in your driveway. Just like that.

When I drive every single mile, it never ceases to amaze me with how far the distance between school and home really is (350 miles is a lot of land over which to travel) but also how quickly I leave one world and enter the other.

I've been home for four days and I actually am appreciating it because I know I'm leaving in eight days. I've been doing basically nothing except sleeping, reading (kind of; I got a stack of fiction from the library but can't seem to actually finish any of them) and watching movies (so far: Casino Royale, 300, Sylvia, Sherrybaby, Into The Wild, Gladiator). And I did go to the gym yesterday. I was meaning to go every day but maybe thats a goal better suited to next week.

This is my second summer landlocked in the US; therefore I am feeling restless for travel. As a kid we went to England every other summer so this one should be the "international summer", but now that we're older everyone does their own thing. Sadly, I won't see my mom or sister until the fall since they're not coming up to the cabin for 4th of July this year -- the first time we won't all be together up there. Anyway, next summer I am definitely going to hop around the world for a good while after graduation.

15 May 2008

islands

Whew! Crazy couple weeks. A week ago Wednesday I had a huge 15-page paper due, then spent a few days recovering before the bitch that was Monday - three papers due and a final exam, and another exam yesterday. Between the packed hours of work (which I actually masochistically enjoy because this is the only time in the semester that I work this hard) I didn't sleep much, so since Monday I've been sleeping ten to twelve hours a night... like until noon. Its so uncharacteristic of me that its kind of embarrassing, but I clearly needed the rest. Luckily I got the big paper back and did really well (it was on urban sprawl in Los Angeles) and my last papers and exams all felt good too. And I'm DONE!

Today was my first day of summer, and what did I do? First I got my roots re-done. Last week I got my hair dyed a gorgeous plum/dark brown color (before it was just dark brown), but the roots which were my natural dirty blonde color took in all the purple and basically looked fluorescent, especially in natural light. After enough people commented on how... purple!... they looked I decided to get the roots fixed, so my stylist fit me in for this morning and now the color is even and gorgeous! After that, I met with the choir director to sight-read the song that is sung at every Scripps graduation... which I'm singing along with seven other girls (and thus get to stay in the dorms an extra day unlike everyone else who has to move out the day before). Then I drove some bulky stuff (fridge, microwave, books, pillows) to my friend's storage unit. Then I felt the spring cleaning urge come on, so I went through all my stuff, tossing junk like half-empty shampoo bottles and recycling TONS of paper stuff... papers, course readers, my entire notebook for this semester. God, it's sad how many trees we students kill. I got rid of a good deal of stuff I don't need and feel cleansed. I'm quite happy I'm not like my friend Keri who is a pack rat and can't throw anything away. She's been packing all day and still isn't done and is leaving tomorrow and is quite stressed. I like living lightly.

What else?

It was 90 degrees here today, in true move in/move out fashion. Between spurts of cleaning I lay on my bed sweating and blasting the fan. Gross, I know. Later, when I was cooler, I had a lovely dinner with Keri, Eva and Alexis. Its kind of rare to get the four of us together; someone always has something going on. And afterwards we returned to the piercing studio once again, which always results in something interesting.

In the last two weeks I have resurrected my piercing obsession and have gotten six holes in my head - five in my ears and one in my nose. My nose piercing spurned a deep-rooted desire to re-pierce the two awesome piercings I had for three years and took out last fall. I felt that they were connected to high school and my past and wanted to let go of them because of that. But I've actually missed them and decided to re-pierce them, this time transcending connotations of my life. They are no longer connected to anything specific, they are just part of me. Sort of like the saying that you have to let go of something you love to see if it comes back to you. Kind of. Okay, anyway. So I re-pierced my rook and my conch within 24 hours of each other since I felt unbalanced with just one of them, and despite the conch being an absolute bitch to care for I'm really happy. The cartilage in that part of my ear is really thick, thicker than most people, and its just a big commitment to have and care for. I can't really believe I willingly had it pierced twice (well, four times since it consists of two holes)! It healed really nicely last time, though, so I hope this one follows the same path. This time the piercer (who is a whole 'nother story, Eva and I basically are obsessed with him) put the ball in the front instead of the back, and instead of a boring titanium one I chose a beautiful amethyst stone. Check it (left ear):

Its hard to tell, but it comes out the back. (Hah, and see that faint curved line below my ear? That's a result of just having done a sea salt soak by pressing my ear into a mug full of hot salt water for almost ten minutes.) Oh, and tonight we returned to the studio because Eva was going to take out a sweet dermal anchor (that is not actually her below but she has the same thing by her eye)...

...that she got last week and that her mom flipped out about (although she was quite conflicted and decided to keep it in for now, SSSHYEAH! its hot) and so I decided to get another orbital in my other ear. Just for fun, you know?

The little cute one is the rook, which everyone loves. The bigger one is the orbital, only a couple hours old. I regret choosing a clear bead and I'm going to switch it to a black one in a few months. Apart from that, I really like it.

The studio, which is in Pasadena, is the most elegant and classy piercing studio I've been in. The piercers (I've been pierced by two of them) are all professional and friendly and really awesome guys. Last week we ended up having a philosophical discussion with one of the piercers about body modification and Western attitudes to piercings, tattoos, scarification, and suspensions. It's so funny that I'm getting back into piercings, since I thought for a while that it was a rebellious high school thing that got out of my system, but clearly they mean more to me than that. It is true that our society, while better than before, is still really not that okay with body modification. Interestingly, the people who are into BM are some of the most open, non-judgmental people I've ever met. I walk into this studio in a skirt and flip flops with my friends and I don't feel like I'm looked up and down and judged for what I do or don't have on my body. Its such a welcoming and refreshing environment to be in, especially coming from a women's college that tries so hard to be anti-gender and anti-stereotypes and in the process completely stereotypes itself as the weird, man-hating, vagina-loving women's college. Gah!

So lots of holes in my ears now! Oh, and one in my nose:

And check out my new vase! I bought it at a Middle Eastern food mart for ten bucks.

I drive home on Sunday afternoon after graduation, and until then I'm cleaning, packing, hanging out with old and new friends, and getting ready psychologically for summer. I'll be home for about ten days before I drive to the Sierra Nevadas to start my internship. More on that later.

Where is the year going?!

04 May 2008

sharpies

It's my half birthday today. Only six months until I'm 21!

I got my nose pierced (again. I got it done in the fall of 2005 while at CC but took it out after a few weeks. Today I had him pierce it a bit closer to the corner and it looks quite a bit better now. It was (then and now) the least painful piercing I've ever gotten, and already looks like I've had it for ages).

I'm writing a big paper due Wednesday on "Los Angeles: suburban sprawl and high-density housing" and I'm really getting into it!

On Friday I went roller skating at a real old-school rink for the first time in my life. I felt like I experienced a piece of a true American adolescence that I missed. I managed not to fall despite it being my first time on actual rollerskates (rollerblades yes, but still was at least eight years ago)... until the very end, as I was exiting the rink. Completely ate it. Scraped up my knee, bruised my browbone and chin and shoulder. I also got a big blister on the inside of my foot. I feel like I'm a little kid again and I love it.

I've spent the last two days essentially alone (but not lonely) and have loved it.

I spent part of the last three afternoons in a different coffeehouse (one near here, one in Brentwood, and one in Pasadena) working on the big LA paper while further fueling my dream of owning one one day.

On the freeway this weekend lying in my lane was an enormous ladder, a large swatch of cloth, and a hubcap (that flew off the car in front of me). I'm honestly amazed that multiple times I managed not to die.

Only a few more days of class next week and then finals the week after that. I'm done on Wed the 14th, I think, but I'm sticking around to sing in a group for the commencement ceremony, so I'll be checking out of my dorm and driving home on Mon the 19th.

I've been drawing a lot, and collaging a fair amount recently. I also re-read some of the poetry I wrote a few years ago and have been going through old photos I took when I first got my camera. In general its been a creative, introspective, reflective few weeks.

I've also been sleeping more!

I took five days off from working out after a month of 5-6 workouts a week. I went to the gym this Thursday and Saturday but I really can't wait to get into the pool again tomorrow.

It felt really good to write this simple, list-based, boring daily activities post.

01 May 2008

mai

Happy May Day!

The memories I have about May Day are hazy because they are from my childhood in England, but I do remember there was sun, grass, laughter, flowers and dancing around a maypole holding a colorful stream of ribbon.