h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

..terribly intriguing

Sorry, had to be said. I'll leave you be now

You are terribly well read apparently. What's intriguing about me beside the fact that I don't do Russell Means in drag imitations?

Oh, and thanks for dropping by.

Me? I'm afraid all I am is terribly wannabe-well-read. As to intrigue, well..just things you've said in threads, imagery from things you've written, etc.

Any time

I'm glad you've found my stuff intriguing then. Are you a student too like me? Nyssa is a town on the Snake River, right?

I'm glad you've found my stuff intriguing then. I think you might be a student like me then? Nyssa is a town on the Snake River, right?

Sorry for the double post. I got disconnected and thought the first one hadn't gone through.

Yeah, I'm a student at the University of Idaho in Moscow. And yes, Nyssa is a wee little town in Idaho down south, but my Nyssa was named for a Doctor Who character . Analiese is a lovely name; where does it come from?

Thanks. The name comes from my parents. They had to call me something like that for the census because otherwise people would have problems spelling it. Some have problems with Analiese that way, but at least it's European, so they can't make excuses. But my friends call me Rusty or at least they would if I had any.

I was looking up Nyssa, and I found out it's a town in Cappodacia too and some dude named Gregory was bishop there a long time ago. Gregory taught that the world was okay and God was pleased with it, which is sort of counter to what the Catholic Church teaches but they consider him a saint so they don't necessarily contradict him. They just sort of counsel caution.

What are you studying?

I think I recall something about that Saint...hmmmm...I will ponder this - with caution of course .

I'm studying..well, I suppose technically my degree is Interdisciplinary Studies, which of course is only a half-step up in bullsh*tness from General Studies. I'm studying various social sciences and refusing to pick a discipline because there is particular research I want to do, and I want sufficient background in what I deem necessary to such. How about you?

My family thinks I should become a lawyer so I can help out in court, but I'm thinking this is a waste of time when the people making the law won't obey it and the people who swear to uphold it won't enforce it.

So then I'm thinking it might be better to become a storyteller, telling children's stories to grownups so they'll really grow up. I think most of them learned how to behave well in kindergarten but sometime during their subsequent living they forgot those lessons and it shows.

So I study history and literature and sciences a little. But much is biased in certain ways. That's why telling stories is important. Otherwise, only a few stories get told over and over again. I'm thinking maybe we need to hear some different stories a little.

Ah..yes, academia is my favorite hiding place. I fully intend to stay in school until they catch on to my scheme and kick me out and force me into the 'real world.'

Stories good. My kids are getting to the age of having verbal skills to match their imaginations enough that they have started to spin tales. It's a precious time with them .

I don't think I could stay in school until somebody catches up with me. I'm already hopelessly homesick and I've only been here a little over two years.

If ye don't mind my asking, what glorious institution of higher learning *cough* are you attending? Fortunately (?), I'm attending school in my hometown of Moscow, Idaho. Jesus, now that I start counting, it seems like quite a while - I've been in college since '96. *s morbidly* Nothing like two high-risk pregnancies and a dead husband to interrupt your academic plans.

*has a bit of a cynical side as well, though perhaps not hard-won*

I've read through your entries, and now I'm quite a bit more fascinated by you. Sorry, that sounds like I see you as some kind of exhibition..not really what I mean to say, so I hope you can see past ineffective verbiage and straight into sentiment.

The University of Denver, affectionately known to the fratboys as the Harvard of the West.

I've never been to Harvard, (surprise, surprise and neither have my brothers) so I can't really say, but the classes are relatively small, and the tuition is obscenely expensive. But I'm here on a fullride because I'm one of the diverse people they'd like to say they include in their student body. And the English department seems to admire my talents for some reason.

I'm okay with that too.

One of the founders of the university figured prominently in the massacre at Sand Creek so I figure I'm just collecting a little past due restitution for all those dead Chichistas. I get a lot of acclaim as you might expect by pointing out what the official university historian failed to mention.

But I'm still enrolled so far so what the heck, right?

Still it's a long way from Nevada or Utah, but it was either that or go to UU and become a Redskin and maybe even a mormon and I guess you probably can figure out what I think about that.

I'm sorry to hear about your husband. It must be pretty rough at times trying to raise kids and keep profs happy too. You're a very admirable person I think. I hope your boyfriend appreciates that.

We have a Harvard up here where I live - a tiny little township which could be called a suburb of an only slightly less tiny town called Potlatch.

Oi..Mormons. My ex-in-laws are all Mormon, and since I didn't have the heart to cut them off from their grandchildren, I still have ongoing dealings with them. I don't mind so much except for when the kids come back from a visit telling me that their daddy is with the 'heavenly father.' I guess I'll have to get used to routine deprogramming.

As to Njan, he's a sweetie of the highest order (not to be confused with sweet talker ). H*ll, just the fact that he doesn't suffer from that often typical male reluctance to father children that he hasn't sired is worth something, in my opinion . But yeah, I really think we're going to get along quite well (so long as the pr*cks at INS don't hassle us ).

Well, I guess you should be a little careful then. But you got a good heart I think and so does he maybe so it'll work one way or another.

As for LDS, well, I shouldn't rag on them so much.

Some have been genuinely affectionate and they share a certain common persecution complex with us I guess. Some seem to genuinely admire indian people, especially those who've had to make a go of it in some of the places we used to live. They learned it wasn't as easy it looked and we weren't all a bunch of lazy, good for nothing diggers after all.

But I still get a laugh out of some of the old ones. They are totally terrified of dying.

So when I ask, "Aren't you looking forward to being with the heavenly father and your ancestors?"

They say, "Well, uh, no use rushing things... " or something like that.

"Rushing things? Heck, you're 87, how's that rushing things? Where are your grandchildren going to live? No wonder they're encroaching on us."

Which makes me think they aren't all that keen on seeing their dead relatives. Some of their sibling rivalries or family spats can get pretty vicious I guess, especially when money's involved. That may be more the scots or irish blood than the religion but who knows really?

Still, their devotion to their families is admirable, when it's genuine. Families are very important I think.

I just wish their blessed savior, Jesus, wasn't so sandy blond and blue-eyed. He reminds me of those redneck bowhunters that keep telling me I don't know how to hunt and why don't I stop believing leftist propaganda? And why don't I got a hunting license like them to support the wildlife management effort?

So then I need to go down the list of all the problems they cause by being sporthunters instead of subsistance hunters and on and on and they still think I'm just a drunken squaw with an attitude, which is probably true now that I think of it.

But that's their problem I guess. You can always tell a redneck but you can't tell him much, right?

I'm glad your boyfriend's coming to live with you. I've never been to England but from what I hear it can't hold a candle Idaho. That's just my personal opinion not to be taken as a general condemnation of the fair isles.

I just can't imagine living anywhere else than where I've always lived. I'm just sort of stuck that way. And as long as people treat it right and don't push me or my people aside, I can tolerate them too. And that's probably the best we can hope for under circumstances.

I'm entirely unfamiliar with things down Mormon way; what tribe are you then? (if you don't mind saying).

I read the article posted to your space somewhere by GT Bacchus (I think). I wondered then what you think of the Indian Studies programs that seem to be gaining popularity at Universities. For example, up here I believe you can major in it, and they teach the Nez Perce language. Perhaps it is a good step towards critically thinking about social issues, diversity, etc. Or perhaps it's a sort of patronizing afterbirth of the PC era..*ponder*

Yes, from my observations, Mormon quabbles are some of the most volatile. Then again, it seems to me that the patriarch of the family that I deal with most used mormonism as a replacement for alcoholism, so my estimations of the rest of them may not be entirely fair.

I remember in ethics class being told that Jesus was the first feminist. I remember thinking 'Don't tell the Christians that!' Leftism is a kind of Kryptonite to a good Baptist .

Subsistence hunting, in my opinion anyway, is the only ethical hunting. Anything else just seems like irresponsible stewardship. *shrug*

Have you seen much of Idaho? I suspect that I might be more tied to this area than I would have thought; *something* has always come up every time I made a serious attempt to leave.

I'm Newe and Weenuche, that's Western Shoshone and Southern Ute or Paiute, they kind of blend together a little in southern Utah, and Inde which is Western Apache. So I'm a Nevada and Four Corners girl mostly, but we're all pretty well acquainted with Mormons I'm afraid. It's one of those love-hate things where you can't live them and if you try to live without them you end up with somebody worse.

I know the area around the Snake River Plain, and the Salmon, and the Wind River in Wyoming and I've even been to Walla Walla, Washington and eastern Oregon around Lakeview. I've also hungout in the Wasatch and with the Uintah people around Fort Duchesne.

Since I've been at school I've been to Costa Rica and Europe too.

Talk about an eyeopener! I was looking at Notre Dame at sunset from a bridge over the Seine and thinking, well, I don't know what I was thinking. I was just totally zonked. French wine is pretty good.

I don't know about those indian studies. I'd feel a little more comfortable if they helped fund the ones we already had going at the indian colleges. I'm not sure it's such a good thing to be teaching Anglos our languages. Pretty soon they'll be telling us how to talk along with everything else.

My roommate, Rita, gets really frantic over the language stuff because she'll see them posting in Lakota on the internet except they're using English grammar and syntax and boys will be talking like girls and vice versa. She'll be muttering, which in her case involves signing in front of the mirror and I'm picking up some pretty foul language now and then if I watch her. The cussing part's in Ameslan not Lakota because Lakota doesn't have cuss words.

But I guess if people are genuinely curious and not judgmental, it might turn out okay. As long as they don't use the knowledge to gain more concessions but to understand why it's their turn to concede a little bit.

As for Jesus, I'm not sure about that dude. He's usually talking way over my head so I really don't know if he was a feminist or not. Knowing the Bible as I do, I suspect not. I think the first feminists were girls like me and you maybe. Or chix like Tamara in the Bible who got Judah to make good on his pledge.

Somebody once tried to get me to read the Book of Mormon once. After I got through the first 697 "And it came to pass... "es, I sort of lost interest. Oh, well, I guess we can't all be Saints, but it makes me wonder if the Saints really read it after all. I bet the AAers read the Big Book more. What do you think?

Hard to say about Indian Studies. I'm guessing that most with ill-intent wouldn't bother to waste their education dollars on the course when they can major in something important like business. For a while I was in Latin-American studies, but have since decided that rather than saddle myself with the curriculum I prefer to take what interests me. Thus throughout the various departments, I'm something of a special topics whore (with residual lust for spanish and portuguese )

My ignorance is really showing now - does each tribe have its own reservation by the same name, or..? What language(s) do you speak?

Interesting how English speakers seem to abide by a different ethic as to the spread of our tongue - the more that speak it the better because that will make it that less likely that we'll ever have to put any effort into language acquisition.

Actually, the closest thing to a spat that Njan and I have had has been over the relative merits of pronouncing certain words this way or that..well he *is* from Oxfordshire, after all, I suppose certain allowances for linguistic superiority trips can be made . We went to a place called Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Inn, and he was quick to grin and point out that the dictionary the establishment held in a case was older than the USA. But then, wouldn't it almost seem that land that managed to avoid human industry the longest should get at least a few points? *ponderponder*

Jesus always seemed a little..I dunno..irritable? Of course, he had way more patience than I coulda managed. If I had retreated out onto a boat on a lake it would have been after a rather protracted tirade of profanity.

I've got a copy or ten of the Book of Mormon around the house somewhere. I've never actually delved into one..I suppose it must be a leftover bias from my Southern Baptist days . Really, literature from mysterious gold plates should be good reading, wouldn't you think? I'm guessing AAers might find more use out of the Jesus of the BOM. The Jesus of the Bible would just create more wine

It varies.

We have our own language, at least among those who remember it. Our name for ourselves, Newe, means people who speak our language.

Our language is related to Ute and Paiute although sometimes you wonder about that when you go to Fort Duchesne and can't understand what people are saying. It's also related to Hopi and Aztec (Nahuatl) believe it or not. Which kind of tells you the Mexican border doesn't mean very much to us and never did. The Colorado River does as it should.

And we have reservations if you can call them that all over the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau, some are called "colonies" so maybe you get the idea. Most of our people don't live on reservations though.

You see, we were an afterthought. After the government let the immigrants encroach on us, the settlers complained that we were annoying them by begging for food and work. But by that time there wasn't much left to "reserve" for us. So we got what was left or what a few, rare private citizens were willing to deed back. It's called being exiled in your own land I think. And it's been an interesting experience too.

Other tribes like the Dineh, Navaho, have big reservations with big shiny headquarters buildings. Each tribe is a little different.

Like the Lakota have a bunch of reservations in the Dakotas and the Shoshoni and Crow have reservations in Wyoming. The Inde (Western Apache) have a pretty nice one north of Tucson, or at least it was until it got burned out in the fires recently.

There's something like 300 languages so English has sort of been a blessing in a way because I can talk to Blackfeet or Salish or Crow or Lakota or Mohawk or whatever and that wouldn't have been possible before English became our "official" language.

As for that dictionary, I wouldn't feel bad.

I can point out some rock cartoons to Njan that predate England and I even knew someone who could interpret them. It's all pretty relative after all. No matter how smart or ancient or civilized you think you are you can always find somebody who's a little more so.

It's like the joke about the immigrants.

First one says, "My ancestors came over on the Mayflower."

Second one, not to be outdone says, "My ancestors have been in this land since 1541."

Third one, who's a Norwegian says, "That's nothing. My ancestors set foot on this continent in AD 1000."

So they're sort of looking at the fourth one, who just happens to be an indian.

"When did your ancestors come here?" one asks.

So the indian answers, "Oh, gosh, I don't know exactly. It was before the neighborhood went to hell though."

I don't want to seem dense, although that's what I am most of the time, but what's "the BOM"?