21

Today was my birthday.  I turned 21.  Two days ago, I woke up in the morning, my mind consumed with a life crisis (I don’t like using the term “mid-life crisis” because I think that’s ridiculous.  You don’t know when your life is going to end, thus, you have no idea when you’re in the mid-life stage.  If I die tonight after a bite from a Black Mamba, my mid-life crisis would’ve been when I was eleven and, in fifth grade, began studying for the SAT with the hopes of going to UCLA or USC Film School despite my parents urgings that artists did not make money, and I should probably plan on something more stable [*cough cough* medicine] to earn a living.)

So, the life crisis began as soon as I woke up.  I knew my birthday was fast approaching and I was concerned.  Not about turning twenty-one.  Is anyone upset about turning twenty-one?  No one I’ve ever met at least.  So I was excited about turning twenty-one, but my excitement quickly deteriorated into fear.  It didn’t feel like it was ten years since I made joke sketch-comedy videos with my friends in our basements in the style of Monty Python’s Spam skit (we called it Ham).  It didn’t feel like it’s been a decade since I was in elementary school.  I still remember the look of the hallways, and the way I felt walking through them.  All of this felt so recent, yet it had actually occurred an entire decade ago.  This in itself wasn’t scary.  But the more I thought, the more I realized:  it doesn’t stop.  That’s what got me.  Twenty-one is great, but who cares about twenty-two?  Twenty-five is probably the last big accomplishment year until fifty (you get to rent a car without surplus charges at twenty-five), but who wants to be fifty?  I mean, I want to live it be fifty, but I want youth.  But youth is fleeting.  I hadn’t felt this way until two days ago.  But at the same time, do I want it to stop?  Do I want to stay twenty-one forever?  No!  Heck no!  I’m a junior in college, which is fun, but definitely not what I foresee to be the best year of my life.  I have, what I like to call, pseudo-autonomy.  I make most of my decisions for myself, but if I were actually autonomous, I’m pretty sure I’d be hopelessly lost.  I still do everything I’m supposed to do, and there’s still so much I’m supposed to do to satisfy my school requirements and my family commitments.  I don’t know.  I’m going to turn around, and all of a sudden turn thirty…

Speaking of which, I dreamt that I woke up in my bed at home and I was like, “what?  What happened to my semester in Kenya?  Did I just forget the whole last two months?”  No.  I didn’t.  I was just dreaming.  But in that dream, it felt like I had not lived those two months because I had forgotten everything that happened.  I guess that’s the advantage to aging.  At least you can say those years happened, and at least for the most part, you can remember them.  When I was younger, I used to want to be eighteen and go to college SO BAD.  I was so excited to be an “adult,” that part of me just wished I could just fall asleep until then.  I would never wish that again.  Every day is so FUN!  Why would I want to miss just one in the course of my life. 

When I have life crises (if you know me, you know I tend to have these a lot) I like to re-shift my mindset.  I deal with them like I deal with a dysfunctional Game Boy:  hit the reset button.  Well, my re-set button is:  what adventures can I have now that I could’ve never had before.

IT'S LEGAL NOW B*TCHES!  IN EVERY COUNTRY ON EARTH!

1) Go drinking in a bar in the United States of America!  This will obviously have to wait until home, but I have had TWO drinks tonight (It’s legal in ALL countries on the face of the Earth, and I can talk about it on the internet because it is legal.)

2) Graduate from college (HOPEFULLY?!)!!

3) Everything you need a college degree to do.  (This is probably more exciting than the graduate from college bit.  You know, means to an ends…)

My future looks BRIGHT.  Maybe it’s just because of the Savanna Dry I’m imbibing, but I have high hopes for the next decade.  I’d like to do Teach for America.  I’d like to try my hand at screenwriting.  I’d like to seriously consider applying to medical school.  And after that, it just gets BRIGHTER!  Watch out!  Erisa Super Nova about to GAMMA RAYBURST!  And after that next decade, even more!  I’m very excited for collecting Social Security (assuming that’s still a thing and it’s not, like, one penny a month per retiree).  

In Other News… MATLAB

We have started our second course:  Field Ecohydrology: CEE 307.  If you’re unfamiliar with Princeton’s course number notation, CEE stands for CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING.  That’s right, ENGINEERING.  A class of all Ecology and Evolutionary Biology students taking an ENGINEERING COURSE.  It’s like the three stooges, except there’s twelve of us.  The first assignment was assigned to get us familiar and oriented with MATLAB!  That’s right, everyone’s favorite torture device:  MATLAB.  I’m convinced it works better than Chinese water torture.  That *blip* thing it does when I try to run buggy code, haunts my dreams to this day.  When I mess up something in real life, I hear the *blip*.  Anyway, luckily (luckily?  Am I actually lucky that I took Integrated Science, or am I just insane?) I took INTEGRATED SCIENCE where they made us do MATLAB without teaching us how to do MATLAB.  That’s like the old Monkey and a Typewriter example.  Eventually the monkey will type out Moby Dick given enough time (and paper).  Well, I must be one advanced primate, because I am one of the top MATLAB programmers in this rag-tag bunch of ecologists.  And it only took two years of INTEGRATED SCIENCE to do it!  The funny thing is, after two days of MATLAB tutorial in this class, I actually understand a lot of the functions I’d been dickin’ around with during INTEGRATED SCIENCE.  Did you know that if you teach people how to do things, they understand them much better than if you just ask them to complete an assignment without teaching them how to do the assignment?  I mean, revolutionary idea right?  Maybe someone should let the people over at the INTEGRATED SCIENCE DEPARTMENT know about this new, exotic theory.  (Seriously, three intensive days of a MATLAB tutorial and we would’ve been SET FOR LIFE.)

Anyway, besides this MATLAB business, the course is pretty so-so.  We’re talking a lot about rainfall and stream flow and water vapor.  I mean, it’s interesting stuff, but I’m just not as interested in it as I was the previous course on animal ecology.  The only redeeming quality about this course is THERE IS NO FINAL EXAM!  I’m so excited.  The Panamanians like don’t have tests or quizzes or assignments ever, but finally we can bask in some of the glory that is NOT HAVING A FINAL EXAM.  But it’s made me realize, if it were for examinations, I would pay WAY LESS ATTENTION during lectures.  Like this morning, I started to zone out during our lecture.  At first, I was like “OH SHOOT!  I GOTTA PAY ATTENTION!”  But then I realized I’d never be directly tested on this material.  If I needed the information to accomplish an assignment, I could always just ask something that was.  So I spaced out.  And when I was ready to stop day dreaming and get back into the lecture, I did.  Was I being a bad student?  Perhaps.  But I wasn’t disturbing anyone else, and the professor will never know (unless he reads this blog.  But let’s be real… no one reads this blog.).  So that it.  We’ll see how this class goes, but so far I have little interest and I imagine it will just continue to exponentially decay until our final project is due.  I’ll keep you posted.

P.S.  Love how my Oscar predictions were mostly ALL TRUE.  I should be in the movie industry.  Why am I not pursuing this dream?

Oscar Sunday

[Note:  this is a really long post.  If you're a skimmer, like myself, read the underlined and/or capitalized sentences and you'll get the jist.]

There are only a few redeeming qualities about winter.  Growing up in Chicago, winters are REAL.  They aren’t your West Coast winter, or even your East Coast winter.  And I’m not saying there’s something special about the Middle West (I mean there is, but, hint:  it’s the ridiculous amount of corn.).  I’m talking CHICAGO WINTERS.  So cold you think you’re in the opposite day for hell, but it’s that way all the time, not just one day!  Anyway, the only two redeeming qualities about winter are fresh snow (not that crappy snow two weeks after the first snow.  I’m talking the night of the first snow, THAT snow) and awards season.  Now, in Kenya, I have neither.

I don’t know why I’m obsessed, but I’m obsessed with movies.  I’m pretty sure I’m a cinephile, but any word that ends in –phile just sounds creepy to me, so I prefer saying “I really like movies.”  I remember watching the Academy Awards with my Mom when I was younger.  I got to stay up later than I would have on any given Sunday and, even when I hadn’t seen a majority of the movies that were nominated, I still felt some deep connection to the films.  This will be the first time I’ve missed the Oscars in, I’d say, at least 8 years.  (I’m not going to miss it, I’m just going to wait to see it until I get back thanks to my awesome Mom for recording it for me!).

So… given that I’m missing the Oscars, and given that I’m obsessed with the awards season and good films, and given that I’m considering starting a blog about film… I’m going to give my Kenya blog readers a taste of what’s been on my mind for the past few months:  Oscar predictions.

GET YOUR SCORE CARDS OUT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!  IT’S OSCAR SUNDAY!  I’ve starred the films and actors and writers and directors that I want* to win and underlined those I think will win.

Best Picture

Zero Dark Thirty*

Les Misérables

Argo

Amour

Django Unchained

Beast of the Southern Wild

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

Life of Pi

Of all these films, the only one I haven’t seen is Amour.  To be honest, the trailer looked boring, but that’s not why I didn’t see it.  Anyone who saw the Best Foreign Film nominated picture The White Ribbon (2008) will know that Amour is probably a really good movie.  Haneke, the Austrian who directed both these films, made an amazing film in The White Ribbon.  I remember that Oscars moment because my Spanish teacher had mentioned that an Argentine film, The Secret in their Eyes, was nominated for an Academy Award.  Naturally, I watched it, loved it, and was happy it came away with the Oscar gold despite The White Ribbon being a favorite to win.  When I watched The White Ribbon some time later, I was pleasantly surprised, but I still liked The Secret in their Eyes better.  Now I’m not so sure.  Both films present a mystery.  One leaves you satisfied at the end.  The other doesn’t.  When I was younger, I enjoyed satisfying endings, but now closed-case, happy endings leaves me longing for more depth and complexity (see my comments on Silver Linings Playbook below).  The Secret in their Eyes still has an interesting twist to it, and suspense up the wazoo, whereas The White Ribbon has a slow burn that keeps you intrigued throughout.  Anywho, I enjoyed The White Ribbon and would’ve liked to see Amour BUT IT WASN’T PLAYING IN ANY THEATRES NEAR ME!  This is what I get for living in New Jersey…

Speaking of happy endings, WHY IS SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK SUCH A BIG DEAL?  How did it win the Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature?  The actors – both the main characters and the supporters – all work together like the X and O teammates on the films poster and deserve the acclaim they’ve been given.  But come on.  Best picture?  It’s a RomComDram with special guest star Mental Illness.  When people ask me how I feel about this film, I reply:  “It’s a good movie with a story that needs to be told.”  But so was the Hunger Games but I don’t think THAT was Best Picture (those who know me might call this statement blasphemous).  In short, I liked it, but I think this praise for the film as a whole (not for the actors) is undeserved for a script and direction that seemed par for the course of a Romantic Dramedy.  Those who have seen the film will get this next part.  One of my major peeves about this film was the cop – Bradley Coopers character Pat's parole officer – who is somehow ALWAYS AROUND.  Middle of the night, Pat breaks some glass, PAROLE OFFICER IS THERE AND READY.  Daytime, Pat's straight chillin’ with his homie Chris Tucker, PAROLE OFFICER READY TO RUIN THE FUN.  Pat and Tiffany duking it out on the sidewalk, PAROLE OFFICER DRIVES BY AND JUMPS OUT OF HIS CAR.  Does this parole officer ever sleep?  I just lost it.  I lost the narrative – meaning I was too conscious of its movieness and less on its realness, which is kind of important for a film like this to retain - too many times during this film, dissolving any chances it had of being my Best Picture pick.  So no.  If it wins Best Picture, I will be upset.  (Also, they used a Led Zeppelin song and it wasn’t even well used.  I was happy it was Zepp, but I was sad it was Zepp at the same time.  At least I got to jam out for a bit in the theatre.)

Les Mis… it ain’t gonna win.  Honestly, when I first heard about this film – the whole, singing live bit – I was like, “WOW.  Tom Hooper is going to revitalize the movie musical with this film.”  And then he just sat there.  And by that, I meant the camera just sat there on people’s faces and did nothing.  You’re talking about how you’re taking musicals to a whole new level and then you have boring, lazy camerawork while the actors are giving it their ALL.  I was offended.  Don’t get me wrong, the close up on Anne Hathaway was GOLDEN (Globe-worthy).  It worked.  But imagine if that close up had been at the end of the film instead of the beginning.  People would’ve been SO BORED of the close-up, they wouldn’t’ve cared.  Which is how they felt about every close up toward the end of the movie.  You can’t just do that.  You ruin the opportunity for your actors and you bore your audience.  Additionally, I was talking to a friend of mine about the film and he mentioned how Les Mis is supposed to be a sweeping epic.  When you shoot it tight like that, you eliminate its grandeur and undercut part of the ascetic that is Les Mis.  It’s not Best Picture.  Not even close (-up).

Zero Dark Thirty was one of my three favorite films of the year.  I know.  Now all my friends think I like torture and killing innocent people and guilty people without a trial and everything.  Or that I’m totally cool with the government buying out film companies to spread propaganda.  For one, I don’t think we can accuse Bigelow of spreading propaganda in the form of this film.  I was told that Bigelow and Boal started writing the film to showcase how torture WASN’T working in the manhunt for Bin Laden, but then when they actually did catch Bin Laden, what were they going to do, scrap the film?  Anyway, I didn’t read the film as a display of the glories of torture.  I hated when people called Zero Dark Thirty the “9/11” film.  There were three films about 9/11:  World Trade Center, Flight 93, and Fahrenheit 9/11.  To me, this was not a film about 9/11 or even about UBL.  This was a film about passion.  There’s not really a main character, but I guess it’s Maya (Jessica Chastain), even though most of the time she’s more of an observer and not an active character until the end (an observer to perhaps put us – the audience – in her role; we’re observer her, she’s observing the manhunt situation).  (I don’t want to go into details because I don’t want to spoil the movie for anyone).  Anyway, one of her friends is extremely passionate about catching Usama Bin Laden any way possible and pays for it, big time.  Maya then dives into the hunt HEAD FRACKIN’ FIRST, not caring if there’s a rock waiting to paralyze her in the water.  Well, (SPOILER ALERT BUT NOT REALLY) they catch Usama, but then what happens?  Nothing.  Maya has no one.  She has no place.  She has nothing.  This is what passion does.  It consumes us until we’re dead or we’re empty.  To me, that’s what Zero Dark Thirty is about.  I think it’s about Americans passion for a shadily defined “justice” and the emptiness that ensues when that “justice” has been repaid.  That’s why I liked this movie.  If you look at it on the surface, maybe you just see torture and killing.  But take a second look, or a first look, and think about what’s really going on.  Do I think it’ll win?  No.  Hollywood seems too upset over it to give it an award.  Do I think it should win?  It should at least be a short list, and it should at least beat Silver Linings Playbook.  Therefore, if Silver Linings Playbook wins, I will be more even upset.

Django.  Django Django Django.  To be honest, it wasn’t as good as Inglourious Basterds, although I think part of what made Inglourious Basterds epic was the casts of characters and their interlocking work like the gears of a clock.  We just didn’t see that in Django Unchained.  What we did see was great filmmaking (and a great performance by the ensemble cast, special props to Kerry Washington who hasn’t gotten much acclaim although her performance was way up there) by who I consider one of the greatest auteurs of the our time.  If I had to rank it on a Tarantino scale, I’d put it after Kill Bill, but before Deathproof (IB, RD, KB1&2, DU, DP, PF, JB).  The only thing I will say about it is that Leonardo DiCaprio deserved a Best Supporting Actor nod and I was visibly offended when he did not receive one.  That man cut his hand while engrossed in his role and he plays it as he plays every role I’ve seen him in, marvelously.  It will not win Best Picture (unless their scoring based on how many times the N-word is said), but I’m hoping it will pull off Best Original screenplay if that award doesn't go to Moonrise Kingdom (which should've been nominated for Best Picture).

Beasts of the Southern Wild was my favorite movie of the summer.  It was wonderful in its mixture of simple tone with a complex, heartwarming character arc.  I’ll talk more about it when I get to the Best Actress nominations, but as a film on the whole, it was wonderful.  The shortest film nominated this year, Beast of the Southern Wild is a movie everyone should see.  It’s only flaw is the sometimes unreal aspect of magical realism.  As a genre, magic realism is about magical things happening, but everyone in the story reacts to the magic as if it were commonplace.  For the most part this worked, but the auraks were just too weird and not easily understandable, leaving them out of the realm of ordinary.  Possible Best Picture given that it was even nominated – I was sure everyone had forgotten about it – but I think in the case of this film, the nomination was the prize.

Lincoln shouldn’t win, but it might.  Spielberg, Day-Lewis, Field, and an ensemble large enough to field a high school water polo team three strings deep is what makes this epic a favorite.  It’s a film every American should see because it exposes politics for what it is:  a couple of men (sadly, still what it seems to be today) pulling strings for what they see is the right path.  Ultimately, you vote for who you would align with best and the things they want are the things you want, but it just put things in perspective for me.  I don’t know why this shouldn’t win, but I just don’t think it’s Best Picture worthy.  It doesn’t go that extra mile.  I think it surprised me by how good it was (I had really low expectations considering I thought War Horse looked like a crappy movie; still haven’t seen it), but I still can’t see why it would earn Best Picture.  It just leaves something to be desired.  Maybe it was the lame ending.  Or the monologuey dialogue that made it feel too static.  However, I think I’m going to hop on the big company bandwagon and say this will be the winner.  Either this or Playbook, or Argo, but I’ll be so pissed if it’s Playbook.

Life of Pi was NOT boring, as previously anticipated by me (that’s just the ugliest worded sentence ever.  Sorry you have to read this crappy writing…).  It was kind of like Castaway, but instead of a seasoned actor like Tom Hanks, you’ve got a nobody (who knows how to hold his own) and instead of Wilson the Volleyball, you’ve got a Richard Parker the Psycho Tiger.  I hadn’t read the book (people we reading it in 7^th grade, but since I was a slow reader, I hated reading and didn’t do it for fun so I never read it), so everything in this movie was new to me and it pulled at my heartstrings.  It was also just a beautiful film.  Ang Lee is amazing.  [SPOILER ALERT] I left the theatre thinking:  so, if he was “the Tiger” in this metaphor, why was the Tiger trying to eat him?  If you have any ideas, please let me know.  All I can say is, it won’t win, but it was thoroughly entertaining.

Argo is DEFINITELY A CONTENDER.  When I first saw it nominated, I thought no way, but after Ben Affleck took home the Golden Globes in Directing and Outstanding Picture and then racked up another Argo win at the BAFTAs, I began to reconsider.  I think it could definitely take home top prize, but it shouldn't.  It was suspenseful, but too sensational and it left me thinking:  "That was fun," while no other thoughts really came into my head.  I like a movie that MAKES ME THINK!  While it wasn’t the Best Picture of the year, I certainly think it has more merit than some of the other films on this list (*cough cough* Silver Linings Playbook).

Best Actor

Daniel Day-Lewis

Bradley Cooper*

Hugh Jackman

Denzel Washington

No contest.  It’s Day-Lewis.  The Best Actor category this year was amazing dull, not for lack of amazing performances, but for lack of competition.  When someone plays the “Best” (or at least most noteworthy) President America has ever had, and when that man is NOT AMERICAN, you give him the Oscar.  Although, of all the nominations Silver Linings Playbook received, Cooper’s is the one I feel is most deserved.  About half way through the movie, I stopped and thought, wait, does Bradley Cooper have bipolar disorder?  That’s how real it felt to me.

Best Actress

Quvenzhané Wallis*

Jennifer Lawrence

Naomi Watts

Jessica Chastain

Emmanuelle Riva

Everyone in this category has been nominated before except for the youngest nominee in the history of the Academy Awards ever (not counting the special Youth Academy Awards from back in the day) and the almost oldest nominee in this category (if Emmanuelle Riva wins she’ll surpass Jessica Tandy for oldest winner).  This is competition city.  The only person I know won’t win is Naomi Watts.  Sadly, I didn’t see her performance either (when I got to the theatre, all set to watch it, the show was sold out), but given the buzz surrounding the others, it would be nearly IMPOSSIBLE for Watts to pull off a win (see what I did there?).  Everyone else is a contender.  Okay, Q. Wallis probably isn’t a contender either because she’s so young and the Academy is agist, but in my eyes SHE DESERVES TO WIN THIS AWARD.  OUT OF THE REMAINING THREE NOMINEES, WALLIS IS THE ONLY ONE WHO CARRIED HER FILM TO THE WONDERFUL, GLORIOUS MOOD POEM THAT IT IS.  THE OTHER NOMINEES RELIED ON OTHER ACTORS TO ELEVATE THEM BUT ALL HUSHPUPPY HAD WAS THE BAYOU.  GIVE THIS BABY THE OSCAR ALREADY!  Okay, I’m glad I got that out.  Since I haven’t seen Riva, it’s totally possible the same goes for her.  I’ll have to make retroactive judgment on this one if Riva takes the Oscar home.  And she could!  But I also don’t think she will.  Her win at the BAFTAs was only slightly surprising, but possibly indicative of how Europeans believe she delivered a stellar performance and won’t win the Academy Awards (because she’s European.  The Academy is also xenophobic sometimes.  See the Best Director category for more instances of biased selectivity.). 

So that leaves Chastain and Lawrence.  And honestly, their past work and accomplishments puts them on equal footing.  Sure, Chastain is older, but both have a previous nomination, and both spent several years in the indie circuit before breaking into more mainstream cinema.  Both took home Golden Globes (Chastain in Drama, Lawrence in Comedy) for their roles.  You could say Lawrence has a leg up because she won the SAG, but the SAG is usually not the best litmus test for the Oscar.  I feel like Lawrence is riding a bigger buzz wave right now, so if I had to bet, I’d put money on her.  That, and the fact that Zero Dark Thirty still has a shadow over it.  Again, if Silver Linings Playbook takes the win in this category I will be upset because Q. WALLIS DESERVES THIS OSCAR!

As an aside, as soon as I saw the nominees in this category, I thought of the following conversation that – in a world in which I played god – would certainly happen at the Oscars nominee brunch.

Begin.

Q. Wallis:  Hi Jennifer.

J. Lawrence (unsure of the pronounciation):  Hi Qhuvanz…

Q. W.:  I just wanted to say, I really loved your performance of Katniss in The Hunger Games.  It was my favorite movie of 2012!

J. L.:  Thank you.

Beat.  J. L. looks around, trying to spot someone else to go talk to.

Q. W.:  But I just want you to know, I’m going to win the Oscar.

J. L. (taken aback):  I’m sorry, what?

Wallis flashes her Hushpuppy smile at Lawrence.

Q. W.:  I’m going to win.  People like Hushpuppy better than they like a self-proclaimed slut.

J. L. (under her breathe):  What the f*ck?

Beat.  J-Law gathers herself and pounces back.

J. L.:  You said you liked The Hunger Games, right?

Q. W.:  Yeah.

J. L.:  Well, you know, you remind me a lot of Rue.

Q. W. takes a hard swallow.

J. L.:  And you know what happened to Rue, right?  Don’t f*ck with me Wallis.

End.

So actually, I hope this would never happen because these two actresses both seem like the nicest people.  But I just thought it was funny that Wallis reminded me somewhat of Rue and Lawrence was Katniss in The Hunger Games (ONLY 9 MORE MONTHS ‘TIL CATCHING FIRE!)

Best Supporting Actor

Alan Arkin

Robert De Niro*

Phillip Seymour Hoffman

Tommy Lee Jones

Christoph Waltz

Honestly, I have no idea.  But if I were to guess, I’d say Waltz or De Niro.  Waltz is coming off a Golden Globe win and an Academy Award for basically the same character three years ago from Inglourious Basterds.  To be honest, I didn’t see the Hoffman’s performance in The Master, but the late summer indie, much like Beasts, seems to be happy just to be nominated.  Tommy Lee Jones took the SAG in this category, but again, that’s not saying much.  He definitely deserves props for wearing that wig though, because he looked damn ugly during that whole film.  Alan Arkin could come away with it, but I think his presence in Argo was not as strong as the presence of the other nominees in their respective films.  At the end of the day (you probably can’t believe I’m saying this), I want De Niro to win.  Honestly, Leondardo DiCaprio should win, but between Waltz and De Niro, how could I give it to Waltz.  He’s THE SAME CHARACTER that he won for last time, plus a little more empathy.  De Niro pieces together the main characters and the ensemble cast.  He’s a major link in this film and he plays is well.  I don’t know if he’ll win, but he should.

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams

Sally Field

Anne Hathaway*

Helen Hunt

Jacki Weaver

If Anne Hathaway doesn’t win this, I’ll be shocked and appalled.  Firstly, put aside an irrational hatred you have for the woman and consider her body of work.  It’s fabulous.  Yes, there are shortcomings here and there, but really, she’s a gem.  Was this role her best role ever?  No.  (And no it wasn’t Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries either.  I’d say Rachel Getting Married, which was a fabulous film.).  This year, she was in two blockbuster movies where her supporting performances stood out as the highlights of the film (I’m talking Cat Woman in The Dark Knight Rises and Fantine in Les Misérables).  I just don’t think anyone else will win.  I don’t know if anyone should – having only seen Sally Field’s and Jacki Weaver’s performances, I can tell you, they shouldn’t beat out Hathaway – but perhaps Helen Hunt (fresh off an Independent Spirit Award for The Sessions) could produce a scare, but I doubt it.  Nate Silver would predict this as a 90% chance of a Hathaway take away.  We’ll see, but I would be really surprised if it didn’t happen.

Best Original Screenplay

Amour

Django Unchained

Flight

Moonrise Kingdom*

Zero Dark Thirty

This is probably my favorite category every year.  I’m kind of trying to write screenplays, and one of my dreams is winning an Academy Award.  I would get up there and say, “EVERY SINGLE PERSON ON THE PLANET MADE THIS HAPPEN” even though that’s kind of a lie, but kind of not, then I’d babble and say I wasn’t going to swear but then I’d accidentally drop the f-bomb and I’d keep babbling and the music would play me off, but I wouldn’t leave.  And then security would come and try to kick me off, but I still wouldn’t leave, and then they’d literally bulldozer me off stage.  And then I’d be super famous for being that weirdo at the Academy Awards.  And I’d also have an Oscar.

Okay, enough with the day dreams.  What script will win?  What script should win?  My money’s on Amour.  Like I said earlier, Haneke’s hitting more of a mainstream audience with this film in comparison to The White Ribbon.  More people are taking notice and more people are liking it.  I don’t think it’ll win much else, but here’s a way the Academy can award it at least something.  That being said, I want Moonrise Kingdom to win.  I know what you’re thinking:  “Erisa, you’re a die-hard Tarantino fan.  What is this?”  I know, it shocks me to say this, but Django Unchained lacked the deeper personal element I felt while watching Inglourious Basterds.  I just didn’t think it was his best (which is Basterds) nor his most innovative (which is probably Pulp Fiction for which he won his first and only Academy Award).  But, he’s coming off a Golden Globes win where he triumphed over the epically mediocre script that was Silver Linings Playbook (more hatred below), although neither Moonrise Kingdom nor Amour where in the category.  Thus, Tarantino’s win means little in the Oscar race.  But I just think Haneke’s emotionally moving piece (or so I’ve been told) will triumph over a Western homage.  So why do I want Moonrise?  I think Wes Anderson is a wonderful auteur, albeit polarizing.  I don’t think his camera work is innovative, but I do think his stories are interesting.  Until I saw Moonrise Kingdom, my only concern was that his films didn’t go deep enough.  It felt like we were always skimming the surface with hilarious characters in the foreground and little else in the background.  I left his movies feeling entertained, but not really moved in anyway, nor thinking about anything (other than that was a funny movie).  But this film about juvenile angst really hit home and the lead actors (although being basically nobodies) made it all feel real.  So much realer than The Royal Tennenbaums or The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou or Bottle Rocket.  So yes, I liked this film.  And yes, I thought the script was moving.  He’ll never win Best Director, or Best Picture, but Anderson deserves this.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Silver Linings Playbook

Lincoln

Beasts of the Southern Wild*

Argo

Life of Pi

I have no idea who'll win, but all I know is I want Silver Linings Playbook to LOSE.  For the past several thousand words, I’ve been really sh*tting on this film.  In reality, it was good, it was decent, and I liked it.  But it doesn’t deserve praise because the script is boring, predictable, and doesn’t give me anything.  How it won an Independent Film Spirit Award for its script is beyond me.  I’ve lost all respect for the Independent Film Spirit Awards (seriously, the Weinstein’s produced this.  How is that independent?).  I left the theatre thinking:  “Okay, well that was a pretty OK movie.”  I could’ve left one hour in and predicted the ending.  I HATE THOSE KINDS OF MOVIES.  What’s the point?  The point was, the actors were good.  The script was not.  I know it’s adapted from a book, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that it’s NOT GOOD.  If I adapted Go Dogs Do, even though that’s an awesome book, it doesn’t mean it should win an Academy Award because it WOULD BE A LAME MOVIE.  THE END.

I think Silver Linings Playbook will win, but that just upsets me.  So I’m going to pretend it’s not even nominated and tell you Argo will probably win.  How do you make a movie, in which you know that at the end, everyone gets out alive, but you’re still SUPER NERVOUS THAT EVERYONE’S GOING TO DIE?  Somehow Terrio did that with his script for Argo.  At times it felt too sensational, but you’ve got to give it props for balancing the tone of comedy and drama pretty appropriately.  Lincoln shouldn’t win because it’s less of a script and more of a series of monologues.  Life of Pi won’t win.  It just won’t.  I just feel it in my bones.  I like Beasts of the Southern Wild and want that to win.  Of all these nominees, it just feels right.  It feels like the best story and the best execution of that story.  Not too sensational, a valiant effort at cinematic magical realism (which by the way, is really hard in film.).  I want it to win, but like many wants, I don’t think it’ll happen.

Best Director

Michael Haneke

Ang Lee

David O. Russell

Steven Spielberg

Benh Zeitlin

Kathryn Bigelow*

Welcome to the sausage fest that is the Best Director category.  Did you know only four women have ever been nominated:  Lina Wertmüller, Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola, and Kathryn Bigelow.  Did you know there have been more than four women directors in the history of American cinema?  Why weren’t these women nominated maybe?

Okay, so, Kathryn Bigelow director one of the best movies of the year that was one of the best movies of the year because she directed it (seriously, the raid scene is so wonderful in its realism, not going for the typical flash-bang of Hollywood).  So I want her to win (kind of like how I want Leo to win Best Supporting Actor).  But since that's impossible because the Academy sucks, I actually don’t care who wins, but I would guess Spielberg or Haneke.  David O. Russell’s coming off an Independent Spirit Award (hold on, let me go vomit), but I think it’s between these two old timers.  Ang Lee, maybe?  Benh Zeitlin, long shot; nominated just to be recognized.  The difficulty in forecasting these results is that none of these guys has won any of the important lead ups (like Golden Globes or BAFTAs) because Ben Affleck has.  But since he’s snubbed from a nomination because he cast himself in a movie when the guy he’s supposed to be playing is Hispanic, that leaves the Oscars wide open for any man.  Well, we’ll see.  But honestly, I don’t even care…

Other Stuff

Adele should win for the song “Skyfall.”  I mean, when was the last time an original song was also a hit on the airwaves?

I want Roger Deakins (veteran of most Coen Brothers and Sam Mendes films) to win for Best Cinematography for his work on Skyfall, but I fear the beautiful Life of Pi might steal it away.  Also, Robert Richardson, who won last year for Hugo (hold on, got to go vomit again) is also nominated for his work with Django Unchained, so perhaps that’ll win.  I don’t know.  I saw all these films and they were all beautiful, but Skyfall really stood out as the shadow imagery implemented subtly and elemental to the theme of the film.  Therefore, I’m pulling for Deakins, especially given he’s never gotten a win.

I don’t really care about the other categories.

Anywho, THAT’S ALL FOLKS!  Leave comments with your picks to win.

E

The Real Ol P.

I realize from my last post, it would be difficult to discern what I actually did at Ol Pejata.  You probably just think Ol Pejata is a hut with bats, bees, and ants flying and crawling about.  Well, that was our sleeping hut, but that was far from the actually Ol P. experience.

As a nature reserve, Ol P. is geared towards tourism.  Tours come in and out of the game reserve everyday and some people choose to stay inside the reserve at one of the many luxurious accommodation options (read: not the research camp).  Because it’s a tourism cash cow (it also herds cattle, but that’s off to the side) they go to great lengths to make their animals come out of the bush.  Expansive plains sweep across the landscape, punctuated by gullies with natural (and man-made) water holes in the form of dams and marshes.  It was truly gorgeous stuff.  In the background of every image was Mt. Kenya, the second tallest mountain in Africa (1^st = Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania).  Our first day there, we saw a plethora of animals:  gazelles, zebras, warthogs, waterbuck, dik-diks, impala, giraffe, rhino.  On our second day there, my van (six students in each van for a total of two vans) saw a lion chilling in the shade by own of the dams.  We named her Big Mama Cat because she was most likely an old female excommunicated from her pride because she was old.  Sadly, she tried to hunt, but failed; we saw her take a poor angle on two warthogs drinking by the water and they scurried away before she could even get top speed.  It was kind of like The Lion King, which we also watched recently.  Anyway, after Big Mama Cat, we also saw another group of super lazy lions chilling in the shade by the marsh.  It was funny because animals do warning calls to alert other animals when they see lions.  So this baboon was doing a warning call as the lions just lay there in the shade, not giving a frack.  Finally, the baboon just left and again, the lions didn’t care.  Did you know lions can sleep up to 20 hours a day?  Talk about lazy. (Did you know giraffes need a minimum of 10 minutes of sleep a day?  Talk about not lazy)  Also, they often just steal food from hyenas or leopards or cheetahs.  I mean, talk about double lazy.  Anyway, it was truly amazing.  I wasn’t in the car that saw a pride of lions crossing the street, but I think seeing Big Mama Cat stalk and chase prey was pretty cool too.  I even got a video.

So, what we were actually doing at Ol Pejata was a project on foraging/vigilance behaviour (I know, sound exhilarating, right?).  We drove around in our cars, stopped at gazelle and zebra herds, and calculated how long individuals were foraging or vigilant and what proportion of the herd was doing which activity at any given time.  Not going to lie, it was pretty boring.  The fun part was driving around looking for animals.

At the research centre, there was only one dining table and the actual researchers who worked there took it up.  So we sat in lawn chairs around a fire every night and ate our dinner.  The food was decent, but not as good as Mpala.  Also, they used cilantro in, like, every meal and I FRACKIN’ HATE CILANTRO.  It’s just not an appealing flavor to me.

I was sad to leave Ol Pejata only because I was sad we hadn’t yet seen a lion or cheetah take down a gazelle.  That is my one dream in life.

The same afternoon we can back to Mpala, we had our final exam.  Dustin “claims” Princeton made him give a final exam, but I think that’s B.S. because the Panama kids don’t do final exams.  They just play around with epiphytes.  But we were able to stronghold him down to three short essay questions, pick and answer two.  I answered one that stated:  “what is a savanna?”  It was funny because the night before as we were studying, Devika said, “what if one of the questions is ‘what is a savanna’ and I said, ‘that wouldn’t happen.’”  It did, Erisa.  Luckily, the question also came with, “describe the three natural processes that maintain the savanna ecosystem,” so I didn’t have to B.S. for a whole page about the definition of a savanna.  The other question I answered was about the female spotted hyena anatomy I alluded to in a previous post.  In the end, the exam took three hours, and it was the only exam I’d ever taken in my life where I seriously considered taking a nap.  I was exhausted.  Everyday I’m exhausted here.  Luckily, I finished the exam with just enough time to spare and then headed into lab report mode.  That’s right, I still had two lab reports to complete before dinner of the following day.  Why?  Why?  WHY?!?  Well, I basically finished my independent project lab report (about acacia larvae) and my group members for the foraging/vigilance experiment agreed to go over the last bits of that lab report tomorrow afternoon, so I was free to enjoy our farewell party to Dustin.  Although we now live up at the research centre, we all drove down to the campsite and made a fire around the fire pit and danced and listened to music and roasted marshmallows and sang songs (included a parody of “Party in the U.S.A.” entitled “Party in the M.R.C.”).  It was great, but sad because it meant Dustin was leaving and he’s SUCH A COOL GUY.  Also, he’s a Columbia professor, so it’s not like I’m going to see him around campus.  Oh well.  Devika has already said she’s going to go hang out with him in NYC, so maybe I’ll tag along.

Peas out,

E

P.S.  In other news, I finished The Great Gatsby.  Overall, it was a good read, but the ending seems a little too rushed.  Maybe that was the effect it was meant to have, but I thought for all the detail and development of earlier, for the ending to just come and go so quickly.  Maybe that was the point.  If so, okay Fitzgerald.  Let’s see how Baz handles it.  Now I’m reading The Fatal Strain – non-fiction about the coming H5N1 bird flu epidemic.  Pretty enthralling.

Movin’ on Sideways: The Ol Pejata Ordeal

My roommate Devika and I really click when it comes to certain things.  For example, we both hate spiders and thus enact protocols to stomp these eight-legged intruders in our living space.  We also both have an appreciation for musical interludes and parodies (more on this later).  The spider issue was a problem in our luxury tents where a little, tiny hole in the zipper region meant – in my mind at least – a parade of spiders would be able to enter, crawl all over my face, and into my mouth as I slept at night.  We made do with the sock in the zipper and every night when we entered the tent, we would do a sweep and execute any foreign creepy crawlies.  You can imagine our delight when we heard we’d be moving on up to the research center (with ROOMS, although not luxury…) during our next class (Field Ecohydrology with Kelly Caylor, featuring MatLab).  Before that, however, we had four more days of Ecology of the Savanna Ecosystem (with Dustin Rubenstein, featuring dik-diks).  For these last four days, we were going to Ol Pejata.  When Dustin first introduced Ol Pejata to us, he said it cost $300/night to stay there.  Holy Moley!  We were movin’ on up!  As the trip approached, he let it slip that the super awesome tourism lodging cost$300/night, but that we’d be staying at the research camp (SCIENCE != LUXURY).  Always a roller coaster with Dusty… making us believe one thing, then later making us believe we misheard him and actually something much less appealing is in store.  Anyway, I was still excited to go to Ol Pejata Nature Conservancy because we’d be staying in not tents.  Also, there are rhino at Ol Pejata.  RHINO!  So we packed up our bags and headed for our deluxe walled-rooms in central Kenya’s Laikipia district where Ol Pejata is located.  Lo and behold, these are not “rooms” per se, but thatched huts.  THATCHED HUTS (wait… it gets worse).  I wasn’t really upset about the thatch because there was a bathroom in the hut – a wall separated the bedroom area from the shower, sink, and toilet, but there was no door from bedroom to bathroom, or the components of the latter.  A bathroom in the room meant no taking a midnight trek of horrors to the bathroom where a bat would be sure to fly by my face as I tried to pee.  We were moving on… sideways.  Devika and I shared the room with Molly and Caroline (two very non-bug-annoyed human beings).  Upon entering the room – once I got over the whole thatched thing – we picked our beds.  I don’t know why, but I wanted a bigger bed.  I wanted to sprawl my appendages out across a queen-sized mattress.  Well, Caroline and Devika had already chosen to two queens, but Caroline didn’t care and switched with me so she got the twin and I got my queen.  Things were good.  Things were great even, for a minute before I realized there was dusty looking stuff on my mattress in addition to a SWARM OF ANTS.  Okay, maybe not a swarm, but there was certainly a nonzero amount of ants in my bed.  I brushed them off.  No big deal.  Ants don’t really both me that much because they’re so small and most don’t bite you.  I figured, I’d sweep them away, they’d get the picture (“Somewhere sleeps in this bed!” in antspeak) and they’d leave me alone.  This didn’t happen.  I’d sweep away a handful and minutes later, another stream of ants would occupy the exact location.  I didn’t understand, was there sugar in my bed.  Was I just the sweetest thing ever encountered (I mean, I am pretty sweet, but…).  It didn’t make any sense to me what was so AMAZING about my bed.  More annoying was the fact that no one else was having this problem.  Caroline’s bed had, like, one ant on it.  Devika had a bunch, but after a sweep, they went away and STAYED AWAY.  Molly might’ve had some, but she doesn’t complain so I have no idea.  Maybe her bed was worse; the world may never know.

The first night was hell.  I wish I had sleeping pills or something, because just trying to fall asleep when you’re thinking about a million ants crawling all over you and into your crevices is impossible.  I really don’t know how I fell asleep.  I think I accepted the inevitable, that ants would eat me alive in the middle of the night and that would be the end.  Things got worse, when, as I was reading The Great Gatsby before bed, something flew across our room and into the bathroom.  Molly, flustered, looked up and said, “I think that was a bat.”  NOT AGAIN.  NOT ANOTHER FRACKING BAT.  What is with bats and me.  We’ve started calling me the bat magnet.  Anyway, when I finally considered myself so tired I was in the pass out stages of my bed time ritual, I wrapped myself in my blanket like a burrito and succumb to sleep.

In the morning, I woke up and there were no ants on me.  I was amazed.  I was confused.  When I got up, I saw my body imprint outlined what I’d call an Ant Graveyard.  When ants came to my side of the bed, and I rolled over and crushed them to death.  I wasn’t sorry.  They knew what they were getting themselves into.  I mean, they must’ve seen the other dead bodies.  As a trained WFR, I know, if you see dead bodies around, there’s probably something in the air or something and you should back away and safely assess the situation from a distance.  These ants just didn’t have any common sense.  As I stared at the Ant Graveyard, I saw on the other side of my queen-sized bed, ants alive and kicking, and marching through my clothes – which I had put on my bed because the floor wasn’t an option and I was too afraid to open the closet for fear a bat would fly out.  In addition to the ants, there was this black, grainy stuff, which I suspected was dirt from the thatch, that fell whenever the bat flew around up there.  Basically, my bed was covered in ants, a dirt-like substance, and my clothes.  What a wonderful mix.

I got over it.  Shake out the clothes and the ants are gone.  Realize that ants don’t want to eat you alive and sleep well.  The next night things went fine.  Same ants, same dirt-stuff, another late night bat sighting, but on the whole, everything was fine.

Then, our last night in the thatched hut.  (By the way, we were so used to using the word tents to describe where we lived that we called these rooms tents too.  Thus, moving sideways.).  As I was laying in my bed with forty of my new closest friends (i.e. the ants), I heard Molly get rustle, get up, and hit something.  Molly doesn’t scare easily, so I knew something was up.  She had been partially attacked by bees.  BEES.  WHY’D IT HAVE TO BE BEES.  Remember those wasps from the bathroom (I don’t know if I ever wrote about bathroom wasps, but at the campsite, we had wasps infect our bathroom for several days.  It was rendered unusable.), well, here were wasps (bees, wasps, same thing) in OUR ROOM!  I SUPER TIGHTLY WRAPPED MYSELF AS A BURRITO – like, tighter than the best Chipotle burrito you’ve had – and resolved not to leave my burrito home in the middle of the night, even if it meant peeing my pants.  I didn’t have to worry about soiling myself as I slept, though; the bat decided to do that for me.  When I woke up in the morning, I was relieved that I hadn’t been attacked by bees (beads?).  I went over to my clothes pile and saw it.  A huge lump of sh*t on my clothes.

BATSH*T.  ON MY CLOTHES.

Bats are pretty small, so when I say huge, and don’t mean human huge.  But let’s be real.  Any amount of bat poop on your personal items is WAY TOO MUCH BAT POOP ON YOUR PERSONAL ITEMS.  I was like, get me the frack out of here before I track down this bat and bite its head of myself.  (I’m just kidding, that would be way to gross.  I mean, I have no interest in holding a bat in my hands.)  I wrapped my sh*tty clothes in a baggy and packed up my backpack so fast I forgot to pack my awesome flashlight (it was left behind and I am SO FRICKIN’ PISSED… but these things happen.).

Lesson learned:  always take the smaller bed.

So what was I actually doing at Ol Pejata besides freaking out about bats and ants?

All Work and All Play...

It's impossible to feel dull here because even at it's most boring, there are colorful birds you'd never see at home flying above your head or the threat of snakes waiting to spit venom in your eyes, blind you, and kill you (see: spitting cobra).  (Sorry for all this snake talk, it's just a legitimate fear I have.  The other day, they found a puff adder by the dining hall.  Okay, funny story, I hadn't looked at the Wikipedia pages for these snakes until just now to include them in my blog, and actually, I'm less scared.  It looks like death is not 100%, as people have led me to believe.  Instead it's just very likely if you don't get the appropriate treatment and I'm pretty sure Princeton isn't about to have me die.  But then my friend just told me we have the Black Mamba here.  That's right, the BLACK MAMBA, where, if you don't get antivenom rapidly, YOU WILL DIE.  100%.  Snakes.  Why'd it have to be snakes...).  Okay, enough about snakes.  The reason it's been so long since my last blog post is because I've been working my bum off.  Seriously.  This past week we spent two full days collecting and piloting data on projects we created ourselves.  It was cool to see a project from start to finish - idea conception, troubleshooting, data collection, write-up - but it was so mentally draining.  The project my group came up with was about acacia ant defense.  We wanted to see if the different ant species would respond faster or slower to a stimulus applied to the swollen thorns they live in.  We also wanted to see if they would respond faster when they have more larvae in the swollen thorn.  What this entailed was working out in the acacia covered soil all day banging swollen thorns, timing responses, breaking open the thorns, and counting the number of larvae.  RIDICULOUSLY TIRING.  We did 90 trees over the course of 8 hours.  Then we had to analyze our data and right scientific papers incorporating literature reviews.  All of this in 4 days.  I've seriously never worked this hard in my life.  The thing is, I complain, but I know this is going to be super valuable for my thesis work.  Also, just working hard feels good once you're done with it.  I've done some much statistics and learned how to use this great statistical program (JMP Pro 10) that I'll be familiar with when I'm analyzing thesis data.  Okay, enough talking about the benefits, more complaining.  On top of the independent project papers, we were also revising the papers from our other project about acacia ant mutualism.  Additionally, about every four days, we have another discussion for which we had to read 6 papers.  Tomorrow I'm leading a discussion about antelope mating strategies.  One of my papers was 40 pages long.  More annoying than the fact that I had to read it and formulate discussion questions about it is the fact that no one else is going to read my article because it's so long.  So I'm going to have to drag people through a discussion of an article they haven't read...  Tomorrow we're also going to Ol Pejeta to do another project (but in this one we don't leave the cars!).  There will also be no internet so this is the last post for a while (Friday).

Team Banging Domatia (Swollen Thorns)

I titled this blog post All Work and All Play because although we're working all the time (today was Sunday, what Dustin, our professor, calls our day off but everyone was working hard to finish papers and read articles) we have fun while working.  Dustin is hilarious.  At first I thought he'd be kind of boring, but he's very good at witting sparing.  In addition, he tolerates our complaining, which is nice.  In the independent projects, my group had a romping good time!  There were lots of laughs.  In the end, we were all given nicknames.  Mine's Bix because I eat Weetabix all the time now to stay regular.  My roommate Devika's is Flash.  Caroline's is Squat (she squatted behind a tree to pee while we were in the field).  Rob's is Mazunga Warrior (Mazunga means "white warrior" in Swahili and while we were collecting data, Rob kept hoping lions would surround us so he could protect us from the lions with his calipers).  The group is really tight.  We're considering recording our exploits in a Real World-esque fashion with confessionals, but so far, we'd have to make up all the drama because none really exists.  The most controversial topic is probably the vegetarian and non-vegetarian factions that have formed, but that's super mild.  Speaking of mild, I've always been a fan of bland foods and can't really tolerate spice, but all the food here as sort of a kick to it and I think I'm building up my spice tolerance.  I'm very happy about this!  Tonight I had a dance off with Seokmin (pronounced Sock-man) and LOST.  WHAT?!  I was totally robbed.  He wasn't even ON BEAT.  Then Devika challenged him and also lost and I was like WHAT?!  The winner gets a wooden carving when we go into Nanyuki tomorrow, so I totally could've had a wooden carving.  Oh well... (Funny story about Seokmin, he does a great Hannibal Lecture from The Silence of the Lambs impression.  I told him I have the screenplay for TSotL on my computer, so hopefully we'll do a dramatic reading...)  

TENT 14, YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN

Luxury tenting Teddy Roosevelt style.

Speaking of Devika, MY ROOMMATE IS AWESOME.  We have a tent chant:  "TENT 14, YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!"  We were recently talking about how no one else would probably want to room with us because we both are very particular about bugs.  We have specific tent protocols to minimize bug entry, including the placement of a sock in the zipper to close all gaps.  I had known Devika a little before now because we had back-to-back shows on WPRB, but I've gotten to know her, and all the other cool kids on this trip, so much more because talking is our major means of entertainment.  I think it's nice that we've had a lot of bonding time, I just want to stay in a ROOM WITH WALLS. After our trip to Ol Pejeta, we'll be returning to MRC and staying in the Princeton dorms (WITH WALLS! And a bathroom adjacent so I don't die going to the bathroom or peeing outside my tent!).  I mean, Princeton paid big bucks to make them, right?  So at the very least Princeton (and Columbia) students should stay in them!  (The TA on this course has personally told Devika and I that we should NOT do real field work because the tents at camps are super nice.  To that, I respond, sounds good to me.  I probably won't go to grad school because I can't really see this being my thing.  Also, I've totally slept in tents for long periods of time and dig it because the tents are so small you know what's in that tent with you.  The same isn't true of these jumbo luxury tents.  There could be a snake under my bed and I wouldn't even know.  I'd know if there was a snake in my one person Sierra Designs tent...).  I'm going to include a picture of our tent in this post.  Check it out.  In other news, I'm reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald to get ready for The Great Gatsby by Baz Luhrmann (release date May 10th).  So far it's really entertaining.  Where did this guy go to school, I mean Fitzgerald is so awesome, he must've gone to a University where other super awesome people go to school to this day (hint: it doesn't rhyme with jail or kori bustard...)!  Funny story, in the story The Great Gatsby, there's a character named Klipspringer, and here in Kenya, we have a small antelope called the Klispringer!

Email me stories from your life!  I feel like all I do is ramble on...

E

P.S.  Philosophical post still yet to come!

P.P.S.  Remember how I mentioned paper discussions.  Well, the other day we had one about hyena mating and it was pretty intense.  Here's a real excerpt from the paper (East et al. 2003) that I am re-titling Fifty Shades of Spotted Hyena:

"Figure 1 (THERE WAS A FIGURE!). During copulation males require the complete cooperation of females because of the unusual anatomy of female hyena genitalia, including an enlarged clitoris and the lack of a vulva. Urinary and genital tracts join to form a canal that passes through the clitoris with an opening at the tip of the clitoris directed downwards and towards the head. The male inserts his penis into the clitoris in a vertical fashion while perilously holding on to the back of the female."

Cheetah on the Prowl

This one time, we saw a cheetah.  It was actually pretty hilarious.  We were driving to abandon bomas of different ages (a boma is portable cattle pen that's used to house cattle at night in the wild) and we saw some impala.  My eyes were focused on this one impala that got its horns stuck in an acacia tree.  We were laughing at it when our driver (Josephat) told us to be quiet.  At first, I didn't understand, until another comrade pointed out the cheetah hiding behind an acacia tree a couple dozen meters off the impala herd.  I was so excited to see a CHEETAH!  Not to mention one that was actively HUNTING!  Imagine a triangle of activity.  At one point was the cheetah with her cub sitting next to her under the bush.  The impala occupy another point of the triangle:  browsing on acacia trees.  The final point of the triangle is completed by us human spectators with our binoculars and cameras focused on the scene in front of us.  Honestly, it was like a theatre of ecological biology playing out right in front of our eyes.  My heart skipped a beat when the cheetah took a pace forward, out of the push and her seated stance into one I can only describe (anthropomorphizing) as a running in set stance.  "Will I see a cheetah take down an impala RIGHT BEFORE MY EYES?"  Sadly, our presence (the rumble of the cars) put the impala on defense and they spotted the cheetah hiding behind the bushes.  The ensuing "battle" was packed with suspense.  The head male impala took center stance in front of the herd of subordinate males and females.  After grunting several times to warn her - almost as if saying "I know you're there" - the head male thundered off away from the cheetah and the others of the herd followed suit almost instantaneously.

Even sadder was the news that this cheetah (already looking thin) had been with two cubs earlier, but today we only saw her with one, meaning her other cub probably died...

Circle of life continues.  But I can't help but feel bad, responsible even.  If we hadn't driven by, maybe she would have taken down one of the impala, catching them unaware.

But we are a part of the circle of life, aren't we?