1 step forward, 2 steps into shitsville

So, what a great week to be internet-less, huh.
Thing is, 'course I couldve used other peoples wires here and there, but easter and catastrophic things were upon me you see.

Now then, with that thwarted (meaning I can haz 3 year plan and housing) Im back in business.
She wrote, cautiously remembering "wireless" usually means non-existant.

On Baumann, last weeks read:
Baumann, in general, was a hoot to read. Calling groups 'politically retarded', drawing easy to understand parallells between the states and Europe without forgetting the differences. However, he's eager and angry, sometimes to the point where Im loosing both his point and whatever it arguments he used to make it. I guess he writes like I wish we could write (notice here Im already referring to myself as a scientist, ha!). When we know its right, and there's no time or energy to waste on petty things, and at that point you tend to communicate a kinda 'here's my truth, Im right, deal' text. This is, of course, simplification royale, but at its worst, Baumann is truthiness. Albeit, my kind of truthiness.

Im still struggling with understanding what culture is, or how it manifests itself, outside of the social science discourse. This is not a case of poor teaching or misguiding books, just a matter of how one is raised. No 'culture' was bestowed upon me, in order to seperate me from 'the others'. To every argument there was two sides, and reality was something you yourself shaped, just keep in mind that everyone else does it too. Growing up, you quickly realize everyone is not like you, Im guessing how quick depends on how different a stance you take. Or maybe, how well you listen. In any case, the essientialist view of culture, especially as a social scientist, is very hard for me to understand. And not very rewarding to use as a backdrop for any study. My task now is to learn how to at least pretend I understand it when talking to people. Which shouldnt be hard, I already know how to pretend-understand japanese and german.

We've moved in on Nuclear Rites almost a week ago, and Ive been so busy with the study questions I havent really had time to reflect on the reading it self. This hopefully just means Ill be engulfed in it by next week. In short, Gusterson studies a nuclear weapons laboratory, who works there and why, how is the interaction with the town and near-by activists, and what I would call, the relationship between the micro and macro of nuclear ideologies.
Im guessing his central message is (like Baumann) that there's no natural or given ideology regarding nuclear weapons. Himself being against it, he does a brilliant job of not letting that shine through too much. However, Im against any sort of nuclear weapons (and power too) so whatever bias views he shares might not be filtered by my own glasses.
The most interresting chapters are the ones involving the secrecy in and around the lab. Some very high-tech FBI stuff, there.

More on this and much more later, the pile of work next to me seems to have grown half a meter since last I looked. Blargh.