In case you're bored or something

An excerpt from my article review homework. In case you're wondering why I hardly blog these days. So busy with work and skool!!!

The main idea of this article is that radiocarbon-dating shows that the period of overlap between early Neolithic and late Mesolithic was a brief one and not drawn out (in England and Wales) as previously thought.
The latest Mesolithic sites date to 5400-5500 Before Present. The Neolithic appears in southern Britain between 5400-5200 BP. The Neolithic brings new innovations in material culture such as pottery and monument building, but the biggest difference between Mesolithic and Neolithic sites is, of course, the domestication of plants/edible grains and animal husbandry. It was previously believed that this process was a timely one, and that domesticated plants and animals were gradually introduced into the diet. Red deer and hazelnuts are examples of wild foods characteristically found at Mesolithic sites, whereas Neolithic sites feature refuse from domesticated fauna and cattle. Furthermore, coastal shell middens, which were essentially Mesolithic garbage dumps, show evidence of a great amount of marine remains. These appear to have been abandoned by the Neolithic revolution, implying that diet had shifted from marine to farmed food. On top of this evidence, we have stable isotope analysis of human bones. This provides direct evidence of diet over a person’s lifetime. The carbon from the food we eat makes its way into our bones and is stored in bone collagen. This will reflect the protein of a diet in the last 5-15 years of a person’s life. Richards and Hedges analyze the data from the stable isotope analysis to determine whether their diets were composed mainly of marine or terrestrial protein. They found that from the early Neolithic sites there was a lack of marine food, even though the sites were coastal ones. The Mesolithic sites, however, had people who ate primarily marine diets. The fact that the Neolithic sites do not have people with significant marine protein in their diet proves that this adjustment occurred rapidly and not over a longer period of time.

Italy? Me?

So since my dad came to see me and we did the ski trip, and we did a ski day in Vermont this Xmas, my mom was gonna visit me in Vancouver too. I was looking forward to it, show her around my hang out spots, make her come watch my karate class, lol. So when she said there was another option, I was thinking I dunno, I was hoping to still work a couple days that week, might have a couple classes, hem haw. Then she launches into how she's got another business trip coming up in Siena and how if I wanted to and could get time off I might go with her and spend a few days in Rome and then go to Siena with her where she'll be in meetings the whole time but we'd have one dinner together anyway, and I could take a train to Florence for a day and etc. And my jaw is on the floor. And she's like: "hello? hello? are you there?" and I: oh I should probably pick my jaw up and try to formulate a coherent speech pattern. "yah yah I can get time off yup no problem I will MAKE it work!

So as long as everything goes as planned with her meeting and stuff, I'LL BE GOING TO ITALY IN MAY! WOOP WOOP!

Time to dig up my old art class notes and classics books lol
yippee!

In other news, it's raining. Yup, who'd have thought, rain in Van. But things are blooming (sorry mum, you'll be missing the cherry blossoms I guess) and starting to look really nice and springy. Unfortunately that means the spidey's are making their resurgence and my allergies and unstoppable.

School is winding down, one week left before examinations. Also have to sign up for summer classes next week. Time is moving way too fast! I can't keep up! My civ's class skipped all the Greek/Roman stuff which is irritating. I get if there's not time to cover everything, but then cut out one of the Peru lectures and one of the Mesoamerica! There's only 1000 years to cover anyway! Other than gypping me of my passion lol I have enjoyed all my classes this year. College is so easy, guys. I'm popping out 90's and still able to work 32-35 hours/week. It'll be a small struggle probably once I transfer to uni. We'll see how things go. I need to go talk to people about how to transfer too, maybe I can apply to grad school sooner, who knows. Otherwise I'll keep doing the second degree thing until then.

Last night was supposed to be a study night but I was asked to work, and I need some brownie points that new people need so that I'm well liked and people owe me favours when I need time off. But seriously, this girl I covered for called in sick at 115 for a 230 shift. Nicole, the other supervisor, calls me all frantic like "please please you can start at 4!" she had already tried everyone else, and I was like okay I guess I can not study. So that was a good shift but still a pain in my plans. At least I spent my morning talking to my grandma and mum.

Welp, Gotta go write a quiz and an article comparison. (For the latter, it really helps to have a PhD roomie in the same field. "Eric I need articles." "OOOH! Okay! Where do we start!" and it takes him 20 mins to find something he likes and that will work for me when it would have taken me an hour or more. Then he sits down and gives me a run through on them. "This is this guys argument. This is why he's right. This is the counter argument article. This is why this guy's a moron. This article explains why the second guy is a moron and the first article holds up." etc. So then I sit down and read them until the science stuff makes some sense to me and write a small paper on the arguments presented. I link it to some of the units in class. Nice and easy! So he essentially saves me like 3 hours of work. I should buy him dinner.)

Miss you all!

Pat on My Back

SO today in martial arts class my Instructor said to pull out the mats. I'm like aw geez, this guy never does tumbling that's why I like his classes lol so I pulled out the mats as the coloured belts are doing their cool moves with the bow staff. Of course it was tumble time for Jackie. So he gets a black belt to come and help me. She says I have everything down for my Roll Routine 1, let's work on cleaning it up a bit. I said that's great let's do it. We start with my front right side roll. She challenges me to start it from standing straight up and walking right into it, nice and smooth instead of bending into it from the start. Okay, check. Next, break falls. Work on my hand positions a bit. Great I'll try and improve; it went on like this. I've got down what's expected of a white belt, time to spruce it up so it's cleaner and more controlled. I think dancing gives me a leg up on this one, it's easier to remember sequences and you know what to look for when someone shows you a move so you can try to imitate it better. SO anyway, instructor comes over to see what's going on after getting the other people going on their things and check out my break falls too. Then the whole class has to rolls (haha!) so they go and do theirs and then I do mine, and as I start it, the instructor says "that is a really good right side roll. Like, really good. I'm actually kind of upset that a white belt can do it that well!" in a joking way. Later he asked if I'm in gymnastics, or was. I said no as it's been 15 years and I can't even do a cartwheel. He's like so you're just naturally good at it? and I'm like well...I drill these most classes so maybe that's it. BUt still feels nice to be told you rock at something. Win!

I like this instructor, his classes are good. He pushes you like he knows how hard you can go. Some people push you too hard, and some not enough. But he seems to know everyones limits. He also explains things really well and shows me everything. Like I was trying a hook kick today and most instructors keep showing you how to do it, but he has me punch him and he hook kicks my arm away. So now I know how I can use it to defend myself, and how to do it properly. Sometimes I've learned a move without being sure how to apply it in a real situation but he always explains that which is helpful. Last week he was smelly tho, a skunk somehow got into his house and sprayed everywhere. hheehehehehehehehe. You always LOL when it's not your house.

School is going well, doing well in it, have to decide really soon if I'm taking summer school or not though, like in the next few days. I probably should, but it would be nice to have time to bum around. Thing is I'm more productive in the summer than the winter so school might be easier. It's easier to motivate myself when it's sunny to get things done.

I'll post more of my story soon too!

That's all folks!