make-a-society

A friend of a friend is on her way to becoming an artist and had one of her first exhibitions yesterday. It was quite an interesting little thing that mixed consummerism and dictatorships. One of the things that struck me at the exhibition is this website, that allows you to play nation-builder for a while, deciding how much freedom, services, etc. your citizens will have. The results may surprise you :)

DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE

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I HATE ANTS!!!!

One of the "advantages" of living on a ground floor next to the mountains is the ability to enjoy a wide variety of wildlife. As in spiders, flies, and more recently, Ants. I've sprayed ant killer and applied salt liberally in every bloody corner of my not terribly large appartment/studio/matchbox, but to no avail. And yes, I clean. A lot. And yes, I throw the garbage out, thankverymuch.

Today has been particularly enjoyable as I found the lovely little creatures dancing near the place where I prepare the food. I've followed them right to their apparent source (right behind the drier), sprayed more useless ant-kliller, mopped, hoovered and put the drier back there.

Fortunately my mum has remembered there are some ant trap that apparently sends poison to every corner of the ant hole and kills the Queen. So I've proceeded to the shopping mall to acquire it. Well, that and a cartload of a dozen other things I needed.

And so, after an hour and a half of intensive grocery shopping I come back home and the internet is not working. I've checked all the cables (my god, have the ants eaten them this weekend?), and they were fine. I've unplugged, reseted the computer, ASKED VISTA TO RUN A DIAGNOSIS (not that I hoped it would help), and finally, figured out the problem. The phone connection is also behind the drier. In my zeal to get rid of the beasties I've disconnected the phone line.

I hate to think of the poor little ants going back to their holes and killing their queen, but then again... no I don't. I'm not a Buddhist and the $%& things almost ruin my internet connection. GO TRAP!!!

PS. In other news, it seems to have snowed in the mountains this weekend. That and the squall clouds have made them look just gorgeous. See, it's not all bad Up North.

PS2. Everything itches now. I know it's psychological, but, ugh.

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Aimé Césaire, Martinique Poet and Politician, Dies at 94 - New York Times

After my walk of shame about not reading Clarke and Diaz's last novel, at  least I can say I have read and loved Césaire since I was a student of Caribbean poetry with Colin Nicholson at Edinburgh way back in 2000. I'm very grateful for Nicholson for putting him and other Caribbean poets on my way, and I will never forget the first time I eagerly struggled with Cahier d'un retour au pays natal in the bilingual French-English (my French sucked, my English wasn't great). I go back to that poem every now and then, and always find new things to enjoy.


Aimé Césaire, Martinique Poet and Politician, Dies at 94 - New York Times

Amazon.com: Notebook of a Return to the Native Land (Wesleyan Poetry): Aime Cesaire,Annette Smith,Clayton Eshleman: Books

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Another book I've been meaning to read...

... is  The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I'm reading close to nothing this year, so, unsurprisingly, this has not yet been... well... even bought.

I've already read Drown, Diaz's collection of short stories, and well, I wasn't exactly thrilled in spite of the good reviews, but I really like the concept between the novel -- a young man who wants to become the Dominican JRR Tolkien. Not to mention how close it gets to what my thesis is about. And now, Diaz gets the Pulitzer -- this goes straight to the summer reading list.


'This Dominican kid from New Jersey' wins a Pulitzer | News | guardian.co.uk Books

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