Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!!
Originally uploaded by catmadogma.

I love the way Flickr and blogging are so NOW.
This was uploaded about 3 hours ago and now it is on my blog.
And I haven't even taken too long away from my scarily hard article writing
I love this image.
Andy has my camera so luckily you can't see Molly's new witch outfit.

A Whole year of blog writing

is always something to celebrate and although I am not nearly as good as Dr Joolz and Guy for keeping up with my blog I am pleased I have got to this milestone.
When I started, I wrote much more and more frequently.
Now I lazily HURL things at the blog in a spirit of WHO CARES beset as I am by the RAE, HEFCE, the AHRC, SVUK and other NAMELESS THINGS in academia coming to haunt a neighbourhood near you ....
(yes it is Halloween tomorrow and there will be THINGS ABOUT).
Last week I went to Bath Spa which was BLISS and here which was even more bliss.
If you click on that last link you meet a new and exciting blogger.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Moving Manchester

is another diasporas migration and identities project
and I found out about it yesterday.
You can read about it here.
Meanwhile, we have gone live as case study 1
on the diasporas identities migration website.
So exciting.
Also our paper is here.
I am off on another train ride now.

the pile of books

always reassures me when I am feeling slow, or uncreative or generally Monday morning-ish.
This week I go here to give a talk
and then here to give another talk not to mention thinking about this project and this project.
So what do I do?
I have a pile of books.
First off is Sensible Objects which Dr Joolz lent me.
This is very useful as I have been thinking about ways of describing clothing items that are not found in England, such as a certain type of blanket worn by men in the Pashtun speaking area of Pakistan.
In this book, we learn that

there are cultural models of naming practices
naming that occurred when a complex weaving of emotion sensations, and dispostion activated the practice

(Guerts and Adikha 2006)
There there is this old favourite where we learn how,

the experience of the next generation "sediments", falls out, into expectations and dispostion

(Holland et al 1998:18)

I have decided this book will make me feel clever.
I have not yet read it.
Julian recommended it.
He also recomended this, which I AM reading.
It says that,

meaning making...operates within material conditions and given or inherited formations of sedimented or textual beginnings.

(Willis 2000:4)
Have I heard this before?

Bling

has been seen as negative as Wikipedia helpfully points out here.
But in my research I have found out that it has many good qualities.

First it is sparkly and shiny.
That cannot be bad.

Second, you can do it cheaply with Gold Spray.
Think about it.
Thirdly, it would be WONDERFUL in a glass cabinet and that is exactly why we like museums ...


as they are full of bling, especially the crown jewels.


Also, it can go with you when you travel and can instantiate your identity in amazingly positive ways.
I rest my case.