Getting my life together...

... one all-nighter at a time. These next few weeks are going to be hell. Granted, a hell largely of my own making (note not entirely working 20 hours a week and doing school full-time is its own hell even if I weren't a procrastinating mofo). That being said, (sidenote: seriously why is this phrase becoming common parlance amongst my friends?!) this is just a quick break from insanity of this current short (10 page) paper I'm writing to note my own insanity.

In writing this paper I've moved from a sketch pad (ala Nicole style which, for the record I used to mock now I freaking love - oh karma) to typing out these skethcy notes and copy and pasting them all over to get a structure. Now, I'm at the part where I fill in all the links. [Slowing me down is that my prof for this course requires me to use a citation style I do not like nor am I used to employing - APA - namely the intext citation method versus my trusty footnotes is what is ending me...] In any case, one note I just made toward the end of my working outline/paper is the aforementioned 'insanity'. Here is my note to self (quite literally):

HERE: Talk about Spivak's "DECOLONIZING MINDS" as akin to BUSH'S "DEMILITARIZING OF MINDS" . . . However clearly within this context - education as "the answer" is fucking super touchy and crazy skethcy (i.e. residential schools) - run the danger of attempting to turn this approach on its head and allowing the pendulum to swing the other way completely... thus, will need to acknowledge this and to argue that, of course in YOUR typical annoying context-specific pomo-blah-blah, that this is only A piece of the puzzle

Okay, a couple of things to note: (a) the use of the f-bomb in my notes to myself [though some of you are probably surprised not by this but by the fact that the f-bomb doesn't make the final cut]; (b) aforementioned f-bomb's bedfellows in this "sentence" - 'sketchy' and 'super touchy'; and, oh wait for it (c) the part where I dis myself "in your typical annoying...". Um, wtf?

Hm, I think I need to cut out the coffee intake...after this next one, that is.

In a related story, tonight has seen me decide to "streamline" my papers this term. For my course I'm currently working on - it's the one of the two pseudo-"practical" courses of my program - has already established my 'topic' as I have to work partially alone and partially with a group (kinda lame, though my partners are cool, just hate group work) to design an intervention... in any case my conflict is Caledonia. Thus, for my Indigenous cultures class I am working on writing my (very shortly due paper - eek) on something relating to land claims and gender (hopefully Andrea Smith's analysis will come in handy here), specifically looking at the conflict in Caledonia (i.e. likely to do with Haudenosaunee Clan Mothers, as one angle, in the broader land claims issues etc.) Finally, most of you know (?) that my MRP is broadly (yeah, it's still broad at this point - and YES this is cause for concern but, I'm trying to rein it in) looking at the efficacy of the shelter system in addressing intimate violence (domestic violence) in Canadian Aboriginal communities - working to make a link between colonization (neo-colonization) and gender-based violence and thus, calling into question whether - even 'culturally sensitive' (the quotation marks can vary quite considerably on the pejorative scale- there are many programs which are very helpful - I don't have a forgone conclusion on this front...) - shelter-based approaches is the best approach, as it is a means of, if you will, 'aping' the colonizer's approach to domestic violence, which can be problematic on to its own, let alone when one considers that this system is not 'effective' in the 'dominant' 'culture' given the high incidence rates of domestic violence etc. ... YELCH or something along those lines.

Okay this has been longer than my allotted ten minutes of procrastination. Apologies if this made no sense and it took you to here to realize that.

Over and out.