I’m almost at a point where I can blog again. And I’m feeling very creative but still don’t quite have the time to do the things I’m imagining. So for now, a link or two.

I like the idea of scrapbooking, but not quite enough to actually do it. A scrapbook of creative ideas and inspirations, on the other hand, is fabulous idea. But I don’t quite seen the need for purchasing extra equipment for this. I think I have all the necessaries handy, with the exception perhaps of glue! This is likely to be a summer holiday project.

Don’t ask: “Why does she push my buttons?”
Ask instead: “Why do I react?”

There is no good outcome from reacting. Weasel out of the prying, determined-to-engage questions and remember that you are only reacting because you have momentarily forgotten your power.

Even when you think you are helping, you are not helping. Everything you say goes through a series of filters that makes it impossible to hear the hints, suggestions and subtleties. This is not your battle, you don’t need to fix anything.

Stop analysing, justifying, blaming and rationalising. Give her what she wants, what she needs, and be kind. This is all you need to do.

Thank you for your patience. Here is a picture of a cute lizard.

Back to study.

... until I get my social life back. You can’t imagine how excited I am! Less than a month!!!!

I’m learning so much. I really appreciate being able to see things from two points of view.

Archaeology professes to be a science, to seek to apply scientific methods to its investigations. In many important ways it accomplishes this. But I am also aware that bias is always going to be a factor. For example, there are so many collections of so many different kinds of artefacts, and people wonder why another collection in a museum is going to make any difference. Why not use those old collections? But collections involve agendas, preferences, interests and a great number of things not collected. It is not easy to discover how a collection has been curated, what the preferences or biases were at the time of collection. And if you decide to perform some kind of scientific analysis on that collection, you cant be sure that it contains everything that you would have chosen to include, given your research question.

Anthropology, well, I find it hard to say that anthropology is a science. I know that many people do say that. My early introductions to anthropology were focused on political analyses of science and its relationship to power. Anthropology really is the only avenue for examining science. I would prefer to put anthropology in a box all of its own. Bias is inherent, but recognised. For me, the essence of anthropology is the tools it provides for changing the cultural lenses that we perceive the world through, tools for letting go of the cultural baggage, tools for understanding that this is the way we do things around here these days (now that I work in archaeology, I have to add that little ‘these days’ at the end). You cant do that without getting close to people, without picking up their biases.

So a while ago I wrote about discovering that my jaw pain was caused by me clenching my jaw all the time, and about heading off to get help for it. I went to see a dentist who specialises in temporomandibular and orofacial disorders (or so it says on his card and no, spellcheck, they are actually words). He said that the first step was to try to become aware of when I was doing it, and to consciously release and relax the jaw. Well, it turns out that I do it all the time. All of it. Especially in my sleep.

I tried to figure out why this might be happening, but as is so often the case, finding out the reasons why doesn’t generally equate to finding a way to stop. I still don’t really know why, and even with trying to bring attention to what I was doing made only a little bit of difference. In fact, I discovered that as soon as my attention drifted from maintaining that relaxed position, my jaw would simply close again, as though clenched was the natural position, as though there was a spring in there pulling it shut again. So after several visits (15mins and close to $100 each time) I gave up and let him make me a mouthguard to wear while I was sleeping, to physically stop the clenching. A bargain at a mere $500.

I hated the guard. Having something foreign in my mouth made me salivate endlessly, and I could not close my lips over it to stop drooling. I generally couldnt get to sleep with it in, and on the odd occasion that I did I would wake up when my face hit the cold, wet patch on pillow. I stopped wearing it, and cancelled my appointments with him. So that was close to $1000 down the drain for no result. Not happy, Jan.

A couple of weeks ago I went to an osteopath for a different reason. I talked about the main reason for my visit and mentioned the clenching thing a well. She thought she could do something about the clenching, and did a bit of manipulation, dry needling and massage. And bang, after just one treatment, the spring that kept closing my jaw again has been released. I can relax my jaw and it will stay in the open position. I still unconsciously clench it, and the relaxed position is not far from clenched, but it definitely made a change. She believes that it can be further relaxed, and I will see her again for further treatment.

That little change has made a big difference, and on the negative side I have experienced quite a bit of pain in these few weeks since the treatment as my jaw adapts to the new position. I’m a fan of acupuncture and not scared of needles, but wow; the needling hurt! But it is worth it for the instant improvement. Im glad I didn’t stick with the specialist dentist and the mouthguard.

I’m not ready for that at all! I’m home at the moment working on an essay, the light at the end of this year’s study tunnel is already visible and I’m getting excited about creative things I can do afterwards.

A surprising number of people are are on the move at this hour.

I’m back home, working on a million little chores and tax stuff for Sean today (and probably the next few days as well), in addition to an assignment for Uni. Not much of a break, really. I’m so over studying, but unfortunately the study is not over. I guess I shouldn’t complain, I just had a massive 3 and a half month break over Christmas….