At last I am moving. Some of my old small group are coming to help me, which is nice of them. I lured them out with pizza. 😉 The carpet in the apartment is being replaced tomorrow, which is cutting it pretty close! But I’ll be moving in the evening, so it shouldn’t be a problem, assuming they actually get it done. The nice thing is that I was supposed to sign the lease tomorrow, but the landlord wasn’t going to be around, so we did it today and I got the keys.
It’s a studio and quite a bit smaller than the apartment I’m in now, but I’m kind of glad. I’m taking it as a challenge to get rid of all my excess junk, which I’ve actually been doing all year in anticipation of moving, even though I didn’t know my space would be so restricted. I just wanted to have less to move. 😉 The smallness of the apartment will give me an objective goal for weeding my possessions. If I can fit things comfortably into that space, then I’ve done enough for the time being. Since I have the keys, I’m going to go over later tonight and measure everything so I can plan my furniture arrangement better.
Dumbly, I waited till yesterday to get my phone service set up, so I won’t have a phone line until next Wednesday (I don’t have a cell phone) and Internet access till Thursday. But I don’t use the phone much anyway, and I’ll be closer to work, so I can easily pop over and use the Internet there or at the library, which will also be closer.
Also dumbly, it turns out that I could have stayed in my present apartment rather than moving, even though the complex had been converted to condominiums and I think it was explicitly stated that we’d have to move if we weren’t buying. But now they’re even taking new renters. I was able to stay a month past the end of my lease because they allow us to pay month to month, and apparently I could have stayed indefinitely that way. I also got a “renew your lease” notice after giving them my written notice that I was leaving. Somewhere there, communication wasn’t happening. Anyway, by then it was too late; I had made up my mind. It’s been nice living here the past three years, but I’m moving closer to all the things I do, and I’m looking forward to it.
On another note, I’ve been watching the original Battlestar Galactica online at Netflix the past couple of days. I remember seeing bits of episodes when I was little, but I never knew the plot until I read the general premise a couple of years ago, and even then it didn’t really stick in my mind. Well, I ran out of things to watch yesterday, so I flipped through the Netflix instant watching list, spied it, and figured now was as good a time as any to inform myself. I had thought it was basically an sci fi action show. Boy was I ever wrong! Yes, it has action, but wow—it is weighty and epic. The issues it touches on are large. I felt emotions during the pilot I do not normally experience while watching TV. So I can see why it was so popular, and I’m looking forward to watching the remake. I don’t have cable, so it’ll all have to be on DVD.
The other sci fi series I remember watching but not understanding was Buck Rogers, which is also available for Netflix online viewing. See what you guys are missing? Join Netflix!
Hey, I don’t have any references on hand (I can’t find the one I had), but the general idea of punishing crime is that there’s a sort of generic backlash against “the people” whether it be widespread or focused on a random household. Because the group is self-regulating, they will internally ensure the discovery of the “criminals” and punish them. Justice and legal guilt works much differently in Mediterranean areas (or worked, since now we really have to talk about extents, western influence, and remnants).
From what I understand about the social structures of small-scale agrarian communities (mostly from the Context Group, but I’ve read several other things relating to small-scale societies), this is eminently practical for an honored authority figure to do. Gossip networks, to use the social science term, usually ensure the internal regulation; all actions are “public” in that everyone talks about everything. Privacy, it is well known, is rare (I think of a brief ethnography a read about a Greek village on an island called Nisi; the wedding sheets of a newlywed couple would be put on display after the marriage night).
I once posted about one internet source I went to linked from Tekton, but that has since disappeared:
http://www.xanga.com/bronzearcher/446589808/item.html
http://www.xanga.com/bronzearcher/447993516/item.html