I am unofficially finished with my first quarter of doctoral studies at the UW. Emailed in a 15-page take home final, gave a final group presentation in museology class on Saartjie Baartman on Thursday, attended my last anthro class, turned in my last paper and now I can rest and reflect.

Living on the W. Coast makes travel to the E. Coast a bigger challenge than it used to be. I am recovering from a cold that I caught on US Airways from Providence to Seattle. Note to self: while the emergency row has extra leg room, the window seat also has a cold draft. Never transfer through Philadelphia - it's got 2 runways and may be worse than JFK in terms of on-time departures and arrivals. I had been dragging my feet about February's Rubin Museum of Art reading in NY, but am starting to get motivated to look at plane fares and plan. The reading, which is co-sponsored by P&W, will feature Tom Morgan, Andrew Schelling, Rick Benjamin, Margaret Gibson and me reading from Buddhist-influenced work. Not planning to be at AWP, except to maybe browse the bookfair and see Texas friends. No plans to return to the E. Coast after that - except for perhaps the Simmons Chinese Poetry Conference in October, if it runs.

Tentative release date for Haiku Not Bombs has been set for late March, with a good chance that it will be out sooner than that. Cover is currently in design and will be letterpressed in 2-3 colors with the interior offset printed. The book will publish in an edition of 1,000. Booklyn is DIY on distribution, so if you own or manage a bookstore and would like to get your mitts on a consigned copy of this book, contact Booklyn directly and/or the authors.

Anthropology interests me to the degree that it has increased my awareness of my positionality in the world. The argument of whether or not there is a sociological-literary divide is one that fails to engage me. Scientists needs to learn how to write better for the public and investigative journalists should not pretend to know science. Science, is above all, science, and should not be compromised for the sake of literariness. Anthropology may well belong in the humanities, and not the social sciences. "Being there" in the field is over-rated inflated romance. What matters is having a stake in the community of study.

The kids at RISD were sharp - working on visual art installations and performances including aspects of poetry. One of Mairead Byrne's students working on a brilliant project about water in New Jersey and how there will not be enough for a certain community in the year 2020. Her project focuses on raising consciousness about this crisis. Very good public art dimensions. Speaking of public art - I saw some really great masking tape signs on brick walls. Eye-catching, temporary, and non-toxic. RISD is housed in a series of historic buildings which adjoin the Brown campus. The facilities are *NICE* and the school obviously has a lot of resources at its disposal. Interesting thing about RISD - faculty have no guarantee of tenure. Providence itself had something of a Harvard Square/Boston feel to it with Pawtuxet Village feeling very small-town New England, ala Peterborough, NH.

We redecorated the house. After my Providence trip and staying with Norbu's family, completely rearranged my office to make it more of a guest room, hung with Chinese and Japanese scrolls which would appeal to my father - the guest that we hope will visit most often. My desk is away from the window, the heating vent has been uncovered, and the lighting and temperature in the space feel much more conducive to live/work.

Staying with my friend's family was a profound experience. Waking up to the sound of children's voices, the smell of breakfast, parents getting their kids ready for school and a fierce feeling of nostalgia, not of what was ever had or experienced, but for something that never was, yet feels real on an intuitive level. The idea that the family you make can transform the experiences of family that you grew up with. That makes a lot of sense in thinking about my father's nuclear life in America and his 8 siblings in Taiwan.