UNIQUE (D78 INSTALLMENT TWO)

All happy office workers are alike; each unhappy office worker is unhappy in his or her own way.

TALK TO THE HAND (D78)

While poking around on the new Endangered Languages project, I was surprised to come across what is known as "Mardin Sign Language," a form of communication developed among an extended family with a number of deaf members living in Mardin. Following the well-known pattern  of language shift and of most local or family sign languages (which linguists call village sign languages if they develop along with hearing signers), most younger signers are now only passive in Mardin Sign Language, communicating actively by speaking or using the dominant/national Turkish sign language.

A quick read into village sign languages reveals some fascinating stuff, such as a village in Brazil that uses an indigenous sign language to communicate with only one deaf child, and a number of villages in which the majority of residents sign despite a relatively small number of deaf residents. Linguistics make a distinction between these kind of sign languages, which are spoken by deaf and hearing people who share a great deal of cultural context, and "deaf community sign languages," which form in situations such as schools for deaf students in which the attendees have no common language.  A famous example of the latter is Nicaraguan Sign Language, developed by deaf children who were being taught spoken Spanish and lipreading at newly formed schools, of NPR fame.

Given the linguistic mix in Mardin, which draws from Turkish, Arabic and Kurdish, I would love to read more about all the gestures and utterances that this family's interactions are built upon.

EXTRA EXTRA: There seems to be very little written about this (134 hits on google and no Turkish wikipedia page, but look here and here), but apparently there existed a complex sign language of the Ottoman court spoken by the hearing and those called "mutes" alike. While I feel it is fairly well known that the Sultan employed a range of gestures for court communication, I had no idea that there was also such a complex language (related? distinct?) that could be used to recite stories and religious texts and communicate complex ideas. Its deaf users would have been valued as providing an extra layer of security and secrecy, as it would have been difficult for them to communicate with others and they would have been unable to overhear the sensitive information providing fodder for harem and palace drama. Apparently Osman II was the first fluent user and required a number of his court to learn it as well.  Unfortunately, no documentation exists of this language and linguistics are unsure if this language is related to any contemporaneous or currently existing sign languages.

WHY DID WE GO OUT (D77)

I started this tiny, cobwebbed corner of the internet to talk about all the TYCDIGS (Things You Can't Do In Grad School), and to countdown to the days when I will again join the ranks of those who do little else other than read dense social theory, sleep in libraries, annoy the shit out of everyone else not in their little grad club, and engage in elaborate self-hate rituals. To cleanse my soul before departing on said journey, I found it fitting to do as many of the things I CDIGS as possible. In theory a bit like a gap-year rumspringa, interpreted at times by such jejune enjoyments as ALL VODKA WATERMELON ALL THE TIME, which was really only one time but you get the idea.

Enter this article, with the apt and timely (in this NON GRAD life) title "Why Go Out," part of the adorable Toronto lecture series "Trampoline Hall." (Trampoline Hall is the cutest idea ever - gather people in a bar and get a few of them to deliver prepared lectures on topics completely outside of their areas of expertise.) In the end, this little charmer of a speech acknowledges that you do indeed need to "go out." But the first few paragraphs are a great read for anyone who is more than a little tired of it. I love this part:

At home, you can wear your pyjamas. No one is going to snub you or disappoint you. At Trampoline Hall, you could be snubbed or disappointed. The whisky is not cheap. It is less depressing to think the same thoughts you thought yesterday than to have the same conversation you had last week. Few of us will get laid. Why did we go out? My father never goes out. His emotional life is absolutely even keel. He is a deeply rational person. He doesn’t see the advantages.

The same conversation you had last week! If I had a kuruş...

Is my rumspringa peaking early?! But I have the whole summer to get through! Why have I started reading Lefebvre? It is not yet my time! Bring on the VODKA WATERMELON and let me live out my summer in peace! Oh, but Henri understands me.

THINGS OFFICE WORKERS DO (D76)

A grad friend of TYCDIGS sent in a link to this comic about a maladjusted office worker just trying to get by:

Here at this office, we've got some winning coping mechanisms as well

- Blog about meaningless drivel
- See how many cups you can accumulate on your desk (they are sporadically collected, making it a somewhat difficult task. This one is officemate's game)
- Browse internet delivery sites for food until you're not hungry anymore
- Make strange lists and hide them under the computer monitor, look at them again later and laugh hysterically
- Read trashy novels
- Wreak havoc on your internal body temperature by drinking multiple cups of hot coffee while also turning the AC as cool as it will possibly go (also a challenge, because it works rather unpredictably)

Oh the TOWD!

[UPDATE: 17:40: Officemate reminds me that we also
Paint nails, study spanish, study for the GMAT, inofficeworkout, read novels, plan vacays]

SCI FI HANGOVER AND ACADEMIC ROT (D75)

In the wake of 2084: A Birthday party...a piece by David Graeber, Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit, which discusses sci-fi expectation hangovers and why redditors are unfortunately some of mankind's brightest. After listening to promises of ever-accelerating technological advances that would bring us boundless space travel and medically engineered perfection, why is the best we can do post-space race a pretty fucking lame Human Genome Project and really great special effects in science fiction films?

Then turning to the academy, we get a depressing take on GRAD LIFE:

As marketing overwhelms university life, it generates documents about fostering imagination and creativity that might just as well have been designed to strangle imagination and creativity in the cradle. No major new works of social theory have emerged in the United States in the last thirty years. We have been reduced to the equivalent of medieval scholastics, writing endless annotations of French theory from the seventies, despite the guilty awareness that if new incarnations of Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, or Pierre Bourdieu were to appear in the academy today, we would deny them tenure. 

... 

There was a time when academia was society’s refuge for the eccentric, brilliant, and impractical. No longer. It is now the domain of professional self-marketers. As a result, in one of the most bizarre fits of social self-destructiveness in history, we seem to have decided we have no place for our eccentric, brilliant, and impractical citizens. Most languish in their mothers’ basements, at best making the occasional, acute intervention on the Internet.

Here's to the future of eccentricity, brilliance and impracticality, and to those of us with parents with livable basements! Reach for the stars, y'all.

BROFIST TO THOSE GUYS (D72-74)

Last few days were a back to back SF birthday-secluded beach party-baptism at secluded island chapel kinda weekend.

I've been quite lazy on this blogging for the past few weeks. Today will be no different. Today's lazy links posing as a blog post:

- Bath salts don't sound very fun. Even Spin says so!
- The nerdy comment crowd at Language Log debating the language David speaks with the Engineer in Prometheus....love. They even got some 4chan love! (see update #2: "Brofist to those guys")
- Who wouldn't want one of these at home?

ALL VODKA WATERMELON ALL THE TIME (D65-71)

TYCDIGS has had a week-long haitus (from the blog, not from the office, unfortunately) in celebration of my birth. So far the highlight has been a pool party fueled by sunshine, smuggled vodka and cannonballs, but next up is a science fiction themed terrace party with a vodka watermelon and a super secret birthday cake (courtesy of officemate). Yesterday we added to the mix an import from the land of the free to power through the rest of the birthday week.

THE MAN (D63-64)

Love you, Bradbury

When I was a young writer if you went to a party and told somebody you were a science-fiction writer you would be insulted. They would call you Flash Gordon all evening, or Buck Rogers.

Fuck those guys!

GROWN UP (D62)

Way back on DAY SEVENTEEN this NON GRAD was watching a bunch of kids in music videos, but looks like I'd missed the best of them all (thanks again to the very-into-funk friend):




And thanks to one of this blog's GRAD friends for reminding me about this one:




[Edit 15:43: No, I won't link to Fuck You]

PLAYER HATER DEGREE (D61)

Time for a feeeel good mashup! Hope my boss enjoyed the little dance she just walked in on. At least it was in front of multiple stacks of unorganized documents?
    

So here's to an afternoon of late 90's mainstream hip hop videos.

A VERY NON GRAD WEEKEND (D58-60)

This weekend was a hot weather breakthrough, justifying summer dresses and multiple iced coffees, a new breakfast-spot strategy and a transition to vodka-based beverages. Also indulged in Prometheus  and rounded out the weekend by falling asleep to Ceylan's newest. Started off the week right by managing to escape this morning before the cleaning lady showed up to guilt me about the state of my flat.

A very-into-funk friend is always posting great music late at night and thanks to him I'm very into Pete Rock right now. Also: how have aliens changed through the times?

WEEKDAY BEATS (D55-57)

Missing the homeland is quite manageable, but nothing can trigger it like looking at this year's DEMF lineup and photos. Mark Farina, who I recently missed in Istanbul to go listen to some friends play instead (loyal i am!), DEMF classics like Kevin Saunderson, Derrick Carter and Stacey Pullen, and even Public Enemy this year.  Le sigh.

But at least yesterday Istanbul was graced with its first ever Lunch Beat! Thank the Swedes for this straight-edge lunch time party where you have to dance and you walk away with a boxed (or vaccuum-packed!) lunch. A great time, but I cannot confirm or deny that I was there. Office workers of the world, throw off your chains!

The bomb is ticking towards GRAD LIFE.  The departure countdown is upon us.  Enter: WEEKDAY BEATS and the reign of the honey badger.