.Resident.Hipster.

So it’s the early evening and I’m sitting at my dining room table reading the “introduce yourself” thread for one of my classes. My semester started yesterday and I’ve only just realized how much reading I’m going to need to be doing for my classes.

I decided on taking all four of the classes I signed up for. None of the classes have an excessive amount of assignments and they’re staggered in a way that will allow me to get things done without going too crazy. That’s the hope at least. Three of my classes are mostly off-line, which I think will help a lot. My problems with keeping up with my classes last semester wasn’t the work load as far as assignments or readings, it was keeping up with the class discussions. They were often a little boring for me and the irregular updating made it hard to keep on top of everything.

Right now I’m trying to figure out a decent organization system to help me keep track of my classes. The book for my Information Secrecy class hasn’t been printed yet. So my professor, who edited the book, is posting chapters for us. Which means that I need to print out pages and pages of articles and keep track of each of them by week. I cannot really deal with in-depth reading on my computer of anything longer than about 5 pages.

So! Anyone have suggestions for keeping track of school stuff? Right now that best I can come up with are huge binder clips and great big document folders.

Les wrote an email to Jon Carroll (and SF Chronicle columnist for those of you not in the Bay Area) and it got printed in a recent column. The letter was about bicyclists and our tendency to blow through stop signs and the occasional red light. I admit that i am completely guilty of not bothering to stop at stop signs.

I have to say that I agree with both the bike-non-stoppers in this article.

Les is correct - it wouldn’t make any sense to bike on streets with a million stop signs unless you are going to blow through them. Otherwise it would be much easier to just bike along the major roads that have both the stop lights & the right of way, much like every single car in Berkeley. Duh.

Also, the momentum hierarchy described by the second letter writer is something that I have also used to justify running stop signs and the like. It takes a lot of effort on my part to get up to speed so I’m only going to stop if I absolutely must. This is also a perfectly good justification for pedestrians having the right of way at cross walks. The amount of time it is going to take a car to stop for me while I cross is much, much less than the amount of time it would take me to wait until there are no cars on the road.

I also have another theory about stop signs and bikes. Basically, cars don’t want me anywhere near them so they’re going to stop and let me get by regardless of my own personal behavior. Stopping at every stop sign just confuses and scares people. I cannot tell you the number of times I have been waved through stop signs out of turn by cars because, you know, I’m on a bike. So generally on small streets with limited traffic, it’s better just to blow through. It is a little like going 65 in the fast lane on the freeway. Why yes, that is the legal limit but no one goes that slowly in the fast lane. Obeying the law instead of following the normal flow of traffic cause more harm than good in this case. Likewise, stopping at every stop sign when cars expect you to cross out of turn just causes confusion and frustration for everyone involved.

Grinding whole wheat flour somewhat finer than normal does not make it appropriate for pastries, as the labeling on this bag of flour loudly proclaims.

This is the reason no one believes you when you say things taste good.

Love,

cola

Last Tuesday Sarah Doty came up to Berkeley to have dinner with Les and me. She brought with her a four day old sour dough starter as a gift for me. I was really pleased.

The starter was bubbly and smelled foul, which is perfect. I got it home the next day (via bike since we’d spent the night in Les’s loft) and fed it. And then it started acting funny. I blamed the Oakland tap water, which smells of chlorine. Chlorinated water can’t be a good base for growing bacteria, right? So I went an purchased a gallon of distilled water and hoped that wold fix it.

By Friday, I figured hope was lost. I’d followed the directions in The Bread Bible, but the starter was was too solid and didn’t look active at all. So I fed it again, adding a little more water and told myself that I’d just toss it on Saturday if it didn’t look more active.

Saturday came around and what do you know? I’ve got a ridiculously active starter on my hands! It smells foul, it bubbles like an almost flat soda, and it grows to twice its original size in a matter of hours! Truly it is a wonder of creation.

My starter’s name is Henry. I have no idea why, but that’s is its name. I’m eating some bread leavened entirely from a wild stater as I type this. It is the awesome.

Thanks Sarah!

I don’t know if it is the jet lag or the fact that I’m only just eating dinner at 9:30, but this video had me crying with joy. Bush attended some T-ball games and all the kids playing got to meet him. One amazing kid walked up to him took a good look at the guy and then ran as far away from him as she could get. Fucking brilliant.
This is clearly the smartest child on the face of the earth.

I’m home!

I got into SFO yesterday around 3pm. I’m so happy to be home, you don’t even know. I was really happy to see Les and Xena, but generally my trip was pretty much suck.

In short:

+Finding soy milk in cafes in England is not too hard.

+Brighton is an awesome little town.

+England has superior Indian foods.

+The strawberries in England are very nice.

+I was really happy to see Xena (Xena being the reason I had to go to England rather than have Les visit here).

+I was really happy to see Les.

BUT…

-The food in England is not so great. I’m really over baked beans, cheddar cheese where there should not be cheddar cheese (seriously, England made me want to go vegan), veggies that have been boiled to hell, and mashed potatoes.

-There were a ton of timing issues with Les’s move to London from Birmingham and we ended up doing some rather cramped couch surfing and camping. It was really stressful. :(

-It rained part or all of nearly every single day of the 5 weeks I was in England.

-You can’t go into restaurants with dogs, so we were sort of stuck out in the rain while traveling with Xena.

-The exchange rate with the Pound means that everything in England is really, really expensive.

-My AND Les’s bikes got stolen in London.

I don’t think I’ve written anything about what’s going on re: Les’s move to London.

We spent two weekends in London, looking at apartments. Les has been looking to rent a room in someone’s existing household rather than trying to find a one bedroom for himself. It had been really difficult because he needed to find space for him and Xena and most places didn’t want to take a dog.

He eventually found a really nice room in the Lewisham district of London, which is way out in the south eastern part of the city. The place is a great big room that looks out onto a wonderful overgrown garden. The household has a dog and teenagers who would be keen on picking up spending money dog sitting Xena while Les is at school or traveling for a gig.

A few days after getting that place, Les’s friend Paula called with a lead on a one bedroom in her apartment complex. The guy living there is moving to Scotland for a year or two and is looking to rent the place out while he’s gone. Paula lives a few blocks from the Tower Bridge. A one bedroom in her complex will be a pretty good size and she managed to talk the guy into being willing to rent it out for what Les is paying for the room in Lewisham.

Les is sort of torn about where to live because Lewisham includes on-site dog sitting *and* the utilities are includes in the rent there and not in the one bedroom. The Tower of London place also has some logistical issues that make moving a pain. However, living in the central London is pretty rad. Les is in London today looking at the place and trying to figure out where he wants to live.

I’m in Birmingham, helping with the final bits of packing-and-cleaning. I’ve mostly been cleaning the apartment. Les’s two other housemates are moving out as well and so the whole place needs to be cleaned. Neither of the other two people seem to have any intention of actually picking up a sponge so I’ve been going around cleaning room by room. So far this week I’ve cleaned a bathroom from top to bottom, spent a couple of hours sweeping up 9 months worth of leaves from the backyard, and spent like 4 hours today cleaning the kitchen from top to bottom. After I finish posting this, I’m going to start wiping down surfaces and hoovering Les’s bedroom.

I’ve been oscillating between being really annoyed and happy to help. I figure it is my duty as a significant other to help out Les with anything I can. He’s helped me move twice, although his involvement has been less extensive in both cases. So really, I don’t feel put-out or anything. I just wish my time here was more vacation-y than it has been. Hopefully once we get moved on Monday the last two weeks of my visit will be a tad bit more relaxed and fun.

I’m having a bit of a dilemma.

I signed up for classes this week. One of the classes that I wanted to take was full, so I got on the wait-list for the full class and picked a different one from the list of classes I wanted to take.

I just got noticed that I got into my wait-listed class. Now I don’t know which class I should actually take. I think y’all should give me your opinions.

Here’s the deal:
I’m planning on taking 3 classes this semester.
I’ve finished the program’s core classes so now I’m mostly planning on focusing on Archival Studies. Eventually I’d like to work at a University archive, at a museum, or for some kind of arts organization. I’d also be interested in working for a government organization.
The archives track includes classes in collection management, preservation, and cataloging.
The class I got wait-listed for is in this track, as is one of my other choices. The third choice isn’t in my rotation, really, but sounds really interesting.

This is the class that I know for sure I want to take:

LIBR 256. Archives and Manuscripts
An introduction to the theory and practice of managing archival documents, such as personal papers, institutional records, photographs, electronic records, and other unpublished material. Topics covered include manuscript and records acquisition and appraisal, arrangement and description, conservation and preservation, reference and access.

It meets on the UC Berkeley campus on Saturdays every other week.

These are my other choices:

• LIBR 248. Beginning Cataloging and Classification
  Theory and practice of bibliographic control including the study of representative cataloging using AACR2, machine-based representation using MARC formats and other standards, subject analysis and classification using LCSH, Dewey and LCC with application to books, non-book materials and serials.

  This meets every Thursday at the UC Berkeley campus.

• LIBR 259. Preservation Management
  An introduction to the philosophies and techniques used to preserve manuscript, printed, and electronic materials. Examination of different preservation techniques, and their attendant philosophies, used over the ages, from chaining materials to desks to the current practice of digital imaging.

  This meets a few times (about every 2 or 3 weeks) at the SJSU campus.

• LIBR 281 Information Secrecy and Freedom of Information
  This course examines the political, legal, regulatory, historical, and social dimensions of secrecy and its relationship to freedom of information in the United States. Topics covered in this class will include the growth of the U.S. secrecy system, security classification of information, federal information policy, and attempts to control public, scientific, and technical information sources. Consideration will also be given to the homeland security issues that surround information access in libraries.

  This is all online. This class is an “advanced seminar” and this topic was last taught in Spring 2007.

So yeah. Do I drop Information Secrecy because it isn’t really part of my rotation? Do I keep it because it sounds interesting and I may not have a chance to take it later? If I keep 281, do I drop Cataloging because it isn’t an absolute core class in my specialization? Do I drop Preservation Management because it is slightly less convenient than the other classes?

Scheduling issues:

• Archives and Manuscripts and Preservation Management conflict once during the semester. They meet on the same day, one in the morning and then the other right afterwards in the afternoon. This would be fine except that one is in San Jose and the other is in Berkeley.
• I’d been thinking of taking a trip in October for my birthday. If I take a class that meets every Thursday, I won’t be able to do that.
• 248 and 259 get taught every semester. I *think* that they’re even taught in this same format (in person meetings) with the same profs.

What do you think?

Les is looking to move to London. The rental agreement on the Birmingham apartment is up at the end of the month and while this city is nice and all, London is much more exciting. Apparently, Les only needs to be on campus once a week, so commuting isn’t a huge deal.

So we’re heading to London this weekend to go apartment hunting.

Cross your fingers.

I feel like there’s some kind of interesting story here, but I’m not really sure that I have a lot to say. I flew out on Sunday afternoon. My flight was pleasant enough. I flew Virgin Atlantic into Heathrow. From there I took the Tube into London and then took a train from London to Birmingham.

I’m a pretty experienced traveller so managing all the connections between the airport and Birmingham on like 3 or 4 hours of broken sleep wasn’t much an issue. I was lucky that my ATM card worked on at the Underground ticket machines and then again at the train station since the one ATM I found between Heathrow and Birmingham wouldn’t work with my card. Being cashless in a foreign country can be a bit stressful, you know?

Once I got to Birmingham, I hung out at the train station waiting for Les to meet me. He was supposed to meet me at 3pm, but due to some transit snafus of his own involving missing boats from The Netherlands and having to spend the night in London, he was really late meeting me. I sat in the train station, trying to figure out what to do about being abandoned without any cash, a really uncomfortable bag, and no idea about where a pay phone might be located.

Here’s the thing about British pay phones - they hide them inside big red boxes. Its the weirdest thing. There were two pay phones right next to the exit for the train platforms. I walked right by them without noticing them. And then I sat on a bench i the train station, looking at them for at least 15 or 20 minutes before I realized that those dusty looking abandoned boxes actually contained working telephonic technologies that I could use to contact Les.

I was really tried at this point.

So at around 4, I took my bike out of the bag I was dragging around and locked it to a fence. This lightened my load enough that I could actually walk around town and find an ATM. Then I went back to the train station and called Les. He eventually met me at the station at around 4:30 or 5.

Then we got to his place and I fell asleep. I spent all of yesterday napping as well. Today I’m loafing about. I think I should maybe have some tea.

I’ll be in the UK until the middle of July. I don’t really know what I’m going to be doing. Les needs to finish working on his piece that he’s playing with Polly Moller at the end of July and he’s also looking for a new apartment. All this means that I might end up not getting to do much of anything besides take Xena for walks in the park while I’m here. Les is holding out hope that all his business will be taken care of with enough time to actually take a bike trip somewhere. I am not as optimistic.

Oh, and lastly, I really want to talk about the English and how they name things totally inappropriately. How is it acceptable to name an Underground station “Cockfosters”? It’s not, that’s how. It’s even less acceptable that they decided to make that station an ending point for the train line that goes to Heathrow. I was forced to sit on that train for like 20 minutes, with the name Cockfosters being called out at every single stop. I was barely able to stop myself from giggling childishly every single time. What gives, England?