"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"
- Barbara Bush, 3/18/03

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portfolio

it’s been slow. i see the same happening on a lot of sites – blogs and otherwise – and though it could just be spring fever, or something like that, it could also be a normal lessening of the blog/online world/hype. (too many forward slashes is a vice, i know i know. ditto for parentheses.)

anyhow, my main excuse is that my portfolio was due. in lieu of a thesis (thank goodness!), graduates-to-be in my program have to assemble some of their favorite (ahem) papers, write up some statements (“leadership”, “professional goals”, ay.), have it all bound up nicely and then presented to a panel of professors and outside professionals. the actual presentation will be in mid-may, happily. officially, as long as my portfolio passes muster, i can fail every class this quarter and still graduate. that will not happen, but it’s a nice way to think about it once in a while. so, about 90 pages of writing plus a CD filled with examples of my web work, online projects, etc. phhhhewwww, done.

knitting has been going on. what you see here, on top of my portfolio, yay, is the beginning of madli’s shawl from interweave’s knits a few summers back – about 7 repeats in, 24 to go. i think it took me four times to finally cast on correctly and get the first row done without errors. ack! but since then, smooth sailing.

i also signed up for more horseback riding classes. too too fun, though i feel like a creaky old lady thursday nights. my classes this time around are on wednesday evenings, but strangely thursday morning i feel fine and triumphant, and then nighttime comes and all of a sudden i can barely move. why does that happen? anyhow, the class is excellent – only four of us, a great teacher, and though i’m the most beginner of them all, i still feel really upbeat and excited about this week. i even got some horseback riding books out of the library. yup, i gave myself homework.

thanks for all the nice comments on my fair isle bag! also, go wish heidi’s & christine’s babies a happy welcoming to the world ~ ~

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posted 18 April 06 & filed under horsey, school

re-stashing

1) dadadadadada-duhhmmmmm… SCHOOL’S OUT! FOR! SUMMER! SCHOOL’S OUT! FOR! EVAHH! ok, well, not for ever but for a while. and that is good good news.

2) i found some PHILDAR yarn at a local yarn store – and even though they only have two lines – phil eponge and phil .. oh, something else, i’m forgettting now, – i’m going back and getting a ton. i got five beautiful eponge balls for now in a gorgeous lilac. i can’t remember off hand which patterns called for it but i remember seeing eponge in almost all the patterns i liked. hip hip hooray!

3) scored some rowan’s all seasons cotton half-off. can i have a ‘sweeeeet’?! definitely going to be seeing some pretty baby clothing in gorgeous cotton.

4) i finally sent off my thank you gifts to all those who helped me out the other day – and my stash has been properly destashed now! hence all the re-stashing. ;)

5) it’s the weekend. despite all kinds of other crap-o-la, i’m happy about that. very happy.

6) online funny things are keeping me amused on a busy friday, like this, a clip of a newswoman farting on air, and this, the great threadbared site, particularly this one and the pattern erotica one. all so great, the perfect pick-me-ups. ;)

and winnie tagged me for a book meme – here it is.. it was fun filling it out, makes a bookworm’s heart beat a little faster.

~ Total number of books I own?
uuffff, happily too too many. i have maybe three hundred or so at my parent’s home in maryland. then here in l.a. i have probably another three hundred. i’m book crazy, yes.

~ The last book I bought?
same as winnine, teva durham’s loop-d-loop. i don’t usually buy books, not recently at least, but i use the l.a. library system like no one – just got a haul today, including yann martel’s the life of pi, black thorn, white rose, an anthology of fairy tale adaptations edited by the excellent ellen datlow and terri windling, and trouble and her friends by melissa scott, a sci fi book that mainly appealed to me because the protagonist’s name is the same as my lovely cat, trouble.

~ The last book I read?
north by donna jo napoli. so good i was pacing at the end, and i kept stopping and laughing at the happiness and enthusiasm i was feeling all over just because the book was that good and fun to read. it must have been such a kick to write – i so want donna jo napoli’s job some day.

~ 5 books that mean a lot to me?
horrible question, the type that can only cause one to flail hands in exasperation and frustration. so.. here’s five that just ocurred to me for no clear reason:

~ Tag 5 people:
if you want to do this, please consider yourself tagged. i know memes can sometimes get annoying, but this one i think is never annoying – i love reading other people’s reading lists. update: lalitha! maybe sandy? anyone else? ;)

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posted 17 June 05 & filed under knitting, school

a big old favor

update: thank you so much! i got a dozen responses in less than 24 hours – i appreciate it so much. make sure those of you who responded get your addresses to me so i can send off a little thank you this weekend ;) i knew it before but now i know it even better: knitters rock.

hello there ~ first off, the favor request, and then a little catch up..

as it’s my last week of the quarter, i have final papers due and it’s been crazy. for one of my classes (“Archival Access & Description”), we had the option of writing a 20 page ‘literature review’ on archival theory (yikes) or conducting usability tests for some archive’s website and writing up recommendations on how to make it more accessible. of course i jumped at the usability test – i’m hopefully taking an information architecture class this summer (it looks so very excellent, i love that stuff) so this would be a perfect segue.

now here is where you come in. i only need about 5 to 10 people to participate in the test, and it’s online, and should take only five to ten minutes max. here’s the bait: the first ten people who do the test, leave me a comment here telling me you did it and i’ll send you some yarn. yes, i’m bribing you with yarn – will it work? (by the way, if you’re not a knitter, you should start right now! no, i’m kidding, really, just tell me and i’ll send something just as good, promise.) i need to get the paper in by this tuesday so i really need the usability tests to be completed by sunday, that’s four days. are you up for it, folks? i’ll be so grateful, thanks so much.

here’s the link: usability test. (p.s. you don’t have to use your real name, and of course, any info submitted is totally confidential and i’ll not share it with a soul, except for my teacher. there’s nothing super-secret there, but just so ya know.)

now some ketchup.. (groan). after my recent knitting mania, i haven’t done much in the past four days or so, just a lot of reading and sleeping and constant work-to-school-to-work commuting and hecticness. it’s slowing down but this is the final stretch, can’t wait till it’s over. orangina pics have been postponed till next week, which is frustrating but realistic. also, my beloved powerbook was sent off yesterday and already arrived today at apple headquarters – so yup, i’m offline at home. it sucks just like you would imagine and really, it feels surreal. i was reading a great book last night and i kept getting the urge to see what amanda was up to, had winnie posted any more fabulous knits, see lolly’s pretty wedding pics again, has bloglines updated (up to 111 feeds! must. stop.), oh i must respond to meowgirl’s incredibly sweet email, etc etc.. but then i’d remember ‘oh. no internet.’ and i’d feel all woozy and kinda silly.

a friend shamed me for not adding this when i was bemoaning my mac problems last week: i’ve been using my powerbook for over two years and it has been nothing but sweet happiness for almost the entire two years. if not 100% sweet happiness, then 98%. really. and if applecare is as good as i think it is, i’ll go back to years of sweet happiness – and, more importantly, my days of fiddling with pcs is over (except at work, ah well) because macs rule .

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posted 9 June 05 & filed under school, techno-babble

chugging right along

i’ve been working on catching up on school work – particularly reading for my excellent young adult literature class – and i’m happy to say, prematurely of course!, that i’m almost there, phew. i’ve been reading (and writing) like a madwoman, but at least the books (for the most part) have been really good YA, a genre i like very much, and books that i had heard a lot about but had never read.

the ones in bold have been read by me, almost all this past weekend, and i’m tackling two more tonight and tomorrow, plus i got a few audiobooks out (very exciting and attempt #2 at audiobooks, we’ll see if it works). now don’t gasp in horror – i don’t have to read all the books listed below just most of them, and believe me i appreciate the difference. which of those books have you read? any favorites, or any that didn’t make my teacher’s list?

so far, my favorite read has been ender’s game, though that’s a long-time favorite of mine, so that’s not fair. one fat summer was great, hilarious, and unexpected. hatchet started out so dang slow but by the end i was really into it. the pigman was just o.k., and after the first death gave me scary vague dreams. weetzie bat i expected to be really annoyed with, but i wasn’t, not that much at least. the sweet valley high book (#20 crash landing! – will enid walk again? and can george find the courage to break up with her even though she saved his life?!?!) was bad, so bad!, but i scarily remembered all of it, saved away in some pre-teen area of my brain.

i’m most looking forward to reading forever (the hot sex!), speak (amazing future!), and eva (‘oh my god i am a machiinnneeee!’). i don’t know much about the books in the last three reading log sections – all the ya i know is embarassingly almost all white and from the 80s or earlier, so i’m also very much looking forward to reading those books, though thanks goodness, they aren’t late but are assigned for a few weeks from now. yeehaw.

predicted time of official caught-up status: wednesday night.

still to do: one midterm wednesday morning (on library management – yech. as interesting as it sounds.)done! and one email exchange about a final paper selection (which will be fun and not too bad, i just gotta get off my ass and write it already!) done! lovely.

~ required reading:

~ reading log 1 (due two weeks ago, so bad so bad) done!:

~ reading log 2 (due last week) done!:

~ reading log 3 (due next week):

~ reading log 4:

~ reading log 5:

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posted 9 May 05 & filed under books, school

too much .. and then later, i'm ok, you're ok

it’s a cranky post today so feel free to skip skip away.. [update: but it gets real positive at then end, promise]

basically i’m feeling overwhelmed. yesterday was my all-class-all-the-time day and it went ok but i really feel like i’m just coasting by and not really learning like i should be, like i want to. it feels like college, in a way, or at least the bad times in college when i was just all ‘fuck it. i just wanna pass.’ i don’t quite have that attitude here, but it’s resembling it in alarming ways.. and i’m in graduate school for goodness sakes! no one forced me to do this, so i’m doing this for the love of learning really (right?). and the thing is the stuff being covered is by and large really really interesting. but i am behind, oh am i behind. and my mind just isn’t on school at all, and hasn’t been really since last spring. yes, a long while back.

yesterday in class, reeling from the realization that it’s halfway through the quarter and i’ve learned nothing at all, i figured out a “plan” (you’ll understand the quotes later) to conquer my lateness, and generally prioritize my life a bit, get some much-needed but always-missing balance into it.. i figured out how many hours in a week i spend on the basics: sleeping, school, work, driving (particularly depressing, it’s all down time, sigh), cooking and eating, cleaning, and showering/getting ready. that left me with around 35 hours a week – and i decided, 14 for studying, 12 for knitting, and 8 just totally free time. doesn’t sound too painful, right?

but i’ve made many such a plan before, though this is the first time i trust myself so little i make general hour-by-hour plans! these long-range-type plans always end up feeling too claustrophobic. and there’s the whole ‘i just gotta be me’ thing, too, dontcha know. well, that’s the plan, man. of course right now i’m supposed to be in the shower, after having done, for the first time in weeks my morning pilates thing, but instead i’ve been taptaptapping on this computer for the past hour. agh. no self-control, nope, none here.

p.s. i don’t mean this to be a pityfest or anything, it’s just helpful to write it out and get it out, you know what i mean? and writing helps me put things into perspective and.. ahh, now i’m late for work.
——
pt. 2: though this better mood might just come from singing duran duran songs in my car on the way to work, i’m feeling much more positive right now. i’m the kind of person who can just deny reality for months and months, seriously, but in the past few years i’ve learned that a) i do that, and b) it’s really really unhealthy and unhelpful. so i think i need to do this semi-freak-out re-assessing thing every few months or so just to be clear that i’m not living in a dream world, that this is reality, and i’m aware of it. sounds psychotic, huh? or at the very least, i’m the poster child for pisces.

oh, did you notice?: 5/5/5!

also, check out the always excellent amanda’s latest lovelies at homebaked.ca.

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posted 5 May 05 & filed under cranky, school

happy may day!

at my college, may day is a big day—the day marking the end of the quarter, with exams beginning the day after may day, and also celebrating the end of the academic year. although i wasn’t a big participent in the traditional may day events at bryn mawr, i loved that it was such a huge deal—and yes, it was, unlike any other school i knew of.

weeks before the day, we’d all receive in our mailboxes a rolled-up poster-size print out of the schedule events, all written fancy-like on off-white thick paper. girls would run around all april trying to find the perfect may day dress – which, by tradition, had to be white. (although i looked, i never found my perfect may day dress till after i graduated – such a shame, cause it’s beautiful, but really there’s no place to wear it now without looking like i’m going to my own country wedding.)

on the day itself, there’d always be some small-name-performer on the verge of making it big who’d sing out on the lawn in front of the campus center—but it was always contentious who was chosen (ah, the drama!), and for me, not so thrilling since the music tended to be too indigo girls for my taste (though i did like a few indigo girls songs, i just had an overdose of it at bryn mawr, along with U2 surprisingly—there was this one girl across the hall junior year who would blast nothing but U2, particularly U2’s “one”. ay. ) there’d be (bad, typically burnt) food, faculty and student and almuni mingling all day, free champagne with strawberries and cream for the seniors in the cloisters. there was a traditional may pole dancing (that photo on the right dates from 1900), along with its modern-day equivalent of may hole dancing (yes, you read that right). there was also a hoop contest for the seniors, with whoever crossing the finishing line first supposedly would also be the first to get their PhD (ah, a women’s college! a little too self-conscious, huh?)

the main loveliness for me, though, was that everyone would sit out on the main lawn with blankets and food and pretty clothing and just lay in the sun, soaking up rays, and feeling all relaxed for once, all relaxed finally after all the stress of classes and the one-upping of fellow students (a perennial problem at my school, full of over-achievers who just had to be the most stressed out, over-burdened student on campus. i tried not to give in to the madness but sometimes i found myself saying ‘oh i wish i had only three papers to write by friday!’)

also, those months of april and may were the most gorgeous at bryn mawr. already a beautiful campus, with old castle-y looking buildings complete with turrets and all (which they’d fly pennants from on may day!), springtime in pennsylvania is incredible. there was this row of cherry trees lining the walkway to the campus center, down the main drag of the campus, and they’d bloom the most beautiful pink blossomos in such an abundance it was freaky. and then the blossoms would start to fall and sometimes when the wind was blowing just right and you’d be rushing to class, all of a sudden, walking past those trees, you’d feel like you were in a pink rainstorm and it would just always catch my breath.

although may 1st also very much so means international workers day and worker solidarity, as well as the traditional day of beltane, a pagan holiday i always found thrilling and free, though i’ve never really celebrated it, may day to me will always also mean white dresses, sunshine, and pink blossoms.

(i recently, just days ago, got in touch with an old great friend from my bryn mawr days, so undoubtably some of my enthusiastic waxing here has to do with her and my happiness at being in contact again. yay katie!)

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posted 1 May 05 & filed under school

first day of spring!

hello there ~

first off, thanks very much to all you sweet ladies out there who sent such encouraging words to me while i was freaking out over that quickly-fading bad memory i titled “Voice over IP: A Business Intelligence Report”. (for those of you crrrrazy bored enough, it’s available here as a pdf. ) anyhow, it’s done done done. pheeeewwwww.

this is going to be a big mail week, which has got me all a-jitter.. my secret pal sent me something (can’t wait can’t wait!), that yarn i ordered is on its way along with that gorgeous rowan book, plus the phildar mags, PLUS (so spoiled) i won a book!

it’s incredible – i ‘ve never won anything.. i don’t think so, at least nothing nice enough that was worth remembering. ;) anyhow, it’s a book i was really wanting to get: gayla trail’s you grow girl: the groundbreaking guide to gardening. i was the first to answer a question on her mailing list and in return the book is on its way to me as we speak. very exciting! (she has other contests, so if you want a copy yourself.. who knows? maybe you’ll be lucky too!)

i miss knitting. i feel like it’s been so long since i last knit.. knat, i mean. i have some plans and with spring break coming up – watch out! yay.

lastly, the background on this here old site has changed. as much as i loved, and still love, those beautiful birch trees, it is the first day of spring and i’m ready for something different. so.. rain it is. we had some the past few days and today, when i went out to nature again with a friend, i was reminded how incredible its effect is – everything was just so green and lush with a capital L! i think rain is soothing, restorative, strong, lovely, moody, and, overall, hopeful—and some of these qualities i’m feeling and some i’m wanting.

spring has sprung.

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posted 20 March 05 & filed under school

no color, no pictures

no, nothing interesting to see here right now, keep moving, folks.

there’s a definite method to my madness when it comes to the all-too-familiar major procrastination before a final paper is due. (how major? 16 pages minimum due in 18 hours. zero done so far. ah. let’s let that sink in for a moment. .. yup.)

so. first, i determine i need an empty canvas to create so i clean, both myself and my environment.

next, thinking i need to feel relaxed and not stressed, i read silly books and leaf through magazines (in this case, searching for the best prettiest greatest pattern of all time for my next starteritis-crushing project).

then, i decide a ‘power nap’ is a good idea to get really ready for the surge of creativity on which i will soon embark. i toss and turn and feel guilty the whole time.

finally, i just sit on my couch or sprawl on my bed staring into nothing, moodily nodding now and then and feeling like i’m being lectured to even though my mother and other authority figures are far away.

of course, while this whole pattern plays itself out, i am short-tempered with my cats, neurotic with my friends, and a giant shirker of job responsibilities.

although after all this, i usually do write the papers, every once in a while i just can’t get it together and i simply do not turn anything in. thus, i got my first D in 5th grade science, i almost failed ceramics in 12th grade and as a consequence almost didn’t graduate, and, most dramatically, i didn’t know for sure i was going to graduate from college until three days before graduation day, with my parents and family friends already en route to see me on my big day.

i’ve been laying on my couch for an hour now, with both cats huddled on me wondering what’s wrong—any moment now, i’ll shake off this procrastination thing and i’ll open a new text document and my fingers will start flying… any moment now…

update: i caved. not only did i get the nature cotton, i also ordered three phildar mags i’ve been eyeing for weeks. also, for purely practical reasons (free shipping!) i ordered rowan’s vintage style. my credit card is wilting. ah well. at least i put my stereo up for sale a few days ago—that should pay for the phildar ..

another update to make myself feel better: i have 14 (albeit not-very-cohesive) pages, it’s 7 am and i have four more hours to get this thing done. ack ack ack.

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posted 17 March 05 & filed under knitting, school

this post is filled with too many i's

for a while now, i’ve been slacking dreadfully with school and though i’m pretty sure i can pass all right, i don’t want to – the whole point of this is to learn. so, i might have to ease off with the knitting and the website for a while. or at least limit it a bit.

ah, we’ll see. i always get nervous monday nights because tuesday is my school day, from 9 am till 5 pm, and i always feel like i’m super-unprepared. but then, by 3 o’clock tuesday afternoon, i’m just bursting with pride, feeling all accomplished school-wise, so :shrug: maybe i’m just a drama queen. (nahhh!)

just to remind myself that i like, and want, to do other craftsy stuff, i recently signed up for gifty, a gift exchange similar to secret pal but not just for knitters. also, as far as i understand it, it’s a one-time thing, not three months long. there isn’t a date yet but i’m looking forward to it—maybe i’ll cardweave something..

i couldn’t resist buying some stuff online tonight—or at least i hope i bought some. girl from auntie, she of the rightfully-famous rogue pattern, is de-stashing first-come-first-serve. i sent off an email for the gorgeous lush and wool belle vallee. so cheap! there’s some gorgous lopi wool to knit up a banff—but i know that blue would feel too peppy for me.

tonight i re-swatched for topsecret and size 11s worked perfectly; also knit up a 4×4” square on 10 1/2s to see what effect, if any, blocking would have. stay tuned….

also, i started some socks. these would be my first ever – not the prettiest colors but i’m sure i’ll be as proud as a brand new mama when they’re done (geez, i’m always jumping the gun!) and yes, i swatched – i’ll be watching that tricky gauge of mine verrrry closely.

lastly, two non-knitting-related items:

this article is so smart – while re-reading it, i always just shake my head at the common sense widsom in it: In Search of an Emotionally Healthy Library

and, this book, considered by many to be the best intro book on information architecture, is now available online in its complete format, yay: Infomation Architecture for the World Wide Web

happy tuesday ~ hope everyone has a gorgeously happy day.

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posted 7 February 05 & filed under knitting, school

crazy hazy days of... winter

school has started with a bang and all is going well there right now (knock on wood). i can see why ucla graduates so many child librarians – ginny walters is a really really good teacher. she had a bunch of us practically in tears yesterday while she was telling a story proving how librarians can really make a difference in a kid’s life.

so.. yes, i’m torn in all three ways: archives, public librarianship, and systems librarianship. argh.

in other news, the education secretary has been making clear what her priorities are in her new job. ugh.

web site-wise, my site has been loading so horribly slowly the last few days – if anyone else has been having the same problems, could you email me? also, collette (of the funny and good paperhat) tells me she can’t see the entries i post here if they’re longer than a page – if you have that problem too, can you email me also? thanks.

[update: it seems like lots of people at my hosting place are having similar problems with slow load time so i submitted a help ticket and am waiting in line..]

here’s an amusing email i got the other day.. it looks like your average spam, but on closer reading, the first paragraph not only has a link to my own website (in case i need it, i suppose) but also took the first sentence from a post of mine a few months ago which, in this context, makes it a pretty weird sentence. in this email, i guess it’s supposed to make me think whoever sent this is in the same boat as me? bizarre, and thus probably computer generated.

MELLOWTROUBLE.NET: hi there, i ve been so busy at work getting ready for our annual fund drive that my fingers are starting to get cold again, not a fun sign. http://www.mellowtrouble.net

Could you please be so kind as to update your mellowtrouble.net directory listing by Sunday so we can continue to list you, if you don’t mind? Updating your listing is free! Simply go to:

http://blahblah/update.cfm?d=mellowtrouble.net&e=i

Check for your listing in Yahoo and Google there too!

Thanks.

last but not least, i joined my first web ring: librarian & archivists who knit. it’s still kinda small but will definitely grow – and already, i’m enjoying reading the other sites in the ring.

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posted 26 January 05 & filed under knitting, school

yay yay

hello and happy mid-week to you all ~

despite what that pic to the right shows (first time using the automatic pic-taking abilities of my camera!), i’m in a very cheery mood for several reasons:

the pattern is a simple great one from phildar’s tendances summer 2004 and it took a little over 2 skeins of inca organic cotton worked on size 9 circulars. i lengthened the arms by about 4 rows and i love the effect – it’s like a security blanket for me, being able to grab on to the cuffs at all times. the seaming isn’t beautiful on the shoulders (some have already exclaimed over my “pretty puffed sleeves”!) but i knew if i didn’t finish and wear it soon, i’d be in danger of getting very discouraged knitting-wise.

my same concern i had earlier remains, oh boy does it: the pattern calls for a cotton/acrylic mix and i used 100% organic cotton. the word is this particular yarn shrinks up to (hold your breath) 30%! though i made this sweater in a larger size (it’s supposed to be much more body-hugging), i really like the way it feels and fits now so i’ll definitely be spotcleaning this sweater as long as i can.

update: hmm, while i’m waiting for some yarn to be delivered (hopefully next week!), i’m loving this beautiful scarf/stitch – maybe it’s time i tried some manos del uruguay yarn? (oh and i really like this pattern but can’t justify the expense just yt . sigh.)

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posted 11 January 05 & filed under my first sweater, school

rain rain go away come again another day

hello and happy friday ~

just heard on the radio that we’re expected to get something around 10 inches of rain during the next four days – which normally would be a lot for southern california as it is, but with the already twelve inches and more of rain we’ve received the past two weeks, this just means scarier and crazier driving conditions than ever.

i’m very happy to report not only am i still emailing my high school friend (hi amy!) that just got married but i also got a very cool email from my other closest friend in high school (hi erica!). they both sound so grown up and accomplished but what i like most is reading/seeing how much they are still the girls i used to know. very fun and i’m very glad to be in touch again. i remember in high school, and really all through school, elementary through college, i always was really bad at keeping in touch, at staying friends once i became friends, unless circumstances (i.e. classes, boys, dorm assignments, etc) made it easy. that’s a very bad habit to fall into and leads one down a lonely path for sure.

there’s about half a dozen people that i’ve met in various school circumstances that i really just clicked with and that i basically want to know forever. i don’t have to hang out or even be in touch with them all the time – but at least once in a while i want to hear from them, tell them what i’m up to, and just be in each other’s lives, you know? well, this recent communications makes me think i have two less people to hunt down, wonder about, and in general feel like i missed the boat on. yay.

in other news: first day of classes was this morning. my reference class, a requirement i skipped last year since i knew i was in for the three year haul. but now, here it and surprise surprise, i think i’m going to like it. definitely a class to take the knitting projects to, but all in a all, an interesting and happily not too demanding class, it seems.

lastly, some links: my i-can’t-believe-i-have-a-bed story and my new gallery/fotos section. please tell me if you have any problems seeing the fotos or if something looks whack (though the typical disclaimer “it’s a work in progress” applies as always, sigh). thanks and have a beautiful weekend unlike us here in 24/7 rain land!

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posted 7 January 05 & filed under school

old friends

hello and happy 2005 to you ~

i did in fact get a bed, after a lot of hard work and hassle, but will leave that fascinating story (really!) for another day when i have access to pics taken. the end result: i am blissfully happy about my bed and am amazed and a bit angry at myself that i didn’t get one much much sooner.

lots of news going on in my neck of the woods, the least being the incredible mind-numbing amount of rain we’ve been getting here out in l.a. i swear it’s been raining cats & dogs practically non-stop since i got back! in the last 24 hours or so, there’s been a lull, but i’m not convinced it’s over. of course, my car window that got broken into a while back has yet to be replaced so, yup, my car is basically turning into a giant lovely specimen of mold.

however, ‘old friends’ is the title of this post and old friends is indeed what it’s about. i realized with a shock a few months back that 2005 marks not only the 5th anniversary of graduating from college but the 10th anniversary of my high school graduation. shocked, speechless, i wondered what would i do, would i go to the planned reunion or not, should i try and contact old buddies now that my high school’s web team (alas that it didn’t exist when i went there.. yes, it would have marked me a dork for life but i would have known web standards at age 18, darn it) has set up an excellent alumni site, etc etc. then, i got an email from an old friend, including some recent pics of her looking fabulous and happy. and now, just yesterday, i received another email from one of my best friends in high school with links to pictures from her recent wedding where she looks so incredibly happy and grown up. it’s all a bit bewildering but also great.

hm. yes, folks, i’m all excited about getting a bed and others are excited about being married. sigh. (..not that i want to be married right now, not at all. i like my life a lot the way it is. but sometimes i want to feel normal in specific ways that i really really am not.)

the main thing, however, is that in my last year of high school i just wanted, like so many seniors, to be out. of. there. and, unfortunately, this included me totally neglecting for the most part my high school friends. so, now, it’s very nice indeed to hear from them. these are the girls who i stayed up late all night playing spit with (great great game), eating jugs of still-powdered kool-aid, singing silly songs while driving fast speeds in un-parented cars, going to football rallies with, having water fights in the summer, and writing tons and tons of notes during classes. ah, those were fun days and the only other people who really remember them are these girls (and a few boys) who for a bunch of years were the main people in my life. is it too late to make up and be friends again?

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posted 5 January 05 & filed under school

just back

hi there! just got back from the california library association’s annual conference up in san jose. i had such a great time, even though i only went to one workshop and two lectures/speeches. i’d never been to san jose before and i think my legs shrunk a little from all that driving and sitting in my little car, but it was well worth it.

more details later, i’m pretty tired right now but:

“some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again”

good night and more info tomorrow,

andrea

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posted 15 November 04 & filed under school, vacation paradise

experience library

as part of my public libraries class today, we met at the cerritos library. named the best public library in the u.s. by reader’s digest this year, it’s a big shiny new library that i was at first really impressed by. later though, except for the kid’s section, i ended up not liking it a whole lot. i know a lot of thought was put into the recent re-designing of this library, but i don’t feel it was successful. early in the class, i heard one classmate mutter that the library felt like a mall. ironically, the city librarian, when he spoke to the class a few minutes later, used that same simile (overheard from a teen in the elevator months ago) but as the highest compliment possible.

some other things the city librarian said that stuck out for me:

though several of those points seemed great, a few were puzzling if not downright disturbing, mainly the emphasis on experience and emotions.

calling cerritos an “experience library”, their website says the planners “looked at mass-volume public spaces like Disneyland, Universal’s Citywalk and Las Vegas” for inspiration in designing the library. it’s definitely smart to look at such spaces since they have a big effect on what people expect from public (including commercial) spaces and they must be doing something right to be so popular, but that doesn’t mean libraries should be just like them. after all, one obvious big difference from disneyland or las vegas is that the library isn’t trying to sell you something and it’s not trying to trick you into buying. maybe i’m just naive, but i’m not into the whole enthusiastic marketing of the library. i understand publicity for libraries is important, but “branding” and “corporate loyalty” are not words i want to hear much less ideas i (both as a user and a future employee) want libraries to work on, and honestly, i don’t see how they’re appropriate.

the general layout of the cerritos library is, according to their literature, marked by “numerous thematic spaces that reference the physical world or temporal eras.” but, besides the kid’s space (which is pretty great, and obviously had the most time spent on developing), the other spaces just seemed like show-off ideas that didn’t really work. for example, the ‘old world reading room’ is this somewhat crowded and yet formal space filled with dark wooden shelves, a fake fireplace, tables shaped as parts of old greek columns, and lots of those fancy leather-bound classics you can have shipped to you once a month if you have a lot of extra cash (though i was greatly relieved that they were indeed real books and not just fake plastic ones. that i thought for a second that a library would dare have those should show you how tacky this ‘reading room’ space was.) next to this ‘reading room’ was a art deco ‘teen space’ and an arts and crafts-y periodicals space. the idea i guess was to feel like you’re walking through time, through history or something, but it just didn’t work. it felt poorly thought-out and just like a bunch of money was thrown at the architect and that was that. i felt like i was indeed in disneyland, with the result that this space didn’t feel real much less a place where i could sit and actually learn and research and devote time in.

to not seem too doom-and-gloom, some impressive things about this library: laptop ports everywhere (over 1000 total in the library!), lots of comfortable and varied seating, great lighting, pretty happy staff it seems (a great great sign of a good library), free parking, and tons of people.

yeah, tons of people. so, am i wrong? the goal is, after all, getting people in the door, right? well, no. i think some librarians have been focusing so much on just getting people in the door that it doesn’t even matter why they come in, in a way. that’s ridiculous. it’s great that people come in for free bathroom use, free cold water-fountain water, safety and shelter if it’s raining or dark, etc. that’s important stuff that everyone knows you can’t take for granted. (it’s a sad state of the world if it’s really hard to find free public bathrooms any more!) but a library is more than anything about information. if people aren’t using it for information, then something is fundamentally wrong.

now, that information can come from lots of places, not just books or even the internet. it can come from the reference librarians, from workshops and meetings held at the library, from people you meet at the library, and so on. but to me, this library, the cerritos library, just didn’t feel real cozy and conducive to information-gathering in general and i think that’s due to the emphasis on “experiencing” the library, as if it were some kind of amusement park ride. the library can be, and is, so much more than that.

(incidentally, from librarian.net, i found out that today, cerritos was hosting the ‘Cerritos California for the Workshop on the Information Commons’. i knew there was some kind of library thing going on, and i peeked into the room where the workshop was, but if i’d known jessamyn west was there, i would’ve peeked around some more. ;)

(update: just found out the mad librarian was also there, as well as other notable lib. folks like howard besser. hm. wonder what it took to get into that workshop? oh.)

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posted 30 October 04 & filed under school

one project to go

hello.

i’m feeling a bit wiped out after this second-to-last project but i had to proudly present it here for any to look at (and please tell me if it doesn’t look right in your browser): coca in bolivia.

also, thanks to my great brother-in-law john, i have a few very sweet pictures of my nephew nickolas up in gallery, so take a look. i’ll be sure to put more family photos up soon. hey, and if anyone would rather i didn’t make these accessible to the public, then tell me and i’ll move ‘em quick as can be, ok?

i still have one more project to go, but thank goodness i don’t think it’ll be quite so hard as a)i’m less ambitious this time around, and b) the project is fairly structured, especially when compared with the archives one..

why in the world did i actually try my first push-ups ever last night? i’m already feeling pretty woo-woo woo-woo from sleep deprivation. and now, on top of that, my arms and the usually very squishy bit between by arms and armpit hurt and ache, ay!

i love bookmobiles, although i don’t think i’ve even been in one. (i vaguely remember something about a small walkable vehicle during a bible camp i went to when i was like 7 or 8. .. hm.) anyway, though the internet archive may have some problems as a serious archives, they sure do have an admirable amount of energy, optimism, and creativity. check out their very cool internet bookmobile! check out the photos, including glimpses of the nice portable book binder they have.

~ andrea

posted 23 March 04 & filed under archives, school

multi-tasking

hi there~

procrastination is such an ugly word. i prefer ‘multi-tasking’ even though some tasks are taking up so much time that the other tasks, say final projects due tomorrow at 5 pm, just can’t be dealt with right now.

from feministe, a link to an article at znet entitle Depraved Indifference: Caesareans, Patriarchy, and Women’s Health. hopefully i’ll read it soon.

i tried to detox this past week, but once i realized on thusday that i had a post-quarter ‘wine and cheese’ shindig to go to on saturday (yesterday) i caved in and bought three large domino pizzas. what’s the antonym of detox? ay.

preparing for next quarter (what a good little student i am! or a procrastinating bad one, depending how you look at it.), i got a bunch of books in the mail the other day, all of them exciting and dreadful at the same time (since i will be required to actually read them, not just look and sigh with excitement.): spinning the semantic web from the mit press, networked applications by david messerschmitt, and how buildings learn by stewart brand (of whole earth catalog fame).

in case anyone doesn’t know yet, ibsn.nu is a great site that will check for any book (by title, author, isbn, you name it) and compare the price of it, including shipping, from eight different major book sources, including the hated amazon, as well as powells, alibris, and others. the site states that it “is a proof of concept of several ideas about information management, organization, and linkage.” all in all, excellent and free.

perhaps a tad too sensitive for any male readers, but i gotta link anyhow: lunapads and urban armor (i know, i know, i should just make my own). i like the keeper but somedays it’s just wayy too intrusive.

last but not least, this food index provided basic good info, such as storage, nutrition info, and basic preparations, on all types of vegetables, fruit, grains, etc. very handy.

~andrea

speak

posted 21 March 04 & filed under lots of links, school

a year ago

hi

in a rush because i’m typing this during my ten minute break of my last (gasp!) archives class for the quarter but i just had to post the link to this great photolog [via etc etc] of same-sex couples that were recently wed in san francisco. the pictures are amazing! it just makes me smile so big to see these fotos..

i’ll definitely write more after class..

ok, i’m back. it’s decided: i am a very moody person. i realize that might not come as a revelation to many who know me, but to me, well surprise surprise! i love being busy but i loathe (and loathe is the right word here) feeling obligated, that i have no option, and/or that my time is not my own. and i hate being interrrupted when reading. i guess i’m still a kid that needs to grow up, because responsibilty = olbigations, doesn’t it?

my life has changed so much in the last year. a year ago, i was in a pretty unhappy (and smallsmall!) supposedly ‘communal’ living situation. i had two small loving cats, whereas a few months before i had had four small loving cats, which still depresses me to think about. i had applied to grad school but had little to no hopes of being accepted (i turned the application in almost a month late and my gpa was, i though, something like 0.8 below what was required). i was working at the archives already, but the situation was really tense and my position was so temporary-feeling that i was preparing myself when i got my paycheck every two weeks, that this paycheck could very well be the last. food-wise and health-wise, i was same as now, that is to say, not very healthy but not too bad either (don’t smoke, don’t drink, what do you do?). i was reading a lot and going to the library and just browsing for hours. i was going a few times every week to the ucla library to use their computers for free surfing the net for hours, with vacya sitting on the stool next to me. i was listening to music on a record player. i was biking around westwood, now and then, which i miss. i didn’t own or watch tv. or movies, except at friend’s homes. i was slowly dropping out of the various activist groups i had been involved in and wasn’t really hanging around activist spaces, meetings, or protests. i was doing a lot of dreaming and worrying a lot about money.

now, a year later? my living situation is pretty perfect and i feel like a dolt for not having done this earlier. i still have those two sweet cats, albeit one’s on a diet and the other is a big ol’ weirdo. ;P i got accepted to ucla and am now almost finished with two quarters of tough but great great! classes. i’m still at the archives and i’m still a temp, but i got a good raise a few months back (thanks to good talks from good friends) and i feel a lot more security depite my lack of official-ness. i don’t read as much as i used to, which about once a month bothers me to no end and i go to the l.a. public library and just freak out and get out like 30 books. i watch entirely too much tv! i’m a reality show nut and my inherently addictive personality (yikes) is going nuts, especially when anyone dares trying to converse with me when the commercial break is ending and the show is back on! ay. i have a super fast and brilliant laptop with a blazing (albeit expensive) dsl. i don’t really listen to records anymore since i haven’t set up the record player yet (my apartment really is just too small since i’m a packrat ( almost wrote ratpack)) and i barely use my cd player since i got my laptop and ipod. the only activism i do nowadays is research, whether online on this site, in papers for school, or in the material i handle at work. i still do a lot of dreaming and i still worry a lot about money.

me, me, me, it’s all about me. kinda boring for most people i bet. but highly instructive for me. i’m less moody now and much more stable and secure then i’ve been since at bryn mawr, say before senior year. but still, man, am i moody. it’s like clockwork: paper due? i’m biitchy. expensive car repair to schedule? i’m listlessly sad. then other times, it’s the little stuff that drive me crazy and sad to no end: insufferable unexplainable unfixable static on my favorite tv station during the final of some idiotic reality show? i’m insanely angry. mama cat meowing for food at 4, 5, then 6 o’clock in the morning, waking me up each time? i’m brattily scowling and muttering at her all night whilst tossing and turning. so. there you have it. i am not a fun person to be around, oh, say a lot of the time. dagnamit. but the other part of the time, i swear, i’m the funniest, most considerate, and super engaging person in the world. call me rollercoaster andrea.

i worked a bit on the bolivia section linked in the upper left-hand nav section. also, to that same nav section, i added movie shorts (can anyone think of a better name?) so that, once i take them off the index page, they’re still easily accessible. sound good?

i like openbrackets. “And you keep rocketing out of sleep in the middle of the night, shaken and dread-filled, and realize that you’ve been having dirty dreams about money.” indeed.

happy weekend,

andrea

p.s. it’s saturday afternoon now, just added some photos showing some stuff i’ve been doing lately..go to gallery

speak

posted 19 March 04 & filed under more me, school

phew!

i am exhausted to the point that i feel like whenever i try and speak with anyone, what really comes out is a gibbering rant with constant head shaking and dizzy smiles. i remember vacya’s mom telling me once that she used to pull all-nighters when she was in grad school and her two sons were little tots but she knew that she just couldn’t do it now. that there was a definite point in her life when she could pull all-nighters and then something changed and now she just can’t. well, whatever causes that line to be drawn, i’m teetering on the edge of it. last night was the hardest single all-nighter i can ever remember pulling.
[working 'round the clock]['till the rooster crows]
now, for those who knew me at bryn mawr, there were times when i was overwhelmingly exhausted, even more than right now, but that was after several night in a row of all-nighters. sigh. i’m getting older. and i like the grey hairs (of which i probably have a dozen or so! ay!) and i like feeling responsible and respectful and stuff. but i don’t like creaking knees or backs (which i sometimes get) or receiving funny looks because i remember watching yogi bear and hogan’s heros after school. and now, to that sad silly list, i can add the (almost) inability to pull all-nighters.

i have a short-ish paper due monday and a test on monday but at least that’s still more than 48 hours away.

nonetheless, life is sweet right now and i’m really trying to stop and appreciate where i am in life.

~andrea

p.s. check out this increibly useful and pretty color wheel for web design.

speak

posted 27 February 04 & filed under school

field trip

hi~

so today was the big ale trip to my workplace. i was pretty nervous but also really excited. i think it went really well – yay! i had different tables set up with examples of old punch-tape which the archives used to use to record metadata in the 70s, with old catalogues the archives has produced over the years, and other tables with snacks, and examples of bad mylar tapes stock and acetate tape and just all kinds of archives info everywhere. it was a small but really enthusiastic group and i (finally!) got to meet all at once a group of interesting and smart fellow lib. school people. not that i haven’t met such people already but it’s been just a trickle, literally 4 or 5 people in the past five months. partially i know that’s due to my always rushing in to class from traffic or out of class to work. but today i just got to talk and talk and listen and laugh, and all about libraries and archives. it was a lot of fun!..

i have a big theory paper due for my archives class on friday and i have yet to begin it. ay. it’s scary to just type the words much less contemplate what that means in actual fastly-approaching work for me.

last night, during a procrastinating binge, i wrote some code so that i could more easily post these messages and automatically move the now-old ones onto the past messages page. so that’s good news. but i still have to add security measures (cause it’s fun. not cause anyone who actually reads what i write (all three of you) would want to.)

it’s raining and that automatically makes me pretty happy despite the looming paper, a slight headache, and enormous appetite.

~andrea

speak

posted 25 February 04 & filed under school

raining in l.a.

hello~

oh i love rain! it’s raining so prettily. i need to remember to bring my camera to work cause i’ve got such a crazy view from where i sit- the 101 freeway just zips by in the very-near distance, and ventura blvd and the gas station right across the street just add more concrete to the view. definitely not the most beautiful nature kind of view.

i just put up on the index page a preview for an upcoming documentary, the corporation. i don’t like having proprietary stuff (i.e. quicktime) on this site but it’s hard to find open-source movie-viewing programs. or am i wrong? if you have a dial-up connection or don’t have quicktime, then ok. but if neither of those two apply to you, then please check out the preview to this really incredible documentary.

yesterday morning, i finished (just barely) my big paper for my analytical bibliography class after a sad long all-nighter. i wrote about this incredible book from 1493 called the nuremberg chronicle- and wow, this book is just gorgeous! with over 1,900 woodcut prints, it was the most illustrated book for a long time—and don’t forget gutenberg had only perfected his whole moveable type process thirty years before this book’s printing. anyhow, the paper itself was eeek but the topic too cool.

my poor fridge has a major problem and the way only was to fix it (temporarily) is to de-frost it every two weeks for a few days. argh! vacya figured out if we keep the fridge and freezer doors open with the heater turned on full blast right next to it, then 48 hours seems to do the trick fine. ..in the meanwhile, i’m a ramen and pb&j type of girl.

i’m working on making the ale website a little interactive/more fun by adding skin options. the idea of skins for a website always seemed weird to me and even scary but that just means changing the colors on the site, of the fonts, background, everything. so, looking around, i found a whole lot of cool color-helping tools, like this, this, this, this, and last but not least, this.

i have that “everybody’s working for the weekend” song in my head.

~andrea

p.s. it is wayyy too late but i just found this great great site opensourcecms.com where you can test out different cms (content management systems) like mambo, wordpress, oscommerce, and more

speak

posted 18 February 04 & filed under school, web-talk

procrastination

procrastination strikes once again—but at least i got good work done while not doing the work i really should be doing. i had a midterm due this past monday morning and as of one a.m. wednesday morning, i have yet to start it. but.. i did finally buy a ticket home for thanksgiving (yay!) and i’ve just converted this page from a table-laden one to a definitely smoother css one. for those of you who don’t know what i’m talking about, this page looks no different than it did four hours ago—that fact being a tad depressing but i don’t care! i know how big a difference this will be code-wise and overall web-wise. of course, there’s still kinks to smooth out, such as the cost of war counter above and also the mask images above. oh well! i really should start now- yuck. work has also been a bit hectic to say the least; the fund drive is in 5 count ‘em 8 days! and there is still so much that needs doing. all in all, this week has been painful, as predicted. but good music, sweet cuddlings, and the satisfaction of work well done (aside from that midterm) have made it much better. bye!

speak

posted 11 November 03 & filed under school

new laptop!

hello!

got my new laptop today- yay! it’s an apple and so i was little wary at first since i’ve been using pcs since my mac se ten years ago… but it’s fabulous and the ipod-thing is just too good to be true.

work is going good- i’m going down to 30 hours starting monday but with a significant raise at the same time so i shouldn’t be losing any money, just working less hours (maybe even making more money)!

today was the first day of grad school—of course i had to be late to class, only by 3 or 4 minutes, but class was fully underway when i walked in. oh and packed! i think the room capacity is about 45 people and that’s how many are in the class. also the format was a bit of a shock- though i understand in the future it won’t be 3 1/2 hours of solid lecture. ay! however, the prof seems interested and serious in us really learning, so that’s cool.

i feel a little overwhelmed right now – school, work, new gadgets, and of course there’s always more. there’s still my car alarm that needs fixing, i need a bed asap, i need to cull my clothing collection, need to put up bookshelves, oh and more more. ... i’m really excited about school but just feeling like i need time and space to think and adjust. my last semester at bryn mawr was hellish, except for dancing & pubbing with katie!, and i’m a tad worried that that whole ‘time management’-thing won’t work this time either. but! i think i can do this. i just need no major drama and long-term thinking.

i’ve been feeling pretty nostalgic recently- missing everyone, especially family. the holidays are coming up but it’s hard to go home with work in the way. .. i need to eat more fruit. i need to do some exercising. i need to do a lot of reading..!

october 21st i’m going to see lawrence lessig debate at usc with a former riaa executive. should be cool. and hopefully with such an excellent computer and connection (dsl! yay) this page should be moving along much much faster..

bye, andrea

speak

posted 25 September 03 & filed under school, techno-babble

andrea the librarian

hello!

i got in to ucla! yeah! it took forever and a day for them to accept me and even at the last moment i couldn’t quite tell from the email i received if i was for sure for sure accepted but with some quick help from vacya and his mom in interpreting the email, i was sure—i’m really excited…........ and feeling entirely overwhelmed by my life, especially lately. (i feel like i’m always saying that. ay..) i gotta take statistics this summer at santa monica college yuck and hopefully my bryn mawr computer class will count as the computer science requirement but ohmy so much to do. and i just moved in two weeks ago- gotta get a bed and a fridge still. but i’m happy! and smiley and full just full of plans.

bye,
andrea the librarian!

speak

posted 14 May 03 & filed under school

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