My Pet Fat

A few weeks ago -- after only seven years of procrastination -- I finally got around to joining the fitness center at my office. My body includes a great deal of, erm, "safety padding," and I figured as long as I'm getting ready to quit my job and entirely uproot my life anyway, maybe this would be a good time to try to pick up a more consistent exercise habit.

Things have been going pretty well. Before this, my activity patterns tended to be very uneven -- IE, a month or two of couch-potatodom, followed by the occasional strenuous exercise, such as climbing pyramids in Mexico or playing snow football in Pennsylvania. Typically said strenuous exercise would result in aches and pains the next day. So I was expecting the same thing from the workout program. So far, however, I've been pleasantly surprised. Apparently using actual, approved workout equipment and a reasonable exercise plan avoids the stress of my former (in)activity patterns.

This is all leading up to a hilarious blurb I came across in today's paper. Inspired by the pet rock craze of the mid-1970s, it seems that New Jersey marketing specialist Jay Jacobs has come up with the idea of My Pet Fat as a motivational tool for those with abundant portable strategic energy reserves.

Pet fat is available in several sizes, with a 1 pound gob (representing 3500 calories) going for about $35. According to the article, "[t}hey are made of vinyl plastic, they are soft and pliable, they are slightly oily, they are amber-colored, with touches of red that suggest capillaries -- and they are gross."

(Note: while writing this post, I also came across this "virtual pet rock" software for MacOS. I've gotta get me some of that!)

Followed by possible vague left-wing paranoia of the week

Part of me wants to get incensed about the new "suggestion" that you give your birth date when checking in for an airline flight -- it definitely reeks of the reductions in civil liberties that have been brought on by the Patriot Act and its ilk.

But another, more rational, part of me says that this is a total non-issue for the simple reason that there's nothing new about it.

Here's why: You've been required to show your photo ID (drivers license or passport) at the airport for years. And every drivers license or passport has your birthdate prominently emblazoned on it. So this new policy is simply asking for information that the airlines and the TSA already had access to.

I suppose there is some additional risk to civil liberties from the government actually collecting the information. But probably not enough to make it worth making a scene by "refusing" to give my birth date.

(I tried this once when a clerk at Motel 6 demanded my birthdate in order to rent a room, but when she cited corporate policy and refused to budge, I caved rather than going in search of a new motel. Yup, I'm a pushover.)

Right wing bonehead of the week

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: (Off Camera) But, sir, you have described this in pretty, this whole battle is pretty apocalyptic terms. You've said that Liberals are engaged in an all-out assault on Christianity, that Democrats will appoint judges who don't share our Christian values and will dismantle Christian culture, and that the out-of-control judiciary, and this was in your last book "Courting Disaster" is the most serious threat America has faced in nearly 400 years of history, more serious than al Qaeda, more serious than Nazi Germany and Japan, more serious than the Civil War? PAT ROBERTSON: George, I really believe that. I think they are destroying the fabric that holds our nation together. There is an assault on marriage. There's an assault on human sexuality, as Judge Scalia said, they've taken sides in the culture war and on top of that if we have a democracy, the democratic processes should be that we can elect representatives who will share our point of view and vote those things into law. GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: (Off Camera) But, sir, let me just stop you there. How can you say that these judges are a more serious threat than Islamic terrorists who slammed into the World Trade Center? PAT ROBERTSON: It depends on how you look at culture. If you look over the course of a hundred years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings. I think we're going to control al Qaeda. I think we're going to get Osama bin Laden. We won in Afghanistan. We won in Iraq, and we can contain that. But if there's an erosion at home, you know, Thomas Jefferson warned about a tyranny of an oligarchy and if we surrender our democracy to the tyranny of an oligarchy, we've made a terrible mistake. -- ABC News Transcript of "This Week With George Stephanopoulos," May 1, 2005

Good grief. As Tom Regan points out, the difference between Pat Robertson and most of the rest of us is that he doesn't ever seem to realize when he's said something profoundly stupid.

MoveOnPac is running a campaign about this particular interview, and I was ticked off enough to sign the petition.

It's (sort of) official

Today I finally sat down with my current boss (and my former boss who I still sort of work for in a dotted line sort of way) and told them about my plans to leave town at the end of the year. The meetings went pretty smoothly. The biggest hitch had to do with what I would have to do to remain eligible for the company's 2005 performance bonus program. Suffice it to say that I may now be working here (or at least telecommuting) right up to the point classes start in January up in Boston. That's not ideal, but, on the other hand, the extra paychecks will help with the tuition, and a bonus check in February would definitely help.

We also ran into a bit of a snag over my plans to take three weeks off in October to go to Spain. The new boss' position is that he doesn't allow anyone to take three weeks off at a time even if they have the vacation time available. (This is what I so dislike about the corporate culture of US companies as opposed to those in Europe.) However, this issue seemed to go away after I conveyed that the trip was already pretty definite, and that if I didn't get the time off I would probably make September 24 my last day at the company. (Am I bluffing? Who knows... But I have already paid for the tickets, so it would be a pretty big deal to reschedule or cancel the trip. Since I think it's to their benefit to keep me around as long as possible, I doubt they'll call me on it.)

The fact that I'm giving my notice 8 months in advance adds some interesting twists to the whole thing. For example, they're talking about hiring my successor(s) and having him/her/them start while I'm still here so that I can impart all my wisdom. That could be interesting.

I'm taking in plurals because the idea came up of possibly splitting my job into two parts and essentially hiring 1.5-2 new people to replace me. I think may make a lot of sense given the amount of stress I've had trying to manage two chronically-understaffed departments at once. The big question is whether they'll find the money for that.

We're meeting again next week to talk about all this. Progress continues. Now that I've gotten this over with, my next step is to formally notify Simmons of my deferral plans, and to officially notify the other two schools that they are out of the running.

The Wikipedia Reliability Index

I had a brainstorm in the shower this morning. I'd been playing around adding information to Wikipedia. Wikipedia, as you may know, is a collaborative encyclopedia that literally anyone can update. The idea behind this "open-source" information model is that anyone can add or correct information, and that eventually bad information will be weeded out through a process of natural selection.

The problem with this, at least according to lots of folks, is that the instability of the information and systemic bias in the encylcopedia makes it unsuitable for use as a serious reference work.

This is a complex problem, and not one that can be easily solved. Some have even proposed a formal peer review process for articles. But there might be a way to increase the awareness of potential problems without the organizational overhead of trying to coordinate formal reviews of a constantly-changing work.

Here's my idea in a nutshell: every article in the Wikipedia should include a mathematically-calculated "reliability score" that gives the user a general idea of how likely the article is to be correct.

It would take some work to figure out the perfect formula for this. My initial thinking is that more page views and more edits should generally increase the score, since this indicates that the article has been subjected to a high level of scrutiny. A large number of recent edits (say, within the last 6 months), however, should reduce the score, since this tends to indicate that the article is in flux. Long edits (based on percentage of total article length) should, in general, also reduce the score more than "minor" edits, since they fundamentally change the content of the article.

It would also be possible to incorporate subjective criteria -- for example, number of sites linking to the article according to Google, and perhaps a rating system where users can vote on the accuracy of the information (along the lines of the "did you find this article helpful" links you often see in tech support databases.)

These factors would need to be incorporated in such a way that one person could not unduly influence the ranking.

It is possible that someone has already proposed this idea (if so, someone please point me in the right direction.) If not, consider it proposed!

the company we keep

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Mi hermano va a viajar a España con mí y mis padres.

After some deliberation, my youngest brother has decided to join us on the trip to Spain in October. This is the brother currently living a life of poverty while working at an after-school program for inner city youth, so the money is an issue. But we found a really good airfare ($110 less than my parents and I paid for the same trip! grr.) And we agreed on various measures to keep his costs down. So this is slowly turning into a family trip. Should be an interesting experience, since the furthest we ever made it on family vacations when I was little was to Michigan.

The other brother is still deliberating, but doesn't seem especially interested in going to Spain in the first place.

Hitchhiker's Guide to Washington

Being an explication of known and unknown sites and attractions in our nation's capitol, as recorded by a former resident and frequent visitor.

A friend of mine from Nashville is going on vacation to Washington DC next week, and asked me for a few touristic recommendations. Once I got started, I couldn't stop. So here's a long essay on the subject. Feel free to add your own sugestions.

Museums:

Washington DC is lousy with museums -- and most of them are free since they are part of the taxpayer-financed Smithsonian Institution. Here are a few ideas:

The insect zoo (now brought to you by Orkin, which cracks me up) is in the National Museum of Natural History, which is right off the Mall. (It's one of the domed buildings close on the Capitol end -- the other is the old wing of the National Gallery.) Other popular things there include the giant taxidermied elephant in the rotunda (which I remember seeing when I was in elementary school), the gems and minerals exhibit (including the "cursed" Hope diamond), and the Dino bones.

The Air and Space museum, across the mall from there, is the most popular of all the Smithsonian museums, but it's generally really crowded and last time I was there the exhibits seemed a bit tired. It was planned/built in the early 1970s when space exploration was in vogue, but I don't think it has been maintained very well. Supposedly they began a major remodel recently, so it may be improving.

The museum of American History is interesting, although a lot depends on what exhibits they have going on when you're there. They used to have a history of computing exhibit, but I haven't been there in a while so I don't know if it still exists or is worth seeing. It also used to have a massive pendulum that swung from the roof to the basement. I believed they still have this but may have shortened it substantially to make more exhibit space.

There are a ton of lesser-known museums that might be interesting depending on your taste. The National Postal Museum is surprisingly interesting (and convenient, since it's right across the street from Union Station, which is worth seeing in its own right.) The National Building Museum is also supposed to be good, although I've actually never been in it. (Although I think that's the building that my parents took refuge in when I was 6 years old or so and we got caught in a massive storm downtown.) The National Museum of the American Indian is brand new, and definitely interesting. (Although it's not exactly like a traditional museum -- more like a freeform stream of conciousness.)

There are also some well-regarded private museums. The Holocaust Museum is supposed to very good, but I've never been. (It always seems like a bit of a downer when you're sightseeing with friends, which is usually how I see these things lately.) The International Spy Museum is also supposed to be good, but you have to pay admission and make reservations. (Didn't know about the reservations thing last time, so we only got as far as the gift shop.) And the Corcoran Gallery of Art was another frequent field trip in grade school, but since I haven't been there in years I'm don't' recall many details.

Other stuff:

An architectural gem that I only discovered last year when I went up for the archives training is the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. Notice that the carvings of American cherubs are all engaged in useful professions, not lounging around like those lazy European cherubs of yesteryear! The main reading room alone is pretty spectacular -- but maybe that's just my affinity for libraries showing through.

It's worth it to take a walk around the reflecting-pool end of the mall, where you can see the Lincoln memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the reflecting pool, the Washington Monument, and the new WWII memorial. Unfortunately there's no Metro right in this area, so you either need to walk down from the Smithsonian stop or walk in from Foggy Bottom or another stop further inland. Despite having lived in DC for the bulk of my life, I have never actually been up the Washington Monument. The last several times I tried, it has been closed -- first for restoration, and then for landscaping and security upgrades. Last October it was still closed, but maybe if your lucky it will be reopened by now.

If you want to do some more walking, the Korean War Memorial, the FDR Memorial, and the Tidal Basin/Jefferson Memorial are all between the reflecting pool and the river. (There's a good map of all the sights in the "monumental core" right here. A lot of these green spaces around the mall were covered by "temporary" buildings during WWII to house the growing ranks of government bureaucrats. These "temporaries" ended up lasting for decades -- my grandfather worked in one for years.

Arlington National Cemetery is interesting, but perhaps a bit ambitious if you're traveling with a kid. Things to see are the changing of the guard, the Kennedy gravesite, and the cemetery itself. It was built around Robert E. Lee's family house during the civil war after the government took the land to spite him for leading the confederate army. One of the first 20 or so gravestones down the row from the house is Somebody Packard (forget his first name), who is one of my ancestors. He was in a unit from Maine and died in one of the battles in Virginia. This is not in the tour books, but I figured I'd throw it in for your edification.

Don't imagine you'll want to do much of this with a kid in tow, one interesting place to go hiking is Roosevelt Island (in the Potomac -- you can walk there from the Roslyn stop if you don't mind dodging traffic and taking a long detour to get across an unfortunately-placed highway. Or you can drive to it on the GW parkway.) The island is mostly made up of wooded trails, but in the middle is a slightly bombastic monument to Teddy Roosevelt featuring a massive statue of the man himself. Another good hiking place is Great Falls, where the Potomac crashes down across the fall line. The Virginia side includes the remains of an old canal that bypassed the falls, with massive walls blasted out of rock, as well as the more spectacular view of the falls. The Maryland side is a smaller backwater, but also has the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal, a restored canal with a hikable towpath that runs along the Potomac from Georgetown (in DC) to Cumberland, MD. (Despite the name, they never quite made it to Ohio.)

Another place I haven't been in years but is probably a good stop is the National Zoo, which is located a ways from downtown but is convenient to Metro. The National Cathedral is another very cool stop, although it is pretty much inaccessible via MetroRail. But you can take a bus or drive pretty easily. I was last there in College when we filmed a documentary on eclesiastical needlepoint that featured staff experts at the cathedral.

If you want to see a movie in an "old school" huge screen movie theater, you can go to the Uptown in Cleveland Park, which is one of the few survivors of the era of great movie theaters. Other interesting places include the Avalon in Friendship Heights, which is an older theater that was preserved by a citizens group (sort of like the Belcourt in Nashville) and now shows arty films. The AFI Silver Theater in downtown Silver Spring is another old theater that has been fixed up, although I haven't been in it yet.

Restaurants:

As I mentioned, my grasp of the DC restaurant scene is a bit shallow since I haven't actually lived there full time in years. But here are two places I've eaten at recently that were pretty good. Both are in the Maryland suburbs, since I tend to spend most of my time in the Takoma Park/Silver Spring/College Park orbit when I'm home.

• Woomi Garden According to the Koreans who share my mom's church building, this restaurant in Wheaton is one of the best Korean restaurants in the area.
• Samantha's Tiny Salvadoran restaurant in suburban Silver Spring, and a favorite of my parents.

I'm also crushed because I was going to recommend Haussner's, a family tradition in Baltimore that had been around since the 1920s. Unfortunately, it appears that it closed in 1999 and its massive art collection has been auctioned off. In addition to hundreds of paintings and Maryland specialties like fried soft-shell crab, they had a giant 800lb ball of twine that had been amassed by saving the string from napkin deliveries. Despite the German heritage of the restaurant, I remember my Grandfather mispelling his last name (Dichtel) as "DICKTELL" when making reservations to ensure correct pronunciation.

Big news - Boston Bound (eventually)

I've been pretty quiet lately because I've been busy trying to plan the rest of my life. The good news is that I think I've finally figured it out -- at least up through next January.

As you may know, I wear at least two hats in my current job: IT Manager and Library/Archives Manager. I like aspects of both things, but I've also become frustrated with the amount of time I spend dealing with day-to-day technical support issues. And the 24x7 support pager is getting really old.

I've also become increasingly interested in the Library and Archives side of my job, to the point of attending the Modern Archives insistute at the National Archives last January. I enjoy working with this stuff, and would like to nudge my career toward it. But given the hybrid nature of my what I do now, it's hard to find time to focus on the stuff that I really enjoy. Furthermore, I don't have the formal training that will open doors to the truly interesting jobs in the field.

So I've decided to go back to school (part or full time TBA) to pursue a MLIS (Masters of Library and Information Science) with an archival concentration. Back in January, I applied to three schools that offered these programs: University of Pittsburgh, University of Maryland, and Simmons College (Boston). Pitt and Maryland are both massive public schools, and while Simmons is a tiny undergraduate women's college in Boston with a well-regarded coed graduate Library school. I have been accepted into all three programs.

After much deliberation and visits to two of the three schools, I have pretty much decided on Simmons. I was very impressed program, and the faculty, staff, and students I met were extremely supportive. The archival program is top notch, featuring internships and teaching partnerships with dozens of institutions in the greater Boston area. Furthermore, the school seems to have a real commitment to self examination and improvement -- all course evaluations are published in binders in the student lounge for others to read. Furthermore, the school shares a brand new, well appointed, building with the graduate school of Social Work, and is in a great location in the heart of Boston -- a place I've already decided I wouldn't mind living (except for the rent -- yikes!).

Simmons also offers a dual degree program leading to an MLS archival concentration/MA in History. I was accepted to this program, and am seriously considering sticking with it. While it would take a bit longer than the MLS alone, it seems like a really interesting way to emphasize that I can do more than IT.

So having made the decision to move to Boston to pursue this at some point, the next big question is when. I go back and forth about how badly I want out of my job. There are days when I'm ready to walk out and never come back, and others when I really enjoy what I'm working on. Lately the former have been more common. So it wouldn't pain me much to leave in a month or two and head up to Boston for the Fall semester. But there are drawbacks to this plan. I have a lot of documentation, organization, and prep work that I need to do so that someone else can take over for me (my "to file" pile alone will likely take me a few weeks to excavate!) And I can use the extra money, given my concerns about expenses during my return to the land of financial aid. But the biggest factor is my recently stepped-up efforts to learn Spanish. I've been taking classes at the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute since January, and have decided that I'd really like to get to the point where I'm more or less fluent in the language. I have a long way to go, but I'm getting there. As part of this effort, I convinced my parents that they should go to Spain on vacation and take me along as a translator. Our original plan was to go sometime in the spring or summer, but as schedules came together it became clear that the only time that would work their usual vacation window in October. So starting school in September would preclude me from doing the Spain trip, something that I might not have the time/money to do once I'm back in school and struggling to make ends meet.

Because of this, I've decided to defer my admission to Simmons until January in order to go to Spain. In fact, I pulled together a conference call today with my Mom in Ocean City (there for a pastoral retreat of all things), my Dad somewhere on I-95 in Virginia, and me in my office in Nashville. After a lot of Internet searching, we went ahead and purchased three tickets from Washington to Madrid leaving on my mom's birthday (Sept. 25) and coming back on my parents' anniversary (Oct. 16.) At least that's what we hope will happen -- ten minutes I ordered the tickets, my dad called back to inform me that he'd just heard on NPR that US Airways was in merger talks with America West. So assuming the new company still goes to Madrid in October...

So to sum up, my rough plan is to stay in my current job until Septemberish, go to Spain and pratice my Spanish, come back and then work for another month or two while simultaneously moving out of my house and somehow arranging for all my stuff to go somewhere in Boston. I don't quite know when I'll actually leave the company, but my best guess is that it will be sometime in November or December. Depends on how long they want to keep me around as a lame duck, and whether I figure out something better to do with my time.

I will simultaneously be looking at potential living arrangments and jobs in Boston. I'm not thrilled about working full time while going to school, but I also have to face the unfortunate reality of the Boston rental market. So I'm probably going to look around for something interesting but not too taxing that I can do while going to school. If I could find a job with a generous tuition reimbursement benefit, so much the better. Hmm....

That's the big news from over this way. Still dotting the I's and crossing the T's, but I finally feel like I have a plan.

Spam as Art

There's somethingsurreal and intriguing about the nonsense text tacked on the bottom of spam to thwart filters. I assume it's probably generated through some nefarious process that misappropriates snippets of private e-mail. But I find it amusing anyway:

this site is good way to get in touch with past and present friends feel free to email me anytime s rogers -- bendix to bendix g e to g e.
oh and that little moment between ginny and luciusry ry unexpected and cool and very ood!lucius in a way so there are weasleys who can see shades of gray in the malfoys after all.
the bandits are hiding behind the tank as the train under the false order stops to take water just before she pulls out they stealthily board the train between the express car and the tender.
i had my second session the other day i was worried that my trance training would not be strong enough for a good experience.
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i really would lik e to see some male male pairings like giles wesley but as long as you keep writing i will be completely happy.
em breve esse frenesi silencioso essa placidez delirante essa força delicada que é carmita viana aparece ao público de novo depois dessa exposição no burburinho.
arghs blogger won t let me post so sorry if i didn t post it until like a day
later blame it on blogger and sorry to cherie and michelle if i couldn t post it on time.
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as long as george w dosn t decide against rattifying it and as for his santa claus defence system well !
incorrect or incomplete address field found and ignored from nicholas webb.

Blogging while intoxicated

Somewhat drunk and watching a sappy romantic movie. I've been horribly remiss about updating this blog. But suffice it to say that big changes may be in the offing. Have been accepted at two of the three library schools that I've applied to. I've been hesitant to write about this, because it's all so speculative. But (at least in my drunken stupor) I've become convinced that it's time to make a change. It's not that I really have anything against Nashville or my current job. But I feel like it's time to do something different. And this is difficult when I am stuck in my humdrum existence of malfunctioning servers and complaining users. I feel like I'm in a rut (socially, intellectually, and romantically), and it's time to use some figurative dynamite to get out of it.

It must be nice to be truly rich. Not because of the things you can buy. I think you would quickly beome accustomed to these and they would cease to matter. But because you truly have the freedom to drop everything and pursue your dreams without worrying about the financial consequences. Last night I saw a show on PBS about an English guy (whose family had an estate) who was devoting his life to finding a new species of orchid to name after his grandmother. This is the sort of thing that you can only pursue when you either have more money than God or less sense than a hatmaker on crack. In this case, I'm pretty sure it was the former.

I have to settle for finding a middle ground between total conformity and total irresponsibility. For the moment, this means looking at library schools, planning a possible trip to Spain with my parents (hopefully a chance to use my developing Spanish skills) and looking for new experiences where I am right now.

I've had another IT job drop out of the sky within a 30 minute from one of the library schools I've applied to. But this is the one school that hasn't actually accepted me yet, and I'm not sure the job would really be a good career move anyway. So I'm pondering what to do about that.

Meanwhile, my parents' house was broken into, and my mom's engagement ring was stolen, along with most of the rest of her jewelery, their DVD player, my brother's class ring, etc. This is one of those things that could be a lot worse, but at the same time it stinks. It's just stuff -- as I told my mom when she called me the night it happened -- but it's stuff with immense sentimental value. They have a detective assigned to the case, but based on the MO they don't have a lot of faith that much will be recovered. Sounds like the perps were mainly interested in things that could be sold quickly on the street for drug money.

In other news, I've spent three of the last four weekend days working on a Habitat for Humanity house sponsored by my employer. I frequently worked on construction projects in high school and college, both through theater construction and through Habitat-type projects. But this is the first time in a while that I've spent more than a few hours at a time on this sort of thing, and I'm remembering why I liked it so much. There's something incredibly fulfilling about seeing a structure rise in the course of a few days and knowing that you had something to do with it. (On the downside, whacked myself in the face with the claw of a hammer yesterday. Despite all the blood, however, this turned out to be a pretty minor injury, and it really didn't hurt that much!)

4-year-old gets munchies, drives to store at 1:30 AM

You may have thought you didn't need to worry about this sort of thing until the teenage years. But kids grow up fast these days.

More on the WHFS/El Zol Metamorphoses

Today's Washington Post had an interesting article on the challenges Infinty broadcasting faces with El Zol, as it tries to mastermind the succesful conversion of an alt-rock station into a spanish language outlet aimed at DC's diverse Hispanic community.

Interestingly, when you go to WHFS.com, you are now redirected to AOL Radio, which is supposedly bringing the old HFS back to life on the Web.

A big shout out... In which D- get's off his butt and actually reads what y'all are up to.

I've been almost as bad about reading other people's blogs as I have been in writing my own. So I just now came across this musing that Karen posted sometime last week. I thought it was dead on -- so did a lot of other people, apparently:

[S]ometimes I seriously feel like an imposter in my life. My nurse practioner said today that she thinks we all feel like that. That sometime around age 18 we stop really believing the things in our lives. I sometimes look around and wonder who's house I'm in, who's car I'm driving, when I even got a driver's license (I didn't get one until I was almost out of college), how I ended up married, and so on. It's surreal sometimes. I feel like yesterday I was greaduating from high school and today, I'm married, have a kid (albeit temporary), have a house, have a car (and a license to drive it!), have art, have a real job. Seriously, when did I stop "playing grown up" and become an adult? Weird.

Yeah, I'm a freak. But seriously, lots of people have told me they feel the same way. So maybe I'm not crazy (at least not about this imposter thing).

Oh yeah... While we're sending out the catchup love, here's a belated happy first birthday to that kid over at Polygon. I can honestly say I knew him when his main motor accomplishment was bonking himself in the head -- and now he's walking and stuff! Obviously good parenting at work. :-)

Continuing best wishes to Vail who is struggling with one construction nightmare after another -- which she is handling with her usual grace and aplomb.

Long overdue congratulations to J. over at the Last Page, who evidently up and eloped to Vegas while I wasn't looking!

Laura understandably laments the loss of WHFS -- a staple of high school radio that suddenly and with no warning transformed itself into a Spanish language radio station. Not that I have anything against Spanish language stations -- in fact, what with my Spanish class and all I've become a bit of a Univision addict. But HFS was a fixture, and one of the more truly local stations in the DC area. It will be missed.

And Danielle's brother is continuing to improve -- which is very good news.

Tracy's supposed to be studying -- but instead she's playing with MP3s and lusting after an iPod Shuffle. I can dig. (Her last mix CD is still frequent roation in my car, so I can state with certainty that her procrastination is more productive than mine!)

On a related note, iTunes just begin playing "Hotel California" as realized by the Raleigh Ringers handbell choir. I am very amused. And impressed, given that the handbell choir I played in years ago didn't have the chops for much classic rock! That song ended, so now I'm listening to "Flieg nicht so hoch, mein kleiner Freund" -- German language country/western at it's best.

Paint factory escape, part II

You may remember the little stream of conciousness about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that I posted back in mid-December. I've been pretty lousy about blogging lately, but I figured it was about time to post an update for my two or three loyal readers.

As I vaguely remember telling a friend in a bar on Friday night, this really isn't precisely about escaping my job, so much as it is taking charge of my life. I could see scenarios where I could be happy where I am now. But I think it's going to be easier for me to make the life-changes I need to make if I'm not fighting 6 years of intertia. And I also think that this might be a good time to pick up some skills and credentials that will expand my career options further beyond the technology ghetto.

So, over the last month, I have applied to three graduate programs in Library & Information Science. (Link, link, and link.) I was looking at a dual program in Library/Archives and history at the two schools that offered it. I'm not sure if I really want to pursue that route, but the consensus was that it would be easier to drop a second program than to add one. But there were logistical problems associated with applying to the Maryland program. Because I already have a good track record in a Masters program, most schools do not require a GRE. But the Maryland history department does require it, and even if I had sat for the test immediately upon realizing this, my admissions portfolio would have been incomplete until at least a month after the deadline. So I decided not to apply for the dual program at Maryland. Simmons did not require the GRE, so I went ahead and applied for the dual program.

You may be wondering how I decided on these three schools. I was interested in programs with archival specializations, which narrowed the field somewhat. Simmons and Maryland both have very strong programs in this area. (Maryland is situated right next to the new National Archives in College Park, so it's a great location for that sort of thing.) Pitt has an archival option, and I also noticed that faculty are doing research on digital preservation, something else that I'm interested in. And then there's geography. Boston is ideal since I already have a lot of friends there. Maryland is also good, in that I grew up there and still have family and a few friends in the area. Pitt would be a bit of a leap, but it's still many hours closer to DC, NYC, Boston, and other Northeastern places I frequent.

I looked briefly at UCLA, partly because I think California would be an interesting change of scenery. But UC has an unbelievably strict "bilk the out-of-state students" policy that means you'll pay about $15,000 more per year if you're not from around those parts. To avoid this, you have to have lived in CA for at least a year -- and they'll check your drivers license, utility bills, ATM receipts, and possibly even major body cavities before they'll grant you in-state status. This all just seemed like a bit more hassle than I felt like dealing with, so I stuck mainly to eastern schools with less draconian out-of-state tuition policies.

I think the required forms, recommendations, transcripts, etc. have all been submitted, so it's just a waiting game at this point. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I talked to my current and former bosses about the possibility that I might be outta here later this year, and they were both very supportive. The new boss also seems willing to rearrange my responsibilities to nudge them more toward what I'm interested in. (But as I mentioned above, this is about more than just not liking my job.) And he talked about other opportunities elsewhere in the corporation, possible consulting, etc. I'm keeping my options open on this, since as of yet I have no idea how I'm going to pay for a 1-2 year descent into academia. I've been careful to emphasize that no concrete decisions have been made as of yet.

In the meantime, I began a noncredit Spanish class at the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute. I initially signed up for the class geared toward total beginners, but I quickly realized that I had retained more than I thought from my two years of middle school Spanish and my frantic study sessions prior to last year's Mexico City trip. So I transferred into the next class up, which seems to be a better fit. In addition to the classes themselves, I've been watching Univision religiously, and have been working through a growing pile of flash cards. I'm making progress slowly, although it's going to be a long journey toward a fully functional Spanish vocabulary.

In other news, I'm heading to Florida for a few days in the middle of February to talk to a vendor and various other corporate flunkies about the possibility that an unofficial, unauthorized IT system we've helped develop may suddenly become very much official and authorized, and be rolled out to other branches of the company. And the day after I get back, I've been coerced at the last minute into teaching a class on "Digital Asset Management for Newspapers" at a conference in town. (If you have any ideas on what should be in such a class, I'd love to hear them -- it's not coming together very easily.)

Systems analysis and your sock drawer

Nova ScienceNOW just ran* this amusing segment about a robotics engineer at MIT who has taken a systems analysis approach to his life. For example, he has determined that it is inefficient to do laundry more than once a month, so he has expanded his wardrobe to incclude six weeks worth of clothing. And he plans his time to the point where he only ties his shoes at traffic lights. The only problem? His girlfriend says he's always late.

Daniel, this one's for you.

* Just ran... As in, just ran on my ReplayTV. really it ran sometime earlier in the week.

Christmas Snapshots

		ABOVE: My brother. Or maybe a character from Chicken Run. We're not sure. LEFT:Mom hard at work...
More pics...

Another year, another catchup post

Once again I find myself having skipped weeks at a time in this blog. So I will once again follow my time honored tradition of using a bulleted list rather than actual descriptive writing. (Thank God for <ul>!)

• Drove 12 hours home for Christmas, barely making it in time for my Mom's Christmas Eve service. (Wouldn't want to know the consequences of missing that one.)

• Hung out with family.

• Spent a full two days working on the office computer network at the church. Got the new front office machine and the fax/printer working. But my Mom's laptop crashed 6 times in the first two hours, including one crash requiring a fresh ghosting from the recovery CD. Sent that sucker back to Toshiba, which means that I'm probably going to have to fly up again to finish this project. Someone from work mentioned that a friend's daughter works as a techie in DC but has to fix her Mom's computer whenvever she comes home to Tennessee for the holidays. Meanwhile I live in Nashville and have to fix my Mom's computer whenever I'm home in DC. Maybe what we need is a nationwide cooperative of techies who agree to work on other people's parents' machines in return for "credits" that could be used to buy tech support for their own parents. Hmm....

• After valiant attempts to lure various northern friends to Nashville, I again copped out and went to Boston for New Years. Actually, I convinced my brother to go with me, which was fun. Except for the fact that, due to his non-existent finances, we drove, and it took 12 hours in each direction. On the way there, we ate at a nifty little diner north of Baltimore. On the way back, we met up with my friend Brian in New Jersey. Yes, that Brian.

• In Boston, I visited a bunch of friends, helped unload a u-haul (after we spent over an hour trying to dislodge the stuck door), watched a New Years Parade and some fireworks, ate Indian food, and watched football.

• Drove back to DC. Arrived much later than expected, so scrapped plans to continue to Nashville. Instead met up with other brother, made grocery run, and made fajitas. (Parents had just hosted a lobster dinner for a friend, but us kids weren't invited. Oh, well.)

• Finally got out of the house around 11 AM the next day. Drove all day and arrived back in Nashville around 11 PM. The total for the trip was around 2,500 miles, which I believe is more than I drove in the first 11.5 months of 2004.

• Went to work on Tuesday. As day wore on, my disturbing cough became worse, and tiredness and disorientation set in. Despite this, stayed until late at night trying to get caught up.

• Woke up Wednesday and could barely move. Called in sick and spent day sleeping and/or wishing for death. The worst was the high fever stage around 8 P.M., when I called my Dad from under a pile of blankets and pillows, figuring that I should relate the contents of my last will and testament.

• Thursday was a lot better, although I stayed home from work again to be safe. I actually felt up to some simple cooking, so made some of my new favorite oatmeal that my Hibernophile parents hooked me on over the holidays.

• Back to work on Friday. Ugh.

• Saturday slept in, then did some things around the house. Filled a few photo orders from the reunion I shot back in October. Went to see A Series of Unfortunate Events, which was visually stunning but didn't really grab me. Went grocery shopping for a few things. Read Fist Stick Knife Gun, a fascinating book about urban violence given to me by my brother.

• Sunday, the cable guy came and fixed my fuzzy reception. Pondered the looming pile of grad school applications, but didn't really do nearly enough work on them.

• This week has been work punctuated with various other things. More on the other things in the next post.

Christmas, as hurriedly dashed off in an e-mail to a coworker

Made it to DC ok -- although I didn't actually get out of Nashville until 10:00 on Thurs, so was worried about making it in time for my mom's Xmas eve services. Drove until about 3AM (4AM eastern), and then slept at Motel 6 for about 5 hours. Then drove another 6-7 hours and got in with an hour or so to spare. Then to the church, where I took photos for their website effort. Then to a party hosted by one of my mom's widower parishoners, at which he proposed marriage to his girlfriend! Then home, to bed. Today was a bit more laid back -- xmas presents and stuff in the AM and family dinner in the evening.

No snow here -- in fact, once I got a few hours away from Nashville everything was totally clear. It is cold, though -- I still have the remains of the Nashville ice storm on my truck.

Anyway, was checking in because I got a voicemail about a server problem. Need to sleep now!

It's time of shutdown!!

One of the software packages we use at work was programmed by a ragtag band of Russian programmers hired at sweatshop wages following the collapse of the Soviet Union. They may have been C++ gurus, but their linguistic prowess didn't always extend to English. I'm always amused by the odd turns of phrase I find buried throughout the system. Like this one, from a log file generated by one of the servers: